Ever since vampires became popular, I've been wanting to include bloodghast and gatekeeper of malakir in one of my decks. And since I don't like piloting decks copied from the internet, the vampire theme was out of the picture. However, I already have something in mind for these two and this is what I came up with:
The deck:
// Lands
8 Swamp
4 Island
4 Jwar Isle Refuge
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Crumbling Necropolis
// Creatures
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Bloodghast
4 Kathari Remnant
// Others
3 Soul Manipulation
4 Agony Warp
4 Duress
4 Jace
4 Into the Roil
1 Mind Control
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Mind Control
SB: 4 Countersquall
SB: 3 Infest
SB: 4 Black Knight
SB: 3 Vampire hexmage
Card breakdown:
Bloodghast – one of the win conditions of the deck, supports fleshbag marauders, and protects the sphinx of jwar isle form opponent's gatekeepers and fleshbags.
Gatekeeper of Malakir/Flshbag Marauder – the reason why I played U/B control. No more Stag.
Sphinx of Jwar Isle – the 2nd win condition of the deck in case the opponent is running path to exile.
Kathari Remnant – defensive bloobraid elf, a good defense with card advantage,
Soul Manipulation – it may cost one more black man than essence scatter but it can get back any creature in your yard. It's like countering a creature spell and drawing a card. Also, it's not a liability to kathari remnant's cascade because of its raise dead mode.
Duress – Early disruption. Works well with Into the Roil.
Into the Roil – answers any noncreature permanent that threatens the board... Well, it doesn't actually take care of the threat unless you have a duress in hand, but it can buy you some time.
Jace – the best card drawer in the current standard. I don't see any reason not to include him in the deck.
Mind Control – additional aswer to pro black creatures. Takes care of Baneslayer Angel very well.
The deck is designed to control the board a bit and pressure the opponent at the same time. The singleton mindcontrol in the main deck was a last minute change. My first version only had a couple of mind controls on the sideboard and 3 fleshbag marauders in the main. Then I realized that fleshbags were a bit mediocre without bloodghast, so I cut the number of copies to 2.
I'll post the results of my playtest on my next post. Stay tuned..
