Four mana can also be hard to achieve in this deck, even though sometimes you just drown in lands. Leyline can be OK against opponent's with delve creatures even then so I don't write it off entirely.
I'm currently testing 2 Surgical Extractions in place of the 2 Nihil Spellbombs I used to run and I'm surprised how much I miss ruining other people's graveyards in a drive-by manner instead of waiting for that perfect moment for Surgical Extraction. It also triggers revolt, which can be relevant from time to time.
Rakdos Charm is the best GY hate for us IMHO. Them not being able to see it coming is a HUGE benefit over Spellbomb. Also, it's a house against Affinity and Lantern because it has other modes. I have used the last mode as a 2 mana Lava Axe against Abzan Company, so that's a thing as well.
Hey guys, i'm rather new to grixis shadow... switched from the 4c color recently and would like some feedback on my list and SB plan! Any help is appreciated!
ps: Those are the matches I usually face on my LGS!
ps2: Sorry for any grammar mistake, english is not my native language (:
I like Rakdos Charm too, but it costs two mana and a card. Nihil Spellbomb wracks the Ulvenwald engine with little investment and it doesn't suck to draw multiple copies. I used to run up to 3 Rakdos Charms in my old Grixis Deck before Tron got the Eldrazi, so I have quite a bit experience with the card.
Hey guys, i'm rather new to grixis shadow... switched from the 4c color recently and would like some feedback on my list and SB plan! Any help is appreciated!
ps: Those are the matches I usually face on my LGS!
ps2: Sorry for any grammar mistake, english is not my native language (:
You definitely want the 4th Stubborn Denial in the sideboard, the card is pretty nuts. I would probably cut one of the Echoing Truths for it. Other than that, your list looks good!
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
Siding out Fatal Push against UR Storm is suicide. You need to kill their mana reducers because they have a secondary win condition in Empty the Warrens. So controlling their graveyard will not be enough. Plus, they can cast Remand for U if you try to interfere with their combo, so countermagic tends to become unreliable once they have a mana reducer in play and a few mana open. Collective Brutality is sluggish on the draw and kills only one of their two mana reducers. You can't afford to tap out in the early game after boarding, because they will have sided in 2 Blood Moons which they can cast as early as turn 2 with one of their 8 rituals. This will usually win them the game and is another reason why Stubborn Denial is so important.
Pg.32, I did a summary of how to sideboard against the most prominent archetypes in Modern. If you don't see what you want in it, ask for specific match-ups.
Guys, just read the topic.
TBH I used your guide to try figure out my SB plan! Thanks!
You definitely want the 4th Stubborn Denial in the sideboard, the card is pretty nuts. I would probably cut one of the Echoing Truths for it. Other than that, your list looks good!
Yea I'm looking for a spot to put another one, I don't know if cutting Echoing Truths now ( post gp and scg) that players on my LGS are boarding Leyline of The Void, just because of those events... Maybe I will cut Echoing Truths for one, just to have an out. Thanks!
You only have Living End as a GY based deck and you have 4 gy hate spells on your GY. Living End doesn't seem that great of a matchup for you to board in Surgical Extraction, but I'm not that experienced with the card.
You have a WR Prison deck where the Echoing Truths are good but I don't really enjoy the card that much.
If I were you I'd find room for the 4th Denial and probably another counter or two. They would help on the Burn, EldraTron, Gx Tron, Storm, TitanShift, Ad Nauseam, Living End. Basically these matchups you need counters and TBR (imo). If you pay attention on your boarding plan as is, you board in your sideboard Denial in many matchups, this might be indicative that you need more!
LtLH is great for BGx, Affinity, D&T, WR Prison (I guess...). These are the same matchups where you bring Staticaster for, maybe you could change the Staticaster for another Liliana and improve the Ux Control matchup (that you don't list there) at the same time.
There are some people here that advocate the use of Surgical Extraction you could wait for them to offer advice on its uses.
About those surgicals, it's good to just wreck their combo. I would like to have some input if I should SB more 1 Stubborn and maybes Dispels or Negates ( I don't have countersqualls right now)...
Izzet Staticaster, I see her like a worst versions of lili that can be played and instant speed... She is there mostly aganist Lingering Souls , since LltLH can deal with one at a time , even thought she can grind way more, they can work well together! My main concern is which cards to cut to bring more counter magic!
Given that the 4IOK/2Seize is a typo, and you meant the opposite...
Control, IS the worst mu for this deck. Wraithpk already answered you, and you can find notes from myself about how to face them in the previous pages of the topic. Anyway,if you face lots of Controls, it may be time to take a break from Shadow strategies. Or, alternatively, I suggest you packing more grindy cards between main/sb: 2 Liliana TLH are a given, because they are what it lets you play the long game against Control (otherwise, you're forced to play the usual Tempo game, which isn't the best when facing Supreme Verdict). Fulminator Mage are fine, because they're a threath which answer Colonnade, but I don't like having them in the side. Play more Kommand, more counters, more discard... actually, even Surgical IS good, because stripping a Verdict with Seize/CBrutality from their hand and extracting it means you can overextend without any issue. I would bring in Spreading Seas if you have any.
Merfolks, I'm on a winning streak against them. If they aren't packing Chalice of the Void (most lists don't) you're even favoured, given the amount of removal you play... and here's where the problem lies: you seems short on them. I would always play at least the fourth Push, and probably also the second Bolt). Can't say how this much changes things (I also remember @Spooly considering this mu slighly negative) but I found it quite easy if you can target their Spreading Seas and Silvergil Adept before they can cast it, or on the stack. You have to play the control role, here, and keeping killing&countering threats in the first turns of the game. Don't lose life from your lands, because their Catchers will do that for you. Start beating the opponent only when you answered their board.
Affinity, it's a bizarre match-up. I consider it fifty-fifty, but you can implement it a lot if you're prepared to face it (a good sideboard). The issue against them are three: a) they can just close the game faster, resolving a Cranial Plating. You can't kill all of their threats, so discard/destroy/counter Platz, or you will lose; b) Etched Champion is a beating. They block Shadow all the day, so be sure to have Tendrils/Return in your sideboard, c) they sometimes have that turn2 Blood Moon post-side, it just happens. Additionally, it's not so simple keeping discards alive against them, but on the other hand you want some even after sideboard, because Moon & Champion are that much of a issue, yes.
I'm not sure control is the worst matchup for the deck. Maybe dredge. It also depends on the control deck. UW Control I seem to have not much trouble beating. It's not favorable, but it feels fairly close to even. Grixis Control is the real problem. Against UW you can just go to 2 life after you strip their hand and kill them in 2 turns. And if they topdeck you, you're still relatively safe from dying. Just don't let a Secure the Wastes resolve. Against Grixis, you always have to keep in mind they can bolt + snap + bolt you out of the game. And they have Creeping Tar pit. Not that any of these control decks are actually *good* and merit much SB consideration. Just bring in grindy cards and take your lumps.
I'm coming around on Merfolk. It still feels unfavorable to me, but I've been winning against it a bit more. I'm not sure if it's variance or if I'm learning how to play against it better.
Agree on affinity. About 50/50, depending on how many SB cards you have, and Etched Champion is the real problem.
You only have Living End as a GY based deck and you have 4GY hate spells on your SB. Living End doesn't seem that great of a matchup for you to board in Surgical Extraction, but I'm not that experienced with the card.
...
There are some people here that advocate the use of Surgical Extraction you could wait for them to offer advice on its uses.
As long as you're running enough countermagic, Surgical is great vs. Living End. Counter a Living End, then Surgical them, and suddenly you're playing against an underpowered midrange deck with some land destruction. If you're not running enough countermagic, it's probably not very good.
I don't board Surgical in as much as most. I don't really like it in the mirror or vs. most control or grindy decks, but against any deck where you can counter/discard a key piece and then Surgical it, I'm interested. I haven't liked it vs. Storm though because it doesn't disrupt Past in Flames much unless they give you priority with the card in their graveyard, which doesn't always happen. I tend to have a Kozilek's Return in that last slot. But I should try Surgical out here more just to learn.
If I were to go back to Grixis (without Disenchant&Purge) I'll probably pack some too in my sideboard. Against Storm is also very useful, because it answers both a resolved Blood Moon and tokens from Empty the Warrens. But it's mainly because of Leyline&Rest_in_Peace. Ah, I'll add: it's very strong against Dredge, if anyone failed to notice that.
That's a good point about Echoing Truth. I'm much more interested in trying it out now.
By the way, I gave Esper another try earlier this week on mtgo. 5-0ed my first league and got excited, then 2-3, 2-3, 1-3. With Grixis I 3-2 or better pretty consistently, though it's been awhile since I've 5-0ed. Not that I'm basing the comparison purely off records. The long and short of it is that I don't like Path - it makes you weaker to Chalice, often doesn't save you vs. Primeval Titan out of the GR Valakut decks where Terminate does, is often awkward early against aggro (especially burn) where you need to slow them down so you can get a fatty into play to kill them, and either makes your Leaks worse or forces you to MD Deprives instead which makes aggro even harder. Also, I much prefer having access to K Command as incidental artifact destruction than something like Disenchant which is more dedicated and more likely to be dead if they don't have a target. Next thing I'm trying is Grixis + green / Sultai + red that looks something like this:
Plus lands and interaction (red for Terminate, K Command, and K Return at least). The basic idea is to build a version of the deck that has the least amount of cards that need help to be good - just raw power, plus the Death's Shadow shell. So no Traverse, trim delve fatties, etc Plus, we still play Snapcaster Mage because instant speed Demonic Tutor is incredible. Though maybe I need to have a couple Scour in there in order to keep that up, but I really like having 2/3 of the cantrips not actually cost mana so we can cantrip while also interacting / casting threats. Also, getting access to enchantment removal is good.
Kozlak, your win percentage against Eldrazi Tron is higher than mine. Would you explain how you play out that matchup?
Kozilek's Return is also a lot better against merfolk than Anger of the Gods as long as you keep them from getting two lords on the board, which should be your plan anyway. Instant speed can be helpful, being able to hit Master of the Waves and Mutavault is huge and the friendlier mana cost helps playing around Spreading Seas.
Anger of the Gods is much better against Dredge, though. I'm not so worried about Merfolk and Affinity, because our spot removal shines against them. I find game 1 against Dredge nearly unwinnable, so having access to Anger of the Gods in game 2 and 3 helps a lot. If I read your data right, you dodged Dredge for the most part, but this won't last forever.
What's your reasoning behind not including Liliana in your list? Without her, how do you deal with Lingering Souls in the mirror?
I also noticed that you tracked both "Shadow Jund" and "Jund Shadow", which looks like an oversight.
Thanks for the Jund Shadow > Shadow Jund debacle. I guess "Death's Shadow Jund" is how it was most commonly named, but in the spirit of consistency I moved it all to Jund Shadow.
In the Eldrazi Tron matchup, I think how your sideboard is built makes a huge difference. 3 Fulminators + 2 Rejections add a lot of win % in that matchup.
I would say basic gist of it is that Chalice is the most important card. Discard or Counterspells are the easiest answers, or if on the play, we can just let it resolve and destroy it with Kommand on our 3rd turn, which is not awful if we already dropped a threat on turn 2.
Objective is to have the following development:
Keep or Mull: we need at least either 1 discard, or a counter; + a way to put a fast threat on the board, preferably a Delve threat so the Denials become Negates.
On the play:
Turn 1: Discard (aiming to discard Chalice > Map > Dismember, unless we don't have removal and they will have a fast big dumb creature, then we can discard those) > Serum > Thoughtscour
Turn 2: Play a threat OR keep countermagic up if we didn't discard on turn 1.
Turn 3: Play a threat if we didn't on turn 2 OR Fulminator and kill a temple or Tron piece.
Turn 4: Repeat turn 3
On the draw:
Turn 1: Discard > Keep up countermagic > Thoughtscour on end step
Turn 2: If we didn't discard and they didn't play Chalice, play a threat and proceed as if they don't have it (if you have a counter do still keep up mana for it after playing the creature, since Dismember can make our clock too clunky).
Turn 3: Fulminator > more Threats
That's the typical idea, and it usually makes the matchup very favorable.
Kozilek's Return is one of the next probably upgrades. It is unfortunately pretty expensive for a card which isn't a strict upgrade since in CoCo and Dredge matchups the 3 damage and exile can be very relevant.
Liliana is another case of being expensive. I haven't had THAT much trouble against Lingering Souls yet, even in the mirror. It is OK when behind, but if I have 2 big threats, putting 4 1/1 in the field only buys 2 turns while putting you down a card essentially. On parity it is great, but since they never trade and offer a slow clock, a single Death's Shadow can alpha by killing whatever blockers you decided to leave and dealt 8+ damage.
I'm not arguing that Lingering Souls is not gas, I'm just saying its not THAT big of a threat at this point in the meta.
After reading all your concerns, opinions and rereading BloodyRabbit_01 post at pg 32. I came with a new SB plan and switched 1 Terminate for 1 Deprive MB , any thoughts ? Should I swap the mana base , for 2 Steam Vents instead of 2 Blood Crypts ?
Another question , for those splashing White, is it really worth ? In my LGS I have to face Ponza sometimes... Splashing White seems really greedy :(!
What are your thoughts on the Control matchup? In my experience, Affinity, Merfolk and Ux Control are the three worst matchups (Check my results over 120 tracked matches); and Control is the only archetype where I am not sure how to win.
If we wanted to beat Merfolk or Affinity more consistently, the hate cards are pretty self explanatory: we would run more artifact removal, more wraths (I'm not playing Kozilek's Return, which sounds like a huge upgrade to Anger of the Gods in the Affinity matchup), etc. But what is the answer to a pile of removals and better late game bombs? Trying to go under is the only guess I have come up with, but a ~20% win rate means its probably not the right answer.
I think your sample sizes are still too small to say anything. Affinity is not a bad matchup. Outside of a resolved Champion you should be able to just kill all their stuff and beat them. On the other hand, you have a really good winrate against Burn, which is not a favorable matchup for us. You're definitely right about control being bad, though. That might be our worse.
In the matches I've won against control, it's been when I had a lot of discard to pick off all their removal and an early threat to kill them before they found more. That's how you beat them, you have to tempo them out. Trying to play for a long grindy game is a losing proposition, because they will out-card advantage you in the long run. You want all your discard, so board in your Brutalities. You also want all your Denials. In your list, I would board in the Fulminators just cause they are additional threats that net you a 2-for-1 when they eventually have to try to kill it, but I really don't like Fulminator in the deck, Liliana is just better and is a good way to beat control. They only have Detention Sphere and Cryptics to stop her once she resolves. I would board out your battle rage, terminates, pushes, and bolt. Also, you should play 4 Thoughtseize and 2 Inquisition, Thoughtseize is the best card in the deck.
I find that every time I have any kind of discussion on matchups here or in Reddit, people confound personal perception with reality.
Affinity has not been a favorable matchup in my experience with how my deck is built. Sample size might be small (I'm ways away from 500 matches played against every deck) but it is still better than 'what I remember', or 'what I think happened'. I have a pet peeve with people who make claims like "This is / is not a bad matchup" with no back up whatsoever other than it being their own personal opinion. If you know of anyone tracking thousands of matches with the deck I'ld love to see the data.
That being said, I do agree that Burn is probably not as favorable as it looks in my numbers. I think its a deck that is played by a lot of new players, some even budget conscious, that play poorly in this matchup especially. With 2 good pilots, the matchup is probably 45-55 for them or 50-50.
On the control matchup front, yeah, its rough. Discard is complicated because discarding a removal and leaving a snap feels awful, and the other way around means we get delayed.
Affinity has not been a favorable matchup in my experience with how my deck is built. Sample size might be small (I'm ways away from 500 matches played against every deck) but it is still better than 'what I remember', or 'what I think happened'. I have a pet peeve with people who make claims like "This is / is not a bad matchup" with no back up whatsoever other than it being their own personal opinion. If you know of anyone tracking thousands of matches with the deck I'ld love to see the data.
That being said, I do agree that Burn is probably not as favorable as it looks in my numbers. I think its a deck that is played by a lot of new players, some even budget conscious, that play poorly in this matchup especially. With 2 good pilots, the matchup is probably 45-55 for them or 50-50.
On the control matchup front, yeah, its rough. Discard is complicated because discarding a removal and leaving a snap feels awful, and the other way around means we get delayed.
How are the games going against Affinity for you? In my experience, if they have a god hand there's just nothing we can do, but if they have a more normal hand we often have enough removal to control their board and then start attacking them. The exception to this is when they resolve a Champion, which I prioritize picking with Thoughtseize. You can also change one of your Angers to a Kozilek's Return if you want a little more play in the Affinity matchup. I don't think it's a great matchup, it's probably somewhere around 50/50, so I think your 25% is mostly small sample size.
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
Just a thing to consider against Storm: Keep an uncracked fetch at the ready. If they go for Past in Flames with mana up for the flashback you can crack a fetch, and with the fetch ability on the stack, counter the PiF and then surgical it from the yard. Since there is an ability on the stack for the duration, they can't flash it back since it's a Sorcery (one requirement for casting a Sorcery is that the stack must be empty).
Just a thing to consider against Storm: Keep an uncracked fetch at the ready. If they go for Past in Flames with mana up for the flashback you can crack a fetch, and with the fetch ability on the stack, counter the PiF and then surgical it from the yard. Since there is an ability on the stack for the duration, they can't flash it back since it's a Sorcery (one requirement for casting a Sorcery is that the stack must be empty).
True! Works for any sorcery-speed spell with flashback. Could perhaps be relevant vs Dredge (faithless looting) also.
Granted, it is a fringe interaction, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep it in mind.
Cracking a fetch is irrelevant. If you have priority to crack a fetch, you have priority to cast Surgical Extraction. And if your opponent is good, they won't pass priority between casting the front and back halves of Lingering Souls. Or Past in Flames - if they have enough mana to cast both halves (sometimes they do).
I'm currently testing 2 Surgical Extractions in place of the 2 Nihil Spellbombs I used to run and I'm surprised how much I miss ruining other people's graveyards in a drive-by manner instead of waiting for that perfect moment for Surgical Extraction. It also triggers revolt, which can be relevant from time to time.
I'd much rather run a Grafdiggers Cage if Nihil Spellbomb isn't enough, even though it reduces the utility of my Snapcaster Mages.
Modern
WBR Mardu Midrange
UR Storm
Commander
WBR Queen Marchesa Stax
WUB Oloro, Ageless Ascetic Pillowfort
RRR Krenko, Mob Boss Chaos
ps: Those are the matches I usually face on my LGS!
ps2: Sorry for any grammar mistake, english is not my native language (:
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
TBH I used your guide to try figure out my SB plan! Thanks!
Yea I'm looking for a spot to put another one, I don't know if cutting Echoing Truths now ( post gp and scg) that players on my LGS are boarding Leyline of The Void, just because of those events... Maybe I will cut Echoing Truths for one, just to have an out. Thanks!
About those surgicals, it's good to just wreck their combo. I would like to have some input if I should SB more 1 Stubborn and maybes Dispels or Negates ( I don't have countersqualls right now)...
Izzet Staticaster, I see her like a worst versions of lili that can be played and instant speed... She is there mostly aganist Lingering Souls , since LltLH can deal with one at a time , even thought she can grind way more, they can work well together! My main concern is which cards to cut to bring more counter magic!
I'm not sure control is the worst matchup for the deck. Maybe dredge. It also depends on the control deck. UW Control I seem to have not much trouble beating. It's not favorable, but it feels fairly close to even. Grixis Control is the real problem. Against UW you can just go to 2 life after you strip their hand and kill them in 2 turns. And if they topdeck you, you're still relatively safe from dying. Just don't let a Secure the Wastes resolve. Against Grixis, you always have to keep in mind they can bolt + snap + bolt you out of the game. And they have Creeping Tar pit. Not that any of these control decks are actually *good* and merit much SB consideration. Just bring in grindy cards and take your lumps.
I'm coming around on Merfolk. It still feels unfavorable to me, but I've been winning against it a bit more. I'm not sure if it's variance or if I'm learning how to play against it better.
Agree on affinity. About 50/50, depending on how many SB cards you have, and Etched Champion is the real problem.
As long as you're running enough countermagic, Surgical is great vs. Living End. Counter a Living End, then Surgical them, and suddenly you're playing against an underpowered midrange deck with some land destruction. If you're not running enough countermagic, it's probably not very good.
I don't board Surgical in as much as most. I don't really like it in the mirror or vs. most control or grindy decks, but against any deck where you can counter/discard a key piece and then Surgical it, I'm interested. I haven't liked it vs. Storm though because it doesn't disrupt Past in Flames much unless they give you priority with the card in their graveyard, which doesn't always happen. I tend to have a Kozilek's Return in that last slot. But I should try Surgical out here more just to learn.
That's a good point about Echoing Truth. I'm much more interested in trying it out now.
By the way, I gave Esper another try earlier this week on mtgo. 5-0ed my first league and got excited, then 2-3, 2-3, 1-3. With Grixis I 3-2 or better pretty consistently, though it's been awhile since I've 5-0ed. Not that I'm basing the comparison purely off records. The long and short of it is that I don't like Path - it makes you weaker to Chalice, often doesn't save you vs. Primeval Titan out of the GR Valakut decks where Terminate does, is often awkward early against aggro (especially burn) where you need to slow them down so you can get a fatty into play to kill them, and either makes your Leaks worse or forces you to MD Deprives instead which makes aggro even harder. Also, I much prefer having access to K Command as incidental artifact destruction than something like Disenchant which is more dedicated and more likely to be dead if they don't have a target. Next thing I'm trying is Grixis + green / Sultai + red that looks something like this:
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Death's Shadow
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4 Serum Visions
4 Street Wraith
Plus lands and interaction (red for Terminate, K Command, and K Return at least). The basic idea is to build a version of the deck that has the least amount of cards that need help to be good - just raw power, plus the Death's Shadow shell. So no Traverse, trim delve fatties, etc Plus, we still play Snapcaster Mage because instant speed Demonic Tutor is incredible. Though maybe I need to have a couple Scour in there in order to keep that up, but I really like having 2/3 of the cantrips not actually cost mana so we can cantrip while also interacting / casting threats. Also, getting access to enchantment removal is good.
Thanks for the Jund Shadow > Shadow Jund debacle. I guess "Death's Shadow Jund" is how it was most commonly named, but in the spirit of consistency I moved it all to Jund Shadow.
In the Eldrazi Tron matchup, I think how your sideboard is built makes a huge difference. 3 Fulminators + 2 Rejections add a lot of win % in that matchup.
I would say basic gist of it is that Chalice is the most important card. Discard or Counterspells are the easiest answers, or if on the play, we can just let it resolve and destroy it with Kommand on our 3rd turn, which is not awful if we already dropped a threat on turn 2.
Objective is to have the following development:
Keep or Mull: we need at least either 1 discard, or a counter; + a way to put a fast threat on the board, preferably a Delve threat so the Denials become Negates.
On the play:
Turn 1: Discard (aiming to discard Chalice > Map > Dismember, unless we don't have removal and they will have a fast big dumb creature, then we can discard those) > Serum > Thoughtscour
Turn 2: Play a threat OR keep countermagic up if we didn't discard on turn 1.
Turn 3: Play a threat if we didn't on turn 2 OR Fulminator and kill a temple or Tron piece.
Turn 4: Repeat turn 3
On the draw:
Turn 1: Discard > Keep up countermagic > Thoughtscour on end step
Turn 2: If we didn't discard and they didn't play Chalice, play a threat and proceed as if they don't have it (if you have a counter do still keep up mana for it after playing the creature, since Dismember can make our clock too clunky).
Turn 3: Fulminator > more Threats
That's the typical idea, and it usually makes the matchup very favorable.
Kozilek's Return is one of the next probably upgrades. It is unfortunately pretty expensive for a card which isn't a strict upgrade since in CoCo and Dredge matchups the 3 damage and exile can be very relevant.
Liliana is another case of being expensive. I haven't had THAT much trouble against Lingering Souls yet, even in the mirror. It is OK when behind, but if I have 2 big threats, putting 4 1/1 in the field only buys 2 turns while putting you down a card essentially. On parity it is great, but since they never trade and offer a slow clock, a single Death's Shadow can alpha by killing whatever blockers you decided to leave and dealt 8+ damage.
I'm not arguing that Lingering Souls is not gas, I'm just saying its not THAT big of a threat at this point in the meta.
Another question , for those splashing White, is it really worth ? In my LGS I have to face Ponza sometimes... Splashing White seems really greedy :(!
I find that every time I have any kind of discussion on matchups here or in Reddit, people confound personal perception with reality.
Affinity has not been a favorable matchup in my experience with how my deck is built. Sample size might be small (I'm ways away from 500 matches played against every deck) but it is still better than 'what I remember', or 'what I think happened'. I have a pet peeve with people who make claims like "This is / is not a bad matchup" with no back up whatsoever other than it being their own personal opinion. If you know of anyone tracking thousands of matches with the deck I'ld love to see the data.
That being said, I do agree that Burn is probably not as favorable as it looks in my numbers. I think its a deck that is played by a lot of new players, some even budget conscious, that play poorly in this matchup especially. With 2 good pilots, the matchup is probably 45-55 for them or 50-50.
On the control matchup front, yeah, its rough. Discard is complicated because discarding a removal and leaving a snap feels awful, and the other way around means we get delayed.
Legacy: UWR Miracles [https://deckstats.net/decks/44442/1092831-uwr-miracles-2]
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
Granted, it is a fringe interaction, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep it in mind.
Cracking a fetch is irrelevant. If you have priority to crack a fetch, you have priority to cast Surgical Extraction. And if your opponent is good, they won't pass priority between casting the front and back halves of Lingering Souls. Or Past in Flames - if they have enough mana to cast both halves (sometimes they do).