[Deck] The Gate

As of changes made today:

[4x] Abyssal Persecutor
[4x] Gatekeeper of Malakir
[4x] Dark Confidant
[3x] Vampire Nighthawk

[4x] Inquisition of Kozilek
[4x] Innocent Blood
[2x] Dismember
[3x] Cabal Therapy
[4x] Hymn to Tourach

[3x] Umezawa's Jitte
[2x] Bitterblossom

[2x] Liliana of the Veil

[15x] Swamp
[1x] Bojuka Bog
[1x] Volrath's Stronghold
[4x] Wasteland

//Sideboard

[3x] Spinning Darkness
[2x] Faerie Macabre
[3x] Relic of Progenitus
[3x] Dystopia
[2x] Leyline of the Void
[1x] Soul Spike
[1x] Deathmark

Liliana, by the way, is pretty good against Mystic decks. She hits the Mystic, then starts them discarding. She shuts the door on the equip-to-win idea altogether when she's unanswered. 3 is too many; 2 is good. A subtle point is that a kicked GoM can be Spell Snared; not Liliana. This was relevant against Fae. I believe these changes would have made the matchup 3-3 overall.

The one change I would make is change the IOK's to Thoughtseizes and take out an Innocent Blood for spot removal (Dismember, GffT, Victim of the Night, take your pick). And probably add a third Bitterblossom in the main cutting................I have no idea :(

How did Volrath's Stronghold treat you?

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Originally Posted by IcedNeonFlames

The one change I would make is change the IOK's to Thoughtseizes and take out an Innocent Blood for spot removal (Dismember, GffT, Victim of the Night, take your pick). And probably add a third Bitterblossom in the main cutting................I have no idea :(

How did Volrath's Stronghold treat you?

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Disagree on IoK vs Thoughtseize. IoK covers about 90% of the cards you want to discard. Life is such a vulnerable resource in this deck, we need all the life we can get. Dismember, Bitterblossom and Bob. I don't feel Thoughtseize is the right choice when it's only marginal what other cards you can discard, the -2 life becomes to important.

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Originally Posted by JuzamDjinn

Disagree on IoK vs Thoughtseize. IoK covers about 90% of the cards you want to discard. Life is such a vulnerable resource in this deck, we need all the life we can get. Dismember, Bitterblossom and Bob. I don't feel Thoughtseize is the right choice when it's only marginal what other cards you can discard, the -2 life becomes to important.

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In the gate, you can play duress. Any creature that enters the field won't stay there fore too long with this deck. I'd play duress over IOK

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Originally Posted by JuzamDjinn

Disagree on IoK vs Thoughtseize. IoK covers about 90% of the cards you want to discard. Life is such a vulnerable resource in this deck, we need all the life we can get. Dismember, Bitterblossom and Bob. I don't feel Thoughtseize is the right choice when it's only marginal what other cards you can discard, the -2 life becomes to important.

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Frankly, I think IOK is the worst discard option we can run. It doesn't get rid of Humily, JTMS, Natural Order and Batterskull, all of which are cards that are a bitch to deal with.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JuzamDjinn

Disagree on IoK vs Thoughtseize. IoK covers about 90% of the cards you want to discard. Life is such a vulnerable resource in this deck, we need all the life we can get. Dismember, Bitterblossom and Bob. I don't feel Thoughtseize is the right choice when it's only marginal what other cards you can discard, the -2 life becomes to important.

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I find it odd that somebody named "Juzam Djinn" is knocking a card because it costs you some life.

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Originally Posted by Justin

I find it odd that somebody named "Juzam Djinn" is knocking a card because it costs you some life.

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Funny :)

I have testet Liliana, she's a house. Also Chains of Mephistopheles in the side eats UW Maverick.

What do you think about splash the gate with green or white?

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Originally Posted by maktus

What do you think about splash the gate with green or white?

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Why?

What cards are there in these colors that is better than the cards we have allready got without changing our gameplan?

For white you have Deadguy Ale (B/w Confidant)
For green you have Eva Green

Doublepost (been days, tournament report...)

Played 6 rounds today (4 swiss, top 4, lost in the finals). Won against Burn, NO Bant and Stoneblade in the swiss rounds (1 round bye), won against Burn in the semi, lost against GW Maverick in the finals.


// Lands
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
17 Swamps

// Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
4 Phyrexian Obliterator

// Spells
3 Duress
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Liliana of the Veil

3 Disfigure
2 Dismember

2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bitterblossom

Very happy with maindeck. Will most likely do -1 Phyrexian Obliterator, +1 Liliana of the Veil. Then perhaps -4 Fetchland, +4 Wasteland.

Had alot of different tech in the side, for next tournament I guess it will look like this:

2 Chains of Mephistopheles
4 Perish
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Relic of Progenitus
4 Leyline of the Void

Why no Dystopia in SB? How can you lose to Maverick?

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Originally Posted by dsck

Why no Dystopia in SB? How can you lose to Maverick?

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I played it in the tornament, ånd the one before that. It is always 1 for 1 (Pridemage, Krosan Grip...). Biggest reason I lose to both Maverick and Stoneblade is because of one annoying card: Batterskull.

Perhaps I could fit 3 Gate to Phyrexia for 3 Relic of Progenitus, seems solid.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JuzamDjinn

I played it in the tornament, ånd the one before that. It is always 1 for 1 (Pridemage, Krosan Grip...). Biggest reason I lose to both Maverick and Stoneblade is because of one annoying card: Batterskull.

Perhaps I could fit 3 Gate to Phyrexia for 3 Relic of Progenitus, seems solid.

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You need grave hate in the deck. That is one glaring weakness in the gate.

Blade decks are not that bad because you have tons of removal. You really shouldn't take out relic of prog for gate to phyrexia.

In my board, I would take out my two phyrexian crusader because I'm not scared of zoo. I just want a better matchup against them.

I will take this deck to Frankfurt and t8 the big eternal weekend tournament in January, just saying.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JuzamDjinn

I will take this deck to Frankfurt and t8 the big eternal weekend tournament in January, just saying.

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Good. I look forward to seeing the outcome.

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Originally Posted by JuzamDjinn

I will take this deck to Frankfurt and t8 the big eternal weekend tournament in January, just saying.

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Don't let me down.

I came up with a quite similar idea in the last weeks:

// Lands
16 Swamp
4 Wasteland

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

// Spells
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Hymn to Tourach
2 Liliana of the Veil

3 Innocent Blood
2 Dismember

3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bitterblossom

//Sideboard
3 Dystopia
1 Hymn to Tourach
2 Faerie Macabre
3 Pithing Needle
3 Null Rod
3 Soul Spike


2 Lilianas should be the number of choice. Its hard to fit in a third one and it might me too much anyways.
She can be a real pain for comboplayers because their handsize is permanently reduced to 0 and only SDT can really help them to hide their important cards on the top of their decks.
That can give our threats the time needed to get their things done.

Faerie Macabre: In the last days I found out again how sneaky this little fellow is. Even against Dredge. I tried to put her into the main again but together with Liliana that was a tough job.
With Dredge, Reanimator and Snapcaster around it is often quite nice to have one in hand or at least having a 2/2 flyer with Jitte or just to sac.

Sidenote on Dystopia: Its quite okay if it is removed because Blossom/Jitte will be there to put on some pressure.


There are 3 things that I am concerned about:

1. Combo is back again since MMs exclude and snapcaster-moves are coming up. - What are our best SB possibilities for these decks?

-> Soul Spike?
What about Decks without Ad Nauseam or just stopping at more than 4 Life? [not tested yet, but Hollywood told us his surprising tournament experience with it]

-> Null Rod?
Nice against decks like Belcher where artifacts are real key cards. Against Storm Decks it just disables their artifact mana sources but mana spells still remain and CC2 is often too late. It also cripples Jitte. Not always the perfect fit here.

-> Thorn of Amethyst?
Slows down only some decks, and us too

-> Mindbreak Trap?
What about silence/Orims Chant/just a passive spell in hand that can become discarded?)

-> Extirpate or sad sac seem not right to me either.

-> Chains of Mephistopheles?
What if they have all they need in hand/search for it?

I put the 4th Hymn into the SB to be able to cripple their hand even more after a discardheavy start and hope for Liliana to do her job later.
But being on the draw remains just crucial. Even with a nice discard suite in hand.

What is the right answer?


2. Do you think Macabre main would be playable again?
The drawbacks are not that huge and its effect seems worth the effort in nowadays meta.
Are 4 Faeries enough to stop graveyardhungry decks?
I am thinking about 2 additional Relics SB because 2 faeries main + 2 sided in sometimes might not be enough alone. But maybe its overkill and wastes SB slots.


3. Do you think this list lacks much removal/targeted removal? It might be hard against explosive, creature-heavy decks.

I will however carry the deck to a greater local event in Germany tomorrow. Any comments appreciated.

Regarding Chains of Mephistopheles I feel it's a great card against every deck that draws alot of cards. (Brainstorm, Jace, High Tide decks, Elves combo, Enchantress). But against ANT it does nothing. I'm playing 2 in my side...

I'm going to bring this to a local tournament. What should I have in my sideboard against U/x tempo decks running Snapcasters etc.?

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Originally Posted by Drizzy

I'm going to bring this to a local tournament. What should I have in my sideboard against U/x tempo decks running Snapcasters etc.?

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Faerie Macabre in the side...

With 10-12 maindeck discard, 4-7 maindeck edicts, 2-4 bitterblossom this should be an okay matchup