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Thread: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

  1. #1
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    4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Been having some fun with this list (Shoutouts to Deadeye Mongoose for all of the advice, a lot of the stuff in the deck comes directly from him). Grinds super well. A couple of times I've been able to kill Deathblade through a batterskull because death's shadow is that large. I'm not that good of a delver player, but I've played a lot of legacy and I really like what this thing can do. Sideboard price of progress is hilarious when it's effectively one sided. Only concern I've had with the deck is that I have not been able to play death's shadow early enough sometimes. Sometimes none of the threats stick because we have a smaller disruption suite than the other delver decks. Death's shadow is the largest creature in the format, and even with DRS and lightning bolt in the format I have never really felt threatened by either in terms of life total (Burn MU is untested, but it's probably garbo).

    // 60 Maindeck
    // 14 Creature
    4 Death's Shadow
    4 Delver of Secrets
    2 Gurmag Angler
    4 Deathrite Shaman

    // 20 Instant
    4 Brainstorm
    2 Spell Pierce
    4 Daze
    4 Force of Will
    1 Dismember
    4 Lightning Bolt
    1 Fire Covenant

    // 18 Land
    4 Wasteland
    2 Watery Grave
    1 Underground Sea
    2 Steam Vents
    1 Tropical Island
    4 Polluted Delta
    4 Flooded Strand

    // 8 Sorcery
    4 Ponder
    4 Gitaxian Probe


    // 15 Sideboard
    // 1 Artifact
    SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage

    // 12 Instant
    SB: 1 Fatal Push
    SB: 2 Price of Progress
    SB: 2 Pyroblast
    SB: 1 Dismember
    SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
    SB: 1 Flusterstorm
    SB: 1 Fire Covenant
    SB: 1 Ancient Grudge
    SB: 1 Kolaghan's Command

    // 2 Sorcery
    SB: 2 Thoughtseize
    Last edited by monovfox; 07-05-2017 at 05:27 AM.
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  2. #2
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    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Hi monofvox,

    first off the list already looks pretty tuned, so good job!
    Some thoughts:

    Thoughtseize looks like MD material, since it does exactly, what you want with this deck: tiny mana investment, maximum effect, plus life loss. I'd likely cut the Pierces, a Daze, and a DRS for it. The remaining three DRS should go too imho. It is a mana fixer, but with this strategy you want to go all in and focus even more on aggro elements. I could see +1 Angler, +2 YP?

  3. #3
    Emptying the Warrens

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    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Quote Originally Posted by klaus View Post
    Hi monofvox,

    first off the list already looks pretty tuned, so good job!
    Some thoughts:

    Thoughtseize looks like MD material, since it does exactly, what you want with this deck: tiny mana investment, maximum effect, plus life loss. I'd likely cut the Pierces, a Daze, and a DRS for it. The remaining three DRS should go too imho. It is a mana fixer, but with this strategy you want to go all in and focus even more on aggro elements. I could see +1 Angler, +2 YP?
    DRS was actually the addition to this deck that I most liked, really helped pull of some interesting stuff, and with such a greedy manabase we can't really afford to not play him. The pierces could maybe be TS, jury is still out on them. Sometimes I really like the pierces, sometimes I really don't.
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  4. #4
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    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Quote Originally Posted by monovfox View Post
    DRS was actually the addition to this deck that I most liked, really helped pull of some interesting stuff, and with such a greedy manabase we can't really afford to not play him. The pierces could maybe be TS, jury is still out on them. Sometimes I really like the pierces, sometimes I really don't.
    Fair enough.

  5. #5

    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Hi monovfox,

    first off, i am really new to the format (and i just made this account because this deck really excites me) - so please take everything with a grain of salt. I am looking specifically for a Death's Shadow deck since i really enjoy the modern version and i am intereset if the deck could be competetive-ish enough when or if things might change in modern.

    Last week i played my second-ever Legacy event with Josh Utter Leyton's U/B Shadow, switching the Stifle for a 3/1 split of Snapcaster Mage and Thoughtseize as Josh suggested on Twitter, from GP Vegas and i've found some things i felt uncomfortable with and try to put them in words.
    It was 5 Rounds, played vs. Tezzerator, Twin, Demon Stompy, Thopter Stompy and the Rack, ending up 2-2-1 and making all the rookie-mistakes - fetching to to thin in topdeck mode, just to draw a brainstorm and be unable to shuffle bad draws away (a play that doesn't exist in modern, as with serum vision you just bottom the bad cards), playing thoughtseize into a known brainstorm (no way to hide handcards in modern) just to name a few. The Deck felt powerful, but it also lacked some things, especially removal for artifacts.

    I played vs. a lot of Chalice decks and this is where the U/B Variant had enormous Problems - while normal Delver still has Pyromancer as threat to Chalice on 1, the Shadow list was really left dead cold with only hardcast Street Wraith and Gurmag Angler left to try to win the game. Young Pyromancer would at least have been castable and could exchange spells into tokens.

    In all games that i won on Tempo, Shadow was not relevant. But in all games that i won in topdeck-mode, the pure size of Shadow won the Game. The games i lost were all the games where the Tempo cards started loosing value.
    When i was around ~7 Life and just expanded all resources, leaving both players with an empty hand and board, you really don't want to draw spells like Daze and contrary to other Delver Decks you aren't in a position to race most of the time.

    What i am trying to say is that this Deck might need to cut a bit back on the tempo side since you are likely to be behind in resources on equal cards (7 vs 17 Life with the same amount of cards in play and cards in Hand).
    Also there is a significant trade-off vs Chalice Decks here by not spreading the cmc from your threats, leaving you more vulnerable than normal Delver.
    Because of this, i would rather play answers that do not loose value over time, but i also noticed how strong Daze is, so i just assume that daze will be a fixed slot, at least on the play.

    I would recommend a single maindeck copy of Kolaghan's Command as an out to a resolved prison piece, like Ensnaring Bridge or Chalice of the Void, but it can double-up as removal, buyback or Discard which makes it flexible enought to run vs. other Decks.

    Another painful experience was running into Swords to plowshares. I already had minor issues dropping my life-total fast enough, but dropping the life total again after swords has been a real problem, since you are likely out of cards and additional copies of death shadow were just invalidated.
    I can see Fire Covenant helping out, but you really don't want start bolting yourself, since most decks running stp seem to win over incremental card advantage - which you would play right into. With the splash of G, Sylvan Library (although maybe not maindeck) seems to be the perfect solution, as it helps gathering card quality, can build incremental card advantage and can turn swords to plowshares into card advantage for you.
    Another card that i am currently looking into is Berserk, TNN is a big problem to the deck and Berserk could provide an alternative I-Win button to suddenly turn a race and break a board-stall or just to be a turn faster when facing combo or prison.
    A maybe-Tech from Modern: Stubborn Denial. With 6 Beaters enabling feroucious, it might be better than spell pierce in this deck. But then again, a turned off Stubborn Denial can be played around at the same turn as Daze, which is a huge drawback.

    I really like the idea of Price of Progress, it could be a decent tool to drop our life total while applying pressure and i am really excited to attack holding a Fetchland, get no blocks, crack, hold priority, cast Price of Progress, get the third land and likely hit for lethal.
    This would be my starting list:

    // 60 Maindeck
    // 14 Creature
    4 Death's Shadow
    4 Delver of Secrets
    4 Deathrite Shaman
    2 Gurmag Angler

    // 18 Instant
    4 Brainstorm
    1 Stubborn Denial
    3 Daze
    4 Force of Will
    1 Dismember
    1 Price of Progress
    1 Kolaghan's Command
    2 Lightning Bolt
    1 Fire Covenant

    // 10 Sorcery
    3 Ponder
    4 Gitaxian Probe
    3 Thoughtseize

    // 18 Land
    4 Wasteland
    2 Watery Grave
    1 Underground Sea
    2 Steam Vents
    1 Tropical Island
    4 Polluted Delta
    4 Flooded Strand

    // 15 Sideboard
    // 1 Artifact
    SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage

    // 12 Instant
    SB: 1 Fatal Push
    SB: 1 Price of Progress
    SB: 1 Pyroblast
    SB: 1 Dismember
    SB: 2 Surgical Extraction
    SB: 1 Flusterstorm
    SB: 1 Fire Covenant
    SB: 1 Kolaghan's Command
    SB: 2 Berserk

    //Enchantment
    SB: 2 Sylvan Library

    //Sorcery
    SB: 1 By Force

    I mean it could be a clear case of wanting too much at the same time, but with testing from there, but having access to a lot of 1-ofs should help provide a feeling if they are good or not and what cards you really want during the matchups (and i have to get to know a lot of matchups). I'm looking forward to test this and will report back soon™, thank you for the inspiration.

  6. #6
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    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    I'm looking forward to testing this deck out in my combo heavy meta soon. I'm concerned with the burn matchups and I'm not sure how I feel towards the lands.dec matchups but overall I'm confident that Grixis is where you want to be with DS in Legacy. I'm going to start with this list:

    4 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Delver of Secrets
    4 Death's Shadow
    2 Tombstalker

    4 Force of Will
    4 Daze
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Lighting Bolt
    1 Dismember
    1 Kolaghan's Command

    4 Ponder
    4 Thoughtseize
    1 Reanimate

    4 Wasteland
    1 Underground Sea
    1 Volcanic Island
    1 Badlands
    2 Watery Grave
    1 Steam Vents
    1 Breeding Pool
    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Scalding Tarn
    2 Bloodstained Mire

    I want to see how the Death's Shadow end of the strategy in terms of managing life loss works here without Gitaxian Probe mainly just because I really don't want to cut any bolts yet and the Kolaghan's and a Reanimate seem worth testing maindeck. I could be completely wrong in this but I want to try it nonetheless. Any thoughts here? Anyone been jamming Grixis DS lately? I havent seen much about it lately.
    Today I am become death. The destroyer of worlds. -Oppenheimer

  7. #7

    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Thanks for creating this thread monovfox. I took Justin Parnell's list (http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=24141&iddeck=188977) and have been successful. I see room to tweak in the Dismember/Snuff Out slot and the mana base. Is there room for a basic Swamp and/or Island? Is a red splash for Bolt/Pyroblast worth it?

  8. #8

    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    This is going to be a catchall post for about a month of play on the deck, some thoughts, my list, etc.

    I just started playing Legacy a few months ago since my LGS started doing flights. I started by building Josh Utter-Leyton's UB death's shadow list as a budget-y option, but found the stifle/wasteland plan matched up poorly against a lot of Aether Vial/Deathrite Shaman decks in my meta. I've taken several iterations now to a bi-weekly legacy flight, and on matches am 4-3, with match wins against Grixis Delver, Tin Fins, Death and Taxes, and Spanish Inquisition. My losses come against UR delver and twice against the same Merfolk player. Both matches on paper feel terrible, since the deck has few main deck removal, and the current build I'm on is still heavy on shock lands over snuff out, such that simply to execute my plan I have to take a lot of life loss, and a single lord or Price of Progress can often close the gap. My list seems to have a much better matchup versus unfair decks compared to the 4c version suggested by OP, a marginally better mana base, but a significantly worse aggro matchup.

    The list I took today,

    //Creatures - 14
    4 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Delver of Secrets
    4 Death's Shadow
    2 Gurmag Angler

    //Spells -28
    4 Daze
    4 Force of Will
    2 Spell Pierce
    4 Thoughtseize
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Gitaxian Probe
    2 Ponder
    3 Fatal Push
    1 Dismember

    //Lands - 18
    4 Wasteland
    4 Marsh Flats (this should probably be changed to 2 flats/ 2 flooded strand, at least)
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Underground Sea
    1 Bayou
    1 Breeding Pool
    3 Watery Grave

    //Sideboard - 15
    1 Flusterstorm
    1 Diabolic Edict
    1 True-Name Nemesis
    2 Engineered Explosives
    2 Abrupt Decay
    4 Hymn to Tourach
    2 Dread of Night
    2 Grafdigger's Cage

    I'd like to cut the Edict and TNN to look at rebalancing the sideboard a bit to include things like Sylvan Library and Golgari Charm with/over Decay's. I originally ran two TNN, but even with DRS they just seemed to push the mana of the deck more than it wanted.

    Some thoughts
    - As originally mentioned, the deck originally was a Stifle/wastleland deck with Street Wraith and Stifles over DRS and Thoughtseize. The deck felt particularly weak to opponents DRS since it has so little main deck removal, and Aether Vial decks that could get around the land denial. I'm not sure if my current list is better or not, but it feels more robust to those strategies at the cost of some deck speed/tempo loss.
    - Relatedly, Thoughtseize has been good, but not great. It makes the combo matchups feel great, particularly with the extra spell pierce's main deck and even in non-official games I've had with people at the store/on modo the list is incredibly resilient to those strategies. However, when boarding out I often feel like taking out unneeded counters is the first to go, and it can at times leave you with really bad cards, particularly against faster decks. I've been trying to tweak the sideboard for my meta/to make the deck better post-board.

    Deck Pros:
    - Compared to other legacy decks, seems pretty cheap to buy into/quickly get to a low proxy count, particularly if you were already playing death's shadow in modern. And is a great incentive to buy a play set of FoW's and Wasteland's.
    - The Stifle/Wasteland version feels closer to a Canadian Threshold, and the DRS/TS build seems closer to a Team America as far as I can tell. A lot of space to customize since I don't think the "right" deck has been found yet.
    - Getting Death's Shadow larger than opponent Tarmogoyf's, Battleskulls, or Anglers feels great.

    Cons
    - Seems to have a very poor fast aggro matchup.
    - You start most games out at an effective 10 life, so can take less incidental damage from opponents (though DRS and a solid green splash has made this less of a problem).


    -------
    Sunday Legacy 11/12/17: 7 people showed up (first time we hosted it was two weeks prior and there were 11) decks present were:
    1 BR Reanimator
    1 High Tide
    1 Grixis Delver
    1 Sultai DS
    1 Death and Taxes
    1 Merfolk
    1 Spanish Inquision

    Previous week we also had a BU Tin Fins, Bant Deathblade, ANT, and UR Delver.

    Rd 1: Bye

    Rd 2: Ian on Death and Taxes.

    g1: I didn't write down who was on the play, but I believe it was Ian, who mulled to 6. It looks like I cast and early thoughseize and grabbed Jitte from his hand of Thalia, Batterskull, Flickerwisp, and Jitte (did land -> mom turn 1). I ended up going something like delver, drop to 12, double death's shadow when he had a Mom and Thalia out. I let him take back an attack when he realized he would take a ton on the swing back, but drew a fetch. His life went 20-16-5-dead. I took a gamble after thoughtseizing him that I could probably finish him before he could get a swords to plowshares into his hand, since otherwise mom could lock out a single threat from me.

    sideboard -4 daze, -2 spellsnare, -1 death's shadow, +2 decay, +2 engineered explosives, +2 dread of night, +1 true-name nemesis. There's another player that hasn't shown up for one of the regular flights that also is on DnT, and he has 4 caverns (turns out Ian only had 1), and I cut most of my counters besides Force for more removal, and a threat that is stronger against Swords.l

    g2: I actually took really bad notes here. But turn 1 mom into turn 2 stoneforge mystic for battleskull. I had dread of night and decay in my hand, so I dropped that hoping to be able to get more action in my hand. He is able to drop battleskull, and I get a pair of delvers out. I decay the germ token, and he gets out two phrexian revokers (both on explosives). I hold up two wastelands, but he's only playing planes. I drop him to 8 before he karakas's for his 5th land to equip battleskull. I have to brainstorm lock myself, and despite two dread of night out can't answer the revokers (I tried to get the Golgari Charms before the event started, but store didn't have any).

    g3: I didn't change my sideboard strategy. I tempo him out. Delver, git prove, his hand is, wasteland, 2x revokers, stoneforge mystic, helm of obedience, 2x planes. He mistakenly plays wasteland on my watery grave. On my turn I flip delver, fetch for another one, play deathrite shaman, death's shadow, pass, on his third turn he plays rest in peace, passes, at this point he's still only on 2 lands, but I want to close it out quickly with him at 14 and me at 10, I look at doing something like activate DRS drain (him at 12), dismember it (me at 6), swing him down to 3, but realize it doesn't really change the clock and attack him down to 8 and pass. He goes land, mom, I dismember end of turn and he concedes. 1-0.

    Rd 3 versus Jack on Fish.

    g1: I'm on the play. I think Jack mulled. I thoughtseize, see lord, merrow rejerry, jittle, master of waves, cavern, and take jitte. I shock myself, get a delver and death's shadow out with me at 10. But he has a vial on 2, and drops 2 lords, followed by 2 more. Islandwalk and a bunch of self harm do me in.

    sideboard: +2 decay +1 tnn, +1 explosives +1 diabolic edict. -2 spell pierce, -1 ds, -1 drs, -1 daze, -1 ts.

    g2: I draw a land of wasteland, 2 git probe, decay, edict, thoughtseize ponder, and reluctantly keep. The hope is to double git probe and then based on what I see either thoughtseize or ponder. I double git probe, see no lands. 3 turns later, I still haven't seen one, with a chalice on 1, and a vial out. Eventually he plays TNN and a lord of atlantis so i can't even edict it anymore. I scoop.

    I probably should have mulled the hand due to the lack of a colored source on principle, but I basically had 1/4th chance of hitting a viable mana source on each of the successive draws. Ugh, writing that out makes it clear it was 100% a mulligan, but I wanted to get away by being greedy.

    Technically with only 7 people, the event ended there. But I stuck around to play... Allen on THE SPANISH INQUISITION.

    g1: He does a bunch of stuff, I force his Diabolic Contract, and daze something else. On his second turn he successfully pays for his turn 1 Summoner's pact. He ends up having a bunch of mana in play, and I sit with a Fatal Push and spell pierce in hand. He eventually tries to go for a infernal contract, I think, but I spell pierce the second land grant and he's forced to top deck for a few turns. I eventually get out three deathrite shaman and just drain him from 20 to 0 without seeing a delver or shadow.

    sideboard -1 daze, +1 flusterstorm. Now, why not side out Fatal Push/Dismember? Game 1 I spell pierced a land grant that would have fetched Dryad Arbor, and I could have fatal pushed that. I also know he sides in Tomb of Urami or whatever it's called, and just wanted to make sure I didn't get cheesed out. Note earlier how I've felt very secure against unfair decks with my first 60.

    g2: we both mulligan, my second hand is basically FoW, blue card, 2 daze's and 2 lands. He land grants, showing manamorphose, dark ritual, summoners pact, belcher, carpet of flowers. Turn 1 I force carpet of flowers, and on turn 2, he tries a bunch of stuff to get a belcher into play with eats a daze, and he scoops with zero cards in hand.

  9. #9
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    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Very little is gained by running red in Shadow. Additionally you shouldn't have much trouble getting life down below 13 with only two Shocklands, given the existence of Daze; so unless the point is to be as budget-oriented as possible, I'd re-examine those numbers. Your primary concerns with Shadow in legacy are 12x 1-drop threats, Blood Moon, and payoff creatures being colored non-tramplers. Red really isn't solving any of these problems for you, and it's making some of these problems worse since you can't use 1-2 basics. There's also a pretty big problem with mulling or fetching yourself into oblivion because you had a Volc/Steam Vents coming out of a U/B deck with only 18 lands. The better effects that come out of UBg are Berserk, Sylvan Library (you won't beat Tundra without this), Decay, and Leovold. Condensing colors will result in a manabase that only has 2x lands (and 4x Wasteland) that don't alt-cast Daze, and 1-2x lands (and 4x Wasteland) that don't tap for . When I run Shadow decks, the manabase is:
    4x Polluted Delta
    3x Verdant Catacombs
    1x Swamp
    1x Bayou
    1x Breeding Pool
    1x Watery Grave
    3x Underground Sea (the third Sea will often be basic Island, but that's more a question of what the SB strategy is. This slot can also be Fetch #8)
    4x Wasteland

    The BB spell I'd be more interested in than Hymn/Tombstalker is Lilly, Last Hope.

  10. #10

    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Quote Originally Posted by Fox View Post
    Very little is gained by running red in Shadow. Additionally you shouldn't have much trouble getting life down below 13 with only two Shocklands, given the existence of Daze; so unless the point is to be as budget-oriented as possible, I'd re-examine those numbers. Your primary concerns with Shadow in legacy are 12x 1-drop threats, Blood Moon, and payoff creatures being colored non-tramplers. Red really isn't solving any of these problems for you, and it's making some of these problems worse since you can't use 1-2 basics. There's also a pretty big problem with mulling or fetching yourself into oblivion because you had a Volc/Steam Vents coming out of a U/B deck with only 18 lands. The better effects that come out of UBg are Berserk, Sylvan Library (you won't beat Tundra without this), Decay, and Leovold. Condensing colors will result in a manabase that only has 2x lands (and 4x Wasteland) that don't alt-cast Daze, and 1-2x lands (and 4x Wasteland) that don't tap for . When I run Shadow decks, the manabase is:
    4x Polluted Delta
    3x Verdant Catacombs
    1x Swamp
    1x Bayou
    1x Breeding Pool
    1x Watery Grave
    3x Underground Sea (the third Sea will often be basic Island, but that's more a question of what the SB strategy is. This slot can also be Fetch #8)
    4x Wasteland

    The BB spell I'd be more interested in than Hymn/Tombstalker is Lilly, Last Hope.
    I can understand running a few shock land mana base if you have more maindeck sources of life loss, in particular, full sets of thoughtseize, and at least 2 snuff out, 2 dismember. Justin Parnell's list (I think he also top 64rd Eternal Weekend with it?) is probably the best exemplar of what this sort of mana base requires.
    HTML Code:
    https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/legacy-sultai-death-s-shadow#paper
    . Daze comes out in enough matchups that I'm not quite sure which is better, but some amount of knowing when to fetch ABUR lands over shocks seems to make a huge difference in some matchups.

  11. #11

    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    I am testing straight UB version these days. This is list:

    2x Gurmag Angler
    2x Tasigur, the golden fang
    4x Death's shadow
    4x Streetwrait

    4x Gitaxian probe
    4x Thoughtseize
    3x Ponder
    1x Reanimate

    4x Brainstorm
    4x Daze
    4x Force of will
    3x Fatal push
    3x thought scour
    2x dismember

    4x wasteland
    1x Underground sea
    2x Watery grave
    1x swamp
    1x island
    4x Polluted delta
    2x Flooded strand
    1x Marsh flats
    controls

  12. #12
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    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Green seems really good here. You have a number of huge creatures without trample so Berserk feels like a natural fit and as pointed out above, Deathrite Shaman is just really good and Sylvan Library fits right in. The Modern version ran Temur Battle Rage but Berserk seems like a straight-up upgrade, stacking with itself and costing half as much. Not to mention it can be used as removal that hurts you in pumping enemy creature and letting it hit you for lots and die at the end of combat. Certainly seems worth testing; would be a rather Infectish approach but that might be just as well, since your biggest selling point is a bunch of huge creatures.

  13. #13

    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Quote Originally Posted by Eldariel View Post
    Green seems really good here. You have a number of huge creatures without trample so Berserk feels like a natural fit and as pointed out above, Deathrite Shaman is just really good and Sylvan Library fits right in. The Modern version ran Temur Battle Rage but Berserk seems like a straight-up upgrade, stacking with itself and costing half as much. Not to mention it can be used as removal that hurts you in pumping enemy creature and letting it hit you for lots and die at the end of combat. Certainly seems worth testing; would be a rather Infectish approach but that might be just as well, since your biggest selling point is a bunch of huge creatures.
    Dark confidant could be good inclusion also.
    controls

  14. #14

    Re: 4 Color Death's Shadow Tempo

    Hey guys, I'm testing this list currently:

    4 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Delver of Secrets
    4 Death's Shadow
    2 Young Pyromancer
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    3 Gitaxian Probe
    4 Daze
    4 Force of Will
    4 Thoughtseize
    4 Lightning Bolt
    1 Dismember
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Watery Grave
    1 Underground Sea
    1 Steam Vents
    1 Volcanic Island
    1 Breeding Pool
    4 Wasteland

    The build runs pretty solid when it comes to its own mechanics. It is a budget build for real Grixis Delver. Thougthseize is quite nice which makes your matchups against Sneak Attack and Food a little bit better. Also since you want to play Gitaxian Probe for Death's Shadow I added in Young Pyromancer for the synergy and also Cabal Therapy from the sideboard. Obviously Angler and TNN are also good choices but with Death' Shadow you allready have a big creature so flooding the board with YP seems more reasonable than adding just another fat monster. The rest are standard Legacy cards. I think the combination of Death's Shadow and Shaman also works pretty well. I gained life when I was at 5 to get out of Delver + Bolt range and still Death's Shadow is the biggest threat in play as 6/6. In the board I would go for 2 Ancient Grudge, 2-3 Cabal Therapy, 2 Diabolic Edict, 1-2 Flusterstorm, 1 Spell Pierce, 2 Pyroblast, 2-3 Surgical Extraction and maybe some mass removal against D&T, Empty the Warrens and Elves. I think most of your matchups get worse with this build than normal Grixis Delver but your still doing fine if its just a budget build to buy a real Legacy deck. I would definitely recommend it for people who want to get into Legacy and cant spend 1.5k on Duals right away. For this build you don't even need half, 4 Forces, 1 USea and 1 Volcanic are the only real investment here which you will buy yourself anyway. But it is very meta depending. In my meta are not a lot of Delver decks, maybe just 2-3 while the rest is playing D&T, Combo and some grindy decks such as Aggro Loam, Eldrazi, Lands,... If you have a lot of aggressive blue and red decks the Death's Shadow build is allready much weaker than it seems on paper. Shocking yourself while facing an flipped Delver on your opponents side will be crucial and devestating. You rather want to go for Ur Delver instead which runs 3 Volcanics. Still the deck has its strong plays and actually makes a lot of fun to play.

    Edit:
    Color discussion: This deck is not a grindy deck! Adding red for Lightning Bolt is a good deal since it will do sometimes the last damage and Probe and YP will come for free in a deck which want to shock itself. You swing with Delver and Shadow for 8 and Bolt your opponent which is 11 damage in one turn. Adding green gives you a much more grindy character with Abrupt Decay and possible other cards the deck doesnt really need. If you need better removal than Bolt just add in 1-2 Dismember which work perfectly.

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