As combo decks have been mostly banned from the April 1999 Standard environment, I thought it was time to re-invent Hatred. The environment has nothing to stop a Hatred player from winning when tapped out: no more Fireblast, no Force of Will, nothing.

Hatred is one of those decks that can get autowins very easily in an environment where people have to tap out.

A first comment can be made about the creature choice: all of them are very fast, costing 1 or 2 mana only, but the main aspect is that they all have an evasion capability, except for the 8 creatures with a casting cost of one. The point of Hatred isn't to be blocked!

Another interesting choice is the four Urza's Bauble. Not only do they reduce the overall deck size, giving you more chances to draw a Hatred soon, but for once their ability is actually useful! Indeed, it is pretty useful to peek at one card of your opponent's hand before trying a second or third turn Hatred. What if you see an Incinerate?

Of course, Duress does that job a little better because it gets rid of the threat. But it's not a cantrip.

Last thing: this deck should be played a little carefully. Hold back your Hatred until the moment is right. Do not play all your creatures, this deck isn't suicide black and it's not likely that you'll be able to win with only creatures, though it might very well happen.

A good sideboard for this deck would transform it into suicide black against decks that never tap out. It should also contain cards to get around Light of Day, such as Bottle Gnomes and Cursed Scroll.

Manuel Bevand