Ulti-Gate-Ums
The Gate deck peaked in popularity before War of the Spark, but I thought the Ultimatum and Mythos cards from Ikoria would be perfect for updating the build. I just used what I had available on Arena, so there is a lot of tuning to be done as to which Ultimatums and Mythos cards to run, but here’s what I learned so far:
Gatebreaker Ram is still a deceptively strong card, and now that you can bring him back from the dead along with menace and deathtouch counters thanks to Call of the Death-Dweller, he’s even more dangerous.
He’s also great to build upon in the Mutate sense: with an ability that adds power and toughness based on your number of gates, you can stack Gemrazer on top of the Ram and end up with a huge creature that eats a Fires of Invention or Witch’s Oven.
I tossed in just about every board wipe I had, but Gates Ablaze was usually the best among them in my testing. It won’t kill your own Gatebreaker Ram, but often WILL kill everything else, leaving you with a huge opening to attack.
4 Gatebreaker Ram
1 Necropanther
3 Gemrazer
1 Archway Angel
4 Guild Summit
4 Growth Spiral
1 Mythos of Nethroi
1 Mythos of Illuna
2 Call of the Death-Dweller
1 Ruinous Ultimatum
3 Circuitous Route
1 Mythos of Snapdax
1 Shatter the Sky
4 Gates Ablaze
3 Deafening Clarion
1 Storm’s Wrath
1 Genesis Ultimatum
1 Izzet Guildgate
4 Plaza of Harmony
2 Selesnya Guildgate
2 Dimir Guildgate
2 Golgari Guildgate
1 Orzhov Guildgate
3 Boros Guildgate
4 Simic Guildgate
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Rakdos Guildgate
3 Gruul Guildgate
This list did a quick 4-2 run which encourages me to invest a bit more time (and wildcards) in it. The other board wipes will probably get upgraded to more copies of Ruinous Ultimatum, and I might tinker with the lands a bit to find room for some basics (playing every land tapped aside from the Plazas felt dangerously slow, but I can’t argue with the winning record, so…)
ANYWAY. It’s affordable, it’s fun, and it attacks the meta from an angle with no companions, so if you’re looking for something different, try out Ulti-GATE-Ums and let me know in the comments how you fare. I’ll see ya!
—Ryan
