How can I improve this deck so far? I want to play standard, so the cards have to be legal for standard.
http://deckbox.org/sets/681916

It would help if you could walk us through a few things:

1) I'm assuming you would like to take this to FNM, correct?

2) What sort of budget are you looking for to improve the deck?

3) What is the primary win condition of this deck? Phrased otherwise, how do you envision this deck typically winning the game?

4) What type of competition are you envisioning that you will encounter? Simply put, does your LGS feature a bunch of home-brews or is everyone net-decking tier 1 decks?

1) I'm assuming you would like to take this to FNM, correct?

That is correct.

2) What sort of budget are you looking for to improve the deck?

I don't want to spend too much, since I lack a job and a college student. I'd say around $50-$100 extra on the deck. $100 being the last thing I want to do.

3) What is the primary win condition of this deck? Phrased otherwise, how do you envision this deck typically winning the game?

Other than really gaining life, I'm not completely sure. I starting playing MTG a few weeks ago.

4) What type of competition are you envisioning that you will encounter? Simply put, does your LGS feature a bunch of home-brews or is everyone net-decking tier 1 decks?

I don't have the slightest clue. I didn't want to go to FNM with an intro deck and not really knowing all the rules yet. Normally at my local LGS, I see at least 30+ at FNM, so I have no idea. Let us assume net-decking tier 1 decks.

So my suggestion would be to go to FNM for the purposes of observing some games and such before you go marching in with your own brew as, if we assume people are playing the tier 1 stuff, you're just going to get obliterated (and that's not a whole lot of fun, now is it?).

That being said, I would propose the following mono-white budget build:

http://deckbox.org/sets/686310

The whole deck is less than $100 (according to Deckbox pricing at least) and it's easy enough to pull some of the higher end pieces to save on costs. It's definitely more aggressive than what you would've been playing, but it's worth a shot. This deck definitely won't win the FNM outright, but it should be at least a little bit more competitive.

You can also potentially slide Evangel of Heliod into the build where I currently have Angel of Serenity as it might give you a solid chance to flood the board with tokens. Swift Justice isn't the best card out there, but it could easily be used on Phalanx Leader when you attack with it and they try to block and deal with it - it'll get +2/+1, lifelink, and first strike while also pumping your whole team.

TyWooOneTime wrote:So my suggestion would be to go to FNM for the purposes of observing some games and such before you go marching in with your own brew as, if we assume people are playing the tier 1 stuff, you're just going to get obliterated (and that's not a whole lot of fun, now is it?).

Getting obliterated isn't really an issue to me. I don't get upset from losing, it helps me not only observe, but what I can improve on. Rotation happens for standard in the fall, correct? I'll check out the budget build you posted too.

Rotation doesn't happen until the first set from the next block hits, so you have like 4 months.

Okay, thank you. That deck should only cost me around $50 since I have some of the other cards. I'll check out FNM when I muster up the courage.