Death's Shadow

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Death's Shadow gets -X/-X, where X is your life total.

Discussion (45)

legendofa on Darkest Darkness

4 days ago

If you're still looking at Death's Shadow and thinking about flavor (from a comment from four years ago), Devour in Shadow has both the mechanics and flavor to be worth considering.

Icbrgr on True Control UW [Primer]

6 days ago

i never want to be on the receiving end of this deck lol... out of curiosity how well does Prismatic Ending work for you in U/W? i haven't really played since before that cards release and am not sure how it performs... i imagine its just nice removing Death's Shadow and such?

legendofa on Card creation challenge

4 weeks ago

Play for Keeps

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, each player pays any amount of life. Creatures controlled by any player who paid the most life this way get +5/+5 until end of turn.

At the beginning of your end step, each player sacrifices all creatures they control that attacked or blocked this turn.

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I tried to price this outside of typical Death's Shadow range, and it prevents Lurrus of the Dream-Den tricks. Further tweaking may still be required.

Create a sorcery that uses all the vowels (a, e, i, o, u, y) in its rules text, without using the phrase "creature(s) you control" or similar.

KablamoBoom on A Grave Ultimatum

4 weeks ago

Return to Nature is better than Naturalize . Cut Stitcher's Supplier and Guul Draz Assassin. Hapatra and Cheville have no synergy with the rest of the build. If you're running Fetches and Shocks and 4x Thoughtseize I would definitely swap in 4 Death's Shadow and 4 Unearth and go full aggro. But if you are in love with the grindy deathtouch subtheme I would swap out your removal for Driven / Despair and Inscription of Abundance with Midnight Charm in the sideboard for aggro and blitz matchups.

Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 5: Mono-Green …

1 month ago

Ah, my favorite color. Not coincidentally, my wife hates it. I love ramp, I love the utility, the pervasive value, and I even like the shortcomings because I feel they're sporting. I have three mono-Green decks. My oldest deck is a Green deck. I have been watching Green so closely as each set comes out that I didn't even need to research the legends available in order to write this.

But enough squeeing about my preferences (for now). Let's talk turkey. Picking a best color is highly subjective: while I'd like to say that all five colors are equal in strength, it can't be said honestly. Black has the tutors and thematic viciousness to fight for the top. Blue's strength in control and draw make its long-debated position as most competitive highly secure. White and Red are solidly trailing the others. Where does this leave Green?

Green has a unique capacity to destroy (or fight) anything, but not all the thing: Beast Within and Acidic Slime are great, but unless you're an enchantment, artifact, or bird, then you don't need to concern yourself with Green boardwipes. The utterly absurd advantage that comes of Green's affinity for ramp is often shattering. However, all arguments for Green's strength are undercut by an unfortunate fact: if you can't smash face in the combat phase, you can't usually win. Helix Pinnacle . Epic Struggle . Against these two cards and the odd sorcery referencing some sort of windy calamity, the other colors have actual themes: Black has vampirism, Blue has milling, and Red has burn. Even White has a small but potent spread of alternate wins, generally tied to life totals.

However: a jack of all trades is a master of none, but ofttimes better than a master of one. Let's consider whether Green is a specialist or a generalist: Blue has control and draw, but Green has a fine well of draw effects to pull from, a true wealth of hexproof and... and whatever keyword they'll eventually assign to "can't be countered." The sheer scope of creatures with game-changing effects that Green can tutor, while comprehensive, isn't quite the same as tutoring anything (shut up, Black). That said, a well-placed Tooth and Nail can win the game just as readily. Green can't burn players but can fight any creature and Terastodon any party of super-friends. No, Green isn't a powerhouse on the stack or outside the combat phase, but the raw versatility of Green isn't something the other colors can readily match.

Personally, I can't comfortably argue that Green is the most competitive mono-color in commander. However, I will argue that it's the most generally capable, and like all the colors a powerhouse in the right hands. Whether my hands are the right ones isn't the question: Green is the color I'm most comfortable with, the color I feel most capable with, and my answer to the most important question in any game: "What are you happiest playing?"

Today, we discuss three most prevalent trends in Green. Chonks: the biggest beasts on the battlefield. Ramp: mana for days. Land: all the land (bear with me, I know those last two are rather close). As always, please bear in mind that our focus here is not necessarily competitive but rather on thematic, archetypical commanders.

Chonks

There are a lot of ways to make creatures threatening. Artifacts like Coat of Arms or Argentum Armor , auras like Green's own Blanchwood Armor , and everything in between. Green has another approach as well, tending toward, rather than making creatures threatening, instead making threatening creatures. Just look at the Primordial Hydra (or pretty much any hydra). Other colors have their own fatties, to be sure, but until the Eldrazi came Green's only real rival for the Bigger-is-Better Belt was Blue's theme of large, typically overpriced fish (Colossi also bear mentioning). Colored kaiju tend to come with additional costs beyond mana once they reach a certain size, examples being Death's Shadow or Jokulmorder . The only cost Green generally asks is mana, and frequently at a discount. Hehehehe...

Sometimes you just need a hulk, and at a trampling 12/12 Ghatla is the hulkest legend there is, provided you don’t go poking around the Blind Eternities for plane-eating spaghetti monsters. Like a certain strange woman lying in a pond, you might never have to pay full price for this general. That is a great, beautiful, thundering apex predator of a wonderful thing.

I love Selvala, but do her grievous wrong: I rarely remember the card draw because of all that sweet, sweet mana. In justice, this magnificent beast would be cozy in the ramp section, but filling your hand by dropping one chungus after another, then getting what’s likely a full refund on the mana? That’s what I call incentive! I'd consider her for a commander any day, except... well, we're coming to that.

The original mama-bear brings a fine pair of goodies to the table: a discount for your hefties and overrun-lite on the charge for such big boys, ensuring they heft even more heftily. Arm & Hammer owe her an endorsement deal. Hefty!

Ramp

Anyone with a pile of rocks can manage fast mana. Black and Red both have decent options. Green, though, has been the ramp champ for time immemorial. Since mana burn is a thankfully dusty memory, you can flood that pool to your heart's content without the risk of accidentally frying yourself. Whether your taste runs toward slamming lands down with Cultivate effects, boosting the output of those lands with Mana Reflection , or tapping dorks like Priest of Titania , glorious excesses of mana can be yours!

Readers may recall I mentioned an Ashling deck with 99 mountains in the red article. Sometime after seeing it, I noticed a copy of Sasaya in my collection. 64 lands and a handful of mana dumps later, I had a deck that either died quietly or detonated into splendid, jaw-achingly excessive victory (seriously, it’s always one or the other). Wakeroot Elemental , Helix Pinnacle , and Sprouting Vines are just a few of the fabulously facetious options available to this, my favorite kamigawan commander. Nothing will be the same after your first opponent gets smacked in the face with Killer Bees for absurdly lethal damage. I have this deck built, and adore it. However, my favorite, to which we are by degrees coming, is not Sasaya.

I miss Rofellos, but since he’s banned we might as well talk elves somewhere in here. Boy howdy are there a lot of good elves: the tribal synergy in ramp alone is good enough that they get played where other decks would play rocks, and there’s more than that up their pointy-eared sleeves. Rewarding oneself for playing elf-ball with the mana to make said ball bigger is just good sense. However, slapping something like Strata Scythe on her will get some fine results too. Enjoy that general damage, or the effects of Umbral Mantle . And, if general damage isn't your thing but elfball is, pour all that mana into Ezuri, Renegade Leader .

It's the simple things in life you treasure, and Azusa is nothing if not simple. There many ways to ramp, but doing so in the true green style means dropping lands faster than your opponents. Fill your hand, empty your hand, repeat. The raw advantage that Azusa represents is incredibly intimidating. Just be sure to bring a Horn of Greed so you don't run out of steam.

Land

I acknowledge that this is somewhat under the "Ramp" umbrella. Again, bear with me. If you check the phrase "Search your Library" on Gatherer, Green has more cards than any two other colors combined, the catch being that most of those cards tutor basic land. If you consider a color's tutor strengths as thematic commentary (shut UP, Black), this suggests that Green has a lot to say on the matter of land. Whether tutoring, untapping, or animating and wrecking face a la mana base, no other color is as tied to the land as is Green. Just think on the implications of, say, Life and Limb and the aforementioned Coat of Arms (or any boardwipe, especially if Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is out).

What's the opposite of a conniption? Whatever that is, I had one when they printed this glorious godsend to all green combo players. The sequoia-sized middle finger Ashaya sends to Cyclonic Rift is only the beginning. Consider that Kamahl, Heart of Krosa becomes Keywords-on-a-Stick with our girl out. Consider that anything which untaps lands now untaps your mana dorks too. Consider that Argothian Elder UNTAPS ITSELF. The only reason Ashaya isn't heading one of my Green decks is because, degenerate as she is, she doesn't have Partner, turn into a broke-ass enchantment, or... we're coming to that. Nearly there.

"Screw your boardwipes" about sums it up. Both Khamals can animate lands and buff them, but this one's wording is much, much meaner if you've got to teach some trigger-happy nuker a lesson.

One of my favorite Green cards is Constant Mists . There are enough other sacrifice effects in Green, as well as lands that drop themselves, that Titania can become a real menace in short order. Bring Glacial Chasm , a few effects like the Oracle of Mul Daya , and the all-important Crucible of Worlds . Trust me. It works. There's a guy in the local playgroup who does this with a most politely evil smile.

And, for my personal favorite:

Ok, is anyone who's made it this far actually surprised? Omnath is all that is Green, and I've been gleefully running this stompy monstrosity for over a decade. Who needs Voltron when you can simply turn on a glorious green engine of mana, throw out some trample (I prefer Nylea, God of the Hunt , and turn an opponent into so much paste? Don't feel like attacking? Save it for next turn! The banking mechanic alone would be enough: an early Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is the best you can hope for if you're silly enough to let Omnath sit on unspent mana for even a turn. That he gets bigger with each mana in the pool is just a treat. A vicious, opponent-killing, delicious treat.

And in case you're wondering, the third green deck is Kamahl, Heart of Krosa and Kodama of the East Tree . No instants. No sorceries. Just draw and ramp.

That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back next week for Azorius!

Prior Articles:

Mono-White

Mono-Blue

Mono-Black

Mono-Red

skincrawler on Jund Delirium

1 month ago

Hi zapyourtumor,

Thanks for your comment and the suggestions.

I started with the good'ol "4 Inquisition of Kozilek / 2 Thoughtseize " package, but found myself boarding it out nearly every game, because of the high amount of Blitz variants in the meta right now. Might change that over time, but for now I think 3 Discard Spells + Kolaghan's Command in the main seems to be fine. Could be wrong here, though. I think Seal of Fire is better in this deck, specifically because it works quite well with Lurrus. I like the idea though and didn't really considered tribal card in my deck building. Maybe I can find room for a copy or two.

Delirium is quite easy to accomplish actually, especially with a relativ high creature count and the surveil of Dragon's Rage Channeler I usually have it up latest on turn 3. But I might want to change some spells to get it more often already turn 2 and have a faster recovery after my graveyard was whiped. (Which is usually the end of me, if opponent has any kind of threat on the board)

Ignoble Hierarch is debatable, I agree, even though I think it's a very strong creature (therefore having a full play set), but I like the mana exhalation early and it helps getting through some blockers with an unboosted Grim Flayer sometimes. I might want to change it to Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer though, or maybe even try out [Strike it Rich], to up my sorcery count.

I can also see this deck going more in the direction of Death's Shadow having more Thoughtseize, as you suggested. But for now, I don't think that I want it to be a gimmicy Shadow's deck and try to let it be its own jundy goodness ;P

nUKe13 on nUKe13 Mardu Pyromancer

2 months ago

JacenSolo29 as far as the next update goes, I’m waiting to see if there is anything else that drops from MH2, but I think we have the complete list now.

My first impressions are:

1) Faithless Salvaging - this works better than Thrill of Possibility since it can be cast on an empty hand and the rebound can’t be caught by hand disruption. Instant is nice if we really do want to cast on opponent’s end step. Then, if we draw an instant, we can cast with rebound on the stack to get full value.

2) Prismatic Ending - I personally really REALLY like this. Great against aggro, Humans, Jund, Ponza, Death's Shadow (minus Gurmag Angler ). See (https://strategy.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/home/is-prismatic-ending-the-new-swords-to-plowshares/)

3) Damn - again, LOVE IT! Definitely love the versatility, but I don’t know if it would replace Dreadbore (hits PWs), Fatal Push (instant and cheaper), or Engineered Explosives (can be triggered at instant speed and can be cheaper). Definitely a consideration for spots that previously included Damnation or Wrath of God .

4) General Ferrous Rokiric - I personally really like this. Immune to most removal (specifically EFFICIENT removal) such as Lightning Bolt , Path to Exile , Fatal Push , and Cryptic Command bouncing it. If you play a lot of multicolor spells, like Kolaghan's Command , Kaya's Guile , Kaya, Orzhov Usurper , Nahiri, the Harbinger , Dreadbore / Terminate , and Lightning Helix , then you definitely benefit from having this.

5) Dragon's Rage Channeler - this has a Magmatic Channeler feel to it and couples well with the graveyard-centric focus. If you opt for utility ARTIFACTS, like Mishra's Bauble , Damping Sphere , or Engineered Explosives , ENCHANTMENTS, like Blood Moon , or PLANESWALKERS, like Liliana of the Veil or any of the previously mentioned PWs, then you have an even easier time to activate Delirium. You do have to attack every turn, but having flying as evasion is really nice. Surveil is good if we start running more Flashback spells, like more Lingering Souls or Smiting Helix .

6) Void Mirror - TRON HATE FTW! This would compete with Damping Sphere as far as utility goes, but still really REALLY nice.

7) Obsidian Charmaw - OMG there are SO many Tron hate cards in this set, and I LOVE it. If Tron or Eldrazi Tron get more popular through all the hate from this set, then this would be great to add create a clock.

8) Vindicate - old EDH tech being added to Modern. I like the idea of destroying anything, but sorcery speed and 3 cmc, with everything else that has come into the game (and power creep), makes me unsure of its power. Could be what we need, but 3cmc is already crowded in the list.

9) Flame Blitz - UW/x, Jund, and maybe Tron typically run more PWs, so if we forgo running PWs, ourselves, then this serves as an extremely cheap PW hate card. Cycling is nice if we draw it and the opponent has side boarded out a majority of their PWs.

10) Harmonic Prodigy - if we bring back Young Pyromancer , add in Dark Confidant , and focus on Prowess, then I think this would rather have a home in a Feather, the Redeemed /spell-slinger deck. Still, it would be ok here, with the high spell count we run.

11) Sanctifier en-Vec - I don’t think we want to use this... definitely expect it in Burn or D&T lists against us.

12) Dauthi Voidwalker - now THIS we can use. Basically Sanctifier en-Vec , but unilateral hate and can help against Dredge or other recursion based decks. I like that we can sac on targeted removal and cast one of their spell(s). can conflict with our spells, but we are usually ok. If we get Blood Moon ed, we can usually laugh it off and power through it.

13) Bone Shards - in the primer, I’ve indicated that Mardu Pyro has different variants (spells/grave, PW, and Aristocrat/tokens). I feel this would slot nicely into an token deck, along with Village Rites , Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger , and Afterlife creatures.

14) Fury - at first glance, I’ve been conflicted. Seems ok as protection from aggro strategies, but I wish it had either 1 more toughness, did more damage, hit players, or cost less. It just seems... meh... I’m skeptical, but I’ve definitely been proven wrong before, so I’ll keep my mind open.

15) Mine Collapse - great if we run a bit more heavy on lands and run late. Too bad it doesn’t hit players though... a common theme from cards this set.

16) Arcbound Whelp / Esper Sentinel /Knighted Myr - another idea that has come to fruition from this set is Mardu Affinity. No, we won’t tech for Hardened Scales , but the removal suite that we run, in addition to these new artifact creatures (and lands!) is tempting enough to test some brews.

I hope this gives an idea of what we could change for the deck. The list was roughly done in the order of what we would tech in to the current build, but anything is possible! Let me know what you all think.

Edit: some of the cards (Knighted Myr, Mine Collapse, and Bone Shards) did not have the links set up in TappedOut as of the time of this post, so I do apologize for that.

fatalzintomyum on Card creation challenge

2 months ago

Mirrored deathstone

Artifact

Gravestorm

: add and you lose 1 life. If you have lost exactly 5 life this turn, draw a card.

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Looks cool. Crack a bunch of fetches on t3, play this and make 3 copies, tap them and draw some cards, play 3 Death's Shadow , don't mind if I do.

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create another powerstone with a cool ability.