So, this is a straight up control deck. It runs the opponent out of answers and finishes them off with a medium-sized Death's Shadow, Desecration Demon, or even Stensia Bloodhall. So more than half the spells are answers themselves. Death's Shadow - This guy is great when defending against aggro. Against slower decks, I'll turn him on myself by fetching untapped shocklands. Vampire Nighthawk - He trades with most creatures or deals some damage if I can protect him. Not always useful. Once I did accidentally kill my Death's Shadow with his lifelink, but normally if I need both creatures I don't need to worry about that. Faithless Looting - I love casting this on turn 2. I thought I wouldn't like the card disadvantage from casting this, but there are enough situational cards in the deck that it's rarely a problem. I wish I'd added a third. Imp's Mischief - The only reason there's just one of these in the main is because it's simply dead in some matchups. I'd say you want a 4:1 ratio of targetable spells in your opponent's deck. Great against Auras (including Splinter Twin), discard (especially Thoughtseize), countermagic, and removal. Stensia Bloodhall - This is a control deck, so you need some non-creature finishers! Against some really slow decks, this can put a little pressure on them to push through your defenses.
vs Titan Bloom:
After game 1 where my opponent comboed into a turn 1 Hive Mind/Pact of Negation, I decided to go more aggressive. Aside from Thoughtseize and Blood Moon, there's very little I can do to stop Hive Mind, so I boarded in the Hex Parasites to go for Death's Shadow beatdown. I gambled by keeping a six-card hand with those two creatures and four lands. I didn't draw another spell all game, but the 11/11 on turn 2 was too fast for him to deal with. Game 3 was more a battle of attrition, as I Thoughtseized his Amulet of Vigor but couldn't stop him from ramping into a Primeval Titan. From then on I struggled to find enough removal to destroy any number of Titans he threw at me, while putting pressure on him with Desecration Demon. I got him down to 10 for Hidetsugu's Second Rite, but held onto it for a long time because I was afraid he was holding Pact of Negation. I finished him off with the rite when I topdecked a Thoughtseize that showed me he didn't have it.
vs Martyr Proc:
1-2 loss
Got me with Serra Ascendants. I have graveyard removal but can't stop Ranger of Eos.
vs Merfolk:
0-2 loss
I got stomped game 1. In game 2 Spreading Seas put me off Damnation mana.
vs American Twin:
2-1 win
MVPs: Imp's Mischief, Suffer the Past, Stensia Bloodhall
vs Restore Balance:
2-0 win
MVPs: Thoughtseize, Death's Shadow
vs Burn/Aggro:
2-1 win
MVPs: Grim Lavamancer, Anger of the Gods
I really like playing this deck. Death's Shadow is a great defense against aggressive decks and Imp's Mischief is better than Remand in certain matchups. Its main weakness is an inability to draw cards, and if it can't generate card advantage with its Commands and sweepers it could run out of removal. The mana base is also somewhat greedy. I have Blood Moon maindeck but it hurts me too.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Commander DecksUB Sygg - Stream of Answers UBGWU Phelddagrif - Hugs and Handshakes GWURW Gisela - Firebender RWB Endrek - Correct! 6,000 Thrulls BBU Wrexial - Wrist Deep In Your Graveyard BUGW Trostani - My Wife's Deck GWBR Lyzolda - Chaos Hug BR
WUBRG Reaper King - The Trouble With Tribals WUBRG
Update: I still love this deck and have been meaning to play it more. I went 3-1 at FNM using the list in the first post...
Match 1 vs GR Tron
1: Turn 2 Smallpox and turn 4 Blood Moon, but I couldn't finish him off before Oblivion Stone destroyed Blood Moon. Thoughtseize showed me a hand full of Karns and I scooped.
2: Boarded in Hex Parasites worked with Death's Shadow to kill on turn 4.
3: 2x Shocklands, 2x Bolt myself, 2x Death's Shadow followed by Thoughtseize to attack with 5/5s on turn 4. He was a little too slow this game.
Match win
Match 2 vs Merfolk
1: He got me down to 1 before I stabilized with Vampire Nighthawk.
2: An early Spreading Seas disrupted my mana base and he overwhelmed me.
3: I started stabilizing, dropping two Death's Shadows, but when he tried to press the advantage me I topdecked a Hex Parasite and attacked for 20 damage in one turn.
Match win
Match 3 vs Jund
1: I got an early Blood Moon, which shut down his manlands, and he drew a whole lot of lands, but I couldn't damage him much. We traded removal until he stuck a Liliana of the Veil which I couldn't deal with.
2: We had plenty of removal for each others' creatures, but he stuck another Liliana. When our hands were empty his Raging Ravine finished me off.
Match loss
Match 4 vs Bogles (budget)
1: He had enough non-hexproof creatures that my removal could deal with them all.
2: He had a fast start on a hexproof creature that I couldn't stop.
3: After a war of attrition, he couldn't topdeck another aura for his Silhana Ledgewalker and my Death's Shadow killed him.
Match win
Death's Shadow is definitely an MVP, I'm considering adding a 4th. Maybe swap out the Terminates for more Dismembers and Dreadbores.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Commander DecksUB Sygg - Stream of Answers UBGWU Phelddagrif - Hugs and Handshakes GWURW Gisela - Firebender RWB Endrek - Correct! 6,000 Thrulls BBU Wrexial - Wrist Deep In Your Graveyard BUGW Trostani - My Wife's Deck GWBR Lyzolda - Chaos Hug BR
WUBRG Reaper King - The Trouble With Tribals WUBRG
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4x Lightning Bolt
4x Thoughtseize
3x Terminate
3x Anger of the Gods
1x Languish
1x Dismember
3x Kolaghan's Command
3x Faithless Looting
2x Smallpox
1x Blood Moon
1x Imp's Mischief
Creatures (9)
3x Death's Shadow
1x Desecration Demon
1x Olivia Voldaren
2x Vampire Nighthawk
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
2x Dragonskull Summit
2x Tectonic Edge
1x Blighted Fen
2x Stensia Bloodhall
4x Mountain
6x Swamp
2x Blightning
2x Hex Parasite
1x Blood Moon
2x Crumble to Dust
2x Imp's Mischief
1x Suffer the Past
1x Languish
1x Desecration Demon
2x Rakdos Charm
1x Rakdos's Return
I'm playing this in a modern league at work. I'm 5-1 so far. I'll edit in more details later.
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Thoughtseize
4x Terminate
3x Anger of the Gods
1x Damnation
3x Kolaghan's Command
2x Faithless Looting
2x Liliana of the Veil
2x Blood Moon
1x Imp's Mischief
3x Death's Shadow
2x Desecration Demon
2x Vampire Nighthawk
2x Grim Lavamancer
Land (25)
4x Blood Crypt
3x Bloodstained Mire
3x Dragonskull Summit
2x Graven Cairns
2x Stensia Bloodhall
4x Mountain
7x Swamp
3x Blightning
2x Hex Parasite
2x Blood Moon
2x Slaughter Games
2x Imp's Mischief
2x Suffer the Past
1x Damnation
1x Hidetsugu's Second Rite
So, this is a straight up control deck. It runs the opponent out of answers and finishes them off with a medium-sized Death's Shadow, Desecration Demon, or even Stensia Bloodhall. So more than half the spells are answers themselves.
Death's Shadow - This guy is great when defending against aggro. Against slower decks, I'll turn him on myself by fetching untapped shocklands.
Vampire Nighthawk - He trades with most creatures or deals some damage if I can protect him. Not always useful. Once I did accidentally kill my Death's Shadow with his lifelink, but normally if I need both creatures I don't need to worry about that.
Faithless Looting - I love casting this on turn 2. I thought I wouldn't like the card disadvantage from casting this, but there are enough situational cards in the deck that it's rarely a problem. I wish I'd added a third.
Imp's Mischief - The only reason there's just one of these in the main is because it's simply dead in some matchups. I'd say you want a 4:1 ratio of targetable spells in your opponent's deck. Great against Auras (including Splinter Twin), discard (especially Thoughtseize), countermagic, and removal.
Stensia Bloodhall - This is a control deck, so you need some non-creature finishers! Against some really slow decks, this can put a little pressure on them to push through your defenses.
vs WU Control:
In game 1 I dropped an early Blood Moon that put him off his mana, and he was somewhat mana screwed. I protected a Grim Lavamancer by Imp's Mischiefing a Remand and prevented him from getting enough card advantage to take control of the game. He scooped when he was facing Liliana of the Veil with no cards in hand.
I boarded in Imp's Mischief, Blightning, and Suffer the Past; and out Anger of the Gods, Damnation, a Lightning Bolt and a Terminate.
In game 2 I tried to remove his removal, taking Azorius Charm with Thoughtseize and removing his Meddling Mage with Liliana of the Veil before she was Celestial Purged. We both had plenty of land; he hit me with his Celestial Colonnade after he tapped it to Dispel my Terminate. But since he was tapped out, I was able to Blightning the last two cards from his hand and follow up with Desecration Demon. He was not able to recover; I responded to a last-ditch Sphinx's Revelation with Suffer the Past to kill him.
vs Affinity:
I played two matches against Affinity and won both. One of them didn't have Galvanic Blast and seemed to rely more heavily on Blinkmoth Nexus and Inkmoth Nexus. Blood Moon was great against him. Hex Parasite was impressive in both matches, killing Arcbound Ravagers and powering up my Death's Shadows. In one game I used the two to pump a Death's Shadow to 11 and finished my opponent off with Hidetsugu's Second Rite!
vs Titan Bloom:
After game 1 where my opponent comboed into a turn 1 Hive Mind/Pact of Negation, I decided to go more aggressive. Aside from Thoughtseize and Blood Moon, there's very little I can do to stop Hive Mind, so I boarded in the Hex Parasites to go for Death's Shadow beatdown. I gambled by keeping a six-card hand with those two creatures and four lands. I didn't draw another spell all game, but the 11/11 on turn 2 was too fast for him to deal with. Game 3 was more a battle of attrition, as I Thoughtseized his Amulet of Vigor but couldn't stop him from ramping into a Primeval Titan. From then on I struggled to find enough removal to destroy any number of Titans he threw at me, while putting pressure on him with Desecration Demon. I got him down to 10 for Hidetsugu's Second Rite, but held onto it for a long time because I was afraid he was holding Pact of Negation. I finished him off with the rite when I topdecked a Thoughtseize that showed me he didn't have it.
vs Martyr Proc:
1-2 loss
Got me with Serra Ascendants. I have graveyard removal but can't stop Ranger of Eos.
vs Merfolk:
0-2 loss
I got stomped game 1. In game 2 Spreading Seas put me off Damnation mana.
vs American Twin:
2-1 win
MVPs: Imp's Mischief, Suffer the Past, Stensia Bloodhall
vs Restore Balance:
2-0 win
MVPs: Thoughtseize, Death's Shadow
vs Burn/Aggro:
2-1 win
MVPs: Grim Lavamancer, Anger of the Gods
I really like playing this deck. Death's Shadow is a great defense against aggressive decks and Imp's Mischief is better than Remand in certain matchups. Its main weakness is an inability to draw cards, and if it can't generate card advantage with its Commands and sweepers it could run out of removal. The mana base is also somewhat greedy. I have Blood Moon maindeck but it hurts me too.
More lilis if you can afford them
Match 1 vs GR Tron
1: Turn 2 Smallpox and turn 4 Blood Moon, but I couldn't finish him off before Oblivion Stone destroyed Blood Moon. Thoughtseize showed me a hand full of Karns and I scooped.
2: Boarded in Hex Parasites worked with Death's Shadow to kill on turn 4.
3: 2x Shocklands, 2x Bolt myself, 2x Death's Shadow followed by Thoughtseize to attack with 5/5s on turn 4. He was a little too slow this game.
Match win
Match 2 vs Merfolk
1: He got me down to 1 before I stabilized with Vampire Nighthawk.
2: An early Spreading Seas disrupted my mana base and he overwhelmed me.
3: I started stabilizing, dropping two Death's Shadows, but when he tried to press the advantage me I topdecked a Hex Parasite and attacked for 20 damage in one turn.
Match win
Match 3 vs Jund
1: I got an early Blood Moon, which shut down his manlands, and he drew a whole lot of lands, but I couldn't damage him much. We traded removal until he stuck a Liliana of the Veil which I couldn't deal with.
2: We had plenty of removal for each others' creatures, but he stuck another Liliana. When our hands were empty his Raging Ravine finished me off.
Match loss
Match 4 vs Bogles (budget)
1: He had enough non-hexproof creatures that my removal could deal with them all.
2: He had a fast start on a hexproof creature that I couldn't stop.
3: After a war of attrition, he couldn't topdeck another aura for his Silhana Ledgewalker and my Death's Shadow killed him.
Match win
Death's Shadow is definitely an MVP, I'm considering adding a 4th. Maybe swap out the Terminates for more Dismembers and Dreadbores.