MTG Skirata

This deck revolves around life gain and the explosive power of Ad Nauseam  It functions as a combo deck, stalling with cards like Angelsong, Sunspring Expedition, and Martial Coup until it can resolve an Ad Nauseam with a relatively high life-total to gain massive indirect card advantage.  The win condition of the deck usually rests in gaining life with a Sanguine Bond on the battlefield, but Consume Spirit and Sign in Blood aimed at your opponent can whittle them down, too.  Angelsong and Safe Passage are your Fogs, buying you time late-game while waiting to resolve a win condition.  Infest and Martial Coup serve as Wrath-Effects, with the latter able to get in for some damage to your opponent.  This deck performs well in stalemates, being able to keep a high life-total and accelerate out of tough situations with Ad Nauseam.  A good advantage of this deck lies in its ability to render many spells useless, as burn and creature removal don't really affect the deck at all.


This deck takes practice in order to play it well, and even then it might just not be your style.  It's a fun deck to play when it's winning, but needs patience in order to play well.  It's always fun when you Ad Nauseam turn 5 and grab 15 cards and win in short order.  


I would recommend against using it at Friday Night Magic or another tournament, as it doesn't fare too well against  the majority of the metagame, but it's a good choice for a casual Standard environment (hence why it is in the Casual section) so long as all your "friends" aren't playing Jund or Turbo-Mill.

The Jund matchup can be annoying, but you have a good sideboard against them, plus you have Mind Rots in the main.  An advantage this deck has against Jund is that it has no creatures, rendering many of their cards useless.  Sideboard Celestial Purge and Deathmark.  Another thing to add is that this deck mulligans significantly less than most Jund decks, which can prove invaluable.  If Jund stumbles, you can possibly pull a win from it. 

Vampires can be a bit of trouble, but as long as they never get a Vampire Noctournus, you can win.  Silencing a Vampires deck when it has four mana is a very good tactic, as they will try to get a Noctournus as early as possible.  Sideboard in your Purges and Silences, and you should be fine.

Cruel Control and UWR Control are bad matchups, as you have very little to deal with them.  Pretty much you have to try and get off a Sanguine Bond or you lose Game 1.  Game 2 you can Sideboard your Luminarch Ascensions and try to get one in your opener. Sideboard in Luminarch Ascension and Elspeth.

Crypts of Agadeem can prove troublesome, but it's not too bad if you play it right.  Save your Shadowfeeds to get rid of Extractor Demons and Sedraxis Specters and keep your Fog-effects handy.  Try to keep your hand size large to avoid getting hit too hard by Rotting Rats and Sedraxis Specter.  Kill Hedron Crabs with Executioner's Capsules so they can't start milling you.  You usually don't want to resolve Ad Nauseam until they've already tried to attack you with a large unearthed swarm.  The best way to win is to let them deck themselves while not letting them deck you.  Don't be afraid to use Sign in Blood to make them draw in order to accelerate the process. Sideboard in Elspeth, Relic of Progenitus, and Silence, and Sideboard out Infest and Consume Spirit  They'll try to deck you faster Post-Sideboard, so stop their Extractor Demons, Hedron Crabs and Tome Scours before they can hit you.  Don't slack off with your life total, either.

Bushwhacker and White Weenie can present problems, as this deck has trouble beating faster decks.  Pretty much the whole idea is to stall until you get a Sanguine Bond and start gaining life,  as they usually can't remove it from the board, nor stop you from getting it there in the first place.  NEVER go below 10 life if you can avoid it. Sideboard Elspeth and Infest.