As long as you can spend your own life consistently and deal damage to the opponent it works well.
But its not really that great in modern, as almost all the other 2 drops we already have perform better and having 4 Death's Shadow with potentially 4 more in the form of tutoring for it Traverse the Ulvenwald is more than enough.
With kicker it gets more interesting.
You can roll it slow, then play it kicked and get both players to 10 life, have a 10/10 can can then with in a single attack.
Thats much more decent, but doesnt really hand it over automatically in a deck.
Playing it from the graveyard with kicker due to Lurrus is decent still, but lifelink from Lurrus kinda wombo combos in the wrong direction.
Its probably not going to be worth playing unless it finds a deck that really really benefits from it (and then it turns into a virtual 1 hit win all the time and becomes broken again).
So either completely irrelevant or potentially broken.
people are seriously overestimating this dude.. the amount of hoops you have to jump through just to make him useable is pretty hefty. just to make him on curve in 20-life MtG, you have to find a way to drop yourself AND your opponent down to 16 life turn 1... that is just to make him on curve...
So, what? Both players shock and you get a 2/2 with no evasion on turn 2?
Following this logic Death Shadow dies immediately if I can't magically loose 8 life in turn 1 and is therefore not "on curve". Makes Death's Shadow obviously a bad card...
I mean you essentially already mentioned how to play the card... You need some for of enabler to abuse its ability. And yes, it will need different enabler from death's shadow.
This highlights the issue perfectly. You see Sliver, death's shadow is much easier to control because it only cares about YOUR life. It is very easy to burn through your own life. But this demon cares about EVERYONE's life total. even if you murder yourself downt o 2 life, he can still Enter as a 0/0... the fact that you need EVERYONE to be at low life makes him much much worse...
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This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
There are any number of modern decks that have no other strategy but to fetch into shocks. This guy on turn 2 as a 3/3
is not only gonna happen a lot bit it just means hes vulnerable to bolt (but so is so much else,) and he's gonna grow into a 5/5 and beyond with good certainty
the fact that you need EVERYONE to be at low life makes him much much worse...
How low do you need everyone to be, though? Do you feel low at 15 life? Because he's a 5/5, and that's too shabby. Probably not good enough, though, if Tarmogoyf is nowadays mostly unplayable. People slept on Death's Shadow for a very long time, as it was a pretty hard card to evaluate, so it might be just as easy to overevaluate this guy, but I think he's at least playable.
The kicker on this is funny because of how bad it is in most formats at 7 mana, and how the kicker is the only thing attractive about the card in Commander
Tested Scourge of the Skyclaves in Modern RB Prowess with fetches + shocks instead of Blackcleave Cliffs and 4 Gut Shot (and 1 of the red mythic MDFC but that didn't matter much). Scourge was worse on Turn 2 than I thought--it was typically a 1/1 or 2/2 then--but it was better overall than I thought. It's often sizeable enough on Turn 3 (I'd call a 5/5 sizeable enough), lures removal anyway, and is often absurdly sized on Turn 4 or later. At that point, it often outsizes Goyf + Bloodbraid Elf and has to be blocked every turn or else. I've still never managed to combo this guy with my 1-of Crash Through, but it'll eventually happen. Due to the Companion nerf, my own Lurrus of the Dream-Den actually helps this guy out more than hinders it because Lurrus gets to come out late-game. And yes, this guy has contributed to some spectacular Turn 4 kills. Oh yeah, I've never kicked this guy so far in about 20 or so games against various decks.
Scourge even managed to slog through my Niv-Mizzet Reborn deck's 12 (out of 80) sources of maindeck life gain (at least 3 life per card) and 4 tutors for them...and admittedly painful mana base. I actually fear Green Tron's post-board life gain more, as they actually get to start off with 20 life.
I feel like this card gets better in a post uro world where people aren't hanging around 20+ life almost constantly. I do think a deck built around him in modern is possible, but he does have some pretty stiff competition.
Scourge even managed to slog through my Niv-Mizzet Reborn deck's 12 (out of 80) sources of maindeck life gain (at least 3 life per card) and 4 tutors for them...and admittedly painful mana base. I actually fear Green Tron's post-board life gain more, as they actually get to start off with 20 life.
You can have anti-lifegain cards in the SB.
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Gut shot does that trick fairly well.
As long as you can spend your own life consistently and deal damage to the opponent it works well.
But its not really that great in modern, as almost all the other 2 drops we already have perform better and having 4 Death's Shadow with potentially 4 more in the form of tutoring for it Traverse the Ulvenwald is more than enough.
With kicker it gets more interesting.
You can roll it slow, then play it kicked and get both players to 10 life, have a 10/10 can can then with in a single attack.
Thats much more decent, but doesnt really hand it over automatically in a deck.
Playing it from the graveyard with kicker due to Lurrus is decent still, but lifelink from Lurrus kinda wombo combos in the wrong direction.
Its probably not going to be worth playing unless it finds a deck that really really benefits from it (and then it turns into a virtual 1 hit win all the time and becomes broken again).
So either completely irrelevant or potentially broken.
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His biggest bane is huge lifegain decks but then it's kicker gives you a useful tool against those decks.
Has anyone thought about giving him haste? Set each player to ten with kicker then swing for ten.
This highlights the issue perfectly. You see Sliver, death's shadow is much easier to control because it only cares about YOUR life. It is very easy to burn through your own life. But this demon cares about EVERYONE's life total. even if you murder yourself downt o 2 life, he can still Enter as a 0/0... the fact that you need EVERYONE to be at low life makes him much much worse...
This aint your girlfriends meta! This is a man's meta! TURBO META.
is not only gonna happen a lot bit it just means hes vulnerable to bolt (but so is so much else,) and he's gonna grow into a 5/5 and beyond with good certainty
T1 goblin guide into this is gonna be scary.
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How low do you need everyone to be, though? Do you feel low at 15 life? Because he's a 5/5, and that's too shabby. Probably not good enough, though, if Tarmogoyf is nowadays mostly unplayable. People slept on Death's Shadow for a very long time, as it was a pretty hard card to evaluate, so it might be just as easy to overevaluate this guy, but I think he's at least playable.
The kicker on this is funny because of how bad it is in most formats at 7 mana, and how the kicker is the only thing attractive about the card in Commander
Scourge even managed to slog through my Niv-Mizzet Reborn deck's 12 (out of 80) sources of maindeck life gain (at least 3 life per card) and 4 tutors for them...and admittedly painful mana base. I actually fear Green Tron's post-board life gain more, as they actually get to start off with 20 life.
You can have anti-lifegain cards in the SB.