Awesome thank you for the input! I've only been playing the deck for 48 or so hours so i still have a lot of questions but what you say makes perfect sense since I'm used to the better cantrip math from legacy. Anyways I do agree when I hit around 6-7 I dont really want to thoughtsieze, cycle a wraith or see a shock because they aren't action in my opinion when you're in your prime dshaodw territory.
as for replacing wraith, i was looking at first the 4th souls. card seems bonkers in matchups like 8 rack saying you countered their bridge, abzan, jund, mirror etc. in all my testing this card was my mvp against none izzet staticaster decks, curse of death's hold, elesh norn decks. as for the other 3 slots i know maybe an orzhov charm. my experience with that card come from rtr standard but the ability to lower your life seems deece, to reanimate at instant speed sounds good, or to bounce a snap seems good. the last 2 slots im not sure. in testing with my group yesterday we had ideas ranging from 2 more inquisition all the way through ashiok and far//away and psychic strike. I think its one of those things where it becomes meta or preference dependent.
anyways thank you again for the reply and hopefully we can work toghter to make esper deaths shadow great again!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
merfolk-playing
rug cantripshift-back in the binder
ad nauseum-meh
rg ponza/12 moon- trolling
esper death shadow- built and learning
All hail the mighty luck sack walking ballista may he reign supreme- So declares Harambe
went 1-2 last night at a local modern Saturday night magic event. round 1 played against a new pilot of storm and beat it no problem. round 2 played againsta spin on eldrazi tron. the game went as follows:
game 1: I strip his hand and we are in a top deck battle with me at 3 him at 16. i have some lingering souls out and a big d shadow. he top decks a reality smasher with one card in hard. he plays the smasher and declares an attack i block with the shadow and he responds before blocks with path to exile targeting my shadow. I concede.
we go to the board and I have seen ulamog, matter reshaper, path, tks, and ghostly prision on top of the usual suspects from eldrazi tron like maps and mind stones.
I sideboard the following cards:
1 path
2 surgical (more on this in a second)
1 d sphere
2 stony
1 lost legacy (more on this in a second)
1 rejection
i take out:
4 shadow- because I'm afraid of him bringing in chalice
3 soul- I knew Eldrazi tron played end bringer so I didn't want no value from casting souls
1 gurmag angler- big mistake
the surgical and lost legacy were hedge bets that if I was able to thoughtsieze and inquisition him early i would hopefully see a surgical and be able to strip him of threats permanently. the same holds true for lost legacy. A friend and trusted playtest partner told me after the match that I should have brought in the following:
1 path
1 d sphere
2 stony
1 rejection
1 ranger of Eos
and I should have taken out:
3-fatal push
3-lingering
does this sound right? keep in mind I'm using hosaka's gp kobe deck list.
round 3 played American kiki
game 1 I get him on the back of early pressure and him stumbling with mana.
going into game 2 we go to the board and I do the following:
1 path
2 surgical
1 d sphere
1 squall
1 geist
1 lost legacy
1 ranger
out:
3 lingering souls
1 gurmag
3 push
1 snap
now i have no idea if this is right but his whole game plan revolved around getting resto and kiki and building the slower twin combo.
overall I lost 1-2 but I learned several things that I want to ask:
first is the burn match up as abysmal as I feel like it is after then event played burn with a local and went 2-11. is there a way to fix this match up? do we have to slow down our fetches and shocks and just let them burn us down?
for the match I sided
1 path
2 surgical but I know this is very wrong I was just getting frustrated
2 collective
1 geist
1 ranger
1 squall
out:
4 t sieze
4 wraith
I know I've sided in the surgicals and lost legacy a lot but part of it is I'm actually struggling to learn my roles in the matchups so I'm kind of using it as a crutch which I know I have to stop if I want to succeed with the deck.
my next question is in fetching shocking cycling wraith t siezing etc how aggressive are we supposed to be? are we supposed to be racing our life total down to say 10 and stopping? I'm no slouch when it comes to playing magic and once I get a deck I get it but while I'm learning I have a lot of questions because I want to be as good as possible and I have a lot of events coming up and I don't want to waste my time and money if that makes sense.
another thing I learned from my usual test partner is that surgical should only come in in match ups like dredge, ad nauseum, etc does everyone agree with this? is there other matchups where I could shine?
after last night and a week of testing this is what ive come up with for this week for several local events let me know what you think:
4 Death's Shadow
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
4 Street Wraith
4 Serum Visions
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
4 Thought Scour
2 Fatal Push
4 Path to Exile
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Godless Shrine
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Marsh Flats
the change of moving 1 hallowed fountain to 1 godless shrine comes because in my current version my breakdown is as follows: 20 b, 14 u, 7 w. maybe this is wrong but it honestly has felt like a quality of life change since making the shift.
current sideboard:
1 Fatal Push
1 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Stony Silence
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Lost Legacy
2 Collective Brutality
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Detention Sphere
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Countersquall
if you notice I haven't changed the board yet but the first thing I want to cut is that lost legacy it seems just awful but that's my inexperienced opinion.
thank you for reading and I hope I haven't overwhelmed you all with my questions!
I've run into a lot of control, either gideon.dec on multiple occasions, saheeli rai combo, and several UW enchantment pillow fort decks. It is often hard to close out games with lingering souls, and I understand the value of grixis builds with either K command or Bolt to help clear out the last bit of distance.
I'm never super fond of lingering souls, mostly because the deck doesn't offer hard enough control elements to make the incremental damage helpful, and it pairs very poorly with stubborn denial. I feel bad playing it, flashback, killing two turns, only to have my opponents drop a creature I can't attack into. I've almost always preferred another threat, denial, or kill spell. its also a spell I never really played before this deck, so like turn 1 thoughtseize's, it might be something I'm just misplaying. But it always either feels too slow against aggro, or not fast enough versus control.
Abzan decks, and toolbox decks with 4x Siege Rhino's are really hard to deal with.
I love/hate Anguished Unmaking. There are a lot of decks that it helps to have catch all permanent removal. However, the -3 life is rough, and usually puts me in life totals that I'm uncomfortable being in. It makes me want to slow my play and take on a more controlling role versus control decks where I feel I should be the beatdown. These problems I think carry over to Orzhov Charm, where the life loss can be extreme with so many high toughness creatures running around, but also offers recursion.
Some pros,
I would marry path to exile if I could.
The deck still feels very powerful, and has very fair matchups against most the decks I've played against. I've punted many of the matches I could have won.
the sideboard card selection is fantastic
Overall, the deck feels like a strong metagame choice, but I'm not sure if it has all the tools it needs to really be "tier 1." The main cause of this seems to be the lack of an "I win" card just off the top outside of grinding, and GDS probably grinds harder right now albeit with slightly worse removal. I plan on keep playing the deck, and play a modified sideboard hopefully tonight at FNM with
I also may start uploading some replays to youtube and talk about all my play mistakes, because I've been watching my replays, and I am terrible on MTGO, which makes me think on paper I'm not as strong as a player I thought I was either. This deck is also a lot more choice dependent than many of my previous decks. This way people who are interested in the deck can see it in action.
I'd check out those replays if you post them. Better yet, stream your matches and record them. If you feel like you're not playing optimally, maybe talking out/explaining your decisions will help you make better ones, or at least understand why you're making the misplays you suspect you are. Cheers!
back again this week took the deck list I discussed last week to a 3-1 finish this week at my local modern event. played against fish, mono black devo, gr tron, and jund death shadow. lost to gr tron because I just didn't have enough answers in my list for that match up. decided I needed to clean up my sideboard so this is what I've come up with:
3x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Collective Brutality
2x Flaying Tendrils
2x Liliana, the Last Hope
4x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Stubborn Denial
The reason im going to this generic sideboard is ive been following the evolution of grixis shadow and i continually keep seeing these cards.This sideboard is probally going to change and yes i know white opens us up to better sideboard options like stony silence d sphere and ranger of eos but honestly those cards have felt lackluster in my opinion. While generic this sideboard I feel like allows me to have certain answers to match ups i feel like are bad for example tron. I feel like the extra denials and the 3x rejection will help improve the match and push it closer to equal if not gaining me a percentage point somewhere in the match up because it allows my answers to match up slightly better with what they are trying to do. also the use of liliana feels more grindy to me which is what i feel like esper shadow wants to be doing anyways and the ability to pick off smaller creatures, or acting as an impromptu tasigur the golden fang seems like something i would like to be doing. also the fact that her minus is a mini thought scour feels like something id like to be doing considering i want to get cards like Lingering Souls in my yard or getting more options for delve or snap caster mage feels correct. now, these observations have not been tested yet thoroughly but I'm working under the assumption that these cards will line up better and allow for a smoother transition between the early and mid game.
on the discussion of esper shadow vs jund shadow that match up felt like almost a realistic bye. Game 1 i was being to cute with my disruption. I left him with a temur battle rage thiking that i could deal with his threats as they came. that opportunity never came to fruition as he stuck two death shadows and a goyf in a single turn and over loaded my removal. game 1 went to my opp. game two we shuffle up and i announce that i am on the play. i sideboarded by taking out all of my shadows and playing with my old sideboard I added countersquall, d sphere, push, geist. i took out all 4 shadows because i felt like my souls and my delve threats would overload his removal that came in the form of fatal push, abrupt decay, and terminate. When I throughtsiezed on turn 1 i saw that my opp had brought in golgari charm. this presented a problem for me because i had chose to try to win the game by going wide with lingering souls instead of going the sledgehammer route of death shadow. I noticed that he had kept a hand thahad no discard spells present. the modal function of golgari charm present a problem because it offers -1/-1 my creatures so that kills my souls tokens and it can destroy an enchatement. i began to craft my line of play around getting him to use the charm to free a creature from d sphere. the opportunity presented itself when he proceeded to play shadow shadow on t3 or t4. When it comes to my turn i crack a fetch to get basic and d sphere the shadows. he takes the bait. he charms to remove the sphere. Those around me saw the excitement because he had done the line that i wanted him to take. he untaps and attacks and i chump with the tasigur and snap i have in play. he passes the turn back and from there it was game on. the steady onslaught of souls for chump blocks combined with a steady mix o fatal push, path to exile, and serum visions easily allowed me to take the win quickly over the next 2 turns. The reaosn i mention this is that i personally believe that lingering souls is the mirror breaker and the choice to push my threats towards delve threats enables me to blank some of my opposing shadow players removal. Is this the general consensus or do others have a different plan for the mirror? Im open to discussion and hearing out others ideas because I want to become a better pilot!
Anyways thanks for reading and listening to my theory! this deck has been a breath of fresh air and again I hope with the dedicated people of this group that we can continue to push esper shadow up in the world.
thanks,
Tiny
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
merfolk-playing
rug cantripshift-back in the binder
ad nauseum-meh
rg ponza/12 moon- trolling
esper death shadow- built and learning
All hail the mighty luck sack walking ballista may he reign supreme- So declares Harambe
I came to post the 7-1 list. The more I've played, I don't mind the 2 Stubborn/3 Soul's play instead of the 3/2 mix I've been playing with. I'm still concerned with having too many "3 cmc" hands, which I think I don't mulligan enough, and that snap/(souls/delve) are a bit of a non-bo. I still prefer 2 godless shrine over 2 hallowed fountain.
I like his board a lot, as well, and will probably try to incorporate it. I think the 1 of Unmaking is the right call.
Hello everyone 1st time posting. Ive been playing Esper shadow for quite a while now and this is the list ive settled on, until a drastic metagame shakeup.
4 deaths shadow
4 street wraith
3 snapcaster mage
2 gurmag angler
2 tasigur, the golden fang
4 serum visions
4 thought scour
3 fatal push
3 path to exile
3 stubborn denial
3 thoughtseize
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 orzhov charm
2 lingering souls
SB
3 ceremonious rejection
3 nihil spellbomb
2 disenchant
2 stony silence
2 flaying tendrils
1 liliana,the last hope
1 anguished unmaking
1 echoing truth
This list has been running very consistently for me. I like the 3-3-2 split for removal because orzhov charm has enough flexibility to warrant replacing the 4th copy of path or push. As for the 3-2 split on discard. My reasoning was as follows. Between 12 fetches, 4 wraiths, and orzhov charm, there are more than enough ways to reduce your life total to a point where death's shadow is a more than respectable threat. Adversely, there have been frequent situations where the restriction on inquisition mattered far less than the 2 damage on thoughtsieze. Usually the shadow is big enough to represent a quality clock, but information and disruption are still wanted.
As for the SB the 3rd rejection as well as the second disenchant could easily be replaced, for things like countersquall, blessed alliance, or even condemn (which works wonders in a shadow mirror), etc
Feel free to critique or ask questions you may have.
My matches were: UW control win 2-0 cards that preformed well:stubborn denial, thoughtseize under-performing cards: none came up notes: played against an inexperience pilot. tried not to over-extend myself by just playing one strong threat while keeping up stubborn denial for their planeswalkers (specifically elspeth, sun's champion) and have another strong threat in my hand. I was trying to play around wraiths.
UW control win 2-0 notes: played against a very experience pilot. game 2 I used snapcaster to target thoughseize in order to make my death's shadow big enough to swing for lethal. during game 2, I cast a thoughtsieze while holding 2x death's shadow, anguished unmaking, and a geist of saint traft. I see that his hand is filled with spot removal, supreme verdict, and a gideon. I take the verdict and land geist to close out the game. turn 5 he played gideon and thought he was safe, but anguished unmaking took care of him.
mill win 2-0 cards that preformed well: delve cards, stubborn denial, lingering souls under-performing cards: none came up, I sided-out thought scour though notes: game 1 on turn 2 I didn't stubborn denialglimpse the unthinkable and was able to play tasigur, the golden fang and gurmag angler on the same turn. He used ghost quarter on my lands and I ended the game with two creatures in play with no lands. game 2 was close but having snapcaster in hand with a full, spell-filled graveyard is a great way to control the game.
Overall, the deck felt great to play. Stubborn denial was the best card all night and I wouldn't go less than 4 in the 75. I like the 2/2 split between the sideboard and main too. I played pretty conservative all night trying not to over-extend myself. I found that this deck is great at playing more of a control game while sticking one or two large threats and having one in reserve.
Hey guys, that was me. Here, have a long-winded tournament report
I figured since the Esper variants haven't received much press, I'd talk a little about the event and how each round went, complete with inexact sideboarding as I remember it. Going into the event, I'd switched from Grixis Shadow to Esper Shadow about a month prior. I really like Lingering Souls and Path to Exile as a trump card in the DS mirrors, and as a way to sidestep some of the hate that the Esper version has been getting like Chameleon Colossus and Mirran Crusader. As far as the manabase is concerned, I copied Yo*****eru Hosaka's 30th place (from GP Kobe) land suite to include 2 Hallowed Fountains over a 2nd Godless Shrine. This might seem odd when compared to the Grixis lists which only play one Steam Vents, but this deck is much lighter on black requirements and the optimal sequencing is typically turn 1 Watery Grave, turn 2 Fountain. If you fetch Watery Grave on an opponent's end step to cast Thought Scour and you mill over your one-of Fountain, that's a bit of an issue. It's entirely possible that I'm wrong about this and it should be 2nd Shrine over 2nd Fountain though; time and testing will tell. Regarding card choices other people are making, I personally hate Orzhov Charm and planeswalkers in the main. The former is a bad removal spell with a narrow reanimation mode that rarely comes up in my experience, and the latter just isn't necessary in the main. Esper colors are already more than grindy enough, and you should want all of your proactive cards to actively kill or pressure your opponent game one. Souls comes out quite often, but it fills that game one role quite nicely as a substitute to the Kommand/Snap loop that Grixis gets access to. The sideboard should also be maxed out on very broad pieces of interaction instead of narrow bullets. Things like Stony Silence are widely unnecessary from what I've seen, whereas a card like Disenchant can kill Chalice of the Void set to one, a Leyline of Sanctity, as well as being highly disruptive versus Affinity and other artifact-based decks. I played 2 "narrow" cards in the board, one of which (Purge) is very good vs GBx, Death's Shadow, and Blood Moon decks, and the other (Disdainful Stroke) is specifically good vs Titan Shift and control, two decks that I anticipated seeing more of than usual. It's also highly functional vs E-Tron, classic Gx tron, and most of the combo decks in the format, acting as Stubborn Denial number 5. /thoughts
Rd 1 - Matt Foreman, 171st (Dredge) 2-0
Game one I found multiple Paths and Shadows vs a clunky draw and managed to close out the game before Conflagrate could kill me.
Sideboard: -4 TS -2 IoK -1 Push, +2 Stubs +1 Purge +2 Tendrils +2 Spellbomb
Game two I had a Spellbomb on one to slow him down and a Flaying Tendrils later on took care of the rest.
Rd 2 - John Grier, 394th (Abzan Elves) 2-0
Game one I stabilize at one life behind some blockers and put my opponent on a glacially slow 6 turn clock with hardcast Street Wraith getting in due to his Overgrown Tomb.
-3 Lingering Souls -2 Path to Exile, +2 Brutality +2 Tendrils +1 Liliana
Game two I cast Liliana on turn 4 and protect her en route to an ultimate. Path was pretty clutch here as it let me ignore the Chameleon Colossus I saw on an early Thoughtseize. After getting my opponent hellbent staring down said Lili, he peels a Lead the Stampede to draw 4 creatures, to include a Scavenging Ooze and a Shaman of the Pack. Eventually my opponent has a 14/14 Scooze, but a never-ending horde of zombies halts it in its tracks. Shaman of the Pack is able to put me to 1 instead of dead thanks to some nice attacks from my side forcing chump blocks the turn prior, as I crack back with a zombie horde approximately the size of a small city the following turn.
Rd 3 - Ryland Taliaferro, 402nd (4c Jund White Shadow) 2-1
Game one I feel pretty advantaged on board, but my opponent goes from 9 life with a pair of shadows to cycling triple Wraith + Temur Battle Rage at 3 life while I'm tapped out.
-4 TS , +2 Spellbomb +1 Unmaking +1 Lili
Games two and three, things go more according to plan and I'm able to outgrind, even through Ranger of Eos and his Lingering Souls.
Rd 4 - Matt Puls, 67th, also went 7-1 in Modern (Old-school Jund) 0-2
Game one sees me stabilize at 2 life after taking a beating from Raging Ravine and thoughtseizing a Bolt to avoid dying. I get my opponent down to 6 with lethal next turn unless he peels, and he duly obliges me with a Kolaghan's Command off the top. -2 IoK -4 TS -1 Wraith, +1 Purge +1 Unmaking +2 Stubs +1 Lili +2 Spellbomb
Game two I have a nice long-game hand with Celestial Purge, Lingering Souls, double Stubs and a delve threat. My opponent resolves turn 2 Scooze and the graveyard disruption gives me fits. I mill over a Fatal Push that would have been nice to draw, essentially playing draw-go in the hopes of leveraging my life total as a resource, and a Goyf helps the Ooze to punch through my turn 5 Souls + flashback as I can't put anything meaningful together.
Rd 9 - Ken Parson, 98th (Affinity) 2-1
Game one I blind keep a triple Street Wraith draw with a Thoughtseize. Great hand vs most of the field. Not so great against robots.
-4 TS -4 Wraith, +2 Disenchant +2 Tendrils +1 Lili +1 Rejection +2 Stubs (I know this might look strange, but most of the cards you really care about are noncreatures like Plating/Blood Moon/Dispatch/early Moxen and Drums)
Game two my opponent mulls into a nonfunctional hand and never gets there. Better lucky than good, I suppose.
Game three my opponent and I end up in a gummed-up board stall with 2 Etched Champions vs my Death's Shadow, Gurmag Angler, and Tasigur with myself at 6 and my opponent at 8. Ken places a Cranial Plating on the stack, to which I have both the Stubs and Disenchant to answer it. Hoping it will encourage a bad alpha, I give a hard sell "resolves" while looking mildly frustrated. Ken obliges me by attaching the funny hat to his Champ, sending both into the red zone. I disenchant the equipment, kill his last blocker on end step and crack back for lethal while at 2 life. We have a long conversation afterwards about it, and I still think it's correct for him to swing there. Every turn he waits around is another turn closer to finding a Tendrils, and most of the Esper lists are short on answers to a resolved Plating.
Rd 10 - Aaron Barich, 14th (UG Infect) 2-0
Having seen Aaron play Infect before, I anticipate he'll be playing something linear and aggressive with room to leverage playskill. Maybe Affinity, maybe Burn, or something similar. Nope, still playing Infect despite it being a "dead deck". Thankfully, Esper Shadow is probably what you'd draw up if you were crafting the nightmare deck for Infect to face. I don't actually remember how I sideboarded, since the board literally had too many good cards for the matchup.
Rd 11 - Zan Syed, 46th (Abzan Vizier Company) 2-0
Thankfully, being at this point in the tournament means that a lot of my opponents will be name-brand players who play the same decks over the course of weeks, months, or sometimes years. Zan is one of those players, and I correctly place him on Vizier combo and keep an excellent game one hand with double Shadows and ample disruption that put him in the abyss early and the one mana 8/8s swiftly close the game out.
Personally, I treat this matchup, particularly on the draw, to be a game of attrition. You can't be completely threat-light, but speed isn't quite as important as keeping them off value is. -3 Souls -4 Wraith, +2 Stubs +2 Brutality +2 Tendrils +1 Liliana
Game two, I thoughtseize away his Eternal Witness, aggressively fetch shock to put myself to 4 with a triple DS draw, and Flaying Tendrils away both his Vizier and Kitchen Finks that would have surely ran away with the game otherwise.
Rd 12 - Michael Ostroski, 36th (Affinity) 2-0
Both games my opponent has turn 1 Plating on the play, with no Etched Champion to carry it. Both games I find double Lingering Souls and a fistful of removal spells to render it invalid.
Overall, I felt very very good about this deck. Even the matchup that I lost, Jund, should be favorable in the abstract. The flex slots in the board, and the only things I'd consider shifting around are the Celestial Purge and the Disdainful Stroke, with possible/likely replacements being a Blessed Alliance, the third Tendrils, another Spellbomb, or the 2nd Ceremonious Rejection. Flaying Tendrils has overperformed like crazy, and Ceremonious Rejection looks very strong when looking at the other 7-1 decklists from the event. Path also overperformed and makes me very happy to be out of Grixis colors right now. I think that this deck is quite clearly a viable alternative to Grixis or Jund shadow, and should be bumped up at least into the developing competitive section of the forums as a very real, if underplayed, competitor in the metagame.
Sadly, my Standard deck (BG Energy) was incredibly mediocre and I didn't have the luxury of enough time to test Standard much prior to the event. I really wanted to make a custom 1/1 Spirit token for us, but it just wasn't meant to be
Anyways, TL;DR - Esper Shadow is great, and I'm very happy to continue playing it moving forward into PPTQ season and more events at the TJ Collectibles Titanium Series.
Thanks so much for the write up! A comment and a question about sideboard strategy;
1. I switched to the two godless shrine/1 unhallowed fountain since I found on turn 2 I much preferred plays like turn 1 serum visions/thought scour, turn 2 thoughtseize/delve threat. I'm not sure how often this is a "misplay" since I'm often leaving a threat undefended for a turn, but it often puts on the sort of board pressure I feel comfortable with. With only 3 paths/2-3 souls in the MD, rarely do I need either double U or double W on turn 2, which seems to be what the Hallowed Fountain builds, and your comment earlier, would suggest. Instead, in my experience (though nothing as high caliber as this, just open games in mtgo), thought scouring away my godless shrine early on has often bottlenecked my early turns more than if my unhallowed fountain gets thoughtscoured away. Do you have any note able situations where the turn 2 watery grave/unhallowed fountain is preferred?
2. Can you explain, or point to any good strategy articles, on when its worth keeping in or boarding out thoughtseize? What cards do you typically think of as the "flex" spots for sideboarding? I've often had a hard problem of figuring out when do I take out my discard suite, do I leave in IoK or TS and take out the other in some matchups, and properly evaluating the value of Lingering Souls in certain matchups. For a while I found myself trying to board it out a lot, then as I played more tried to think of it as a "reach" card and not wanting to board it out as aggressively. You seem to be more in the former camp. I also noticed you completely board out wraith every so often, which I've never really thought of doing, can you explain? Is it just trying to minimize incidental life loss versus aggro decks?
Again, thanks so much, this gave me a bunch of things to think about!
Thanks so much for the write up! A comment and a question about sideboard strategy;
1. I switched to the two godless shrine/1 unhallowed fountain since I found on turn 2 I much preferred plays like turn 1 serum visions/thought scour, turn 2 thoughtseize/delve threat. I'm not sure how often this is a "misplay" since I'm often leaving a threat undefended for a turn, but it often puts on the sort of board pressure I feel comfortable with. With only 3 paths/2-3 souls in the MD, rarely do I need either double U or double W on turn 2, which seems to be what the Hallowed Fountain builds, and your comment earlier, would suggest. Instead, in my experience (though nothing as high caliber as this, just open games in mtgo), thought scouring away my godless shrine early on has often bottlenecked my early turns more than if my unhallowed fountain gets thoughtscoured away. Do you have any note able situations where the turn 2 watery grave/unhallowed fountain is preferred?
2. Can you explain, or point to any good strategy articles, on when its worth keeping in or boarding out thoughtseize? What cards do you typically think of as the "flex" spots for sideboarding? I've often had a hard problem of figuring out when do I take out my discard suite, do I leave in IoK or TS and take out the other in some matchups, and properly evaluating the value of Lingering Souls in certain matchups. For a while I found myself trying to board it out a lot, then as I played more tried to think of it as a "reach" card and not wanting to board it out as aggressively. You seem to be more in the former camp. I also noticed you completely board out wraith every so often, which I've never really thought of doing, can you explain? Is it just trying to minimize incidental life loss versus aggro decks?
Again, thanks so much, this gave me a bunch of things to think about!
Hey, not a problem
1. I find myself wanting double blue quite early and often, more-so than double black. Generally, turn 3 is where I fetch Godless Shrine with the intention of casting a couple threats. Turn 1 is generally the best turn to cast a discard spell, to hinder the opponent and also build information on what you're looking for in your cantrips. Turn 2, I often like to cast Serum Visions or Thought Scour while holding up removal and/or Stubborn Denial, hence Grave into Fountain. Basically, double U takes priority in game one over double B, which takes priority over double W. This changes sometimes based on matchups (UW with Spreading Seas, for example) or postboard when you need to cast Flaying Tendrils or situationally, like the TS + Tas turn you mentioned, in which I'd be inclined to lead Grave into Shrine. A lot of these differences can be attributed to play style and deck composition, of course.
2. Thoughtseize is generally bad vs the super grindy decks like Jund or Abzan, where the matchup will frequently be dictated by topdecks following multiple instances of one-for-one exchanges. Grixis Shadow isn't in that camp, however, since hitting their delve threats or taking the Kommand/Snap loop offline can really cripple them in the midgame. It's also actively atrocious vs Affinity, since they empty their hand so quickly and the life loss really stings. Burn, however, is a matchup that you counter-intuitively leave it in for, since sniping Path and Deflecting Palm is so important, and worst case scenario it saves you a point or two of life and fuels delve. IoK can come out over TS against decks whose lower costing cards are largely irrelevant (think E-Tron, for example, where you have ample answers postboard to the few cheap cards that matter between your Paths, Stubs, and Disenchants, and you want the tempo positive plays of making them cast them first).
As far as "flex" spots for sideboarding, I'm assuming you're referring to non-essential cards in the sideboard that can be replaced? I'd definitely say that Celestial Purge and Disdainful Stroke were those cards for me, and they were there mostly to hedge against the higher-than-average numbers of Grixis Shadow and UWx Control / Titan Shift I expected to see. The other 13 cards in the board feel quite locked in for me. If you're asking about maindeck cards that are flexible to cut for the sideboard games, I'd tell you that there are no sacred cows in Magic. Everything can be cut, even if it sounds crazy. For instance, I've even cut Death's Shadow completely against opponents who left in 4 Fatal Push against me for game 2.
Lingering Souls generally comes out vs faster decks where speed is security and you're playing the beatdown role, against things like combo. If it lines up poorly with your sideboard strategy of bringing in Flaying Tendrils and isn't overwhelmingly impressive against the opponent (like Affinity) playing something like mono white D&T, for instance, you can also cut or trim on it. So, if you look at how I sideboarded during the tournament, I only cut it vs Elves and Vizier, where I was both bringing in Tendrils and I felt that it wasn't particularly great even in the event that I wasn't casting Tendrils. Street Wraith is an incredible game one card that lets you play a functionally 56 card deck, fueling delve and getting your Shadows online quicker. Postboard, however, the games are often going to slow down as both players get more specific interaction to line up with each other. In these instances, you don't need to come out to a blistering start. It's also important to note that Wraith can lead to flooding out in longer games, particularly against other DS decks. And finally, yes, when playing against the hyper aggressive decks that punish you for putting your life total very low, Wraith is often just a blank - Burn and Affinity definitely fall in that camp. There are no sacred cows; consider the value of each card in how your deck is lining up against your opponent postboard and what role you'll each be playing, or how the game should ideally play out.
Hey guys, that was me. Here, have a long-winded tournament report
I figured since the Esper variants haven't received much press, I'd talk a little about the event and how each round went, complete with inexact sideboarding as I remember it. Going into the event, I'd switched from Grixis Shadow to Esper Shadow about a month prior. I really like Lingering Souls and Path to Exile as a trump card in the DS mirrors, and as a way to sidestep some of the hate that the Esper version has been getting like Chameleon Colossus and Mirran Crusader. As far as the manabase is concerned, I copied Yo*****eru Hosaka's 30th place (from GP Kobe) land suite to include 2 Hallowed Fountains over a 2nd Godless Shrine. This might seem odd when compared to the Grixis lists which only play one Steam Vents, but this deck is much lighter on black requirements and the optimal sequencing is typically turn 1 Watery Grave, turn 2 Fountain. If you fetch Watery Grave on an opponent's end step to cast Thought Scour and you mill over your one-of Fountain, that's a bit of an issue. It's entirely possible that I'm wrong about this and it should be 2nd Shrine over 2nd Fountain though; time and testing will tell. Regarding card choices other people are making, I personally hate Orzhov Charm and planeswalkers in the main. The former is a bad removal spell with a narrow reanimation mode that rarely comes up in my experience, and the latter just isn't necessary in the main. Esper colors are already more than grindy enough, and you should want all of your proactive cards to actively kill or pressure your opponent game one. Souls comes out quite often, but it fills that game one role quite nicely as a substitute to the Kommand/Snap loop that Grixis gets access to. The sideboard should also be maxed out on very broad pieces of interaction instead of narrow bullets. Things like Stony Silence are widely unnecessary from what I've seen, whereas a card like Disenchant can kill Chalice of the Void set to one, a Leyline of Sanctity, as well as being highly disruptive versus Affinity and other artifact-based decks. I played 2 "narrow" cards in the board, one of which (Purge) is very good vs GBx, Death's Shadow, and Blood Moon decks, and the other (Disdainful Stroke) is specifically good vs Titan Shift and control, two decks that I anticipated seeing more of than usual. It's also highly functional vs E-Tron, classic Gx tron, and most of the combo decks in the format, acting as Stubborn Denial number 5. /thoughts
Rd 1 - Matt Foreman, 171st (Dredge) 2-0
Game one I found multiple Paths and Shadows vs a clunky draw and managed to close out the game before Conflagrate could kill me.
Sideboard: -4 TS -2 IoK -1 Push, +2 Stubs +1 Purge +2 Tendrils +2 Spellbomb
Game two I had a Spellbomb on one to slow him down and a Flaying Tendrils later on took care of the rest.
Rd 2 - John Grier, 394th (Abzan Elves) 2-0
Game one I stabilize at one life behind some blockers and put my opponent on a glacially slow 6 turn clock with hardcast Street Wraith getting in due to his Overgrown Tomb.
-3 Lingering Souls -2 Path to Exile, +2 Brutality +2 Tendrils +1 Liliana
Game two I cast Liliana on turn 4 and protect her en route to an ultimate. Path was pretty clutch here as it let me ignore the Chameleon Colossus I saw on an early Thoughtseize. After getting my opponent hellbent staring down said Lili, he peels a Lead the Stampede to draw 4 creatures, to include a Scavenging Ooze and a Shaman of the Pack. Eventually my opponent has a 14/14 Scooze, but a never-ending horde of zombies halts it in its tracks. Shaman of the Pack is able to put me to 1 instead of dead thanks to some nice attacks from my side forcing chump blocks the turn prior, as I crack back with a zombie horde approximately the size of a small city the following turn.
Rd 3 - Ryland Taliaferro, 402nd (4c Jund White Shadow) 2-1
Game one I feel pretty advantaged on board, but my opponent goes from 9 life with a pair of shadows to cycling triple Wraith + Temur Battle Rage at 3 life while I'm tapped out.
-4 TS , +2 Spellbomb +1 Unmaking +1 Lili
Games two and three, things go more according to plan and I'm able to outgrind, even through Ranger of Eos and his Lingering Souls.
Rd 4 - Matt Puls, 67th, also went 7-1 in Modern (Old-school Jund) 0-2
Game one sees me stabilize at 2 life after taking a beating from Raging Ravine and thoughtseizing a Bolt to avoid dying. I get my opponent down to 6 with lethal next turn unless he peels, and he duly obliges me with a Kolaghan's Command off the top. -2 IoK -4 TS -1 Wraith, +1 Purge +1 Unmaking +2 Stubs +1 Lili +2 Spellbomb
Game two I have a nice long-game hand with Celestial Purge, Lingering Souls, double Stubs and a delve threat. My opponent resolves turn 2 Scooze and the graveyard disruption gives me fits. I mill over a Fatal Push that would have been nice to draw, essentially playing draw-go in the hopes of leveraging my life total as a resource, and a Goyf helps the Ooze to punch through my turn 5 Souls + flashback as I can't put anything meaningful together.
Rd 9 - Ken Parson, 98th (Affinity) 2-1
Game one I blind keep a triple Street Wraith draw with a Thoughtseize. Great hand vs most of the field. Not so great against robots.
-4 TS -4 Wraith, +2 Disenchant +2 Tendrils +1 Lili +1 Rejection +2 Stubs (I know this might look strange, but most of the cards you really care about are noncreatures like Plating/Blood Moon/Dispatch/early Moxen and Drums)
Game two my opponent mulls into a nonfunctional hand and never gets there. Better lucky than good, I suppose.
Game three my opponent and I end up in a gummed-up board stall with 2 Etched Champions vs my Death's Shadow, Gurmag Angler, and Tasigur with myself at 6 and my opponent at 8. Ken places a Cranial Plating on the stack, to which I have both the Stubs and Disenchant to answer it. Hoping it will encourage a bad alpha, I give a hard sell "resolves" while looking mildly frustrated. Ken obliges me by attaching the funny hat to his Champ, sending both into the red zone. I disenchant the equipment, kill his last blocker on end step and crack back for lethal while at 2 life. We have a long conversation afterwards about it, and I still think it's correct for him to swing there. Every turn he waits around is another turn closer to finding a Tendrils, and most of the Esper lists are short on answers to a resolved Plating.
Rd 10 - Aaron Barich, 14th (UG Infect) 2-0
Having seen Aaron play Infect before, I anticipate he'll be playing something linear and aggressive with room to leverage playskill. Maybe Affinity, maybe Burn, or something similar. Nope, still playing Infect despite it being a "dead deck". Thankfully, Esper Shadow is probably what you'd draw up if you were crafting the nightmare deck for Infect to face. I don't actually remember how I sideboarded, since the board literally had too many good cards for the matchup.
Rd 11 - Zan Syed, 46th (Abzan Vizier Company) 2-0
Thankfully, being at this point in the tournament means that a lot of my opponents will be name-brand players who play the same decks over the course of weeks, months, or sometimes years. Zan is one of those players, and I correctly place him on Vizier combo and keep an excellent game one hand with double Shadows and ample disruption that put him in the abyss early and the one mana 8/8s swiftly close the game out.
Personally, I treat this matchup, particularly on the draw, to be a game of attrition. You can't be completely threat-light, but speed isn't quite as important as keeping them off value is. -3 Souls -4 Wraith, +2 Stubs +2 Brutality +2 Tendrils +1 Liliana
Game two, I thoughtseize away his Eternal Witness, aggressively fetch shock to put myself to 4 with a triple DS draw, and Flaying Tendrils away both his Vizier and Kitchen Finks that would have surely ran away with the game otherwise.
Rd 12 - Michael Ostroski, 36th (Affinity) 2-0
Both games my opponent has turn 1 Plating on the play, with no Etched Champion to carry it. Both games I find double Lingering Souls and a fistful of removal spells to render it invalid.
Overall, I felt very very good about this deck. Even the matchup that I lost, Jund, should be favorable in the abstract. The flex slots in the board, and the only things I'd consider shifting around are the Celestial Purge and the Disdainful Stroke, with possible/likely replacements being a Blessed Alliance, the third Tendrils, another Spellbomb, or the 2nd Ceremonious Rejection. Flaying Tendrils has overperformed like crazy, and Ceremonious Rejection looks very strong when looking at the other 7-1 decklists from the event. Path also overperformed and makes me very happy to be out of Grixis colors right now. I think that this deck is quite clearly a viable alternative to Grixis or Jund shadow, and should be bumped up at least into the developing competitive section of the forums as a very real, if underplayed, competitor in the metagame.
Sadly, my Standard deck (BG Energy) was incredibly mediocre and I didn't have the luxury of enough time to test Standard much prior to the event. I really wanted to make a custom 1/1 Spirit token for us, but it just wasn't meant to be
Anyways, TL;DR - Esper Shadow is great, and I'm very happy to continue playing it moving forward into PPTQ season and more events at the TJ Collectibles Titanium Series.
I greatly appericate the time put into this report as someone who likes to consume information. I did however have some questions for you if you dont mind. the first is:
1) i noticed you chose nihil spellbomb over surgical extraction is there a particular reason for this?
2) ive noticed the trend towards 2/2 split of both tasigur and gurmag. did gurmag feel like it was under preforming? Im curious because he feels like he is under preforming and i was debating on cutting the second. In your opinion because you seem to have had much success even with as you put the poor standard choice would you keep the 2/2 split or would you shift the numbers? thoguhts?
Other than that thank you again for the wonderful tournment report and I hope you find much continued success with the deck and thank you for putting this deck into the spot light!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
merfolk-playing
rug cantripshift-back in the binder
ad nauseum-meh
rg ponza/12 moon- trolling
esper death shadow- built and learning
All hail the mighty luck sack walking ballista may he reign supreme- So declares Harambe
I greatly appericate the time put into this report as someone who likes to consume information. I did however have some questions for you if you dont mind. the first is:
1) i noticed you chose nihil spellbomb over surgical extraction is there a particular reason for this?
2) ive noticed the trend towards 2/2 split of both tasigur and gurmag. did gurmag feel like it was under preforming? Im curious because he feels like he is under preforming and i was debating on cutting the second. In your opinion because you seem to have had much success even with as you put the poor standard choice would you keep the 2/2 split or would you shift the numbers? thoguhts?
Other than that thank you again for the wonderful tournment report and I hope you find much continued success with the deck and thank you for putting this deck into the spot light!
1. Spellbomb is good in the DS mirrors and actually takes cares of the entire graveyard at once, and that's a big deal versus most graveyard decks - also, as a cantrip, it's versatile to come in for places where Surgical cannot. Additionally, almost every deck in the format that was once popular and soft to Surgical effects have either been pushed out of the competitive format entirely, or had their numbers reduced substantially. I also think that Surgical effects are inherently misunderstood for being stronger than they actually are. If your opponent isn't playing a pure combo deck that will be knocked out by it, Surgical generally isn't worth the slot.
2. In the months that I've been playing Death's Shadow, I can think of exactly one instance where I would have preferred to have drawn Tasigur over Angler. The extra point of power is typically worth the extra delved card from the yard, and drawing multiple Tas or flipping the second copy over with his activation is horrendous. Sometimes you can't put the big fish into play on turn 2, but this deck is so mana efficient that you typically have something else to do anyways.
Thanks, I appreciate it! I hope other people start doing well with the deck too; people need to be punished for putting Mirran Crusader in their Modern decks
I've been migrating away from grixis into esper lately and have had good results thus far - paths and souls are obviously great
i have noted a lot of lists foregoing stony silences simply for disenchants. why would this be? seems like stony is such a haymaker that we should be playing this when playing white and when affinity is so prevalent. also, has anyone played detention spheres over unmakings? understand that instant speed and life loss (sometimes) are great but spheres hit the same thing and also hits multiples (great vs tokens, dredge etc) and abrupt decays are at an all time low
I appreciate Disenchant's utility and have no problem playing a few - just feels weird we are in white and are not playing at least one stony silence when affinity's so prevalent
I'm also testing Esper Shadow again, coming from Grixis Shadow. Some observations:
- The more I play Esper Shadow, the more I realize how much heavy lifting Kolaghan's Command does for Grixis Shadow. Some cards that were rarely amazing in Grixis Shadow seem more valuable in Esper. For instance, Collective Brutality's ability to have the opponent lose 2 life becomes more interesting in a deck with no other ways of causing this type of effect.
- Another example for a card that seems to be better in Esper Shadow is Surgical Extraction, because it combines well with other cards that exile things. Flaying Tendrils also loses most its major drawback of not being able to exile Prized Amalgam, as Esper Shadow can achieve this goal in other ways.
- I love how Esper Shadow punishes decks for going overboard against Grixis Shadow with mediocre cards like Mirran Crusader and Chameleon Colossus. It doesn't come up that often, but when it does, it feels really satisfying from the perspective of a long-time Grixis Shadow player.
- Lingering Souls has been really good so far. I like how it increases the threat density and is resilient to discard effects. LotV seems to have become more popular recently and Lingering Souls is a great answer. I have noticed that opponents often bring in cards like Izzet Staticaster that do little against the rest of the deck. It's also quite good against Flicker Wisp and Vendillion Clique, two cards which I have seen more of lately.
- Esper Shadow feels slightly favored against Grixis Shadow, again thanks to Lingering Souls. But they have ways to deal with it and are sometimes better at playing the long game thanks to Kolaghan's Command, so it's not an auto-win. Against DSJ, however, Esper Shadow feels clearly superior when compared to Grixis Shadow. The mix of un-pushable delve creatures, flying tokens, cheap spot removal, and exile effects makes it hard for DSJ to come out on top.
- One drawback of running Lingering Souls is that it makes the deck slightly more dependent on the graveyard. My respect for Relic of Progenitus has increased lately.
- Path to Exile is often not as good as advertised. Esper Shadow is already worse than Grixis Shadow at playing the tempo game, and giving the opponent an extra land certainly doesn't help. The exile clause IS relevant about 20% of the time and I like how it can also hit pro-black creatures. On the other hand, it can be literally painful to obtain a white mana source early in the game against fast aggro decks. Grixis Shadow is a U/B deck with a red splash, whereas Esper Shadow relies more heavily on the third color. As a side note, Path to Exile on Primeval Titan feels really awkward. I view this as a problem because Titan Shift is on the rise.
- Chalice of the Void on 1 is a nightmare in game 1 and still very scary in game 2 and 3. This is IMHO a very good argument for running 2 Disenchants over any number of Stony Silences. The Eldrazi Tron matchup feels considerably worse for Esper Shadow than it is for Grixis Shadow. Losing the ability to cast counterspells and creature removal spells at the same time is really, really bad.
- Stubborn Denial seems worse in Esper Shadow, again compared to Grixis Shadow. The extra lands from Path to Exile work against its Force Spike effect (I have happy memories of force-spiking Karns and Ugins in the past). Esper Shadow also tends to tap out more frequently to cast Lingering Souls. So having 3 Stubborn Denial maindeck seems to be almost too much. But at the same time, not having Stubborn Denial against Chalice or Ensnaring Bridge is often game-ending, at least in game 1. I mitigated this by running 1 or 2 copies of Deprieve, but that card can surely feel clunky.
- Snapcaster Mage is also worse without support from Kolaghan's Command. Furthermore, we usually don't want to delve away Lingering Souls. This means that we are more likely to delve away targets for Snapcaster Mage.
- Blood Moon is also considerably worse for Esper Shadow than it is for Grixis. Being locked out of the one color required to remove enchantments is... tragic. I have won several games with Grixis Shadow while being locked out of blue, but that doesn't seem to be something Esper Shadow can realistically pull off.
- On the plus side, being able to get rid of enchanments post-board really helps against Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void/Sanctity. Though, in case of Leyline of the Void, we often don't know whether our opponent is running it when we sideboard. So Disenchant might be a dead card, which is a good reason for playing some number of Celestial Purges and Anguished Unmakings as well.
Despite some of the issues I have with the deck, I really like that it is not Grixis Shadow. Most of the time it feels like a different deck, for good and for bad, despite sharing numerous cards with its cousin. It tends to be less explosive, but often feels more robust. The worse Eldrazi Tron matchup is really troubling, though, because Eldrazi Tron happens to be second or third most popular deck in the format.
Hey guys, I got convinced to leave the house for an IQ at Tabletop Shop in Newington, CT today. At the behest of the Esper Shadow player I faced in the first round, who mentioned he saw the first write-up here, I decided to do another short write-up (short because I didn't really take notes during the rounds).
Being a smaller event, I expected to play against Burn at least once, so I decided to change the list accordingly. Shaving the 4th Street Wraith lets 3rd Stubborn Denial sneak into the main, freeing up a valuable sideboard slot and making the burn matchup much more manageable. I also decided after having seen a lot more UW and D&T online to move to 2nd Godless Shrine over 2nd Hallowed Fountain. I've had to shift my playstyle slightly, but it's been fine so far. Still can't decisively say if one is strictly better or not. For the sideboard, having more cards for burn seemed prudent, and the local New England scene is generally very into grindy midrange and control decks, so a few extra cards there seemed nice. Liliana of the Veil and a saucy Esper Charm seemed nice to double dip in those two areas, while a couple copies of Blessed Alliance would do double-duty against Burn and the mirror. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Flaying Tendrils has really been pulling overtime, so the 3rd copy moved in while Liliana, the Last Hope got bumped out for being somewhat superfluous. I also moved up an extra copy up Ceremonious Rejection for the rise in E tron and Affinity, cut Anguished Unmaking since it hasn't been coming in all that often, and the Celestial Purge and 2nd Disenchant which I kind of regretted. Here's the list I played:
Round 1 - Esper Shadow mirror (2-0)
My opponent was playing Spell Queller over Lingering Souls. I flirted with the card a bit previously, but didn't like how clunky it felt in the DS mirrors. In spot removal matchups, Souls is a house, but Queller can often just get one-for-oned. That was the case in our match, as his Quellers died and my Souls did not. Of particular note, I got to cast a Blessed Alliance in life gain mode to catch two copies of Death's Shadow flat-footed for a nice 2-for-1.
Round 2 - Mono White D&T (2-1)
Game one my opponent has a nice draw with Arbiter and double GQ. He puts me to 1 and I crack back for 12 with a Shadow, holding up a snapcaster to flash block his guy, knowing I'll be dead to literally anything and I need to close the game before he can find something. He vials in Crusader on end step and I die. Game two we play a game of cat and mouse with the Flaying Tendrils in my hand as I try to set up a nice sweeper. Tasigur chips in for 4 at a time as my opponent never commits more than 1 threat at a time and I play a tempo game, eventually casting Souls to get in the last 3 points of damage. Game three my opponent kept a sketchy one as my discard spells take what little action he has, and a huge Shadow puts him in the abyss early. He does his best to draw out of it with multiple Thraben Inspectors and cycling Canopies, but eventually I set up a turn of Path/Snap Path to attack for 15, finishing him the next turn with a Collective Brutality.
Round 3 - Eldrazi Tron (0-2)
Game one I put my opponent on vizier combo because I thought I had seen him playing it previously (and he had green sleeves, I swear they're connected!) and kept a reactive hand with multiple removal spells and a Serum Visions. I see tronland turn 1 and cast Serum looking for a counterspell, finding a Stubborn Denial on top. Sadly, it's too late and my opponent untaps and slams Chalice. I quickly scoop, having only shown Flooded Strand and Hallowed Fountain, hoping my opponent might put me on UW. Game two I Thoughtseize a Chalice, stub a second one, but can't find my third land for Snapcaster Mage to deal with the 3rd copy. Chalice is... really tough, but the list has 13 answers not counting Snap recurring them postboard. Hard to say if I'm overreacting, but a 3rd Rejection seems like a nice luxury.
Round 4 - Lantern Control (2-1)
Game one I cast discard spells to hit Ancient Stirrings and an Ensnaring Bridge, putting a Tasigur down as a 5 turn clock. At 4 life, dead the next turn, my opponent peels another Bridge and I'm stone dead without any way to close the game out or blow up the artifact. Game two I cast a turn 1 discard spell and see a hand of Opal, some mill rocks, a surgical and some lands. After taking the surgical and putting myself aggressively to 5, Shadow puts my opponent on a two turn clock and he's unable to put anything together. Game three, he plays an early Grafdigger's Cage backed by an IoK/Surgical combo to knock Death's Shadow out of my deck. Fortunately, Tasigur and Snap pulling Ambush Viper duty put my opponent on a 4 turn clock as I find both Rejection and Stubs to deal with any possible Bridges.
Round 5 - Abzan (2-0)
Winning the die roll, I play draw-go for the first few turns and my opponent resolves LotV on his turn 3. Turn 4, I get to cast Souls + Tasigur, and Lili pluses to make me discard a Fatal Push as my remaining hand is Snapcaster Mage and another removal spell. He plays a Goyf and a Tasigur of his own, as my follow-up turn consists of Push the Lhurgoyf, Snap-Path the Tas, kill Lili. He finds a Maelstrom Pulse the turn after I find Stubborn Denial, and a 2nd copy of Thiago stops a maindeck copy of Liliana, the Last Hope from hitting the battlefield. Game two, my opponent beats me down for a few turns before I tap out for Souls. Taking advantage of the open window, he slams Last Hope and eats one of my tokens, putting me down to 10. Knowing I won't be able to adequately pressure the planeswalker with the tokens, I delve away the Souls in the graveyard to feed Gurmag Angler while casting a 3/3 Shadow and holding up a Denial. Resolving a Rhino to put me to 7 and effectively brick-walled, my opponent has no good plays with Lili other than to tick down to get back a Noble Hierarch that chump blocks a Shadow attack. After fetching basic to go down to 3 (a previous turn I fetched shock to go to 4) to enable Push/Snap Push and clearing out his board of untapped Noble and Anafenza, the Foremost, I get to eat his planeswalker inside that window to prevent him from ticking down to get back the Rhino that had been sacrificed to a Blessed Alliance, a healthy swing for 10 puts my opponent in a bad spot. Draw step, I cast an Esper Charm that mind rots the 2nd copy of Siege Rhino and another card and put him back into the abyss with his Nobles. Stubbing the back half of a topdecked Souls and risking him drawing another copy of Souls that might have been lethal with a Gavony Township activation, I hold back a Gurmag in hand to play around Damnation that likely isn't correct. Oh well, I didn't get punished. Postboard, I cut all 6 discard spells and bring in cards that impact the battlefield or stack, and my opponent noticeably left in at least some of his. I thought that this was strange and worth mentioning.
Round 6 - Burn (2-1)
Sadly, I get the pair-down and can't draw into top eight, and have to play the top-ranked Burn player. Thankfully, the changes to the list were largely with this matchup in mind. Rewarded! I win the die roll, fetch basics, and have Thought Scour into turn 2 Tasigur. Sadly, Searing Blaze plus a Wild Nacatl crashing in take my clock off the board, and a few poor draw steps of Thoughtseize and Street Wraith give my opponent the time needed to close out the game. Lingering Souls doesn't race very well, lol. Game two I find a Shadow and protect it with both Stubs and a Blessed Alliance that I never need to cast. Game three I cast an early discard spell and see an interesting grip of Atarka's Command, Lightning Bolt, Rest in Peace, and Ensnaring Bridge along with a pair of Sacred Foundry to go with my opponent's Stomping Ground on the battlefield. Taking the Rip to protect my delve threats, and hoping my opponent walks into a Force Spike, he does so on turn 3 as I drop a pair of threats on the board. Making conservative attacks in the face of his topdecked creatures, I find myself in a spot of being at 8, with my opponent at 11. I have a Tasigur and a Death's Shadow to his Goblin Guide and Wild Nacatl. I know that he still has the Command, along with one unknown, and the 2 Foundries untapped. I take a draw and find Watery Grave, which when combined with the Path and Snap in hand can get across for exactly 11, but loses to Deflecting Palm. That being said, if I wait another turn, an end step Command into Boros Charm to effectively nullify the Blessed Alliance in my hand and any other 3 damage burn spell kills me for waiting, so I opt to go for it, ultimately getting there. Funny that I drew Blessed Alliance both postboard games and didn't cast it, lol. Thankfully, I go into top 8 as the number one seed at 5-1, so there's some reward for being forced to play.
Quarters - the same Eldrazi Tron pilot (0-2)
I suppose I'm a glutton for punishment, since I keep a 7 with no interaction for Chalice of the Void, but Serum Visions and Street Wraith to try to find that action. I can't, and promptly die to Chalice despite a pair of Snaps and a Lingering Souls putting in work until a 5/5 Walking Ballista comes down to ruin my rally. Game two I Thoughtseize away a Chalice and see Smasher x2, All is Dust, Temple/Tower/GQ remaining. After a few turns of playing ordinary magic, most importantly a Thought-knot seer on turn 3 taking my Stubborn Denial, I hit my opponent for 10 with a pair of Shadows as he's on 4 lands with the Seer and the Smasher that can't attack on board. Playing a Gurmag Angler, flashing back a Lingering Souls and hoping that he doesn't peel 2nd Eldrazi Temple, he quickly shows me a door to a horrible future and casts effectively a 5 mana In Garruk's Wake to put the game away.
Closing thoughts - Man, I'd really like a 3rd Ceremonious Rejection, even if it's probably a kneejerk reaction to getting browned by Chalice repeatedly. Other than that, the 2x copies of Blessed Alliance seemed great and will probably stick around moving forward. Burn is predictably popular at smaller events like IQs and PPTQs, and it's very live against GBx and the mirror. Esper Charm was spicy and has put in some real work the last few days. Not sure how real it is, but it might stick around as a replacement to Anguished Unmaking. Definitely merits more testing. As was the case at the end of the Invi, I still feel very good about playing Paths and Souls, and I think that Death's Shadow decks are far and away the best possible thing to be doing in Modern right now. Hope the half-baked report was at least a little helpful, I promise I'll take actual notes for the TJ's Titanium Series and SCG Syracuse coming up
Thanks for the report. I'm afraid about graveyard hate. May x2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and x2 geist of saint traft help with this grindy matchups? Not enought size on our 15 sideboard for this?
4 mana cards are very expensive for this deck, but a miser's copy of Geist isn't unreasonable. Just be careful not to go overboard with grindy cards, lest you run out of space for the rest of the format. Also, I pretty typically shave a delve threat against decks with graveyard hate, so don't be afraid to do that.
12 fetch are a must? I mean, after include an eiganjo I think that I lose a target to be fetched so maybe cut one instead of the hallowed can be good. Make sense?
12 fetchlands are not a must. I sometimes run an additional shockland in place of the 11th fetchland, which works fine. But when I tried to harden the deck against Blood Moon by adding a single Plains instead of the extra shockland, the Plains frequently turned out to be a terrible draw.
Weakening the manabase of the deck for an effect like the one from Eiganjo Castle, which only works on two cards in the maindeck and an additional card in the sideboard is something I would recommend against.
Came in 2nd place of a 52 person PPTQ yesterday, going 4-0-2 in the swiss(double drew in), then scooping in the finals for $400. I really wanted the invite, but I was playing B/W Smallpox which is almost unwinnable with 8 edict effects, souls, bitterblossom, etc. Figured I'd take the money as it is a decent amount. Feel bad afterwards by not giving it a chance to win but think it was the right EV play.
Beat Ad Nauseam, Storm, 4c Shadow, and Affinity in the Swiss(losing all 4 game ones on the draw). Beat Merfolk and Eldrazi Tron in Top 8, scooping to Smallpox.
Won't go over each matchup, but just some notes that I had. FYI: store was out of Spellbombs and Stubborn Denials so my SB was a little abnormal.
- Leyline of Sanctity is a little rough, but Liliana was great vs Ad Nauseam. Wouldn't mind a 2nd one in the SB.
- Storm is a pretty easy matchup, not having Spellbomb was rough though, had to bring in Tendrils for Empty.
- Purge and Lilian's Defeat were great against 4c Shadow with Lili, especially with Snapcaster. Wouldn't mind playing one but not much room in SB.
- Stony is a house vs Affinity, but 2 might be unneccessary, I only bring 1 in vs Eldrazi for Ratchet Bomb so maybe 1 is right.
- Merfolk guy SB'd out Seas against me which was great as I hate that card. Just SB'd in all my removal, landed 2 Death Shadow on T2 to win.
- Eldrazi Tron guy flooded, but Snap is so good to buy back Rejection and Denial here.
- I think 4 Snap is a little much, I was happy with 3 and 1 Lili. The deck is low on mana and snap clogged my hand a few times.
- 4/2 Path/Push is correct, just so good in this meta right now
- I think I want another Disenchant just in case Chalice resolves or for Leyline, maybe just an Unmaking?
Thanks for the report. You mentioned a Liliana (LotV?) that is currently not in the list. It's Liliana's Defeat btw, but that's a minor gripe.
Some thoughts on your list/comments:
- 3 Path, 3 Push is also very good. Pathing mana dorks or Dark Confidant (ramping midrange decks into four-drops in the process) can be awkward.
- Bringing Tendrils for Empty the Warrens is generally a good idea. Empty the Warrens is usually their primary win condition post-board.
- Stony Silence vs. Affinity is obviously good, but having an extra Disenchant instead also helps. Not sure about this one.
- I wouldn't leave home without 2 or 3 Disenchant effects in the sideboard. Resolved Chalice or resolved Ensnaring Bridge is often backbreaking.
- The Eldrazi Tron matchup usually becomes a completely different affair if they get Cavern of Souls.
- I agree that Smallpox is a pretty terrible matchup, although it is not as terrible as with Grixis Shadow thanks to Lingering Souls.
A couple of questions:
- How come you lost all four game 1s on the draw? Was the deck too slow? Or did you just get bad draws?
- How did Blessed Alliance, Geist of Saint Taft and Dispel perform? These are the cards in your sideboard that I'm not sure about.
- Would you please give some more details on how the games against Affinity played out? I'm especially interested in what Stony Silence did for you.
- Deck wasn't slow. I actually one game 1 vs storm, but he punted and should have won. Vs Ad Nauseam i had him dead on board and a lili of the veil out, but he top decked an ad nauseam. Affinity got a T2 Etched Champion, and shadow got me with a battle rage.
- I never cast blessed alliance, but I'm not sure. It was mainly for the mirror and burn. It gives me an additional out to Etched Champion which I'm not sure I need with 2 Tendrils, and it's decent vs Eldrazi Tron but post board they bring in Hangarback so not sure how good it is there. I wouldn't mind taking it out of the SB, but I'd still like another card for Burn so I'm hesitant to take it out.
- Geist I never cast, and I'm probably taking it out. I just didnt' have Spellbombs so I had to play something. Brought it in vs Storm and Ad Nauseamm to up the clock. I wanted it mainly for Scapeshift to up the clock. It gets blocked too easily in the mirror. Dispel again I wouldn't have played if I could find another Stubborn Denial. I think it's fine if you are maxed on Denials and want a 5th counter, but I wouldn't play it.
- Affinity in G1 he got Etched Champion T2 on the play. He had two Ravagers and I could only Thoughtseize out one and he went all in on Champion so not much to do there. I think I SB out Lili because I have Souls and Tendrils and don't want to many 3 drops, but I'm not really sure. Game 2 he mulled to six and I had double thoughtseize and he got flooded; fairly easy. Game 3 he had the turn 3 kill with Ravager and Inkmoth, but I had a turn two Stony Silence to shut down his two Citadels and a Plating. Drawing two citadels hurt him there, but I was dead if I didn't have it T2. From there Disenchant into Snap Disenchant ended the game fairly quick.
He did SB in blood moon which I didn't play around, but not sure you really can.
Speaking of SB's, has anyone tried playing a Plains in the SB? I say Enevoldson play one when he went 12-3 at a GP, since it seems good to go up to 20 lands against GQ decks. Is this an option?
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as for replacing wraith, i was looking at first the 4th souls. card seems bonkers in matchups like 8 rack saying you countered their bridge, abzan, jund, mirror etc. in all my testing this card was my mvp against none izzet staticaster decks, curse of death's hold, elesh norn decks. as for the other 3 slots i know maybe an orzhov charm. my experience with that card come from rtr standard but the ability to lower your life seems deece, to reanimate at instant speed sounds good, or to bounce a snap seems good. the last 2 slots im not sure. in testing with my group yesterday we had ideas ranging from 2 more inquisition all the way through ashiok and far//away and psychic strike. I think its one of those things where it becomes meta or preference dependent.
anyways thank you again for the reply and hopefully we can work toghter to make esper deaths shadow great again!
rug cantripshift-back in the binder
ad nauseum-meh
rg ponza/12 moon- trolling
esper death shadow- built and learning
All hail the mighty luck sack walking ballista may he reign supreme- So declares Harambe
game 1: I strip his hand and we are in a top deck battle with me at 3 him at 16. i have some lingering souls out and a big d shadow. he top decks a reality smasher with one card in hard. he plays the smasher and declares an attack i block with the shadow and he responds before blocks with path to exile targeting my shadow. I concede.
we go to the board and I have seen ulamog, matter reshaper, path, tks, and ghostly prision on top of the usual suspects from eldrazi tron like maps and mind stones.
I sideboard the following cards:
1 path
2 surgical (more on this in a second)
1 d sphere
2 stony
1 lost legacy (more on this in a second)
1 rejection
i take out:
4 shadow- because I'm afraid of him bringing in chalice
3 soul- I knew Eldrazi tron played end bringer so I didn't want no value from casting souls
1 gurmag angler- big mistake
the surgical and lost legacy were hedge bets that if I was able to thoughtsieze and inquisition him early i would hopefully see a surgical and be able to strip him of threats permanently. the same holds true for lost legacy. A friend and trusted playtest partner told me after the match that I should have brought in the following:
1 path
1 d sphere
2 stony
1 rejection
1 ranger of Eos
and I should have taken out:
3-fatal push
3-lingering
does this sound right? keep in mind I'm using hosaka's gp kobe deck list.
round 3 played American kiki
game 1 I get him on the back of early pressure and him stumbling with mana.
going into game 2 we go to the board and I do the following:
1 path
2 surgical
1 d sphere
1 squall
1 geist
1 lost legacy
1 ranger
out:
3 lingering souls
1 gurmag
3 push
1 snap
now i have no idea if this is right but his whole game plan revolved around getting resto and kiki and building the slower twin combo.
overall I lost 1-2 but I learned several things that I want to ask:
first is the burn match up as abysmal as I feel like it is after then event played burn with a local and went 2-11. is there a way to fix this match up? do we have to slow down our fetches and shocks and just let them burn us down?
for the match I sided
1 path
2 surgical but I know this is very wrong I was just getting frustrated
2 collective
1 geist
1 ranger
1 squall
out:
4 t sieze
4 wraith
I know I've sided in the surgicals and lost legacy a lot but part of it is I'm actually struggling to learn my roles in the matchups so I'm kind of using it as a crutch which I know I have to stop if I want to succeed with the deck.
my next question is in fetching shocking cycling wraith t siezing etc how aggressive are we supposed to be? are we supposed to be racing our life total down to say 10 and stopping? I'm no slouch when it comes to playing magic and once I get a deck I get it but while I'm learning I have a lot of questions because I want to be as good as possible and I have a lot of events coming up and I don't want to waste my time and money if that makes sense.
another thing I learned from my usual test partner is that surgical should only come in in match ups like dredge, ad nauseum, etc does everyone agree with this? is there other matchups where I could shine?
after last night and a week of testing this is what ive come up with for this week for several local events let me know what you think:
4 Death's Shadow
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
4 Street Wraith
4 Serum Visions
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
4 Thought Scour
2 Fatal Push
4 Path to Exile
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Godless Shrine
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Marsh Flats
the change of moving 1 hallowed fountain to 1 godless shrine comes because in my current version my breakdown is as follows: 20 b, 14 u, 7 w. maybe this is wrong but it honestly has felt like a quality of life change since making the shift.
current sideboard:
1 Fatal Push
1 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Stony Silence
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Lost Legacy
2 Collective Brutality
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Detention Sphere
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Countersquall
if you notice I haven't changed the board yet but the first thing I want to cut is that lost legacy it seems just awful but that's my inexperienced opinion.
thank you for reading and I hope I haven't overwhelmed you all with my questions!
rug cantripshift-back in the binder
ad nauseum-meh
rg ponza/12 moon- trolling
esper death shadow- built and learning
All hail the mighty luck sack walking ballista may he reign supreme- So declares Harambe
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Marsh Flats
2 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Godless Shrine
1 Island
1 Swamp
Creatures 16
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
3 Fatal Push
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Path to Exile
2 Lingering Souls
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
2 Stony Silence
1 Stubborn Denial
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Collective Brutality
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Disenchant
2 Flaying Tendrils
The deck has done okay. Some problems,
Some pros,
Overall, the deck feels like a strong metagame choice, but I'm not sure if it has all the tools it needs to really be "tier 1." The main cause of this seems to be the lack of an "I win" card just off the top outside of grinding, and GDS probably grinds harder right now albeit with slightly worse removal. I plan on keep playing the deck, and play a modified sideboard hopefully tonight at FNM with
2 Collective brutality
2 Stony Silence
1 Stubborn Denial
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Disenchant
2 Flaying Tendrils
I also may start uploading some replays to youtube and talk about all my play mistakes, because I've been watching my replays, and I am terrible on MTGO, which makes me think on paper I'm not as strong as a player I thought I was either. This deck is also a lot more choice dependent than many of my previous decks. This way people who are interested in the deck can see it in action.
3x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Collective Brutality
2x Flaying Tendrils
2x Liliana, the Last Hope
4x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Stubborn Denial
The reason im going to this generic sideboard is ive been following the evolution of grixis shadow and i continually keep seeing these cards.This sideboard is probally going to change and yes i know white opens us up to better sideboard options like stony silence d sphere and ranger of eos but honestly those cards have felt lackluster in my opinion. While generic this sideboard I feel like allows me to have certain answers to match ups i feel like are bad for example tron. I feel like the extra denials and the 3x rejection will help improve the match and push it closer to equal if not gaining me a percentage point somewhere in the match up because it allows my answers to match up slightly better with what they are trying to do. also the use of liliana feels more grindy to me which is what i feel like esper shadow wants to be doing anyways and the ability to pick off smaller creatures, or acting as an impromptu tasigur the golden fang seems like something i would like to be doing. also the fact that her minus is a mini thought scour feels like something id like to be doing considering i want to get cards like Lingering Souls in my yard or getting more options for delve or snap caster mage feels correct. now, these observations have not been tested yet thoroughly but I'm working under the assumption that these cards will line up better and allow for a smoother transition between the early and mid game.
on the discussion of esper shadow vs jund shadow that match up felt like almost a realistic bye. Game 1 i was being to cute with my disruption. I left him with a temur battle rage thiking that i could deal with his threats as they came. that opportunity never came to fruition as he stuck two death shadows and a goyf in a single turn and over loaded my removal. game 1 went to my opp. game two we shuffle up and i announce that i am on the play. i sideboarded by taking out all of my shadows and playing with my old sideboard I added countersquall, d sphere, push, geist. i took out all 4 shadows because i felt like my souls and my delve threats would overload his removal that came in the form of fatal push, abrupt decay, and terminate. When I throughtsiezed on turn 1 i saw that my opp had brought in golgari charm. this presented a problem for me because i had chose to try to win the game by going wide with lingering souls instead of going the sledgehammer route of death shadow. I noticed that he had kept a hand thahad no discard spells present. the modal function of golgari charm present a problem because it offers -1/-1 my creatures so that kills my souls tokens and it can destroy an enchatement. i began to craft my line of play around getting him to use the charm to free a creature from d sphere. the opportunity presented itself when he proceeded to play shadow shadow on t3 or t4. When it comes to my turn i crack a fetch to get basic and d sphere the shadows. he takes the bait. he charms to remove the sphere. Those around me saw the excitement because he had done the line that i wanted him to take. he untaps and attacks and i chump with the tasigur and snap i have in play. he passes the turn back and from there it was game on. the steady onslaught of souls for chump blocks combined with a steady mix o fatal push, path to exile, and serum visions easily allowed me to take the win quickly over the next 2 turns. The reaosn i mention this is that i personally believe that lingering souls is the mirror breaker and the choice to push my threats towards delve threats enables me to blank some of my opposing shadow players removal. Is this the general consensus or do others have a different plan for the mirror? Im open to discussion and hearing out others ideas because I want to become a better pilot!
Anyways thanks for reading and listening to my theory! this deck has been a breath of fresh air and again I hope with the dedicated people of this group that we can continue to push esper shadow up in the world.
thanks,
Tiny
rug cantripshift-back in the binder
ad nauseum-meh
rg ponza/12 moon- trolling
esper death shadow- built and learning
All hail the mighty luck sack walking ballista may he reign supreme- So declares Harambe
A pretty standard list with 3x Lingering Souls in the MD.
I like his board a lot, as well, and will probably try to incorporate it. I think the 1 of Unmaking is the right call.
4 deaths shadow
4 street wraith
3 snapcaster mage
2 gurmag angler
2 tasigur, the golden fang
4 serum visions
4 thought scour
3 fatal push
3 path to exile
3 stubborn denial
3 thoughtseize
2 inquisition of kozilek
2 orzhov charm
2 lingering souls
4 flooded strand
4 marsh flats
4 polluted delta
2 watery grave
2 godless shrine
1 hallowed fountain
1 island
1 swamp
SB
3 ceremonious rejection
3 nihil spellbomb
2 disenchant
2 stony silence
2 flaying tendrils
1 liliana,the last hope
1 anguished unmaking
1 echoing truth
This list has been running very consistently for me. I like the 3-3-2 split for removal because orzhov charm has enough flexibility to warrant replacing the 4th copy of path or push. As for the 3-2 split on discard. My reasoning was as follows. Between 12 fetches, 4 wraiths, and orzhov charm, there are more than enough ways to reduce your life total to a point where death's shadow is a more than respectable threat. Adversely, there have been frequent situations where the restriction on inquisition mattered far less than the 2 damage on thoughtsieze. Usually the shadow is big enough to represent a quality clock, but information and disruption are still wanted.
As for the SB the 3rd rejection as well as the second disenchant could easily be replaced, for things like countersquall, blessed alliance, or even condemn (which works wonders in a shadow mirror), etc
Feel free to critique or ask questions you may have.
1x island
1x swamp
1x hallowed fountain
2x watery grave
2x godless shrine
4x polluted delta
4x marsh flats
1x flooded strand
3x bloodstained mire
instants (12)
4x thought scour
2x stubborn denial
1x orzhov charm
2x fatal push
3x path to exile
2x inquisition of kozilek
4x thoughtseize
2x lingering souls
4x serum visions
planeswalkers (2)
1x liliana of the veil
1x liliana, the last hope
creatures (15)
4x death's shadow
3x snapcaster mage
4x street wraith
2x tasigur, the golden fang
2x gurmag angler
1x liliana of the veil
1x liliana, the last hope
1x damnation
2x collective brutality
1x disenchant
1x engineered explosives
1x anguished unmaking
1x esper charm
2x surgical extraction
2x geist of saint traft
2x stubborn denial
Quick note: I would cut 3 bloodstained mire if I had 3 more flooded strand.
My matches were:
UW control win 2-0
cards that preformed well: stubborn denial, thoughtseize
under-performing cards: none came up
notes: played against an inexperience pilot. tried not to over-extend myself by just playing one strong threat while keeping up stubborn denial for their planeswalkers (specifically elspeth, sun's champion) and have another strong threat in my hand. I was trying to play around wraiths.
UW control win 2-0
notes: played against a very experience pilot. game 2 I used snapcaster to target thoughseize in order to make my death's shadow big enough to swing for lethal. during game 2, I cast a thoughtsieze while holding 2x death's shadow, anguished unmaking, and a geist of saint traft. I see that his hand is filled with spot removal, supreme verdict, and a gideon. I take the verdict and land geist to close out the game. turn 5 he played gideon and thought he was safe, but anguished unmaking took care of him.
mill win 2-0
cards that preformed well: delve cards, stubborn denial, lingering souls
under-performing cards: none came up, I sided-out thought scour though
notes: game 1 on turn 2 I didn't stubborn denial glimpse the unthinkable and was able to play tasigur, the golden fang and gurmag angler on the same turn. He used ghost quarter on my lands and I ended the game with two creatures in play with no lands. game 2 was close but having snapcaster in hand with a full, spell-filled graveyard is a great way to control the game.
the esper deck with jace, obzedat, ghost council, goryo's vengeance, etc. win 2-0
cards that preformed well: stubborn denial, liliana, the last hope, surgical extraction, path to exile
under-performing cards: none came up
notes: this deck was fun to play against. I was able to control the game though a combination of thoughtseize, liliana, the last hope (lingering souls is a pain to deal with) and using surgical extraction on key cards (such as lingering souls). path to exile worked wonders against obzedat, ghost council.
Overall, the deck felt great to play. Stubborn denial was the best card all night and I wouldn't go less than 4 in the 75. I like the 2/2 split between the sideboard and main too. I played pretty conservative all night trying not to over-extend myself. I found that this deck is great at playing more of a control game while sticking one or two large threats and having one in reserve.
CBW midrange deck
CBW eldrazi processor deck
CBW bw eldrazi shadow midrange
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Creatures
4 Death's Shadow
2 Gurmag Angler
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Spells
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Lingering Souls
4 Serum Visions
4 Thoughtseize
3 Fatal Push
2 Path to Exile
1 Stubborn Denial
4 Thought Scour
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Flooded Strand
2 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Stubborn Denial
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Collective Brutality
1 Disenchant
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Stony Silence
Very heavy on the planeswalker value.
Hey guys, that was me. Here, have a long-winded tournament report
I figured since the Esper variants haven't received much press, I'd talk a little about the event and how each round went, complete with inexact sideboarding as I remember it. Going into the event, I'd switched from Grixis Shadow to Esper Shadow about a month prior. I really like Lingering Souls and Path to Exile as a trump card in the DS mirrors, and as a way to sidestep some of the hate that the Esper version has been getting like Chameleon Colossus and Mirran Crusader. As far as the manabase is concerned, I copied Yo*****eru Hosaka's 30th place (from GP Kobe) land suite to include 2 Hallowed Fountains over a 2nd Godless Shrine. This might seem odd when compared to the Grixis lists which only play one Steam Vents, but this deck is much lighter on black requirements and the optimal sequencing is typically turn 1 Watery Grave, turn 2 Fountain. If you fetch Watery Grave on an opponent's end step to cast Thought Scour and you mill over your one-of Fountain, that's a bit of an issue. It's entirely possible that I'm wrong about this and it should be 2nd Shrine over 2nd Fountain though; time and testing will tell. Regarding card choices other people are making, I personally hate Orzhov Charm and planeswalkers in the main. The former is a bad removal spell with a narrow reanimation mode that rarely comes up in my experience, and the latter just isn't necessary in the main. Esper colors are already more than grindy enough, and you should want all of your proactive cards to actively kill or pressure your opponent game one. Souls comes out quite often, but it fills that game one role quite nicely as a substitute to the Kommand/Snap loop that Grixis gets access to. The sideboard should also be maxed out on very broad pieces of interaction instead of narrow bullets. Things like Stony Silence are widely unnecessary from what I've seen, whereas a card like Disenchant can kill Chalice of the Void set to one, a Leyline of Sanctity, as well as being highly disruptive versus Affinity and other artifact-based decks. I played 2 "narrow" cards in the board, one of which (Purge) is very good vs GBx, Death's Shadow, and Blood Moon decks, and the other (Disdainful Stroke) is specifically good vs Titan Shift and control, two decks that I anticipated seeing more of than usual. It's also highly functional vs E-Tron, classic Gx tron, and most of the combo decks in the format, acting as Stubborn Denial number 5. /thoughts
Rd 1 - Matt Foreman, 171st (Dredge) 2-0
Game one I found multiple Paths and Shadows vs a clunky draw and managed to close out the game before Conflagrate could kill me.
Sideboard: -4 TS -2 IoK -1 Push, +2 Stubs +1 Purge +2 Tendrils +2 Spellbomb
Game two I had a Spellbomb on one to slow him down and a Flaying Tendrils later on took care of the rest.
Rd 2 - John Grier, 394th (Abzan Elves) 2-0
Game one I stabilize at one life behind some blockers and put my opponent on a glacially slow 6 turn clock with hardcast Street Wraith getting in due to his Overgrown Tomb.
-3 Lingering Souls -2 Path to Exile, +2 Brutality +2 Tendrils +1 Liliana
Game two I cast Liliana on turn 4 and protect her en route to an ultimate. Path was pretty clutch here as it let me ignore the Chameleon Colossus I saw on an early Thoughtseize. After getting my opponent hellbent staring down said Lili, he peels a Lead the Stampede to draw 4 creatures, to include a Scavenging Ooze and a Shaman of the Pack. Eventually my opponent has a 14/14 Scooze, but a never-ending horde of zombies halts it in its tracks. Shaman of the Pack is able to put me to 1 instead of dead thanks to some nice attacks from my side forcing chump blocks the turn prior, as I crack back with a zombie horde approximately the size of a small city the following turn.
Rd 3 - Ryland Taliaferro, 402nd (4c Jund White Shadow) 2-1
Game one I feel pretty advantaged on board, but my opponent goes from 9 life with a pair of shadows to cycling triple Wraith + Temur Battle Rage at 3 life while I'm tapped out.
-4 TS , +2 Spellbomb +1 Unmaking +1 Lili
Games two and three, things go more according to plan and I'm able to outgrind, even through Ranger of Eos and his Lingering Souls.
Rd 4 - Matt Puls, 67th, also went 7-1 in Modern (Old-school Jund) 0-2
Game one sees me stabilize at 2 life after taking a beating from Raging Ravine and thoughtseizing a Bolt to avoid dying. I get my opponent down to 6 with lethal next turn unless he peels, and he duly obliges me with a Kolaghan's Command off the top. -2 IoK -4 TS -1 Wraith, +1 Purge +1 Unmaking +2 Stubs +1 Lili +2 Spellbomb
Game two I have a nice long-game hand with Celestial Purge, Lingering Souls, double Stubs and a delve threat. My opponent resolves turn 2 Scooze and the graveyard disruption gives me fits. I mill over a Fatal Push that would have been nice to draw, essentially playing draw-go in the hopes of leveraging my life total as a resource, and a Goyf helps the Ooze to punch through my turn 5 Souls + flashback as I can't put anything meaningful together.
Rd 9 - Ken Parson, 98th (Affinity) 2-1
Game one I blind keep a triple Street Wraith draw with a Thoughtseize. Great hand vs most of the field. Not so great against robots.
-4 TS -4 Wraith, +2 Disenchant +2 Tendrils +1 Lili +1 Rejection +2 Stubs (I know this might look strange, but most of the cards you really care about are noncreatures like Plating/Blood Moon/Dispatch/early Moxen and Drums)
Game two my opponent mulls into a nonfunctional hand and never gets there. Better lucky than good, I suppose.
Game three my opponent and I end up in a gummed-up board stall with 2 Etched Champions vs my Death's Shadow, Gurmag Angler, and Tasigur with myself at 6 and my opponent at 8. Ken places a Cranial Plating on the stack, to which I have both the Stubs and Disenchant to answer it. Hoping it will encourage a bad alpha, I give a hard sell "resolves" while looking mildly frustrated. Ken obliges me by attaching the funny hat to his Champ, sending both into the red zone. I disenchant the equipment, kill his last blocker on end step and crack back for lethal while at 2 life. We have a long conversation afterwards about it, and I still think it's correct for him to swing there. Every turn he waits around is another turn closer to finding a Tendrils, and most of the Esper lists are short on answers to a resolved Plating.
Rd 10 - Aaron Barich, 14th (UG Infect) 2-0
Having seen Aaron play Infect before, I anticipate he'll be playing something linear and aggressive with room to leverage playskill. Maybe Affinity, maybe Burn, or something similar. Nope, still playing Infect despite it being a "dead deck". Thankfully, Esper Shadow is probably what you'd draw up if you were crafting the nightmare deck for Infect to face. I don't actually remember how I sideboarded, since the board literally had too many good cards for the matchup.
Rd 11 - Zan Syed, 46th (Abzan Vizier Company) 2-0
Thankfully, being at this point in the tournament means that a lot of my opponents will be name-brand players who play the same decks over the course of weeks, months, or sometimes years. Zan is one of those players, and I correctly place him on Vizier combo and keep an excellent game one hand with double Shadows and ample disruption that put him in the abyss early and the one mana 8/8s swiftly close the game out.
Personally, I treat this matchup, particularly on the draw, to be a game of attrition. You can't be completely threat-light, but speed isn't quite as important as keeping them off value is. -3 Souls -4 Wraith, +2 Stubs +2 Brutality +2 Tendrils +1 Liliana
Game two, I thoughtseize away his Eternal Witness, aggressively fetch shock to put myself to 4 with a triple DS draw, and Flaying Tendrils away both his Vizier and Kitchen Finks that would have surely ran away with the game otherwise.
Rd 12 - Michael Ostroski, 36th (Affinity) 2-0
Both games my opponent has turn 1 Plating on the play, with no Etched Champion to carry it. Both games I find double Lingering Souls and a fistful of removal spells to render it invalid.
Overall, I felt very very good about this deck. Even the matchup that I lost, Jund, should be favorable in the abstract. The flex slots in the board, and the only things I'd consider shifting around are the Celestial Purge and the Disdainful Stroke, with possible/likely replacements being a Blessed Alliance, the third Tendrils, another Spellbomb, or the 2nd Ceremonious Rejection. Flaying Tendrils has overperformed like crazy, and Ceremonious Rejection looks very strong when looking at the other 7-1 decklists from the event. Path also overperformed and makes me very happy to be out of Grixis colors right now. I think that this deck is quite clearly a viable alternative to Grixis or Jund shadow, and should be bumped up at least into the developing competitive section of the forums as a very real, if underplayed, competitor in the metagame.
Sadly, my Standard deck (BG Energy) was incredibly mediocre and I didn't have the luxury of enough time to test Standard much prior to the event. I really wanted to make a custom 1/1 Spirit token for us, but it just wasn't meant to be
Anyways, TL;DR - Esper Shadow is great, and I'm very happy to continue playing it moving forward into PPTQ season and more events at the TJ Collectibles Titanium Series.
1. I switched to the two godless shrine/1 unhallowed fountain since I found on turn 2 I much preferred plays like turn 1 serum visions/thought scour, turn 2 thoughtseize/delve threat. I'm not sure how often this is a "misplay" since I'm often leaving a threat undefended for a turn, but it often puts on the sort of board pressure I feel comfortable with. With only 3 paths/2-3 souls in the MD, rarely do I need either double U or double W on turn 2, which seems to be what the Hallowed Fountain builds, and your comment earlier, would suggest. Instead, in my experience (though nothing as high caliber as this, just open games in mtgo), thought scouring away my godless shrine early on has often bottlenecked my early turns more than if my unhallowed fountain gets thoughtscoured away. Do you have any note able situations where the turn 2 watery grave/unhallowed fountain is preferred?
2. Can you explain, or point to any good strategy articles, on when its worth keeping in or boarding out thoughtseize? What cards do you typically think of as the "flex" spots for sideboarding? I've often had a hard problem of figuring out when do I take out my discard suite, do I leave in IoK or TS and take out the other in some matchups, and properly evaluating the value of Lingering Souls in certain matchups. For a while I found myself trying to board it out a lot, then as I played more tried to think of it as a "reach" card and not wanting to board it out as aggressively. You seem to be more in the former camp. I also noticed you completely board out wraith every so often, which I've never really thought of doing, can you explain? Is it just trying to minimize incidental life loss versus aggro decks?
Again, thanks so much, this gave me a bunch of things to think about!
Hey, not a problem
1. I find myself wanting double blue quite early and often, more-so than double black. Generally, turn 3 is where I fetch Godless Shrine with the intention of casting a couple threats. Turn 1 is generally the best turn to cast a discard spell, to hinder the opponent and also build information on what you're looking for in your cantrips. Turn 2, I often like to cast Serum Visions or Thought Scour while holding up removal and/or Stubborn Denial, hence Grave into Fountain. Basically, double U takes priority in game one over double B, which takes priority over double W. This changes sometimes based on matchups (UW with Spreading Seas, for example) or postboard when you need to cast Flaying Tendrils or situationally, like the TS + Tas turn you mentioned, in which I'd be inclined to lead Grave into Shrine. A lot of these differences can be attributed to play style and deck composition, of course.
2. Thoughtseize is generally bad vs the super grindy decks like Jund or Abzan, where the matchup will frequently be dictated by topdecks following multiple instances of one-for-one exchanges. Grixis Shadow isn't in that camp, however, since hitting their delve threats or taking the Kommand/Snap loop offline can really cripple them in the midgame. It's also actively atrocious vs Affinity, since they empty their hand so quickly and the life loss really stings. Burn, however, is a matchup that you counter-intuitively leave it in for, since sniping Path and Deflecting Palm is so important, and worst case scenario it saves you a point or two of life and fuels delve. IoK can come out over TS against decks whose lower costing cards are largely irrelevant (think E-Tron, for example, where you have ample answers postboard to the few cheap cards that matter between your Paths, Stubs, and Disenchants, and you want the tempo positive plays of making them cast them first).
As far as "flex" spots for sideboarding, I'm assuming you're referring to non-essential cards in the sideboard that can be replaced? I'd definitely say that Celestial Purge and Disdainful Stroke were those cards for me, and they were there mostly to hedge against the higher-than-average numbers of Grixis Shadow and UWx Control / Titan Shift I expected to see. The other 13 cards in the board feel quite locked in for me. If you're asking about maindeck cards that are flexible to cut for the sideboard games, I'd tell you that there are no sacred cows in Magic. Everything can be cut, even if it sounds crazy. For instance, I've even cut Death's Shadow completely against opponents who left in 4 Fatal Push against me for game 2.
Lingering Souls generally comes out vs faster decks where speed is security and you're playing the beatdown role, against things like combo. If it lines up poorly with your sideboard strategy of bringing in Flaying Tendrils and isn't overwhelmingly impressive against the opponent (like Affinity) playing something like mono white D&T, for instance, you can also cut or trim on it. So, if you look at how I sideboarded during the tournament, I only cut it vs Elves and Vizier, where I was both bringing in Tendrils and I felt that it wasn't particularly great even in the event that I wasn't casting Tendrils. Street Wraith is an incredible game one card that lets you play a functionally 56 card deck, fueling delve and getting your Shadows online quicker. Postboard, however, the games are often going to slow down as both players get more specific interaction to line up with each other. In these instances, you don't need to come out to a blistering start. It's also important to note that Wraith can lead to flooding out in longer games, particularly against other DS decks. And finally, yes, when playing against the hyper aggressive decks that punish you for putting your life total very low, Wraith is often just a blank - Burn and Affinity definitely fall in that camp. There are no sacred cows; consider the value of each card in how your deck is lining up against your opponent postboard and what role you'll each be playing, or how the game should ideally play out.
I greatly appericate the time put into this report as someone who likes to consume information. I did however have some questions for you if you dont mind. the first is:
1) i noticed you chose nihil spellbomb over surgical extraction is there a particular reason for this?
2) ive noticed the trend towards 2/2 split of both tasigur and gurmag. did gurmag feel like it was under preforming? Im curious because he feels like he is under preforming and i was debating on cutting the second. In your opinion because you seem to have had much success even with as you put the poor standard choice would you keep the 2/2 split or would you shift the numbers? thoguhts?
Other than that thank you again for the wonderful tournment report and I hope you find much continued success with the deck and thank you for putting this deck into the spot light!
rug cantripshift-back in the binder
ad nauseum-meh
rg ponza/12 moon- trolling
esper death shadow- built and learning
All hail the mighty luck sack walking ballista may he reign supreme- So declares Harambe
1. Spellbomb is good in the DS mirrors and actually takes cares of the entire graveyard at once, and that's a big deal versus most graveyard decks - also, as a cantrip, it's versatile to come in for places where Surgical cannot. Additionally, almost every deck in the format that was once popular and soft to Surgical effects have either been pushed out of the competitive format entirely, or had their numbers reduced substantially. I also think that Surgical effects are inherently misunderstood for being stronger than they actually are. If your opponent isn't playing a pure combo deck that will be knocked out by it, Surgical generally isn't worth the slot.
2. In the months that I've been playing Death's Shadow, I can think of exactly one instance where I would have preferred to have drawn Tasigur over Angler. The extra point of power is typically worth the extra delved card from the yard, and drawing multiple Tas or flipping the second copy over with his activation is horrendous. Sometimes you can't put the big fish into play on turn 2, but this deck is so mana efficient that you typically have something else to do anyways.
Thanks, I appreciate it! I hope other people start doing well with the deck too; people need to be punished for putting Mirran Crusader in their Modern decks
i have noted a lot of lists foregoing stony silences simply for disenchants. why would this be? seems like stony is such a haymaker that we should be playing this when playing white and when affinity is so prevalent. also, has anyone played detention spheres over unmakings? understand that instant speed and life loss (sometimes) are great but spheres hit the same thing and also hits multiples (great vs tokens, dredge etc) and abrupt decays are at an all time low
- The more I play Esper Shadow, the more I realize how much heavy lifting Kolaghan's Command does for Grixis Shadow. Some cards that were rarely amazing in Grixis Shadow seem more valuable in Esper. For instance, Collective Brutality's ability to have the opponent lose 2 life becomes more interesting in a deck with no other ways of causing this type of effect.
- Another example for a card that seems to be better in Esper Shadow is Surgical Extraction, because it combines well with other cards that exile things. Flaying Tendrils also loses most its major drawback of not being able to exile Prized Amalgam, as Esper Shadow can achieve this goal in other ways.
- I love how Esper Shadow punishes decks for going overboard against Grixis Shadow with mediocre cards like Mirran Crusader and Chameleon Colossus. It doesn't come up that often, but when it does, it feels really satisfying from the perspective of a long-time Grixis Shadow player.
- Lingering Souls has been really good so far. I like how it increases the threat density and is resilient to discard effects. LotV seems to have become more popular recently and Lingering Souls is a great answer. I have noticed that opponents often bring in cards like Izzet Staticaster that do little against the rest of the deck. It's also quite good against Flicker Wisp and Vendillion Clique, two cards which I have seen more of lately.
- Esper Shadow feels slightly favored against Grixis Shadow, again thanks to Lingering Souls. But they have ways to deal with it and are sometimes better at playing the long game thanks to Kolaghan's Command, so it's not an auto-win. Against DSJ, however, Esper Shadow feels clearly superior when compared to Grixis Shadow. The mix of un-pushable delve creatures, flying tokens, cheap spot removal, and exile effects makes it hard for DSJ to come out on top.
- One drawback of running Lingering Souls is that it makes the deck slightly more dependent on the graveyard. My respect for Relic of Progenitus has increased lately.
- Path to Exile is often not as good as advertised. Esper Shadow is already worse than Grixis Shadow at playing the tempo game, and giving the opponent an extra land certainly doesn't help. The exile clause IS relevant about 20% of the time and I like how it can also hit pro-black creatures. On the other hand, it can be literally painful to obtain a white mana source early in the game against fast aggro decks. Grixis Shadow is a U/B deck with a red splash, whereas Esper Shadow relies more heavily on the third color. As a side note, Path to Exile on Primeval Titan feels really awkward. I view this as a problem because Titan Shift is on the rise.
- Chalice of the Void on 1 is a nightmare in game 1 and still very scary in game 2 and 3. This is IMHO a very good argument for running 2 Disenchants over any number of Stony Silences. The Eldrazi Tron matchup feels considerably worse for Esper Shadow than it is for Grixis Shadow. Losing the ability to cast counterspells and creature removal spells at the same time is really, really bad.
- Stubborn Denial seems worse in Esper Shadow, again compared to Grixis Shadow. The extra lands from Path to Exile work against its Force Spike effect (I have happy memories of force-spiking Karns and Ugins in the past). Esper Shadow also tends to tap out more frequently to cast Lingering Souls. So having 3 Stubborn Denial maindeck seems to be almost too much. But at the same time, not having Stubborn Denial against Chalice or Ensnaring Bridge is often game-ending, at least in game 1. I mitigated this by running 1 or 2 copies of Deprieve, but that card can surely feel clunky.
- Snapcaster Mage is also worse without support from Kolaghan's Command. Furthermore, we usually don't want to delve away Lingering Souls. This means that we are more likely to delve away targets for Snapcaster Mage.
- Blood Moon is also considerably worse for Esper Shadow than it is for Grixis. Being locked out of the one color required to remove enchantments is... tragic. I have won several games with Grixis Shadow while being locked out of blue, but that doesn't seem to be something Esper Shadow can realistically pull off.
- On the plus side, being able to get rid of enchanments post-board really helps against Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void/Sanctity. Though, in case of Leyline of the Void, we often don't know whether our opponent is running it when we sideboard. So Disenchant might be a dead card, which is a good reason for playing some number of Celestial Purges and Anguished Unmakings as well.
Despite some of the issues I have with the deck, I really like that it is not Grixis Shadow. Most of the time it feels like a different deck, for good and for bad, despite sharing numerous cards with its cousin. It tends to be less explosive, but often feels more robust. The worse Eldrazi Tron matchup is really troubling, though, because Eldrazi Tron happens to be second or third most popular deck in the format.
Being a smaller event, I expected to play against Burn at least once, so I decided to change the list accordingly. Shaving the 4th Street Wraith lets 3rd Stubborn Denial sneak into the main, freeing up a valuable sideboard slot and making the burn matchup much more manageable. I also decided after having seen a lot more UW and D&T online to move to 2nd Godless Shrine over 2nd Hallowed Fountain. I've had to shift my playstyle slightly, but it's been fine so far. Still can't decisively say if one is strictly better or not. For the sideboard, having more cards for burn seemed prudent, and the local New England scene is generally very into grindy midrange and control decks, so a few extra cards there seemed nice. Liliana of the Veil and a saucy Esper Charm seemed nice to double dip in those two areas, while a couple copies of Blessed Alliance would do double-duty against Burn and the mirror. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Flaying Tendrils has really been pulling overtime, so the 3rd copy moved in while Liliana, the Last Hope got bumped out for being somewhat superfluous. I also moved up an extra copy up Ceremonious Rejection for the rise in E tron and Affinity, cut Anguished Unmaking since it hasn't been coming in all that often, and the Celestial Purge and 2nd Disenchant which I kind of regretted. Here's the list I played:
4 Death's Shadow
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Street Wraith
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
Spells
4 Thoughtseize
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
2 Fatal Push
4 Path to Exile
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lingering Souls
4 Flooded Strand
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
2 Watery Grave
2 Godless Shrine
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Flaying Tendrils
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Collective Brutality
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Disenchant
1 Esper Charm
1 Liliana of the Veil
Round 1 - Esper Shadow mirror (2-0)
My opponent was playing Spell Queller over Lingering Souls. I flirted with the card a bit previously, but didn't like how clunky it felt in the DS mirrors. In spot removal matchups, Souls is a house, but Queller can often just get one-for-oned. That was the case in our match, as his Quellers died and my Souls did not. Of particular note, I got to cast a Blessed Alliance in life gain mode to catch two copies of Death's Shadow flat-footed for a nice 2-for-1.
Round 2 - Mono White D&T (2-1)
Game one my opponent has a nice draw with Arbiter and double GQ. He puts me to 1 and I crack back for 12 with a Shadow, holding up a snapcaster to flash block his guy, knowing I'll be dead to literally anything and I need to close the game before he can find something. He vials in Crusader on end step and I die. Game two we play a game of cat and mouse with the Flaying Tendrils in my hand as I try to set up a nice sweeper. Tasigur chips in for 4 at a time as my opponent never commits more than 1 threat at a time and I play a tempo game, eventually casting Souls to get in the last 3 points of damage. Game three my opponent kept a sketchy one as my discard spells take what little action he has, and a huge Shadow puts him in the abyss early. He does his best to draw out of it with multiple Thraben Inspectors and cycling Canopies, but eventually I set up a turn of Path/Snap Path to attack for 15, finishing him the next turn with a Collective Brutality.
Round 3 - Eldrazi Tron (0-2)
Game one I put my opponent on vizier combo because I thought I had seen him playing it previously (and he had green sleeves, I swear they're connected!) and kept a reactive hand with multiple removal spells and a Serum Visions. I see tronland turn 1 and cast Serum looking for a counterspell, finding a Stubborn Denial on top. Sadly, it's too late and my opponent untaps and slams Chalice. I quickly scoop, having only shown Flooded Strand and Hallowed Fountain, hoping my opponent might put me on UW. Game two I Thoughtseize a Chalice, stub a second one, but can't find my third land for Snapcaster Mage to deal with the 3rd copy. Chalice is... really tough, but the list has 13 answers not counting Snap recurring them postboard. Hard to say if I'm overreacting, but a 3rd Rejection seems like a nice luxury.
Round 4 - Lantern Control (2-1)
Game one I cast discard spells to hit Ancient Stirrings and an Ensnaring Bridge, putting a Tasigur down as a 5 turn clock. At 4 life, dead the next turn, my opponent peels another Bridge and I'm stone dead without any way to close the game out or blow up the artifact. Game two I cast a turn 1 discard spell and see a hand of Opal, some mill rocks, a surgical and some lands. After taking the surgical and putting myself aggressively to 5, Shadow puts my opponent on a two turn clock and he's unable to put anything together. Game three, he plays an early Grafdigger's Cage backed by an IoK/Surgical combo to knock Death's Shadow out of my deck. Fortunately, Tasigur and Snap pulling Ambush Viper duty put my opponent on a 4 turn clock as I find both Rejection and Stubs to deal with any possible Bridges.
Round 5 - Abzan (2-0)
Winning the die roll, I play draw-go for the first few turns and my opponent resolves LotV on his turn 3. Turn 4, I get to cast Souls + Tasigur, and Lili pluses to make me discard a Fatal Push as my remaining hand is Snapcaster Mage and another removal spell. He plays a Goyf and a Tasigur of his own, as my follow-up turn consists of Push the Lhurgoyf, Snap-Path the Tas, kill Lili. He finds a Maelstrom Pulse the turn after I find Stubborn Denial, and a 2nd copy of Thiago stops a maindeck copy of Liliana, the Last Hope from hitting the battlefield. Game two, my opponent beats me down for a few turns before I tap out for Souls. Taking advantage of the open window, he slams Last Hope and eats one of my tokens, putting me down to 10. Knowing I won't be able to adequately pressure the planeswalker with the tokens, I delve away the Souls in the graveyard to feed Gurmag Angler while casting a 3/3 Shadow and holding up a Denial. Resolving a Rhino to put me to 7 and effectively brick-walled, my opponent has no good plays with Lili other than to tick down to get back a Noble Hierarch that chump blocks a Shadow attack. After fetching basic to go down to 3 (a previous turn I fetched shock to go to 4) to enable Push/Snap Push and clearing out his board of untapped Noble and Anafenza, the Foremost, I get to eat his planeswalker inside that window to prevent him from ticking down to get back the Rhino that had been sacrificed to a Blessed Alliance, a healthy swing for 10 puts my opponent in a bad spot. Draw step, I cast an Esper Charm that mind rots the 2nd copy of Siege Rhino and another card and put him back into the abyss with his Nobles. Stubbing the back half of a topdecked Souls and risking him drawing another copy of Souls that might have been lethal with a Gavony Township activation, I hold back a Gurmag in hand to play around Damnation that likely isn't correct. Oh well, I didn't get punished. Postboard, I cut all 6 discard spells and bring in cards that impact the battlefield or stack, and my opponent noticeably left in at least some of his. I thought that this was strange and worth mentioning.
Round 6 - Burn (2-1)
Sadly, I get the pair-down and can't draw into top eight, and have to play the top-ranked Burn player. Thankfully, the changes to the list were largely with this matchup in mind. Rewarded! I win the die roll, fetch basics, and have Thought Scour into turn 2 Tasigur. Sadly, Searing Blaze plus a Wild Nacatl crashing in take my clock off the board, and a few poor draw steps of Thoughtseize and Street Wraith give my opponent the time needed to close out the game. Lingering Souls doesn't race very well, lol. Game two I find a Shadow and protect it with both Stubs and a Blessed Alliance that I never need to cast. Game three I cast an early discard spell and see an interesting grip of Atarka's Command, Lightning Bolt, Rest in Peace, and Ensnaring Bridge along with a pair of Sacred Foundry to go with my opponent's Stomping Ground on the battlefield. Taking the Rip to protect my delve threats, and hoping my opponent walks into a Force Spike, he does so on turn 3 as I drop a pair of threats on the board. Making conservative attacks in the face of his topdecked creatures, I find myself in a spot of being at 8, with my opponent at 11. I have a Tasigur and a Death's Shadow to his Goblin Guide and Wild Nacatl. I know that he still has the Command, along with one unknown, and the 2 Foundries untapped. I take a draw and find Watery Grave, which when combined with the Path and Snap in hand can get across for exactly 11, but loses to Deflecting Palm. That being said, if I wait another turn, an end step Command into Boros Charm to effectively nullify the Blessed Alliance in my hand and any other 3 damage burn spell kills me for waiting, so I opt to go for it, ultimately getting there. Funny that I drew Blessed Alliance both postboard games and didn't cast it, lol. Thankfully, I go into top 8 as the number one seed at 5-1, so there's some reward for being forced to play.
Quarters - the same Eldrazi Tron pilot (0-2)
I suppose I'm a glutton for punishment, since I keep a 7 with no interaction for Chalice of the Void, but Serum Visions and Street Wraith to try to find that action. I can't, and promptly die to Chalice despite a pair of Snaps and a Lingering Souls putting in work until a 5/5 Walking Ballista comes down to ruin my rally. Game two I Thoughtseize away a Chalice and see Smasher x2, All is Dust, Temple/Tower/GQ remaining. After a few turns of playing ordinary magic, most importantly a Thought-knot seer on turn 3 taking my Stubborn Denial, I hit my opponent for 10 with a pair of Shadows as he's on 4 lands with the Seer and the Smasher that can't attack on board. Playing a Gurmag Angler, flashing back a Lingering Souls and hoping that he doesn't peel 2nd Eldrazi Temple, he quickly shows me a door to a horrible future and casts effectively a 5 mana In Garruk's Wake to put the game away.
Closing thoughts - Man, I'd really like a 3rd Ceremonious Rejection, even if it's probably a kneejerk reaction to getting browned by Chalice repeatedly. Other than that, the 2x copies of Blessed Alliance seemed great and will probably stick around moving forward. Burn is predictably popular at smaller events like IQs and PPTQs, and it's very live against GBx and the mirror. Esper Charm was spicy and has put in some real work the last few days. Not sure how real it is, but it might stick around as a replacement to Anguished Unmaking. Definitely merits more testing. As was the case at the end of the Invi, I still feel very good about playing Paths and Souls, and I think that Death's Shadow decks are far and away the best possible thing to be doing in Modern right now. Hope the half-baked report was at least a little helpful, I promise I'll take actual notes for the TJ's Titanium Series and SCG Syracuse coming up
4 mana cards are very expensive for this deck, but a miser's copy of Geist isn't unreasonable. Just be careful not to go overboard with grindy cards, lest you run out of space for the rest of the format. Also, I pretty typically shave a delve threat against decks with graveyard hate, so don't be afraid to do that.
Weakening the manabase of the deck for an effect like the one from Eiganjo Castle, which only works on two cards in the maindeck and an additional card in the sideboard is something I would recommend against.
Here is what I played:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Godless Shrine
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
2 Fatal Push
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Path to Exile
3 Lingering Souls
4 Serum Visions
4 Thought Scour
2 Stony Silence
1 Dispel
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Collective Brutality
1 Lilian's Defeat
1 Celestial Purge
1 Disenchant
2 Flaying Tendrils
Beat Ad Nauseam, Storm, 4c Shadow, and Affinity in the Swiss(losing all 4 game ones on the draw). Beat Merfolk and Eldrazi Tron in Top 8, scooping to Smallpox.
Won't go over each matchup, but just some notes that I had. FYI: store was out of Spellbombs and Stubborn Denials so my SB was a little abnormal.
- Leyline of Sanctity is a little rough, but Liliana was great vs Ad Nauseam. Wouldn't mind a 2nd one in the SB.
- Storm is a pretty easy matchup, not having Spellbomb was rough though, had to bring in Tendrils for Empty.
- Purge and Lilian's Defeat were great against 4c Shadow with Lili, especially with Snapcaster. Wouldn't mind playing one but not much room in SB.
- Stony is a house vs Affinity, but 2 might be unneccessary, I only bring 1 in vs Eldrazi for Ratchet Bomb so maybe 1 is right.
- Merfolk guy SB'd out Seas against me which was great as I hate that card. Just SB'd in all my removal, landed 2 Death Shadow on T2 to win.
- Eldrazi Tron guy flooded, but Snap is so good to buy back Rejection and Denial here.
- I think 4 Snap is a little much, I was happy with 3 and 1 Lili. The deck is low on mana and snap clogged my hand a few times.
- 4/2 Path/Push is correct, just so good in this meta right now
- I think I want another Disenchant just in case Chalice resolves or for Leyline, maybe just an Unmaking?
Some thoughts on your list/comments:
- 3 Path, 3 Push is also very good. Pathing mana dorks or Dark Confidant (ramping midrange decks into four-drops in the process) can be awkward.
- Bringing Tendrils for Empty the Warrens is generally a good idea. Empty the Warrens is usually their primary win condition post-board.
- Stony Silence vs. Affinity is obviously good, but having an extra Disenchant instead also helps. Not sure about this one.
- I wouldn't leave home without 2 or 3 Disenchant effects in the sideboard. Resolved Chalice or resolved Ensnaring Bridge is often backbreaking.
- The Eldrazi Tron matchup usually becomes a completely different affair if they get Cavern of Souls.
- I agree that Smallpox is a pretty terrible matchup, although it is not as terrible as with Grixis Shadow thanks to Lingering Souls.
A couple of questions:
- How come you lost all four game 1s on the draw? Was the deck too slow? Or did you just get bad draws?
- How did Blessed Alliance, Geist of Saint Taft and Dispel perform? These are the cards in your sideboard that I'm not sure about.
- Would you please give some more details on how the games against Affinity played out? I'm especially interested in what Stony Silence did for you.
- I never cast blessed alliance, but I'm not sure. It was mainly for the mirror and burn. It gives me an additional out to Etched Champion which I'm not sure I need with 2 Tendrils, and it's decent vs Eldrazi Tron but post board they bring in Hangarback so not sure how good it is there. I wouldn't mind taking it out of the SB, but I'd still like another card for Burn so I'm hesitant to take it out.
- Geist I never cast, and I'm probably taking it out. I just didnt' have Spellbombs so I had to play something. Brought it in vs Storm and Ad Nauseamm to up the clock. I wanted it mainly for Scapeshift to up the clock. It gets blocked too easily in the mirror. Dispel again I wouldn't have played if I could find another Stubborn Denial. I think it's fine if you are maxed on Denials and want a 5th counter, but I wouldn't play it.
- Affinity in G1 he got Etched Champion T2 on the play. He had two Ravagers and I could only Thoughtseize out one and he went all in on Champion so not much to do there. I think I SB out Lili because I have Souls and Tendrils and don't want to many 3 drops, but I'm not really sure. Game 2 he mulled to six and I had double thoughtseize and he got flooded; fairly easy. Game 3 he had the turn 3 kill with Ravager and Inkmoth, but I had a turn two Stony Silence to shut down his two Citadels and a Plating. Drawing two citadels hurt him there, but I was dead if I didn't have it T2. From there Disenchant into Snap Disenchant ended the game fairly quick.
He did SB in blood moon which I didn't play around, but not sure you really can.
Speaking of SB's, has anyone tried playing a Plains in the SB? I say Enevoldson play one when he went 12-3 at a GP, since it seems good to go up to 20 lands against GQ decks. Is this an option?