Have you ever seen a modern deck running Tavern Swindler?
Have you ever seen it paired with Vizkopa Guildmage?
instant speed: Pay 3 mana, lose 3 life - opponent loses 3 life. Then flip a coin - if you win, you gain 6 life and opponent loses 6 life.
What if you added more instant timed lifegain to hurt them:
Gonti's Machinations and Children of Korlis and Tainted Sigil?
Throw in ways of spending life that assemble/recurr the combo: Pain's Reward, Spoils of the Vault, - maybe Noxious Revival
Hurt them with Athreos, God of Passage and Kambal, Consul of Allocation
Add Aether Vial to flash in the combo pieces as needed.
Basic Combo:
spend life/take damage then trigger Vizkopa Guildmage then flash in and trigger Children of Korlis or trigger Tainted Sigil. Note that you will try to trigger this multiple times via recursion. This is often best done in the opponent's turn 4-5 after they attack for damage.
Note that you can spend life easily with Pain's Reward to draw in your turn, or Spoils of the Vault as an instant speed tutor for a Children of Korlis, and possibly recur Children with an Aether Vial. This is potentiated by Athreos, God of Passage.
A trigger of Vizkopa Guildmage plus a single Gonti's Machinations will heal you 3 and hurt them 6 at instant speed. It's effortless to charge Gonti's - leave it in play until you trigger a Vizkopa - it will save up energy for further Machinations.
A trigger of Tavern Swindler + Vizkopa Guildmage
will hurt you 3, then 50% of the time will heal you 6 and hurt them 6 . Trigger a Children of Korlis afterwards to heal 3 and hurt them 3 more, or trigger your Tainted Sigil to heal 3 or 9 and hurt them 3 or 9. When possible, choose to save your sigil for if you won the flip - you gain total 12 life and deal a game ending total 15 damage at instant speed for 3 mana.
You can use Spoils of the Vault to tutor instantly for a Children of Korlis, then cast or Vial it in to regain all life lost. Similarly you can heal a big bid from Pain's Reward - consider starting a bid at 10+ - it's unlikely your foe will bid >10. Both are used to achieve spectacular damage with a Viskopa trigger and possibly end game. Triggering more than one children/sigil can see you gain 30+ life. Careful you don't kill yourself - and don't get too greedy, bid 17 life, and die to a bolt.
Choose to crack a fetch/shock and use Dismember in the turn you want to use the Vizkopa Guildmage + Children of Korlis or Tainted Sigil (if you have sufficient life buffer).
Remember that you can Vial in a Vizkopa Guildmage and trigger it's second ability instantly. This is rather brutal with a Kambal, Consul of Allocation trigger on the stack... then use your gonti/korlis/tainted combo ... any countermagic creates more kambal triggers...
... many of your combo's don't telegraph themselves until its too late...especially game one.
Ghost Quarter can target your own Flagstones of Trokair to double fetch at instant speed for free - bow flagstones for mana first and be very careful of Leonin Arbiter orAven Mindcensor traps from white.
