Hial, gunslinger!  Wait... um... Hiya, Deck Builder!  Much better... sorry... reading The Dark Tower comic books too much...

 

Anywho... I've been playing Magic since 94, and while I am a decent player, I've never been very good at building decks.  The only deck I've ever build that has done well was a mono- blue Broodstar Affinity deck, but then, how many thousands of people build decent ones of them?

 

I've been working on a Type 2 recursion deck, based on the Preconstructed deck, Rituals of Rebirth.  I'll tell ya whats in my deck, and why (I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out without me telling you, thought), and then what kinds of problems I seem to be having.  As far as the kinds of decks I have problems against, there aren't any in particular.  Dimir decks, Urzatron, slivers... but then, who doesn't have problems with slivers, right?  My deck never seems to have issues with any specific kind of deck.  Its always itself that doesn't seem to do what its supposed to.  So, here is the deck, if it do ya fine.  :)

 

Type 2 Recursion

 

Land (20)

4x Plains

6x Swamp

10x Forest

 

Creatures (20)

4x Elves of the Deep Shadow (Mana Acceleration, used instead of Llanowars for use with Dread Return/ Vigor Mortis)

4x Greenseeker (Spellshaper for putting critters in Graveyard + Land Fixing)

2x Wall of Wood (Mana Acceleration + Early Game chump blocker if needed)

2x Jedit Ojanen of Efrava (Beef.  Can be Raised, or hardcast with relative ease.)

4x Phantasmagorian (More beef, plus has the added beni of Self Rez and allows you to put more creatures in graveyard)

2x Teneb, the Harvester (Beef + Flying + Recurring Recursion, also relatively easy to Hardcast)

2x Akroma, Angel of Fury (Lots of beef, trample, flying, plus easy to get in graveyard if played face-down.)

 

Non-Creature spells (20)

4x Evolution Charm (Land fixxing + semi- recursion + gives flying.  Whats not to like?)

4x Search for Tomorrow (Land fixxing, works well early game suspened, or mid-game hardcast)

4x Harmonize (Card Advantage.  Never hurts to draw more cards.)

4x Dread Return (Recursion card)

4x Vigor Mortis (Recursion card with a bonus)

 

Alright... I didn't plan for it to come out 20/20/20... thats kinda screwy.

 

OK... here are a few of my problems.  Many of these can be attributed to either poor shuffling, or just not good luck.

 

1) the only turn one I ever seem to get is Search for Tomorrow.  Not bad, but I'd rather see a turn 1 Greenseeker.

 

2) For some odd reason, I rarely see the big creatures early enough.  I can, in theory, have the on the table turn 3, but I don't hit them often enough.

 

3) I don't have enough ways to put them into my graveyard from hand, when they are there.  So I end up hard-casting them.  Who hard-casts Phantasmagorian?  I mean, really?  :)

 

4) I tend to start with 2 or 3 recursion cards in my hand, and I seem to draw too many.  I average about 5 per game with only 1 or 2 creatures to rez.

 

I have thought about simply cutting down the number of rez cards, but 4 is too few, and I don't see 6 making much of a difference.  Plus, I wouldn't know what to replace them with. 

 

As I have plenty of mana and color fixing, I've been dropping the number of lands.  I started with 24, and now I'm down to 20 and still considering dropping.  But I don't know if I dare.

 

The deck feels like it should go off fast enough.  Turn 3 fatty in Standard can be pretty scary.  I do recall when Temepst was type 2, seeing a Verdant Force early on hurt like heck.  But I just can seem to get either the card mix right, or my luck is just lousy.

 

If you could get a chance to look my deck over, and offer up some suggestions, it would be most appreciated.  I have access to most Type 2 stuff.  While I have very little 9th edition, I've got almost all the cards in there older formats... some still in Revised!  Yay for pre-errata!

 

Thanks much for your time.  :)

 

-Mike

The last Rituals of Rebirth deck ended up being black and white.  This one's predominantly black and green.  Both paths have their strengths, but I'm going to start off the same way I did before: by cutting a color of mana.  Currently, you have only one use for Plains-- hardcasting Teneb.  And the prescence of Akroma, Angel of Fury proves that you don't really care about being able to hardcast your big guys (and gals), so why bother with 4 Plains?  Exchange those for Golgari Rot Farm.  Yes I said Golgari Rot Farm.  The fact that each land taps for two mana means you're running the equivalent of 24 lands in 20 slots.  And the "return a land" clause means that you might find yourself discarding a card due to having more than seven at the end step.  And that card will likely be back in a few turns, if you get my drift.  Plus, bouncing a land works well with the Greenseeker.