I've solved the Planeswalker issues. Splashing blue is for weaklings. Buewhahahaha.

omg this look n a s t y , i love it! have you done any testing with it?

RETURN OF THE BLACK SUMMER

Kizmetto Yeah, I handed it to a streamer. He went like 5 or 6 games with 0 losses. He got a lot of follows as a result. I'll say this: this is a meta deck in the "pro" groups I've been chatting with, lol. A lot of people want this deck tech on lockdown and hush-hush. I have to say though; this deck was pretty obvious to anyone who gave two damns to look and think. I knew Lich's Mastery by default was the best card in the entire damn expansion set when it leaked in February. Nobody even thought about it more than once.

I'm an old school player though. I was there for THE BLACK SUMMER OF 1996. Necropotence was the king of infinite card draw; and an army of black legions swept across the lands and dominated the scene. It was not only intense, but overwhelming. I'm in my late 30s, came back to the game explicitly for my buds and this one card. When Richard Garfield outed that he had made it himself, and based it off of the classic Lich on his Facebook page, I instantly knew it was not only busted - but now all but confirmed to be the most powerful card in the set. Why? Because he designed it. Richard is a smart guy, and some people don't know how smart. He's a mathematician. So if you give a brilliant mind a design board and say make me some art; he'll hand you back a damn magnum opus. I know that much. I miss him, and hope he comes back for more design, but I got one last shot at making a black summer happen again.

Now this year, in this time, in 2018, we'll see if it happens. I hope it does. If it does, I'll be right. And I can feel it my bones that Lich's Mastery will be with us for ages, and might even get banned at some point. My fuck's given? None. I've been working with the card building shitloads of decks with it, testing things out. I know this one for sure works. Different variants will arise, and some will do it with different colors, but know this: it is busted as fuck.

The same thing happened in 1996. People looked at Necropotence as a shit card and put it at $1.00 a piece. Then it happened. One man. Leon Lindbck. One deck. He walked out of that tournament like a damn undead lord of the slaughter. History will repeat itself. I know that. Over the span of epochs, time is a flat circle and Lich's Mastery is Lich and Necropotence's love child all grown up.

Time Jump 25 years ago...

(http://oldschool-mtg.blogspot.com/2017/07/newschool-stories-from-black-summer.html)

Leon Lindback, Semifinalist

Lindbck, a 20-year-old electrical engineering student from Stockholm, Sweden, played an all-black speed/discard deck. Most noticeable in his deck were four Necropotences which Lindbck would play early to continually fill up his hand.

Leon Lindback's, Semifinalist Deck from 1995

• Lands (23)
• 2 Ebon Stronghold
• 4 Strip Mine
• 17 Swamp

• Artifacts (7)

• 1 Ivory Tower
• 1 Jalum Tome
• 2 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 2 Serrated Arrows

• 1 Zuran Orb

• Creature (11)

• 4 Hypnotic Specter
• 3 Knight of Stromgald

• 4 Order of the Ebon Hand

• OtherSpells (19)

• 1 Dance of the Dead
• 1 Dark Banishing
• 4 Dark Ritual
• 4 Drain Life
• 4 Hymn to Tourach
• 4 Necropotence

• 1 Soul Burn

• Sideboard (15)

• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Safe Haven
• 1 Apocalypse Chime
• 1 Feldon's Cane
• 1 Jalum Tome
• 1 Meekstone
• 2 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 3 The Rack
• 1 Serrated Arrows
• 1 Ashes to Ashes
• 1 Stromgald Cabal
• 1 Torture

Thems were the days boys!! The days of the DARKNESS. AND NOW WE GET TO PLAY IN THE LIGHT AGAIN!!!

You'll also note that Order of the Ebon Hand and Knight of Stromgald are the parents of Knight of Malice. Anyone who does not like it is either a fool, or doesn't remember the power of those two knights making babies.

The white counterpart Order of Leitbur and Order of the White Shield are the parents of the Knight of Grace I'm almost certain as well.

We'll see if the White/Green "Go Wide" strategies can hold the Darkness this time. I assure you; I do not think so. And this little group of Gatewatch planeswalker decks. I doubt they'll be able to succeed over the long term. Bannings will happen. Mark my words. But hey, at least we'll get 90 days of greatness.

If no one's playing it when there are already competitive tournaments on mtggoldfish it's probably not broken... it seems like most cool ideas die to fairly boring ones, sorry...

InfuriatedBrute we'll see. In time. People were, and already are on Second Sun mono-white. I just perverted it. MTG Goldfish is a piss poor way to predict the future by the way. I assure you over the last 25 years it took a big event, or tourney, with someone showing up and sticking a deck out to make people rush to it.

I'm ancient. The patterns do not lie. Everything moves in circles. This circle is coming again.

Can you explain the idea behind Deadlock Trap and Dynavolt Tower?

Firelord of course. It has to do with the future to come. It is not in the meta now; but will be. In this future there will be a deck full of Planeswalkers. You will need to halt them. This is how. They will also control; like you. They will also remove; like you. They will also have help; like you. What they will not have is the future; like you. In this future you will use these two items to ensnare and enfeeble them with all you do. They cannot hope to control it and The Immortal Sun and your Approach of the Second Sun and your other help. These two pieces which also reside on your sideboard will prevent them from being able to name or remove all of your future. Just as the other pieces lay; so to will your victory.

For now they seem like charms. For now they look silly. But when the time comes you will realize why yes, they cannot possibly cope with all of the potential threats as a whole and then you will consume them each one pawn at a time.

Youve convinced me! im gonna buy these pieces and give it a while, it feels like a fun balance of control and gimmick, but in a good way. in the way no one will see coming.

There is also one more bit of the future I can give you: Urza.

They will use his blast against you again, and maybe a few times, or try to. Make head that one off at the pass before turn five.

+1 for the Soundgarden reference. Heres to hoping the combo works out!

Opinions on these changes?

Instant (13)

• 3x Cast Down
• 3x Fatal Push
• 2x Renewed Faith
• 2x Sanguine Sacrament
• 1x Settle the Wreckage
• 2x Vraska's Contempt

Sorcery (9)

• 2x Approach of the Second Sun
• 3x Fumigate
• 4x Mastermind's Acquisition

Enchantment (9)

• 3x Authority of the Consuls
• 2x Cast Out
• 1x Lich's Mastery
• 3x Seal Away

Land (24)

• 4x Concealed Courtyard
• 4x Isolated Chapel
• 8x Plains
• 8x Swamp

Artifact (5)

• 2x Deadlock Trap
• 2x Dynavolt Tower
• 1x The Immortal Sun

Sideboard (15)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Gideon's Intervention
• 2x Invoke the Divine
• 1x Ixalan's Binding
• 4x Knight of Grace
• 2x Lost Legacy
• 2x Sorcerous Spyglass
• 2x Vraska's Contempt

Firelord those changes would work too. I added two Gideons to the main deck and 2 in the board so that might be overkill. I am vicious though. I love stripping my opponents to their core sometimes. I am intrigued by the random knights. I suppose just for flavor? Itll still work I think lol. But the changes are not so big because you can slide cards from board to deck thanks to Mastermind.

The knights are in because there's a lot of mono-black aggro where I play.

Firelord that makes sense; if everyone is playing monoblack (aggro) then you're about to remove their asses and wear it as a hat.

This deck does seem to suffer horrible against other control decks. Especially if they play Rivers rebuke. One of few cards that affect Lich's mastery

dreas94 Thats why I said that in my write up and you must use Lost Legacy and Gideon's Intervention to stop that. Its your only way out on certain control decks and Superfriends. Sorcerous Spyglass also shuts down planeswalkers. Read my write up instead of ignoring reality.

Im not gonna sugarcoat it; we must stop the Gatewatch from completely destroying Standard. The only way to do that is to get hard in the paint on them and get very fucking evil.

If youre smart, you can beat them. If youre not, youre gonna lose to Hour of Revelation, Urza's Ruinous Blast, and River's Rebuke. You get those cards named along with Planeswalkers and bait out those counterspells and youll survive.

Oath of Teferi also might be worth naming bc it is what empowers the Gatewatch into insane power levels. A game one naming of that could set the tone.

I must say, I love this deck! Preciously the direction I wanted to take with this new set that has dropped...

+1 upvote indeed!

StAsmodeus glad to help. Spread the word: we have a Gatewatch to kill!

I knew this deck was coming, and it seems to work and be competitive, but...its so damn BORING! Superfriends is gonna be Super expensive, but also competitive. Maybe a Vampire or Knights tribal with sideboard to go into control would be more fun for me but still be able to deal with Teferi and Karn. +1 and good luck!

A thought accrued... Perhaps a couple Sphinx’s Decree could be in the Maybeboard\Sideboard? Since Sorcerous Spyglass lets you see the hand once, you may be able to anticipate when you don't want them casting any instant or sorceries. Just a thought...