B/G Gamekeeper

I've been fiddling with this for a while now, not sure if it's any good or not yet, but it seems to be doing alright. The idea isn't new, I actually based this list off of an old archived decklist here. Anyways, here's the deck, and some discussion afterwards.

3 Gamekeeper
1 Emrakul
1 Griselbrand
1 Dragon Breath

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Living Wish
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Unmask
2 Duress
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Night's Whisper


4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
2 Chrome Mox
18 Lands

SB
1 Gamekeeper
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Wasteland
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kjeldoran Dead
1 Shriekmaw
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Cavern of Souls
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3 Toxic Deluge

Super rough draft, I'm not much of a brewer. Basic idea is to land Gamekeeper, kill it, and nab Emrakul or Griselbrand, Vintage Oath style. Is this any better than just playing Sneak and Show? I don't know, but casting Dark Ritual is fun, and so is Living Wish. There's the possibility of going for a more midrange style rather than combo, but I haven't tested that very much. Any input on this idea, or is this idea doomed from the start?

There are better lists in The Gate thread, cards like Unmask don't fit at all and you're missing the more cost efficient outlets for Gamekeeper like that 1 mana creature removal card. GSZ is just a really bad tutor and I think the Auriok version might be better just because of DRS.

Fun old school combo deck tho.

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Originally Posted by bigbobbobber

Is this any better than just playing Sneak and Show? I don't know, but casting Dark Ritual is fun, and so is Living Wish. There's the possibility of going for a more midrange style rather than combo, but I haven't tested that very much. Any input on this idea, or is this idea doomed from the start?

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It is objectively worse than Sneak and Show. There's a piece of the interaction, that Gamekeeper must remain in the graveyard, that makes the effect particularly vulnerable to Deathrite Shaman.

Despite that, it is subjectively more fun than Sneak and Show. I've been itching to break out Gamekeeper again, myself.

Good luck!

To answer the question as to why play this instead of Sneak and Show, because this deck is packed to the gill with discard spells to screw with your opponents game plan more than just 4 FoW ever could, and because it's a blast.

You said you based your list based on an old archived list. I was trying to find what list you based it off of and couldn't. I did find the below list which seems much better tuned than the list you based the OP on.

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...-Sun-s-Zenith/

I think you would be better off with the above list as a starting point, but swap out the Thoughtseize for Collective Brutality because that card is tailor made for gamekeeper (lets you pick away a FoW, discard the Emrakul in your hand and kill your Gamekeeper or opposing shamans or oozes as a bonus) and play a couple of Beast Within because it can blow up Karakas and Ensnaring Bridge and Jace and can even be used to kill your own Gamekeeper in a pinch to net you a 3/3 in the process so Liliana can't make you sac your Emrakul.

This is what I am thinking...

Maindeck:
3 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Innocent Blood
4 Collective Brutality

4 Dark Ritual
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Beast Within

2 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Gamekeeper
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Living Wish

4 Ancient Tomb
4 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Crystal Vein

Sideboard:
1 Gamekeeper
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Shriekmaw
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Eternal Witness
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Kjeldoran Dead
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Xantid Swarm
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Wasteland
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Karakas
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Crystal Vein

Obviously, the sideboard is too big, but not sure which six cards should get booted.

You can playtest this list here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gamekeeper/

FYI. This was the thread I created twelve years ago when I constructed the original version of the deck:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...-Play-the-Game

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Originally Posted by Michael Keller

FYI. This was the thread I created twelve years ago when I constructed the original version of the deck:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...-Play-the-Game

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That's the one I read and got inspired from. So, any hope for this archetype being competitive again? What problems led it to being dropped? What pieces was it missing, and do we have any of them in newer sets now?

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Originally Posted by bigbobbobber

That's the one I read and got inspired from. So, any hope for this archetype being competitive again? What problems led it to being dropped? What pieces was it missing, and do we have any of them in newer sets now?

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Gets hosed by too much hate, isn't fast enough to race or resilient enough to power through.

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Originally Posted by lavafrogg

Gets hosed by too much hate, isn't fast enough to race or resilient enough to power through.

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It's not that bad, the biggest issue was that the graveyard hate improved while the deck's consistency didn't and Show&Tell and Sneak Attack or Reanimate and Exhume became more effective delivery systems as the creatures became more powerful.

I think the Auriok Salvagers version of the deck could be alright, you get an alternative combo route and LED to speed up the combo as well as a better tutor. I mean people try to get Auriok Salvagers to work by itself, Gamekeeper can't be that bad of a seconday engine with updates like Gitaxian Probe and Collective Brutality.You could probably take games off of control, aggro control and aggro with it but you just bin the other unfair match ups.

I think people called that deck Golden Grahams?

Unless rules have changed, Dragon Breath will not work with Gamekeeper.

Because of how Gamekeeper is worded,

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Put that card onto the battlefield and put all other cards revealed this way into your graveyard.

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...there are two separate actions occurring. Put the creature on the battlefield and put the rest in the graveyard. The creature will already be on the battlefield before Dragon Breath is in the 'yard.

This is different from Oath of Druids, where it is all one action

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... that player puts that card onto the battlefield and all other cards revealed this way into his or her graveyard.

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Also, this deck could use Collective Brutality. Primarily because it kills DRS, and gets Emrakul out of your hand.

I do enjoy tier 3 combo more than most. Brew away.

Yeah, it's a little dated at this point. It's not completely unplayable; a lot of the supporting cast can still pack a punch in Legacy (Therapy, Hymn, Innocent Blood which hits True-Name, Deed, etc.). The key is getting the triggered ability to resolve without getting hosed by cards like Surgical Extraction and Deathrite Shaman which can exile the Gamekeeper so the ability can't resolve.

The deck used to just grind out games playing like a Rock variant and win out of nowhere. I think it's still slightly viable for the following reasons:

1. There will likely be a majority of players you will get free wins off of without knowing what you're doing or how the Gamekeeper ability works. It's not a crutch to lean on, but it's certainly going to be the case at some point in your matches.
2. There are still cards in this version of the deck that can draw the game out and allow for a competitive match.
3. Karakas is a pain, but Progenitus against a deck like Death and Taxes can still win games.
4. The deck can do a number on Delver decks with all of the removal it has, but still would need to probably combo to win.
5. Cavern of Souls was printed, so you can push the Gamekeeper through at minimum against conditional counters.

I still don't think it's super-competitive, but like others have said it's somewhat Tier-3 viable.