SHiV (Shadow-Hollow-Vine)

[Mr. Safety]

This deck is designed to use overlapping synergies to bring together Hollow One, Vengevine, and Death's Shadow. You may be thinking 'one of these is not like the others', and you're absolutely right. However, each of these creatures overlaps in at least one significant way, allowing the support system of the deck to gel together. Street Wraith helps to cast free or cheap Hollow Ones while also reducing life total to support Death's Shadow. Vengevine needs a discard outlet alongside cheap creatures to trigger it, so Putrid Imp and Shadow both fit that category. Careful Study feeds both Hollow One and Vengevine synergies. A fetchland mana-base allows for perfect mana but the simple act of using budget-minded shocklands such as Watery Grave feeds the Death's Shadow plan. Other attempts at bringing Hollow One and Vengevine together have focused around having as many creature-based discard outlets as possible (Putrid Imp, Tireless Tribe, Lotleth Troll.) I still use Putrid Imp and Lotleth Troll, but I eschew Tireless Tribe in order to fit in Death's Shadow. If there is to be a viable non-Delver aggro deck for the format it needs to have heavier hitters than Tireless Tribe and Basking Rootwalla. Those creatures can allow for explosive turn 1 plays but don't actually get the opponent dead fast enough to matter. The other problem with a Vengevine/Hollow One all-in aggro plan is that it isn't better than the other primary Vengevine deck in the format: Hogaak. In order for this deck to be viable it needs bigger than 1/x creatures. Well, what about a 7/7 for one mana?

The other issue of a purely aggressive Hollow-Vine deck is that it needs a way to be resilient to grave hate. Hard-casting Vengevines isn't exactly the best plan, although it could be an option. Living long enough to pull that off is unreliable. Having an aggressive creature-swarm plan and a big Shadow plan B in the mid-game seems like a great way to offset the predictable graveyard hate that I will face. Surgical Extraction is by far the most common graveyard hate, followed by Grafdigger's Cage, Rest in Peace, and Leyline of the Void. A single surgical on Vengevine won't completely ruin the game plan...especially if I board it out games 2-3 for additional targeted disruption for the matchup. Now I don't need to worry about how to cast Vengevine, the hardest creature to cast at that point would be Prized Amalgam at 3 mana. The other additions that make the strategy come together are Thoughtseize and Daze. Thoughtseize is still an incredible turn 1 play against most decks and having a 'free' way to protect a turn 'combo' with Daze is very good.

What about losing the 4 slots of Tireless Tribe? Doesn't that leave the deck short on enablers? It can, but the recent addition of Once Upon a Time to the card pool does a lot to mitigate the lower saturation of enablers, especially alongside the London mulligan. Add to that other ways of drawing into those enablers (Careful Study, Street Wraith) and the velocity of the deck is really decent. Is it Brainstorm/Ponder good? In this deck, yes, I think so. The approach is to enable the correct mix of creatures to be aggressive enough, rather than having a critical mass of creatures that relies on random opening hands to work correctly. Over the course of the 30 test games so far, Careful Study and Street Wraith have increased the consistency of this deck in a big way.

As this deck evolves I will continue adding updates. For now the list is locked in for testing purposes, and is running very consistently. The current outline is to be an explosive graveyard-based deck in the maindeck and switch to a more Shadow-oriented list post-board. I will still have ways of interaction with graveyard hate, but the sideboard won't be dominated by answering hate such as with other graveyard-based decks.

Current development as of 10/9/2020 - There is a potential divergent path with this deck by cutting Bloodghast and Prized Amalgam for Hogaak, Hooting Mandrils, and Deep Analysis. It is likely that some mix of all of those cards will become apparent, but that precise mix hasn't been established yet. Main reasons for Hogaak/Mandrils: bigger, trample threats to put more pressure than 2/1's and 3/3's. While Boodghast/Amalgam are usually 'free' the support (Wraith/OUAT/Study) doesn't always line up, but with Hogaak/Mandrils the support is always working towards making those cards possible. Deep Analysis seems very good as card advantage that supports Shadow. It's a different effect than Bloodghast/Amalgam, but it may prove to be more valuable than a few more anemic threats.

SHV version 1.0 9/24/2020
SHV vesion 1.1 9/24/2020 (sideboard change, -1 Sickening Dreams, -1 Silent Gravestone, +2 Brazen Borrower)
SHiV Version 1.2 9/25/2020 (sideboard Change, -4 Force of Will, +2 Bitterblossom, +2 Cabal Therapy)
SHiV Version 2.0 9/28/2020 (maindeck change -1 Watery Grave, -1 Lotus Petal, +1 Breeding Pool, +1 Once Upon a Time; sideboard Change, - 1 Oko, -1 Dismember, +2 Abrupt Decay)
SHiV Version 2.1 9/30/2020 (maindeck change, -1 Island, +1 Cephalad Coliseum)
SHiV Version 2.1a 10/8/2020 (added blacksummer's list below, testing shows a divergent possibility of Hogaak/Mandrils/Deep Analysis over Bloodghast/Amalgam)

4x Putrid Imp
4x Death's Shadow
4x Bloodghast
4x Vengevine
4x Hollow One
4x Prized Amalgam
4x Street Wraith
1x Lotleth Troll

3x Thoughtseize
3x Daze
4x Once Upon a Time
4x Careful Study
3x Lotus Petal
1x Reanimate

4x Polluted Delta
3x Verdant Catacombs
2x Watery Grave
1x Breeding Pool
1x Bayou
1x Swamp
1x Cephalad Coliseum

Sideboard
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Bitterblossom
2x Cabal Therapy
2x Brazen Borrower
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Sylvan Library
1x Dismember
1x Sickening Dreams
1x Karakas
1x Engineered Explosives


blacksummer has also been working on developing this deck, here is their current list for reference:

4x Putrid Imp
4x Death's Shadow
4x Vengevine
4x Hollow One
4x Street Wraith
3x Golgari Grave-Troll
2x Hogaak
2x Hooting Mandrils

3x Thoughtseize
3x Daze
4x Once Upon a Time
4x Careful Study
3x Lotus Petal
1x Reanimate
2x Deep Analysis (thinking of maindecking 2xsnuff out instead)

4x Polluted Delta
3x Verdant Catacombs
3x Watery Grave
1x Breeding Pool
1x Overgrown Tomb
1x Swamp


Sideboard
4x Force of Vigor
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Stubborn Denial
2x Brazen Borrower
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Thoughtseize
1x Dismember (can switch out for Nature's claim or pithing needle if maindeck snuff out)
1x Karakas


This version goes even deeper into overlapping synergies, taking out some of the smaller anemic threats (Bloodghast/Prized Amalgam) and instead works at getting bigger threats on board (Mandrils/Hogaak). It also incorporates an actual dredge card with GGT, which is unlikely to be hardcast or Reanimated, but it supercharges the delve Mandrils/Hogaak package.