Help with my Beginners Deck

[Alimi]

Hello all, it's been a long time! I asked for tips on my first deck a long time ago, and you all were so gentle with me. Since then, i've played a lot, seen great decks and strategies on the field, and my love for my deck just grew bigger. But now i think it's time for some changes.

http://deckstats.net/decks/65883/496718-golgari-budget-fun

I want to try to spend ~a little~ more on cards that will help my deck get a bit more competitive. I personally dislike Arbor Colossus but as for the rest, i just can't get rid of them! What cards should i get? What should i cut? Thanks for listening!

[Alimi]

Just to turn things easier for you guys, these are some cards i have in mind:

Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Soulflayer
Vampire Nighthawk
Rite of Consumption

[Alimi]

Corpsejack Menace and Deadbridge Goliath are also cards i'm considering.

[Alimi]

Shriekmaw and Spiritmonger are both cards that i'll be also considering to put on my deck.

If you guys have any tips, please help me

[Jabilac]

I think the first thing you should do is decide what you want the deck to do. The cards you have mentioned and the ones in the deck you have a lot of different directions happening. 

If you want to build some kind of deck that makes lots of +1/+1 counters then that would be fun.  Corpsejack Menace and scavenge from Varolz, the Scar-Striped could be a fun combo deck.  Spiritmonger and Shriekmaw don't really fit into that build.  I mean are the right colors and all but they don't help you achieve the goal of that deck.

If you decided to go that way then you might want to "feed" your graveyard with cards like Grisly Salvage, Vessel of Nascency, or Gather the Pack. 

Find a direction you want to go and throw a decklist together that goes in that direction.  Then re-post it.  People will know what you are looking to do and will try to help you fine tune the build.

[Alimi]

Thanks for the ideas. I'm going with the +1/+1 counters strategy. I'm still searching for cards and building around this concept, but having a "north" helps alot

Already made some changes on my deck http://deckstats.net/decks/65883/496718-golgari-budget-fun?saved=1&lng=pt

[Jabilac]

I like the changes you have made to your decklist   I think the focus on +1/+1 counters is gonna be fun

Some observations so far:

Corpsejack Menace should be bumped up to 4, or 3, if you consistently want the ability to double +1/+1 counters.

You should add some kind of spell to "feed" your graveyard and find the creatures you want to cast.  Don't be worried about doing that either, Your graveyard is a resource in a deck like this so you want it to be stocked.  Soulflayer wants you to exile creature cards from your graveyard to make it cheaper to cast and gain extra abilities so you will need creatures in your graveyard to exile.  Grisly Salvage or Gather the Pack will do that for you.  You find 1 or 2 creatures you want and put the rest of the cards in your graveyard for use later either from Soulflayer or Varolz, the Scar-Striped.

You have a lot of creatures that have high power like Outland Colossus or will get high power from +1/+1 counters and you don't have much in the way of evasion abilities like flying, trample, unblockable, ect.... Basically you have a lot of damage potential and no way to make sure it gets through.  Outland colossus can be chump blocked by 1/1's every combat the same is true for most of your creatures.  Maybe add some cards like Predator's Strike, Overrun, Evolution Charm, or Tread Upon to give your creatures the ability to get damage through and kill your opponent.

Also I would consider looking at more reliable removal options.  Tragic Slip is a great card (I own a playset myself) but it does require something to die before it does -13/-13 so it can be unreliable, when you need something to die Morbid might not be activated.  Its better to focus on spells like Doom Blade, Putrefy, Go For the Throat, or Ultimate Price.  Tragic Slip works well with those cards too... Destroy a creature and trigger Morbid then Tragic Slip something else

In general it is better to focus on more copies of fewer cards then it is to have lots of cards but only 1 or 2 copies of them.  When I start building a deck I find 9 or 10 cards that work together to achieve the goal of the deck, how I want to win, and I put 3 or 4 copies of that card into the deck.  Then I run some test hands with proxies, or on this site using the Starting Hand and Draw a card options, to see what the deck will look like as I "play" a game.  Then I fine tune by identifying the weaknesses of the deck and changing what doesn't work.

I hope this helps you out

[Alimi]

Thanks for all the tips, now i've improved even more! http://deckstats.net/decks/65883/496718-golgari-budget-fun added more copies of some cards and replaced Rampant Growth with Evolution Charm  ;   Grisly Savage and Predator's Strike will sure help out a lot.

My deck has 62 cards in it, and now i have no idea what to took out! Haha, thanks again, it really looks great. When i'm done, i'll be sure to buy everything and try it out.

[Alimi]

You said Shriekmaw wasn't a good idea for my build, but i'm thinking of using it as a replacement for Doom Blade , because it can be a removal when i want and a creature when i want, plus it will feed my graveyard and give my Soulflayer Fear!

[Jabilac]

Its your deck and you can change it up as often as you like.  I run Shriekmaw and I can tell you it is a nice card.  Destroying a non-artifact, non-black creature when it enters the battlefield is pretty sweet.  It can also trigger scry off of the Reaper of the Wilds when its Evoked.  The reason I said it didn't fit the deck was because it doesn't build counters, doesn't have a cheap mana cost for scavenge, there are more reliable instant speed removal options, and Soulflayer can't gain fear.

I think you are right when you say you need to make some room in your deck.  It looks like you might need to bump your mana amounts up to 22 in total, that might help smooth out your land drops and get you to 4 mana as quickly as possible so you can play Corpsejack Menace and start scavenging +1/+1 counters.

Also FYI Kalonian Hydra is nuts inside a +1/+1 counter deck but its like $10 a card.