Ever since I got stuck with four Caves of Koilos back in Odyssey block — at the tail-end of multicolored Invasion goodness - I've wanted to make a good B/W deck. Usually, the only Constructed format I play is Standard, and as I was a little late to this party I never really got the opportunity. However, with the return of Caves of Koilos in Ninth Edition, I got my chance... unfortunately, the cardpool was lacking.

This was resolved with the release of Guildpact, and after a lot of testing, this is what I've come up with.

Chaos Theory Featured by Michael Grubb on 2006-02-19 (Standard) As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/11330.html Print this deck!
Maindeck: Creatures 2 Angel of Despair 4 Blind Hunter 4 Nekrataal 4 Orzhov Pontiff 4 Ravenous Rats Enchantments 3 Faith's Fetters 4 Phyrexian Arena Instants 3 Ghostway 3 Mortify 3 Otherworldly Journey	Legendary Creatures 2 Ghost Council of Orzhova Basic Lands 5 Plains 4 Swamp Lands 4 Caves of Koilos 4 Godless Shrine 4 Orzhov Basilica 2 Tendo Ice Bridge Legendary Lands 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse	Sideboard: 1 Faith's Fetters 4 Leyline of the Void 1 Pillory of the Sleepless 4 Demystify 1 Mortify 4 Castigate
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The deck is named after my online persona, and also somewhat representative of the effect of the deck. Pardon my narcissism.

(For the purposes of convenience in this article, I will refer to Otherworldly Journey and Ghostway as “phasing” cards, and “comes into play” effects as CIPs.)

The deck is based on taking advantage of CIP effects, as should be obvious from the deck list. There are four main advantages to this:

Efficiency
CIP creatures create card advantage. A Nekrataal, Angel of Despair, or Ravenous Rats will (most of the time) cause the enemy to lose a card, and you to gain a creature. They grant you a one card advantage. Orzhov Pontiff may sometimes even grant you greater card advantage than this.

Creature Protection
Phasing cards not only trigger all your creatures CIP abilities again, but they also save your creatures. They act as countermagic against enemy removal, or they allow your army to block for free without dying. If necessary, you may even let your side of the table have a free attack at a line of powerful creatures, and then be untapped and ready to block on your opponents next turn.

Easy Recursion of Abilities
CIP abilities are much easier to recur than instants or sorceries. This also creates card advantage. A Ghostway played with any two creatures in this deck is devastating. With three or four creatures, it's sickening.

The Rattlesnake Effect
Once your opponent has figured out the decks trick, they know any creature you have in play has the chance of activating its ability again. They will be hesitant about playing their best creatures if you have a Nekrataal or Angel of Despair out. They will try to bait you with weaker cards or destroy them with creature kill, which you can avoid with one of the phasing cards.

Tips on Playing the Deck

• Unless the CIP effect is urgently needed, save your “phasing” cards for a situation where you are saving your creatures from death. In many matches, you will not lose a single creature.
  
• Never chump block. Even if the attack puts you at low life. The more creatures you have in play, the more options you have, and the more devastating a top-decked Ghostway. Plus, the deck has enough life gain to pull you out of danger if you get in trouble.
  
• Phyrexian Arena gives you options, fast. If you have the choice of playing it, destroying a threatening enemy creature, or playing a threat of your own, (almost) always play the Arena first.
  
• Putting combat damage on the stack and then “phasing” a creature out will stop counters appearing on Umezawa's Jitte.
  
• Don't forget about Nekrataal's first strike ability. This is important, because it lets you have a decent defense even though your creatures are so low in toughness.
  
• Phasing cards are really fun against the Hunted cycle.
  
• If Ink Eyes, Servant of Oni takes one of your creatures, remember you can Otherworldly Journey the card onto your side of the table. Also you can deal with harmful creature enchantments this way, such as Faith's Fetters and Threads of Disloyalty.
  
• If you lose the dice roll and go second, remember: a turn 2 Orzhova Basilica will mean you will have eight cards in your hand, and will have to discard. Don't be afraid to do this however, because in terms of tempo, the second turn is the best one to play Basilica in this deck. [Why? Isn't an early Ravenous Rats the stronger play, given the choice? — Craig, intrigued]
  
• Remember Faith's Fetters can enchant any permanent. This lets you deal with troublesome cards like Story Circle/Circle of Protection: Black; Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree; and Greater Good.
  
• There is a way for this deck to deal with any situation, but it usually takes more than one of your cards to do so. If you get in trouble, think about what cards are necessary to save you, and do not waste any of the pieces before you have the whole solution.
  
• Remember Orzhov Pontiff can also pump your creatures. Since you have very good creature protection, there is a good chance you have a lot of creatures on the table late game. An extra three or four damage is often enough to win you the game.

Overcoming Weaknesses

All decks however have weaknesses, and this one is no exception. For example, the deck is slow. It has no turn 1 play, and only one turn 2 play. However against Aggro decks, this is not a big deal. The deck has a lot of potential for coming from behind, because of a plethora of life gain effects and creature kill, both of which are recursive. The main reason a slow start is a disadvantage is that Control decks will have the mana and time to get ready for you. Countermagic stops you taking advantage of CIP effects, and hinders your chances of saving creatures with “phasing” effects.

Against Blue Control
There are a few tricks for beating Blue Control decks. The best way is to resolve an early Phyrexian Arena. Blue control cannot win against a deck with better card drawing than it possesses itself, as countermagic is always an even card-for-card trade. If they do not tap out to let you play the Arena, wait until you have the mana to bait with another card first. Also, if Ravenous Rats resolves early, you have the potential to do a lot of damage. At the end of their second main phase use your phasing spells. They will either have to counterspell and tap their mana for your turn, or lose cards. Also, once the Rats become a 2/2 from Otherworldly Journey, they become much more of a threat and must be dealt with by your opponent.

Umezawa's Jitte
The best way to deal with Jitte is Faith's Fetters, as this not only nullifies the first Jitte they play, but also the second (because of the legendary rule). If they attack with a Jitte-equipped creature on turn 3, before you can play Fetters, use Otherworldly Journey or Mortify to stop the creature from attacking. Later in the game, Jitte can be destroyed directly with Angel of Despair. Most of the time, the best way to deal with Jitte is just to destroy their creatures. A lot of Jitte decks tend to run low toughness creatures. Orzhov Pontiff is perfect for this. Remember, a Pontiff and an Otherworldly Journey in one turn means —2/-2 for enemy creatures. [Another way to combat the Jitte? Pack your own. — Craig]

Eminent Domain
Annex and similar cards are very troublesome, especially on Orzhova Basilica. However I do not recommend removing the Basilicas because they make it much easier to reach seven mana and play Angel of Despair. The best way to play this matchup in game 1 is to put out creatures, but leave mana untapped for “phase” cards. This way your creatures can be saved from Wildfire, making the card much less devastating. Games 2 and 3 should be easier, taking advantage of Castigate and Demystify. Demystify was chosen over Terashi's Grasp because it has a very affordable mana cost which is obviously useful in this matchup. However, Terashi's Grasp would also give you another answer to Icy Manipulator, which in some cases may be more useful.

Enduring Ideal
Try to make them discard as often as possible, as early as possible, with Ravenous Rats. Anything that the Rats take in this matchup is good, even if you take a land: it will make it more difficult for them to reach seven mana and play the Ideal. Ivory Mask is their most troublesome card for you, as it stops both Rats and Blind Hunter, so save your Mortify. Games 2 and 3 are much easier with the help of Castigate and Demystify.

Night of Souls Betrayal
If you know or suspect your opponent plays Night of Souls Betrayal, you obviously want to save your Mortify. If you don't have a Ghostway in hand, be careful about overextending. If you do, go all out, and just respond to Night of Souls Betrayal with Ghostway, Mortify the enchantment, and then enjoy all of your CIP abilities once again. You can see the importance of Demystify in the sideboard: some of the most troublesome cards are enchantments.

I would be more specific against current decks, but the metagame is incredibly diverse right now, and will soon be changing enormously. I wouldn't know where to start.

Budget Version

The deck has a lot of rares, but most of the important ones are cheap. Here are some suggestions on how to make the deck a little easier to assemble.

• The easiest way to cut about $60 from the deck is to remove the dual lands. Even without them, the deck is fairly consistent mana-wise. However it does make the color-intensive Ghost Council more difficult to cast. This is fine however, since he is also an expensive rare.
  
• Replace Ghost Council with Highway Robber.
  
• If you remove the Pontiffs, you lose a big advantage against a lot of weenie and token decks, and gain a big advantage against many Control decks where this card would have been dead. There is no replacement for the function this card serves, so its place would have to be filled with an entirely different sort of card. An interesting replacement could be Descendant of Kiyomaro, as you often have more cards in your hand than your opponent anyway.

This deck is a blast to play, and can most likely win you a few Friday Night Magic tournaments in style. I would be hesitant to claim the deck has a place in the upcoming metagame without any tournament results to back it up, but I believe it has a lot of potential and plan to take it as far as it will go.

Michael Grubb