I'm not sure on the Ari Lax stuff, and IDK if I'm willing to spend money on Sleights to test it. I don't think it is that good, but I can certainly see myself being wrong. Many people expressed concerns of how it is likely that you are spending turns just digging through your deck, and while we are mana efficient I don't think we would be gaining a significant enough advantage by running sleights than we do without them to justify it. Again, I could easily see myself being wrong here.
If you compare the Sleight list to a standard list, the difference is -2 land, -1 Snapcaster, and -1 K Command for +4 Sleight. They have the same number of *cheap* interactive spells and the same number of threats. The difference is at the top end. So early in the game when you have a pile of Sleights in hand and have to spin your wheels looking for action in the Sleight list, instead in the normal list they would be land and/or 3+ drops which don't do anything until later anyway. And later in the game, the cost of Sleight is pretty low since we're more likely to have extra mana to spend on the spells we find with Sleight that turn.
For Claim // Faim we already have Life // Death as a card and that saw no play in jund shadow. Yeah, returning snapcasters is better and claim//faim is a little more efficient, but not by a whole lot when the card is not that useful otherwise. Small little effects like this work much better as part of a package of utility effects.
For Claim // Faim we already have Life // Death as a card and that saw no play in jund shadow. Yeah, returning snapcasters is better and claim//faim is a little more efficient, but not by a whole lot when the card is not that useful otherwise. Small little effects like this work much better as part of a package of utility effects.
As Riotary said Life//Death isn't modern legal, so the closest thing we had to this effect is Orzhov Charm which saw some play in 4 color builds of this deck, and sees some play in Esper builds of this deck. The more I think about it though, I wouldn't want more than 1 of it in the 75 since we don't have nearly enough threats. Being 1 mana and not requiring red is really a big appeal of this card, so I'm sure there will be some testing done on this card. This card might end up seeing more play in versions of this deck that run 4 delvers since it ups the threat count, but we'll have to see.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern URBSome variant of Death's Shadow URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version) JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / Infect
I'm surprised. If Postmortem Lunge had been the newly spoiled card, I would have imagined to read a post by DannyDoedel in which he points out how awesome it is for the deck. Just imagine the following sequence:
Turn 1: Fetch, Shock, Thoughtseize ourselves, discard Shadow OR Fetch, Shock, Shadow (dies immediately), Street Wraith
Turn 2: Fetch, Shock, Postmortem Lunge targeting Shadow, Simian Spirit Guide, TBR (best card ever printed for the deck)
If our opponent has any creatures by then, a single Street Wraith will ensure the kill. That's so much better than Claim // Fame! To get the same effect with Claim // Fame, we need 2 extra Spirit Guides. How realistic is that?! And who needs the creature to stick if the opponent is just dead by turn 2?
After adding Sleight of Hand, some people claimed that the deck now plays more like a Legacy deck. Once Postmortem Lunge is released, it is going to take the deck yet again to another level. With it, it will play more like a Vintage deck! Thus, Postmortem Lunge is obviously going to be an autoinclude in the deck, I would say as a four-of at the very least.
Hey guys, I’ve been playing jeskai control for a while but a month ago I decided to try this deck (since I just needed to get a shadow playset), this deck is really fun but I wanted to ask for advice on the burn match up since it seems horrible, any suggestions?
Hey guys, I’ve been playing jeskai control for a while but a month ago I decided to try this deck (since I just needed to get a shadow playset), this deck is really fun but I wanted to ask for advice on the burn match up since it seems horrible, any suggestions?
The burn matchup isn't horrible, it's just very difficult to play properly (from both sides). When SBing with your list, cut the Street Wraiths for Denial + 2 Brutality + Dreadbore. That last card could be one of the sweepers, but they're very inefficient and we have so much spot removal that it's probably unnecessary. The key is really how to play the matchup. You should aggressively mulligan any hand missing a threat and interaction. You can keep hands that only have one of the two, but ask yourself - will you be able to find a threat or interaction with the hand you have? Will you have to take a lot of damage from your lands just to cast your spells? Etc. Visualize how the first couple of turns will play out because that makes or breaks your hand. Thoughtseize is one of the most skill testing cards you have in the deck. Sometimes you cast it to essentially gain 1 life. Sometimes you need to make sure they don't have a Path or a deflecting Palm. But the key is to constantly be aware of your life total, the number of cards in their hand, and their likely damage output over the next turn or two. Typically they have to get you to around 10-15 life and set up a spot where they go EOT unload a bunch of instant speed burn, then untap and try to finish you off with the rest of their hand. They can't aggressively put you lower without fear of dying to a Shadow. So keep in mind that this is their plan - if they aren't casting spells, that doesn't mean they're holding a pile of lands. You should also try to use all of your mana every turn. You win the game by doing enough things early enough that you overpower them before they draw enough burn spells. So don't be afraid to use a Stubborn Denial on a random bolt in a turn when you would otherwise not spend the mana on anything - unless, of course, you need it to protect a Shadow from the path in their hand or something similar. Also, using a Stub early so you can Snap it back ASAP is worthwhile. You really just need to cast you spells and interact as much as possible, while making sure you get that threat into play. When both players are playing well, it feels about 50/50 to me and typically comes down whether one side or the other draws a relevant spell in the last turn - typically whether the burn player topdecks a the last burn spell or sometimes the right burn spell.
Edit: the best thing you can do is find a friendly burn player and play a bunch of matches against them. Just practice the matchup, and take as much time as you need thinking through the lines. Even discuss them with your opponent. You cannot play this match on auto-pilot, and often the lines are not intuitive.
Thanks Spooly that was really insightful. It seems that I was playing the match wrong, waiting to move assuming a more controlling role when it seems death's shadow should be the beatdown... Fortunately I have a friend who plays burn so I'll be testing it the next week.
I probably play more defensively against burn than Spooly. So keep this in mind when reading my tips.
Here we go:
- Mulligan aggressively, don't keep a hand without a creature threat (Shadow is best) if you can avoid it.
- Unless you have a super-explosive hand, try to minimize unintentional lifeloss (basic lands are your friends).
- It's OK to fetch your first land untapped, though, if you have something worthwhile to cast.
- Keep Street Wraiths in hand unless the lifeloss would somehow help you. It's OK to have a few dead cards in this matchup.
- It's usually OK to cast one Thoughtseize in game 1 if the opponent has a hand full of cards.
- Put a land on top of your library with Serum Visions if you are going to be attacked by Goblin Guide.
- Sometimes you can use Goblin Guide and a fetch land to get rid of unwanted cards.
- Play with Eidolon in mind. Try to play cantrips early and don't hesitate to kill Eidolon if it slows you down too much.
- If you have a Shadow and a delve creature in hand, it's usually better to cast the Shadow first because delve creatures dodge Eidolon's effect.
- When inquisitioning and thoughtseizing, taking their Eidolon should most of the time be your first priority.
- If you need/want to take a burn spell when they still have many cards in hand, it can often be good to take a 1-mana spell to prevent damage bursts.
- Be aware that Death's Shadow grows before its toughness is checked when you lose life (e.g., Searing Blaze on a 3/3 Shadow makes it 6/6).
- Side out all Street Wraiths and some Thoughtseizes. It's OK to keep two Thoughtseizes to grab Deflecting Palm before you go for the kill.
- Don't waste too much time playing around their lifeloss prevention spells when using Collective Brutality.
- When you are low on life, think twice before cracking a fetch land. You might be able to win the game without an extra land.
- Expect your opponent to side in 2-3 Deflecting Palms, 2-4 Paths to Exile and some graveyard hate. In rare cases they might have Ensnaring Bridge.
- Don't counter random burn spells in game 2 and 3, unless you have a backup threat. Path can otherwise buy them too many turns.
- Put a land on top of your library with Serum Visions if you are going to be attacked by Goblin Guide.
I disagree, unless you actively want the land. You often don't, and would rather make sure you don't draw a land in your draw step. Lands don't kill or interact with your opponent. Just imagine the scenario where there's another land sitting underneath the land you put on top. How bad is that for you?
- When inquisitioning and thoughtseizing, taking their Eidolon should most of the time be your first priority.
This is extremely context dependent. If you have an extra removal spell for the Eidolon, then taking a burn spell instead will often save you 1 life. Maybe 2. And taking their Path will allow you to have a path to victory. On the other hand, if you know you won't have time to cast that removal spell before you do other things, take the Eidolon. Unless the "other things" is just casting a delve creature. Then maybe it's OK to leave the Eidolon and wait an extra turn to kill it. Generally, I don't like taking creatures with discard spells if I don't have to because we have far more interaction for creatures than we do for burn spells. But sometimes it is right.
Otherwise I mostly agree - except for siding out 2 Thoughtseizes. Most lists don't have anything useful to bring in for them. 3 mana sweepers are not where I want to be, whereas Thoughtseize can still gain you 1-2 life or protect from Deflecting Palm or especially Path while allowing you to cast other spells that turn. The matchup is really all about mana efficiency and protecting your threats. But if you have an extra Brutality, or counterspell, or *cheap* piece of removal to bring in, Thoughtseize is the next card to cut for sure.
- Put a land on top of your library with Serum Visions if you are going to be attacked by Goblin Guide.
I disagree, unless you actively want the land. You often don't, and would rather make sure you don't draw a land in your draw step. Lands don't kill or interact with your opponent. Just imagine the scenario where there's another land sitting underneath the land you put on top. How bad is that for you?
I nearly always want that land. It's one land less I can draw regularly, one more card for Collective Brutality (which helps compensating the cardloss from aggressive mulligans), and my opponent does not get information on my draw. There MIGHT be situations in which I don't want the land, but it's not the norm.
- When inquisitioning and thoughtseizing, taking their Eidolon should most of the time be your first priority.
This is extremely context dependent. If you have an extra removal spell for the Eidolon, then taking a burn spell instead will often save you 1 life. Maybe 2. And taking their Path will allow you to have a path to victory. On the other hand, if you know you won't have time to cast that removal spell before you do other things, take the Eidolon. Unless the "other things" is just casting a delve creature. Then maybe it's OK to leave the Eidolon and wait an extra turn to kill it. Generally, I don't like taking creatures with discard spells if I don't have to because we have far more interaction for creatures than we do for burn spells. But sometimes it is right.
Eidolon cannot be stubborn-denialed and cannot be fatal-pushed without lifeloss. Yes, it's not always the best pick, but I find myself taking it 75% of the time.
Otherwise I mostly agree - except for siding out 2 Thoughtseizes. Most lists don't have anything useful to bring in for them. 3 mana sweepers are not where I want to be, whereas Thoughtseize can still gain you 1-2 life or protect from Deflecting Palm or especially Path while allowing you to cast other spells that turn. The matchup is really all about mana efficiency and protecting your threats. But if you have an extra Brutality, or counterspell, or *cheap* piece of removal to bring in, Thoughtseize is the next card to cut for sure.
I would rather have Kommand and EE over the extra two Thoughtseizes, especially on the play. While these cards are obviously not great in this matchup, they have won me some games against burn. EE for 1 can slow them down considerably if they have drawn more than 1 hasty creature, EE for 2 can sometimes kill Eidolon without lifeloss. Kommand is good enough if the game becomes grindy. More than half of their deck cannot be cast at instant speed. Forcing them to cast an instant prematurely or making them discard the land they have been hoarding for Searing Blaze can also be worth it. Deflecting Palm is vulnerable to discard effects on their turn. Both EE and Kommand also get rid of Relic of Progenitus, which seems to be their favorite way of messing with our delve creatures and Snappies.
I definitely like Dreadbore less than Kommand against burn. Sorcery speed is just bad against haste.
Card choices: *No bolts: I wasn’t very happy about this and wanted to fit 1 bolt in, but ultimately I made the call to build the deck to beat the mirror and big Eldrazis, a theme that will be prevalent in the following notes. I would play a bolt going forward for its reach, prevalence of collected company decks, affinity and Mirran Crusaders
*2 Crypts, 1 Vents. I know the argument that it’s better to have the single vents over the single crypts in a hand with 1 land and cantrips, but I preferred to draw the Crypts naturally if it came to that, as we are much heavier on black business spells *3/1 Denial split. I wasn’t too pleased with this either, as I didn’t like flooding with Denial in game 1s. In hindsight I would’ve put one of the Lilianas in this slot, likely LotV, as its floor is astoundingly high
*Rejection>Disdainful Stroke. I highly considered putting Strokes over Rejections, as I believe Valakut is well positioned right now (good matchups vs Shadows and Eldrazi Tron) and didn’t want to be dead to them, as well as helping vs. Ad Nauseam/Gifts/PiF and other random shenanigans (also it dodges Chalice on 1 vs Eldrazi Tron). Ultimately, I did not expect combo to be prevalent and liked the mana efficiency as well as the ability to counter chalices on 1. This can definitely change according to the meta
*SB package vs. Swarm (single TBR/Staticaster/Anger/Last Hope). When I was charting out sideboard plans, I noticed that Last Hope wasn’t a card that I was eager to jam 2 of them into in many matchups. I did have 2 Last Hopes originally, but as I noticed that I didn’t have enough cards coming into the Affinity/Eldrazi Tron, I made the change to swap one Last Hope for Kcommand. Staticaster has served me well breaking matchups, such as vs. Souls, non-knight builds of counters company, Storm (where their plan A post-board is to Empty asap) and Affinity. I know some people do not like TBR and some pros contend that TBR and Denial do the same thing by letting you win a turn faster, but I disagree. TBR is great at giving you games you otherwise have no business of winning. I see TBR more as mainly for swarm creature decks such as Dredge and Affinity, with the added application of being a card to bring in vs combo. I would not cut TBR at all.
*Graveyard package (1/1/2 LLotV/Extraction/Spellbomb). I hemmed and hawed on this, as I considered this to be a key part of the metagame preparation. I expected the mirror and Dredge to be a huge presence, and wanted something to break those matchups. I initially tested LLotVx3-4 online; and the testing went as expected – great when you start with them, awful when you don’t. In the end, I still wanted to devote 4 slots to this and ended up going with a singleton and give myself a ~10% chance to break the matchups at t=0, and otherwise minimize the chance of drawing it. This could definitely be wrong
*1 Liliana of the Veil. This isn’t in many Grixis Shadows list, but I wanted a mirror breaker and I believe LotV was the one, as well as having a very wide spectrum of matchups she’d be useful in. I was initially skeptical about her, reasoning that you are a reactive deck that wants to hold cards. However, after testing, I saw that she was a backbreaker in games where I did want her in.
*Sweeper: Anger vs. KReturn vs. Flaying Tendrils. First, Tendrils is a distant third for me, as I believe the benefits of being BB rather than R or RR are overstated and it importantly hits neither Amalgams nor the (B)Inkmoth Nexi. I like Kozilek’s Return as it hits Etched Champion and manlands. It was more of a gut call to try and hate out Dredge (as well as being marginally better vs humans/elves/merfolk before their lord effects come in). This slot(s) can certainly change.
As I scoured around on Thursday and Friday I saw a lot of Shadows and Affinity in the Last Chance Trials. I had last minute thoughts about swapping Anger for KReturn but I told myself I’m willing to lose to Affinity rather than Dredge (Affinity’s presence online was waning, but there’s the adage about Affinity being way more popular in paper..). My observation on the popular decks was foreshadowing for what’s to come, but in a way that I didn’t expect.
Saturday
I also played with 2 BYEs in the Legacy event with a dumbed down version of Grixis Delver with Death’s shadow. I told myself I wanted to make day 2 there but knew it wasn’t realistic because I’m playing a tier 3 deck essentially and I’ve never played legacy in paper before. I ended up losing two win-and-ins in Legacy but was fine with my performance. Today though I told myself my goal is absolutely to make day 2 and have a good performance into day 2.
Round ½ - byes
Round 3 – vs. Weston (Humans)
G1 I am OTP and IoK to see something like 2 lands, 2 paths, Champion of the Parish, Hiearch and Pilgrim. I let out an inaudible groan as I’ve gotten a lot of reps online vs. Humans and it’s not a great matchup. I have some lands, snapcaster, push and Shadows s o I take a path, plan on snapcaster+discard the other path and slam a shadow after t3. Unfortunately he draws into Thalia and another path and screws up my plans. I ended up dying to dorky human beats lead by the Mayor and Champion
SB:
+1 TBR, +1 Anger, +1 Staticaster/+1 Last Hope (not sure about this – Mayor and Lieutenant invalidate these, but otherwise great)
-1 Scour (not great against Thalia, graveyard generally will fill itself interacting with them), 1 IoK (doesn’t hit CoCo), -2 KCommand (high cost card that doesn’t have too big of impact)
G2 Weston mulls to 6 and I IoK into Township, Township, Thicket, Champion, Hierarch, Cavern. I take the Hierarch and he basically doesn’t get to play the game as I remove all of his threats and beat down
G3 Weston again mulls to 6 and I IoK into Coco, Guardian of Thraben, Champion, Path, Reflector, land. I have a hand without threats but ~3 lands, snapcaster, push SV. I take the Thaila but he draws a land+another Thalia and we start trading resources. Late in the game I’m at the game state of empty battlefield. He has 3 lands in play and I know he has Coco+x. I am at 4 and fire off a Thoughtseize hoping to take Coco but then I see it’s Coco+Reflector mage. My hand is Scour+TBR+SV and after thinking for a while I realize I have to take Reflector Mage and hope he bricks on land. Next turn I play a 11/11 DS and an Angler and he draws another Coco+Thalia. He’s at 18 and I attack with both (a small mistake to attack with both, as if he pathed my TBR’d Thaila and take Gurmy’s damage I’d be dead). I Battle Rage onto the DS FTW.
3-0 (2-1)
Round 4 vs. Steve Rubin
I recognize his name as a MTG pro and I begin bracing for a tough battle. When the round starts ,however, he is not here. I start googling and realize he was 10-1 in the Sealed event at the time and therefore unlikely to come. I count my blessings and take the free win
4-0 (N/A)
Round 5 vs. Guillermo Hernandez (Affinity)
A nice Mexican fellow. G1 He is OTP and spews out Welding Jar, Blinkmoth and Vault Skirge. I thoughtseize to see Ravager, plating, Inkmoth, Master. I have a hand of Kcommand, 2nd land, threats and 1 push. I take the Plating but then he slams another Plating and start giving me the business. I never see the third land and die a horrible death
G2 I keep fetch, Tasigur, Scour, Push, KCommand, Seize and SV. Questionable but I keep. I lead with SV and line up a second land. He plays t1 Skirge+Blinkmoth+Mox Opal. T2 I thoughtseize him again to see: Thoughtseize (I think I was better off SVing to line up lands) and see Plating, Champion, Plating, Overseer, Negate (?!), land and Skirge. I take the Champion and plan on never letting him connect with a creature. He t2 Overseer. T3 I draw the second KCommand and though that’s great I wanted to see the third land. I push the Overseer at this point. Next turn he plays and equips plating and puts him to 6. At this point he has 4 mana available and I know he has the negate. I only have a terminate and if I let him untap he has negate him and lethal. Not sure if there’s a mistake for him to make him but I terminate on my turn and he untaps, equips his Blinkmoth and attacks FTW and I die with 3 Kcommands in hand.
4-1 (0-2)
Round 6: vs. Tyler (Affinity)
G1 I am on the play and he mulls to 6. I grown inside when I play IoK and see it’s another Affinity matchup: Champion, drums, opal, overseer, ravager, overseer. An ambitious keep, for sure, but a keep that is a card away from being very good. I take the drums and he never sees another land or gets to play Magic
SB: Same as round 5
G2: He mulls to 6 again and plays Spire Opal Ornithopter go. I IoK again to see RIP, Plating, and Blood Moon. My hand is full of Shadows rather than Delve creatures and I can fetch for basics so I just take Plating. He again does not get to play Magic and I breathe a sigh of relief
5-1 (2-0)
At this point I am bemoaning the fact that I haven’t gotten any good matchups so far (other than the bye!) and am hoping to see a Sleight of Hand played vs. me.
Round 7: vs. Jeffrey (Elves)
G1 he is on the play and he leads with Gilt leaf into Heritage Druid. Great. I t1 IoK to see: Canopy, Chord, Devoted Druid, Dwynen’s Elite, Cavern. I take the Elite as I had a push in hand. He plays a t2 druid and doesn’t draw much else. I end up pushing the Druid, Thoughtseizing away his Chord, play a Tasigur and proceed to put him into the Abyss.
SB: +2 brutality +1 Anger +1 Last Hope (this may be too slow OTD? Not sure) +1 Staticaster +1 TBR
-1 IoK -2 Wraith -2 KCommand -1 Scour
G2 he mulls to 6 and leads on t1 Heritage Druid again. I thoughtseize to see: Shaman of the Pack, Ewitness, Devoted Druid, Coco. I take the DD to deny him acceleration. He’s stuck on a land for a bit but eventually puts me to 4. I brutality/snap brutality to get rid of the Ewitness/Coco for good. I anger away the on-board Shaman and Nettle Sentinel and put him into the Abyss for the win.
2-0 (6-1)
I was ecstatic to have made day 2 vs. a set of matchups I didn’t consider to be favorable at all. I turn my focus back to playing tight after a brief moment of celebration as I know there’s still a long road ahead
Round 8: vs. Austin Johnson (Bushwhacker zoo)
While shuffling he inadvertently flashes a Burning Tree Emissary and I let out another inaudible grown. Bushwhacker Zoo is extremely aggressive and hard to interact in time.
G1 He is OTP and mulls to 5, scrying bottom. He has a very creature light hand and only hits me with Goblin Guide a few times. I take control with a few removals and win with Tasigur+snapcaster
SB: +2 brutality (killing a GG+taking away Atarka’s/Boros Charm/Path/Palm seems good)
+1 Anger (very questionable and slow but Wraiths are horrible in this matchup)
+1 TBR
+1 LotV (pretty bad but at least I’m on the play and it’s a 3 mana removal at worst and better than wraiths)
-4 Wraiths
-1 Thoughtseize
G2: I see a 4 land IoK TS SV hand which simply doesn’t work. My 6 card hand is 3 lands, denial, Thoughtseize and IoK. Not what I wanted but I didn’t think I can go to 5 from this (which begs the question as to whether the 7 card hand was keepable). He has a t1 nacatl. I draw a DS and IoK into Atarka’s Command, Foundry, Nacatl, Nacatl, Path. I take the Nacatl and deny him a potential turn of land into double Nacatl, planning on taking the Path with Thoughtseize after . He plays a single Nacatl and attacks me with the t1 Nacatl. I draw a TBR next turn, Thoughtseize away the Path and play a 2/2 DS. He attacks me with his two 3/3 Nacatls, I block and go to 8. He is at 15 and I have a fetchland, so I fetch to 5 and TBR FTW.
7-1 (2-0)
I again feel very fortunate to have beaten tough matchups, and am beginning to think I can make a deep run in this event.
Round 8: vs. Austin Johnson (?!) (Mardu midrange)
I did a double take when I saw the pairing, but then I saw a four digit number after his name and realize there’s more than one Austin Johnsons in the tournament. I greet my opponent and we laugh at the pairings and how I’ve already met his evil twin. He is playing his first Grand Prix and remarks that he is playing some sort of a review. I shuffle and present in eager anticipation as to what it is
G1 Austin is OTP and plays an Arid Mesa. I play a discard and see: Plains, Crypt, Bob, Dreadbore, Bolt, Push. Seems like a Rakdos or Mardu midrange. I take the Dreadbore as I have a push already. The game is unexciting but ends in an awful manner for me. I’m at 8 with a shadow and he EoT Bolt, untap bolt+Helix. Interesting.
While sideboarding, I’m not aware what the threat base a Mardu midrange deck typically has. It completely escaped me that they may very well be playing Pyromancer/Mentor (I saw neither). As a result, I boarded in as I would vs a grindy matchup
G2 I play a discard into: Mentor, Helix, Blessed Alliance, Swamp, Mire, Mesa, Push. I am blindsided by the mentor and realize that he must be running Pyromancer too and lament the fact that I didn’t even consider Staticaster/Anger. I take the Mentor as I have no answers. I get into a weird stalemate where He has a mentor out with a known push, and I have a 4/4 DS in play and Push+KCommand in the hand. My DS is being brickwalled by mentor tokens and I have not been making any headway. I cannot Kcommand the Mentor for its Prowess and I would not be able to Kcommand back a DS from the inevitable push. I do not draw a fetchland or a terminate and he eventually casts a Young Pyromancer. I have to remove it with KCommand and get less than ideal value from it. I end up getting overrun by tokens
7-2 (0-2)
A decent Day 1 with byes, but I continued to lament the fact that I should’ve seen through the Mardu matchup and that I didn’t consider Anger/staticaster. But x-2 is still decent and I could put myself in position for a big finish tomorrow.
Sunday
Round 10: vs. Leo (Jund)
A nice fellow Canadian and we make some small talk before starting. I t1 discard to see: Scooze, bob, LotV, Maelstrom Pulse, Blackcleave Cliffx3. That is a lot of goodies. I take the LotV as my hand would not be able to beat her. I expect the modified Jund (4 pushes, minimal bolts) to be slightly favored vs. Grixis Shadows. However in this game I have enough answers for his removals and ride my Gurmag to victory
SB: +1 Anger (Scooze, Bob, potential huntmaster)
+2 Nihil Spellbomb
+1 LotV
+1 Last Hope
+1 Kolaghan’s Command
-3 Denials
-3 Wraiths
G2 He greets me with a t0 Leyline of the Void and I barely get to play
G3 I play a t2 discard to see: Swamp catacomb fulminator Bob Scooze Scooze Terminate. I take the terminate but he draws into a bunch more removals even after I remove the Bob and I again don’t get to play much and get junded out
7-3 (0-2)
R11 vs Mason (Blue Moon)
G1 he is OTP and is on an innocuous start of island, Ancestral Vision into steam vents untapped. I just automatically process that as Jeskai control/flash/tempo but am in for a rude awakening when he slams a t3 blood moon – it never even occurred to me as a possibility. I should’ve occurred to me that Jeskai Control typically does not play Ancestral Vision and prefer to play a tempo/burn out game. Blood Moon gets me good. I do see a main deck Roast.
G2 I see Island, Island, Spell Snare, Relic, Relic, Cryptic, Blood moon t1 and take Moon. I have a LotV that I can slam if I can draw one land within 2 draw steps. I don’t find it on curve but slam a t4 LotV. Unfortunately he had drawn a Mana Leak in between that. We end up playing a grindy game trading counters and threats. I start beating down with Snapcaster But there is an end step of mine where he bolts me down from 7 to 4 with just one red mana available. Alarm bells are going off as I think he must have drawn a Snapcaster. I stop attacking with Snapcaster in the fear of snap+Bolt eot (he did have the snapcaster). There is a sequence of brutality pitching a card getting remanded, then brutality pitching a card getting snap+cryptic Commanded. I cannot recover and end up getting out-controlled.
7-4 (0-2)
That was a bad loss I think in a matchup that is definitely winnable. Not feeling too great at the day’s start
R12: vs. John (Grixis Shadow)
A real cool dude to talk to and finally the mirror I was expecting. Not much to say about these three games. G1 and G2 were your typical grindy matches. G3 I see a hand of Leyline, fetch, spellbomb, DS, Tasigur, Thoguhtseize, Terminate. If I draw a land this hand is pretty nutty. I slam my Leyline t0 and proceed to never see another land in 6 turns and I die a horrible death to his 6/6 Death’s Shadow
7-5 (1-2)
Really not feeling great now especially losing g3 with a reasonable hand with Leyline. I was admittedly getting pretty tilty.
R13: vs. Robert (Bant Spirits)
G1 is not much of a game. He slams double Droskol captain and their synergies are too much
SB: +1 Anger
+1 TBR
+1 LotV
+1 Last Hope
-1 Scour
-3 Wraiths (I don’t like Wraiths in agro matchups. Flyers are a nightmare for Grixis Shadows)
G2 we grind each other out and we arrive at an interesting board state where I made a huge mistake:
Opponent (14 life, 2 lands, Tapped Rattlechain, Untapped Bird. His hand is known as Path, Queller, Engineered Explosives and Captain)
Me (5/5 DS, 10 card graveyard, tapped swamp, watery grave, Steam Vents, Polluted Delta with a Tasigur+Angler in hand)
My opponent announced go to damages? After I attack with my DS. I should’ve taken the free 5 damages (I suspect he was saving path for a delve fatty and use his EE to destroy the shadow. Instead I fetch to 5 like an idiot and now he paths. Stupid me… My second mistake was fetching a Vents in case I draw an anger but I should’ve fetched a Crypt. Now I could not cast double delve fatties.
There was also the question of who I push. I am now at 5 facing down a Rattlechain and a Bird while he’s at 14. My inclination was to push Bird, hope he never draws a hand, and leave him without answers for my Delve fatties that would win the race vs. his Rattlechain. My opponent later said I should’ve Pushed the Rattlechain as that’d force him to take a turn off to play a threat or answer my DS. That is true but I think Pushing the bird and praying he doesn’t draw the land had the highest upside. The moment he untapped he’d be able to deploy a queller or captain and overwhelm me in the air. Still unsure on what the best move was but I’m comfortable with my decision to Push the bird (didn’t matter in the end because I had fetched a Vents and could not play both of my delve threats). As played, he drew his land anyway and I died a horrible death in the air
7-6 (0-2)
I’d now lost my last 5 matches in a row and I’d argue all of them were even/unfavorable matchups. I lament my luck but realize that I am beginning to play looser and tell myself to hold it together and play the last few rounds tightly and go home with at least a winning record
R14: vs. Jay (Burn)
G1 I keep a 2 land hand with DS, wraith, push, Gurmag, Push. I cycle/fetch to 15 digging for t1 action and do not find any. I am then greeted with a Swifty->GGx2 start and I am quickly down to 12. I cast a 1/1 shadow and take a GG hit, block a GG and push a swifty. I end up stabilizing as I draw another DS and play Gurmag and he shows me a hand of all lands
SB: +1 Denial
+2 Brutality
+1 TBR
+1 LotV (not great in this matchup but wraiths are infinitely worse and arguably worse cutting one kcommand for)
G2 Both mulls to 6. I keep a risky DS, 3xDenial, swamp, crypt hand and bottom a snap. I need any blue source to make this hand good. He has a t0 Leyline… of sancitity (?!). He feeds me a steady diet of dorks and burn but I eventually find a Watery Grave. I slam a 5/5 shadow with swamp, grave and crypt in play. He paths it twice and things are looking bad as I go to 2. I had also stupidly scried an IoK top when he has leylines. We end up on an empty board and I have to fade a million topdecks at 2. Thankfully his business spells off the top are creatures which I have terminates/Kcommands for. I put my shield down for a turn and snap+SV into a DS. He doesn’t draw the winning spell and I ride the DS+Snap with Denial backup to victory
8-6 (2-0)
R15: vs. Travis (Affinity)
Felt very fitting that the last round was vs. an archetype I had dismissed/felt OK to skimp hate on. G1 and G2 were pretty standard. G1 he does Affinity things and I get got. T2. I outcontrol him and stabilize at 3 while running him out of threats and his Plating looks very lonely. G3 is an interesting one where he slams an early Champion and puts me down to 10. I slam two shadows and we get in a weird Mexican standoff where he has a champion with plating (4 total power) but he needs to keep up lands to provide metalcraft for the Etched Champion and attacking me would result in his death on the crackback. He eventually finds another etched champion and attacks me down to 6, holding back the champion with the plating. I am at 6, he is at 18 and has a champion plus a potential blinkmoth activation. Thoughtseize an empty hand, fetch+shock down to one. Attack, TBR, game.
SB: Same as before
Final record: 9-6 (2-1)
Conclusion:
*My opponents were Humans, Affinity, Bushwhacker Zoo, Elves, Affinity, Mardu, Jund, Grixis Shadow, Spirits, Blue Moon, and Affinity. Arguably only Blue Moon was a favorable matchup for me
*The old adages turned true: When (graveyard/artifact) hate is skimped, (dredge/affinity) comes out of nowhere and crushes. Also, everyone plays Affinity in paper.
*TBR did a lot of work for me and I would not think of cutting one
*Leyline is still questionable, but I think a single Leyline in this meta makes a lot of sense. I will be continuing to test with this configuration.
*the 17 land, 4 sleight build that Ari Lax piloted is interesting, but I’m going to need to test more to see if it’s better. I don’t see it as a delver-esq tempo deck, but a midrange deck with a switch. I value the top end of KCommand+Snapcaster, and believe this configuration is better than the Sleight build. Who knows though.. Will keep testing
*I think it’s mandatory we re-include a bolt or two. Mirran Crusader is not beatable for us, plus with the dorky company/creature decks running rampant there’s not a huge cost to playing a few bolts
*I saw the Dismember in Owen Turtenwald’s list. It’s not bad, but I believe you’d often reach a point where you have to cast it for 3 or snapcaster it back for 5. It also misses on a lot of Shadows, Titans and other random shenanigans. I prefer the Terminate
*3 Denials main may be too much. I may add a Liliana in the main deck
TLDR: Second Grand Prix experience, played Death’s shadow to a 7-1 start, then 2-5 finish. Good times were still had, deck is still powerful, and deck has the tools to adapt to the changing metagame
How relevant do you guys feel Surgical Extraction is for the side? Finalnub is down to 1 copy and another person I know has completely cut them from his side (although he does have 2 angers to sort of compensate for dredge). It's kind of nice vs. uninteractive spell combo decks but there are really only 2 out there (storm and ad nauseam) and even then those decks can easily power through a surgical because of the sheer amount of redundancy. The matchup where I can see it shine is against Scapeshift (and to an extent Tron) but that's more for Grixis control since they combine Fulminators with Surgicals to remove the lands for good. Since our lists have cut fulminators the stock of the card seems to go down quite a bit. It seems fine to bring in against Coco decks, but Grafdigger's Cage seems like a better card to have and it works against dredge as well. As long as the bases are covered with Nihil Spellbomb for Living End I think this works.
Moving forward I'm looking to try out 2 Spellbombs, 1 Graf Cage and maybe 1 Anger in the side. I've already been convinced to go to 3 Sleights and added back another Vents in the main so this could end up working. Let me know your thoughts on Surgicals and how wrong I am.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern URBSome variant of Death's Shadow URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version) JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / Infect
- Put a land on top of your library with Serum Visions if you are going to be attacked by Goblin Guide.
I disagree, unless you actively want the land. You often don't, and would rather make sure you don't draw a land in your draw step. Lands don't kill or interact with your opponent. Just imagine the scenario where there's another land sitting underneath the land you put on top. How bad is that for you?
He's saying top a land if they have a Goblin Guide out, so you get the land for free with Guide.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern UBR Grixis Shadow UBR UR Izzet Phoenix UR UW UW Control UW GB GB Rock GB
Commander BG Meren of Clan Nel Toth BG BGUW Atraxa, Praetor's Voice BGUW
I don't believe Surgical is right for Valakut/Tron matchups, especially without Fulminator. Scouring them and hoping to get lucky seems highly ambitious likely a bad use of Scour. If big mana is a problem my preference is to tune the deck by putting in Disdainful>Rejection and put a clock on them+disrupt them through countermagic and discard.
I also don't believe Extraction is that good vs. Storm, but I could be wrong.
What Spooly meant is that there could be another land beneath the land I put on top with Serum Visions. In this case, I probably made matters worse by keeping the first land on top. Had I not kept the first land on top, the Goblin Guide would have given me the second land. This would have increased the odds of drawing a (potentially more useful) nonland card on my turn, because the first land would then be on the bottom of my library and the second land would be in my hand. I'm willing to take that risk most of the time though, because I usually find the extra land useful. But I can see Spooly's point.
If you compare the Sleight list to a standard list, the difference is -2 land, -1 Snapcaster, and -1 K Command for +4 Sleight. They have the same number of *cheap* interactive spells and the same number of threats. The difference is at the top end. So early in the game when you have a pile of Sleights in hand and have to spin your wheels looking for action in the Sleight list, instead in the normal list they would be land and/or 3+ drops which don't do anything until later anyway. And later in the game, the cost of Sleight is pretty low since we're more likely to have extra mana to spend on the spells we find with Sleight that turn.
As Riotary said Life//Death isn't modern legal, so the closest thing we had to this effect is Orzhov Charm which saw some play in 4 color builds of this deck, and sees some play in Esper builds of this deck. The more I think about it though, I wouldn't want more than 1 of it in the 75 since we don't have nearly enough threats. Being 1 mana and not requiring red is really a big appeal of this card, so I'm sure there will be some testing done on this card. This card might end up seeing more play in versions of this deck that run 4 delvers since it ups the threat count, but we'll have to see.
URB Some variant of Death's Shadow
URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version)
JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / InfectCommander/EDH
This pile of cards when I feel like it
Death's Shadow discord link
How are you going to give this flashback if it's still on the stack?
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Turn 1: Fetch, Shock, Thoughtseize ourselves, discard Shadow OR Fetch, Shock, Shadow (dies immediately), Street Wraith
Turn 2: Fetch, Shock, Postmortem Lunge targeting Shadow, Simian Spirit Guide, TBR (best card ever printed for the deck)
If our opponent has any creatures by then, a single Street Wraith will ensure the kill. That's so much better than Claim // Fame! To get the same effect with Claim // Fame, we need 2 extra Spirit Guides. How realistic is that?! And who needs the creature to stick if the opponent is just dead by turn 2?
After adding Sleight of Hand, some people claimed that the deck now plays more like a Legacy deck. Once Postmortem Lunge is released, it is going to take the deck yet again to another level. With it, it will play more like a Vintage deck! Thus, Postmortem Lunge is obviously going to be an autoinclude in the deck, I would say as a four-of at the very least.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
Other Spells:
4 Fatal Push
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Manamorphose
4 Postmortem Lunge
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
2 Stubborn Denial
4 Temur Battle Rage
4 Thoughtseize
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
2 Watery Grave
This is my current decklist:
2x Blood Crypt
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Flooded Strand
1x Island
4x Polluted Delta
1x Steam Vents
1x Swamp
2x Watery Grave
Sorcery 10
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Serum Visions
4x Thoughtseize
4x Fatal Push
2x Kolaghan's Command
3x Stubborn Denial
2x Terminate
4x Thought Scour
Creature 16
4x Death's Shadow
2x Gurmag Angler
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Street Wraith
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Anger of the Gods
3x Ceremonious Rejection
2x Collective Brutality
1x Dreadbore
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Izzet Staticaster
1x Kolaghan's Command
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Stubborn Denial
2x Surgical Extraction
The burn matchup isn't horrible, it's just very difficult to play properly (from both sides). When SBing with your list, cut the Street Wraiths for Denial + 2 Brutality + Dreadbore. That last card could be one of the sweepers, but they're very inefficient and we have so much spot removal that it's probably unnecessary. The key is really how to play the matchup. You should aggressively mulligan any hand missing a threat and interaction. You can keep hands that only have one of the two, but ask yourself - will you be able to find a threat or interaction with the hand you have? Will you have to take a lot of damage from your lands just to cast your spells? Etc. Visualize how the first couple of turns will play out because that makes or breaks your hand. Thoughtseize is one of the most skill testing cards you have in the deck. Sometimes you cast it to essentially gain 1 life. Sometimes you need to make sure they don't have a Path or a deflecting Palm. But the key is to constantly be aware of your life total, the number of cards in their hand, and their likely damage output over the next turn or two. Typically they have to get you to around 10-15 life and set up a spot where they go EOT unload a bunch of instant speed burn, then untap and try to finish you off with the rest of their hand. They can't aggressively put you lower without fear of dying to a Shadow. So keep in mind that this is their plan - if they aren't casting spells, that doesn't mean they're holding a pile of lands. You should also try to use all of your mana every turn. You win the game by doing enough things early enough that you overpower them before they draw enough burn spells. So don't be afraid to use a Stubborn Denial on a random bolt in a turn when you would otherwise not spend the mana on anything - unless, of course, you need it to protect a Shadow from the path in their hand or something similar. Also, using a Stub early so you can Snap it back ASAP is worthwhile. You really just need to cast you spells and interact as much as possible, while making sure you get that threat into play. When both players are playing well, it feels about 50/50 to me and typically comes down whether one side or the other draws a relevant spell in the last turn - typically whether the burn player topdecks a the last burn spell or sometimes the right burn spell.
Edit: the best thing you can do is find a friendly burn player and play a bunch of matches against them. Just practice the matchup, and take as much time as you need thinking through the lines. Even discuss them with your opponent. You cannot play this match on auto-pilot, and often the lines are not intuitive.
Here we go:
- Mulligan aggressively, don't keep a hand without a creature threat (Shadow is best) if you can avoid it.
- Unless you have a super-explosive hand, try to minimize unintentional lifeloss (basic lands are your friends).
- It's OK to fetch your first land untapped, though, if you have something worthwhile to cast.
- Keep Street Wraiths in hand unless the lifeloss would somehow help you. It's OK to have a few dead cards in this matchup.
- It's usually OK to cast one Thoughtseize in game 1 if the opponent has a hand full of cards.
- Put a land on top of your library with Serum Visions if you are going to be attacked by Goblin Guide.
- Sometimes you can use Goblin Guide and a fetch land to get rid of unwanted cards.
- Play with Eidolon in mind. Try to play cantrips early and don't hesitate to kill Eidolon if it slows you down too much.
- If you have a Shadow and a delve creature in hand, it's usually better to cast the Shadow first because delve creatures dodge Eidolon's effect.
- When inquisitioning and thoughtseizing, taking their Eidolon should most of the time be your first priority.
- If you need/want to take a burn spell when they still have many cards in hand, it can often be good to take a 1-mana spell to prevent damage bursts.
- Be aware that Death's Shadow grows before its toughness is checked when you lose life (e.g., Searing Blaze on a 3/3 Shadow makes it 6/6).
- Side out all Street Wraiths and some Thoughtseizes. It's OK to keep two Thoughtseizes to grab Deflecting Palm before you go for the kill.
- Don't waste too much time playing around their lifeloss prevention spells when using Collective Brutality.
- When you are low on life, think twice before cracking a fetch land. You might be able to win the game without an extra land.
- Expect your opponent to side in 2-3 Deflecting Palms, 2-4 Paths to Exile and some graveyard hate. In rare cases they might have Ensnaring Bridge.
- Don't counter random burn spells in game 2 and 3, unless you have a backup threat. Path can otherwise buy them too many turns.
I disagree, unless you actively want the land. You often don't, and would rather make sure you don't draw a land in your draw step. Lands don't kill or interact with your opponent. Just imagine the scenario where there's another land sitting underneath the land you put on top. How bad is that for you?
This is extremely context dependent. If you have an extra removal spell for the Eidolon, then taking a burn spell instead will often save you 1 life. Maybe 2. And taking their Path will allow you to have a path to victory. On the other hand, if you know you won't have time to cast that removal spell before you do other things, take the Eidolon. Unless the "other things" is just casting a delve creature. Then maybe it's OK to leave the Eidolon and wait an extra turn to kill it. Generally, I don't like taking creatures with discard spells if I don't have to because we have far more interaction for creatures than we do for burn spells. But sometimes it is right.
Otherwise I mostly agree - except for siding out 2 Thoughtseizes. Most lists don't have anything useful to bring in for them. 3 mana sweepers are not where I want to be, whereas Thoughtseize can still gain you 1-2 life or protect from Deflecting Palm or especially Path while allowing you to cast other spells that turn. The matchup is really all about mana efficiency and protecting your threats. But if you have an extra Brutality, or counterspell, or *cheap* piece of removal to bring in, Thoughtseize is the next card to cut for sure.
Thanks! All those tips seem really good!
I definitely like Dreadbore less than Kommand against burn. Sorcery speed is just bad against haste.
My deck list:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
2 Blood Crypt
1 Steam Vents
4 Death's Shadow
4 Street Wraith
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
2 Gurmag Angler
4 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Fatal Push
4 Thought Scour
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Terminate
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Stubborn Denial
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Collective Brutality
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Temur Battle Rage
1 Leyline of the Void
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Kolaghan's Command
Card choices:
*No bolts: I wasn’t very happy about this and wanted to fit 1 bolt in, but ultimately I made the call to build the deck to beat the mirror and big Eldrazis, a theme that will be prevalent in the following notes. I would play a bolt going forward for its reach, prevalence of collected company decks, affinity and Mirran Crusaders
*2 Crypts, 1 Vents. I know the argument that it’s better to have the single vents over the single crypts in a hand with 1 land and cantrips, but I preferred to draw the Crypts naturally if it came to that, as we are much heavier on black business spells
*3/1 Denial split. I wasn’t too pleased with this either, as I didn’t like flooding with Denial in game 1s. In hindsight I would’ve put one of the Lilianas in this slot, likely LotV, as its floor is astoundingly high
*Rejection>Disdainful Stroke. I highly considered putting Strokes over Rejections, as I believe Valakut is well positioned right now (good matchups vs Shadows and Eldrazi Tron) and didn’t want to be dead to them, as well as helping vs. Ad Nauseam/Gifts/PiF and other random shenanigans (also it dodges Chalice on 1 vs Eldrazi Tron). Ultimately, I did not expect combo to be prevalent and liked the mana efficiency as well as the ability to counter chalices on 1. This can definitely change according to the meta
*SB package vs. Swarm (single TBR/Staticaster/Anger/Last Hope). When I was charting out sideboard plans, I noticed that Last Hope wasn’t a card that I was eager to jam 2 of them into in many matchups. I did have 2 Last Hopes originally, but as I noticed that I didn’t have enough cards coming into the Affinity/Eldrazi Tron, I made the change to swap one Last Hope for Kcommand. Staticaster has served me well breaking matchups, such as vs. Souls, non-knight builds of counters company, Storm (where their plan A post-board is to Empty asap) and Affinity. I know some people do not like TBR and some pros contend that TBR and Denial do the same thing by letting you win a turn faster, but I disagree. TBR is great at giving you games you otherwise have no business of winning. I see TBR more as mainly for swarm creature decks such as Dredge and Affinity, with the added application of being a card to bring in vs combo. I would not cut TBR at all.
*Graveyard package (1/1/2 LLotV/Extraction/Spellbomb). I hemmed and hawed on this, as I considered this to be a key part of the metagame preparation. I expected the mirror and Dredge to be a huge presence, and wanted something to break those matchups. I initially tested LLotVx3-4 online; and the testing went as expected – great when you start with them, awful when you don’t. In the end, I still wanted to devote 4 slots to this and ended up going with a singleton and give myself a ~10% chance to break the matchups at t=0, and otherwise minimize the chance of drawing it. This could definitely be wrong
*1 Liliana of the Veil. This isn’t in many Grixis Shadows list, but I wanted a mirror breaker and I believe LotV was the one, as well as having a very wide spectrum of matchups she’d be useful in. I was initially skeptical about her, reasoning that you are a reactive deck that wants to hold cards. However, after testing, I saw that she was a backbreaker in games where I did want her in.
*Sweeper: Anger vs. KReturn vs. Flaying Tendrils. First, Tendrils is a distant third for me, as I believe the benefits of being BB rather than R or RR are overstated and it importantly hits neither Amalgams nor the (B)Inkmoth Nexi. I like Kozilek’s Return as it hits Etched Champion and manlands. It was more of a gut call to try and hate out Dredge (as well as being marginally better vs humans/elves/merfolk before their lord effects come in). This slot(s) can certainly change.
As I scoured around on Thursday and Friday I saw a lot of Shadows and Affinity in the Last Chance Trials. I had last minute thoughts about swapping Anger for KReturn but I told myself I’m willing to lose to Affinity rather than Dredge (Affinity’s presence online was waning, but there’s the adage about Affinity being way more popular in paper..). My observation on the popular decks was foreshadowing for what’s to come, but in a way that I didn’t expect.
Saturday
I also played with 2 BYEs in the Legacy event with a dumbed down version of Grixis Delver with Death’s shadow. I told myself I wanted to make day 2 there but knew it wasn’t realistic because I’m playing a tier 3 deck essentially and I’ve never played legacy in paper before. I ended up losing two win-and-ins in Legacy but was fine with my performance. Today though I told myself my goal is absolutely to make day 2 and have a good performance into day 2.
Round ½ - byes
Round 3 – vs. Weston (Humans)
G1 I am OTP and IoK to see something like 2 lands, 2 paths, Champion of the Parish, Hiearch and Pilgrim. I let out an inaudible groan as I’ve gotten a lot of reps online vs. Humans and it’s not a great matchup. I have some lands, snapcaster, push and Shadows s o I take a path, plan on snapcaster+discard the other path and slam a shadow after t3. Unfortunately he draws into Thalia and another path and screws up my plans. I ended up dying to dorky human beats lead by the Mayor and Champion
SB:
+1 TBR, +1 Anger, +1 Staticaster/+1 Last Hope (not sure about this – Mayor and Lieutenant invalidate these, but otherwise great)
-1 Scour (not great against Thalia, graveyard generally will fill itself interacting with them), 1 IoK (doesn’t hit CoCo), -2 KCommand (high cost card that doesn’t have too big of impact)
G2 Weston mulls to 6 and I IoK into Township, Township, Thicket, Champion, Hierarch, Cavern. I take the Hierarch and he basically doesn’t get to play the game as I remove all of his threats and beat down
G3 Weston again mulls to 6 and I IoK into Coco, Guardian of Thraben, Champion, Path, Reflector, land. I have a hand without threats but ~3 lands, snapcaster, push SV. I take the Thaila but he draws a land+another Thalia and we start trading resources. Late in the game I’m at the game state of empty battlefield. He has 3 lands in play and I know he has Coco+x. I am at 4 and fire off a Thoughtseize hoping to take Coco but then I see it’s Coco+Reflector mage. My hand is Scour+TBR+SV and after thinking for a while I realize I have to take Reflector Mage and hope he bricks on land. Next turn I play a 11/11 DS and an Angler and he draws another Coco+Thalia. He’s at 18 and I attack with both (a small mistake to attack with both, as if he pathed my TBR’d Thaila and take Gurmy’s damage I’d be dead). I Battle Rage onto the DS FTW.
3-0 (2-1)
Round 4 vs. Steve Rubin
I recognize his name as a MTG pro and I begin bracing for a tough battle. When the round starts ,however, he is not here. I start googling and realize he was 10-1 in the Sealed event at the time and therefore unlikely to come. I count my blessings and take the free win
4-0 (N/A)
Round 5 vs. Guillermo Hernandez (Affinity)
A nice Mexican fellow. G1 He is OTP and spews out Welding Jar, Blinkmoth and Vault Skirge. I thoughtseize to see Ravager, plating, Inkmoth, Master. I have a hand of Kcommand, 2nd land, threats and 1 push. I take the Plating but then he slams another Plating and start giving me the business. I never see the third land and die a horrible death
SB:2 Rejection, +1 Staticaster, +1 TBR, +1 Kcommand, +1 Anger
-4 Wraiths
-3 Denial
G2 I keep fetch, Tasigur, Scour, Push, KCommand, Seize and SV. Questionable but I keep. I lead with SV and line up a second land. He plays t1 Skirge+Blinkmoth+Mox Opal. T2 I thoughtseize him again to see: Thoughtseize (I think I was better off SVing to line up lands) and see Plating, Champion, Plating, Overseer, Negate (?!), land and Skirge. I take the Champion and plan on never letting him connect with a creature. He t2 Overseer. T3 I draw the second KCommand and though that’s great I wanted to see the third land. I push the Overseer at this point. Next turn he plays and equips plating and puts him to 6. At this point he has 4 mana available and I know he has the negate. I only have a terminate and if I let him untap he has negate him and lethal. Not sure if there’s a mistake for him to make him but I terminate on my turn and he untaps, equips his Blinkmoth and attacks FTW and I die with 3 Kcommands in hand.
4-1 (0-2)
Round 6: vs. Tyler (Affinity)
G1 I am on the play and he mulls to 6. I grown inside when I play IoK and see it’s another Affinity matchup: Champion, drums, opal, overseer, ravager, overseer. An ambitious keep, for sure, but a keep that is a card away from being very good. I take the drums and he never sees another land or gets to play Magic
SB: Same as round 5
G2: He mulls to 6 again and plays Spire Opal Ornithopter go. I IoK again to see RIP, Plating, and Blood Moon. My hand is full of Shadows rather than Delve creatures and I can fetch for basics so I just take Plating. He again does not get to play Magic and I breathe a sigh of relief
5-1 (2-0)
At this point I am bemoaning the fact that I haven’t gotten any good matchups so far (other than the bye!) and am hoping to see a Sleight of Hand played vs. me.
Round 7: vs. Jeffrey (Elves)
G1 he is on the play and he leads with Gilt leaf into Heritage Druid. Great. I t1 IoK to see: Canopy, Chord, Devoted Druid, Dwynen’s Elite, Cavern. I take the Elite as I had a push in hand. He plays a t2 druid and doesn’t draw much else. I end up pushing the Druid, Thoughtseizing away his Chord, play a Tasigur and proceed to put him into the Abyss.
SB: +2 brutality +1 Anger +1 Last Hope (this may be too slow OTD? Not sure) +1 Staticaster +1 TBR
-1 IoK -2 Wraith -2 KCommand -1 Scour
G2 he mulls to 6 and leads on t1 Heritage Druid again. I thoughtseize to see: Shaman of the Pack, Ewitness, Devoted Druid, Coco. I take the DD to deny him acceleration. He’s stuck on a land for a bit but eventually puts me to 4. I brutality/snap brutality to get rid of the Ewitness/Coco for good. I anger away the on-board Shaman and Nettle Sentinel and put him into the Abyss for the win.
2-0 (6-1)
I was ecstatic to have made day 2 vs. a set of matchups I didn’t consider to be favorable at all. I turn my focus back to playing tight after a brief moment of celebration as I know there’s still a long road ahead
Round 8: vs. Austin Johnson (Bushwhacker zoo)
While shuffling he inadvertently flashes a Burning Tree Emissary and I let out another inaudible grown. Bushwhacker Zoo is extremely aggressive and hard to interact in time.
G1 He is OTP and mulls to 5, scrying bottom. He has a very creature light hand and only hits me with Goblin Guide a few times. I take control with a few removals and win with Tasigur+snapcaster
SB: +2 brutality (killing a GG+taking away Atarka’s/Boros Charm/Path/Palm seems good)
+1 Anger (very questionable and slow but Wraiths are horrible in this matchup)
+1 TBR
+1 LotV (pretty bad but at least I’m on the play and it’s a 3 mana removal at worst and better than wraiths)
-4 Wraiths
-1 Thoughtseize
G2: I see a 4 land IoK TS SV hand which simply doesn’t work. My 6 card hand is 3 lands, denial, Thoughtseize and IoK. Not what I wanted but I didn’t think I can go to 5 from this (which begs the question as to whether the 7 card hand was keepable). He has a t1 nacatl. I draw a DS and IoK into Atarka’s Command, Foundry, Nacatl, Nacatl, Path. I take the Nacatl and deny him a potential turn of land into double Nacatl, planning on taking the Path with Thoughtseize after . He plays a single Nacatl and attacks me with the t1 Nacatl. I draw a TBR next turn, Thoughtseize away the Path and play a 2/2 DS. He attacks me with his two 3/3 Nacatls, I block and go to 8. He is at 15 and I have a fetchland, so I fetch to 5 and TBR FTW.
7-1 (2-0)
I again feel very fortunate to have beaten tough matchups, and am beginning to think I can make a deep run in this event.
Round 8: vs. Austin Johnson (?!) (Mardu midrange)
I did a double take when I saw the pairing, but then I saw a four digit number after his name and realize there’s more than one Austin Johnsons in the tournament. I greet my opponent and we laugh at the pairings and how I’ve already met his evil twin. He is playing his first Grand Prix and remarks that he is playing some sort of a review. I shuffle and present in eager anticipation as to what it is
G1 Austin is OTP and plays an Arid Mesa. I play a discard and see: Plains, Crypt, Bob, Dreadbore, Bolt, Push. Seems like a Rakdos or Mardu midrange. I take the Dreadbore as I have a push already. The game is unexciting but ends in an awful manner for me. I’m at 8 with a shadow and he EoT Bolt, untap bolt+Helix. Interesting.
While sideboarding, I’m not aware what the threat base a Mardu midrange deck typically has. It completely escaped me that they may very well be playing Pyromancer/Mentor (I saw neither). As a result, I boarded in as I would vs a grindy matchup
SB: +2 brutality,
+1 LotV,
+1 Last Hope,
+1 KCommand
-2 Wraiths
-2 Denials
G2 I play a discard into: Mentor, Helix, Blessed Alliance, Swamp, Mire, Mesa, Push. I am blindsided by the mentor and realize that he must be running Pyromancer too and lament the fact that I didn’t even consider Staticaster/Anger. I take the Mentor as I have no answers. I get into a weird stalemate where He has a mentor out with a known push, and I have a 4/4 DS in play and Push+KCommand in the hand. My DS is being brickwalled by mentor tokens and I have not been making any headway. I cannot Kcommand the Mentor for its Prowess and I would not be able to Kcommand back a DS from the inevitable push. I do not draw a fetchland or a terminate and he eventually casts a Young Pyromancer. I have to remove it with KCommand and get less than ideal value from it. I end up getting overrun by tokens
7-2 (0-2)
A decent Day 1 with byes, but I continued to lament the fact that I should’ve seen through the Mardu matchup and that I didn’t consider Anger/staticaster. But x-2 is still decent and I could put myself in position for a big finish tomorrow.
Sunday
Round 10: vs. Leo (Jund)
A nice fellow Canadian and we make some small talk before starting. I t1 discard to see: Scooze, bob, LotV, Maelstrom Pulse, Blackcleave Cliffx3. That is a lot of goodies. I take the LotV as my hand would not be able to beat her. I expect the modified Jund (4 pushes, minimal bolts) to be slightly favored vs. Grixis Shadows. However in this game I have enough answers for his removals and ride my Gurmag to victory
SB: +1 Anger (Scooze, Bob, potential huntmaster)
+2 Nihil Spellbomb
+1 LotV
+1 Last Hope
+1 Kolaghan’s Command
-3 Denials
-3 Wraiths
G2 He greets me with a t0 Leyline of the Void and I barely get to play
G3 I play a t2 discard to see: Swamp catacomb fulminator Bob Scooze Scooze Terminate. I take the terminate but he draws into a bunch more removals even after I remove the Bob and I again don’t get to play much and get junded out
7-3 (0-2)
R11 vs Mason (Blue Moon)
G1 he is OTP and is on an innocuous start of island, Ancestral Vision into steam vents untapped. I just automatically process that as Jeskai control/flash/tempo but am in for a rude awakening when he slams a t3 blood moon – it never even occurred to me as a possibility. I should’ve occurred to me that Jeskai Control typically does not play Ancestral Vision and prefer to play a tempo/burn out game. Blood Moon gets me good. I do see a main deck Roast.
SB: +1 Denial
+2 Brutality
+1 LotV
+1 Last Hope
+1 Kolaghan’s Command
-4 Push
-2 Wraiths
G2 I see Island, Island, Spell Snare, Relic, Relic, Cryptic, Blood moon t1 and take Moon. I have a LotV that I can slam if I can draw one land within 2 draw steps. I don’t find it on curve but slam a t4 LotV. Unfortunately he had drawn a Mana Leak in between that. We end up playing a grindy game trading counters and threats. I start beating down with Snapcaster But there is an end step of mine where he bolts me down from 7 to 4 with just one red mana available. Alarm bells are going off as I think he must have drawn a Snapcaster. I stop attacking with Snapcaster in the fear of snap+Bolt eot (he did have the snapcaster). There is a sequence of brutality pitching a card getting remanded, then brutality pitching a card getting snap+cryptic Commanded. I cannot recover and end up getting out-controlled.
7-4 (0-2)
That was a bad loss I think in a matchup that is definitely winnable. Not feeling too great at the day’s start
R12: vs. John (Grixis Shadow)
A real cool dude to talk to and finally the mirror I was expecting. Not much to say about these three games. G1 and G2 were your typical grindy matches. G3 I see a hand of Leyline, fetch, spellbomb, DS, Tasigur, Thoguhtseize, Terminate. If I draw a land this hand is pretty nutty. I slam my Leyline t0 and proceed to never see another land in 6 turns and I die a horrible death to his 6/6 Death’s Shadow
7-5 (1-2)
Really not feeling great now especially losing g3 with a reasonable hand with Leyline. I was admittedly getting pretty tilty.
R13: vs. Robert (Bant Spirits)
G1 is not much of a game. He slams double Droskol captain and their synergies are too much
SB: +1 Anger
+1 TBR
+1 LotV
+1 Last Hope
-1 Scour
-3 Wraiths (I don’t like Wraiths in agro matchups. Flyers are a nightmare for Grixis Shadows)
G2 we grind each other out and we arrive at an interesting board state where I made a huge mistake:
Opponent (14 life, 2 lands, Tapped Rattlechain, Untapped Bird. His hand is known as Path, Queller, Engineered Explosives and Captain)
Me (5/5 DS, 10 card graveyard, tapped swamp, watery grave, Steam Vents, Polluted Delta with a Tasigur+Angler in hand)
My opponent announced go to damages? After I attack with my DS. I should’ve taken the free 5 damages (I suspect he was saving path for a delve fatty and use his EE to destroy the shadow. Instead I fetch to 5 like an idiot and now he paths. Stupid me… My second mistake was fetching a Vents in case I draw an anger but I should’ve fetched a Crypt. Now I could not cast double delve fatties.
There was also the question of who I push. I am now at 5 facing down a Rattlechain and a Bird while he’s at 14. My inclination was to push Bird, hope he never draws a hand, and leave him without answers for my Delve fatties that would win the race vs. his Rattlechain. My opponent later said I should’ve Pushed the Rattlechain as that’d force him to take a turn off to play a threat or answer my DS. That is true but I think Pushing the bird and praying he doesn’t draw the land had the highest upside. The moment he untapped he’d be able to deploy a queller or captain and overwhelm me in the air. Still unsure on what the best move was but I’m comfortable with my decision to Push the bird (didn’t matter in the end because I had fetched a Vents and could not play both of my delve threats). As played, he drew his land anyway and I died a horrible death in the air
7-6 (0-2)
I’d now lost my last 5 matches in a row and I’d argue all of them were even/unfavorable matchups. I lament my luck but realize that I am beginning to play looser and tell myself to hold it together and play the last few rounds tightly and go home with at least a winning record
R14: vs. Jay (Burn)
G1 I keep a 2 land hand with DS, wraith, push, Gurmag, Push. I cycle/fetch to 15 digging for t1 action and do not find any. I am then greeted with a Swifty->GGx2 start and I am quickly down to 12. I cast a 1/1 shadow and take a GG hit, block a GG and push a swifty. I end up stabilizing as I draw another DS and play Gurmag and he shows me a hand of all lands
SB: +1 Denial
+2 Brutality
+1 TBR
+1 LotV (not great in this matchup but wraiths are infinitely worse and arguably worse cutting one kcommand for)
G2 Both mulls to 6. I keep a risky DS, 3xDenial, swamp, crypt hand and bottom a snap. I need any blue source to make this hand good. He has a t0 Leyline… of sancitity (?!). He feeds me a steady diet of dorks and burn but I eventually find a Watery Grave. I slam a 5/5 shadow with swamp, grave and crypt in play. He paths it twice and things are looking bad as I go to 2. I had also stupidly scried an IoK top when he has leylines. We end up on an empty board and I have to fade a million topdecks at 2. Thankfully his business spells off the top are creatures which I have terminates/Kcommands for. I put my shield down for a turn and snap+SV into a DS. He doesn’t draw the winning spell and I ride the DS+Snap with Denial backup to victory
8-6 (2-0)
R15: vs. Travis (Affinity)
Felt very fitting that the last round was vs. an archetype I had dismissed/felt OK to skimp hate on. G1 and G2 were pretty standard. G1 he does Affinity things and I get got. T2. I outcontrol him and stabilize at 3 while running him out of threats and his Plating looks very lonely. G3 is an interesting one where he slams an early Champion and puts me down to 10. I slam two shadows and we get in a weird Mexican standoff where he has a champion with plating (4 total power) but he needs to keep up lands to provide metalcraft for the Etched Champion and attacking me would result in his death on the crackback. He eventually finds another etched champion and attacks me down to 6, holding back the champion with the plating. I am at 6, he is at 18 and has a champion plus a potential blinkmoth activation. Thoughtseize an empty hand, fetch+shock down to one. Attack, TBR, game.
SB: Same as before
Final record: 9-6 (2-1)
Conclusion:
*My opponents were Humans, Affinity, Bushwhacker Zoo, Elves, Affinity, Mardu, Jund, Grixis Shadow, Spirits, Blue Moon, and Affinity. Arguably only Blue Moon was a favorable matchup for me
*The old adages turned true: When (graveyard/artifact) hate is skimped, (dredge/affinity) comes out of nowhere and crushes. Also, everyone plays Affinity in paper.
*TBR did a lot of work for me and I would not think of cutting one
*Leyline is still questionable, but I think a single Leyline in this meta makes a lot of sense. I will be continuing to test with this configuration.
*the 17 land, 4 sleight build that Ari Lax piloted is interesting, but I’m going to need to test more to see if it’s better. I don’t see it as a delver-esq tempo deck, but a midrange deck with a switch. I value the top end of KCommand+Snapcaster, and believe this configuration is better than the Sleight build. Who knows though.. Will keep testing
*I think it’s mandatory we re-include a bolt or two. Mirran Crusader is not beatable for us, plus with the dorky company/creature decks running rampant there’s not a huge cost to playing a few bolts
*I saw the Dismember in Owen Turtenwald’s list. It’s not bad, but I believe you’d often reach a point where you have to cast it for 3 or snapcaster it back for 5. It also misses on a lot of Shadows, Titans and other random shenanigans. I prefer the Terminate
*3 Denials main may be too much. I may add a Liliana in the main deck
TLDR: Second Grand Prix experience, played Death’s shadow to a 7-1 start, then 2-5 finish. Good times were still had, deck is still powerful, and deck has the tools to adapt to the changing metagame
Thanks for reading.
Moving forward I'm looking to try out 2 Spellbombs, 1 Graf Cage and maybe 1 Anger in the side. I've already been convinced to go to 3 Sleights and added back another Vents in the main so this could end up working. Let me know your thoughts on Surgicals and how wrong I am.
URB Some variant of Death's Shadow
URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version)
JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / InfectCommander/EDH
This pile of cards when I feel like it
Death's Shadow discord link
UBR Grixis Shadow UBR
UR Izzet Phoenix UR
UW UW Control UW
GB GB Rock GB
Commander
BG Meren of Clan Nel Toth BG
BGUW Atraxa, Praetor's Voice BGUW
I also don't believe Extraction is that good vs. Storm, but I could be wrong.