RB Shadow Phoenix

The idea came after the appearance of buried phoenix and my love for U/B Shadow. I really like Arclight Phoenix and Death's Shadow so the idea is to combine both forces into an explosive deck.

This is the list I came up to (it has not been tested yet)

X4 street wraith
X4 death shadow
X4 arclight phoenix

X4 faithless looting
X4 dark ritual
X4 buried alive
X4 thoughtseize
X3 gut shot
X2 hymn to tourach
X2 liliana the last hope - or can be Kokaghans command
X2 bolt - or can be snuff out - or dismember
X2 push
X1 toxic

X4 wasteland
X1 bloodstained mire
X4 verdant
X2 marsh
X2 arid
X3 bloodcrypt
x2 Badlands

build numbers are clearly still raw, but i think the concept is interesting, at least in my mind.

Hymn to tourach can be swapped for Inquisition of Kozilek.
Maybe the amount of threats is not high enough. I would consider this deck to be a combo/aggro/control type.

What do you guys think about the concept?

Death's Shadow would be easier to support if they hadn't banned Gitaxian Probe. As is, a lot of your life loss comes from conditional spells (Snuff Out), bad filler (Street Wraith), or card disadvantage (Gut Shot).

2-card combos like Dark Ritual + Buried Alive are much better with blue cantrips. Blue also has the best 1 mana spells (see: Brainstorm). That's why all the original Phoenix shells ended up going blue. Nonblue versions were tried but much more inconsistent. Why not play blue too?

Are you determined to avoid blue (e.g. budget, flavor)? If so you'll want some other cheap combo fixers. Try Gamble and Spoils of the Vault as tutors. The randomness can backfire, but overall they still improve your consistency by finding gas. Spoils also enables Death's Shadow. If you're worried about variance, you would be playing Islands anyway.



//Creatures: 11
4 Death's Shadow
3 Dark Confidant
4 Arclight Phoenix

//Spells: 30
4 Gamble
4 Faithless Looting
4 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
3 Spoils of the Vault
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Gut Shot
2 Dismember
4 Buried Alive

//Mana: 19
4 Lotus Petal
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Badlands
2 Blood Crypt
1 Mountain
2 Swamp


I wouldn't bother with cards like Hymn, K Command or Liliana because you're not a control deck. You're not even trying to be a fair deck. You want to beat down, not grind them out with slow spells. Inquisition or Fatal Push might be OK, I just didn't have room maindeck.

As a matter of fact, main deck surgical extraction can be very powerful.

I don't like gamble nor spoils. It's too random and it definitely loses consistency.
I want the deck to have different gameplans based on your opponent and opening hand. That's why It can also play a control game.

I'm determined to make a nonblue deck, fun to play and competitive.
I'm actually playing UB Shadow, but I want something more explosive. I'm not sold with Grixis Phoenix yet.

I'll build something and play it in my local game store.

If you want something that can adapt to the opponent and play a control game, why no blue? RB does a bad job of control, especially when you're running card disadvantage and conditional cards. Faithless Looting and Dark Ritual are really bad in decks playing to the midgame or lategame.

RB's strengths are all-in aggressive strategies. See RB Reanimator vs UB Reanimator.

Gamble probably adds consistency relative to a deck with 0 cantrips. Sometimes it backfires, but most of the time it finds you the card you need when RB lacks other ways to do so (no Brainstorms).

Anyway, take your deck for a spin and see how it does.

I was thinking about similar deck but using young pyromancer and bedlam reveler. Pretty much similar to the grixis version but more aggro with bolts and PoP/fireblast as finishers