I know $165 kinda puts it out of budget range, but I was wondering what you all thought of this. I threw this together last night. I don't have a sideboard yet, but more concerned about the mainboard right now. Let me know what you think... suggestions and constructive criticism always welcome.
Not having the fetch-shock combo is going to hurt you quite a bit. It allows you to eat up to 3 of your own life points per turn, accelerating your Death’s Shadow at a much faster rate than painlands could ever hope to. Fetches also help fill your graveyard to rush out Gurmag Anglers by turn 2. Combine this with the fact that you’re only running 2 Thought Scours and you’re REALLY going to have trouble getting Gurmag Angler out quickly. I would get rid of Thing in the Ice. It has some anti-synergies with your delve threats, which isn’t necessarily a problem, but since you’re already not running fetches, it makes it even clunkier. If you need extra threats, I would grab Young Pyromancer over Thing. Also, Thoughtseize. This card is part of the reason that GDS is playable. It enables Death’s Shadow and allows you to clear any problematic cards out of your opponent’s hand.
GDS is already a deck that needs to scrap for its wins. At its heart, it’s a fair deck. Fair decks sort of need to use the most efficient cards in each slot if they want to win, so by cutting some of the most important cards, you’re going to lose a lot of games because of it.
All of that being said, here are some of the easiest budget-friendly improvements you can make to this list. You need 4 Thought Scour if you ever want to hope to cast Gurmag Angler on a reasonable turn. I would even consider running some amount of Faithless Looting to help fuel the grave, since you’re not running fetches. Yes, yes. It's card disadvantage, but if we've learned anything about the recent days of Modern, keeping Tempo is often more important than CA. Also, since you’re not running a fetch-shock land base, I’d recommend using Dismember as your removal of choice. Cut some of the Fatal Pushes and/or Terminates for Dismember. It gives you another way to control your own life total while clearing the board for your threats.
4 Death's Shadow
2 Thing in the Ice
4 Street Wraith
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Gurmag Angler
Other spells (26)
4 Fatal Push
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
4 Stubborn Denial
2 Thought Scour
2 Dreadbore
2 Mana Leak
2 Temur Battle Rage
2 Terminate
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Shivan Reef
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Swamp
4 Underground River
Thanks
SG
GDS is already a deck that needs to scrap for its wins. At its heart, it’s a fair deck. Fair decks sort of need to use the most efficient cards in each slot if they want to win, so by cutting some of the most important cards, you’re going to lose a lot of games because of it.
All of that being said, here are some of the easiest budget-friendly improvements you can make to this list. You need 4 Thought Scour if you ever want to hope to cast Gurmag Angler on a reasonable turn. I would even consider running some amount of Faithless Looting to help fuel the grave, since you’re not running fetches. Yes, yes. It's card disadvantage, but if we've learned anything about the recent days of Modern, keeping Tempo is often more important than CA. Also, since you’re not running a fetch-shock land base, I’d recommend using Dismember as your removal of choice. Cut some of the Fatal Pushes and/or Terminates for Dismember. It gives you another way to control your own life total while clearing the board for your threats.
SG