Hi,
 

Can you help with improving this deck it  sure would be appreciated.

 

                creatures:

 

4x wild cantor

4x birds of paradise

4x burning tree shaman

4x hypnotic specter

4x rambling slum

3x kodama of the north tree

2x kokusho, the evening star

 

             instants:

 

4x naturalize

4x shock

4x putrefy

4x privileged position

 

          lands:

 

4x stomping grounds

4x llanowar wastes

4x mountains

4x forrest

4x swamp

 

      sideboard

 

3x flashfires

4x wear away

4x leyline of life force

 

As you can see there is alot of room for help.

Would i better going back to red/green or fixing this deck.

Don't know what to do about a decent sideboard. Need something

for black and or ?.   

 

                          thansk james 

 

Well, James, the first think I need to do with this deck is address the question "Would you be better going back to red/green?"  Doing so would make it much easier for you to get the right mana for the spells you draw, but what does Black add to the deck?  Currently, it adds Hypnotic Specter, Kokusho, and Putrefy.  I think the power of these cards are already well known, but one issue that jumps out at me is the Specter.  A well-known beating to be sure, but the Specter's power comes in the fact that he hits early and often.  Later in the game, your opponent may have played all the cards in his or her hand, and thus the Specter simply becomes a 2/2 for 1BB.  Can you really get the Specter out early enough?  I doubt it.  Removing Black would take out a good deal of power, but would add a lot of consistency.  And side two of your black cards need two black mana to be cast, I think you ought to drop them.

 

This leaves you down six creatures and four awesome removal spells.  It also makes it a lot easier for you to get a turn-three Burning Tree Shaman active (maybe even turn two).  It also, however, leaves you with no fliers other than Birds of Paradise.  So how can we make up for this?

 

Let's start by finding a replacement for Putrefy.  Ideally it'll be a replacement that costs about 3, so it's not too much worse than Putrefy, but what should it be?  Looking through Standard right now, the best cards in Red and Green with similar purpose seem to be:
 

Char

Cackling Flames

Savage Twister

Creeping Mold

Sundering Vitae

Wreak Havoc

Demonfire

Yamabushi's Flame

Galvanic Arc

Not much to compare with Putrefy, I'm afraid, but with cards like Rumbling Slum and the Shaman, I'd say Galvanic Arc and Savage Twister might be your best bet.  Unless you wanted it for the artifact part, in which case Creeping Mold and Sundering Vitae are the best options.All worth some consideration at least.

 

Now for your creatures.  Your deck seems geared towards using Cantors and Birds to accelerate out larger creatures, so I'd go with the biggest ones you can find in your colors.  Four copies of your favorite Red Dragon (since I axed all your flying creatures), and two copies of Borborygmos (he might end up putting counters on your Birds).  Seems about right.

 

One last thing I'd like to recommend, if you can find a place for it, is Moldervine Cloak.  This card is easily one of the best cards in Ravnica block, especially for a deck like this.  Just imagine putting it on a Birds and having a 3/4 flyer later in the game.  Or a 8/8 Rumbling Slum.

 

Come to think of it, the card that this deck could probably use even more than the Cloak is Gruul War Plow.  After all, what good is a 5/5 that keeps running into a Saproling every turn?  Plus the Plow is great as a simple 4/4 trampler.

 

And finally, your lands.  The four Swamps and four Llanowar Wastes should become two Gruul Turf, three Forest, and three Mountain, simple enough.  I want to suggest Skarrg, the Rage Pits, but that's countersynergistic with Burning-Tree Shaman.  It's probably bad enough I suggested the War Plow, but at least that's useful without using its ability.

 

And so, until next time.

 

~BMoor