Shadow Fiend (Death's Shadow Zoo port)

[drinkard]

Hi all,

I'm a Modern MTGO grinder that has enjoyed a lot of success with Death's Shadow zoo and its variants. Lately my list has been

4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Overgrown Tomb

4 Death's Shadow
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Monastery Swiftspear

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Thoughtseize

4 Temur Battle Rage
4 Become Immense

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Street Wraith

www.mtggoldfish.com/player/drinkard

I play the above list instead of Steppe Lynx/Goblin Guide variants because I wanted Thoughtseize against Eldrazi and combo decks. Kiln Fiend is a higher power level turn 2 play than Steppe Lynx etc. after the necessary turn 1 interaction (bolting the bird or discarding a card).

Because of the success against combo and Eldrazi and their existence in Legacy as well, I made a couple of changes to the deck and fired up a Legacy league.
-4 Become Immense
-4 Monastery Swiftspear
-4 Fetch
+4 Berserk
+4 Kiln Fiend
+4 Tarnished Citadel

Ideas here were more trample, more control over the life total (and access to all colors), and more resilience in the creatures (I do miss the haste and the turn 1 play though).

I was surprised to go 3-2 in matches and 8-4 in games. I beat Eldrazi decks twice (2-0) and a Punishing Maverick (2-0). I lost to BUGr Fish and Esper Blade 1-2. So the Force of Will and hard (non-damage based) removal got the best of me.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the deck may have been better as it was against Force of Will. The haste from Swiftspear is relevant, and a turn 1 play is sweet too. Also, in contrast to the Modern version, in a grindy game I can theoretically cast Street Wraiths to have more bodies.

My sideboard for the league was thrown together as I have extremely little experience with Legacy

4 Ancient Grudge
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Dismember
2 Gut Shot
4 Duress

If anyone has tips to beat the blue+removal decks, I'm all ears.

Thanks!

EDIT with Legacy decklist:

4 Tarnished Citadel
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Stomping Ground

4 Death's Shadow
4 Gurmag Angler
4 Kiln Fiend

4 Berserk
4 Temur Battle Rage

4 Mutagenic Growth
4 Thoughtseize
4 Lightning Bolt

4 Street Wraith
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Gitaxian Probe

[Ricardio]

Mishra/urza bauble are the same cards. neither of which triggers kiln so I would advise sticking with it. you may want 16 threats or some number of counter spells to protect your combo?

since you are running berserk and tbr, what about invigorate? Seems to be where you wanna be.

Being this is legacy, abrupt decay is the equivalent of bolt in modern. You need protection to be successful or you might as well trade in for belcher/SI/glasscannoncombo

[Fatal]

I strongly suggest:
Dark Confidant and more discard, like old Red Death deck.

You can also use really oldschool Lava Dart and Reckless Charge :-)

[Echelon]

You might want to give Vines of Vastwood a try. It doubles as pump and creature protection.

I don't think you want to run Invigorate though, that really is more of an infect card.

[drinkard]

Echelon

You might want to give Vines of Vastwood a try. It doubles as pump and creature protection.

I don't think you want to run Invigorate though, that really is more of an infect card.

This and Apostle's Blessing are interesting to me after facing so many Swords to Plowshares and Abrupt Decays. They could either go in for Lightning Bolt slots or replacing 8 of the double strike effects. I just don't know if either of these are main deck material?


Fatal

I strongly suggest:
Dark Confidant and more discard, like old Red Death deck.

You can also use really oldschool Lava Dart and Reckless Charge :-)


This is up to 16 cards! What do you suggest I take out? Dark Confidant may be good, and I fear the others are too dependent on Kiln Fiend. I am very unimpressed with Dark Confidant in the Modern archetype, favoring Abbot of Kher Keep.


Ricardio

Mishra/urza bauble are the same cards. neither of which triggers kiln so I would advise sticking with it. you may want 16 threats or some number of counter spells to protect your combo?

since you are running berserk and tbr, what about invigorate? Seems to be where you wanna be.

Being this is legacy, abrupt decay is the equivalent of bolt in modern. You need protection to be successful or you might as well trade in for belcher/SI/glasscannoncombo

The deck is fragile, but it doesn't have to be all-in. I win a lot of times in Modern over the course of several turns instead of investing resources to win in one turn if I feel the opponent has some interaction.

Mishra's Bauble is vastly superior to Urza's Bauble because it can show the top card of your deck when deciding to fetch or not. If I like it, go ahead and cycle or don't activate fetchland, and if I don't like, then I shuffle it away. Besides that, Mishra's Bauble duplicates are guaranteed to show multiple cards from your opponent (provided you activate them at the right times), and Urza's Bauble duplicates are not.