My own take on 5dollarMTG's $5 Discard Control.
The idea is to start off by reducing the opponent's hand with creature and spell discards: a first turn Liliana's Steward, sacrificed the next turn, followed by Augur of Skulls or Elderfang Disciple on curve, then Dreamstealer, Liliana's Specter or Mind Drain, followed by Guul Draz Specter and Torment of Scarabs.
Then punish your opponent for not having cards with Guul Draz Specter (again), and Westgate Regent — with no cards in hand, your opponent cannot top-deck targeted removal against the Regent because of the ward. Cast Down, Doom Blade and Ultimate Price provide removal against early or top-decked creatures. A Dreamstealer has menace, so will often slip by blockers; the Specters and Regent fly. An Elderfang Disciple can chump block; Augur of Skulls can be useful as a regenerating blocker if your opponent is empty-handed. Torment of Scarabs squeezes an opponent's permanents, hand and life. Vampire's Kiss and Curse of Leeches
provide some much-needed life swing. Witch's Cottage lets you recycle a creature.
An eternalized Dreamstealer, Westgate Regent or Guul Draz Specter (with +3/+3) can finish an opponent quickly, especially if the opponent's life total has been whittled down by evasive attackers, the Torment of Scarabs, Curse of Leeches
and/or Vampire's Kisses. An opponent who casts no spells will be faced with a 4/4 Leech Horror (a transformed Curse of Leeches
) the next turn.
You need 2-3 land to do anything, and 4-6 lands are your sweet spot; enough to cast Torment of Scarabs and still regenerate an Augur of Skulls or use removal on a top-decked creature, or else eternalize a Dreamstealer. Use blood tokens from Vampire's Kiss to filter your deck when you start to have too many lands.
A fast burn or weenie deck is tough for this deck to beat. A lot of the maybeboard involves gaining life at your opponent's expense: once they are low on life and cards in hand the Torment of Scarabs will make them have to sacrifice permanents. An exploration of this line of thinking will result in something like Saccox's Dark Shot Pezzent. "Pezzent" is Italian for "beggar," referring to how cheap these decks are. But yeah - there's at least one other deck in that maybeboard.
