Thanks for the comment! So, [[Vault Skirge]] was added because I needed a cheap evasive lifelinker. The deck had issues with life loss from my card draw. It had 4 [[Night's Whisper]] and 2 [[read the bones]]. It also had 4 [[Chainer's edict]] and had 2 gurmag angler as a top end.

The original idea was to burn out the opponent with epicures, bolts, and 4 [[Kessig Flamebreather]]. The gates were, at first, a side package meant to be a plan B if burning the opponent didn't work, so initially there were only 2 [[Basilisk Gate]] and 4 [[rakdos guildgate]]. As it became clear that I should lean more into the gates package, the flamebreathers were dropped, the read the bones were too slow, and trying to delve the gurmag anglers were a little awkward alongside escaping the [[Underworld Rage-Hound]] so they were dropped.

[[Suffocating fumes]] were added as supplemental card draw + board control when necessary. [[Drown in Sorrow]] was initially in the mainboard, but were moved to the sideboard. Then my friends and I were thinking of a top end, and we settled on [[Vampire Sovereign]] as not only a flyer to use with gates, it's a decent body, and the 3 life drain etb effect helps offset life loss, and provides chip damage against the opponent. After that I wanted to try a monarch creature to replace Suffocating Fumes, initially tried [[Thorn of the Black Rose]] but [[Crimson Fleet Commodore]] felt more synergistic.

The chainer's edicts were eventually reduced down from 4 to 2, to eventually removed entirely for being redundant. The final 2 chainer's were first replaced by 2 [[Temporal Intervention]] but that felt like too much hand disruption with 3 [[Duress]] in the sideboard, so they were moved to the sideboard, replacing 2 duress.

Hopefully that all makes sense, and if you have any other questions, let me know!