BR Drain Life / Earthquake from August 1997 (Type 2 / Type II) (Standard)

This is a BR deck build from the August 1997 Standard card pool (97 Worlds). It's sort of a cross between Sligh and 4-Color Black. It's a slow deck that performs well against all of the decks with tons of 2 and 3-toughness creatures, like 4-color Black, Necro, and Senor Stompy.

Earthquake is a really powerful spell in this format (Type 2 from August 97) since most of the best creatures are small and there are very few good flying creatures. It's often a one-sided Wrath of God plus a little direct damage to the opponent. Drain Life makes it even more useful, bringing your life total up above your opponent so you can repeatedly use Earthquakes. Most of the time it's not necessary, though.

Earthquake also has good synergy with Abyssal Gatekeeper. If your opponent's got two creatures in play, one with 1-2 toughness and another with 4+ toughness, you can Quake for 2, killing the small one and the Gatekeeper, and then the Gatekeeper's ability triggers, forcing the opponent to sacrifice the larger one. The Gatekeeper should always be alone on the battlefield to avoid sacrificing your own creatures.

Wildfire Emissary is great against removal, especially Swords.

Sideboard:

Lotus Vale is specifically for Winter Orb. If they're not using Winter Orb, you can leave it out.

The main issue with this deck is that it gets completely wrecked by UW control. Counters and COP: Black/Red are huge issues. I’m still working on it. Hoping to find some combination of sideboard that works.