my first deck! seriously need help =/

ReanimatorX · Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 2

Tendo Ice Bridge x 4
Watery Grave x 4
Polluted Delta x 3
Island x 5
Swamp x 4
Hypnotic Specter x 3
Blizzard Specter x 4
Laquatus's Champion x 2
Shadowmage Infiltrator x 3
Mind Rot x 3
Megrim x 2
Cabal Ritual x 4
Chainer's Edict x 3
Counterspell x 4
Cancel x 4
Frozen Aether x 2
Sleight of hand x 4
Pulse of Grid x 2

I seriously dont know what i realli want.. so any comments/tips will be appreciated as well as constructive criticism. thanks

Spyx · Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 821

I would take out these cards:
tendo ice bridge
blizzard specter
laquatus's champion
mind rot
megrim
cabal ritual
frozen aether
sleight of hand

and put in better control cards and finishers.
good UB cards are:
smother
duress
meloku (finisher)
damnation
possibly psychatog

rockshard · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Posts: 111

Card by card:

Tendo Ice Bridge - one of the worst mana fixers ever, in most cases it's just better to run basic lands. You have better options available. You already have Watery Grave and Polluted Delta, so add some Underground River.

Blizzard Specter - Not bad, but maybe too slow. I personally think even Riftwing Cloudskate is better, or something like Chittering Rats. But let's work with this, since this is cool.

Laquatus Champion - Does not belong in the deck. It's a direct damage card and it's too expensive. Look for more disruptive cards that cost less mana. A finisher creature should at least have some sort of evasion.

Hypnotic Specter - Good, run a 4th

Shadowmage Infiltrator - Even better. Run a 4th.

Mind Rot - For starters, Stupor is just plain better than this.

Megrim - For all intents and purposes, this is a bad card. It only does something when you're making your opponent discard cards. ("situational" and "win more") And all it does is deal damage, you'll be very lucky if you can get 6 damage off of it, and you still wouldn't win.

Cabal Ritual - Not a good card in any normal deck. One-shot acceleration like this are wasting cards and dilute the deck, hardly worth it for just one extra mana.

Chainer's Edict - good

Counterspell - good

Cancel - Wrong. You don't roll over from Counterspell into Cancel. Instead look at Mana Leak, Remand, Spell Snare, and so on.

Frozen Aether - This card doesn't do anything.

Sleight of Hand - ok I guess

Pulse of Grid - This is a bad card because it doesn't net you any card advantage. For a "card selection" spell, it's weak and expensive.

Two cards you overlooked are Duress and Cabal Therapy, both of which are staples, and almost definitely belong in your deck as 4-of's.

What you want: I believe the best direction for a deck like that is to lower your curve and focus on disruption and cheap beats. I propose a list like this one:

4 Looter Il-Kor
4 Riftwing Cloudskater
4 Shadowmage Infiltrator
4 Blizzard Specter
3 Hypnotic Specter
2 Nekrataal
-
4 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
3 Spell Snare
4 Force Spike
2 Pithing Needle
4 Chainer's Edict
-
4 Polluted Delta
4 Watery Grave
4 Underground River
5 Swamp
5 Island

Meloku is good too, didn't think of that.

Spyx · Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Posts: 821

In a more aggresive cheap beats approach I really like dimir cutpurse + smother and chainers edict to clear the way for him.