[Deck] The Gate

[jrsthethird]

Budget Gate looks pretty good. Everything but Jitte is cheap.

Zoo, maybe Burn.

Yeah looking at this I agree. It's just that in my history of Legacy, I've never been paired against a Zoo deck so I wouldn't have made that connection yet. I've only been playing for a few months but in 5+ tournaments I've never played Zoo...odd.

[Michael Keller]

Some notes on card choices:
No wastelands, the deck is very hungry for black mana early on and I have not played a single game so far where I felt like I would have had much use for a wasteland. I'm not going to lie and say that the price for getting these online didn't factor in on my choice on not running them.

Stinkweed Imp is surprisingly good, he trades with almost every relevant offensive creature in the format and comes back the next turn to tell you all about it. Also he plays really well together with tortured existence and cabal therapy as well as filling your graveyard with cards for tombstalker. He alsp carries a Jitte pretty well.

Smother instead of Deathmark since there seems to be a lot of wierd random decks as well as a lot of monoblack on MTGO making smother a better choice here.

Tortured existence is really good letting you reuse Gatekeepers, Shriekmaws and Macabres. Four is probably one too much since they are useless in multiples.

Notes on matchups:
I have played a few matches against competetive decks and even more against weird and budget variants so I'm just going to give a short summary of my impressions so far.

Zoo seems favorable, massive amounts of removal paired with recurring creatures seems to be too much for them to handle in the games I have tried so far same goes for the Bant decks I played against.

Played one match against Belcher and it was an easy win as well with duress + therapy stripping his hand.

Played several matches againt burn. Discard, nighthawk and jitte makes this an easy win.

Other mono black aggro and pox seems to be about even.

Random aggro decks are a positive matchup.

I have been stomped by loam decks several matches but a good sideboard probably helps against this. It's probably also a case of me learning how to play against them properly...

I have also lost A LOT of games due to mana screw, I should probably run confidant or something to help out with early draws but that would probably mean I will have to cut Tombstalker wich has been amazing and which I as planning making a 3 or 4-of.

I have noticed several people boarding large amounts grave hate against me resulting in them ending up with a crippled deck and getting smashed by jitte carrying imps or vampires.


To summarize, the deck needs further tweaking but is really fun to play and so far seems to be quite powerful.

You noted there were a lot of games where you got "stomped". To start off, there should be no reason why you are not running four of arguably the best card in the format. That would be Wasteland.

Running Tombstalker is God-awful slow in this deck. You run no Dark Rituals and Abyssal Persecutor is bigger and tramples.

Tortured Existence is flat-out terrible. It's even worse when you run cards like Tombstalker. Why in God's name you want to run Stinkweed Imp is up to you. It is ridiculously slow and serves as no real efficient clock. It *may* give you some synergy with Tortured Existence, but again: You're beating around the bush rather than playing it straight-forward and to the point.

Smother is up to you. I personally don't like it in the deck because I don't like eating it to Daze.

Bojuka Bog is also too slow. I hate having to wait a turn to play a spell, and it just isn't that good against the decks it really should shine against.

I noticed you cut Bitterblossom all together. I would run two as it is far more effective with Jitte than any other card in the deck. It produces threats every turn and becomes a major annoyance.

You really need to run Dark Confidant. It is probably the best overall card in the deck and, well, yeah. I know you're going budget, which is cool and all, but the reason you're getting stomped in those matches you *should* be winning is because of the inherent lack of those critical, key cards.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

Hollywood, what's your take on Inquisition of Kozilek? (link)

[Khurtz]

So yesterday I tried The Gate at RIT with lackluster results partially due to bad draws but also disappointing sideboard performance and in one instance horrendous play error. My list was this:

4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Vampire Knighthawk
4 Dark Confidant
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Faerie Macabre

3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bitterblossom
1 Skeletal Scrying
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Duress
4 Innocent Blood
2 Smother

4 Wasteland
1 Bojuka Bog
16 Swamp


SB:
1 Faerie Macabre (Reanimator reared it's ugly head and I found this to be a little more effective than Relic and Crypt)
2 Nevinyrral's Disk (As I knew Stax would be there and possibly Enchantress this seemed like a no brainer)
2 Gate to Phyrexia (Once again Stax and later saw Affinity hanging around)
3 Pithing Needle (Versus Goblins and the MUC deck that had been dominating the past few weeks. Shackles is no fun.)
3 Spinning Darkness (Gobbos, Merfolk, Elves, Affinity, etc...)
4 Hymn to Tourach (Belcher and Ad Nauseum were supposed to be there but Ad Nauseum didn't show)

First round was against U/R/W/B Ravager. I was able to overrun him with more relevant threats and a little creature removal here and there on the first game. Second game I blew up his lands with wasteland 2 turns in a row and he got mana screwed.

Second round was against U/W/B Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek control. I made a horrendous play error in the first game by not using Faerie Macabre at the right time and allowing him to sac his foundry to get Sword back. I believe I also drew fairly light on threats as well. Second game I was able to control his resources with a combination of second turn Gate to Phyrexia, 3rd turn Bitterblossom and several well placed Wastelands. Third game I was able to hit him with a Hymn early on that caused some damage and although I was able to control his resources fairly well he resolved Jace the Mind Sculptor while I had only one threat and then with a combination of counters and removal was able to keep me from getting a creature to stick while eventually building up to 12+ counters with Jace. I resolved Nevinyrral's Disk but wouldn't ya know it doesn't hit Planeswalkers :(

Third Round was against Goblins, which I was excited for as it should've been a good matchup. Unfortunately I had to mull down to 6 first game due to lack of land and I ended up keeping a hand without Innocent Blood in the hopes that he wouldn't drop turn 1 Lackey. He did and proceeded to drop more threats than I could keep up with. Game 2 I boarded in Spinning Darkness and Pithing Needle and was able to control his board well enough to get my threat engine going. I had to hard cast Spinning Darkness due to competition between Cabal Therapy and Skeletal Scrying for use of my graveyard and the fact that I was barely getting enough black cards in there to make it active. 3rd round I got in some early control and resolved some decent threats but he proceeded to drop multiple Ringleaders and was able to power out too many goblins to handle, swinging for game with 3 Piledrivers, warchief and chieftain.

Fourth round was against MBC. I drew a threat heavy hand which got controlled by 3 consecutive chainer's edicts, even though I RFG'd 2 with Macabre. I drew some useless creature control and proceeded to get beat down by consume spirit and Planeswalkers. I boarded out Innocent Blood, Smother, 1 Gatekeeper, 1 Jitte in favor of Hymn's and Pithing Needles. I was able to hit with some early Hymn's and duresses that dismantled his hand and I resolved Abyssal Persecutor plus a Macabre to soak up edicts. I proceeded to beat him down into the negatives but drew no way of removing my Persecutor. I drew Jitte and got 2 Swings in before he resolved Staff of Dom and proceeded to tap down my Jitte'd creatures. I then drew about 6 consecutive Swamps while beating him down to -30. Meanwhile he built up about 40-50 mana a turn through massive amounts of swamps and 2 coffers which he used to gain life and draw cards off Staff. Finally he got himself back up to +1 life the turn I drew gatekeeper and was able to finish me off with a Planeswalker. In retrospect I might've used Disk or Gate instead of Pithing Needle however as Disk couldn't hit either of his planeswalkers it seemed wasteful to use it against O stone and Staff of Dom when Pithing Needle was more efficient.

Fifth round was against Fling-A-Tog affinity. I proceeded to pound the deck with Wastelands and creature control the first round and beat in with Jitte'd faerie tokens FTW. Second round I boarded in Spinning Darkness again. Once again Spinning Darkness competed with Therapy and Scrying for use of my yard cards and became an unplayable burden as not enough black cards were hitting my yard. I kept the game controlled but died to a 12 point flung atog a turn or 2 before swinging for lethal. 3rd round I was able to draw some better control and resolve Persecutor along with Knighthawk. I steadily beat him into the negatives and was able to pull out a win on turn 4 of the 5 turn limit after time was called.

Good stuff:

-Gate to Phyrexia was pretty much amazing and I wish I'd run 3 copies. Only drew once though so more testing may be in order.
-Hymn to Tourach almost proved it should be maindecked with the kind of advantages it gave in the MBC and Thopter/Sword matches.
-Bitterblossom was never really a terrible draw and definitely came to the rescue more than once
-Jitte was teh ph34red and won a few by itself
-Knighthawk was beast and I was never sad to see him in my hand. The only issue is that he seemed to get locked into standstills with my opponents bigger guys where they refused to swing making me unable to utilize the life gain feature.
-Persecutor was amazing, except for that one game where my deck decided to go environmentalist for 6 turns and give back to nature instead of drawing useful cards, but that was a bit of a statistical outlier.
-Faerie Macabre did some amazing things and would've been more amazing if I'd gotten my timing down a little better/actually read some of the cards my opponent was playing : - P

Bad stuff:

-Disk was highly ineffective and most likely needs to be replaced with Oblivion Stone which comes out a little quicker and still pops turn 5 just like disk, but can actually hit those damn planeswalkers.
-Spinning Darkness- competed too much with my other yard manipulation cards and actually lost me games by being slow and too often dead. IMO needs to be cut for something a little faster.
- Innocent Blood definitely did not shine as everytime I drew the damn thing my opponent had something like Matron or Arcbound Worker on the board and I had something like Knighthawk or a Persecutor I didn't want to sac or I had tokens but exchanging a token for a Matron didn't really seem worthwhile. Granted I barely seemed to draw this card for some reason but it didn't seem to fit in well due to a lack of higher quality creatures on my opponents end that I could hit. Not saying it needs to be cut, just that it ended up being really disappointing and needed to be paired with more spot removal.
-Bokuka Bog- I...HATE...THIS....CARD. I had one copy and I literally drew it about 80% of the time. Every time I drew it, it was useless and in some cases really messed up my land drops. I suppose if your meta is 43 land heavy it might be worth it but in a mixed meta this card is GARBAGE. Cut.

I found myself never looking back on cutting deathmark but this is due to my meta containing at best 1 Zoo/Survival and maybe 1-2 elf decks so it was really a meta call.

Smother was good enough and didn't really suck or shine.

Scrying was useful about 70% of the time but I kept drawing it at awkward times, like turn 2, when I really needed more removal or discard.

My addition of a 4th Therapy was due to my disbelief that this deck has a good matchup against Belcher or Ad Nauseum. I'm probably a little too paranoid about turn 1 wins but I've played Belcher enough to know that if you don't do something your first turn against it you're pretty much screwed and relying on 4 Duress and 3 Cabal Therapy(which you have a 50/50 or worse chance of using effectively) just wasn't that appealing. I really wanted to toss in Mindbreak trap but couldn't find stuff to cut and didn't have an extra set (my girlfriend was running my set in another deck).

All in all I do like how the deck plays but it needs a little more tweaking for my meta. Probably cutting that extra Therapy and possibly scrying in favor of something else. Also Bojuka Bog, may it burn in hell, may end up becoming a swamp or a plains or temple of the false god or something that isn't Bojuka Bog .

I'll go ahead and weigh in on Inquisition of Kozilek quick. I don't like it. The point of discard is to hit cards that your opponent is comboing off with and since it can't hit Tendrils, Ad Nauseum, Empty the Warrens, Belcher, Dream Halls, Conflux, Natural Order, Replenish or other relevant cards like Force of Will, Smokestack, Fireblast, Fact or Fiction, Planeswalkers (minus Jace Belern), Wrath, Tombstalker, Ringleader, Siege-Gang, Kiki-Jiki, or Damnation it seems terrible to me. Too limited for what the purpose of discard is supposed to be and definitely NOT a good replacement for Duress. I'm not a fan of opening up with that card against belcher and not being able to remove their win condition.

I probably won't be playing this guy for a little bit but I will try tweaking it and I will probably run it again in a month or so. Let me know what you think of this report in the meantime and if you have any suggestions for what to try over Spinning Darkness and what your opinion on O Stone vs. Disk is. Thanks for reading!

[1maarten1]

This is the latest list i saw from you Hollywood:

// Lands
16 [A] Swamp
4 [TE] Wasteland
2 [WWK] Bojuka Bog

// Creatures
4 [WWK] Abyssal Persecutor
4 [ZEN] Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 [RAV] Dark Confidant
3 [SHM] Faerie Macabre
4 [ZEN] Vampire Nighthawk

// Spells
3 [JU] Cabal Therapy
3 [CS] Deathmark
4 [OD] Innocent Blood
3 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
4 [US] Duress
2 [MOR] Bitterblossom

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 3 [WL] Spinning Darkness
SB: 3 [B] Nevinyrral's Disk
SB: 4 [FE] Hymn to Tourach
SB: 3 [ZEN] Sadistic Sacrament

Is this still the same? I think the Bojuka bogs have changed right? Maybe its possible to test the 3-3-3 split, where you cut 2 bogs and 1 duress, and add 3 of the 'new' duresses. I like the sb btw! I think i might be building this deck soon! :). I'll start testing it asap, and let you know my results!

[Mystical_Jackass]

Personally, I'd go:

+4 Dystopia (Zoo, Enchantress, Aggro Loam ... elves, soldiers, white stax, etc.)
+4 Engineered Plague (Tribal)

I see why you'd run them... but I think I'd just take out the sacraments and disks, either too slow or don't do enough imo.
Plague is sooo good against tribal, and Dystopia's never let me down when it comes out against some of the decks I've mentioned, it'll single handedly win those matches sometimes.

[1maarten1]

Personally, I'd go:

+4 Dystopia (Zoo, Enchantress, Aggro Loam ... elves, soldiers, white stax, etc.)
+4 Engineered Plague (Tribal)

I see why you'd run them... but I think I'd just take out the sacraments and disks, either too slow or don't do enough imo.
Plague is sooo good against tribal, and Dystopia's never let me down when it comes out against some of the decks I've mentioned, it'll single handedly win those matches sometimes.

THose are SB cards? At least i suppose they are... Im looking for MD cards :)

~Maarten

[ShiftyKapree]

I've currently been toying around with the deck myself and found it to very interesting. Here's my list and tell me what you think of it.
19 lands:
8 fetchs
4 Wasteland
7 Swamp

Creatures
4x Dark Confident
4x Vampire Nighthawk
4x Gatekeeper Of Malakir
4x Faerie Macabre
4x Nantuko Shade
3x Tombstalker

Spells
4x Dark Ritual
4x Duress
4x Diabolic Edict
4x Hymn To Tourach
2x Umezawa's Jitte

I think the deck handles fine against the aggro match. Hymn to Tourach def eat's peoples hands away. I thought about cutting 2 fetches for more basic land but I am still up in the air about it. SB is being worked on.

[Captain Hammer]

I think this deck would be just about perfect if it simply played Smother instead of a narrow card like Deathmark that is completely useless in tons of matchups.

There is a grand total of one card that Deathmark hits that Smother can't. Baneslayer Angel, which barely sees any play in legacy anyways.

Where as, I can list 50 different legacy played creatures that Smother hits that Deathmark can't, and hits at instant speed at that. Decks like Goblins and Merfolk simply laugh at Deathmark.

Also Inquisition of Kozilek>>Duress. Being able to hit Tarmogoyfs, Lackeys and such is good. Where as Duress gives you very narrow options on what it can hit against tons of matchups, and against goblins, Duress is straight up dead. With your wastelands, there was little chance your opponent was going to be able to cast cards with cc higher than 4 anyways.

Basically, I think Hollywood should update his OP's list to this, and then the deck would be perfect...

//Creatures
[4x] Dark Confidant
[4x] Abyssal Persecutor
[4x] Gatekeeper of Malikir
[3x] Faerie Macabre
[4x] Vampire Nighthawk

//Spells
[4x] Innocent Blood
[3x] Smother
[4x] Inquisition of Kozilek
[4x] Wasteland
[3x] Cabal Therapy

//Artifacts and Enchantments
[3x] Bitterblossom
[3x] Umezawa's Jitte

//Mana
[16x] Swamp
[1x] Bojuka Bog

I'm also a HUGE fan of Hymn to Tourach and would love to see that card in the list somewhere, perhaps in place of a Jitte, a Bitterblossom, a Cabal Therapy and/or a Vampire Nighthawk.

[Chubu!]

@ Captain Hammer:

If you're happy with your list, then run with it. Seems like quite a playable list to me.

Inquisition of Kozilek>>Duress

I'd call this meta-dependent. There's already a thread talking about Inquisition vs. Duress vs. Thoughtseize on the forum, so I won't go into what-hits-what here, but I'm sticking with Duress. Recently, I learned just how good Duress can be game 2 vs. Blue, when one may likely see Misdirection out of the board. Countertop (w/ New Jace), Reanimator, and Merfolk all see play in my local meta, and I like going in to game 2 with 2 discard cards (Duress, Therapy) that don't put me at risk if my opponent responds with Misdirection. I agree that Inquisition hits more cards than Duress, the obvious ones being creature cards, but I choose to rely on my removal to take care of the creatures. Still, I don't think Inquisition is a "wrong" choice.

I'm also a HUGE fan of Hymn to Tourach and would love to see that card in the list somewhere, perhaps in place of a Jitte, a Cabal Therapy and a Bitterblossom.

I'd love to maindeck it, too, but can't decide what to cut. The most common question I get, when people look at my deck, is "Why isn't this (Hymn) in the main?"

Also of note, the following are "problem cards" that I see quite a bit:

Bitterblossom
Humility
Planeswalkers
Umezawa's Jitte
Iona (duh...)
Counterbalance/Top

There are more, but those come to mind first, and represent big headaches for me when they stick.

My current list, for reference:

18 Swamp
4 Wasteland

4 Dark Confidant
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Faerie Macabre
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Abyssal Persecutor

4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Innocent Blood
4 Smother
1 Skeletal Scrying

3 Umezawa's Jitte

SB:
3 Bitterblossom
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sadistic Sacrament

[bakofried]

@Hollywood:
I'm sorry, I can't remember if someone has mentioned it or not, but have you tried a single copy of Volrath's Stronghold?

[Kangaxx]

Hey Hollywood. At first I didn't want to go public with this tech but I figured I couldn't afford tabernacles anyways so I said screw it. ;)

Here's a list that utilizes The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale which I find surprising that no one has ever mentioned this card. It not only allows you to sac Persecutor to end the game during your upkeep, but Confidants as well, as well as do all the nasty stuff, well, that Tabernacles do. Here's my tech that I've been winning with.

UB The Cathedral

// Lands
3 [LG] The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
2 [BD] Island (3)
4 [P3] Swamp (2)
1 [PLC] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 [U] Underground Sea
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [TE] Wasteland

// Creatures
4 [RAV] Dark Confidant
3 [WWK] Abyssal Persecutor
3 [ZEN] Gatekeeper of Malakir

// Spells
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
2 [DS] Sword of Light and Shadow
1 [FD] Crucible of Worlds
3 [SC] Stifle
4 [U] Sinkhole
3 [BRB] Dark Ritual
4 [FNM] Cabal Therapy
4 [LRW] Thoughtseize
2 [FNM] Brainstorm
3 [5E] Zur's Weirding

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
SB: 4 [TE] Propaganda
SB: 4 [A] Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 4 [MM] Unmask

Basically I implemented stuff to support Tabernacles, mana denial and such. In the form of Stifles, Sinkholes and Wastelands. I've always had a fetish for Zur's Weirding and mana denial happens to work great with the card. The idea actually started out as a Zur's Weirding deck and turned into this. It also has alot of cute tricks like Cabal Therapy with Wierding. SoLaS and Jitte offset the life loss from Wierding, etc. as well as stall the game with life gain while digging for a way to sac Persecutor. The rest of the deck is just pretty standard stuff, that I don't have the time or effort to explain.

Well, there it is. I didn't want to go public with this tech, but I figured I'd share since I'm probably never going to get it built IRL becuase I have alot of other cooler decks I'm working on. =P

[Cavius The Great]

Hollywood, i always liked your decks, but why aren't u splashing green for Goyf? I mean, he's really good.

[bakofried]

What's your latest version of the deck?

[Jon Stewart]

I've been playing various versions of black aggro decks for what seems like a lifetime now. I think the list in the OP is solid with just three simple revisions...

1.) Up the land count, esp the black mana source count. 20 land (4 Wasteland) is too low for a deck whose most reliable threat has a casting cost of 4, and whose best tempo threat has a casting cost of BBB (well BB + Kicker B). 22 is the bare minimum.

2.) Replace Deathmark with a card that's not dead against Merfolk and Goblins, like Doom Blade or Diabolic Edict, or if it must be 1cc, then Ghastly Demise is a solid option, even Vendetta isn't a bad call. The bonus with Edict is that you can even use it on yourself to get rid of Persecutor.

3.) Make room for Hymn to Tourach somewhere. That card wins me so many games singlehandedly. It doesn't matter who the opponent is. Robbing them of two of their higher casting cost cards at random completely screws up their game plan, virtually every single time. At the very least, it forces them to prematurely expend their Force of Will or Daze, almost every time. Plus, this deck desperately needs more things it can cast on turn 2.

Maybe something like this...

18 Swamp
4 Wasteland

4 Dark Confidant
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Abyssal Persecutor
2 Fairie Macabre

4 Inquisition/Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Innocent Blood
3 Diabolic Edict/Doom Blade
1 Skeletal Scrying

2 Umezawa's Jitte

SB:
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Fairie Macabre
2 Bitterblossom
3 Deathmark
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Sadistic Sacrament

I'm not sold on Sadistic Sacrament yet, but a lot of people who's opinions I respect seem to play the card in their sideboards.

[KaraZorEl]

I was going through my stuff today, and I found a card that might work well with this deck.

Accursed Centaur

1x Black
2/2
-When Accursed Centaur comes into play, sacrifice a creature.

[Mystical_Jackass]

Innocent blood and Therapy are in the deck, how does a one-drop with a drawback like that benefit the deck? That's a bad card man, take Lacerator any day over that card or simply play Fleshbag instead at that point.
Careful about including tabernacle and all the other fun stuff; the mana base was always solid running monos which is one of the few reasons not to splash green but your just opening yourself for more waste hate.

@Jon Stewart

Replace Deathmark... Doom Blade or Diabolic Edict, or if it must be 1cc, then Ghastly Demise is a solid option, even Vendetta

Make room for Hymn to Tourach somewhere

Agreed. Hymn is so good it's hard to see a mono black aggro deck not using it. Deathmark can't be maindeck imo, your taking a gamble that you'll even be able to use it, Engineered Plague is the same way, it's so good against some decks but as much as you get caught up thinking of all the areas it excels, people tend to midigate all the matchups its dead ya know.

[Chubu!]

The list I have been testing lately:

19 Swamp
3 Wasteland

4 Innocent Blood
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Cabal Therapy

4 Smother
3 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Confidant
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Umezawa's Jitte

4 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Faerie Macabre

4 Abyssal Persecutor

SB:
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Sadistic Sacrament
3 Bitterblossom
3 Engineered Plague
1 Hymn to Tourach

The board is based on my local meta, which includes several decks vs. which Engineered Plague is a nice choice, and multiple Graveyard-dependent decks. (Pox, Reanimator, Survival, etc...) Combo is present, but, as luck would have it, I have yet to face a Belcher or Storm player.

Some thoughts that have led me to this build:

22 mana sources - I don't like going below this number. I cut a Wasteland for a Swamp to make Gatekeepers come down that much easier. Personal choice.

18 threats - This is a minimum. I say 'threat' instead of 'creature' to include Bitterblossom in this number, for those that run it maindeck. Less than 18 started to feel anemic to me during testing, especially with the prevalence of removal in the current meta. In fact, this is why Hymn is only a 3-of, instead of a 4-of.

So far, Inquisition is doing well in testing. I am nervous about opening up to Misdirection, games 2 and 3, but I'll go with it for now. I am considering making room in the board for at least 3 Duress, to account for this. Therapy, while great, was the 1-drop I least wanted to see, so I cut one to make room for Hymns.

[Wyrath the Great]

I've been beaten by Reanimator time after time (thanks to Iona), so I decided to try a splash. This is the two lists that I have been working on (with red and white as splash for the respective lists):

BR (Gateless) The Gate

4 Grim Lavamancer
3 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Dark Confidant
3 Faerie Macabre
18

1 Dead and Gone
4 Innocent Blood
2 Burning Wish
2Terminate
4 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Lightning Bolt
21

3 Wasteland
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Badlands
2 Mountain
7 Swamp
21

SB:
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Dead and Gone
1 Meltdown
1 Perish
1 Reanimate
1 Earthquake
1 Decompose
1 Damnation/Breath of Darigaaz /Consuming Vapors/Thought Hemorrhage/Ruination/Firespout/Anarchy/Hull Breach (add a Bayou to the list instead of a Swamp)/????

BW (Gateless) The Gate

3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Faerie Macabre
16

3 Vindicate
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Bitterblossom
4 Duress
3 Phyrexian Arena
2 Cabal Therapy
3 Innocent Blood
23

4 BW fetch
4 Scrubland
1 Karakas
3 Wasteland
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
2 Plains
6 Swamp
21

SB:
3 Engineered Plague
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Mask of Memory/Lightning Greaves/Specter’s Shroud or Unscythe, Killer of Kings (lulz)

As I play on MTGO exclusively the decks to beat are the following (so please base your (hopefully) constructive criticism on that):

1. Reanimator
2. Death and Taxes
3. ANT
4. Goblins
5. Ichorid

For a better overview of the online "meta" see this article:

http://puremtgo.com/articles/look-le...4-month-review

Any feedback would be most welcome.

[jrsthethird]

BW (Gateless) The Gate

3 Tidehollow Sculler
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Faerie Macabre
16

3 Vindicate
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Bitterblossom
4 Duress
3 Phyrexian Arena
2 Cabal Therapy
3 Innocent Blood
23

4 BW fetch
4 Scrubland
1 Karakas
3 Wasteland
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
2 Plains
6 Swamp
21

SB:
3 Engineered Plague
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Mask of Memory/Lightning Greaves/Specter’s Shroud or Unscythe, Killer of Kings (lulz)

How has this been working for you? I'm not going to bother reading the article, but I think it's well-placed in that meta, based on the decks you listed. I have a similar build and one of my friends plays Reanimator, I think I have about 70% matchup against him. I've played against it in tournaments and went 2-1 (lost a game 3 to a turn 1 Inkwell =/). Also I think the deck works pretty well against combo (I beat Dredge and ANT at a 100+ tournament last month). Here's my list:

22 Lands
4 Scrubland
4 Marsh Flats
7 Swamp
3 Plains
4 Wasteland

16 Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
3 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Abyssal Persecutor
3 Tidehollow Sculler

4 Equipment
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Light and Shadow

18 Spells
3 Bitterblossom
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Vindicate
3 Duress

Sideboard
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Lightning Greaves
2 Innocent Blood
2 Perish

Not sure on the board, I see more Lands than I'm comfortable with and Greaves is good there, but I'm not sure if Perish is overkill or not. Chalice doesn't seem good because we run a pretty spread out curve from 1-4 so playing it for 0 seems good against ANT but at 1 it shuts off our discard. Also, why Arena instead of Bob? Afraid of taking 4? hahah it's not that bad! SOLS, Nighthawk, and Jitte are your friend (especially SOLS on Nighthawk, gain 7 when attacking?), and he's easy enough to get rid of when you're low on life.