Source: Inquest #18 (Oct 1996), pp.25-25; author: Pat Cole

"...black and green are both fast, and both have huge creatures that are tough to kill and very good land-destruction spells.  Black's only real weakness is that it can't deal with artifacts or enchantments, and green can rip through these...

Black and green also have arguably the two hardest creatures to kill in the entire game.  Deadly Insects are tough, but a mere Tundra Wolf can swat them down...  Ihsan's Shade and Autumn Willow, however, are a different story.  Autumn Willow giggles at most creature killers (not to mention Tundra Wolves) and Ihsan shrugs off Swords to Plowshares, Exiles, Reprisals, Terrors and Dark Banishings like water.

Finally, black / green has Stunted Growth and Misinformation.  Both of these cards are fairly sick and can be thought of as buying yourself a three-turn advantage.  Whatever cards your opponent has in their hand, they probably haven't cast them due to lack of mana or lack of targets.  So, make them put some of those useless cards back on their library.  A Stunted Growth / Misinformation combo is outright horrible, costing your opponent six, yes, *six* turns.  Once Ihsan or Autumn is on the board and the game's locked up, go ahead and Misinformation them and give them some land back.  It's fun, it's enjoyable, it's almost insulting.

Life and death has 12 land-destruction cards, enough to almost ensure that you get one or two in your opening draw.  The Birds of Paradise are considered to be land in this deck so, although it's risky, the Strip Mines have no reason for existence except to destroy, destroy, destroy.  With no dual lands for unaligned colours in Type II, and with Thermokarsts and Icequakes costing two coloured mana each, those birds are fairly important.

A bird, forest and swamp in your opening hand gives you a sure shot to toss off a land-destruction spell by turn two.  For early game blockers, Order of the Ebon Hand is a great little guy who shrugs off white and black creature-killers.  If you can keep your opponent's creatures off the board due to lack of mana, your little pump knight can do a sickening amount of damage in a short time.

The biggest enemies of land destruction are those two sicko cards, Land Tax and Zuran Orb.  Fortunately, two Crumbles in the main deck and two more in the sideboard make for a good defense against the Orb and Nevinyrral's Disk-type things, and Tranquility can stop Tax as well as nasty things like Drought.

Lodestone Baubles can also be annoying, so save a Misinformation or Stunted Growth for when your opponent uses one.  Then, put three cards back on top of those four lands.

There are a few other neat combos you can make your opponent retch with as well.  Ritual of the Machine is an amazingly powerful card, especially combined with something like, oh, say, Birds of Paradise.  Hymn to Tourach is a staple black card and cand be used with Misinformation to give yourself more turn advantages.

There aren't many artifacts in Life and Death, but those that are are very useful.  Zuran Orb, of course, is nice because it costs nothing and gives you life.  The Icy can help you deal with creatures or, if you've got nothing better to do, tap your opponent's land during their upkeep.

Life and Death's sideboard is set up to help you deal with the horrors of Land Tax, annoying enemy creatures and people who play white.  The sideboard has two Dark Banishings to deal with pesky non-black creatures, two Paralyzes to deal with any creatures and two of the expensive but omnipotent Desert Twisters to deal with anything that walks, crawls, flies, taps for mana, generates an effect, blah blah blah.  The extra Crumbles help out against Winter Orb / Icy Manipulator lunacy or an onslaught of Yotian Soliders (it could happen).  Another Tranquility strengthens your anti-Tax powers, and Storm Seeker is a nasty surprise for Taxers.  And, of course, don't forget about Gloom, a staple of black land destruction since the days of Sinkholes and Demonic Hordes.

Life and Death has it all.  Destroying land, summoning ridiculously hard-to-kill creatures, making your opponent waste turns drawing cards they already had and can't use, Jester's Capping like a wolverine on speed and just outright beating your opponent to a pulp with Ihsan's Shade.  You can't ask for much more fun out of a deck, and Life and Death gives you all this plus the ability to sacrifice a harmless bird to a sinister machine.  Enjoy!"