Bloodghast Control (standard deck experiment 626)

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 2^nd 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..