Cast a Shadow
Modern
SCORE: 150 | 314 COMMENTS | 26188 VIEWS | IN 75 FOLDERS
3rd at WNM 3-2-0 —July 6, 2016
Got beaten in the final. Only games I lost.
1-0 Control Mirror Match
Played a cocky little shit first up. You know the type: no chit chat, blank face, every play is srs bsns. Has obviously played in quite a few GPs (I checked the last fact).
He was playing the pro version of the deck. I riled him about that, trying to get into his head a bit.
Told him my version was probably weaker because it didn't have as much flexibility. Like hell it was.
Outran him in the first game with more cards that ripped spells from hand, more cards to deal with Sorin, Grim Nemesis and the like, and more life gain options.
Killed him with my Sorin and an Ob Nixilis Reignited Emblem.
Sided in Tainted Remedy which worked like a charm, putting him on a faster clock.
Second game went to turns. On Turn 5 he was on 4 life with an Ob Nix Emblem. I used my Ob to draw, putting him on 2 life, then hit with a Shambling Vent. He destroyed the Vent. I said to him, "You just COULDN'T let me win, could you?" He smiled because he thought I was joking. I wasn't.
A couple of more turns and the second game would easily have been mine.
I never seem to be able to win on turns.
2-0 Seasons Past
I did an illegal thing and switched decks for this match up, to Blockage.
I did that because my Control deck had thrashed this guy last week and he had gotten so discouraged. I was sure he would beat me easily.
I was so wrong.
What happened was that he had a shockingly bad draw, and I had a perfect one.
My Creatures stuck around for the most part, I was able to dispatch his, then the Unblockable nature of my deck finished him off.
One game I had a 4/4 Land Creature that I made with Roil Spout and he was on 1 life.
He was planning to block my Creature, but then I made it Unblockable with Rogue's Passage.
His inexperience showed in that he had been doing some good work with Hissing Quagmire. He played Duress, removed Declaration in Stone from my hand, leaving a Celestial Flare untouched.
He then hit with just the Hissing Quagmire, which I promptly dispatched with the Flare.
We played a third friendly game and he kicked my arse. Just had insanely bad luck with the first two.
0-2 Bullshit
This deck had been developed by one of the shop employees and was being played by another employee.
It had just come 15th in a local GP.
The employee playing it had notes for how to Sideboard.
While we were playing the person who built it came over to watch the game, and pointed out a trigger that my Opponent had missed.
I told him to either keep quiet or shove off. Except much nicer.
I couldn't remove all the Creatures in this deck, as he had a lot, and he also had a lot of Counter spells.
A lot of the Creatures were outside Languish range, like Brood Monitor.
For game two he Sided out all his Counter spells and sided in Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher, which just made my life even tougher. I had Sided out all my Creatures.
He told me later that I should have put more Creatures in. Thing is, all the Creatures I have are in the Mainboard.
Something to think about, I guess.
Once again, dispatched in the final. Extremely salty that such a strong deck had been chosen to play in a fairly weak field.
Once again, Shambling Vent proved invaluable. Good doggy.
Any G/W list worth it's salt is main decking Dromoka's Command. On the surface Virulent Plague is amazing, but the reality of it is bad.
To be honest, you'd be better running Drana, Liberator of Malakir or offensive with evasion to combat the suite of planeswalkers.
June 30, 2016 7:56 a.m.
AgentGreen says... #3
I wonder how you're going to make use of the EHM cards in this deck
June 30, 2016 10:37 a.m.
razelfark I can easily beat that Raptors deck Post-Sideboard. So much Exile with both Declaration in Stone and Anguished Unmaking.
In fact, people have stopped playing Raptor decks in my local meta due to those two cards.
I've playtested Virulent Plague against GW Tokens and it's useless. Dromoka's Command kills it dead and there ARE actually other things in the deck that aren't Tokens, yet problematic, like Sylvan Advocate.
The other issue is that you only need two Gideon Emblems on the field and Virulent Plague has minimal impact. Once Tokens survive, Nissa is there to pump them up.
I tested Secure the Wastes and it just wasn't as effective as other cards in the deck. Well, at least in my meta.
It just took up slots for far better cards.
If you read back over my match reports, this deck has beaten most of the other recent archetypes. When it hasn't that's mostly been due to misplays by me.
AgentGreen I honestly don't know. I'll wait to see if there are any cards that look strictly better than what I already have because this thing has been working so well.
It has amazing synergy with the available life gain, hand disruption, removal for all types of permanents, etc.
People usually groan when they find out that have been matched up against it.
The only thing I will say is that it has been kind of a disheartening deck to play, from that point of view.
I may even retire it and move on to something new next season. I miss 
and 
.
June 30, 2016 12:22 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #5
I wouldn't retire it, I'd try to make it better using the EHM cards
razelfark says... #1
Sorry for helping PlaugeRats tweak his deck and giving you problems with that (Nissa, Gideon, and lots of Deathmist Raptors). :D
A card you might want to consider if you are having issues with token focus decks is Virulent Plague. It is entirely meant for the sideboard as you can see, and will shut them down completely with just one on the board (most of the time at least). I have used it with great success and highly recommend.
Also curious, why are you not making use of Secure the Wastes? It seems like a strong card for you to easily include as another way to kill your opponent. I assume you are just patient enough to try and have Ob do all the work or one of your few creatures do the dead.
June 30, 2016 7:51 a.m.