Author of Shadows

Creature — Shade Warlock

When this enters the battlefield, exile all cards from all opponents' graveyards. Choose a nonland card exiled this way. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any colour to cast that spell.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (7)

jamochawoke on Uurg eats everything

3 months ago

Woops, I forgot the Horror of Zhava version of Gitrog is Alchemy only (BOO!!!)

But I also thought of some other big graveyard hate tech you might want to throw in:

Dauthi Voidwalker and expecially Author of Shadows

Davinoth on Prosper's Purgatory [Treasure EDH]

1 year ago

     elliotmward97: Thanks for the upvote and the follow! =D I'll go through each of the cards you've posted and give you my thoughts

     Creative Technique: A card I'd considered. I'm not super into giving benefits to my opponents, especially benefits based on chance. I tend to have very poor RNG in all games, and I just imagined scenarios where I turn up a couple of mana rocks and my opponent turns up an Eldrazi or something lol. And on the other side of that, without using the Demonstrate portion I just feel like most of the time I'm not going to get my five mana back from it with only 6 cards greater than six Converted Mana Cost in the deck.

     Ancient Copper Dragon: All day, every day! I think this card is going to be a beast. Lots of new toys coming in Baldur's Gate.

     Imperial Recruiter: I've actually been thinking about this as well, as many of the most effective cards in the deck are things like Reckless Fireweaver and Disciple of the Vault. But also being able to grab things like Dockside Extortionist and Marionette Master in the late game is pretty slick, too.

     Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer: In my last few trips to my LGS, I've looked at their foil Ragavan under the counter and thought really hard about buying it, but always talked myself out of it lol. While this card is great, it does become a gradually worse draw the more rounds into the game you get. If it weren't so expensive I probably would include it, but I also don't feel like it's going to make or break the deck.

     Robber of the Rich & Dire Fleet Daredevil: Both of these kind of fall into the same camp as Creative Technique. Both fine cards in their own right, but they hinge on factors outside of my control.

     Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip: Also a fine card, not really my style but can slot into pretty much any black deck.

     Author of Shadows was cut in favour of Soul-Guide Lantern. Author is a good card, but it was an inclusion more for the Graveyard Hate aspect of the card than for the Exiled cast. On top of being one mana to cast instead of five, it also has artifact synergies with the rest of the deck, too. :)

     Thanks again, glad you like the deck! =D

Gleeock on Using the graveyard as a …

2 years ago

I typically am not a big fan of playing recursion. But I do have a Kardur deck where I am starting to turn a corner with that a little. I have started playing it more as coincidental, big-play piece for some decks instead of the main-show & that has been working well.

On the flip side I will play a bunch of Graveyard interaction (hate) especially if it is part of multiple utilities on one card. I will continue to call Immersturm Predator underrated, same with Author of Shadows, same with Klothys, God of Destiny

Crow_Umbra on Triple Six, Five, Forked Tongue [Retired]

2 years ago

Thanks d_iros! I'd say that Karazikar and Disrupt Decorum are both meta-call inclusions, kinda similarly to how Author of Shadows was. My playgroup spans the Casual Spectrum lol, so board states can get creature heavy at times. There is a Marisi, Breaker of the Coil deck in our meta that does fairly well for that reason. I've run Disrupt Decorum in another deck to decent enough effect. In the times its been played, Disrupt Decorum had a pseudo board-wipe effect, thinned out boards, and usually bought the caster some time to assemble a combo or re-establish their board.

I think if I had to pick between the two, I'd likely cut Karazikar first. I figured the mutual draw would be incentivizing enough to keep some heat off me, and its ability to tap & Goad could help open up some lanes for my smaller attackers.

Cutting Karazikar could give Chandra, Fire Artisan a spot to land back, or even Blasphemous Act, which usually comes down for 1 mana in our games lol.

Kalkris on Triple Six, Five, Forked Tongue [Retired]

2 years ago

So, while it’s not 100% synergistic with the deck, if you add in Chain of Smog as per my suggestion, you’d be behooved (heh heh) to add in at least one more Magecraft card, like Sedgemoor Witch, I’d expect. Not only does this add a bit more interlocking synergy but it also provides you with a theoretical go-wide wincon.

As for a cut if you need it, I’ve actually found that Author of Shadows sort of underperforms at 5mv for me. That’s my personal recommendation to cut, but there may be more than that. That’s what I saw right away though. How does it perform for you specifically?

Gleeock on Cards that are somehow cheap

2 years ago

One for me is Author of Shadows - This is just good gravehate, ETB, on a body, choice card advantage. Warlocks will also reach peak relevancy with this Innistrad stuff.

Klauth, Unrivaled Ancient seems so generically good, even at 7 cmc.... and he did have a price blossom already, just saw that on proofreading :)

All monarch courts should steadily continue to rise.

Gleeock on From Exile

2 years ago

Author of Shadows hoses graveyards, is card advantage, & plays from exile. Also surprised I don't see more Soulfire Eruption the one time I played it so far it was a ridiculous bomb.