facebook

CoolStuffInc.com

MTG Secret Lair x Marvel available now!
  
Account Meeple
Location IconLocations
Account MeepleLogin
0 Item
Advanced Search
   Sign In
Create Account
Main » Articles » Death's Shadow is Splinter Twin

Death's Shadow is Splinter Twin

Kyle Boggemes
Posted on April 6, 2017
 Reddit

Hey everyone!

Today I’m continuing the Modern train with some updates to existing archetypes as well as some more wild Zoo brews. I’ll hold off until next time to discuss the Amonkhet spoilers because we have plenty to see before any judgments can be made.

Before I get into the Modern decks I want to talk about high-level observations about the format.

Death’s Shadow is Splinter Twin

Death's Shadow
Since Standard is stale and about to change thanks to Amonkhet I have been thinking a lot about Modern. I gravitate toward fair decks that feature Snapcaster Mage or Tarmogoyf, but am willing to occasionally go out of that box. After it was discovered Death's Shadow was just a good Magic card, I found it difficult to pull away.

If you imagine GB/r Death's Shadow is a Jund deck, it becomes clear. Why would I want to play a slow Jund deck with 24 lands and situational removal spells and not much of a clock? Fulminator Mage in the sideboard against land-based synergy decks rarely do anything because the deck is slow. Enter Death's Shadow; we now have the same skeleton with a fast clock. Suddenly we go from a deck with unwinnable matchups to being able to compete with anything. It’s important to have a proactive game plan in Modern because each deck works differently.

I found the same to be true with Grixis Shells. Why play slow cards like Ancestral Vision when I could have a fast clock and just as much disruption?

This was the same logic I applied when playing Grixis Twin when it was legal. As soon as a card exists that speeds up the clock of fair decks without hurting the consistency it’s hard to pull in another direction. Opponents get distracted by trying to stop my early creatures, but hand disruption and Liliana matches up well against that plan.

A Little More Ban Talk

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
For those of you who know me will be surprised that I’m going to bring up this topic. If I could have my cake and eat it too, I want to bring up controversial points and then discuss for a minute and stop. Ban discussions enter rabbit holes quickly and becomes unproductive.

I was inspired by a Fact or Fiction segment on the Grand Prix San Antonio coverage.

“Jace, the Mind Sculptor should be unbanned.”

“Death's Shadow should be banned.”

I think Death's Shadow should be banned because it closely resembles Splinter Twin. It’s part of nearly every good fair deck and gives you game against everything. Death's Shadow isn’t dominant, but it is the most powerful thing you can be doing in fair strategies. I can’t logically play another deck when my win percentage is the highest with Death's Shadow.

This is the same thought I have if Jace was unbanned. I can see fair decks warping around having Jace be the end game backed up by cheap interaction. This card would basically be the new Death's Shadow where a format as diverse as Modern quickly becomes less interesting. Why would I end the game with anything except Jace? It would take a week for players to find a powerful shell of hand disruption and removal and then fateseal your opponent into oblivion.

With talks of bans and unbans out of the way let’s look at some lists!

Modern Decks

Abzan Death?s Shadow ? Modern | Kyle Boggemes

Losing Tarfire is a real price to pay; my current list splashes it. Architects of Will does an all right job as a replacement, but it isn’t the same. The reason I would make this switch is Path to Exile being excellent against Eldrazi and Tasigur, the Golden Fang. If there isn’t a Liliana of the Veil in play, it can be difficult to kill things with converted mana cost greater than four. Maybe I should try Go for the Throat in Jund Shadow.

I am not a huge Fan of Temur Battle Rage or Kolaghan's Command, so the switch to Abzan isn’t a huge deal to me. Liliana of the Veil doesn’t work well with pump spells and I think she is the superior Liliana.

Domain Landfall Death’s Shadow Zoo and the Reese’s Approach

Here’s another take at innovating Death's Shadow in a Zoo shell:

Death?s Shadow Zoo ? Modern | Kyle Boggemes

Renegade Rallier
I cut some of the 1-drops from the original list that didn’t have a large effect on the battlefield like Goblin Guide and Kird Ape and replaced them with landfall creatures. The synergy of landfall creatures and fetchlands work well with Death's Shadow because I want to reduce my life total.

I took this a step further and added four Renegade Rallier because of the landfall synergy. This also reduces my life total even further and provides a nut draw. It was easy to cut Dark Confidant from the original list because they perform a very similar function of gaining card advantage.

Tribal Flames stays in here because it’s another heavy-hitter that kills Death's Shadow opponents out of nowhere. It’s a small price to pay to have two Blue duals in the deck. It’s four more sorceries for Tarmogoyf to get bigger, too. Death's Shadow opponents want to reduce their life total immediately and don’t often get punished for it. I want to hit them with burn spells while attacking with early creatures.

Since I’m marrying so many Zoo themes together in this list it calls in my Reese’s category. I have had a lot of success over the years working on unique Zoo lists by combining previous themes like this. I think Domain-Shadow-Landfall Zoo is very fun to play; give it a try!

Geist Domain Shadow

I think these Five-Color Death's Shadow decks are incredibly fun because you get to throw caution to the wind and play all the spells. The landfall creatures are powerful in the early game, but can certainly be awkward at times. I’m shifting gears to focus on powerful Bant creatures- Noble Hierarch and Geist of Saint Traft:

Gesit Domain Shadow ? Modern | Kyle Boggemes

Geist of Saint Traft
The cards in this version are more individually powerful. We cut landfall creatures for Noble Hierarch and Geist of Saint Traft. Elspeth, Knight-Errant is great with Geist of Saint Traft because the +3+3 can kill a Death's Shadow opponent out of nowhere. The 1/1 tokens are strong against the large creatures in the format, too. I like her more than Gideon because I want a more powerful goldfish draw. It’s also possible to give Death's Shadow flying and attack for what is likely lethal.

Mutagenic Growth was suggested by my buddy, Eric “The Room” Zimmer and I liked the idea. It’s a way to win Tarmogoyf and Death's Shadow fights and the opponent will not suspect it. I have already had situations where I Lightning Bolted myself to cast an early Death's Shadow; there’s certainly a demand for hurting myself beyond the painful mana base.

Dark Confidant will reduce my life total further and happens to also be a powerful card. I can have Jund starts with Thoughtseize and Bob which is still a strong start in Modern.

Might of Alara comes in against combo decks because it deals 5 damage for a single mana. My plan is to race with a creature or two while packing some additional disruption. I don’t want the games dragging out and I don’t run the risk of getting 2-for-1ed against removal spells.

Death's Shadow isn’t broken, but it’s the best shell we have available to us in Modern. We have only scratched the surface. What deck crushes it?

Eight Rack

When testing against teammate, Stu Parnes, I found to have a miserable time trying to fight the quick clocks that get around Fatal Push: The Rack and Shrieking Affliction. Don’t even get me started on playing around Smallpox. They naturally play Liliana of the Veil which is also an awesome card against Death's Shadow.

Eight Rack ? Modern | Kyle Boggemes

The Rack
Eight Rack isn’t a Tier 1 deck, but it’s fun to play and has a lot of awesome matchups. Since this deck is so linear it has the side effect of being polarized. Some decks care about the cards in their hand and others don’t.

I don’t want to splash a color because fetchlands have a real cost. There isn’t much defense against creatures so I want my life total high. This deck has some nut draws that lead to quick wins; The Rack and Shrieking Affliction kill faster than you might expect.

Ensnaring Bridge is expensive and worse than Flaying Tendrils. Your opponent is encouraged to overextend because cards are not safe in their hand which makes sweepers better. I don’t like Damnation or Night of Soul's Betrayal because they cost 4 mana. It’s better to have a lower curve and keep extra lands in hand to cast Raven's Crime from the graveyard.

Eight Rack got some upgrades in recent sets — Fatal Push and Collective Brutality. The amount of “bad” cards in this deck is surprisingly low. In the old days this deck played Funeral Charm to fight creatures and we liked it. I also recall walking to school uphill both ways in the snow back then.

I’m not sure about Pack Rat, but the idea is that we wanted a creature to bring in after the opponent takes out their removal. Mutavaults work nicely with the rats, but I’m looking for other ideas to fill a similar role.

Give this deck a try as the only expensive cards are tournament staples. The cost to finding the obscure cards like The Rack and Shrieking Affliction are low.

R/G Scapeshift ? Modern | Kyle Boggemes

Through the Breach
My friend, Ben Magee, played rg Breach Titan and liked most of the shell. This list takes the 8 most powerful spells in the deck and mashes them together. Through the Breach only works if you also have Primeval Titan, but Scapeshift wins by itself. Chandra, Torch of Defiance can stabilize the battlefield and also helps find ramp spells and win conditions. It allows for a turn four Primeval Titan with a single ramp spell.

The high level of redundancy is key in the current Modern format littered with Death's Shadow. Why would I want to configure a two-card combo when Thoughtseize breaks it up? I can make Death's Shadow opponents sweat when they discard my Primeval Titan and have so many Scapeshift, Summoner's Pact, and Titans waiting in the wings. This version is vulnerable to counterspell decks, but it doesn’t matter at the moment. Countering spells in Modern is at an all-time low because the opportunity cost of playing a fair deck without a Death's Shadow engine is high.

Hornet Nest is sweet against creature decks and can help stop Death's Shadow and Tarmogoyf from killing you. They can answer it with Fatal Push, but they will be boarded out which leaves only Liliana of the Veil/Collective Brutality as solid answers. Chandra can deal four damage to the nest to give you some hornets and Summoner's Pact can tutor for the beehive.

Landfall

Teammate, Stu Parnes, went 4-0 at a local Modern event with this spicy number.

Landfall ? Modern | Stu Parnes

Since Gitaxian Probe was banned, there’s a vacant space in the metagame for a hyper aggressive creature deck. Steppe Lynx and Plated Geopede can kill quickly with the help of Renegade Rallier much like in the Domain Zoo deck posted above.

I think this deck is under the radar at the moment. There are plenty of ways to take advantage of Renegade Rallier which gives this aggressive deck some staying power against removal. Voice of Resurgence is great against Fatal Push and Thalia can help out against combo. I might be in the market for a Gaddock Teeg in the sideboard to be even more hateful.

This deck isn’t very expensive either because it excludes Tarmogoyf. Why play a ¾ for 2 mana in a deck that’s trying to kill fast? Plated Geopede is much better here and I would prefer the other 2-drops to have abilities other than attacking and blocking.

That’s all I have this week. We covered a lot of Modern decks that have some promise. I’m going to be sad when Amonkhet comes out because then I’ll have to abandon Modern for a while to prepare for the Pro Tour.

Thanks for reading!

Preorder Amonkhet at CoolStuffInc.com Today!

TAGS articles, metagame, constructed, analysis, modern, decklist, kyle boggemes

Recent Articles

View Archive
Sell your cards and minis 25% credit bonus