Actually my only red cards are: my red cards in main are only 2 TBR, in sideboard I have 2 Abrades and 1 K Command.
Because of that I usually don't prioritize much the red in first game, only against some matchups where TBR is Key card or when I have it in my hand. I usually don't play Anger in the sideboard because of the double red.
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The Izmagnus are the most powerful members of the Izmundi
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes Commander: Locust God
I play 2 Bolts alongside 2 TBR on the main. Occasionally I play one Claim//Fame or Rise//Fall, depending on the metagame. On the sideboard I play almost always the Anger of the Gods because for me it's indisputably the best board wipe we could be playing.
That's why I value the red sources a tiny bit highly. Regardless, I don't really see any reason for playing 3rd Watery Grave in the place of the 1st Steam Vents. If it suits you go ahead. Mathematically and based on options I don't really enjoy that specially since I don't play Tarns. If I had Tarns all my fetches could get a Blood Crypt and that would be a good enough insurance. Since I'm playing Strands I need the Steam Vents so that I can get my red from any of the fetches.
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Currently Playing: WUMiracles ControlUW RUBGrixis Death's ShadowBUR
BloodyRabbit_01 - Nice report and deck-list, thanks for sharing. I've got a few questions:
Did you have issues ading the 5th delve creature? It can be tough to cast multiples, but I see you have 2 looting to possibly mitigate the 2nd and/or 3rd copy and there are no snaps to eat GY resources.
Why terminate over dismember? Costing 1 less mana and having the option to aggressively lower our life total has made dismember quite good in this deck, the only time I would prefer terminate is if primeval titans are everywhere.
Have you considered snapcaster in the side-board instead of pyro? It can be brought in for gindy match-ups, but it also plays well when we need to become the control deck. For example, against humans you could side out all your stubborn denials and bring in more removal spells and snapcaster. Seems like a better plan than pyro in some cases.
Overall, I really like your list and I think you are going in the right direction. I think making this deck as lean and efficient as possible is the best thing we can be doing. I'd like to add the 4th bauble to your list above, possibly in the place of a fatal push and would consider some minor changes based on my short list above.
Thanks for sharing, and let me know what you think about my ideas.
With a package composed by 3 Baubles, 4 Scours and 2 Lootings (other than more cc1 spells compared to most lists) you'll rarely have issues in casting them. Drawing three Delve creatures in a row may happens, it's just bad luck, but you can either discard them with Looting or keep your threat for a second moment (if it's a grindy match-up, you want every creature you can have access to). Other than that, the two Tasigurs were actually insane. I tested for a while, and I noticed how I wouldn't have been able to deploy one Delve creature on the field fast enough in several situations if it wasn't for them. The split between Banana King and Zombie Fish feels pretty balanced, as you *absolutely need* to be able to cast a threat on turn two (either Shadow or another Fatty) without knowing what is the opponent playing.
@Terminate&Baubles
I go back and forth between Dismember and Terminate, depending on the metagame. I often played one and one. But I noticed how Tarmogoyf and Titans are having a resurgence (BGx, Jund Shadow, Amulet Titan, Scapeshift). Playing Baubles ourselves, opponent's Goyfs are usually bigger than 4/5, and I do want to keep them in check. Terminate also deals with other stuff such as a big Champion of the Parish or Wurmcoil Engine (and yes, it really matters being able to destroy it, Bolt/Push the deathtouch token in game one).
I did start with a configuration of 4 Baubles, 4 Scours, 2 Lootings, with only four Delve threats. I would love to play the fourth Bauble, but every single card in the deck has a given purpose. I definitely won't cut the eighth removal spell from my maindeck. Bolt also helps growing Shadows, by the way, and it can be recycled as a removal on planeswalker, while Lootings help us discarding Pushes against creatureless strategies (other than Tron and Ad Nauseam, not many).
@Snapcaster in the sideboard
As I already said, this deck operates on few lands. I want a two cc spell that can be operative in grindy match-ups. At fist I thought about having 2-3 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, which is indeed a two drop and helps against Humans + Spirits. Yet, we are back to the usual problem: it suffers from GH. I want an effective B-plan when my opponents are on black Leylines for game two/three. Other than that, Peezy is a house vs BGx, and the opening turn one discard, turn two Pyromancer has been crazy good for postboard games. We want to stick a threat, most and foremost, even in grindy match-ups. If we only had to take care of Humans, I would choose Jace for sure.
Other than that, I'm evaluating the single Island in the maindeck. With only 8 maindeck blue spells, it may be a second Swamp (cause we definitely need at least two basics, and Mountain is a useless one).
Thinking in try God-Eternal Kefnet in my board for some grind matchups. 4 mana it's a lot, but a 4/5 with evation and recursion, that it's a engine of card advantage? Maybe it's not good enough but I will try it.
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The Izmagnus are the most powerful members of the Izmundi
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If you want a cc4 hoser, I highly suggest trying Pia and Kiran Nalaar. It’s impactful even when the opponent answers it immediately, and it deals with Etched Champion and Nexuses. Double red is a constraint, but so it is anything which doesn’t read ‘double black’ in this deck.
Just play JTMS as a 4-drop if anything. Honestly, between the metagame shifting towards UW, Humans and Dredge, and cards like Veto and Blast Zone being printed, i think GDS is done for.
I don't think Dovin's Veto is the card from War we need to worry about, 1 mana negate still beats out 2 mana negate with additional text. The new Teferi, Time Raveler has been giving me grief though as it allows UW decks to tempo us out of the game and that largely invalidates our game plan against them. With the meta shifting back over to the Humans side of things, I've been running double Grim Lavamancer in the board and it's helped. That being said, when 5 of the 10 most popular decks are Humans, UW, Burn, Dredge, and GB with Esper and both flavors of Affinity rising in prominence it's a tough time to be playing GDS in an open field. I don't think the deck will ever truly die as it's a disruptive deck with a quick clock and that historically is just an optimal way to play magic, but if you are planning on attending a large tournament, you have to be aware of these decks and prepare for them. This is a lot of effort to put in when the matchup still favors those decks.
Do you mean done for until a meta shift, or gds looking bad as a whole?
Hopefully the former, but all the top tier decks are getting tougher and tougher for us to beat. Like you said, Blast Zone is rough and it slots into Dredge, Tron and UW alike. It's impossible to interact with and hits us where it hurts, when it hurts - the early turns.
I'm laying my beloved Traverse Shadow to rest for a bit and switching to UR Kiki, it's just such an uphill battle right now.
Yo. Brand new GDS pilot here. I'm still getting used to the fundamentals of Death's Shadow, and I love it so far.
Just to keep the thread going, how much do y'all think Modern Horizons is going to shake up our deck? Any cards from Legacy you'd like to see reprinted for GDS? I'm curious to see what good and/or bad comes from the upcoming Modern Horizons preview season for Death's Shadow decks as a whole.
Yo. Brand new GDS pilot here. I'm still getting used to the fundamentals of Death's Shadow, and I love it so far.
Just to keep the thread going, how much do y'all think Modern Horizons is going to shake up our deck? Any cards from Legacy you'd like to see reprinted for GDS? I'm curious to see what good and/or bad comes from the upcoming Modern Horizons preview season for Death's Shadow decks as a whole.
It's like whocansay said no one actually knows. The cards that play in Death Shadow in legacy that could be included in MH are Daze, Force of Will and Hymn to Tourach. The last one will never happen... Between FoW, Daze and Counterspell I believe only one of them will be printed on MH because they'll want to start slow out of fear of powering Ux too much. With that being said, my bets are on Counterspell, meaning no Daze or Force.
Basically I don't really see, aside from new cards, anything slotting into GDS. If anything, we'll be super punished and probably kicked out of the format. Something that is already happening due to War of the Spark.
PS: Forgot about Toxic Deluge. It's a card that has a high chance of being on the set and it would make GDS way better against creature decks. There's this one...
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To say that War of the Spark is pushing is out of the format is hyperbole. The deck is currently sitting 6th in the mtg goldfish meta and has a 6% share on MTGTop8. We have plenty of game against the meta, but may need to adapt the deck to not fall behind at some point soon.
If we get Daze, Force of Will or Toxic Deluge, we will be very well positioned. If not, we will still be ok.
If you look at the last 2 weeks instead of the last 2 months the percentage on MTGTop8 drops to 3%. And the fact that we're on 6th position on MTGGoldfish at 3%! doesn't mean that we're all that well...
Anyway the metagame image you get from those sites means next to nothing. The fact is that War of the Spark brought little for us, instead it powered up UW which was a really bad matchup, powered up Tron which wasn't an amazing matchup to begin with, impacted very little Humans and Dredge which are two tough decks for us. Phoenix is about even and it's a deck that is here to stay.
You may call it an hyperbole all you want and I'll still play GDS because I like the deck, but we're on a tough spot and it will only get harder unless we get Force of Will or Daze. Deluge will help but I doubt it's enough.
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The rise of Humans, Karn MKIII, Blast Zone, etc, has made me think that the deck needs to step off the ultra-aggressive turbo Gurmag/DS plan with a back up counter, and go back to a more midrange and reactive focused approach.
Abrade and Kolaghan's Command are two cards that deal well with what the new meta is presenting to GDS. Removal+Artifact hate on one card, on top of being able to grind better and recover Shadows lost to Blast Zone. I think maindecking these right now could be pretty legit, considering the ammount of usefulness they bring to the table.
It probably slows down the Tron matchup a bit, but honestly the rest of the field deserves it at the moment. The only matchup I think worsens would be Izzet Phoenix, but answers such as Vapor Snag or Echoing Truth could do well there instead of Abrade.
The increase in overall mana cost means an increase in the land count of the deck, which could also mean that we could get to play more expenisve cards in the sideboard, such as Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Damnation, which can win some matchups on their own
didoguidotti1 (amazing MTGO grinder) has been on the planeswalker sideboard package and i think there's merit to it. He's running 2 Veil, 2 Hope, 1 JTMS to help with the grindy matchups. This is a big boon against UW and BGx.
Humans is still a massacre I guess.
I would never run Abrade maindeck in GDS, the deck runs such a tight ship it can't allow for even a single potentially dead card. Maindeck Kcommand is certainly an interesting proposition right now though.
I have Anger of the Gods as my sideboard sweeper right now, but if Toxic Deluge gets printed in Horizons that's an instant replacement right? I wonder if it's worth snatching one up in advance in case the price spikes haha (I play paper Magic).
It's just a thought, but the rise of Humans, Karn MKIII, Blast Zone, etc, has made me think that the deck needs to step off the ultra-aggressive turbo Gurmag/DS plan with a back up counter, and go back to a more midrange and reactive focused approach.
I was not playing GDS during the "golden era" of 2017 when, to my understanding, the deck was more classically midrange. I would love to see a return to slower GDS decklists though. As for artifact hate, have any of you experimented with Hurkyl's Recall at all? It's in my sideboard now but I haven't tested it much yet.
didoguidotti1 (amazing MTGO grinder) has been on the planeswalker sideboard package and i think there's merit to it. He's running 2 Veil, 2 Hope, 1 JTMS to help with the grindy matchups. This is a big boon against UW and BGx...Maindeck Kcommand is certainly an interesting proposition right now though.
Very interesting. I just want Modern as a whole to sloooow doooown a bit. It'd let us grind more—and I'd love a reason to pick up the strongest planeswalker ever printed lol. Maindecking a Kommand sounds like it just might be useful moving forward. Might have to give it a shot.
Because of that I usually don't prioritize much the red in first game, only against some matchups where TBR is Key card or when I have it in my hand. I usually don't play Anger in the sideboard because of the double red.
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn
Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes
Commander: Locust God
That's why I value the red sources a tiny bit highly. Regardless, I don't really see any reason for playing 3rd Watery Grave in the place of the 1st Steam Vents. If it suits you go ahead. Mathematically and based on options I don't really enjoy that specially since I don't play Tarns. If I had Tarns all my fetches could get a Blood Crypt and that would be a good enough insurance. Since I'm playing Strands I need the Steam Vents so that I can get my red from any of the fetches.
WUMiracles ControlUW
RUBGrixis Death's ShadowBUR
Overall, I really like your list and I think you are going in the right direction. I think making this deck as lean and efficient as possible is the best thing we can be doing. I'd like to add the 4th bauble to your list above, possibly in the place of a fatal push and would consider some minor changes based on my short list above.
Thanks for sharing, and let me know what you think about my ideas.
With a package composed by 3 Baubles, 4 Scours and 2 Lootings (other than more cc1 spells compared to most lists) you'll rarely have issues in casting them. Drawing three Delve creatures in a row may happens, it's just bad luck, but you can either discard them with Looting or keep your threat for a second moment (if it's a grindy match-up, you want every creature you can have access to). Other than that, the two Tasigurs were actually insane. I tested for a while, and I noticed how I wouldn't have been able to deploy one Delve creature on the field fast enough in several situations if it wasn't for them. The split between Banana King and Zombie Fish feels pretty balanced, as you *absolutely need* to be able to cast a threat on turn two (either Shadow or another Fatty) without knowing what is the opponent playing.
@Terminate&Baubles
I go back and forth between Dismember and Terminate, depending on the metagame. I often played one and one. But I noticed how Tarmogoyf and Titans are having a resurgence (BGx, Jund Shadow, Amulet Titan, Scapeshift). Playing Baubles ourselves, opponent's Goyfs are usually bigger than 4/5, and I do want to keep them in check. Terminate also deals with other stuff such as a big Champion of the Parish or Wurmcoil Engine (and yes, it really matters being able to destroy it, Bolt/Push the deathtouch token in game one).
I did start with a configuration of 4 Baubles, 4 Scours, 2 Lootings, with only four Delve threats. I would love to play the fourth Bauble, but every single card in the deck has a given purpose. I definitely won't cut the eighth removal spell from my maindeck. Bolt also helps growing Shadows, by the way, and it can be recycled as a removal on planeswalker, while Lootings help us discarding Pushes against creatureless strategies (other than Tron and Ad Nauseam, not many).
@Snapcaster in the sideboard
As I already said, this deck operates on few lands. I want a two cc spell that can be operative in grindy match-ups. At fist I thought about having 2-3 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, which is indeed a two drop and helps against Humans + Spirits. Yet, we are back to the usual problem: it suffers from GH. I want an effective B-plan when my opponents are on black Leylines for game two/three. Other than that, Peezy is a house vs BGx, and the opening turn one discard, turn two Pyromancer has been crazy good for postboard games. We want to stick a threat, most and foremost, even in grindy match-ups. If we only had to take care of Humans, I would choose Jace for sure.
Other than that, I'm evaluating the single Island in the maindeck. With only 8 maindeck blue spells, it may be a second Swamp (cause we definitely need at least two basics, and Mountain is a useless one).
GWU Bant Valuetown
UW UW Control
Modern: Grixis DS ; UR Phoenix ; Storm ; Burn
Standard: MonoRed ; Ral Spells ; UR Phoenix ; Izzet Drakes
Commander: Locust God
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Blast zone is a gross card. It also makes putting down 2 copies of shadow in one turn a blow out.
I've had difficulty playing the fair midrange and shadow decks lately. So much so I bought into izzet Phoenix, as playing fair is getting difficult.
I foresee a ton of tron decks which is making me feel iffy about bgx as a whole.
Hopefully the former, but all the top tier decks are getting tougher and tougher for us to beat. Like you said, Blast Zone is rough and it slots into Dredge, Tron and UW alike. It's impossible to interact with and hits us where it hurts, when it hurts - the early turns.
I'm laying my beloved Traverse Shadow to rest for a bit and switching to UR Kiki, it's just such an uphill battle right now.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Just to keep the thread going, how much do y'all think Modern Horizons is going to shake up our deck? Any cards from Legacy you'd like to see reprinted for GDS? I'm curious to see what good and/or bad comes from the upcoming Modern Horizons preview season for Death's Shadow decks as a whole.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Basically I don't really see, aside from new cards, anything slotting into GDS. If anything, we'll be super punished and probably kicked out of the format. Something that is already happening due to War of the Spark.
PS: Forgot about Toxic Deluge. It's a card that has a high chance of being on the set and it would make GDS way better against creature decks. There's this one...
WUMiracles ControlUW
RUBGrixis Death's ShadowBUR
If we get Daze, Force of Will or Toxic Deluge, we will be very well positioned. If not, we will still be ok.
Anyway the metagame image you get from those sites means next to nothing. The fact is that War of the Spark brought little for us, instead it powered up UW which was a really bad matchup, powered up Tron which wasn't an amazing matchup to begin with, impacted very little Humans and Dredge which are two tough decks for us. Phoenix is about even and it's a deck that is here to stay.
You may call it an hyperbole all you want and I'll still play GDS because I like the deck, but we're on a tough spot and it will only get harder unless we get Force of Will or Daze. Deluge will help but I doubt it's enough.
WUMiracles ControlUW
RUBGrixis Death's ShadowBUR
The rise of Humans, Karn MKIII, Blast Zone, etc, has made me think that the deck needs to step off the ultra-aggressive turbo Gurmag/DS plan with a back up counter, and go back to a more midrange and reactive focused approach.
Abrade and Kolaghan's Command are two cards that deal well with what the new meta is presenting to GDS. Removal+Artifact hate on one card, on top of being able to grind better and recover Shadows lost to Blast Zone. I think maindecking these right now could be pretty legit, considering the ammount of usefulness they bring to the table.
It probably slows down the Tron matchup a bit, but honestly the rest of the field deserves it at the moment. The only matchup I think worsens would be Izzet Phoenix, but answers such as Vapor Snag or Echoing Truth could do well there instead of Abrade.
The increase in overall mana cost means an increase in the land count of the deck, which could also mean that we could get to play more expenisve cards in the sideboard, such as Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet or Damnation, which can win some matchups on their own
Humans is still a massacre I guess.
I would never run Abrade maindeck in GDS, the deck runs such a tight ship it can't allow for even a single potentially dead card. Maindeck Kcommand is certainly an interesting proposition right now though.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
I was not playing GDS during the "golden era" of 2017 when, to my understanding, the deck was more classically midrange. I would love to see a return to slower GDS decklists though. As for artifact hate, have any of you experimented with Hurkyl's Recall at all? It's in my sideboard now but I haven't tested it much yet.
Very interesting. I just want Modern as a whole to sloooow doooown a bit. It'd let us grind more—and I'd love a reason to pick up the strongest planeswalker ever printed lol. Maindecking a Kommand sounds like it just might be useful moving forward. Might have to give it a shot.