The following parameters determine the strength of the deck. For each, a score of 5 (very good), 4 (good), 3 (mediocre), 2 (bad) or 1 (very bad) is allocated; when totalized this score represents the power rating of the deck.
- Mana: indicates the availability of energy-sources within the deck.
- Ramp: indicates the speed at which mana sources within the deck can be made available.
- Card Advantage: indicates availability of filter- and draw resources represented within the deck.
- Overall speed: indicates the deck’s potential for pace, based on resource availability and mana curve.
- Combo: indicates the measure of combo-orientation of the deck.
- Army: indicates the deck’s creature-army strength.
- Commander: indicates how much the deck is commander-oriented/dependent (less dependency is better).
- Interaction: indicates how much this deck can mess with opponents’ board states and turn-phases.
- Resilience: indicates the measure in which the deck can prevent and take punches.
- Spellpower: indicates the availability and strength of high-impact spells.
Mana: 3
Additional sources of mana can be found in a few rocks (four of them), an instant mana spell, two permanents that generate massive amounts of treasure and a black mana battery that gets charged whenever something dies.
Ramp: 1
White has some excellent land-fetching available, though only in exceptional cases will it allow for said lands to be both searched and played immediately. Three ramp cards have been added in this deck, two of which allow for searching while the third allows one only to play an additional land.
Card Advantage: 5
The way in which this deck generates advantage over others, is by first demolishing as many creatures as possible and then following this up with resurrection spells/permanents that target the graves of whatever was just demolished. No fewer than nice cards have been added for specifically this purpose. Then there’s seven more conventional draw enablers as well as three tutor spells.
Overall speed: 4
An abundance of resources, both in the form of mana as well as card advantage, combined with a low average cost, makes this deck rather fast-paced. Most of its offensive power lies in removal, most of which can be cast from as early as turn two or even one. Higher cost stuff are mostly spells that steal from opposing graveyards, but these aren’t necessary during the early game anyway.
Combo: 1
Not much going on in terms of combos, though the deck does feature a single combination that can get rid of all opposing creatures within a single turn. Mostly, its controller can benefit from plenty of synergy provided through kill-spells that feed permanents that benefit from stuff that dies.
Army: 3
About half of the deck’s creatures can be considered resource generators or other types of support, while the rest is comprised of some strong battle-cruiser type figures. Note that five of its creatures have been added because they can eliminate creatures easily without ever needing to attack.
Commander: 4
During early game phases, Shay is usually not needed, as the creatures that feature stronger defenses won’t appear until the midgame starts. Even when such threats appear, some redundancy has been built in to ensure Shay never becomes essential to the deck’s strategic options.
Interaction: 5
To a large degree, this is what the deck is all about. It’s here to cast spells against opposing creatures and chew bubblegum, and it’s all out of bubblegum! It contains an amazing seven permanents that can destroy creatures as well as sixteen non-permanent spells with a similar purpose.
Resilience: 4
A plethora of recursion options are at one’s disposal to retrieve creatures (from any graveyard) to ensure the deck’s continued survival. Ten of such cards, five of which are permanents, can be deployed for such a purpose. The deck also features a bit of life-gain, two options to be precise.
Spellpower: 4
Quite a lot of high-powered spell-casting available within this deck. Plenty of strong resource spells, even stronger destruction spells and massively powerful recursion spells. Four mass-creature disposal spells, three all-count recursion spells and at least two mass resource spells.
Total power score: 34
Powerful! Considering that most EDH decks are creature-heavy, this deck is in many ways the perfect antidote. Destroying creatures takes far fewer resources than summoning powerful ones, and that’s a major advantage. It even has a decent shot against decks that instead of singular large threats, use vast token armies to rake in wins. This deck is fast and can react well to a plethora of opposing threats. Best of all, is that it can literally reap the rewards from its destructive sprees and use these for its own gains.
