Dear v0rac10u5,
 

Hey, my name's Nate and i've been around magic for quite awhile.  My brother was huge in it, and even competed at 5 color worlds in Indianapolis several years ago, but i just recently got into it because several of my friends did.  So, i sorted through tons of my brother's old cards and slopped together a mercenary deck.  It did quite well against my friends when they didn't really know what they were doing, but some of them started making decks off of your site, and destroying my poor mercs.  The one thing that i would like to point out before you see my deck list, is that i know it is absolutely too huge.  There's just too many cards.  When my friends started beating me, in a last ditch effort, i started adding cards i thought would help..... they didn't.  My main target for beating is one of my friends who plays a life gain deck and a soldier deck.  He plays them just to piss me off, because he knows i hate white decks, sooooo yeah.  My deck just takes too long to beat his soldier deck, and i usually just give up on his life gain deck and switch to my brother's poison counter deck. But, i really would like to have my own deck that i can beat him with.  The revised deck you create doesn't have to be a mercenary deck, if there is some better way i can optimize the cards that i have, i would love to do it.  And now, the beast:

 

Creatures - 38

Alley Grifters x2

Agent of Shaku x2

Bog Glider x3

Bog Smugglers x2

Cateran Brute x1

Cateran Enforcer x1

Cateran Persuader x2

Cateran Kidnappers x1

Death Charmer x2

Misshapen Fiend x3

Phyrexian Driver x4

Rampart Crawler x3

Rathi Assassin x1

Rathi Intimidator x3

Rathi Fiend x1

Skulking Fugitive x2

Spineless Thug x3

Strongarm Thug x2

 

Spells – 47

Greel's Caress x2

Chime of Night x4

Darksteel Ingot x3

Death Bomb x3

Sever Soul x3

Fear x2

Dead Ringers x2

Parallax Dementia x3

Twisted Experiment x4

Dying Wail x2

Flay x3

Seal of Doom x3

Specter's Shroud x1

Cateran Summons x1

Unspeakable Symbol x2

Despoil x1

Syphon Soul x1

Massacre x1

Sinister Strength x1

Tsabo's Decree x1

Rystic Tutor x1

Death Cloud x1

Haunted Crossroads x1

Betrayal of Flesh x1

 

Lands – 31

Swamp x26

Polluted Mire x4

Peat Bog x1

 

Most of the games i play i get out a few creatures and get some enchant creatures on them to deal some damage, while keeping my opponent's creatures at bay, but i usually hit a slump where i don't get any cards that are useful.  I'm positive that this is due to the size of my deck.  Help me!!!!

 

What you are experiencing is the backlash of inconsistency. Your deck sets up, gets going, and then stalls. In general, this happens for two reasons. The first is that your overall card quality is low, which means that the cards you are drawing and playing aren’t having enough of an effect on the game. The other reason is that, as you have mentioned, you have two many bad cards that prevent you from drawing your good cards. In your case, you have both problems. This next phrase is going to be a vast understatement. Mercenaries are really bad. Their top-down search mechanism is useless and they are underpowered compared to any other tribe. Given the decks you want to beat, I am going to suggest dropping the mercenaries and switching to a control strategy.

 

This deck has some basic creature-control elements in Fevered Convulsions, Seal of Doom, and Damnation. It also has several enchantments, such as Dread of Night and Gloom, which are particularly nasty against white decks. The big finishers are Death Cloud, Drain Life, and Consume Spirit. Cabal Coffers can ramp you up to massive amounts of mana, often blasting your opponents for ten or more damage in a single shot.

 

X Marks The Spot.dec v1.1

0/32/28

4 Dread of Night

4 Fevered Convulsions

4 Drain Life

4 Consume Spirit

4 Gloom

4 Seal of Doom

4 Death Cloud

4 Damnation (or some equivalent, such as Barter in Blood or Mutilate)

 

4 Cabal Coffers

2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

22 Swamp