From Deep Magic by Charles Wolfe and George Baxter, 1996, pp 133-135. This is probably now Extended at best with revisions to the Banned and Restricted Lists made since then.
"William Cole sent this deck in response to an online post on the Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board.
The idea behind the Lazarus deck is not as straightforward as you might expect. The object is to force or induce an opponent into discarding creatures from his/her hand that are good tragets for an Animate Dead. Once can do this in a number of ways. The Hymns and Mind Twists can force an opponent to discard creatures, but since these are done at random it is not always likely that you will force you opponent to discard a large creature. The best means for having large creatures enter the graveyard is through the use of either the Mind Bomb or Disrupting Scepter. If your opponent has a chance to decide he would typically prefer discarding a large an expensive creature over having to discard a spell that he could cast early on. This works best if your opponent has no idea what your deck is like. If you draw a Mind Bomb on the first turn and a Colossus or two you can also use the Bomb to get those creatures out of your hand to the graveyard. Once they have reached the graveyard you can animate them.
The Twiddles are very important in William's deck. If you manage to get a Colossus into play you can use the Twiddle to untap it after it has attacked. Early on the Psychic Venoms may be used to slow an opponent down, but you can use the latter in the game as a source of direct damage. If you draw Psychic Venoms later in the game when your opponent has a large amount of land, concentrate them on one land. Then your Twiddles can be used to do 2, 4, 6, and even 8 points of damage. The Psychic Venoms help the Power Sinks to have an added bite.
The rest of the deck is pretty much self-explanatory. The Racks go with the hand destruction. They, the Mishra's Factories, and the Vampires serve as alternate sources of damage.
William's deck is creative and fun, but it will suffer from a number of problems. The first of which is its susceptibility to counter magic. Though the hand destruction helps against counter magic, the combinations of the deck are somwhat fragile. The Lazarus deck would also have great problems going against a fast creature deck. There is little that the deck can normally do about a Swarm except try and deploy either a Colossus or Vampire early on."
William Cole's Lazarus Deck
Creatures
2 Sengir Vampires
4 Colossus
Spells
2 Dance of the Dead
4 Power Sinks
4 Animate Dead
3 Mind Bomb
2 Disrupting Scepter
3 Twiddle
1 Mind Twist
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Racks
1 Counterspell
4 Psychic Venoms
Land
4 Mishra's Factory
11 Swamps
8 Islands
Sideboard
2 Terrors - creatures decks
2 Unsummons - fast creature decks
3 Islands - land destruction
1 Counterspell
1 Death Grip - green decks
2 Blue Elemental Blasts - red decks
4 Drudge Skeletons - small fast creature decks
"William Cole sent this deck in response to an online post on the Magic: The Gathering Strategy Board.
The idea behind the Lazarus deck is not as straightforward as you might expect. The object is to force or induce an opponent into discarding creatures from his/her hand that are good tragets for an Animate Dead. Once can do this in a number of ways. The Hymns and Mind Twists can force an opponent to discard creatures, but since these are done at random it is not always likely that you will force you opponent to discard a large creature. The best means for having large creatures enter the graveyard is through the use of either the Mind Bomb or Disrupting Scepter. If your opponent has a chance to decide he would typically prefer discarding a large an expensive creature over having to discard a spell that he could cast early on. This works best if your opponent has no idea what your deck is like. If you draw a Mind Bomb on the first turn and a Colossus or two you can also use the Bomb to get those creatures out of your hand to the graveyard. Once they have reached the graveyard you can animate them.
The Twiddles are very important in William's deck. If you manage to get a Colossus into play you can use the Twiddle to untap it after it has attacked. Early on the Psychic Venoms may be used to slow an opponent down, but you can use the latter in the game as a source of direct damage. If you draw Psychic Venoms later in the game when your opponent has a large amount of land, concentrate them on one land. Then your Twiddles can be used to do 2, 4, 6, and even 8 points of damage. The Psychic Venoms help the Power Sinks to have an added bite.
The rest of the deck is pretty much self-explanatory. The Racks go with the hand destruction. They, the Mishra's Factories, and the Vampires serve as alternate sources of damage.
William's deck is creative and fun, but it will suffer from a number of problems. The first of which is its susceptibility to counter magic. Though the hand destruction helps against counter magic, the combinations of the deck are somwhat fragile. The Lazarus deck would also have great problems going against a fast creature deck. There is little that the deck can normally do about a Swarm except try and deploy either a Colossus or Vampire early on."
William Cole's Lazarus Deck
Creatures
2 Sengir Vampires
4 Colossus
Spells
2 Dance of the Dead
4 Power Sinks
4 Animate Dead
3 Mind Bomb
2 Disrupting Scepter
3 Twiddle
1 Mind Twist
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Racks
1 Counterspell
4 Psychic Venoms
Land
4 Mishra's Factory
11 Swamps
8 Islands
Sideboard
2 Terrors - creatures decks
2 Unsummons - fast creature decks
3 Islands - land destruction
1 Counterspell
1 Death Grip - green decks
2 Blue Elemental Blasts - red decks
4 Drudge Skeletons - small fast creature decks