I think they're going the route of Splinter Twin players, they may bluff what's coming in and out
I played a guy on mtgo and it seemed obvious he cut his creatures on the draw. On the the play for game 3 I shaved some removal in Jund and he played a creature.
I think cutting the terminates is reasonable, but we definitely don't want to go hog wild with siding out removal
So what else do we take out? Goblins = game over so I definitely want both Staticaster and K's Return (the latter hits Electromancer as well, for what it's worth).
Honestly, I think your sideboard is solid. You play 8 discard main, that's brutal right there. Maybe on the draw you can cut LOTV if you're worried about not being fast enough in favor of CB's to cast her (even though she's lights out if she ticks up twice)
If you see them siding in a suspicious amount of cards game 3 they may try to game you with the creature package.
I definitely need to practice this matchup more. Lost a game today because I let him put Grapeshot in his hand off of a Gifts, which allowed him to line up a bunch of rituals into Grapeshot - Remand - Grapeshot for double damage. Had he cast it off Past instead he wouldn't have been able to Remand it to his hand and he would have fallen 1 damage short..
Delirum is occasionally probelmatic, but not so much of a problem that I want to play bad cards to enable it. You just have to evaluate openers with Traverse carefully - will it be turned on quickly? If not, do you need it to be turned in quickly? Etc. Any time I side more than 2 Street Wraith out, I side out a Traverse too. And I leave 2 Street Wraith in vs. burn to try to keep it turned on.
I do also not want to play Tarfire, its just bad. But the thing is, that would mean we sometimes have to accept that delirium is not always enabled. My question is does this deck function that well without delirium? I feel its significantly weaker without delirium. Do you therefore aggressivley mull hands which are struggling to reach it? Or do you hope that you get there? What about hands like: Goyf, DS, 3 Fetches, Push and Decay? Do you keep it? I guess so, but deliirum might be hard to achieve here.
Absolutely keep. Delirium should not be a consideration when you're thinking about your opening hand unless you have a Traverse in your opener. Or if you have no threats in your opener and you know you'll need one quickly, so you want to make sure a topdecked Traverse is enabled. But if you need a threat quickly and don't have one, you should maybe mulligan anyway.
I disagree entirely. Grixis Shadow has the same problems as 5c with gy hate and mana denial. It might be slightly better or slightly worse depending on the specific hate and decks being played, but chances are if the format makes 5c Shadow a bad choice, Grixis is also probably a bad choice.
Some thoughts on the Storm matchup - I've played and discussed it a fair bit with arguably the best Storm player in the country and am seriously reevaluating the sideboarding plan.
Logic dictates that we take out removal and add Disdainful Strokes, but this seems wrong to me at this point. He said taking out his creatures isn't the way to go as the deck simply needs them to function. As such, the Gifts playset comes out in favor of Pieces of the Puzzle.
So what does Stroke hit in this scenario? Past in Flames and Empty the Warrens, which basically turns it into a Forked Bolt at instant speed.
As such, I think Stroke definitely shouldn't come in post-board. I think 2 terminates is as much as I want to cut from the removal suite, maybe another Decay. As such:
-2 Terminate, -1 Liliana of the Veil, -2 Push/Decay (depending on if you expect Blood Moon)
+1 Stubborn Denial, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Izzet Staticaster, +1 Kozilek's Return
Remember, Collective Brutality and Liliana are also removal for their dudes, and you still have 8 discard spells, so you can afford to cut several of the spot removal spells. I'm not sure if cutting a LotV is right if they leave dudes in, but it's fairly slow and you really want to make sure you can _efficiently_ interact - especially through Remand.
Edit: If I'm really unsure what they're going to do, the most risk averse plan is the one that assumes they have blood moon - Decays aren't the most efficient vs. their creatures, but they still kill them dead and protect you somewhat against Moon.
Yeah you need to know the lines they got in order to disrupt them. But overall I feel pretty confidant about the matchup given our discard, clock and counter abilities. Thats basically a nightmare scenario for them. But of course sometimes they still get there through disruption. It happens.
Yeah you need to know the lines they got in order to disrupt them. But overall I feel pretty confidant about the matchup given our discard, clock and counter abilities. Thats basically a nightmare scenario for them. But of course sometimes they still get there through disruption. It happens.
Yeah, they don't even need super crazy lines to beat us sometimes considering how low we go on life totals. I lost to 6 goblins today.
I disagree entirely. Grixis Shadow has the same problems as 5c with gy hate and mana denial. It might be slightly better or slightly worse depending on the specific hate and decks being played, but chances are if the format makes 5c Shadow a bad choice, Grixis is also probably a bad choice.
They do have the same problems, but I really think 5c Death Shadow is much more susceptible to both. If both decks have no gy then at least Grixis can cantrip into DS and they are able to hardcast delve creatures at some point. 5c deaths shadow has a bunch of useless 0/1s and they cant do anything with traverse. At this point the missing cantrips and filtering really hurt. And concerning mana denial it is clear that 5c colour is more susceptible. Grixis DS can cast every card in their deck with their basics and BM out for example. At least this was my experience playing the deck. GY hate really wrecked me hard. Not so with Grixis DS actually.
I disagree entirely. Grixis Shadow has the same problems as 5c with gy hate and mana denial. It might be slightly better or slightly worse depending on the specific hate and decks being played, but chances are if the format makes 5c Shadow a bad choice, Grixis is also probably a bad choice.
They do have the same problems, but I really think 5c Death Shadow is much more susceptible to both. If both decks have no gy then at least Grixis can cantrip into DS and they are able to hardcast delve creatures at some point. 5c deaths shadow has a bunch of useless 0/1s and they cant do anything with traverse. At this point the missing cantrips and filtering really hurt. And concerning mana denial it is clear that 5c colour is more susceptible. Grixis DS can cast every card in their deck with their basics and BM out for example. At least this was my experience playing the deck. GY hate really wrecked me hard. Not so with Grixis DS actually.
You have to keep one thing in mind though - why is there no graveyard? Leyline of the Void is a problem, I agree, but a RIP can be dealt with by 5c through Decay and delirium can be back online in a heartbeat. Once RIP hits the table against your Grixis deck, your graveyard is gone for the rest of the game. Good luck hardcasting an Angler against decks that play RIP.
Yes, the manabase in 5c is more fragile, that's simply the price you pay for raw power. If everything works the way it should, your opponents won't even get a chance to disrupt your manabase.
Again, Leyline is an issue and I've considered a Pulse in the side if it becomes more prevalent here.
I disagree entirely. Grixis Shadow has the same problems as 5c with gy hate and mana denial. It might be slightly better or slightly worse depending on the specific hate and decks being played, but chances are if the format makes 5c Shadow a bad choice, Grixis is also probably a bad choice.
They do have the same problems, but I really think 5c Death Shadow is much more susceptible to both. If both decks have no gy then at least Grixis can cantrip into DS and they are able to hardcast delve creatures at some point. 5c deaths shadow has a bunch of useless 0/1s and they cant do anything with traverse. At this point the missing cantrips and filtering really hurt. And concerning mana denial it is clear that 5c colour is more susceptible. Grixis DS can cast every card in their deck with their basics and BM out for example. At least this was my experience playing the deck. GY hate really wrecked me hard. Not so with Grixis DS actually.
You have to keep one thing in mind though - why is there no graveyard? Leyline of the Void is a problem, I agree, but a RIP can be dealt with by 5c through Decay and delirium can be back online in a heartbeat. Once RIP hits the table against your Grixis deck, your graveyard is gone for the rest of the game. Good luck hardcasting an Angler against decks that play RIP.
Yes, the manabase in 5c is more fragile, that's simply the price you pay for raw power. If everything works the way it should, your opponents won't even get a chance to disrupt your manabase.
Again, Leyline is an issue and I've considered a Pulse in the side if it becomes more prevalent here.
That is true, can't argue with that. To add though, when RIP doesn't come down in time, Tasigur/Gurmag will already be in play, and then RIP does nothing against Grixis as well (except Snapcaster, which is surely huge, no doubt). In 5c DS you want to have a graveyard all the time, which makes it attackable at all times. For Grixis it matters until you can delve, at least concerning threats.
I think for me the major difference lies in the opponent's ability to capitalize on our susceptibility to hate.
With Grixis, too often I felt like I had these powerful turn 1/2 plays that set me up for a strong finish by disrupting the opponent and allowing me to fill up my graveyard for a delve threat and going low enough on life that any subsequent Shadows would be a real threat... and then nothing happened because I couldn't find said threat. I'd scour into visions into opt, trying to find something that would get the job done, and in the meantime my opponent had time to recover and turn the tables.
There's just a lot of air in that deck, and it makes sense for it to be there because when GDS does what it's supposed to it feels like the most powerful deck in the format sometimes - but too often I felt like it was just spinning gears with nowhere to go.
With 5C I rarely ever feel like I'm just durdling away. Barring the occasional flood (yeah, it happens, Magic etc.), there's always something for me to do and even on an empty board I'm sometimes just a Bauble away from turning the game back around. Traverse just feels so powerful when Visions and Scour net me zero advantage in the moment.
Like someone said here before, Grixis is better for a midrange-heavy metagame and 5C seems better for the current uninteractive one where you just want to do your thing fast and hit them as hard as possible. Honestly though, I feel like both are ****ed against Abzan and you're better off just playing something else than Shadow decks if it's prevalent in your metagame.
I disagree entirely. Grixis Shadow has the same problems as 5c with gy hate and mana denial. It might be slightly better or slightly worse depending on the specific hate and decks being played, but chances are if the format makes 5c Shadow a bad choice, Grixis is also probably a bad choice.
They do have the same problems, but I really think 5c Death Shadow is much more susceptible to both. If both decks have no gy then at least Grixis can cantrip into DS and they are able to hardcast delve creatures at some point. 5c deaths shadow has a bunch of useless 0/1s and they cant do anything with traverse. At this point the missing cantrips and filtering really hurt. And concerning mana denial it is clear that 5c colour is more susceptible. Grixis DS can cast every card in their deck with their basics and BM out for example. At least this was my experience playing the deck. GY hate really wrecked me hard. Not so with Grixis DS actually.
As far as GY hate goes, it really depends on the hate. Start with the Goyf vs. delve creature comparison. Against RiP, Grixis can sometimes sneak a delve creature into play before it resolves, while Goyf is now an 0/1. Though 5c also has Decay to get back into business. Against Leyline of the Void Goyf is still a beater based on their GY, while the delve creatures are essentially never being cast. Against Nihil Spellbomb, again Goyf will still use the opponent's GY and in fact the opponent just gifted you an artifact. The delve creatures aren't stopped if a spellbomb can come down before you cast it, merely delayed, though sometimes for several turns. Against relic, you can play games with Thought Scour and filling your GY to get the opponent to blow their relic early, then cast a delve creature later. Relic doesn't stop Goyf from being cast, but it can severely hamper your ability to beat down. In sum, Goyf is better vs. Leyline and Spellbomb, while the delve creatures are better vs. RiP and Relic, though 5c has Decay to bail you out of RiP and Relic on occasion. Yes you can hardcast the delve creatures sometimes, but most GDS lists only have 6-7 lands that tap for mana. Some of them can never hardcast a Gurmag Angler to begin with, plus you have to contend with Thought Scour milling one or more of those lands, or something like Ghost Quarter out of the opponent's deck.
The next GY hate comparison is Traverse vs. Snapcaster. Against RiP and Leyline, both are turned off. Both are basically off vs. Relic, though it's easier to catch them tapped out and get value out of Snapcaster than it is with Traverse. Spellbomb is a little harsher on Traverse than it is on Snapcaster since it's easier to get one target to the graveyard post spellbomb crack than it is to get delirium again. When they're off, Snapcaster is a little better since a 2/1 does something, but neither is great.
So here's how I think of how each deck is able to deal with GY hate: Goyf vs. delve creatures is basically a wash, though for any given hate card one may be better than the other. Snapcaster is slightly better than Traverse against GY hate, though still not good. 5c has Decay to deal with some of the hate cards, while Grixis can dig a little better with Serum Visions and/or Opt to find Shadow or something else relevant. Grixis might have a slight edge, but it doesn't seem like much.
The 5c shell has also been surprisingly resilient against mana denial, though still a little worse than Grixis. But Traverse to dig for whatever land you need helps a lot, and sticking a threat and TBRing them does a lot of work against Blood Moon. With Grixis I felt may even against Ponza. With 5c, I feel favored just because the deck is better at sticking an early threat, and better at closing once it has a threat. To deal with Blood Moon, Ghost Quarter, and Field of Ruin, lately I've been running this manabase:
You still have to be careful that you don't get cut off of blue or red (or white post SB), but vs. Blood Moon you can now cast most of your spells and Decay the moon later on if you want to (and fetch for forest, traverse for swamp gets you both basics quite nicely), and vs. GQ and Field of Ruin it's harder for them to cut you off of green or constrain your total mana. The main spot where this config isn't the best is against Eldrazi Tron specifically, where a redundant blue source would be better than the forest.
I don't buy the idea that Grixis is better against other midrange decks than the 5-color version. Snap-Kommand is great, but we also have access to some excellent grindy options in Lingering Souls and Ranger of Eos, which are certainly no worse. At the time when Grixis was rising to prominence the Jund Shadow lists were still trying to figure out a grindy sideboard plan, and the deck was also playing too many cards in the main that were either clunky or just bad against other midrange decks (Tarfire, Battle Rage, and K-Command). Those lists were also running 2 or fewer Liliana of the Veil, and this was before the new planeswalker rule. Additionally, there were some pros (Gerry T in particular) advocating for dropping Lingering Souls, which I think was correct in the meta where Jund Shadow emerged but not in the one it created. That actually segues into something I want to discuss, which has been previously mentioned, which is the Abzan matchup.
I've been on both sides of this matchup (with more experience on the Abzan side), and the typical sideboard plan for 5-color shadow is something like:
-2 Temur Battle Rage (if any)
-2 Street Wraith
-? discard spells
-? stubborn denial
-1 land
+1 Godless Shrine
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Ranger of Eos
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Liliana, the Last Hope
I've seen people approach this matchup by trimming discard to make top decks better (the classic B/G/x mirror strategy), trimming Stubborn Denial because it doesn't directly impact the board and is vulnerable to Lily of the Veil's +1, and cutting Battle Rage because of how much removal Abzan runs. Along with 2 Street Wraiths, some combination of these cards are generally cut against Abzan to try to embrace a grindy top-deck war. After playing against Abzan a couple times, I'm starting to think that this is the wrong plan, and that we're giving up a lot of matchup equity by following it. I think that the correct way to sideboard for this matchup may be closer to:
-2 Street Wraith
-2 Terminate
+2 Stubborn Denial
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Liliana, the Last Hope
My thinking is that, against Abzan (not Jund, Souls is what we want there), we don't want to try to out-grind them, we want to go under them with more of a Delver-ish "protect the queen" strategy. Abzan's pre-board configuration is generally as grindy as our post-board one, which makes out-grinding them even harder. That's the axis that Abzan is already fighting on, and frankly they just do it better than we do. In thinking about the games I've won against Abzan, they've nearly all followed the same pattern - early discard to strip their opening removal, play a threat, and try to tempo them out with a combination of Stubborn Denial and Liliana. The reason I think this works is because of the conventional plan for Abzan, which is to treat it like a B/G/x matchup and cut discard for more grindy cards, which tend to be 3-cmc or more.
Full disclosure, I haven't actually gotten the chance to test this way of sideboarding out. For now, this is just more of a thought exercise in how to approach the matchup, based on some patterns I've noticed in the games I'm winning. I don't think that this will necessarily make Abzan a good matchup, but I would settle for making it an even one. I'm also not 100% on which cards I want to cut. I'm cutting 2 Street Wraith because I still want to keep the rest of my interaction, and 2 Terminates because Fatal Push and Decay can still hit all of their dudes, and I just need to cut something. It's possible that I should be shaving a Liliana of the Veil, but when this strategy has worked for me she's usually involved, so I'm a little more hesitant to do that.
I don't buy the idea that Grixis is better against other midrange decks than the 5-color version. Snap-Kommand is great, but we also have access to some excellent grindy options in Lingering Souls and Ranger of Eos, which are certainly no worse.
Except all our threats die to Push and Decay, whereas Gurmag and Tasigur blank them completely.
That's why we also run Souls, Ranger, and the various Lilianas, alongside discard to catch some of the early removal spells before we start deploying threats.
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I played a guy on mtgo and it seemed obvious he cut his creatures on the draw. On the the play for game 3 I shaved some removal in Jund and he played a creature.
I think cutting the terminates is reasonable, but we definitely don't want to go hog wild with siding out removal
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Honestly, I think your sideboard is solid. You play 8 discard main, that's brutal right there. Maybe on the draw you can cut LOTV if you're worried about not being fast enough in favor of CB's to cast her (even though she's lights out if she ticks up twice)
If you see them siding in a suspicious amount of cards game 3 they may try to game you with the creature package.
This game never gets any less complicated eh.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Absolutely keep. Delirium should not be a consideration when you're thinking about your opening hand unless you have a Traverse in your opener. Or if you have no threats in your opener and you know you'll need one quickly, so you want to make sure a topdecked Traverse is enabled. But if you need a threat quickly and don't have one, you should maybe mulligan anyway.
I disagree entirely. Grixis Shadow has the same problems as 5c with gy hate and mana denial. It might be slightly better or slightly worse depending on the specific hate and decks being played, but chances are if the format makes 5c Shadow a bad choice, Grixis is also probably a bad choice.
My storm plan is very fluid since I see a wide amount of variation in what Storm players are doing. Given my regionals 75, here are my basic plans:
If you expect them to side out creatures, and they don't have fetchlands / you know they won't have Blood Moon:
-3 Fatal Push, -2 Abrupt Decay, -2 Terminate
+1 Stubborn Denial, +2 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Izzet Staticaster, +1 Kozilek's Return
If you expect them to side out creatures, but they might have Blood Moon (i.e. if they have the fetchland manabase):
-3 Fatal Push, -2 Terminate
+1 Stubborn Denial, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Izzet Staticaster, +1 Kozilek's Return
If they leave the creatures in:
-2 Terminate, -1 Liliana of the Veil, -2 Push/Decay (depending on if you expect Blood Moon)
+1 Stubborn Denial, +2 Collective Brutality, +1 Izzet Staticaster, +1 Kozilek's Return
Remember, Collective Brutality and Liliana are also removal for their dudes, and you still have 8 discard spells, so you can afford to cut several of the spot removal spells. I'm not sure if cutting a LotV is right if they leave dudes in, but it's fairly slow and you really want to make sure you can _efficiently_ interact - especially through Remand.
Edit: If I'm really unsure what they're going to do, the most risk averse plan is the one that assumes they have blood moon - Decays aren't the most efficient vs. their creatures, but they still kill them dead and protect you somewhat against Moon.
Yeah, they don't even need super crazy lines to beat us sometimes considering how low we go on life totals. I lost to 6 goblins today.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
I have a crazy good record against Storm with every fair deck
I think GBx in general can kinda take it's time dismantling them instead of dropping pressure down.
I'm not super thrilled about disdain, maybe they lure you with a rit+gifts at the end of turn and then just drop the win on their turn
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
They do have the same problems, but I really think 5c Death Shadow is much more susceptible to both. If both decks have no gy then at least Grixis can cantrip into DS and they are able to hardcast delve creatures at some point. 5c deaths shadow has a bunch of useless 0/1s and they cant do anything with traverse. At this point the missing cantrips and filtering really hurt. And concerning mana denial it is clear that 5c colour is more susceptible. Grixis DS can cast every card in their deck with their basics and BM out for example. At least this was my experience playing the deck. GY hate really wrecked me hard. Not so with Grixis DS actually.
You have to keep one thing in mind though - why is there no graveyard? Leyline of the Void is a problem, I agree, but a RIP can be dealt with by 5c through Decay and delirium can be back online in a heartbeat. Once RIP hits the table against your Grixis deck, your graveyard is gone for the rest of the game. Good luck hardcasting an Angler against decks that play RIP.
Yes, the manabase in 5c is more fragile, that's simply the price you pay for raw power. If everything works the way it should, your opponents won't even get a chance to disrupt your manabase.
Again, Leyline is an issue and I've considered a Pulse in the side if it becomes more prevalent here.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
That is true, can't argue with that. To add though, when RIP doesn't come down in time, Tasigur/Gurmag will already be in play, and then RIP does nothing against Grixis as well (except Snapcaster, which is surely huge, no doubt). In 5c DS you want to have a graveyard all the time, which makes it attackable at all times. For Grixis it matters until you can delve, at least concerning threats.
Well, isn't that exactly why we run 8 discard spells, 3 LOTV and 2 counterspells main?
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
Of course! Was just comparing the susceptibility in general. The discard/counter spells are surely here to protect us against this stuff.
With Grixis, too often I felt like I had these powerful turn 1/2 plays that set me up for a strong finish by disrupting the opponent and allowing me to fill up my graveyard for a delve threat and going low enough on life that any subsequent Shadows would be a real threat... and then nothing happened because I couldn't find said threat. I'd scour into visions into opt, trying to find something that would get the job done, and in the meantime my opponent had time to recover and turn the tables.
There's just a lot of air in that deck, and it makes sense for it to be there because when GDS does what it's supposed to it feels like the most powerful deck in the format sometimes - but too often I felt like it was just spinning gears with nowhere to go.
With 5C I rarely ever feel like I'm just durdling away. Barring the occasional flood (yeah, it happens, Magic etc.), there's always something for me to do and even on an empty board I'm sometimes just a Bauble away from turning the game back around. Traverse just feels so powerful when Visions and Scour net me zero advantage in the moment.
Like someone said here before, Grixis is better for a midrange-heavy metagame and 5C seems better for the current uninteractive one where you just want to do your thing fast and hit them as hard as possible. Honestly though, I feel like both are ****ed against Abzan and you're better off just playing something else than Shadow decks if it's prevalent in your metagame.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
As far as GY hate goes, it really depends on the hate. Start with the Goyf vs. delve creature comparison. Against RiP, Grixis can sometimes sneak a delve creature into play before it resolves, while Goyf is now an 0/1. Though 5c also has Decay to get back into business. Against Leyline of the Void Goyf is still a beater based on their GY, while the delve creatures are essentially never being cast. Against Nihil Spellbomb, again Goyf will still use the opponent's GY and in fact the opponent just gifted you an artifact. The delve creatures aren't stopped if a spellbomb can come down before you cast it, merely delayed, though sometimes for several turns. Against relic, you can play games with Thought Scour and filling your GY to get the opponent to blow their relic early, then cast a delve creature later. Relic doesn't stop Goyf from being cast, but it can severely hamper your ability to beat down. In sum, Goyf is better vs. Leyline and Spellbomb, while the delve creatures are better vs. RiP and Relic, though 5c has Decay to bail you out of RiP and Relic on occasion. Yes you can hardcast the delve creatures sometimes, but most GDS lists only have 6-7 lands that tap for mana. Some of them can never hardcast a Gurmag Angler to begin with, plus you have to contend with Thought Scour milling one or more of those lands, or something like Ghost Quarter out of the opponent's deck.
The next GY hate comparison is Traverse vs. Snapcaster. Against RiP and Leyline, both are turned off. Both are basically off vs. Relic, though it's easier to catch them tapped out and get value out of Snapcaster than it is with Traverse. Spellbomb is a little harsher on Traverse than it is on Snapcaster since it's easier to get one target to the graveyard post spellbomb crack than it is to get delirium again. When they're off, Snapcaster is a little better since a 2/1 does something, but neither is great.
So here's how I think of how each deck is able to deal with GY hate: Goyf vs. delve creatures is basically a wash, though for any given hate card one may be better than the other. Snapcaster is slightly better than Traverse against GY hate, though still not good. 5c has Decay to deal with some of the hate cards, while Grixis can dig a little better with Serum Visions and/or Opt to find Shadow or something else relevant. Grixis might have a slight edge, but it doesn't seem like much.
The 5c shell has also been surprisingly resilient against mana denial, though still a little worse than Grixis. But Traverse to dig for whatever land you need helps a lot, and sticking a threat and TBRing them does a lot of work against Blood Moon. With Grixis I felt may even against Ponza. With 5c, I feel favored just because the deck is better at sticking an early threat, and better at closing once it has a threat. To deal with Blood Moon, Ghost Quarter, and Field of Ruin, lately I've been running this manabase:
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
1 Stomping Ground
1 Watery Grave
1 Swamp
1 Forest
You still have to be careful that you don't get cut off of blue or red (or white post SB), but vs. Blood Moon you can now cast most of your spells and Decay the moon later on if you want to (and fetch for forest, traverse for swamp gets you both basics quite nicely), and vs. GQ and Field of Ruin it's harder for them to cut you off of green or constrain your total mana. The main spot where this config isn't the best is against Eldrazi Tron specifically, where a redundant blue source would be better than the forest.
I've been on both sides of this matchup (with more experience on the Abzan side), and the typical sideboard plan for 5-color shadow is something like:
-2 Temur Battle Rage (if any)
-2 Street Wraith
-? discard spells
-? stubborn denial
-1 land
+1 Godless Shrine
+3 Lingering Souls
+1 Ranger of Eos
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Liliana, the Last Hope
I've seen people approach this matchup by trimming discard to make top decks better (the classic B/G/x mirror strategy), trimming Stubborn Denial because it doesn't directly impact the board and is vulnerable to Lily of the Veil's +1, and cutting Battle Rage because of how much removal Abzan runs. Along with 2 Street Wraiths, some combination of these cards are generally cut against Abzan to try to embrace a grindy top-deck war. After playing against Abzan a couple times, I'm starting to think that this is the wrong plan, and that we're giving up a lot of matchup equity by following it. I think that the correct way to sideboard for this matchup may be closer to:
-2 Street Wraith
-2 Terminate
+2 Stubborn Denial
+1 Izzet Staticaster
+1 Liliana, the Last Hope
My thinking is that, against Abzan (not Jund, Souls is what we want there), we don't want to try to out-grind them, we want to go under them with more of a Delver-ish "protect the queen" strategy. Abzan's pre-board configuration is generally as grindy as our post-board one, which makes out-grinding them even harder. That's the axis that Abzan is already fighting on, and frankly they just do it better than we do. In thinking about the games I've won against Abzan, they've nearly all followed the same pattern - early discard to strip their opening removal, play a threat, and try to tempo them out with a combination of Stubborn Denial and Liliana. The reason I think this works is because of the conventional plan for Abzan, which is to treat it like a B/G/x matchup and cut discard for more grindy cards, which tend to be 3-cmc or more.
Full disclosure, I haven't actually gotten the chance to test this way of sideboarding out. For now, this is just more of a thought exercise in how to approach the matchup, based on some patterns I've noticed in the games I'm winning. I don't think that this will necessarily make Abzan a good matchup, but I would settle for making it an even one. I'm also not 100% on which cards I want to cut. I'm cutting 2 Street Wraith because I still want to keep the rest of my interaction, and 2 Terminates because Fatal Push and Decay can still hit all of their dudes, and I just need to cut something. It's possible that I should be shaving a Liliana of the Veil, but when this strategy has worked for me she's usually involved, so I'm a little more hesitant to do that.
Except all our threats die to Push and Decay, whereas Gurmag and Tasigur blank them completely.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki