The thing I don't like about shadow is that then you can't block their creatures even. Is it possible to build a decent shadow deck at the casual level? sure I think so.
From my experience Shadow works best when you get a couple of the good ones and work them around some of the other staples of black. Shadow is uncommon enough these days that they're essentially unblockables, and it only takes a handful of turns for them to get the beat down while working in tandem with other things.
I think you could have alot of fun and a good deck with dauthi embrace, and on the upside you're creatures only have shadow when you want them to.
Obviously your biggest concern with a shadow deck is that you can't block anything. Therefore, you've got two ways to play it: aggro, beat face and win before they kill you; or control, and make sure they've got no creatures on the board so it doesn't matter what you block with.
I agree that W/B deck would be the best route. White and Black have the best removal, both spot removal and mass removal. You've got discard, and white even has its own burn and counterspells now.
You constantly ping them for unblockable damage, and destroy everything they put out, and use mass removal (wrath effects, infest) if things get out of hand. Bonus points if you Ghostway your board before you wrath it.
Then, rely on equipment, auras, and creatures that have triggered abilities based on when they deal damage to an opponent. Make them discard, let you draw or drain life. A shadow creature + spirit loop makes that whole "we take turns beating each other in the face until one of us dies" thing a little more difficult for them to win.
Shadow decks are doable, but you'll struggle if you play it as all-out aggro. Consider the fact that a shadow deck against another creature deck is otherwise a straight damage race, then fill the deck with cards to stack that in your favour. Since all shadow creatures are W, U, or B, you're in the right colours for this.
As meteorainer pointed out, go heavy on effects that rely on combat damage being dealt to a player, since this should be no problem for you. Otherwise, go for cards like Ghostly Prison, No Mercy, life gain etc. Just make it harder for your opponent to deal damage to you. Essentially, you'll end up with a control deck with aggro-weenie undertones. Play it against a few different archetypes to find the right balance of speed and control.
I am working on a loosely shadow themed deck that only runs dauthi trapper(as far as shadow goes) wich allows you to give a target creature shadow. I find this to be good since it enables me to block and make my big creatures unblockable.
swlinden150, that the point of the deck dude
as far as white goes i was hoping to keep it mono black. temporal isolation is a good card, but it gives them shadow allowing them to block my would be aggro shadow warriors. and for the 2 i could just terror whatever creature they were bugging me with in the first place
I can still keep lifegain in with vampiric link
as far as penalizing (lol) them for attacking me, i think hissing miasma will do just fine, as they'll be scrapping life as it is
Loxodon Warhammer is going to be your weapon of choice for this. If you're running mono black shadow creatures, you're going to have a lot of 1 or 2 power creatures pinging away at their life total. The hammer turns every single one of your creatures into a threat, and you can win the game with a 2/2 shadow creature + hammer. Not to mention it's less susceptible to a card disadvantage than Auras.
I use a similar deck to this, except it's black and white. You might find a Faceless Devourer and Spirit en-Dal is fun in with your "give shadow, stab in face" routine (if you broke and splashed white, of course).
It looks like it would come down to me vs. my opponent beating each other in the face hoping to kill the other first.
Dauthi Embrace and Dauthi cutthroat(even better combo with Dauthi Ghoul
it would include basically all the black shadow creatures except some of the harder ones (cutthroat il-dal)
lol nether traitor, Dauthi Warlord, Dauthi Slayer, Dauthi Marauder
suggestions/comments?
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From my experience Shadow works best when you get a couple of the good ones and work them around some of the other staples of black. Shadow is uncommon enough these days that they're essentially unblockables, and it only takes a handful of turns for them to get the beat down while working in tandem with other things.
I think you could have alot of fun and a good deck with dauthi embrace, and on the upside you're creatures only have shadow when you want them to.
also u can use maze of shadows and temporal isolation
white shadow has good creatures like
Augur il-Vec for life gain
Soltari Champion for pump
Soltari Visionary enchant removal
Spirit en-Dal works like embrace, but your enemy need to force u to discard the card
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I agree that W/B deck would be the best route. White and Black have the best removal, both spot removal and mass removal. You've got discard, and white even has its own burn and counterspells now.
You constantly ping them for unblockable damage, and destroy everything they put out, and use mass removal (wrath effects, infest) if things get out of hand. Bonus points if you Ghostway your board before you wrath it.
Then, rely on equipment, auras, and creatures that have triggered abilities based on when they deal damage to an opponent. Make them discard, let you draw or drain life. A shadow creature + spirit loop makes that whole "we take turns beating each other in the face until one of us dies" thing a little more difficult for them to win.
Currently Playing:
As meteorainer pointed out, go heavy on effects that rely on combat damage being dealt to a player, since this should be no problem for you. Otherwise, go for cards like Ghostly Prison, No Mercy, life gain etc. Just make it harder for your opponent to deal damage to you. Essentially, you'll end up with a control deck with aggro-weenie undertones. Play it against a few different archetypes to find the right balance of speed and control.
Just toss in some card drawing or something.
Then just slow them down..Silent Arbiter could work.
Tainted Field is a good cheap fixer.
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as far as white goes i was hoping to keep it mono black.
temporal isolation is a good card, but it gives them shadow allowing them to block my would be aggro shadow warriors. and for the 2 i could just terror whatever creature they were bugging me with in the first place
I can still keep lifegain in with vampiric link
as far as penalizing (lol) them for attacking me, i think hissing miasma will do just fine, as they'll be scrapping life as it is
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Loxodon Warhammer is going to be your weapon of choice for this. If you're running mono black shadow creatures, you're going to have a lot of 1 or 2 power creatures pinging away at their life total. The hammer turns every single one of your creatures into a threat, and you can win the game with a 2/2 shadow creature + hammer. Not to mention it's less susceptible to a card disadvantage than Auras.
Currently Playing:
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Or Counterspell, for that matter. If Hatred gets countered, you still lose the life.
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as far as the faceless devourer combo goes, dauthi trapper, or dauthi embrace will be moer than evnough shadow for everyone
I don't think hatred will be a good fit in this deck, in the chance that i'm being beaten in the face more than my opponent
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4x Dauthi Ghoul
4x Dauthi Cutthroat
4x Dauthi Warlord
4x Dauthi Slayer
4x Faceless Devourer
3x Stronghold Overseer
4x Dark Ritual
2x Terror
3x Vampiric Link
4x Dauthi Embrace
4x hissing miasma
20x Swamp
Note: not the final deck outline, just a rough sketch of what cards i want in it. comments?
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