It's pretty much on how the mana is fed to you. Spending 4 turns to use Ajani's ability, after turn 4, which makes it turn 8 before you can full +4/+4 your creatures? I wouldn't want to do that. By then, you'll be dead, or your opponent will be dead (usually). O-rings are awesome and I run them often, but your deck is based on attacking, so getting rid of creatures quicker and more efficiently should be part of your diet.
But like I said before, that's my opinion. You can do it how you like.
It doesn't seem all that effecient. You have one way to get rid of creature "spells", and only four ways to get rid of a creature, which is only one turn at a time. Also, you have only 4 Serpents available, so why do you need 8 ways to make Islands on the opponents side? Lastly, your little Ally birds won't be strong enough to really do a lot of damage, seeing as how you have very few Allies.
The serpent is nice, but it has no other abilities than being a large creature, so you will need backups incase it fails. (It is also easily killed.) I added in the Living Tsunami, mainly because it flies, it's 4/4 for 4, and it bounces a land that can easily make use of the Landfall abilities of the added Hedron Crab, Windrider Eel (which also has flying,) and Roil Elemental (A rare, but it's very cheap and it's Mana isn't too bad, but that's why I just added two.) Also, a bit of card acceleration later in the game with the Ior Ruin Expedition with it's landfall. (It helps using the Explorer's Scope to get usable lands into play.)
You have more than enough creature control in the list I made, with Unsummon, Negate, and Roil Elemental, so some of the Counters etc are not needed. Allies are ONLY good when it's based on Allies, otherwise they don't fare very well, sorry.
Personally the Ajani move is really not going to help you out all that much. It gives you okay life-gaining capabilities, but you really have no other way to gain life. That makes his final ability fairly useless if you're losing life as quickly as you're dealing it. (It's very good assuming you still have 10+ life, but you can't give it trample, first strike, flying, etc., thus making it a good blocker more than attacker.)
You do have a lot of good offense, and a lot of tokens, but I noticed with just the first few turns (Between 1-4) you don't have much of an offense, and of that you DO have won't be enough to deter many people.
Why? Well, your deck is based on creatures, so removing creatures will be more of a key attack than other permanents, so saving 1 mana to get rid of you only REAL blockades would be optimal for speed and mana shorts.
As for Ajani, well I described him above, so I would replace him with the Eos captain, as you will have plenty of Soldier tokens to go around to keep yourself alive. (Since you won't have any more life gaining. Better to stay alive for cheap, rather than TRY and stay alive for an expensive, one-time drop card.)
As the title suggests. This is a thread, which I will be posting a few of my favorite budget decks I have made, that hopefully others can make/use, but I need a bit of help first. NOTE: All my decks are very budget, down to dime-or-dollar cards, and can be found in most if not all Packs/Boxes. Please bear with me on the cheapiness of the decks.
Round 1:
Here is the first idea that I had, and so far it seems to be working, but it's weak in a few areas such as extra spells. (I end up having to top deck many times.) ::
Which cards would you exchange/take out? So far the deck is playing the way it is supposed to, killing on turn 3-5, maybe a couple more, but after my first hand empties... I'm stuck top-decking the rest of the game. How would I fix this? (Card draw or seperate spells to keep cards in my hand.)
Round 2:
This one works rather well aswell. Somewhat slow in the early game, but it seems to be able to get out lands in a real hurry, making it a great mid-term deck. (My current Aggro beat the crap out of it, but then slowed down when i started top-decking.)
This deck is played very importantly. One small messup, and you've missed your chance to make an important attack. The major weakness: No trample. Fortunately so far, I have been able to avoid such a mess by ruthlessly attacking with early Scythe Tigers. With this deck, I always get enough mana for a Harrow, or even a Scope to keep putting lands into play, so the Tiger's ability is pretty handy for this deck.
Now, is there anything in there that I'm missing, that could improve the speed, or even the amount of cards in my hand mid/late game? (Note, I have 4 Baloth Woodcrasher and only one Territorial Baloth for a reason, as one costs less and is still effective with the turn land-drop + harrow.)
Round 3:
Allies. I know people have a lot against Allies, and I can see why. But when they are built properly... They begin to look like Slivers, just without constant abilities, and simple "one time, repeated" abilities. Here's my deck:
What might be the point of this deck? Well, it should be pretty understandable once you see the Ondu Clerics with the Hagra Diabolist. A single Ally comes into play, and suddenly I gain as much life as I have allies (Up to 22) and my opponent loses an equal amount. It's like a life-leeching deck, and enough so that I don't need to worry about aggro or large creatures. 7/9 chances, I get an Ondu Cleric and I decide to no longer block creatures, as they will be dead too quick, or I will have too much life. If something gets in my way, I have the Journey to Nowhere backing me up. Plus, I get big creatures, too, with my Blademasters, and have flying defense with the only 2 non-Ally creatures, the cheap angels.
Anyways, this is the best of my best when I bought a single box of Zendikar, and a few packs of the Shards block. (so all the decks ARE Standard Legal) But I'm trying to figure out some cheap alternitives to these decks. So far at FNM I have played just the aggro, but I will try the other too shortly. Does anyone have any good ideas? (All the expensive rares are being sold to fund more and more packs! I like doing great with the lowest of the low!)
But like I said before, that's my opinion. You can do it how you like.
Here's what I would do with the deck:
4x Serpent of the Endless Sea
4x Living Tsunami
3x Kraken Hatchling
3x Windrider Eel
2x Roil Elemental
2x Hedron Crab
4x Explorer's Scope
2x Ior Ruin Expedition
Spells [14]
4x Spreading Seas
4x Unsummon
2x Into the Roil
4x Negate
22x Island
Here's why I made the changes.
The serpent is nice, but it has no other abilities than being a large creature, so you will need backups incase it fails. (It is also easily killed.) I added in the Living Tsunami, mainly because it flies, it's 4/4 for 4, and it bounces a land that can easily make use of the Landfall abilities of the added Hedron Crab, Windrider Eel (which also has flying,) and Roil Elemental (A rare, but it's very cheap and it's Mana isn't too bad, but that's why I just added two.) Also, a bit of card acceleration later in the game with the Ior Ruin Expedition with it's landfall. (It helps using the Explorer's Scope to get usable lands into play.)
You have more than enough creature control in the list I made, with Unsummon, Negate, and Roil Elemental, so some of the Counters etc are not needed. Allies are ONLY good when it's based on Allies, otherwise they don't fare very well, sorry.
You do have a lot of good offense, and a lot of tokens, but I noticed with just the first few turns (Between 1-4) you don't have much of an offense, and of that you DO have won't be enough to deter many people.
What I would do is:
-2 Ajani Goldmane
-4 Oblivion Ring
+2 Knight-Captain of Eos
+4 Journey to Nowhere
Why? Well, your deck is based on creatures, so removing creatures will be more of a key attack than other permanents, so saving 1 mana to get rid of you only REAL blockades would be optimal for speed and mana shorts.
As for Ajani, well I described him above, so I would replace him with the Eos captain, as you will have plenty of Soldier tokens to go around to keep yourself alive. (Since you won't have any more life gaining. Better to stay alive for cheap, rather than TRY and stay alive for an expensive, one-time drop card.)
Round 1:
Here is the first idea that I had, and so far it seems to be working, but it's weak in a few areas such as extra spells. (I end up having to top deck many times.) ::
3x Goblin Deathraiders
1x Shambling Remains
4x Naya Hushblade
4x Grixis Grimblade
4x Putrid Leech
3x Rip-Clan Crasher
3x Goblin Outlander
4x Jund Hackblade
4x Burst Lightning
4x Colossal Might
1x Harrow
Lands
4x Swamp
6x Forest
6x Mountain
1x Kazandu Refuge
2x Akoum Refuge
2x Savage Lands
2x Ancient Ziggurat
2x Terramorphic Expanse
Which cards would you exchange/take out? So far the deck is playing the way it is supposed to, killing on turn 3-5, maybe a couple more, but after my first hand empties... I'm stuck top-decking the rest of the game. How would I fix this? (Card draw or seperate spells to keep cards in my hand.)
Round 2:
This one works rather well aswell. Somewhat slow in the early game, but it seems to be able to get out lands in a real hurry, making it a great mid-term deck. (My current Aggro beat the crap out of it, but then slowed down when i started top-decking.)
3x Vastwood Gorger
4x Grazing Gladehart
4x Timbermaw Larva
4x Scythe Tiger
2x Baloth Woodcrasher
1x Territorial Baloth
4x Primal Bellow
2x Baloth Cage Trap
4x Savage Silhouette
3x Explorer's Scope
2x Beast Hunt
1x Khalni Heart Expedition
4x Harrow
2x Turntimber Grove
20x Forest
This deck is played very importantly. One small messup, and you've missed your chance to make an important attack. The major weakness: No trample. Fortunately so far, I have been able to avoid such a mess by ruthlessly attacking with early Scythe Tigers. With this deck, I always get enough mana for a Harrow, or even a Scope to keep putting lands into play, so the Tiger's ability is pretty handy for this deck.
Now, is there anything in there that I'm missing, that could improve the speed, or even the amount of cards in my hand mid/late game? (Note, I have 4 Baloth Woodcrasher and only one Territorial Baloth for a reason, as one costs less and is still effective with the turn land-drop + harrow.)
Round 3:
Allies. I know people have a lot against Allies, and I can see why. But when they are built properly... They begin to look like Slivers, just without constant abilities, and simple "one time, repeated" abilities. Here's my deck:
4x Nimana Sell-Sword
2x Bala Ged Thief (RARE)
4x Kazandu Blademaster
4x Ondu Cleric
2x Shepherd of the Lost
4x Hagra Diabolist
4x Makindi Shieldmate
3x Brave the Elements
4x Landbind Ritual
2x Explorer's Scope
4x Journey to Nowhere
3x Trusty Machete
2x Kabira Crossroads
5x Swamp
13x Plains
What might be the point of this deck? Well, it should be pretty understandable once you see the Ondu Clerics with the Hagra Diabolist. A single Ally comes into play, and suddenly I gain as much life as I have allies (Up to 22) and my opponent loses an equal amount. It's like a life-leeching deck, and enough so that I don't need to worry about aggro or large creatures. 7/9 chances, I get an Ondu Cleric and I decide to no longer block creatures, as they will be dead too quick, or I will have too much life. If something gets in my way, I have the Journey to Nowhere backing me up. Plus, I get big creatures, too, with my Blademasters, and have flying defense with the only 2 non-Ally creatures, the cheap angels.
Anyways, this is the best of my best when I bought a single box of Zendikar, and a few packs of the Shards block. (so all the decks ARE Standard Legal) But I'm trying to figure out some cheap alternitives to these decks. So far at FNM I have played just the aggro, but I will try the other too shortly. Does anyone have any good ideas? (All the expensive rares are being sold to fund more and more packs! I like doing great with the lowest of the low!)
Thanks in advance for any help!