I think any Mardu Shadow deck is actively bad unless it plays 4 Baubles and 4 Wraiths.
I actively dislike Givers - in this deck, I mean - cause the 12 discard shell (Seize, Kozilek, Sculler) already does a good job at protecting our threats, and TBR is the way to go to overcome a flooded board.
IMHO we lost something from the banning of Looting, it was strong at filtering dead discard spells in the mid-late game. But the reason to play Mardu is to consistently drain the opponent resources before chaining Shadows and Captains.
This deck is the real deal. I would like to request from the mods for a primer for this archetype because, while similar in ways to both Jund and Grixis, it is really a whole new Shadow variant and IMHO more powerful than it's predecessors. It has the staying power of Grixis Shadow while supplying more consistent threats as Traverse Shadow could. It doesn't rely as much on the graveyard as either of the archetypes though and that may be the best part.
(I'm not volunteering to write the primer per se..because Flying Delver and Izzetmage are the BEST, but if no one is interested I would be willing to get started on it..anyone else interested?)
Personally I'm not sold on the Baubles in Abe & Jeremy's list from the SCG lineup but its hard to argue with their results. I can't imagine playing Shadow without Temur Battle Rage though. It makes winning matches like Tron and Burn so much easier. Even Hogaak can be difficult because they make a lot of blockers (despite 3 of their main cards inability to block).
Here is my list and some thoughts:
I'm always worried about losing to Tron and Burn so I've tailored my sideboard a bit. My biggest concern with the current stock list is that the sideboard has so many three-drops. It doesn't make sense to take out more than 1-2 captains so by bringing in something like 5-6 three drops I just worry it increases the curve too much post board. There are a few other lists that run zero baubles and instead run 3x Nihil Spellbomb and 20x land and then Seasoned Pyromancer as an additional way to help mitigate flooding. Seems promising but again, such a high mana curve with 5-6 maindeck three drops.
I really like Lightning Bolt in the deck as it gives another spell for Arcanist to target and it helps shore up the Infect and Humans match-ups. I won a game against Tron just by Bolting them twice and flashing it back twice with Arcanist (and a single attack from a 5/5 Shadow). In the few games I tried with the Bauble list I found that Arcanist often times swings blank because my graveyard has only Wraiths and Baubles. And regarding Arcanist and it's relevance against infect - he is sorcery speed even when your removal is instant, so it's good to have more instant speed removal in the case of Inkmoth Nexus. Bolt of course is also another way to hurt yourself when you need to swing big with Shadows.
I’mh testing a similar list (basically, -2 Nihil +1 Inquisition +1 Brutality). I’m not sold on the single Stepmom. It is tutorable, but I never felt like it was the correct pick (unless I ran out of Shadows). Having TTB in the maindeck also helps with blockers, obviously. I wonder if the fourth Arcanist wouldn’t be just better.
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I actively dislike Givers - in this deck, I mean - cause the 12 discard shell (Seize, Kozilek, Sculler) already does a good job at protecting our threats, and TBR is the way to go to overcome a flooded board.
IMHO we lost something from the banning of Looting, it was strong at filtering dead discard spells in the mid-late game. But the reason to play Mardu is to consistently drain the opponent resources before chaining Shadows and Captains.
I had a good experience with Arcanist, mostly because it’s a cc2 Spell, unlike Snappy. Especially when you put back the eighth discard spell maindeck.
I’mh testing a similar list (basically, -2 Nihil +1 Inquisition +1 Brutality). I’m not sold on the single Stepmom. It is tutorable, but I never felt like it was the correct pick (unless I ran out of Shadows). Having TTB in the maindeck also helps with blockers, obviously. I wonder if the fourth Arcanist wouldn’t be just better.