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BMoor's Magic The
Gathering
Deck Garage Hi BMoor,
Zoinks! I guess now we know what I'll do for a Scooby Snack-- fix pauper decks. Of course, I usually do that for free anyway, but I appreciate the offer.
I guess we'll start with your noncreature spells, since we never start there and I think the mana base needs to be saved for last on this one. You've got 2 Mana Leak and 2 Remove Soul. Remove Soul doesn't strike me as all that great, since creatures are just about the easiest thing to kill once they get on the board, and for the same mana you could have more Mana Leaks, which can also counter creatures in addition to any other kind of spell. Sometimes the most threatening spell isn't a creature, so I'd just go with 4 Mana Leak if I were you. Similarly, you have 2 each of Faith's Fetters and pacifism, two cards with similar effects. Of course, Fetters stops activated abilities as well as attacking or blocking, and can stop abilities of noncreature permanents too, as well as give you 4 life. Pacifism's only real credit is that it costs less mana. I recommend 4 Fetters over the Pacifism, but if you find yourself short on mana often, or just not caring about the 4 life or the ability to stop abilities, you may want to choose Pacifism instead. Wildsizeis a nice trick, but 3 mana for only +2/+2 doesn't make it a very potent one. You may want to stick with good old Giant Growth, which I was surprised to learn was reprinted in 9th as a common. Or perhaps Strength in Numbers, if you're looking for a powerful finishing card. That just leaves Momentary Blink, which is so versatile I'd be a fool to suggest cutting it. Lots and lots has been said about the power of Momentary Blink on message boards all over the Internet, so I'll assume you already know what you can do with it, or at least can find out.
Now for your creatures. The first thing that jumps out at me here is your use of Coiling Oracle and Gemhide Sliver as mana acceleration. Coiling Oracle can be good for an extra land sometimes, but if you need mana and you flip up another spell, well, now you've got even more cards in your hand you can't play. You are one draw closer to a land, of course, but you're still not any further along with your mana problems until you draw a land. Gemhide Sliver, on the other hand, will always produce mana, but it may be problematic if you go up against another Sliver deck. Dedicated Sliver builds are unlikely in a pauper format, so exchanging Coiling Oracle for a third Gemhide seems like a safe bet. In general practice, though, I'd normally prefer that all three of these creatures be exchanged for Prismatic Lens or Signets-- in a three-color build, it's possible you'll get Islands and Plains but no green mana to cast Gemhide or the Oracle. Colorless mana acceleration is probably the safer bet, but Gemhide provides more versatile mana. Your choice, S.S.
Your fliers are all pretty impressive-- Azorius
 First Wing, Assault Zeppelid, Snapping Drake, and Suntail Hawk are all perfect examples of efficient fliers. Castle Raptors, however, I'm not convinced about. Yes, it's a Limited powerhouse, but for a constructed deck I have to believe you can do better. It's just a shame that large flying creatures aren't usually common. The best I could find is Boreal Griffin, Conclave Equenaut, or Giant Dustwasp if you're willing to wait for Planar Chaos to be released on Magic Online. Was Planar Chaos already released on Magic Online? I'm not even sure-- shows you I don't use it. You might just want a few more Errant Ephemerons.
And that brings us to your lands. You have 12 basic lands, and 10 Ravnica bouncelands. The bouncelands are good, but that's an awful lot of them. The tricky thing about bouncelands is that they give you no mana advantage on the turn they're played. If you use too many, you may not have enough regular lands to bounce. So go down to 2 of each bounceland, leaving you with six, and in the four leftover slots, put Terramorphic Expanse. The Expanse, like a bounceland, gives no mana advantage that turn, but instead of returning a land to your hand, it searches your library for a land. It doesn't really accelerate your mana at all, since it leaves you with the same amount of lands in play as if you'd played a regular land, but its advantage is obvious in multicolor decks-- it gets you the color of mana you need. Honestly, any deck that runs two or more colors and isn't already running almost all fancy nonbasic lands should invest in some Terramorphic Expanse, and that includes you, S.S.
That should just about solve this mystery. I hope I've been of some help, and that you not only win, but enjoy the tournament. Thanks for the E-mail!
~BMoor
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