Companion is messed up, no doubt. In that case, I think Kroxa is a decent substitute (if a little less aggressive.)
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
The Ride
1x Plague Engineer
4x Dark Confidant
4x Gifted Aetherborn
4x Rotting Regisaur
4x Murderous Rider // Swift End
2x Liliana, the Last Hope
3x Liliana of the Veil
3x Hymn To Tourach
4x Thoughtseize
4x Dark Ritual
4x Liliana's Triump
2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Castle Locthwain
19x Swamp
Sideboard
1x Null Rod
1x Damping Sphere
1x Chains of Mephistopheles
1x Plaguecrafter
1x Ashiok, Dream Render
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
2x Plague Engineer
4x Faerie Macabre
Just an idea... maybe it's time to stop living in the past.
how do you guys feel about playing unearth, bloodghast, cabal therapy, village rites, and archfiend's vessel. Eliminate looks like a decent card since this deck can't answer planeswalkers.
I took my list out for a sort of FNM-like event (4 games)
These were the results:
The Ride
1x Plague Engineer
4x Dark Confidant
4x Gifted Aetherborn
4x Rotting Regisaur
4x Murderous Rider // Swift End
2x Liliana, the Last Hope
3x Liliana of the Veil
3x Hymn To Tourach
4x Thoughtseize
4x Dark Ritual
4x Liliana's Triump
2x Umezawa's Jitte
3x Castle Locthwain
18x Swamp
Sideboard
1x Null Rod
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Damping Sphere
1x Gate to Phyrexia
1x Chains of Mephistopheles
1x Ashiok, Dream Render
2x Sorcerous Spyglass
3x Plague Engineer
4x Faerie Macabre
Results:
1-1 Draw vs Blue Artifacts (Urza + Echon of the Eons) - On the Draw
2-0 Win vs 4c Delver - On the Play
2-0 Win vs UG Infect - On the Draw
0-2 Loss vs BANT-Control - On the Draw
I'm pretty happy with the mainboard. Murderous Rider does kill planeswalkers (huge upside).
I think the sideboard needs something to totally wipe the graveyard. Faerie just doesn't cut it and CMC is also high for confidant. Maybe switch two of them too Tormods' crypts... because Uro, Titan of naturs' wrath... well, it's horrible. Maybe the one Ashiok just isn't fast enough... I think changing it to a second Chains of Mephistophles might work better.
Oh, and I pushed a Gate in the sideboard... for all you conservatives
Ashiok is incredible, I would play up to 3 in your sideboard.
Cutting Wasteland: budget decision or metagame decision?
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I just want to have mana...
The Gate, doesn't have a lot of manasinks. Like, it used to play a withered wretch here and there in 2012. And sometimes someone plays a shade.
But in overall, "The Gate" doesn't have annything to do with it's surpluss mana.
Castle Lochtwain changes that. 4 mana draw a card when you are in top deck mode after discard spells and liliana of the veil... is pretty nice. You just need to kill Narset. Like if Narset is on 1, kill it unless you can kill your opponent. Because the castle can get you back into the game later on.
The Gate never was about mana restriction annyway. It's cute to wasteland, and it can deff give you an advantage. But a lot of the old builds also needed to go up to 3 and 4 to get more important stuff out. I know you run ritual... but even with ritual in this deck, you can still Loctwain for 2 lands, and play something with the lands you have left.
So many wonderful cards that are tailor made for The Gate in this year’s sets....
Agadeem’s Awakening
Nullpriest of Oblivion
Nighthawk Scavenger
Bloodchief’s Thirst
Eliminate
Murderous Rider
Nullpriest is an evasive 2 mana lifelinker early game that turns into a reanimate spell late game.
Nighthawk is a Goyf with lifelink and flying and deathtouch tacked on for just one extra mana. Might surpass goyf actually.
Dark Confidant is amazing with all of the above.
The creature base is now extremely efficient and grindy enough to create inevitability. We just need the right mix and a high enough concentration of discard and removal to function as a controllish deck.
Its not bolt proof like Goyf but thats why we play Thoughtseize
Is Unearth an option? Once you have a bunch of ideal threats under 3 mana, Unearth seems like pure value. I'm *not* saying go deep, but 1-2 isn't hard to jam in, and at worst it's a re-draw.
Edit: Rotting Regisaur tricks sound good to me too...
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Yeah, both Unearth and Reanimate seem amazing with Scavenger Nighthawk.
Nighthawk gains you a lot of life so the upside of being able to reanimate your opponents biggest creature after a turn 1 Thoughtseize seems worth the lifeloss.
Really depends on the local meta and how many Primeval Titans and Griselbrands you expect to face.
Sarcasm?
"It dies to removal" is an often-derided argument because, in general, stuff does die to removal. But when you raise a specific A vs B comparison, every commonly encountered removal spell that hits A but not B is a point in favor of A.
If they print Goyf With Hexproof (or even just Goyf With Protection From StP). you're not gonna claim that Plain Goyf is just as good because it doesn't matter that it dies to removal.
It could be true that dying to Bolt isn't that big a deal, and that the pros outweigh the cons... but that would be a different statement.
You're shifting the goalposts. The comparison wasn't Goyf or Nighthawk vs. HexproofGoyf or HexproofNighthawk, it was just 'is this card better than Tarmogoyf at closing games in this deck.' By your argument we should splash green for Hexdrinker, Thrun the Last Troll, or True-Name Nemesis, because we *do* have comparable mana-cost creatures to Goyf/newNighthawk that are indeed hexproof.
It's really hard to argue 'dies to removal' in any competitive format. Everything dies to some sort of removal, even Emrakul and Progenitus, so you build with the format in mind. Tarmogoyf sees very little play right now, basically just in RUG Delver and even then not as a 4-of, and it's not because Tarmogoyf isn't a huge creature. It's because it doesn't have additional value. Look at Uro and Dreadhorde Arcanist, both of those add relevant value that a pure beatstick doesn't. NewNighthawk also adds relevant value: evasion, flies to block Marit Lage, deathtouch, and it could easily be a 4-5 power threat. Just one hit with this guy will swing games in big ways. Equip with Jitte? Fuhgedaboutit.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Alice: Let's compare Creature X to Creature Y.
Bob: OK. First off, Creature X has Boltproof and Creature Y does not.
Alice: You mentioned a removal spell, so your comment is invalid.
***
So, I don't know whether Goyf or Nighthawk is better in this deck or any other deck. I just think Alice is engaging in careless thinking in this example and being overly categorical, not to mention a bit rude to Bob. It's not that weird a situation to run into a Lightning Bolt. You will absolutely lose some games if you choose the threat that lacks Boltproof, just as you will lose other games if you choose the other threat.
Is the philosophy behind the deck similar to what it was in the primer/creation? Looks like it doesn't get much updates these days but I came from pox so i've got the entire deck, practically, in my pox binder so i could sleeve up a variant pretty quick.
It almost feels like it comes off as an agro pox deck, but without the pox.
I liken this deck to mono-black 'Jund', everything is either efficient disruption (Thoughtseize, Push), dangerous threats (Regisaur, Nighthawk Scavenger) or card advantage (Confidant, Hymn, Jitte, Rider, Engineer.) Roll that into a bulletproof mana-base and you have The Gate. The older cards are different, but it's the same plan. It used to be 'cute' by playing a 6/6 flying trampler for 4 that needed an Innocent Blood/Therapy/Gatekeeper to win the game to 'combo'. While a 4-mana threat isn't bad due to getting around Abrupt Decay, the format is just faster. Our threats need to be more efficient and our cards need to do more.
The old version was a blast to play because of the tricks; the newer cards are better but much more boring. I want my opponent at -7 life when I kick a Gatekeeper FTW.
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
So the consensus seems to be that Scavenger Nighthawk is a fantastic addition to the deck.
Which of the other cards below are also worth playing?
Agadeem’s Awakening
Nullpriest of Oblivion
Bloodchief’s Thirst
Eliminate
Murderous Rider
Is Gatekeeper still good enough?
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