Diversity is one of the most essential aspects of a healthy format, and the ability to choose a deck from a wide number of options is one of the reasons why Constructed Magic is great. But unfortunately, a format can be too diverse. There are so many powerful decks in Modern that operate on a unique axis, that it’s nearly impossible for a single deck to combat the majority of them. It’s easy to beat decks like Affinity, Infect, Dredge, and Burn if you sideboard enough cards for the matchup, but you can’t realistically beat them all. You actually can’t even come close to beating them all, and that’s the real problem. While obviously no deck should be favored against everything, having so many polarizing matchups isn’t good for a format either. Getting lucky and running into the right matchups becomes far too important when this is the case.

In Modern, the only method that’s been proven to effectively combat a wide array of linear decks is to be able to both consistently disrupt and pressure your opponents. This is the reason why Splinter Twin was able to keep the format in check for so long. Splinter Twin had all the disruption of any typical deck in the format, but also had the ability to pressure opponents in the form of the combo. But while Splinter Twin provided a valuable service, it ultimately became a bit too good at its job. As I mentioned earlier, having a deck that’s favored against everything is basically just as bad as having a format comprised entirely of lopsided matchups.

At the time banning Splinter Twin made sense and was likely the correct move for Wizards, but the format that followed it was abyssmal. From the banning of Splinter Twin to the banning of Gitaxian Probe, I registered Infect in 99% of the Modern tournaments I played. My only regret from this period was that it wasn’t 100% (I was tricked into playing Scapeshift once because current WOTC employee, Peter Lawrence Ingram, quit testing against me early after I was beating him senseless with the deck). At this time, all of the decks were stretched so thin on answers that doing the most degenerate thing possible was optimal. And while the biggest offenders from this era, Infect and Dredge, were targeted with bans, the format was really salvaged by the discovery of the current Death's Shadow decks.

For reference, this is the list I played to a Top 4 finish at SCG Charlotte.

Grixis Death?s Shadow ? Modern | Andrew Jessup,4th SCG Modern Open Charlotte

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Gurmag Angler
• 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 4 Death's Shadow
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Street Wraith

• Instants (15)
• 2 Kolaghan's Command
• 2 Terminate
• 3 Stubborn Denial
• 4 Fatal Push
• 4 Thought Scour

• Sorceries (10)
• 2 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Serum Visions
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Lands (19)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Steam Vents
• 2 Blood Crypt
• 2 Watery Grave
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Stubborn Denial
• 2 Ceremonious Rejection
• 2 Surgical Extraction
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 1 Dreadbore
• 3 Collective Brutality
• 2 Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb

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I know this doesn’t exactly sound healthy or fair, and it definitely pushes the boundary of what a Modern deck should be capable of, but the reason why the current Modern format is okay can be attributed almost entirely to Death's Shadow’s rise to prominence.

Grixis has become the consensus best version of Death's Shadow and has a very strong argument for just being the best deck in Modern. It’s also the best deck Modern has ever seen when it comes to keeping the linear decks in check without being oppressive. Grixis Death's Shadow checks the marks we identified earlier as being necessary to combat Modern’s linear strategies. The deck is saturated with disruption in the form of discard spells, counterspells, and removal, and the inclusion of Death's Shadow allows you to apply significantly more pressure than decks with these disruptive elements ever could before. Of the popular linear decks, the only one Grixis Death's Shadow is inherently weak to is Dredge. The rest all being slightly unfavorable to very favorable. But unlike Twin, there are several angles the deck can be attacked from.

Before the current versions of Death's Shadow emerged as a contender in Modern, the format didn’t play out like this at all. The only decks that existed that could even come close to being the gatekeepers Modern needed were Jund and Abzan. The problem, though, was they’re quite awful at this role. The decks just simply don’t have strong enough proactive gameplans. They’re too reliant on being reactive, so beating any matchups they don’t come prepared for is an arduous uphill battle. As a result of this, the linear decks were able to run rampant.

This is why when people talk about banning something like Death's Shadow or Street Wraith, it completely blows my mind. I know it can be annoying to put up with the best/most played deck, especially when it’s as mundane as Grixis Death's Shadow is, but you have to acknowledge what it’s done to benefit the format. If the deck were removed from the format, I expect the result would be everyone dying on turn three to Devoted Druids or Blighted Agents. I know getting Thoughtseized sucks, but it’s not quite as bad losing before you even get the chance to do anything.

The deck is also pretty far off being too good. It can certainly feel busted at times, but so can every deck in Modern. Having played with and against it a ton, the deck is definitely very beatable. Besides aiming to go over the top of it, like I mentioned earlier, the deck does have a very real weakness to graveyard hate. Something like a resolved Rest in Peace isn’t lights out for the deck, but I can’t imagine the decks win percentage is very high with one in play. Having an overlapping weakness with the best linear strategy in Modern currently, Dredge, makes it pretty easy to allocate sideboard slots for.

So now that I’ve hopefully convinced you that Death's Shadow isn’t the real enemy and that you should give the deck a shot, let’s talk about some specifics.

This is the Death's Shadow list that I would current play.

Grixis Death?s Shadow ? Modern | Andrew Jessup

• Creatures (16)
• 2 Gurmag Angler
• 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
• 4 Death's Shadow
• 4 Snapcaster Mage
• 4 Street Wraith

• Instants (15)
• 2 Kolaghan's Command
• 2 Terminate
• 3 Stubborn Denial
• 4 Fatal Push
• 4 Thought Scour

• Sorceries (10)
• 2 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Serum Visions
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Lands (19)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Steam Vents
• 2 Blood Crypt
• 2 Watery Grave
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 4 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Stubborn Denial
• 1 Surgical Extraction
• 2 Temur Battle Rage
• 2 Ceremonious Rejection
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 1 Dreadbore
• 2 Collective Brutality
• 2 Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb

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My sideboard has remained the same for the most part as well, except for the addition of two copies of Temur Battle Rage. I got the chance to try out the Battle Rages a bit this week, and I’ve been thrilled with the results. It goes back to what I said earlier about how all these linear decks can stretch you too thin on answers. It’s so important to just have the ability to get your opponents dead in these matchups as you can’t realistically have the answer to have everything. Death's Shadow can kill people quickly, but sometimes you just need a little extra. So while Temur Battle Rage isn’t as good as; Collective Brutality against burn, By Force against Affinity, Ceremonious Rejection against Eldrazi Tron, or Surgical Extraction against Dredge, it has the upside of being solid against all of them

Recognizing your role and sideboarding accordingly is rather important when playing playing this deck, so I’ll leave you all with some general plans to use as a baseline in popular matchups.

Vs Grixis Death’s Shadow:

• -3 Stubborn Denial
• -2 Street Wraith
• +2 Nihil Spellbomb
• +2 Liliana, the Last Hope
• +1 Dreadbore

Vs Eldrazi Tron:

• -2 Fatal Push
• -2 Stubborn Denial
• -2 Street Wraith
• +2 Ceremonious Rejection
• +2 Temur Battle Rage
• +1 Engineered Explosives
• +1 Dreadbore

Vs Affinity:

• -3 Stubborn Denial
• -3 Thoughtseize
• +2 Ceremonious Rejection
• +2 Temur Battle Rage
• +1 Engineered Explosives
• +1 Anger of the Gods

Vs Burn:

• -4 Street Wraith
• -2 Thoughtseize
• + 2 Collective Brutality
• +2 Temur Battle Rage
• +1 Stubborn Denial
• +1 Engineered Explosives

Vs Dredge:

• -4 Fatal Push
• -2 Terminate
• -2 Kolaghan's Command
• +2 Nihil Spellbomb
• +2 Temur Battle Rage
• +1 Stubborn Denial
• +1 Anger of the Gods
• +1 Surgical Extraction
• +1 Liliana, the Last Hope

Vs UW Control:

• -4 Fatal Push
• -2 Terminate
• +2 Liliana, the Last Hope
• +2 Collective Brutality
• +1 Dreadbore
• +1 Stubborn Denial

Vs Storm:

• -2 Fatal Push
• -2 Terminate
• -2 Kolaghan's Command
• -1 Snapcaster Mage
• +2 Nihil Spellbomb
• +2 Collective Brutality
• +1 Anger of the Gods
• +1 Engineered Explosives
• +1 Stubborn Denial

Taking a look at the results from this past weekend, we can see that the arms race to dethrone the deck has already begun. There was a lot of hate targeted at Shadow, and it will be interesting how Death's Shadow players react in the coming weeks. Shifting toward a more proactive is likely the way to go. The Death's Shadow lists were caught being too reactive this past weekend, and were punished by running into matchups they weren’t prepared for like Affinity. As the metagame continues to develop, I can’t wait to see what comes out on top. I don’t know what deck is going to emerge victorious when the dust settles, but I definitely know what side I’m rooting for.