This is a bit of a pet deck for me. It's not tier 1, but it can get pretty scary. Death's Shadow allows the use of several "suicide" effects that would be too taxing for a normal deck. So the goal is to disrupt opponents by tearing apart their hands, killing their creatures, and countering their plays until you can bleed enough to put down some giant Shadows and Tombstalkers to beat face alongside the Delvers you'll likely have out early. It's a fun twist on typical tempo that keeps you on your toes and rewards judicious plays.
I'm looking for ways to fine-tune the deck. I appreciate any recommendations!
The explanatory sections are spoiler'd in the interest of keeping the post clean.
*Death's Shadow
As stated above, he makes the deck tick with a different dimension of tempo. Fetches and Force of Will mean I don't have to go too far out of my way to make it a suicide deck for him, which makes the deck feel more organic than suicide variants in other formats. Gives a strange defensive property to the deck since late game attacking and blocking could end up pumping him. The deck packs a lot of ways to boost him at instant speed, which can cause some real "Oops I win" moments.
*Hymn to Tourach over Inquisition of Kozilek
The card advantage + potential to hit lands is a greater boon than the targeted disruption of Inquisition, IMO.
*Baleful Strix over Dark Confidant
A recent change. Bob's great and all, but in tight situations he hurts more than he helps, especially since most of the removal available to the deck comes at the cost of life. Without Shadow on the field and a few spare points, I'm screwed. And that's not even taking into account the loss of life from potentially flipping the removal.
This deck likes to lose life on its own terms. An involuntary, recurring effect like Bob's can just put too much pressure on. With all the life loss effects I run, I can race to sub-13 life well enough. (It's pretty common that I open with fetch, Watery Grave, Thoughtseize when I have Shadow handy. Factor in a Daze and I'm already at 13 on turn 2.) Baleful Strix offers a ton of utility in this respect. It's like removal that cantrips more than anything, which is way more helpful than it sounds. Strix also provides a way to deal with 5/6 Tarmogoyfs without forcing me into card disadvantage.
*Gitaxian Probe and Plunge into Darkness over Ponder
Mainly, it's the life loss. Ponder's sorcery speed also puts me in some tight spots in a deck with a playset of Dazes and such a low curve. And it's not that I see Ponder as a cantrip interchangeable with Gitaxian probe. (It's much more than a cantrip; my skin crawls when people refer to it as such.) It's that I just don't see a need for the full 4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder that other decks run when Probe can help me lose life.
As for Plunge, I haven't tested it much. Could really help me dig for a Shadow if I'm playing aggressively or an answer if I'm playing reactively. It has the potential to be das uber Brainstorm.
*Island and Swamp over Extra fetch lands
Many UB Shadow lists run redundant fetch lands over basics. While losing life to a fetch is nice, sometimes I'm across the table from some real visceral non-basic hate in the early game. Having singletons of Island and Swamp provide some much needed resilience when I'm on the draw and my opponent has double Wastelands in hand.
Sideboard
I'll be the first to admit that I can suck at sideboarding.
*Engineered Plague can turn game 2 against Elves and Goblins into a slaughter -- revenge for the quite unfavorable game one.
*Dystopia's there for Maverick and Hate Bears more than anything, but I could easily see that slot turning into Virtue's Ruin.
*Burn, predictably, means a scoop on most first games. I'm so uncreative that I hamfisted a playset of Leyline of Sanctity for it.
*Submerge punishes those other tempo decks for running Tarmogoyf. Wish I had another slot for it so I could draw it more dependably.
*Bojuka Bog is uncounterable grave hate, but there's probably something better I could put in its place.
Exclusions
*No Phyrexian Unlife
Now, there are builds that use Phyrexian Unlife to soft combo with the rest of the deck and mitigate the Bob problem. I tried including Unlife, I really did. But the deck wants its blue and black mana, and devoting space to white mana that doesn't help cast anything else is a huge strain on a land base of effectively 14 cards when Wasteland is considered -- the only other things white mana + Wasteland can cast are Plunge into Darkness and Tombstalker. And that's assuming I can even hit three mana. It's just hard to get the mana for it and even harder to make deck space for it.
*No Tarmogoyf
I already mentioned the color complications of splashing for Unlife. Same applies to Tarmogoyf. Tombstalker and Shadow can do what he does well enough. This isn't Eva Green. (Though I do have an Eva Green brew I love to death.)
Excluding the 'goyf also helps blank some sideboard options against this deck. Being less dependent on the grave means Rest in Peace and its ilk don't hurt like they do in RUG. Speaking of RUG, having no Forests means they can't Submerge my creatures and screw my tempo.
*No Snuff Out
No good reason, really. I just don't like the "non-black" clause. Though once I was tapped out and got to Snuff my own Delver to save my Shadow from a Lightning Bolt. Ended up letting me win that match.
Possibilities
*Stifle, Sinkhole
I run Stifle in RUG Delver, and I love its potential for disruption. Especially how it can just break someone's back through hosing their turn 1 fetch when I'm on the play. Sinkhole could complement these, thus providing some seething land hate in the main and giving Daze more turns of utility. I just can't figure out what to cut for them.
*Lim-Dûl's Vault
"Pick a card, any card." Aside from Stifle and Sinkhole, this is my biggest possible inclusion. The deck's high redundancy means I won't have to dig too deep if I don't want to. Its only problem is that the card goes on the top of my library instead of into my hand, a drawback which might not even be so bad if I have Gitaxian Probe or Brainstorm in hand. Could go in over Plunge, but Plunge is just so cool and flavorful.
*Deathrite Shaman
I have never flat-out resented a card as much as Deathrite. But he's a possibility as tech in those grindy match-ups that keep my normal attackers out. I don't really need mana acceleration or pffft life gain. That said, he's one of the best cards in the format, so I should think about playing him if the opportunity presents itself.
*Distortion Strike, Rite of Consumption, etc.
Cheesy ways of pushing Shadow and company through to close games. Likely unnecessary, but might be fun.
To be honest with you, I haven't tried the deck out, but I've had some Death's Shadows sitting on the bench waiting for their time to shine. The most recent netdeck I had been able to find is from a few years ago:
How do you feel about some of the choices here compared to what you're trying to do? The Street Wraith + Reanimate plan seems interesting to me, because Street Wraith is actually a decent threat that gets around all of the nonwhite removal that people play these days. Reanimate also being able to get back your one mana creatures and your opponent's threats if you kill/discard them is no slouch either.
Do you feel like there's some merit to possibly playing Tasigur or Gurmag Angler in the deck over Tombstalker? Is the evasion more important than the cost of your threats?
I think Deathrite Shaman is something you should include because the card does so many things for cheap. The extra mana seems good since you're a tempo deck and playing multiple things out early is probably a good plan, the life loss is clearly good, and life gain keeping your head above water looks like it would be helpful, too.
I like Leyline of Sanctity against Burn, but I feel like it's not worth worrying about that match unless you see it everywhere (and if you do, why play Death's Shadow?)
If you play with Lim-Dul's Vault, being able to loop through your deck to effectively build a perfect pile of five is a trick you'd want to learn, and it's especially good with Brainstorm. However, while I like Lim-Dul's Vault, I don't know how I feel about it in this deck. As a Vampiric Tutor sort of card, it really seems suited to decks where you're playing individual cards that are so game-ending that the card disadvantage doesn't matter, and I'm not sure that's this deck. I'm not entirely sold on Plunge either, but I like it more than Vault here.
Also, how do you feel about Toxic Deluge? The card that really got me into wanting to play this deck was Deluge...I'm not sure if it's a maindeck card, but being able to wipe the board of basically any threats or blockers to then drop a huge Shadow seems great. At the least, I think it's a better sideboard card than some of your other creature removal.
I really dig Reanimate + Street Wraith, actually. Popping it off on turn 1 could set you back at least seven life; ten if you opt to fetch for Watery Grave. It would have to come down to preference of style: Do I prefer ambitiously halving my life total, or do I prefer having the defense that comes with Baleful Strix? Both are easy on the curve, as Baleful can follow up a first turn discard or delver in order to solidify board presence. Wraith, however, could be a 3/4 on turn 1, which is pretty significant on the play. In late game it can't deal with Tarmogoyf like the Strix can, and I might not even be able to bring him back. Strix also lightens the load on those Dismembers. The two just offer different values in different ways. I'll have to try it for a non-speculative opinion, though.
It also looks pretty easy to side out the Reanimates if we want to pull one over on decks that try to bring in grave hate for game 2.
I honestly don't like Tasigur or the Angler here. Tombstalker's worth the extra black mana because he's bigger and has that evasion. And we hardly ever hit 4 mana, so Tasigur might as well be vanilla during most games. His recursion is terribly slow, and I have to wonder if we'll get anything that's more valuable than that extra "oomph" Tombstalker gives us.
I don't dig how he runs only 3 Wastelands and 3 Forces, but that's his choice. I think Wasteland is worth the most early game since the deck has such a low curve and doesn't want to prolong things; a playset maximizes our chances for disruption. I want 4 Forces because free counters are such a boon to decks like this, and we technically run fewer counters than the other tempo decks to begin with. Skimping could see us miss countering something vital or get caught with our pants down against the many varieties of Delver.
His only green source is a single Bayou. That seems super risky to me, especially since six cards in his sideboard relies on it. It's like he's running a closeted BUG deck that misses out on Hymn.
As for Toxic Deluge, I'm tentatively open to it. "Tentatively" because I've seen Eva Green lists that played with Shadow + wipes (usually Pernicious Deed) but did away with them because they were too symmetrically painful to reap much advantage. But Deluge will never kill the Shadow since he'll get +1/+1 for every point of life we pay. It certainly merits some testing. By the time we hit three lands -- which, by the way, should never be on turn three unless you're flooding -- we might not have enough to kill some of the bigger things on the board. Small hordes, however, are utterly boned. That's a big advantage for this deck since we have trouble dealing with groups of small creatures who can chump block and swing with no real repercussions on game 1. We won't need it against most "fair" decks unless we're already losing, though, and the aforementioned mana situation leaves it with the risk of turning on their Daze or Spell Pierce, which was otherwise a dead draw at that point. Notice that the list you posted doesn't use it: his life loss is very aggressive, and he uses less land than the normal 18 of most tempo decks. (Assuming Deluge was out when he made it lol)
All that said it could totally be worth it as a 2-of. Maybe 1-of if I keep in the Plunges.
On the surface, it looks like my life loss is more adjustable and able to go into late game than his, but that might be a fundamentally flawed angle for me to take. Perhaps his hit hard/hit fast philosophy fits better, but I wonder how reliably he finds a Shadow in the first three turns having only a playset + Brainstorm. I know a single card in a playset has ~40% chance of appearing in the opening hand, but I don't know how the math shakes out for expanding it to the first 10 cards + a Brainstorm or two. I like Plunge because it's life loss I can tailor to the situation as well as something that simultaneously pumps and finds Shadow.
Yeah, I might have to bite it and use Deathrite.
P.S. The proper number of Gitaxian Probes is 4. Fixed that in the original list.
Edit: I just realized Deluge can kill True-Name Nemesis. That's certainly worth something.
So I like the tempo oriented idea you have going on here. Totally honestly, I think Snuff Out Deserves more credit than you're giving it. The only widely things it doesn't hit are Deathrite Shaman and Germ Token. It hits everything else, for free, with upside for you. It's also an amazing tempo card. Also, I dislike Hymn to Tourach in your list. I understand that it's a guaranteed 2 for 1, but that's not what you're looking to do on turn 2. Personally, I believe Spoils of the Vault is better than Plunge into Darkness and Lim-Dûl's Vault is better than both if you're going to run a tutor at all.
Additionally, while I appreciate your reasoning for Tombstalker over Tasigur, I would counter with these points. 1) In a tempo list, 1 mana is very different than 2. 2) Tasigur gives you a mid/late game mana sink, unlike Stalker.
A full bore BU Death's Shadow tempo list would look like this in my mind:
Let me know how you feel about this. I think it's a bit more stable. My only concern is that there aren't enough cantrips in it. I could see 2-3 Ponders in there somewhere.
I like Plunge into Darkness better than Spoils of the Vault as you get to choose how much life you want to loose. You can drop down to 1 life exactly if you want. Spoils won't let you do this. I also like Plunge into Darkness better than Lim Dul's Vault. Plunge into Darkness gives you the card you want that turn. Lim Dul's Vault puts it on the top of your library forcing you to wait a turn unless you have a Gitaxian Probe etc...
Your point is well made, but let me lay out why both Plunge into Darkness and Spoils of the Vault are both poor choices for a Legacy Death's Shadow tempo deck. Ideally, in a tempo deck, you establish velocity by using your mana efficiently. That means that you trade favorably as often as possible. Ideally, you never take time off from producing threats and disrupting your opponent. Even more importantly, nearly every single card in this deck is either a threat or a universal answer. Daze, Thoughtseize, Force of Will, all do the same general thing. As such, tutor effects aren't relevant at all. There are no silver bullets in this list. There are no combo pieces. Taking time out of your high-velocity disruption to cast either of those tutors is a poor choice, strategically, for a deck of this type. Beyond that, I still stand by the idea that Spoils is better than Plunge in a deck of this style. One mana cheaper is much much more valuable. Additionally, it allows you to find exactly what you want, rather than hoping what you want is in the X top cards.
On a parallel note about Lim-Dûl's Vault. Yes I'm aware it doesn't put a card you want in your hand. That's not its point though. Vault is designed for when you've run out of gas. It allows you to construct the perfect set of draws to close out the game. It's not part of the tempo-strategy, but instead is a crutch to support this deck through the mid-game. In a way, it serves the same purpose as Dig Through Time does in other decks. I don't think either needs to be included in this deck, much like RUG/BUG Delver have no late-game card draw. I think this deck already loses enough life that all of these tutor and pseudo tutor spells are unnecessary.
I see what you are saying and I agree with most of what you speak. I'm just stating that if I had no other choice and was forced to choose I would I would choose Plunge. Lim Dul's Vault might be a toss up for me but I've played with Spoils of the Vault a lot. Often it outright kills you. Plunge does not and you get to choose your life total. I really don't condone any of them in the deck for the reasons you spoke of above. There really are no silver bullets. The deck is more about redundancy.
I do think for tempo I would certainly runToxic Deluge. It might be one of the single cards that makes the deck viable. I'd auto include at least 2 maindeck.
I really like the concept and kinda wanna use this a plan B deck. I got a U/B reanimator deck and its simple enough to switch out a few of the cards to create this - less power but adds a interesting element.
But from what I'm lookin at and feeling - it needs some DRS, Street Wraith and I'm not exactly sure how to fit but it needs some more ponder. Really the cantrips are too good to pass up
I think that Death`s Shadow is one of the New Legacy decks with the most potential. I think that you`re list looked pretty good i am personally going to follow up on how Death`s Shadow continues to grow in Legacy, i would say that it is a tier 2 deck as of right now simply due to the fact that it has not top 8 a Legacy GP or something like that. But i think that Death`s Shadow could become a great deck over time, simply because i think this is the deck in Legacy that has the most potetial for getting New Cards based on newer sets
I have been tested UB shadow through same months, the decklist i run is similar from josh utter leyton list, from gp las vegas. I have a very good results with it:
The list i run is:
4x delver of secrets
4x deaths shadow
4x street wraith
2x gurmag angler
4x brainstorm
4x gitaxian probe
4x stifle
4x daze
2x spell pierce
2x thoughtseize
3x fatal push
4x force of will
1x dismember
My LGS is looking to start a bi-weekly legacy flight, and I have a bunch of unused death's shadows lying around, so I decided to build into the deck a few weeks ago since the basic build is a bunch of staples + a single underground sea. I started with the Josh Utter-Leyton Shadow build recently, but started adopting it into a Sultai build.
I decided that I thought Street Wraith and Stifle's were the worst cards in the deck, and went to -4 Wraith, -4 STifle, -1 Fetch Land, and went up to +4 Deathrite Shaman, +4 Thoughtseize, +1 Bayou. My sideboard is also different, in that I wasn't running Engineered Explosives, Nihil Spellbomb, or another Spell Pierce, and was only on 14 cards in general it looks like... Instead I ran +2 True-Name Nemesis, +1 Diabolic Edict. But, particularly the TNN and the lack of Engineered explosives looks to be 100% a mistake.
I went 1-2-1 at my LGS's first legacy event, beating BU Reanimator/Tin Fins, drawing against Grixis Delver (but think I would have won if the opp had been given a game loss for showing up 15 minutes late, hyper casual event, or if I had one more turn). Lost against Merfolk and UR Delver, which feel like terrible matchups without cards like Explosives to board in. I'll probably try to add in Abrupt Decay's and Engineered Explosives to the sideboard. Other cards I'm looking at evaluating are also a 1-of-Berserk in my main deck, and a Sylvan Library in the board, and adding a Breeding Pool over a watery grave.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
-I was getting stuck in areas where opponents were wasting me, and I had no way of getting back in the game outside of just ripping off the top of the deck.
-I was getting into situations where both my opp and I had gone through most of our hands, and they had a better post-attrition sink.
-I was having problems with a straight UB Death's Shadow build dealing with planeswalkers besides interacting with them on the stack.
-Opponent DRS often made it feel that my waste/stifles were not as effective as I imagined them to be.
DRS makes me stronger against wasteland and gives me potentially stronger turn 2 plays with the extra mana, since the overall curve of the deck didn't change much with my changes. However, sometimes the extra mana isn't needed, but even then I can often ping for two, and the life gain ability when I'm at precariously low life has also saved me a few times. I'm better able to splash/reliably cast golgari charm or now abrupt decay out of the board. Thoughtseize kept the next lifeloss componenets of the deck static across the two builds, and makes me less dead to Jace, Mirran Crusader, TNN, etc.
I'm still not sure if its right or not, but I think there's decent merit to talking about the pros/cons of the changes.
I agree with Hume86, unearth is probably too inconsistent. There was a list a while back with main deck reanimate so you could do cheaky stuff like cycle street wraith, reanimate for the life loss/threat, but I think going the UB(x) goodstuffs pile is probably more consistent/powerful. Either CFB Lets Play Video or random MTGO 5-0 list might be the one I'm thinking about.
I put 2 True-Name Nemesis in my board but the 3 mana feels very expensive in this deck, even in my list with Deathrite Shaman. I've since swapped them out and made sure I have answers for my opponents TNN.
Some notes
- I tried to find some Golgari Charms for the board before the event started, but the store didn't have any.
- I'd like to cut the Edict and TNN to look at rebalancing the sideboard a bit to include things like Sylvan Library and Golgari Charm with/over Decay's. I originally ran two TNN, but even with DRS they just seemed to push the mana of the deck more than it wanted.
- In general, the deck seems to have a very good combo matchup, and a very poor aggro matchup. I'm trying to find ways to rebalance the maindeck/sideboard to make this not feel quite as binary.
Sunday Legacy 11/12/17: 7 people showed up (first time we hosted it was two weeks prior and there were 11) decks present were:
1 BR Reanimator
1 High Tide
1 Grixis Delver
1 Sultai DS
1 Death and Taxes
1 Merfolk
1 Spanish Inquision
The previous event also had a BU Tin Fins, Bant Deathblade, ANT, and UR Delver, and something else over High Tide that escapes me.
Rd 1: Bye
Rd 2: Ian on Death and Taxes.
g1: I didn't write down who was on the play, but I believe it was Ian, who mulled to 6. It looks like I cast and early thoughseize and grabbed Jitte from his hand of Thalia, Batterskull, Flickerwisp, and Jitte (did land -> mom turn 1). I ended up going something like delver, drop to 12, double death's shadow when he had a Mom and Thalia out. I let him take back an attack when he realized he would take a ton on the swing back, but drew a fetch. His life went 20-16-5-dead. I took a gamble after thoughtseizing him that I could probably finish him before he could get a swords to plowshares into his hand, since otherwise mom could lock out a single threat from me.
sideboard -4 daze, -2 spellsnare, -1 death's shadow, +2 decay, +2 engineered explosives, +2 dread of night, +1 true-name nemesis. There's another player that hasn't shown up for one of the regular flights that also is on DnT, and he has 4 caverns (turns out Ian only had 1), and I cut most of my counters besides Force for more removal, and a threat that is stronger against Swords.
g2: I actually took really bad notes here. But turn 1 mom into turn 2 stoneforge mystic for battleskull (I think turn 1 I pondered or something trying to find a fatal push). On my turn 2 I had dread of night and decay in my hand, so I dropped Dread hoping to be able to get more action in my hand. He is able to drop battleskull, but I get a pair of delvers out. I decay the germ token, and he gets out two phrexian revokers (both on explosives). I hold up two wastelands, but he's only playing planes. I drop him to 8 before he plays karakas for his 5th land to equip battleskull. I have to brainstorm lock myself, and despite two dread of night out can't answer the revokers (note: Golgari Charm in the future might be good here).
g3: I didn't change my sideboard strategy. I tempo him out. Delver, git prove, his hand is, wasteland, 2x revokers, stoneforge mystic, helm of obedience, 2x planes. He mistakenly wastelands my watery grave turn 1. On my turn I flip delver, fetch for another watery grave, play deathrite shaman, and on my third turn death's shadow, on his third turn he plays rest in peace, passes. I'm now super aware of his Helm, and while he's still only on 2 lands, I want to close it out quickly with him at 14 and me at 10, I look at doing something like activate DRS drain (him at 12), dismember it (me at 6), swing him down to 3, but realize it doesn't really change the clock and attack him down to 8 and pass. He goes land, mom, I dismember end of turn and he concedes. 1-0.
I'm not sure if I should have still done the dismember play just to try and stop a swords, but he had open mana and might have done it that turn anyway. Turns out he sideboarded terribly and took out Serra Avengers.
Rd 3 versus Jack on Fish.
g1: I'm on the play. I think Jack mulled. I thoughtseize, see lord, merrow rejerry, jittle, master of waves, cavern, and take jitte. I shock myself, get a delver and death's shadow out with me at 10. But he has a vial on 2, and drops 2 lords, followed by 2 more. Islandwalk and a bunch of self harm do me in.
g2: I draw a land of wasteland, 2 git probe, decay, edict, thoughtseize ponder, and reluctantly keep. The hope is to double git probe and then based on what I see either thoughtseize or ponder. I double git probe, see no lands. 3 turns later, I still haven't seen one, with a chalice on 1, and a vial out. Eventually he plays TNN and a lord of atlantis so i can't even edict it anymore. I scoop.
I probably should have mulled the hand due to the lack of a colored source on principle, but I basically had 1/4th chance of hitting a viable mana source on each of the successive draws. Ugh, writing that out makes it clear it was 100% a mulligan, but I wanted to get away by being greedy. This is the second time in a row I've lost to merfolk, and a matchup that seems terrible to the current build of the deck.
Technically with only 7 people, the event ended there. But I stuck around to play... Allen on THE SPANISH INQUISITION.
g1: He does a bunch of stuff, I force his Diabolic Contract, and daze something else. On his second turn he successfully pays for his turn 1 Summoner's pact. He ends up having a bunch of mana in play, and I sit with a Fatal Push and spell pierce in hand. He eventually tries to go for a infernal contract, I think, but I spell pierce the second land grant and he's forced to top deck for a few turns. I eventually get out three deathrite shaman and just drain him from 20 to 0 without seeing a delver or shadow.
sideboard -1 daze, +1 flusterstorm. Now, why not side out Fatal Push/Dismember? Game 1 I spell pierced a land grant that would have fetched Dryad Arbor, and I could have fatal pushed that. I also know he sides in Tomb of Urami or whatever it's called, and just wanted to make sure I didn't get cheesed out. Note earlier how I've felt very secure against unfair decks with my first 60.
g2: we both mulligan, my second hand is basically FoW, blue card, 2 daze's and 2 lands. He land grants, showing manamorphose, dark ritual, summoners pact, belcher, carpet of flowers. Turn 1 I force carpet of flowers, and on turn 2, he tries a bunch of stuff to get a belcher into play with eats a daze, and he scoops with zero cards in hand.
I'm looking for ways to fine-tune the deck. I appreciate any recommendations!
The explanatory sections are spoiler'd in the interest of keeping the post clean.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Baleful Strix
2 Tombstalker
Instants
4 Brainstorm
2 Plunge into Darkness
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Dismember
4 Thoughtseize
3 Hymn to Tourach
4 Gitaxian Probe
Land
4 Underground Sea
4 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
4 Wasteland
1 Swamp
1 Island
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Submerge
1 Dystopia
2 Engineered Plague
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Bojuka Bog
2 Cabal Therapy
Card choices:
As stated above, he makes the deck tick with a different dimension of tempo. Fetches and Force of Will mean I don't have to go too far out of my way to make it a suicide deck for him, which makes the deck feel more organic than suicide variants in other formats. Gives a strange defensive property to the deck since late game attacking and blocking could end up pumping him. The deck packs a lot of ways to boost him at instant speed, which can cause some real "Oops I win" moments.
*Hymn to Tourach over Inquisition of Kozilek
The card advantage + potential to hit lands is a greater boon than the targeted disruption of Inquisition, IMO.
*Baleful Strix over Dark Confidant
A recent change. Bob's great and all, but in tight situations he hurts more than he helps, especially since most of the removal available to the deck comes at the cost of life. Without Shadow on the field and a few spare points, I'm screwed. And that's not even taking into account the loss of life from potentially flipping the removal.
This deck likes to lose life on its own terms. An involuntary, recurring effect like Bob's can just put too much pressure on. With all the life loss effects I run, I can race to sub-13 life well enough. (It's pretty common that I open with fetch, Watery Grave, Thoughtseize when I have Shadow handy. Factor in a Daze and I'm already at 13 on turn 2.) Baleful Strix offers a ton of utility in this respect. It's like removal that cantrips more than anything, which is way more helpful than it sounds. Strix also provides a way to deal with 5/6 Tarmogoyfs without forcing me into card disadvantage.
Plus, I've got Tombstalkers. Ouch.
*Gitaxian Probe and Plunge into Darkness over Ponder
Mainly, it's the life loss. Ponder's sorcery speed also puts me in some tight spots in a deck with a playset of Dazes and such a low curve. And it's not that I see Ponder as a cantrip interchangeable with Gitaxian probe. (It's much more than a cantrip; my skin crawls when people refer to it as such.) It's that I just don't see a need for the full 4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder that other decks run when Probe can help me lose life.
As for Plunge, I haven't tested it much. Could really help me dig for a Shadow if I'm playing aggressively or an answer if I'm playing reactively. It has the potential to be das uber Brainstorm.
*Island and Swamp over Extra fetch lands
Many UB Shadow lists run redundant fetch lands over basics. While losing life to a fetch is nice, sometimes I'm across the table from some real visceral non-basic hate in the early game. Having singletons of Island and Swamp provide some much needed resilience when I'm on the draw and my opponent has double Wastelands in hand.
Sideboard
*Engineered Plague can turn game 2 against Elves and Goblins into a slaughter -- revenge for the quite unfavorable game one.
*Dystopia's there for Maverick and Hate Bears more than anything, but I could easily see that slot turning into Virtue's Ruin.
*Burn, predictably, means a scoop on most first games. I'm so uncreative that I hamfisted a playset of Leyline of Sanctity for it.
*Cabal Therapy and Surgical Extraction help against the sometimes tough combo matches.
*Submerge punishes those other tempo decks for running Tarmogoyf. Wish I had another slot for it so I could draw it more dependably.
*Bojuka Bog is uncounterable grave hate, but there's probably something better I could put in its place.
Exclusions
Now, there are builds that use Phyrexian Unlife to soft combo with the rest of the deck and mitigate the Bob problem. I tried including Unlife, I really did. But the deck wants its blue and black mana, and devoting space to white mana that doesn't help cast anything else is a huge strain on a land base of effectively 14 cards when Wasteland is considered -- the only other things white mana + Wasteland can cast are Plunge into Darkness and Tombstalker. And that's assuming I can even hit three mana. It's just hard to get the mana for it and even harder to make deck space for it.
And GOD HELP ME if they Abrupt Decay it.*No Tarmogoyf
I already mentioned the color complications of splashing for Unlife. Same applies to Tarmogoyf. Tombstalker and Shadow can do what he does well enough. This isn't Eva Green. (Though I do have an Eva Green brew I love to death.)
Excluding the 'goyf also helps blank some sideboard options against this deck. Being less dependent on the grave means Rest in Peace and its ilk don't hurt like they do in RUG. Speaking of RUG, having no Forests means they can't Submerge my creatures and screw my tempo.
*No Snuff Out
No good reason, really. I just don't like the "non-black" clause. Though once I was tapped out and got to Snuff my own Delver to save my Shadow from a Lightning Bolt. Ended up letting me win that match.
Possibilities
I run Stifle in RUG Delver, and I love its potential for disruption. Especially how it can just break someone's back through hosing their turn 1 fetch when I'm on the play. Sinkhole could complement these, thus providing some seething land hate in the main and giving Daze more turns of utility. I just can't figure out what to cut for them.
*Lim-Dûl's Vault
"Pick a card, any card." Aside from Stifle and Sinkhole, this is my biggest possible inclusion. The deck's high redundancy means I won't have to dig too deep if I don't want to. Its only problem is that the card goes on the top of my library instead of into my hand, a drawback which might not even be so bad if I have Gitaxian Probe or Brainstorm in hand. Could go in over Plunge, but Plunge is just so cool and flavorful.
*Deathrite Shaman
I have never flat-out resented a card as much as Deathrite. But he's a possibility as tech in those grindy match-ups that keep my normal attackers out. I don't really need mana acceleration or pffft life gain. That said, he's one of the best cards in the format, so I should think about playing him if the opportunity presents itself.
*Distortion Strike, Rite of Consumption, etc.
Cheesy ways of pushing Shadow and company through to close games. Likely unnecessary, but might be fun.
4 Polluted Delta
3 Wasteland
3 Watery Grave
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
4 Street Wraith
4 Death's Shadow
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Tombstalker
4 Brainstorm
4 Dismember
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Thoughtseize
4 Daze
3 Reanimate
3 Force of Will
1 Liliana of the Veil
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Submerge
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Golgari Charm
2 Duress
How do you feel about some of the choices here compared to what you're trying to do? The Street Wraith + Reanimate plan seems interesting to me, because Street Wraith is actually a decent threat that gets around all of the nonwhite removal that people play these days. Reanimate also being able to get back your one mana creatures and your opponent's threats if you kill/discard them is no slouch either.
Do you feel like there's some merit to possibly playing Tasigur or Gurmag Angler in the deck over Tombstalker? Is the evasion more important than the cost of your threats?
I think Deathrite Shaman is something you should include because the card does so many things for cheap. The extra mana seems good since you're a tempo deck and playing multiple things out early is probably a good plan, the life loss is clearly good, and life gain keeping your head above water looks like it would be helpful, too.
I like Leyline of Sanctity against Burn, but I feel like it's not worth worrying about that match unless you see it everywhere (and if you do, why play Death's Shadow?)
If you play with Lim-Dul's Vault, being able to loop through your deck to effectively build a perfect pile of five is a trick you'd want to learn, and it's especially good with Brainstorm. However, while I like Lim-Dul's Vault, I don't know how I feel about it in this deck. As a Vampiric Tutor sort of card, it really seems suited to decks where you're playing individual cards that are so game-ending that the card disadvantage doesn't matter, and I'm not sure that's this deck. I'm not entirely sold on Plunge either, but I like it more than Vault here.
Also, how do you feel about Toxic Deluge? The card that really got me into wanting to play this deck was Deluge...I'm not sure if it's a maindeck card, but being able to wipe the board of basically any threats or blockers to then drop a huge Shadow seems great. At the least, I think it's a better sideboard card than some of your other creature removal.
It also looks pretty easy to side out the Reanimates if we want to pull one over on decks that try to bring in grave hate for game 2.
I honestly don't like Tasigur or the Angler here. Tombstalker's worth the extra black mana because he's bigger and has that evasion. And we hardly ever hit 4 mana, so Tasigur might as well be vanilla during most games. His recursion is terribly slow, and I have to wonder if we'll get anything that's more valuable than that extra "oomph" Tombstalker gives us.
I don't dig how he runs only 3 Wastelands and 3 Forces, but that's his choice. I think Wasteland is worth the most early game since the deck has such a low curve and doesn't want to prolong things; a playset maximizes our chances for disruption. I want 4 Forces because free counters are such a boon to decks like this, and we technically run fewer counters than the other tempo decks to begin with. Skimping could see us miss countering something vital or get caught with our pants down against the many varieties of Delver.
His only green source is a single Bayou. That seems super risky to me, especially since six cards in his sideboard relies on it. It's like he's running a closeted BUG deck that misses out on Hymn.
As for Toxic Deluge, I'm tentatively open to it. "Tentatively" because I've seen Eva Green lists that played with Shadow + wipes (usually Pernicious Deed) but did away with them because they were too symmetrically painful to reap much advantage. But Deluge will never kill the Shadow since he'll get +1/+1 for every point of life we pay. It certainly merits some testing. By the time we hit three lands -- which, by the way, should never be on turn three unless you're flooding -- we might not have enough to kill some of the bigger things on the board. Small hordes, however, are utterly boned. That's a big advantage for this deck since we have trouble dealing with groups of small creatures who can chump block and swing with no real repercussions on game 1. We won't need it against most "fair" decks unless we're already losing, though, and the aforementioned mana situation leaves it with the risk of turning on their Daze or Spell Pierce, which was otherwise a dead draw at that point. Notice that the list you posted doesn't use it: his life loss is very aggressive, and he uses less land than the normal 18 of most tempo decks. (Assuming Deluge was out when he made it lol)
All that said it could totally be worth it as a 2-of. Maybe 1-of if I keep in the Plunges.
On the surface, it looks like my life loss is more adjustable and able to go into late game than his, but that might be a fundamentally flawed angle for me to take. Perhaps his hit hard/hit fast philosophy fits better, but I wonder how reliably he finds a Shadow in the first three turns having only a playset + Brainstorm. I know a single card in a playset has ~40% chance of appearing in the opening hand, but I don't know how the math shakes out for expanding it to the first 10 cards + a Brainstorm or two. I like Plunge because it's life loss I can tailor to the situation as well as something that simultaneously pumps and finds Shadow.
Yeah, I might have to bite it and use Deathrite.
P.S. The proper number of Gitaxian Probes is 4. Fixed that in the original list.
Edit: I just realized Deluge can kill True-Name Nemesis. That's certainly worth something.
Additionally, while I appreciate your reasoning for Tombstalker over Tasigur, I would counter with these points. 1) In a tempo list, 1 mana is very different than 2. 2) Tasigur gives you a mid/late game mana sink, unlike Stalker.
A full bore BU Death's Shadow tempo list would look like this in my mind:
4x Death's Shadow
4x Delver of Secrets
4x Baleful Strix
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Spells(28)
4x Force of Will
4x Daze
4x Brainstorm
4x Thoughtseize
4x Gitaxian Probe
3x Dismember
3x Snuff Out
2x Piracy Charm
3x Underground Sea
3x Watery Grave
4x Wasteland
8x Fetches
Let me know how you feel about this. I think it's a bit more stable. My only concern is that there aren't enough cantrips in it. I could see 2-3 Ponders in there somewhere.
I've actually toyed with creating a combo deck out of Death's Shadow + Tainted Strike.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
On a parallel note about Lim-Dûl's Vault. Yes I'm aware it doesn't put a card you want in your hand. That's not its point though. Vault is designed for when you've run out of gas. It allows you to construct the perfect set of draws to close out the game. It's not part of the tempo-strategy, but instead is a crutch to support this deck through the mid-game. In a way, it serves the same purpose as Dig Through Time does in other decks. I don't think either needs to be included in this deck, much like RUG/BUG Delver have no late-game card draw. I think this deck already loses enough life that all of these tutor and pseudo tutor spells are unnecessary.
I do think for tempo I would certainly runToxic Deluge. It might be one of the single cards that makes the deck viable. I'd auto include at least 2 maindeck.
Plunge is however nice in a combo (obviously not tempo) list with Lion's Eye Diamond, Tainted Strike, Lightning Greaves and Immolating Souleater.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
I really like the concept and kinda wanna use this a plan B deck. I got a U/B reanimator deck and its simple enough to switch out a few of the cards to create this - less power but adds a interesting element.
But from what I'm lookin at and feeling - it needs some DRS, Street Wraith and I'm not exactly sure how to fit but it needs some more ponder. Really the cantrips are too good to pass up
The list i run is:
4x delver of secrets
4x deaths shadow
4x street wraith
2x gurmag angler
4x brainstorm
4x gitaxian probe
4x stifle
4x daze
2x spell pierce
2x thoughtseize
3x fatal push
4x force of will
1x dismember
4x wastelands
4x watery grave
1x underground sea
9x fetch UB (saclding, polluted, misty, bloodstqined etc)
Sideboard:
2x engenered explosives
2x graft... Cage
2x dread of night
1x spell pierce
1x flustterstorm
4x hymn to tourach
1x nihil spellbomb
1x toxic delugue
1x submerge
This are more or less the matchup winrate:
Ux Delver 50%
4-c control 45%
(New) Miracles 40%
Dredge 60%
Otk combos 80%
Ancient tomb decks 50%
Mono black control 60%
Death & taxes 50%
Ad nauseam 65%
Shardless BUG 45%
This matchup percents are less than i have archive, because i think that i have played against bad players.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
4 Street Wraith
Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
1 Dismember
3 Fatal Push
4 Force of Will
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
2 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Underground Sea
2 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
4 Watery Grave
2 Dread of Night
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Flusterstorm
2 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Spell Pierce
2 Submerge
I decided that I thought Street Wraith and Stifle's were the worst cards in the deck, and went to -4 Wraith, -4 STifle, -1 Fetch Land, and went up to +4 Deathrite Shaman, +4 Thoughtseize, +1 Bayou. My sideboard is also different, in that I wasn't running Engineered Explosives, Nihil Spellbomb, or another Spell Pierce, and was only on 14 cards in general it looks like... Instead I ran +2 True-Name Nemesis, +1 Diabolic Edict. But, particularly the TNN and the lack of Engineered explosives looks to be 100% a mistake.
I went 1-2-1 at my LGS's first legacy event, beating BU Reanimator/Tin Fins, drawing against Grixis Delver (but think I would have won if the opp had been given a game loss for showing up 15 minutes late, hyper casual event, or if I had one more turn). Lost against Merfolk and UR Delver, which feel like terrible matchups without cards like Explosives to board in. I'll probably try to add in Abrupt Decay's and Engineered Explosives to the sideboard. Other cards I'm looking at evaluating are also a 1-of-Berserk in my main deck, and a Sylvan Library in the board, and adding a Breeding Pool over a watery grave.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
4 Deathrite Shaman
Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
1 Dismember
3 Fatal Push
4 Force of Will
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Ponder
2 Spell Pierce
4 Thoughtseize
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
4 Watery Grave
2 Dread of Night
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Flusterstorm
2 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Diabolic Edict
2 Submerge
The general form of the deck seems to do okay, I've seen builds t16/32 across a variety of events recently.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
Lands (19)
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
4 Watery Grave
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
2 Dismember
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
4 Thoughtseize
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Dread of Night
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Hymn to Tourach
MTGGoldfish Link
4 Death's Shadow
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
Lands
1 Breeding Pool
2 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
2 Watery Grave
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
2 Dismember
4 Force of Will
2 Snuff Out
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Thoughtseize
1 Pithing Needle
2 Dread of Night
1 Sylvan Library
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Fatal Push
2 Flusterstorm
1 Golgari Charm
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Toxic Deluge
MTGGoldfish Link
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
-I was getting stuck in areas where opponents were wasting me, and I had no way of getting back in the game outside of just ripping off the top of the deck.
-I was getting into situations where both my opp and I had gone through most of our hands, and they had a better post-attrition sink.
-I was having problems with a straight UB Death's Shadow build dealing with planeswalkers besides interacting with them on the stack.
-Opponent DRS often made it feel that my waste/stifles were not as effective as I imagined them to be.
DRS makes me stronger against wasteland and gives me potentially stronger turn 2 plays with the extra mana, since the overall curve of the deck didn't change much with my changes. However, sometimes the extra mana isn't needed, but even then I can often ping for two, and the life gain ability when I'm at precariously low life has also saved me a few times. I'm better able to splash/reliably cast golgari charm or now abrupt decay out of the board. Thoughtseize kept the next lifeloss componenets of the deck static across the two builds, and makes me less dead to Jace, Mirran Crusader, TNN, etc.
I'm still not sure if its right or not, but I think there's decent merit to talking about the pros/cons of the changes.
I put 2 True-Name Nemesis in my board but the 3 mana feels very expensive in this deck, even in my list with Deathrite Shaman. I've since swapped them out and made sure I have answers for my opponents TNN.
9x fetch
4x wastelands
3x watery
1x underground
1x tropical
And the aditional cards it plays are 1 sylvan library +(1-2) in the side, 4x deathrite, and (1-2) golgari charm in the side.
The sultai decklist i usually see, is the deck of an mtgo user called danker.
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Death's Shadow
2 Gurmag Angler
//Spells - 28
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
4 Thoughtseize
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Ponder
3 Fatal Push
1 Dismember
4 Wasteland
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Breeding Pool
3 Watery Grave
1 Flusterstorm
1 Diabolic Edict
1 True-Name Nemesis
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Dread of Night
2 Grafdigger's Cage
Some notes
- I tried to find some Golgari Charms for the board before the event started, but the store didn't have any.
- I'd like to cut the Edict and TNN to look at rebalancing the sideboard a bit to include things like Sylvan Library and Golgari Charm with/over Decay's. I originally ran two TNN, but even with DRS they just seemed to push the mana of the deck more than it wanted.
- In general, the deck seems to have a very good combo matchup, and a very poor aggro matchup. I'm trying to find ways to rebalance the maindeck/sideboard to make this not feel quite as binary.
Sunday Legacy 11/12/17: 7 people showed up (first time we hosted it was two weeks prior and there were 11) decks present were:
1 BR Reanimator
1 High Tide
1 Grixis Delver
1 Sultai DS
1 Death and Taxes
1 Merfolk
1 Spanish Inquision
The previous event also had a BU Tin Fins, Bant Deathblade, ANT, and UR Delver, and something else over High Tide that escapes me.
Rd 1: Bye
Rd 2: Ian on Death and Taxes.
g1: I didn't write down who was on the play, but I believe it was Ian, who mulled to 6. It looks like I cast and early thoughseize and grabbed Jitte from his hand of Thalia, Batterskull, Flickerwisp, and Jitte (did land -> mom turn 1). I ended up going something like delver, drop to 12, double death's shadow when he had a Mom and Thalia out. I let him take back an attack when he realized he would take a ton on the swing back, but drew a fetch. His life went 20-16-5-dead. I took a gamble after thoughtseizing him that I could probably finish him before he could get a swords to plowshares into his hand, since otherwise mom could lock out a single threat from me.
sideboard -4 daze, -2 spellsnare, -1 death's shadow, +2 decay, +2 engineered explosives, +2 dread of night, +1 true-name nemesis. There's another player that hasn't shown up for one of the regular flights that also is on DnT, and he has 4 caverns (turns out Ian only had 1), and I cut most of my counters besides Force for more removal, and a threat that is stronger against Swords.
g2: I actually took really bad notes here. But turn 1 mom into turn 2 stoneforge mystic for battleskull (I think turn 1 I pondered or something trying to find a fatal push). On my turn 2 I had dread of night and decay in my hand, so I dropped Dread hoping to be able to get more action in my hand. He is able to drop battleskull, but I get a pair of delvers out. I decay the germ token, and he gets out two phrexian revokers (both on explosives). I hold up two wastelands, but he's only playing planes. I drop him to 8 before he plays karakas for his 5th land to equip battleskull. I have to brainstorm lock myself, and despite two dread of night out can't answer the revokers (note: Golgari Charm in the future might be good here).
g3: I didn't change my sideboard strategy. I tempo him out. Delver, git prove, his hand is, wasteland, 2x revokers, stoneforge mystic, helm of obedience, 2x planes. He mistakenly wastelands my watery grave turn 1. On my turn I flip delver, fetch for another watery grave, play deathrite shaman, and on my third turn death's shadow, on his third turn he plays rest in peace, passes. I'm now super aware of his Helm, and while he's still only on 2 lands, I want to close it out quickly with him at 14 and me at 10, I look at doing something like activate DRS drain (him at 12), dismember it (me at 6), swing him down to 3, but realize it doesn't really change the clock and attack him down to 8 and pass. He goes land, mom, I dismember end of turn and he concedes. 1-0.
I'm not sure if I should have still done the dismember play just to try and stop a swords, but he had open mana and might have done it that turn anyway. Turns out he sideboarded terribly and took out Serra Avengers.
Rd 3 versus Jack on Fish.
g1: I'm on the play. I think Jack mulled. I thoughtseize, see lord, merrow rejerry, jittle, master of waves, cavern, and take jitte. I shock myself, get a delver and death's shadow out with me at 10. But he has a vial on 2, and drops 2 lords, followed by 2 more. Islandwalk and a bunch of self harm do me in.
sideboard: +2 decay +1 tnn, +1 explosives +1 diabolic edict. -2 spell pierce, -1 ds, -1 drs, -1 daze, -1 ts.
g2: I draw a land of wasteland, 2 git probe, decay, edict, thoughtseize ponder, and reluctantly keep. The hope is to double git probe and then based on what I see either thoughtseize or ponder. I double git probe, see no lands. 3 turns later, I still haven't seen one, with a chalice on 1, and a vial out. Eventually he plays TNN and a lord of atlantis so i can't even edict it anymore. I scoop.
I probably should have mulled the hand due to the lack of a colored source on principle, but I basically had 1/4th chance of hitting a viable mana source on each of the successive draws. Ugh, writing that out makes it clear it was 100% a mulligan, but I wanted to get away by being greedy. This is the second time in a row I've lost to merfolk, and a matchup that seems terrible to the current build of the deck.
Technically with only 7 people, the event ended there. But I stuck around to play... Allen on THE SPANISH INQUISITION.
g1: He does a bunch of stuff, I force his Diabolic Contract, and daze something else. On his second turn he successfully pays for his turn 1 Summoner's pact. He ends up having a bunch of mana in play, and I sit with a Fatal Push and spell pierce in hand. He eventually tries to go for a infernal contract, I think, but I spell pierce the second land grant and he's forced to top deck for a few turns. I eventually get out three deathrite shaman and just drain him from 20 to 0 without seeing a delver or shadow.
sideboard -1 daze, +1 flusterstorm. Now, why not side out Fatal Push/Dismember? Game 1 I spell pierced a land grant that would have fetched Dryad Arbor, and I could have fatal pushed that. I also know he sides in Tomb of Urami or whatever it's called, and just wanted to make sure I didn't get cheesed out. Note earlier how I've felt very secure against unfair decks with my first 60.
g2: we both mulligan, my second hand is basically FoW, blue card, 2 daze's and 2 lands. He land grants, showing manamorphose, dark ritual, summoners pact, belcher, carpet of flowers. Turn 1 I force carpet of flowers, and on turn 2, he tries a bunch of stuff to get a belcher into play with eats a daze, and he scoops with zero cards in hand.