What about Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord he would be nice late game if your maxing out at 4 mana and you can use his sac creature ability to hit them for as much as 13 with a deaths shadow

If I wanted to run Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord I would just run Rite of Consumption , DimirDan. It costs two less, and does the same thing. But I didn't because I hate having a dead card, as I have to have a powerful enough Death's Shadow for it to become useful. Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord is basically the same thing, except that it's mana cost is way too pricey for me to be comfortable enough to use. He won't come out till like turn 6-8 or so and that is too long for this deck.

There is also cards like Spoils of the Vault and Plunge into Darkness which can be used to buff up your Death's Shadow and also find key cards and the like.

Spoils of the Vault and Plunge into Darkness have also very excellent synergy with Angel's Grace .

And not to mention Phyrexian Unlife , tho' Plunge into Darkness doesn't work that well with either, as you can't pay life you don't have, but it's still really great, see it as a smaller Spoils of the Vault ~

@ Colgate and Infral:

Spoils of the Vault and Plunge into Darkness don't synergize with Angel's Grace at all because Angel's Grace doesn't prevent loss of life, only damage. Both of those cards don't deal damage. They'll be good with Phyrexian Unlife , but since they will require too much life, I can't use them without Phyrexian Unlife . I say this because after using them, I have put myself at a serious disadvantage as it wouldn't take much to finish me off. Thusly, it kinda defeats the purpose of a tutor if I need the card I want to to tutor to be able to tutor that card.

Well, the whole idea with either, is mainly to make your Death's Shadow gigantic and hit for the win alongside the Angel's Grace and Phyrexian Unlife c:

I think you have Phyrexian Unlife 's ability wrong, once you hit 0 or less life, no more damage can be dealt to you normally, but you get infect counters on you.

Unless I'm missing something.

life loss does not count as a damage source tothemax99 look it up

have you considered Lightning Greaves and / or Rogue's Passage

• an unblockable or hasty Death's Shadow is crucial. he has no other abilities and can be easily blocked with 1/1s and such.

another possible idea would be adding Canopy Cover

• Hexproof, i feel, is quite useful in hatred modern, lol. Plus, he essentially gives your Death's Shadow flying!

• the even better part is that you get to return your creature AND Canopy Cover to your hand with Orzhov Charm in response to enchantment removal, then play it again next turn. Or you can just Orzhov Charm to get Canopy Cover back just to cast on another creature(:

thoughts?

You attack with your shadows. If your opponent doesn't block at least one of your shadow. Before combat damage is dealt you cast Spoils of the Vault and keep priority, then you cast Angel's Grace . When Spoils of the Vault resolves, you name Rampant Growth , exile your library, your unblocked shadows are about 40/40. Why this is not synery in your opinion?

looks like a TON of comments, but I would like to say some things about them: one, if you mulligan, you can't cheat the leyline's into play, becase the mulligan hand isn't your opening one. two, I'd put in some optinal life gain abilities, like kickers, becuase you have to run that fine balance between life to high and dead. I know you mentionsed that negitive life becuase of Phyrexian Unlife would cause pumps on the death's shadow, but this card never gives you negitive life. Posion counters are given INSTEAD of damage, so your life will never be lower than 0 with that out. This can suck with the combo stated above this comment. (get 40 poision counters and kill youself; sounds like fun) Just putting it out there. If you were to run that green creature that negates posion counters, you could just run one of her, I mean, yea, she's onyl helpful with Phyrexian Unlife out. The trouble with your "aggro" aproach to this deck is the speed at whiich you can: A) get your life total down, B) protect your low life total from Boros Charm , and C) get Death's Shadow out and not have him chump blocked. By the time you can do that, I would think aggro decks would have swarmed you, control decks would have counterspells for everything ,and midrange would have removal for the key cards.

Phyrexian Unlife has nothing to do with life loss. Just taking damage cause poison counters, not losing life.

i never heard of it being possible to have negative life. I don't think that's a rule, guys. It would be cool, but no. It doesn't work that way.

Dreno33: You should check up the ruling on Death's Shadow , it states clearly that it's possible c:

i stand corrected. however, i find that to be kind of dumb. oh well, cheers to ya

After playing a lot of modern I suggest just more fetchlands if you can afford (Verdant Catacombs , plus maybe one Forest to fetch for) rather than City of Brass /Gemstone Caverns . Seems like a really fun deck although if you run out of Angel's Grace you'll probably just get a Lightning Bolt thrown at you.

You commented about Essence Scatter and honestly it doesn't see very much play, if you're concerned about counterspells you'd want Cavern of Souls , but your creatures don't seem to really share any subtypes

i need to ask Femme_Fatale what ecactly are you planing to do with this deck?

taking it to tournenments? games with fellow modern players for fun? if you dont want to anwser thats fine

@ Colgate, Infral, Dreno33 and timothy130130

Many people seem to be getting the idea for this deck wrong. This is a tempo deck, meaning its sole purpose is to build up my board presence and decrease my opponents at the same time in order to win. All the cards synergize with each other in some form of way, but what people have been suggesting are combos, not overall deck synergy. I do not want a card that requires for me to have another card on the field nor in my hand. Such cards become dead cards too frequently. While I normally do enjoy combos a great deal, it's not what this deck wants, and it doesn't work with this deck. If a card's purpose is to only work with one other card in this deck than don't suggest it, as the cards I have chosen work to increase my tempo on their own, but have additional effects that create this deck's synergy. As such a card that relies only on working with other cards, does not apply to the tempo theme of this deck.

For a better idea on tempo, this WotC article should shine some light on this deck as my explanations aren't always good.

Did I create this tempo deck after reading this article? No, I found Death's Shadow and wanted to make a deck around it. But what I found during play-testing, was it required a certain type of cards and playing style to work. I quickly realized that I had no knowledge on tempo as to the best definitions of it, but from proper research (a weeks worth or so) and play-testing I was able to determine how this deck should be built.

A new deck description may be in order. It seems I should focus on the tempo aspect for this description rather than the function aspect.

When I say Essence Scatter , miloguy, I mean Mana Leak , Delay , Dissolve , Remand , Cancel , Pact of Negation , Dissipate , Counterflux , so on and so forth. Also about the fetches, this deck runs a lot better without the green fetches. If you look at the updates, you'll see. City of Brass is any mana AND includes deck synergy whenever I want. It is also more important mid-late game than early game. Early game I want to fetch into an untapped shock. Taking 3 damage puts me closer to an earlier Death's Shadow . Late game I have already lost too much life from fetch -> shock and just need to control and limit my life loss while still having a large portion of mana open, City of Brass is just that. Gemstone Caverns is also any mana, but as I frequently find myself with 6+ mana if the games get to long I don't have to worry about having lands die. If it gets tedious I'll put back in the green fetches and shocks.

@ timothy130130

Phyrexian Unlife prevents DAMAGE, not LOSS OF LIFE. Those are two different terms. Also, you have to know how to play against each archetype of deck. Against control, you aggro. For aggro you abuse this deck's synergy. For mid-range you play mid-range. While yes mid-range will be the toughest opponent as mid-range is "like a tempo deck" and tempo decks can easily keep up with other tempo decks, but it would be difficult for them as well because I too house removal, I too house powerful creatures, I too know how to play around my opponent's deck to win the game. I played limited style when I first started Magic, so playing a deck a completely different way to match another deck is what I can do easily. You just have to learn when certain cards are best used and how you should use them. As for the life-gain, life-gain is anti-synergy. I used to run Vault Skirge but lost many a game because I didn't lose enough life. So I took it out. If you can find me a kicker option however, that would be greatly appreciated, as just Angel's Grace isn't enough at times. I do think that you'll be hard-pressed to find one I'm interested in main-boarding though.

8/15/2010 Your "opening hand" is the hand of cards you decide to start the game with after taking any mulligans.8/15/2010 After all players have decided not to take any more mulligans, if the starting player has any Leylines in his or her hand, he or she may put any or all of them onto the battlefield. Then each other player in turn order may do the same.

@ Dreno33 ... dammit Dreno, remove the numbers from your name! I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out why T/O wouldn't link your name!

Never suggest Rogue's Passage . Never! In modern there are soo many better alternatives to it that you should never be wasting a land slot in your deck for a turn 5-7 ability proc. However I do understand your concerns with blocking and heavy removal. I am running Golgari Charm for the token and chump block and toughness one in aggro and ramp. Though Lightning Greaves and Canopy Cover are good suggestions. However, Canopy Cover isn't hexproof, it's better than hexproof Enchanting it onto my opponent's creature means that they can't target their own creature anymore. Also, it isn't a keyword, so the ability can't be prevented by Glaring Spotlight . I do however believe that it should only be used in certain scenarios, as I have reanimator with Orzhov Charm as well. So I think I'll remove Surgical Extraction and Extirpate from the sideboard for Canopy Cover and Lightning Greaves as I have enough removal to not worry too much about combo decks, for the moment that is.

This is just a deck amishrambo, I play Magic really for the deck-building. As for actual playing with others, I don't really, besides OCTGN. My LGS doesn't do modern too much and most play only standard. I make decks for the challenge that is making them, and it helps keep my mind active against the false life that is video games, shows and literature.

and Femme_Fatale is easier to type off of memory? lol

and yes i understand Canopy Cover , hex proof is just so much quicker to type haha.

but anyways, i DOUBT you would want to enchant their creature with Canopy Cover since you have no blockers once its in enchanted, because i'm pretty sure 99% of the time they are targeting their own creature because it is a hitter. Not smart to make that creature in its current state unblock able. just kill that bitch, lol

cool thanks! I have always wondered how someone would make a deck where Death's Shadow is at his best.

If you change your mind and take off the green splash you could put the Ratchet Bomb to deal with artifacts and enchantments. Andfi youre willing to loose life fast also Vendetta might be useful.

Death's Shadow decks are very intriguing to play Grabnar, they teach you the best ways to make the most out of every bit a card has to offer, and it teaches you how to effectively use your life as a resource.

Unfortunately Strosso89, Ratchet Bomb is way too risky for me to use. I can't be having my board presence be wiped out along with my opponents, as that can easily cost me the game. A lot of people suggest Vendetta , but my question to them is how is it better than what I have now? Orzhov Charm does the same thing to any creature and has bonus effects added to it, and Path to Exile out-right ... exiles anything. I have to maintain a balance between life-loss, and damage from my opponent, as if I lose too much life, it doesn't take much to kill me. At the moment most of my life-loss is done from my lands and Dark Confidant , and it is fairly effective in that regard.

Ratchet Bomb is good, in your case, for all the creatures that cost 3 or more mana and you meet a lot of them during the games. Of course sometimes you might have to destroy your own creatures so has to be used carefully. Anyway I see your point and Abrupt Decay is just perfect, so if you feel comfortable with the green splash you dont need the Ratchet Bomb , but consider that used properly has the effect of Abrupt and Maelstrom Pulse , so just think about it.Concerning Vendetta , the thing that has more then the Orzhov Charm is that costs 1 mana less (which is the white one btw); that said the Charm* has other two powers which is very good, as well Path to Exile , imao in the best three removal of modern, and yes you have already good stuff to make you loose some life, but, my point is about the priorities you may have about the mana you want to spend for the spell. thats why Vendetta . I always think that there are ways to use as less splashes as possible. Again, that said, it is your choice, the cards are good, just since Im the unpteenth guy that suggests Vendetta maybe you should give a try, of course if you havent done already.