Seems like you're trying to do too much - If you're going to reanimate, there are better targets.
If you're going for mid range, just dump a bunch of efficient 3-4 drops in there and don't worry about discard/reanimation
I'll be blunt - the kamigawa dragons don't really have a place in modern right now, because there isn't a shell/archetype they can fit into without replacing a more efficient creature.
I find Distress strong against Tempered Steel and control matchups. Most of the decks that Despise is strong against, we already run enough removal to just kill it.
Bloodgift Demon is probably superior. 4 power and 5 toughness lost is worth it compared to the extra card drawn and not having the risk of the card nuking you in the face if your opponent is able to burn your humans with Whipflare or Black Sun's Zenith, etc
1. Whole block. You'll be playing with a block and a third for a while
2. M13 comes in teh summer
3. M12 rotates when the next block comes in. There will be about 2-3 months during which both m12 and m13 are legal.
4. Innistrad goes out in oct 2014, when next next block comes out.
This list has been working well for me. I'm missing some obvious staples (mutavault and blood crypt, namely).
It plays like a midrange deck with utility creatures until you can bomb Nocturnus and swing for 12+ in a turn. My sideboard isn't quite complete but I can transition into beatdown (with Lacerators) or into more controlly (IoK and removal and just ride Nighthawk/Nocturnus to victory)
You might want to make it sort of like a Big Red deck, with some artifact and ritual mana to play big red fatties and beaters. Seething Song is one of the better rituals, and then stuff like Chrome Mox and other cheap artifact accelerators are good. You can supplement with a little land destruction like Molten Rain.
Just my 3 cents.
None of those cards are standard. And Chrome Mox isn't really budget, either.
My first thought when I saw that was Eldrazi Spawn. Too bad...
It looks like you're building this with cards available to you as someone who just started playing magic.
My first piece of advice would be to expand your collection. All the commons and uncommons in your deck are extremely cheap, and you should acquire 4 of them as soon as possible. Running 1x of cards is usually a bad strategy because it makes your deck inconsistent. If you don't want to blow 30 bucks on another Chandra, that's cool, but at least grab your 20 cent commons and stuff.
The other thing that stood out: Take out Angel's Feather. That card is awful
I really like the blue splash because the decks I playtested against (Grapeshot Storm, Melira Combo, Zoo) usually dumped their hand early and could win before the rack actually did enough damage - Burning inquiry was a huge bomb and stupor proved to be lackluster because it usually came out T4 after a caress/megrim. I think the manabase needs some work, but I was just playing casually and mulliganing whenever. Still needs some work as far as consistency goes, but I like the deck type. Still working out which rat (rotting v ravenous) I prefer - the ability to chump block and come back is nice, but I like keeping the cards in my hand.
Aside from Stuffy Doll shenanigans, I think this deck, like Nin, gets a lot out of Darksteel Myr/indestructable creatures if going the voltron route. I think it's interesting that everyone's making comparisons to Jenara, because my first thought was that she's a Rakdos Memnarch. I think steal effects are still pretty powerful post-Homeward Path, and I feel like there are a lot of fun things to do with other people's creatures. (Isochron Scepter + Fling = lol)
This is another card that I've been kicking around in my head. I run it in my casual build, but I wanted to play around with something different. I'm playing around with Moltensteel Dragon until I stumble across something better. I like the idea of paying life to win. I axed Ranger of Eos because I'm running 16 lifegainers already - the draw is fairly consistent. If Ascendant was included I would almost feel obligated to use Ranger, though. He also jacks up my mana curve a bit.
Fair enough. The genesis chamber/suture priest combo is kind of brutal, especially against zoo/aggro where the lifegain will give you a nice cushion anyway. It makes sense not to run Ranger if you're not running ascendant/another one mana finisher. I think Moltensteel is a cute finisher, but if we're looking for competitive/consistency/resilience we might end up moving to ranger/ascendant/titan anyway. I haven't playtested it enough to say anything for sure yet, I'm just going off my experience with this deck in old standard. I wonder if there are any cards from older sets that might be good here that we've missed.
If you're going for mid range, just dump a bunch of efficient 3-4 drops in there and don't worry about discard/reanimation
I'll be blunt - the kamigawa dragons don't really have a place in modern right now, because there isn't a shell/archetype they can fit into without replacing a more efficient creature.
Sorcery
Target creature fights another target creature.
Pretty sure it fizzles because of legal targets.
2. M13 comes in teh summer
3. M12 rotates when the next block comes in. There will be about 2-3 months during which both m12 and m13 are legal.
4. Innistrad goes out in oct 2014, when next next block comes out.
4 blackcleave cliffs
4 dragonskull summit
4 marsh flats
2 lavaclaw reaches
1 mountain
9 swamp
4 bloodghast
4 kalastria highborn
4 vampire hexmage
4 vampire nighthawk
4 gatekeeper of malakir
4 vampire nocturnus
4 terminate
4 arc trail
4 blightning
This list has been working well for me. I'm missing some obvious staples (mutavault and blood crypt, namely).
It plays like a midrange deck with utility creatures until you can bomb Nocturnus and swing for 12+ in a turn. My sideboard isn't quite complete but I can transition into beatdown (with Lacerators) or into more controlly (IoK and removal and just ride Nighthawk/Nocturnus to victory)
None of those cards are standard. And Chrome Mox isn't really budget, either.
My first thought when I saw that was Eldrazi Spawn. Too bad...
Maybe consider W/R with Token Generation through Master's Call and Midnight Haunting, with Demonmail Hauberk as a finisher? Seems really slow though.
My first piece of advice would be to expand your collection. All the commons and uncommons in your deck are extremely cheap, and you should acquire 4 of them as soon as possible. Running 1x of cards is usually a bad strategy because it makes your deck inconsistent. If you don't want to blow 30 bucks on another Chandra, that's cool, but at least grab your 20 cent commons and stuff.
The other thing that stood out: Take out Angel's Feather. That card is awful
4 Rotting Rats
4 Lore Broker
Discard
4 Blightning
4 Burning Inquiry
4 Fall
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Stupor
2 Wistful Thinking
4 Megrim
4 Liliana's Caress
4 The Rack
Land
8 Swamp
2 Island
2 Mountain
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 blood moon
4 terminate
3 dismember
4 duress
I really like the blue splash because the decks I playtested against (Grapeshot Storm, Melira Combo, Zoo) usually dumped their hand early and could win before the rack actually did enough damage - Burning inquiry was a huge bomb and stupor proved to be lackluster because it usually came out T4 after a caress/megrim. I think the manabase needs some work, but I was just playing casually and mulliganing whenever. Still needs some work as far as consistency goes, but I like the deck type. Still working out which rat (rotting v ravenous) I prefer - the ability to chump block and come back is nice, but I like keeping the cards in my hand.
Fair enough. The genesis chamber/suture priest combo is kind of brutal, especially against zoo/aggro where the lifegain will give you a nice cushion anyway. It makes sense not to run Ranger if you're not running ascendant/another one mana finisher. I think Moltensteel is a cute finisher, but if we're looking for competitive/consistency/resilience we might end up moving to ranger/ascendant/titan anyway. I haven't playtested it enough to say anything for sure yet, I'm just going off my experience with this deck in old standard. I wonder if there are any cards from older sets that might be good here that we've missed.