Dromar, the Banisher (EDH)

[Killer Joe]

This deck is loosely based off of my 75 card MML deck to fit an EDH format.
The reason I even put one together is because I had the rare opportunity to play in a casual EDH MP game (3 players) this past Saturday. I had to use someone else's deck but found the game interesting. I looked up the rules to see the B/R list and I think my deck is legal. Take a look (if you're familiar with EDH) and let me know.
Thanks

Dromar, the Banisher (EDH)
Land (40)
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Arcane Sanctum
1x City of Brass
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Dromar's Cavern
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Faerie Conclave
1x Flooded Strand
1x Godless Shrine
1x Hallowed Fountain
6x Island
1x Kor Haven
1x Marsh Flats
1x Maze of Ith
6x Plains
1x Polluted Delta
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Salt Flats
1x Scrubland
7x Swamp
1x Tundra
1x Underground River
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Watery Grave

Creatures (20)
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Angel of Despair
1x Angelic Wall
1x Avatar of Woe
1x Bone Shredder
1x Dromar, the Banisher
1x Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
1x Heartstabber Mosquito
1x Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
1x Ith, High Arcanist
1x Mageta the Lion
1x Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1x Nekrataal
1x Oona, Queen of the Fae
1x Soltari Visionary
1x Stalking Assassin
1x Stormscape Battlemage
1x Shriekmaw
1x Wall of Souls
1x Windborn Muse

Spells (40)
1x Absorb
1x Braingeyser
1x Cancel
1x Collective Restraint
1x Counterspell
1x Damnation
1x Debtors' Knell
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Edict
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Discombobulate
1x Disenchant
1x Dismantling Blow
1x Dismiss
1x Dissipate
1x Dromar's Charm
1x Esper Charm
1x Fact or Fiction
1x Forbid
1x Force of Will
1x Gerrard's Wisdom
1x Ghostly Prison
1x Gifts Ungiven
1x Hissing Miasma
1x Mortify
1x Path to Exile
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Propaganda
1x Pulse of the Fields
1x Punish Ignorance
1x Rewind
1x Rout
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Syphon Soul
1x Terror
1x Thwart
1x Undermine
1x Vindicate
1x Whispers of the Muse
1x Wrath of God

 

[Shabbaman]

Your creature count is a bit low, and you're also low on recursion and card draw. Those aren't needed, but you're playing a control deck. If you're depending on counters you have to make sure you draw more than your opponents. I'm not sure what the idea behind the deck is. How do you aim to win? That's one... and the other two questions are "what makes this deck fun", and "what makes this deck unfun to play against"?

I like how you're not taking the obvious "blue steals stuff" route, I hate that path. I can appreciate some counters, but you might want to reconsider your counter package. Stuff like Spelljack is probably better and a lot more fun (to play with AND against, very important!) than something like Cancel.

The major omission in your deck is mana ramp. You need some way to get lands out of your deck (admittedly, you have some card draw), and some real ramp. See if you have a spare Sol Ring laying around, perhaps something like Mana Crypt/Vault, Signets, lands like Dimir Aquaduct...

About card draw and recursion: I'm not really into EDH white and blue (and especially in blue there should be some way to draw a lot of cards), but cards like Mimic Vat and Nim Deathmantle works in your deck as well. Oh, and Mind's Eye, everyone runs it besides me In black there's some solid card draw in Promise of Power, which is also a threat. You could need some equipment to help your Dromar, like Lightning Greaves.

If I may give you a pretty cool suggestion for the deck: Equilibrium. Does something similar to Dromar, and goes nice together with gating creatures like Stonecloaker and Dust Elemental. Play it with Mulldrifter.

Oh, and I think Gifts Ungiven is banned.

 

[Killer Joe]

Thanks. I am totally NEW to EDH so all this advice is GREAT and much appreciated.

 

[Shabbaman]

Well, it's what I'm here for

If you answer my questions I think I can give you more pointers. They sound like dumb questions, but it helped me streamline my EDH decks. The trigger was a recent article on dailymtg.com. Basically, at first you try to put as many strong multiplayer cards in deck as possible. The format is not completely about pitching bombs against bombs, but it's most certainly not about NOT letting your opponent play his bombs.

As an example, I'll demonstrate how I (re)built my Savra deck.

Savra is about sacrificing stuff for the Grave Pact effect. That seemed like a solid multiplayer card to me, in my favorite color combination, and it involves one of my favorite cards: Grave Pact. So first I identified the cards that let me use Grave Pact effects (Savra, Grave Pact, Butcher of Malakir) repeatedly. Two options: recurrable creatures or tokens. Tokens are everywhere, so I figured it would be more entertaining to see the same creatures pop in and out of play (Nether Traitor, Bloodghast, that kind of stuff). The second category consists of sacrifice outlets or cards that can sacrifice themselves (Greater Good, Sakura-tribe Elder as examples), the third category are cards that help me win in some fashion (for instance: the deck's weakness is token creators, so I have Pestilence Demon to mob up tokens). The fourth category are just good cards, tutors and stuff that I like to play (or keeps me from losing). This is the list:

Savra, queen of the Golgari

Fat
1 Lord of extinction
1 xathrid demon
1 Butcher of Malakir
Utility creatures
1 Kagemaro, first to suffer
1 Pestilence demon
1 Fleshbag marauder
1 bone shredder
1 Shriekmaw
1 Terastodon
1 woodfall primus
1 withered wretch
1 Brooding Saurian
Land searchers
1 sakura tribe elder
1 yavimaya elder
1 krosan tusker
1 twisted abomination
Recursion
1 Puppeteer clique
1 eternal witness
1 Genesis
Sacrificial Lambs
1 Blood speaker
1 Nether traitor
1 Bloodghast
1 Reassembling skeletons
1 shambling shell
1 grave-shell scarab
1 Creakwood Liege
1 Pawn of Ulamog
Board control
1 Pernicious deed
1 Damnation
1 Living dead
1 Grave pact
1 The Abyss
Targeted removal
1 Profane Command
1 Putrefy
1 krosan grip
1 Primal Command
Card draw
1 lurking predators
1 Sylvan library
1 Promise of Power
1 phyrexian arena
1 Momentous Fall
Tutors
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 Tooth and nail
1 Abundance
1 Survival of the Fittest
Recursion
1 regrowth
1 life from the loam
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Mimic Vat
1 Nim Deathmantle
1 Golgari germination
Utility
1 skullclamp
1 Grim feast
1 Lightning greaves
1 Whispersilk cloak
1 Necrogenesis
Altars
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Greater Good
1 Perilous forays
Mana
1 Mana crypt
1 Sol ring
Lands
12 swamp
7 forest
1 cabal coffers
1 Leechridden swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vesuva
1 Twilight mire
1 barren moor
1 Tranquil thicket
1 tainted wood
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown tomb
1 Llanowar wastes
1 Golgari rotfarm
1 wasteland
1 strip mine
1 dust bowl
1 volrath's stronghold
1 Maze of Ith
1 verdant catacombs

Now, those categories of cards is how I can keep the deck focused. Cutting down to 99 is difficult, but make sure that the cards that let you do whatever it is you want to do first. But first figure out what it is you want to do, and find out if that is going to make you some friends. Just as an example: the cards I've cut recently are Basilisk Collar and Sword of Fire and Ice. It's not as if these aren't good cards, but they aren't adding anything to the main strategy. Everyone is playing cards like collar, warhammer and SoFI, so I figured people would rather see Blood Speaker. I hope I'm right.

With Savra it's a bit tough to make friends, with bouncey Dromar that's going to be easier. The other route is to just use your general for the color combination, but I still think it's important to pick a core theme or mechanic for the deck. I could've added a lot more annoying mechanics (Nath and Sadistic Hypnotist for discard for example), but I choose not to do that. Locking people out of the game completely is not a good way to have fun. To balance this deck I also made an R/G deck with Ulasht as a general. This deck does nothing except making tokens. It's also a lot cheaper and is lacking some cards like Mimic Vat.