Magic the Gathering (MTG) Tech Talk - Gate Control Deck

With Ravnica Allegiance released, let's look at an unusual deck in Standard.

Gate Control by Drake Sasser

Creature 4
4 Hydroid Krasis

Spell 30
2 Chemister's Insight
4 Circuitous Route
3 Expansion // Explosion
4 Gates Ablaze
4 Growth Spiral
4 Guild Summit
2 Lava Coil
4 Nexus of Fate
3 Wilderness Reclamation

Land 26
3 Azorius Guildgate
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
4 Gruul Guildgate
1 Island
4 Izzet Guildgate
4 Plaza of Harmony
4 Selesnya Guildgate
4 Simic Guildgate

Sideboard 15
3 Archway Angel
2 Carnage Tyrant
4 Gatebreaker Ram
2 Lava Coil
4 Negate

Notice that your manabase is mostly guildgates, this deck archetype revolves around the uses of the guildgates as parts of your engine as a way to gain incremental value such as Guild Summit, Gate Ablaze etc.

This deck is part control & part combo in which is towards the control spectrum.

This deck however is playing mostly lands that enter tapped so you are playing one turn behind as at the start of the game so it plays cards like Growth Spiral to catch up & Circuitous Route to ramp up or as to trigger cards like Guilds Summit to draw cards as well.

Eventually you will have Wilderness Reclamation to start untapping to cast Nexus of Fate or an Explosion that is enough to deal lethal damage.

The deck however has a number of weaknesses in the form of playing against very fast decks or decks that can deal a big amount of damage within a single turn or against control where they get to choose which cards you get to resolve when casting your spells.

For now I will stop here.

Just a reminder that we are also running Standard Showdown on Sundays.