1. They are additional creatures that often die (via blocks or removal) and increase your Undergrowth count. Having even one extra blocker can turn the tide of Battle against creature decks. I've had some critical moments with this list where I cast Secrets for X=1 with Noble as the ONLY creature in my bin.
2. They provide ramp. Moving from Bauble/Traverse over to Architects/Secrets means you're needing a lot more Mana in the early turns of the game. Both your cantrip and your tutor now cost 1 more Mana and that's a high price in modern.
Additionally, they ensure that your attacking Tarmogoyf will always outclass an opposing Tarmogoyf. They can attack for 1 on their own which is more relevant than you'd think in a stalemate game. It's not uncommon for me to get in for at least 3 damage with Noble in a mid-range or control match.
Nobles will eat opposing removal which is great. Imagine a turn one Noble eats your opponents Fatal Push. You effectively spent 1 Mana to "counter" their Push ahead of time (i.e. protect your later threats from it, just like a discard spell) AND you've put a creature in your graveyard for Undergrowth.
1. They are additional creatures that often die (via blocks or removal) and increase your Undergrowth count. Having even one extra blocker can turn the tide of Battle against creature decks. I've had some critical moments with this list where I cast Secrets for X=1 with Noble as the ONLY creature in my bin.
2. They provide ramp. Moving from Bauble/Traverse over to Architects/Secrets means you're needing a lot more Mana in the early turns of the game. Both your cantrip and your tutor now cost 1 more Mana and that's a high price in modern.
Additionally, they ensure that your attacking Tarmogoyf will always outclass an opposing Tarmogoyf. They can attack for 1 on their own which is more relevant than you'd think in a stalemate game. It's not uncommon for me to get in for at least 3 damage with Noble in a mid-range or control match.
Nobles will eat opposing removal which is great. Imagine a turn one Noble eats your opponents Fatal Push. You effectively spent 1 Mana to "counter" their Push ahead of time (i.e. protect your later threats from it, just like a discard spell) AND you've put a creature in your graveyard for Undergrowth.
Seems much better in the Mausoleum Secrets version of the deck. Have you gotten to test this at all? Seems sweet.
So far I've still had a hard time against Jund and UW control. Haven't tested against other mid/control decks yet.
The aggro match-ups have felt a little better but I'm definitely missing TBR. It's basically the reason to play Death's Shadow. I think I'll continue my regular build and maybe start testing a Sultai Mausoleum Secrets deck without the suicide plan. Maybe splash white and include Gifts Ungiven
I agree, the lack of Temur Battle Rage is what holds this deck back. I've been experimenting with Rancor, Slip through Space, Distortion Strike, even Become Immense, but I think instead of trying to look for a worse substitute for TBR we're better served playing more copies of our already good cards.
I. Do you think Traverse should be present in this shell? If so why?
Personally I do have issues fitting it in without cutting too deep into engine cards like bauble / street wraiths or into the threats.
Traverse is certainly glue in that kind of deck. If you don't play it, you'll lose to mana screw more often than players who play the card.
From the moment you run 3 Traverse, you can cut a Snap, and question the Grim Flayers and Tasigur. I personally hate Tas in this shell, you need the graveyard so much that it actually rarely cost 1 mana, because I want to keep some stuff in the yard for Tarmo, Snap and Traverse. I think Flayer is a more natural fit here. But I'm no expert about that specific slot.
If you wanna run Lili in the main, I think Traverse has even more utility here.
You can try + 3 Traverse, -1 Snap, -2 Tas.
IV. Played threats / creatures
I am still not certain which threats besides 4 Shadow, 4 Goyf and (at least) 3 Snapcasters are the perfect configuration
I think the presence of Lili, LH and Traverse lowers the count of Snap to 2. I might be wrong, but I think the core wants 2 Snap, and the copies 3&4 are up to debate. Of course if you don't run Traverse, 3 Snap is easier to consider as a must.
3 Lilis are very hard to defend imho. You probably want 4 Wraith + 4 Baubles anyway though, I'm unsure why you cut some of them, they're free cantrips...
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Pioneer - A bunch of stuff Modern - Humans Legacy - Grixis Phoenix / Death & Taxes
Faerie Macabre is an excellent snapcaster eater. Handful of other cards too like any deck that uses looting, arclight, dredge, and a few others. I wasnt using architects but that's a 12 count there. You could literally run a suite of pulse, decay, trophy, push, charms, dismember, ego, surgical, countersquall with 4 mausoleum and 3 snaps... LtLH is superb with shadow or snap or any beater u wanna run
Here's the list I've been testing with a lot of success. Sometimes I get Mana screwed or color screwed but that happens I suppose.
The premise is pretty much the same, Lots of disruption and push through a shadow. I'm using mausoleum and a lot of 1 of spells that are versatile in their own.
I'm relatively new to shadow I just started thinking about consistency of secrets with redundancy of snap and got excited. Do you guys have any advice on what other black answers I should mainboard. And I have no idea for sideboard. What's best grave hate for shadow? Some damnation? Can be hard to get to 3 or 4 Mana for tutoring, but people like to kill the creatures I'm not cycling anyway. I hope we can work together to make sultai a thing.
Any thoughts on Rhonas the Indomitable as substitute for Temur Battle Rage. Rancor is a possibility but Rhonas is indestructible and reusable.
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Little angel, go away come again some other day the Devil has my ear today I'll never hear a word you say. He promised I would find a little solace and some peace of mind. Whatever. just as long as I don't feel so desperate and ravenous.
Secrets is far easier to enable than Traverse. Just ONE Street Wraith or AoW for instance enable push, shadow, ts, surgical eot 2.
8 copies of shadow as early as end of turn 2 is exactly what you need to strive for. You might say that goyf is those extra copies. Again, secrets can find your shadow or any black spell and that's where stuff like decay, trophy, ego, countersquall, golgari charm, LtLH get real interesting.
Including a list with goyf, flayer, delvers, and snap in bunches is a collossol mistake. You really should just choose 1 of them. Remember that secrets relies on the yard already. I personally am on the Snap train because I'm running shadow secrets with a toolbox.
My list is more controllish than aggro I suppose but when u trade bolt and battle rage for decay, trophy, etc... What were you expecting?
I have been a long time fan of this version of the deck. I used to have a Death's Shadow list when Deathrite Shaman was still around. I loved that card. Anyways, I live in the Dallas area and there is a Modern Grand Prix this summer. I don't get to play as much as I used to so I can't play test as much as I like but I wanted to post my list and start tuning it for that tournament later this year. I plan to play tonight and will try and do a write up either later this week or on the weekend. Below is the list:
I don't own any but I do plan to take out the Abrupt Decay for Assassin's Trophy and possibly LotV for Liliana the Last Hope. I will also try post my SB strategy but can't right now. Time to get ready for work.
EDIT: I was unable to go tonight afterall. Hope to get out on Friday so I can write an update.
I have been a long time fan of this version of the deck. I used to have a Death's Shadow list when Deathrite Shaman was still around. I loved that card. Anyways, I live in the Dallas area and there is a Modern Grand Prix this summer. I don't get to play as much as I used to so I can't play test as much as I like but I wanted to post my list and start tuning it for that tournament later this year. I plan to play tonight and will try and do a write up either later this week or on the weekend. Below is the list:
I don't own any but I do plan to take out the Abrupt Decay for Assassin's Trophy and possibly LotV for Liliana the Last Hope. I will also try post my SB strategy but can't right now. Time to get ready for work.
EDIT: I was unable to go tonight afterall. Hope to get out on Friday so I can write an update.
So do you just fold to looting Tron uw control and tokens?
Curious as to why you would think that. A thoughtful explanation and reasoning to your assessment would help garner better dialogue.
I look forward to your thoughts.
I will state that this deck strategy does not really fold to anything. It maybe unfavorable by +/- 20% but nothing is really unwinnable. Tokens, while a challenge without red for Temur Battle Rage, I am really not concerned about. Not very many people play that strategy. The other archetypes you named are part of the meta. I have played all of them numerous times and had success. Nothing is a given but understanding the matchup and what you are playing toward helps.
Anyways, like I said, if you could provide your reasoning, it will help promote better discussion.
With 3 Echoing Truths, I doubt you’d fold to a tokens deck. I do wonder if you are light on grave yard hate. Your list is similar to mine. I have 17 lands, 2 snaps and 1 tasigur and 3 thought scour. I am also testing out a Rancor to bust through blockers.
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Little angel, go away come again some other day the Devil has my ear today I'll never hear a word you say. He promised I would find a little solace and some peace of mind. Whatever. just as long as I don't feel so desperate and ravenous.
With 3 Echoing Truths, I doubt you’d fold to a tokens deck. I do wonder if you are light on grave yard hate. Your list is similar to mine. I have 17 lands, 2 snaps and 1 tasigur and 3 thought scour. I am also testing out a Rancor to bust through blockers.
That is true. I just think Temur Battle Rage does a better job of closing games out against tokens but Echoing Truth does a decent job. I have always been a fan of Echoing Truth. I find that while it may not be a silver bullet answer, it is very versatile. I have used it to bounce problematic enchantments and then forcing them to discard (Blood moon or Worship). I have bounced Anglers and they can't deploy right away because they ate their graveyard. I have used Echoing Truth to send multiple Arclight Phoenixes back to their hand or Prized Amalgam so I can swing for the win. Against GY decks, having their creatures in their hand is often the third safest play for them to be. #1 Exiled; #2 in their deck. The best was bouncing 2x Ethereal Armor on a large Slippery Bogle and then blocking with my larger Death's Shadow to take down their creature.
Many of the linear decks play 4 of and Echoing Truth allows you to reset a lot of the work they have done. It may only buy a turn or two but often that is all that is needed when you have 1 or 2 large creates on board. It does a fairly good job of saving your creatures if needed. Player played an Engineered Explosives for 1 and then sacrificed it. I played Echoing Truth on my DS and then recast them the following turn. Perhaps their are better cards to play but very few times have I been disappointed.
Regarding needing more GY hate. That is fair. I have played with Yixlid Jailer in the past and she has performed ok. but has never been able to close out a GY based deck by herself. I think based on the current meta, Surgical is the way to go. I still have time to pick up an additional two copies since the tournament is in June. Probably need to start trading to get some as I don't think they are going down anytime soon.
I plan to play tonight so hopefully I can perform a write up tomorrow.
@Shaggy - regarding Rancor or Rhonas, I would go with Rancor if I had to choose between the two. Not sure how often you are going to be able to play and then activate on the same turn. I just could not imagine paying three mana and then not getting anything out of it right away. Temur Battle Rage is used to race other decks and setting up three mana, possibly over two turns seems like it would take too much. Rancor allows you to start trampling right away so you can close out the game faster. In addition, if they kill the creature, at least you get it back to make your next treat super imposing. And if they kill the create in response to you putting Rancor on, then Goyf just gets bigger as we now have an enchantment in the GY. I would roll with Ranor.
Yeah, I think I’m going to give Rancor a try next time I play. I must say that I like your inclusion of Shadow of Doubt. That’s a card I initially had in the main as a one of but dropped it for something or another. I may try to fit one in the board since it’s super versatile and can be used against a number of decks.
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Little angel, go away come again some other day the Devil has my ear today I'll never hear a word you say. He promised I would find a little solace and some peace of mind. Whatever. just as long as I don't feel so desperate and ravenous.
Curious as to why you would think that. A thoughtful explanation and reasoning to your assessment would help garner better dialogue.
I look forward to your thoughts.
I will state that this deck strategy does not really fold to anything. It maybe unfavorable by +/- 20% but nothing is really unwinnable. Tokens, while a challenge without red for Temur Battle Rage, I am really not concerned about. Not very many people play that strategy. The other archetypes you named are part of the meta. I have played all of them numerous times and had success. Nothing is a given but understanding the matchup and what you are playing toward helps.
Anyways, like I said, if you could provide your reasoning, it will help promote better discussion.
Thanks.
Goyf is an extra copy of shadow, But mausoleum secrets can be extra copies of shadow, or any spell for snapcaster. Not only that but goyf and secrets have the same weakness anyway.
That's a toolbox (or whatever bg or bu toolbox u want) that does a variety of things in different ways, especially when you can double up with snap.
That deck I posted isn't even tuned, nor do I even run a sideboard. And I'm 8-3 with it in past 5 MATCHES.
Secrets can find anything besides goyf(shadow is better anyway which it CAN find even after a pushed shadow) and any spell for snap. Isn't bug shadow built on protecting shadow/goyf with denial/snap?
What if your trade was really goyf, denial, and Inquisition for secrets, a lone countersquall, and a toolbox of 7 or 8 cards including stuff like Astro, maelstrom, surgical, even Liliana, or whatever
Street Wraith enables push, seize, surgical, and shadow.
You don't have to do much more than change bauble to architects of will and goyf to secrets to gain a lot more consistency and resilience in what you can include in your deck.
Gaining 5 copies of any spell in your deck, while simultaneously gaining 8 copies of shadow with minimal requirements is a very good tradeoff
After having success early with this list, my deck just hasn’t been performing well. It could be that I play with a bunch of guys that are good with their respective decks and at magic in general or the deck is just lacking something.
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Little angel, go away come again some other day the Devil has my ear today I'll never hear a word you say. He promised I would find a little solace and some peace of mind. Whatever. just as long as I don't feel so desperate and ravenous.
Sooo the new toys from RNA have me thinking about Sultai once again. Here is my first shot at a list. Currently steamrolling over phoenix decks, tron, and hardened scales. I haven't played against Humans or Spirits yet and I'm frankly a bit worried about those match-ups.
The double-card-type from the new Simic cards has been really helpful with delirium. I'm regularly dropping Grim Flayer on turn 2 as 4/4 already. And casting Incongruity on a Phoenix or Wurmcoil is just hilarious.
Anybody tried the new one drop pterodactyl yet? Could be a good threat.
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Little angel, go away come again some other day the Devil has my ear today I'll never hear a word you say. He promised I would find a little solace and some peace of mind. Whatever. just as long as I don't feel so desperate and ravenous.
How many Pteramander would be reasonable to include? And if so, what would it replace? Should we take a more GDS approach with a focus on inst/sorc rather than a range of card types. One of the problems I see with The new Pteramander is that it's toughness always starts at 1 so it's always going to be vulnerable to a Gut Shot or Lightning Bolt
I'm really trying to develop the Incubation/Incongruity idea from my previous post. Here are some other creatures I consider as 1-ofs for the main deck or Sideboard.
Shriekmaw comes to mind off the top of my head. Maybe trygon predator for repeatable artifact/enchantment destruction.
About the pterodactyl, it can come down early at least. We do play quite a bit of spells to go along with pumping it quickly.
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Little angel, go away come again some other day the Devil has my ear today I'll never hear a word you say. He promised I would find a little solace and some peace of mind. Whatever. just as long as I don't feel so desperate and ravenous.
My top concern is go-wide creature decks like Coco, chord, and Vial decks. Graveyard decks are a walk in the park. I need to text more against UWx and BGx though
You should take a more GDS approach. You can cut 10 cards to add 4 Mausoleum secrets for consistency... And still be able to find instants or sorceries instead of lands. You can change bauble's into architects.
You can trade 4 goyf's for 3 casters. Which makes it easy to double down an anything in your black or multi-colored black toolbox.
Wanna astro a Tron land and then surgical it? Sure. Wanna Mausoleum a shadow when yours gets pushed? Sure. Want to double down with snap on just about anything? Sure, you can do that too! While still having a large toolbox to deal with anything.
I threw in unmoored ego just for fun as an 8th tutorable answer. It's not even necessary. I'm having success on the 2nd draft of a deck as an okay player with slotS open, without even using a sideboard... and you guys are still making enormous changes because a 1 cmc sorcery find a creature/land that requires 4 types in your yard IS NOT better than a 2 cmc instant find anything in your deck besides snap or a land that requires 1 type in your yard.
Struggling with decisions on cuts? Why... Because traverse is bad. You probably have 20 cards devoted to your yard. I have 7. God forbid you play a deck that can drain your yard, repeatedly, and discard your denial.
Try it. At least do that. You might have then gone through the same process I did.
Why run 4 goyf's at all when your tutor can clear a threat, protect your shadow, and Still tutor a shadow. Not to mention, less copies of great strong OR versatile cards finding consistency, and much less restrictive deck construction.
I can tutor for countersquall when ahead. I can tutor an answer when behind. I don't depend on 8 copies of discard so topdecks aren't an issue. I can TS to find out if it's safe for shadow. You guys are trading too much versatility for consistency. I'm actually cutting cards to make my tutor twice as strong and easier to activate. I can even tutor a Lili if need be.
1. They are additional creatures that often die (via blocks or removal) and increase your Undergrowth count. Having even one extra blocker can turn the tide of Battle against creature decks. I've had some critical moments with this list where I cast Secrets for X=1 with Noble as the ONLY creature in my bin.
2. They provide ramp. Moving from Bauble/Traverse over to Architects/Secrets means you're needing a lot more Mana in the early turns of the game. Both your cantrip and your tutor now cost 1 more Mana and that's a high price in modern.
Additionally, they ensure that your attacking Tarmogoyf will always outclass an opposing Tarmogoyf. They can attack for 1 on their own which is more relevant than you'd think in a stalemate game. It's not uncommon for me to get in for at least 3 damage with Noble in a mid-range or control match.
Nobles will eat opposing removal which is great. Imagine a turn one Noble eats your opponents Fatal Push. You effectively spent 1 Mana to "counter" their Push ahead of time (i.e. protect your later threats from it, just like a discard spell) AND you've put a creature in your graveyard for Undergrowth.
Draft My Cube!
Seems much better in the Mausoleum Secrets version of the deck. Have you gotten to test this at all? Seems sweet.
The aggro match-ups have felt a little better but I'm definitely missing TBR. It's basically the reason to play Death's Shadow. I think I'll continue my regular build and maybe start testing a Sultai Mausoleum Secrets deck without the suicide plan. Maybe splash white and include Gifts Ungiven
Draft My Cube!
Traverse is certainly glue in that kind of deck. If you don't play it, you'll lose to mana screw more often than players who play the card.
From the moment you run 3 Traverse, you can cut a Snap, and question the Grim Flayers and Tasigur. I personally hate Tas in this shell, you need the graveyard so much that it actually rarely cost 1 mana, because I want to keep some stuff in the yard for Tarmo, Snap and Traverse. I think Flayer is a more natural fit here. But I'm no expert about that specific slot.
If you wanna run Lili in the main, I think Traverse has even more utility here.
You can try + 3 Traverse, -1 Snap, -2 Tas.
I think the presence of Lili, LH and Traverse lowers the count of Snap to 2. I might be wrong, but I think the core wants 2 Snap, and the copies 3&4 are up to debate. Of course if you don't run Traverse, 3 Snap is easier to consider as a must.
3 Lilis are very hard to defend imho. You probably want 4 Wraith + 4 Baubles anyway though, I'm unsure why you cut some of them, they're free cantrips...
The premise is pretty much the same, Lots of disruption and push through a shadow. I'm using mausoleum and a lot of 1 of spells that are versatile in their own.
Here's the list
4 street wraith
4 kitesail freebooter
4 death's shadow
3 snapcaster mage
4 mausoleum secrets
2 abrupt decay
1 assassin's trophy
1 golgari charm
1 Countersquall
1 surgical extraction
4 thoughtseize
1 maelstrom pulse
1 unmoored ego
4 basics, rest fetches and painlands
I'm relatively new to shadow I just started thinking about consistency of secrets with redundancy of snap and got excited. Do you guys have any advice on what other black answers I should mainboard. And I have no idea for sideboard. What's best grave hate for shadow? Some damnation? Can be hard to get to 3 or 4 Mana for tutoring, but people like to kill the creatures I'm not cycling anyway. I hope we can work together to make sultai a thing.
How do u deal with spirits
8 copies of shadow as early as end of turn 2 is exactly what you need to strive for. You might say that goyf is those extra copies. Again, secrets can find your shadow or any black spell and that's where stuff like decay, trophy, ego, countersquall, golgari charm, LtLH get real interesting.
Including a list with goyf, flayer, delvers, and snap in bunches is a collossol mistake. You really should just choose 1 of them. Remember that secrets relies on the yard already. I personally am on the Snap train because I'm running shadow secrets with a toolbox.
My list is more controllish than aggro I suppose but when u trade bolt and battle rage for decay, trophy, etc... What were you expecting?
I have been a long time fan of this version of the deck. I used to have a Death's Shadow list when Deathrite Shaman was still around. I loved that card. Anyways, I live in the Dallas area and there is a Modern Grand Prix this summer. I don't get to play as much as I used to so I can't play test as much as I like but I wanted to post my list and start tuning it for that tournament later this year. I plan to play tonight and will try and do a write up either later this week or on the weekend. Below is the list:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Watery Grave
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
18 Lands
CREATURES
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
15 Creatures
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Fatal Push
4 Mishra's Bauble
3 Stubborn Denial
3 Travers the Ulvenwald
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Dismember
27 Spells
3 Collective Brutality
3 Echoing Truth
3 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Shadow of Doubt
1 Stubborn Denial
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Spellskite
1 Yixlid Jailer
I don't own any but I do plan to take out the Abrupt Decay for Assassin's Trophy and possibly LotV for Liliana the Last Hope. I will also try post my SB strategy but can't right now. Time to get ready for work.
EDIT: I was unable to go tonight afterall. Hope to get out on Friday so I can write an update.
So do you just fold to looting Tron uw control and tokens?
I look forward to your thoughts.
I will state that this deck strategy does not really fold to anything. It maybe unfavorable by +/- 20% but nothing is really unwinnable. Tokens, while a challenge without red for Temur Battle Rage, I am really not concerned about. Not very many people play that strategy. The other archetypes you named are part of the meta. I have played all of them numerous times and had success. Nothing is a given but understanding the matchup and what you are playing toward helps.
Anyways, like I said, if you could provide your reasoning, it will help promote better discussion.
Thanks.
That is true. I just think Temur Battle Rage does a better job of closing games out against tokens but Echoing Truth does a decent job. I have always been a fan of Echoing Truth. I find that while it may not be a silver bullet answer, it is very versatile. I have used it to bounce problematic enchantments and then forcing them to discard (Blood moon or Worship). I have bounced Anglers and they can't deploy right away because they ate their graveyard. I have used Echoing Truth to send multiple Arclight Phoenixes back to their hand or Prized Amalgam so I can swing for the win. Against GY decks, having their creatures in their hand is often the third safest play for them to be. #1 Exiled; #2 in their deck. The best was bouncing 2x Ethereal Armor on a large Slippery Bogle and then blocking with my larger Death's Shadow to take down their creature.
Many of the linear decks play 4 of and Echoing Truth allows you to reset a lot of the work they have done. It may only buy a turn or two but often that is all that is needed when you have 1 or 2 large creates on board. It does a fairly good job of saving your creatures if needed. Player played an Engineered Explosives for 1 and then sacrificed it. I played Echoing Truth on my DS and then recast them the following turn. Perhaps their are better cards to play but very few times have I been disappointed.
Regarding needing more GY hate. That is fair. I have played with Yixlid Jailer in the past and she has performed ok. but has never been able to close out a GY based deck by herself. I think based on the current meta, Surgical is the way to go. I still have time to pick up an additional two copies since the tournament is in June. Probably need to start trading to get some as I don't think they are going down anytime soon.
I plan to play tonight so hopefully I can perform a write up tomorrow.
@Shaggy - regarding Rancor or Rhonas, I would go with Rancor if I had to choose between the two. Not sure how often you are going to be able to play and then activate on the same turn. I just could not imagine paying three mana and then not getting anything out of it right away. Temur Battle Rage is used to race other decks and setting up three mana, possibly over two turns seems like it would take too much. Rancor allows you to start trampling right away so you can close out the game faster. In addition, if they kill the creature, at least you get it back to make your next treat super imposing. And if they kill the create in response to you putting Rancor on, then Goyf just gets bigger as we now have an enchantment in the GY. I would roll with Ranor.
Goyf is an extra copy of shadow, But mausoleum secrets can be extra copies of shadow, or any spell for snapcaster. Not only that but goyf and secrets have the same weakness anyway.
2 decay
1 Astro
1 maelstrom
1 golgari charm
1 surgical
1 countersquall
1 LtlH
1 unmoored ego
That's a toolbox (or whatever bg or bu toolbox u want) that does a variety of things in different ways, especially when you can double up with snap.
That deck I posted isn't even tuned, nor do I even run a sideboard. And I'm 8-3 with it in past 5 MATCHES.
Secrets can find anything besides goyf(shadow is better anyway which it CAN find even after a pushed shadow) and any spell for snap. Isn't bug shadow built on protecting shadow/goyf with denial/snap?
What if your trade was really goyf, denial, and Inquisition for secrets, a lone countersquall, and a toolbox of 7 or 8 cards including stuff like Astro, maelstrom, surgical, even Liliana, or whatever
Street Wraith enables push, seize, surgical, and shadow.
You don't have to do much more than change bauble to architects of will and goyf to secrets to gain a lot more consistency and resilience in what you can include in your deck.
Gaining 5 copies of any spell in your deck, while simultaneously gaining 8 copies of shadow with minimal requirements is a very good tradeoff
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Street Wraith
4 Grim Flayer
1 Snapcaster Mage
Spells (26):
4 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Incubation // Incongruity
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Fatal Push
1 Dismember
4 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Overgrown Tomb
2 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Swamp
1 Forest
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Nature's Way
2 Collective Brutality
1 Fatal Push
1 Shriekmaw
1 Abrupt decay
The double-card-type from the new Simic cards has been really helpful with delirium. I'm regularly dropping Grim Flayer on turn 2 as 4/4 already. And casting Incongruity on a Phoenix or Wurmcoil is just hilarious.
Draft My Cube!
I'm really trying to develop the Incubation/Incongruity idea from my previous post. Here are some other creatures I consider as 1-ofs for the main deck or Sideboard.
Any other suggestions?
Draft My Cube!
About the pterodactyl, it can come down early at least. We do play quite a bit of spells to go along with pumping it quickly.
I really like the look of something like this. Have you had the chance to refine it any more?
4 Street Wraith
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Grim flayer
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Architects of will
Spells
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Thoughtseize
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
3 Incubation//Incongruity
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Fatal Push
1 Dismember
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Watery Grave
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Breeding pool
1 Swamp
1 Forest
3 Fulminator Mage
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Shriekmaw
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Spellskite
2 Collective Brutality
1 Languish
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Nature's Way
1 Assassin's trophy
My top concern is go-wide creature decks like Coco, chord, and Vial decks. Graveyard decks are a walk in the park. I need to text more against UWx and BGx though
Draft My Cube!
You can trade 4 goyf's for 3 casters. Which makes it easy to double down an anything in your black or multi-colored black toolbox.
Wanna astro a Tron land and then surgical it? Sure. Wanna Mausoleum a shadow when yours gets pushed? Sure. Want to double down with snap on just about anything? Sure, you can do that too! While still having a large toolbox to deal with anything.
I threw in unmoored ego just for fun as an 8th tutorable answer. It's not even necessary. I'm having success on the 2nd draft of a deck as an okay player with slotS open, without even using a sideboard... and you guys are still making enormous changes because a 1 cmc sorcery find a creature/land that requires 4 types in your yard IS NOT better than a 2 cmc instant find anything in your deck besides snap or a land that requires 1 type in your yard.
Struggling with decisions on cuts? Why... Because traverse is bad. You probably have 20 cards devoted to your yard. I have 7. God forbid you play a deck that can drain your yard, repeatedly, and discard your denial.
Try it. At least do that. You might have then gone through the same process I did.
Why run 4 goyf's at all when your tutor can clear a threat, protect your shadow, and Still tutor a shadow. Not to mention, less copies of great strong OR versatile cards finding consistency, and much less restrictive deck construction.
I can tutor for countersquall when ahead. I can tutor an answer when behind. I don't depend on 8 copies of discard so topdecks aren't an issue. I can TS to find out if it's safe for shadow. You guys are trading too much versatility for consistency. I'm actually cutting cards to make my tutor twice as strong and easier to activate. I can even tutor a Lili if need be.