Introduction
This deck is part of the Pauper Decks, which are made from only common cards. The great thing about Pauper is the majority of the cards are cheap to buy, and are still strong as there are quite a lot of good common cards over Magic's history.
Key Strategy
The Gates Control deck is a slow, methodical strategy that uses the synergy between the gate lands and various control elements to outlast opponents. This deck is built around leveraging the land synergies from the “Gates” mechanic while maintaining control over the board with removal and life gain. Your primary goal is to stabilize the early game with efficient removal, creatures that gain life, and strong defensive tools, eventually winning through large creatures or overwhelming board presence.
Basilisk Gate + Gates: Basilisk Gate is the deck's primary win condition. Once you have enough gates on the battlefield, Basilisk Gate can target one of your creatures and give it a massive power boost equal to the number of gates you control. Because you run several gates, this power boost can be substantial, turning even a small creature like Sacred Cat into a lethal threat. This synergizes with your ability to control the game and patiently build up your gates while keeping your life total safe.
Gatecreeper Vine + Gates: Gatecreeper Vine serves as a key utility creature, allowing you to search for any gate land in your deck. This provides both mana fixing and ensures that you can keep hitting land drops, a crucial element for stabilizing the board and activating Basilisk Gate later in the game. The combination of land searching and being a small blocker makes Gatecreeper Vine an excellent early game play.
Saruli Gatekeepers + Gates: Saruli Gatekeepers is an essential stabilizing card in this deck. When you have two gates in play, Saruli Gatekeepers gains you 7 life when it enters the battlefield, which can buy you the time you need to set up your board and take control of the game. This large life swing can help turn the tide against aggro decks or help you survive against burn strategies, while the 2/4 body provides a decent blocker.
Kor Skyfisher + ETB Creatures: Kor Skyfisher is a value engine that helps you repeatedly trigger enter-the-battlefield (ETB) effects from your creatures. Cards like Thraben Inspector, Inspiring Overseer, and Dawnbringer Cleric all have powerful ETB effects, and Kor Skyfisher allows you to bounce these creatures back to your hand to recast them. This leads to card advantage (drawing more clues with Thraben Inspector, drawing cards and gaining life with Inspiring Overseer) and even interaction with enchantments or graveyard removal using Dawnbringer Cleric.
Ephemerate + ETB Creatures: Similar to Kor Skyfisher, Ephemerate is a flicker effect that allows you to reuse ETB abilities. Casting Ephemerate on Inspiring Overseer can net you an additional card and life gain, while flickering Dawnbringer Cleric can destroy an opposing enchantment or exile a graveyard card. This constant flow of value ensures that you’ll stay ahead in resources, making it difficult for your opponent to overwhelm you.
Dawnbringer Cleric: A versatile creature with three modes: it can destroy an enchantment, exile a card from a graveyard, or gain 2 life. This flexibility makes Dawnbringer Cleric useful against various matchups, from aggro to control to graveyard strategies. The life gain helps you stabilize, and with flicker effects, you can repeat the effect to deal with multiple threats over the course of the game.
Thraben Inspector: A one-mana creature that provides immediate card advantage by creating a clue token when it enters the battlefield. Thraben Inspector is an ideal early-game play, offering both a small blocker and a source of card draw later in the game. It also synergizes well with Kor Skyfisher, allowing you to create more clues as the game progresses.
Journey to Nowhere: One of the deck’s main removal spells, Journey to Nowhere exiles an opponent’s creature when it enters the battlefield. This is vital for dealing with large threats or creatures that are difficult to deal with through combat. Combined with your flicker effects, Journey to Nowhere can be recast or retriggered to handle multiple creatures throughout the game.
Smash to Dust: A versatile removal spell, Smash to Dust can either destroy an artifact, deal 1 damage to all of your opponent's creatures, or destroy an opposing creature with flying. This utility makes it an excellent card in a meta where there are many artifact strategies or small aggressive creatures.
The Gates Control deck is not a fast deck, but it excels at grinding down opponents through resource generation and consistent board control. The primary win condition is Basilisk Gate, which allows you to buff a creature and swing for a significant amount of damage. Even small creatures like Sacred Cat or Kor Skyfisher become lethal threats when buffed by Basilisk Gate.
The other route to victory involves wearing down your opponent through consistent card advantage from your ETB creatures and flicker effects. Cards like Inspiring Overseer, Thraben Inspector, and Dawnbringer Cleric provide incremental value, keeping your hand full while gradually improving your board presence.
Against more aggressive decks, Saruli Gatekeepers and Dawnbringer Cleric will help you survive long enough to take over the game. Lightning Bolt and Journey to Nowhere will help deal with any opposing threats before they can become a problem.
Gates Control is a resilient, grindy strategy that thrives on stabilizing the board, generating value through enter-the-battlefield effects, and winning with powerful land-based synergies. By utilizing the gate lands to pump your creatures and control the game with removal and flicker effects, this deck can outlast aggressive decks and overwhelm slower strategies. Whether you're gaining life with Saruli Gatekeepers, drawing cards with Inspiring Overseer, or swinging for lethal with a Basilisk Gate-boosted creature, Gates Control is a versatile and satisfying deck for players who enjoy long, strategic games with plenty of interaction.
Key Cards
Cards to look for in the opening hand