Doomgate Sac

Land Development

Usually you will want to open to the side of your orb. With most opening hands you will want to open with a forest to the side of orb. Some opening hands where you need two deserts on turn 2 will require you to open with a desert to the side of the orb. Almost never open in front.

Matchups

The important thing to remember, even if a matchup is unfavoured, as sac you usually have some way to win the game. Often you can overcome a poor matchup by outplaying your opponent. One of the most important things is to know whether to develop only to one side and push aggressively or to play defensively and farm your own two faeria wells before pushing.

Green/Red (Favoured)

While this is favoured it is very difficult to play. I have had success building to the opposite side. Never give them the lands to step on so they have to make them all themselves. This slows them down considerably. Around turn 5 when they get closer to your orb you can start building across the front of your orb, still not giving them lands, hopefully getting trades to buff bone collector which is really important in the matchup. You want to play Soul Collector on the well that you have developed your lands towards so it can move across to the other side and kill off Axe Grinder in it's strongest deployment spot near your orb. Usually by not making any lands for them you can delay the game long enough to get Soul Eaters out but it can be more difficult if they draw into early game Wood Elementals and Earthcrafts.

Blue Dream (Unfavoured)

This matchup you have to push up one side fairly aggressively. Don't be afraid to use double prairie before you have your Soul Eater lands. It's more important to get Deathwalker in aggressive spots where they put pressure on your opponent. Ideally you want to put enough pressure on with Deathwalker + Tiki Piper or a big Bone Collector to force your opponent to use Frogify on them so they don't have removal left for your Soul Eaters. Most people aren't playing phantasms so you can use this to your advantage. In general Bone Collectors are the most important card here and you really need to grow them to bait their transform effects.

Yellow Rush (50/50)

This is a tough matchup. You need to deal with their power turn on turn 3 or 4 which usually goes something like monk + prayer + demon + something else. Bone Collector is again really important in this matchup and can grow really strong. Again generally build to the side, collect from your own wells and just try to stabilise in the early game. Once you stabilise you are heavily favoured. Block face and wait for Soul Eaters. It's really important you don't have more than one Soul Eater on the board at any time because yellow rush are using Doomsday. Ideally you wait for them to doomsday and drop the second Soul Eater in a position it can hit their orb for lethal.

Green Rush (Very Favoured)

They can't handle big bone collectors, deathtouch creatures or Soul Eaters. As soon as we get any big creature on the board we win the game.

Burn (Unfavoured)

Same idea as with blue, go aggressively up one side with bone collectors and deathwalkers. Tiki Piper and Elderwood Hermit are really key in this matchup, allowing you to keep your key minions alive against Flame Burst and [Card=241]Seifer's Wrath[/Card].

It's really important to deny their faeria if you can. If they go down to 0f and you are still above 10 life you win the game.

Cards

Village Elder

Sac target and provides much needed cycle.

Bone Collector

One of the most important cards in the deck. Buff it by sacrificing creatures next to it or by trading your creatures off next it. Maximising value from bone collector is extremely important.

Bloomsprite

Still a little on the fence about this card but its a cheap sac target and the rng can sometimes be game winning.

Elderwood Hermit

Very strong card in combination with Demon Wrangler in the early game. Also an excellent target for Doomgate.

Tiki Piper

A meta choice. With so many decks playing one damage pings and Failed Experiment/Plague Bearer combos, it's important to give our creatures more health as otherwise we would be very vulnerable. Tiki Piper doubles up as an excellent sac target so represents a solid inclusion. Also a decent turn 1 play to drop Piper as a 1/5.

Tethra

Really powerful card to develop a strong creature whilst also giving us a favourable trade. Also very strong in the meta as we want the health buff.

Oradrim Fanatic

Gives us some mobility for surprise trades. Can also just play it as a 3/2 with jump if we have no other minions.

Last Nightmare

Hard removal from hand is important.

Wind Soldier

One of yellow's strongest tools. Can collect and trade. Really easy to trade it and get a bone collector buff. Can also collect and just be used as a sac target if desperate.

Demon Wrangler

Excellent early play. High value sac card.

Death Walker

Preferred to Shaytan Assassin in the current meta because of the aforementioned prevalence of pings/AOE.

Doomgate

The card the deck is built around. We are not too concerned with summoning Ostregoth, more we want to use Doomgate to draw cards/sac creatures. It can also soak up damage from Hellfire and Crackthorn Beast

Soul Eater

One of the strongest scaling tools in the game. A 3-of this card is essential in any g/y sacrifice deck.