U/R artifact or suicide black?

[Djinn]

I've been on a four year absence from Magic, and am interested in getting started again.  I have a fair amount of decent cards at my disposal (more on that later), and am willing to put in some dough to finish off a solid deck.  I'll start by rattling off some ideas as well as what I have at my disposal.

The cards I have -

SUICIDE BLACK - I have a pretty decent start to this, 4x hypnotic specter, 1x phyrexian negator, 1x flesh reaver, 1x nantuko shade, 2x Duress, 4x Hymn to Tourach, 4x Dark Ritual, 2x Unmask, 1x Demonic Tutor, 1x Mind Twist, 1x Strip Mine, 1x Necropotence. 

U/R Tinker/Artifact - I played a blue based artifact with some friends after mirrodin came out, but it looks as though it could be relatively powerful with the addition of.  Some of the cards I was considering were Darksteel Colossus, 2x Triskelion, Memnarch, 4x Cathodion, Sundering Titan, Duplicant, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Chalice of the Void, 3x Thirst for Knowledge, Tinker, Fact or Fiction, 4x Brainstorm, 4x Accumulated Knowledge, 3x Mana Leak, 2x Impulse, Lightning Bolt, Wheel of Fortune, 4x Shivan Reef, and Glimmervoid.  Goblin Welder would obviously be a must for this deck, however I did not want to purchase 4 copies if I wasn't sure this is the deck I was going to build.

Sliver - I know Sliver will never be a championship caliber Vintage deck, however I have the Sliver Queen, Sliver Overlord, and nearly 4 copies of every sliver from the Tempest Block and the Onslaught block.  Any thoughts on 5 color sliver? Or maybe just a 2-3 color sliver splashed with some other good cards?  All input is appreciated.

I also have a good white weenie deck, it has Crusade, Glorious Anthem, STP, Savannah Lions, etc.  I have a few copies of Wrath of God, and Balance - I would like to put these powerful cards to use if possible. 

Any input is good.  Feel free to suggest any color scheme.  I'm just looking for a pretty decent deck that is fun to play and not necessarily geared to beat any single deck.  I primarily just play with friends, and hopefully will find some people to play with when I head off to college next year.  Thanks in advance.

[nero angelo]

I've been on a four year absence from Magic, and am interested in getting started again.  I have a fair amount of decent cards at my disposal (more on that later), and am willing to put in some dough to finish off a solid deck.  I'll start by rattling off some ideas as well as what I have at my disposal.

The cards I have -

SUICIDE BLACK - I have a pretty decent start to this, 4x hypnotic specter, 1x phyrexian negator, 1x flesh reaver, 1x nantuko shade, 2x Duress, 4x Hymn to Tourach, 4x Dark Ritual, 2x Unmask, 1x Demonic Tutor, 1x Mind Twist, 1x Strip Mine, 1x Necropotence. 

U/R Tinker/Artifact - I played a blue based artifact with some friends after mirrodin came out, but it looks as though it could be relatively powerful with the addition of.  Some of the cards I was considering were Darksteel Colossus, 2x Triskelion, Memnarch, 4x Cathodion, Sundering Titan, Duplicant, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Chalice of the Void, 3x Thirst for Knowledge, Tinker, Fact or Fiction, 4x Brainstorm, 4x Accumulated Knowledge, 3x Mana Leak, 2x Impulse, Lightning Bolt, Wheel of Fortune, 4x Shivan Reef, and Glimmervoid.  Goblin Welder would obviously be a must for this deck, however I did not want to purchase 4 copies if I wasn't sure this is the deck I was going to build.

Sliver - I know Sliver will never be a championship caliber Vintage deck, however I have the Sliver Queen, Sliver Overlord, and nearly 4 copies of every sliver from the Tempest Block and the Onslaught block.  Any thoughts on 5 color sliver? Or maybe just a 2-3 color sliver splashed with some other good cards?  All input is appreciated.

I also have a good white weenie deck, it has Crusade, Glorious Anthem, STP, Savannah Lions, etc.  I have a few copies of Wrath of God, and Balance - I would like to put these powerful cards to use if possible. 

Any input is good.  Feel free to suggest any color scheme.  I'm just looking for a pretty decent deck that is fun to play and not necessarily geared to beat any single deck.  I primarily just play with friends, and hopefully will find some people to play with when I head off to college next year.  Thanks in advance.

Sui Black:

Replace Unmask w/ more duress.

Get 4x Dark Confidants. Necro is only good on turn 0 or 1.

No Twists, please. Consider Misdirecton.

I don't like Negator in my deck, though I agree it's a 4 turn clock. Negator would be good if you have extra food for it, (eg. lands on late game.) otherwise, when a Goblin player cycles an Incinerator on it for 5 damage, you'll lose the negator + 5 other permanents. Play Negator of your meta has alot of control/combo to compensate your speed.

Shades are a must.

Reaver is a no-no.

In an aggro filled environment, Jitte is a god. (watch those lackeys crumple...)

Hyppie is good too. No, he's great.


U/R Tinker: /

I don't know this deck, but if you want to work w/ DSC and Sundering Titan likes, you should have Workshop. You can't just rely on tinker or your R1 artifact mana producers. The chance of having each of them to your hand is 1:60.



Sliver:

One deck: go to Flash route. You'll need: Flash, Prothean Hulk, 1x Heart Sliver, 4x Virulent Sliver, Some counters such as FoW's and Pact of Negation, usual fixers like Brainstorm.


White Weenie:

Not competitive, but I think for fun, it'll do it's job.

Here's the pieces for you to look at: Thorn of amethyst, Aven Mindscensor, Glowrider, Samurai of the Pale Curtain, True Believer.

Note: No Crusades or Glorious Anthems.

Your beater? Exalted Angel.

Your manabase? Plains + Ancient Tomb

[LennoxLewis86]

If you ask me you should play Sui Black. Not a very, very good deck but fairly competitive. It's pretty straightforward and eats up control.
The cards are fun to play and aren't too expensive. Somehow it only looks good on paper cause you don't see it in T8s anymore I believe..
Sliver Flash is also ''easy'' to play but you wanted Slivers.dec, not a crazy combodeck that only uses Slivers for the kill..
I 100% agree with Nero on the Confidants, you'll need these. I used to play Sui Black about 3 or 4 years ago and I worked with Night's Whisper.
It was a very good card to play with and Confidant is much better! 4 Negators, 4 Specters, 4 Confidant and I advice you to play Mishra's Factory..
I often found that once I had my opponent stunned with discard effects I couldn't put him down because of a weak clock..
Confidant keeps you fueled and Factories are annoying to get rid off.. Ritual>Crucible is pretty cool, I don't know if it is really good in this deck.

[Kaiser von Hugal]

My vote is for the SUI black deck:

4 Withered Wretch
4 Stromgald Crusader
4 Nantuku Shade
4 Carnophage
4 Sarcomancy

4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
2 Unmask
3 Jitte
4 Dark Rituals
1 Black Lotus (proxied)
3 Wastelands
1 Strip mine
16 Swamps

SB
4 Engineered Plague
4 Tormods Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
4 Smother

[GUnit]

kaiser:

A few things.

- I really don't think carnophage, sarcomancy or stromgald crusader are worthwhile. 2 powered beaters that bring nothing else to the table aren't threats in vintage.

- Any suicide list definitely needs to start by playing dark confidant, and should consider other creatures that either speed up the clock or disrupt your opponent, such as hypnotic spectre, mesmeric fiend or phyrexian negator.

- I'm not sure why suicide decks can't splash for goyfs with some fetches and bayous

- Chains of Mephistopheles! I'm not sure why more black decks don't run this card. Your hand disruption strategy can be totally negated if your opponent draws gas off the top and finds threats. Chains makes sure that once you knock them down they have a hard time getting back up. Also, it doesn't prevent you from drawing extra cards off bob.

- Unmask seems outdated. If you want more early discard effects just add more thoughtseizes or some cabal therapies. I think thoughtseize is probably better in this deck than duress, by the way.

- Other notable omissions are mox jet, demonic tutor and possibly vampiric tutor and demonic consultation (I don't think yawg's will belongs in the maindeck of suicide black)

- if you do run vampiric and demonic, tutorable hosers such as planar void and null rod might be useful additions as well

[LennoxLewis86]

Sarcomancy is not that bad, it brings 2 permanents for which you can use to feed to the Negator if necessary. Your curve is pretty good if you play 4 Thoughtseize, 4 Sarcomancy, 4 Dark Ritual as 1 mana spells. Confidant, Hymn, Sinkhole and Edict as 2 mana spells. And Specters and Negators (Necropotence?) as possible T1 drops via Ritual.. You are very busy in the opening turns so Confidant is very important. Vampiric Tutor and Imperial seal can force the T2 Confidant so you should def. play those..

The main goal is too get a good hand, destroy your opponents hand and drop a clock.. Negator is very good.. Something like Confidant and Negator is 7 damage..

You should play Contagion in your SB, it works against a lot of things. Engineered Plague is also good. I'd play Duress in my SB to board in against decks that really hate hand destruction.. Leyline of the Void is a must, and if you don't have it in your opening hand you have Rituals to hardcast it you need to.

I agree on Chains of Mephistopheles, this card has great synergy with Confidant and shuts down combo and control almost instantly for
If you can follow up with a Negator, Specter or Confidant you should win when it resolves..

As for Mishra's Factory, it's not that good. You need the black too much.. Especially with Wastelands and Strip Mine So I take that back..

[nero angelo]

^

I don't really like Sacrcomancy. Sure it gives you an extra permanent ar two to feed for your Negator, but other than that, it is NOT really a threat. 2/2 w/o any other usefullness is no longer a threat nowadays.

Dark Confidant gives you more that what Sacrcomancy can give. It can draw you an extra permanent, an extra land to feed off to your Negator, and it continually does PER turn, as long as it lives.

Here's the supposed list I want to run in a Sui Black (This is close to my friend's list)

4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Smother/Cruel Edict/Contagion (Metagame dependent, alot of Oath = Cruel, a little aggro = Smother, aggro = Contagion)

3 Nantuko Shade
3 Withered Wretch (Saves you from Ichorid, and GY recursion decks such as storm)
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Black Knight/Hand of Honor
2 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Dark Confidant

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Extirpate

3 Wasteland
1 Stripmine
16 Swamps


SB:

4 Leyline of the Void
3 Pithing Needle/Null Rod
3-4 Chalice of the Void
3 Engineered Plague
1-2 Random Card/Umezawa's Jitte


**Notice that I don't run Negators. Assuming you'll be going into blind tournaments, where you don't know anything about the metagame. What if they are filled w/ aggro? Negator will kill you, I swear.

Plus, Nantuko Shade can go as large as Negator, even larger. Even though it has no trample, who in the weenie world w/o protection would survive it?