Shabraz, the Skyshark

Legendary Creature — Shark Bird

Partner with Brallin, Shark Rider

Flying

Whenever you draw a card, put a +1/+1 counter on Shabraz, the Skyshark and you gain 1 life.

:Target Human gains flying until end of turn.

Discussion (17)

king-saproling on Oloro Chair Bears

1 month ago

You might like these: Marauding Blight-Priest , Cliffhaven Vampire , Epicure of Blood , Shabraz, the Skyshark , Drogskol Reaver , Psychosis Crawler , Suture Priest , Polluted Bonds , Painful Quandary , Soul Warden , Soul's Attendant , Carnival of Souls , Curse of Fool's Wisdom , Bontu's Monument , Thran Turbine , Nyx-Fleece Ram

hejtmane on Something new.

3 months ago

Nekusar, the Mindrazer wheel deck

Brallin, Skyshark Rider  ^Flip + Shabraz, the Skyshark wheel or discard/draw version

Feather, the Reedemed go a pinger/slinger version instead of voltron equipment strategy

Niv-Mizzet, Parun is really a combo deck

Mizzix of the Izmagnus buyback, NO deck or storm deck options

theleastobvious on Cycle Commander deck. Want to …

4 months ago

So I built a cycle deck Cycle the deck, and destroy everyone based around Brallin, Skyshark Rider  ^Flip and Shabraz, the Skyshark. TBH mostly because a sharkbird is the best card to come out of magic EVER. but now I want this to be a polished deck, any help is wonderful

TotesMcGoats on Wizzardrix (Kwain, Itinerant Meddler)

5 months ago

OatmealBear

The Magic Mirror is some pretty INSANE card draw and we'll have a lot of instants and sorceries to get that cost down, but the ever-increasing non-optional card draw gets me worried about decking myself, so I don't think its necessary either. Once you're drawing even 1 or 2 extra cards a turn, you're really no longer concerned with needing more card advantage. That's why I love the consistency of having Kwain in the Command zone to come down on turn 2 every single game.

Shabraz, the Skyshark was another one that I was actually considering running as the commander before Kwain got spoiled because I liked the life gain and card draw. And I liked the vibe of sitting down at a table and intentionally playing partnerless. But Shabraz is a bit expensive at 5 mana and I doubt he'd ever live for long because of how fast he'd end up getting HUGE and scary and threatening with Flying.

I also considered Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer, but he's not actually as political as I wish he was. I wish he only stopped your opponents creatures from attacking you, like a pseudo-goad effect where we bribe their creatures with cards to not attack us. Alas, he basically just acts like a bad Banisher Priest.

As for Dream Trawler, Shabraz, Consecrated Sphinx and some of the other big creatures I mentioned before, you can definitely run them if you want, you just have to politic a little differently. Instead of playing the fun-loving group hug spectator, treat your creatures more like just another way to protect yourself. Save attacking with them as a last resort, or make sure you ally yourself with the rest of the table to fight against whoever is the biggest threat at the table. You just don't ever want to be that person being ganged up by everyone else, and the problem is that a lot of those creatures tend to end up quickly becoming the biggest threat. I'd say make sure to include a Rogue's Passage so that you can make sure to land the final alpha strike when you need to. People will almost assuredly have bigger boards then you, so we need a guaranteed way of getting through. Glaring Spotlight could be a good include to help you get through hexproof when you need to, or sac it when you want to go for the win.

One of my favorite aspects about this deck though is how we're playing on a completely different access from everyone else. We're here to have fun, speed things up, but also stall things out until we can combo off. Staying off everyone's radar until its too late is its biggest strength. Even if your playgroup KNOWS what your win condition is, our job is to let everyone else be bigger threats for them to have to worry about while we bide our time and set up for the win in our hand.

See, the battlefield is all about transparency. Its where most people play the game from, slowly building up boardstates and engines and scrapping back and forth here and there. Everyone can see what's in play, and who they should be concerned about. That's why I try to keep everything we put into play as unconcerning as possible, meanwhile all of our actual threats, removal, counterspells, and our win conditions, sit invisibly in our hand where no one can see them, so they don't know what to be afraid of, but everything on our battlefield tells them they probably have nothing to worry about, especially if they just leave us alone.

Telepathy is a pet card of mine that I always kind of want to find a way to fit back into the deck because it serves this purpose incredibly well. Everyone ELSE plays with their hands revealed, while you get to keep yours secret. Being able to see EXACTLY what your opponents are capable of and what you might want to save a counterspell for is GREAT for us, but its even better for our opponents to be scared of one another when they get to see every card everyone draws except for you. As good as it is for us, its not a very fun card to play against and people tend to get pretty mad about it and try to get rid of it quickly.

There's a similar issue with Zur's Weirding that seems like it COULD be an interesting inclusion with some fun politics involved, but basically every time it ends up playing out more like a STAX card that stops everyone from drawing cards and loses everyone a bunch of life instead. Its pretty unfun to be honest, and it can most likely be used against us to stop us from drawing our important combo cards, so I didn't include it either. Telepathy I'm still on the fence about.

I also tried out Approach of the Second Sun for a bit, but it had the same issue as Jace and Lab Maniac, its not good on its own, its a bit slow and obvious, and its otherwise kind of a dead draw cuz its not very good on its own. Seeing it in your opening hand is just gross. I think the concern over having a backup plan is understandable, but ultimately kind of unnecessary. I don't think I've really expressed it before, but this deck is consistent. We draw through so many cards and have so many ways of protecting ourselves and our combo that this deck tends to win a lot more than the average 25% of the time if I'm being honest. That's why I think its so important that you make sure the games are fun for everyone at the table and let everyone draw tons of cards and actually play their decks. Its why I like this specific combo too. Everyone ends up with almost their entire decks in their hands and it becomes one final ultimate showdown battle where everyone is furiously digging through their massive hand-libraries to try to find a way to stop you, and for you to try to stop them back. And if they do manage to do it, good for them! They deserve it!

OatmealBear on Wizzardrix (Kwain, Itinerant Meddler)

5 months ago

Thanks again! All of the explanations here make a lot of sense. I guess I was thinking of Mirrodin Besieged as a semi win con if you have a sizable graveyard, but there’s probably enough effects in your build to keep you from discarding and so the graveyard would only be the counterspells and maybe permanents that get destroyed.

You’ve covered some of my other questions in your previous comments like replacing mana crypt, etc. for budgetary reasons, but I did want to get your opinion on a couple creatures. I was considering running Dream Trawler and Shabraz, the Skyshark with the thought of having a backup plan to beat face if necessary - I’m curious if you think this is unnecessary or may be perceived as too threatening when opponents see how they can grow each turn?

Last thing, I was thinking Approach of the Second Sun could be a good alternate way to win with all the cards we’re drawing here. Would you say that, again, this is too obvious if someone were to look through the deck?

Peoni on windmill

7 months ago

Some cards that you might like: Brallin, Skyshark Rider  ^Flip, Shabraz, the Skyshark, Rielle, the Everwise, The Locust God, Psychosis Crawler, Burning Inquiry, Molten Psyche, Narset, Parter of Veils, Alms Collector, a Niv-Mizzet of your choice perhaps, Fevered Visions, Magus of the Jar, Wheel of Fate, Teferi's Puzzle Box, Winds of Change and I'll stop myself there lol.

Something you could do that might be cool would be to run a lot of cards like Dictate of Kruphix, Kami of the Crescent Moon, and Howling Mine to boost everybody's draw (might make them consider not killing you lol). That would rip the rug out from under everybody and make your wheels that much more impactful. Make them discard 12 cards instead of 6 or 7! Plus you're getting them closer to drawing on an empty deck.

To add to your fort cards I would recommend perhaps Silent Arbiter since you aren't trying to swing out anyway and it fits your Pariah combo quite well, and Crawlspace.

As far as card draw goes, my favorites are targeted X spells like Blue Sun's Zenith and Stroke of Genius as they could always be upgraded to kill tools with an infinite source of mana i.e. Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter and I just like them a lot. If you decided to pursue group draw you could also experiment with stuff like Prosperity, Minds Aglow, and Fascination (you said you like options right?). Along with this I would add to your ability to win off of self mill with Thassa's Oracle and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries so that Lab Man has some friends.

I know you're running some recursion yourself but this deck has the potential to seriously fuel opposing decks with heavy graveyard interaction as their motif, for obvious reasons lol. Since you have have access to white you could always try Rest in Peace for the complete shutdown, and then maybe a Grafdigger's Cage just as another piece of graveyard hate. Alternatively, you might prefer cards with one time effects like Relic of Progenitus and Scavenger Grounds.. or you could mix and match! Up to you.

FINALLY, (yes I know, we're finally at the end) I would honestly just replace many of the dual lands you have that come in tapped with basics. I just personally don't enjoy having my lands come in tapped while everyone else gets ahead, and I really feel like basics are actually better than tapped lands even if they don't have the versatility or effects. Of course shocks and duals and fetches would always be nice, but we're trying to stay in budget so I'd just stick to the basics.

I know it's long but I just really enjoy researching cards and learning about different strats so I usually get carried away. I tried to stick with recommendations that stay under $10 but a few over the limit might've slipped through. I like your deck, hope this helped! :^)

king-saproling on Loot the Bodies

7 months ago

Interesting deck. Have you considered Varina, Lich Queen as the general? She costs less than Oloro and she digs through the deck faster since her loot effect can be magnified by making zombies.

You might like these too: Havengul Lich, Dance of the Dead, Necromancy, Zur the Enchanter, Sun Titan, Alhammarret's Archive, Teferi's Ageless Insight, Rags / Riches, Adorned Pouncer, Vizier of Many Faces, Archfiend of Ifnir, Shabraz, the Skyshark, Stitcher's Supplier, Connive / Concoct, Lazav, the Multifarious

MagicMarc on Flight of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

7 months ago

I found how to add alters to a deck and added this as an alter to T/O. Thank you to hyperlocke and Femme_Fatale for all their hard work to make T/O what it is.

If anyone does want to add the Flying Tigers as an alter for Shabraz, the Skyshark this is what you do:

Edit your deck, then use the Quick Add function and find Shabraz, the Skyshark. There is a small check box that says Alter. Check the box. then in the alter code section put in the following number: 24898. This should then add Shabraz with the Flying Tigers art to the deck.

You can also add it like this in any of the open card areas: 1x Shabraz, the Skyshark A=24898.