Land (20)
Sorcery (7)
Creature (18)
Instant (15)
Sideboard
Instant (9)
Creature (2)
Artifact (4)
Maybeboard
Creature (1)
Some years ago I tried my hand at building a Death's Shadow deck, but it was a rather poor turnout. I hid it out of shame, and there it has remained on my profile ever since, taunting me. I wanted to rectify that, and figured if I can’t build something good, I can darn well build something unwieldy and preposterous. This is the end of those efforts; my only friend, The End.
Behold! My take on Death's Shadow.
This was probably one of the more entertaining aspects of the build. All the drawbacks associated with the various land subtypes suddenly become positives that advance the game in our favor. The incidental chip damage from Shocklands, Painlands and Fetchlands sap our life total in a controlled manner, edging us (giggity) ever closer to a viable Death's Shadow.
Aside from actual lands, Elvish Mystic and Elves of Deep Shadow make an appearance. A bit of ramp is necessary if we intend to make meaningful use of a certain combo discussed further below.
A staple for any Death's Shadow deck, Dark Confidant does a few things and it does them well.
It’ll keep our hand replenished, which is quite handy owing to our overall low mana curve, and it’ll contribute nicely toward our ever diminishing life total. Expect to lose 2-3 life points per turn, and if things start to drift toward the danger zone simply sacrifice it by soaking up combat damage with a block or self-target it with Abrupt Decay.
Make getting this card into play as quickly as possible a priority above all else, and know when to nuke it. We run 4x so there’s no pressing need to keep it around longer than necessary.
We want to lose life steadily and consistently, but sometimes our opponent can be just a little too eager to help out. Knowing what to cancel/kill/prevent and when is an acquired skill, so always be mindful of your life total and the estimated number of Turns until Death's Shadow can be cast in such a way that it makes a significant impact.
To aid in stifling things that are an immediate threat, we run the following countermeasures:
•Thoughtseize gets rid of something before it can pose a problem.
•Abrupt Decay obliterates anything with a cmc of 3 or less, and without fear of reprisal.
•Assassin's Trophy is a similar ‘In Emergency, Break Glass’ type spell. Extremely versatile, and depending on precisely when this card is played, the free land drop for the opponent might be nearly worthless. More on that later.
•Collective Brutality can be a Thoughtseize Jr. or a bit of bonus life to pull us out of the red if necessary. Also handily sidesteps Indestructible by going after a creature’s numerical stats directly. Not as effective as Dismember, but I opted for utility over specificity, and we run the other card in the sideboard anyway.
•Death's Shadow is the Alpha Male, the GigaChad, the ‘Hey girl, I see you checking the bulge in my gray sweatpants’ card.
Ideally we’d like it to enter somewhere around the 8/8 to 10/10 range, wherein we can put it to work without being an inch away from death ourselves. This is easily the most difficult aspect of playing a DS build, and one can only become proficient through trial and error. Keep at it, expect to lose a few games due to your own mistakes and miscalculations regarding exactly how much of a life point buffer you think you’ll need, and gradually you’ll get a sense of when the danger zone is creeping up on you.
•Phase One of the combo, Natural Affinity is a grand old card and one of the scant few that can turn your opponent’s lands into creatures as well as your own. It’s quick acting but not long lasting, so you need to make sure you have an extra (or the full if your life total is as yet too high) on hand for the next step.
•Phase Two, The End is about as aptly named a card as ever there was one. It’s like a costlier, more impactful version of Surgical Extraction with less of a restriction of efficacy. With the advance forethought of the previous card, we can abuse The End and use it to strip away most of the basic lands of our choice. Target a recently animated Mountain or Plains or what have you, and essentially all the rest of those lands that aren’t already in play are blasted to oblivion.
It’s not a perfect system; it only clears one copy of a land that’s actually in play, and even with a bit of ramp courtesy of our elves it’s a pricey combo to pull off. But manage to do so and it’s entirely worth the effort.
•Get Dark Confidant into play as early as possible to capitalize on card advantage and to jump start life-loss.
•Exercise good judgment by allowing permissible amounts of combat damage through in conjunction with self-inflicted life loss from our Shock-Pain-Fetchlands, with the intention of gradually lowering our life total in a controlled manner to maximize the potential of Death's Shadow.
•Hamstring your opponent’s ability to even play the game by casting Natural Affinity then The End at a discount, nuking a large portion of their available mana base.
•Circumvent more dangerous threats with Thoughtseize, Abrupt Decay, etc.
•Cast Death's Shadow and Steel Leaf Champion and attack for huge damage.
Sideboard isn’t set in stone, I just went with some probables.
•Pithing Needle felt like a good add owing to the multitude of activated abilities that can jeopardize our gameplan.
•Tamiyo's Safekeeping to protect Death's Shadow as it’s surprisingly fragile and a magnet for removal.
•Dismember and Spore Frog as removal and a ‘Fog waiting in the wings’ (may replace with just plain Fog, not sure yet).
•Feed the Clan felt like a safe inclusion, sort of a ‘backup parachute’ thing. It’ll almost certainly destroy a Death's Shadow if we have one in play, but better to try fallback on Steel Leaf Champion then be wiped out with no further recourse.
”I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Suggestions
Updates Add
Comments
Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!
Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax
Please login to comment
Casual
97% Competitive
Revision 1 See all
(3 weeks ago)
| -1 | Assassin's Trophy | main |
| -1 | Collective Brutality | main |
| +4 | Elves of Deep Shadow | main |
| +2 | Elvish Mystic | main |
| -4 | Surgical Extraction | main |
| Top Ranked |
|
| Date added | 3 weeks |
| Last updated | 3 weeks |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 4 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 4 Rares 4 - 0 Uncommons 0 - 9 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.05 |
| Folders | Practice for Modern |
| Votes | |
| Ignored suggestions | |
| Shared with | |
| Views |