Add creeping tarpit and you’re golden

Good call, my dude. I was originally trying to fit Underground River in here but Creeping Tar Pit definitely feels correct.

Why Deprive ?

In theory, you'd bounce a Watery Grave so you could deal two more damage to yourself.

This deck is very interesting and I know it has roots in the legacy variant, but modern is a lot different than legacy. What is the motivation to go for modern DS?

Also, I do not feel that Creeping Tar Pit is desired for this deck. You want all of your lands to come in untapped for any DS list to make sure you can be proactive from the start. With so few lands in these lists, is would be really painful to have to play a tap land on T1 and miss either set up with cantrips or hand hate and delay the game farther, then try to hold up your counter magic on T2 and have to take another turn to set up after... Shadow can be at times an off to the races deck so having to potentially wait until turn 3 or 4 to play a threat would be detrimental.

I dropped the third color because I wanted to solidify my manabase. There were just too many times where i'd have a Blood Crypt and/or Bloodstained Mire in my opening hand with nothing but cantrips and counterspells; Steam Vents and Scalding Tarn with nothing but Thoughtseize , Death's Shadow , etc. Dropping just simplified the strategy for me.

Also, you are 100% correct on Creeping Tar Pit ; i don't plan to make room for it in the Mainboard. It seemed like a good idea at first but, as you said, the ETB tapped is just too slow for this deck. Thanks for the input and the +1.

Maybe I'm just overly nitpicky, but I feel like Snapcaster Mage is directly impacting Gurmag Angler .

I didn't think of this earlier, but since you're in you don't have the combo type finish that Grixis Shadow has between Dismember and Temur Battle Rage ... I see that you have Liliana of the Veil in the maybe board, but it might be a decent idea to run the list a little more control style with Liliana of the Veil , Liliana, the Last Hope and Jace, the Mind Sculptor . Just an idea, don't know if it's necessary, that might help with some threat density issues and give another plan of attack.

Catpocolypse while it looks and seems like Snapcaster Mage hurts delve (because to some degree it does) but it is extremely important to decks like this. Thoughtscour, Street Wraith , Serum Visions and the hand hate put cards in the graveyard nearly for free at an extremely high rate, so the counteractive feeling gets balanced out. Also, while it doesn't always seem so, Snappy can be an extremely effective threat when holding deprives, countersqualls and even hand hate to protect.

I like the idea of this deck, but its tricky to judge without a full sideboard plan. It almost feels like it should be a Tasigur, the Golden Fang /maindeck lurrus list, where you are grindy value against some matchups, and racing with delver the rest, siding in or out relevant spells to gear appropriately.

Do you have any suggestions for a sideboard plan? I’ve tried to cover as many bases as possible but there may still be something I’m overlooking.

Have you considered Stubborn Denial ? really great counterspell in a deck like this

Yes I am running two in the side. It’s a toss up right now between Stubborn Denial or Counterspell . Counterspell might prove to be the two-of and be sided in where appropriate.

Ah I see. Also my all time favorite card to run in Shadow decks is Killing Wave , although it works a lot better in a deck like zazen's 10 rack shadow deck than something like this. I think it might still be worth testing in the sideboard and comparing it with Engineered Explosives / Yahenni's Expertise .

What is Trickbind ever doing that is actually relevant, especially for the cost of a whole card and two mana? I know it can hit fetchlands but two mana for maybe stone raining your opponent doesn't seem worth it, especially when it isn't proactive and could be more hand disruption like Grief and Inquisition of Kozilek . Speaking of Grief, that card seems like something you should consider as a disruptive element early especially since with only a u/b deck you have a lot to enable it. It also makes Scourge of the Skyclaves a lot better if your want to run that since it is an early way to apply pressure.

Having only 17 lands is also extremely greedy, assuming a 56 card deck with Street Wraith you only have about a 75% chance of hitting your first two lands drops, which your absolutely need to do to play delve threats and counterspells on curve. Neither of your cantrips has good unconditional selection like Serum Visions or Opt do which means hitting lands is even less consistent. If you really don't want to get flooded you could play some off colour horizon lands like Nurturing Peatland .

I'm also not sure what you're bringing Diabolic Edict against. Most of the creature decks like U/R Prowess, Company and Ephemerate don't really care too much since they're so threat dense and shadow isn't really seeing play anymore since the meta is so hostile to it.

Grief was actually why I’m testing out Trickbind . I know it probably won’t work out. Lol I’m pretty much grasping at straws right now trying to hold the deck together in its current shell. And with MH2 looming the maybeboard just keeps growing...only a matter of time before this one probably just goes on the shelf.

I think that 17 lands is fine for this list for several reasons, mostly because this deck is actually 52 cards in theory (4x Street Wraith , 4x Mishra's Bauble ). That said, the graveyard is being extremely taxed with 4 expensive delve creatures and 2 Snapcaster Mage s in the list, plus you want to be able to support Drown in the Loch ... I feel that Murktide Regent and Tasigur, the Golden Fang don't fit into this list very well unfortunately. I agree that Counterspell is probably much better off as a 2-of, but I don't know if it should be in the main or in the side.

I don't know if this helped any, but I think that MH2 can make this deck feel more similar to Legacy Shadow lists due to Grief and Counterspell , but Force of Negation is not Force of Will and clearly the cantrips are less than ideal in Modern. Murktide Regent might be a ton better than I am expecting, but it is much less explosive than Gurmag Angler and cannot come down on turn-2 no matter what you do (unless you're opening hand has 4 "free" spells, 2 fetches, and the drake).

All of your points are valid but Drown in the Loch only cares about the spell’s/creature’s controller’s graveyard, not ours. I want Murktide Regent to be good but the argument against it is the same as Tombstalker : 2 mana is more than 1. And in a deck that doesn’t want a long game, that’s huge. Tasigur, the Golden Fang is a one-of here for the same reason but it potentially allows me to save, something for Snapcaster Mage if I need to. He is not here for his ability. Grief will have a home here soon. I’m still trying to find the correct place for Counterspell . It does belong, just unsure where.

I always forget Drown in the Loch is your opponents graveyard, so that doesn't impact you nearly as much as I initially thought!

How often do you feel that Dismember and Fatal Push are needed? One thought I have when I look at this list is to remove 1 piece of removal and 1 Stubborn Denial to make room for 2 maindeck Counterspell . Ferocious is relatively consistent in shadow decks, but there is a chance to not have it at the right time and Counterspell combined with the hand hate can be similar to a removal spell!

The deck is at 57 currently. We could add a land and two Counterspell without changing anything main board. We could use what you suggest and possibly add more hand hate? Grief ?

Hmmmm, I think that would work for now so you can feel that out a bit!

For adding Grief , it is a little more difficult and I personally feel that 3 would be the perfect number--however, we need enough black left in the deck to support it consistently. If two Counterspell are going into the main, then maybe two Stubborn Denial s are shifted to the side but that would be too much hand hate for the deck.... I think this should put you at 60/15:

Maindeck:

+1 Blood Crypt

+2 Counterspell

+3 Grief

-1 Stubborn Denial

-1 Inquisition of Kozilek

-1 Thoughtseize

Sideboard:

+2 Temur Battle Rage (allows for a fast finish against combo decks with Grief protection)

+1 Stubborn Denial

-1 Ceremonious Rejection (counterspell is really filling this slot against traditional tron anyway AND it's better into Eldrazi )

If you wanted to test out Murktide Regent still, I think it may work, but you'd need to revise your / balance in the maindeck. I know I'll be playing that card as a 2-of in my BlueMoon shell(s).

I just saw in the new description that you don't want TBR so you can ignore that if you want! I don't blame you for not wanting, when I play shadow strategies I run and a much more control style list! LOL

Looks like this current iteration is going to be as good as it gets without splashing or building around Lurrus of the Dream-Den …or just going . Thanks all for your help.

In the short period of time where I built and played UB shadow online with some new cards like Infernal Grasp and Murktide, 1-2 Rite of Consumption has been pretty decent. The fact that if you have 2 shadows it kills your other shadow kind of sucks, but it has definitely won me a few games. It can also buy you a bit more time if you're racing for your murktide to finish them off.

Wait, does Rite of Consumption check Death's Shadow’s actual power or its power when it’s on the board?

on the board