I am not an expert, but just a few thoughts.
for burn, I think I would pull out a thought seize before a thought scour.
I am not sure about straight UW control, but I have played a few matches against UWR control, I find leaving a single fatal push in the deck to be quite good. At least the specifics of the decks I have played against there win con's are colonades and bolt snap bolt.
if you can rip a snap out of there hand, and surgical extract it, and fatal push the colonnade it makes it really difficult for them to close the game out.
I am not sure it is the correct approach, but it gives you another angle of attack.
I think this angle is actually good against any deck which has a low threat density, just remove the threat from the game
Does anger kill anything in living end? I've bought in surgical extraction, spell bomb and terminates normally. Pushes and bolts are pretty much dead, so there are a few slots to fill.
Faerie Macabre, Architects of Will, Fulminator Mage. Not the greatest argument for Anger.
itll probably be worth playing a anger/kozileks split since most of the abzan lists i have run into play forge tender as well.
I have been playing around with going down to 3x serum 3x thought scour for 2x mana leak and it has been doing alright in testing. I am not married to the concept but at the same time i have found when running 4x of each as well as street wraith, there are a few too many hands that are a glutted with cantrips and delve consistency was never really an issue. That being said, i could see situations where we board out the wraiths causing problems but I just wanted to start a dialogue on the idea. I do think going down to 3x serum visions is correct.
Mana leak has been performing well and i like it as a strict 2x, will also try a 1/1 split with countersquall. I find that the meta right now is pretty land light. Also, decks are all about playing their most powerful spells as fast as possible and even though i generally dislike the card, i believe it is pretty underrated right now and may have a place in this deck.
I´m playing the 2 Mana Leak over Inquisitions. So currently I´m on only the 4 Thoughtseizes as discard. I like the discard, but I dislike it as a later topdeck, where Mana Leak is better. In my mind, countermagic and discard have always shored up similar weaknesses of a deck as well as having different weaknesses. So I personally like the split a lot. Having the leak with a threat in play feels more powerful than getting to thougthseize after you played a threat because it makes them spend the mana and gives you a choice whether to spend your own mana or not. Also it defends against topdecks.
As far as cutting Scours I don´t believe that is right, especially if you´re on two anglers. We want to t2 threat as often as possible and most combinations of cards that let us do that involve thought scour. At least in my experience it happens more often that I play a t2 delve threat than a deaths shadow.
Not sure about the Serum Visions.
I´ve thought about just playing 5 delve threats (3 tasigur and 2 Angler) and maybe cutting one or two snapcaster for the 5th one. I like the 3 Tasigur cuz they´re easier to cast on t2, but also want a number of Anglers that´s higher than 1 because its so much better in the mirror. Overall it would increase threat density as well.
Instead of Snapcaster I also might cut a KCommand. I find the 3 mana spells often rotting in my hand and it feels clunky to me and I think most of the time I´d rather have Snapcaster, since it´s also a more targeted disruptive element (Vs ths discard mode at least). They both do similar things and suffer from simlar things in my opinion because for me the reanimate mode is the most important one and often the delve threats put too much pressure on your graveyard already.
This is pretty close to my current thinking, and not just because of the Mana Leaks. I've cut the MD K Commands completely and went up to 5 delve creatures. I tried shaving a Snapcaster for the 6th delve creature, but Snapcaster is really good vs the Counters Company deck that is now everywhere. This is my most recent list:
I know I've railed against bolt in this thread, but when adding delve creatures it's worthwhile to shrink the mana curve back down a little bit (I used to be on a 3-3 push-terminate split), and Push has been awkward for me several times vs. Kitchen Finks specifically, so I'm in for a bolt now. My Temur Battle Rage experimenting continues. It's still been medium, though still the only thing that wins certain games, so I'm still trying it. Making room for the 2nd LtlH is a good choice right now because of Counters Company, though I'm not sure what I would cut. Mana Leak is another card that's gone up in value because of Counters Company. Preventing Kitchen Finks, Eternal Witness, and CoCo from resolving is pretty important.
Was just about to come in to post about bolts re: Vizier Coco and Rejection vs. Stroke. I think I'm leaning towards at least switching one of my Rejections to Stroke. Looking at the metagame below for pros vs cons (other than mana efficiency, of course). Seems like if we think the Affinity matchup is favorable (seems like that's the thread consensus, though I'm 2-11 vs Affinity online somehow..) Stroke may be better.
We gain vs:
Past in Flames (not that we need help vs. Storm)
Collected Company/Chord of Calling (Vizier Coco, meaningful interaction here)
Ad Nauseum
Primeval Titan (big target vs. titanshift and amulet)
Scapeshift (another big target)
Bring to Light (if that's still a thing)
Cryptic Command
Worship (corner case vs. Bant Eldrazi, but it's coming in anyway)
We lose vs:
Plating/Ravager/Etched Champion (hurts the most vs Etched champion since that's realistically our only out vs. it)
Chalice X=1 (Eldrazi Tron, Sun & Moon)
Everything in Lantern
Stroke also nails Gifts vs storm. I don't think I would bring Stroke in vs Counters CoCo decks - Stubborn Denial hits all of the things Stroke hits, plus Path and some other nonsense they might bring in. Stroke hits Through the Breach too, which helps vs. the GR Valakut decks that play it, and also vs. Goryo's Vengeance decks if people pick that up again.
I've had trouble with affinity too, and Rejection hasn't helped that much, though it does help. I really just want more K Commands and K Returns there.
Vs. many of the Chalice decks, Rejection shouldn't come in - e.g. vs. Sun & Moon or Merfolk. Not enough targets.
Rejection is also good vs Scrap Trawler Combo, whereas Stroke can't hit Scrap Trawler itself, or random cantrip artifacts. Also, randomly, it's good vs. the mono black Rack/Bridge decks. Not that this really matters, but I'm a little salty about losing to it the other night ;). Vs. Tron, Rejection can hit O Stone where Stroke cannot, which occasionally is important.
If you decide to cut Kolaghan's Command entirely, I don't see how Grixis isn't just a worse Esper. I mean, bring in some Paths instead of Bolt/Terminate, and you'll have a real answer against Finks, Voice etc, while maximizing your Snappy potential (Snap on cc1 removal is much more easy to play).
1) K Command is still in the SB, 2) K Return in the SB, 3) TBR in the SB (though I'm not completely convinced yet), 4) Mana Leak. The white SB cards didn't impress me that much in Shadow shells tbh. Stoney Silence is nice, except for when you're facing off against Ensaring Bridge. Or Chalice. Having actual factual artifact destruction is really good, and it's hard to justify SB slots dedicated to Stony and, e.g., Disenchant at the same time. EE solves some of these issues by being more broadly useful, but it's also really awkward to board in along with Stony, which has burned me before. And most of the other white SB hate we can't really play given our shell - Timely and Rest in Peace, for example.
I'm actually on Delver in Wrath's place, as I felt the need of another threat without exposing too much myself to grave-hate. He's doing a good-job at clocking the opponent, or just exposing less our Shadow to removals, eating them before. It's also insane when facing Company/Chord, because they have SERIOUS issues against flying threats. The shell is exactly the same, so I can suggest you to try it (yup, I understand that you dislike Delver, and so do I. But in this metagame it really feels good).
Cutting Wraith seems real bad to me. It's just such a key enabler of all of our fatties, and allows us to get that land count down to 19. Right now I want to make sure I can get my fatties into play as soon as possible, not slow them down. One of the best things to do vs Counters Company, for example, is to have a massive blocker in play. When you have a 5/5, they have a hard time generating relevant card advantage because their creatures are so much smaller.
I've considered trying Delver again and almost sleeved up / mtgoed up one of those recent UB lists that were going around, but removing our enablers is the opposite of what I want to be doing right now. All I really want is more fatties. The Jund + Stub list that T8ed the main event in Nashville is really intriguing to me, for example, because it has more fatties than we can ever hope to play, plus Stub, which is the best part about having access to blue (Sorry Tiago).
If you decide to cut Kolaghan's Command entirely, I don't see how Grixis isn't just a worse Esper. I mean, bring in some Paths instead of Bolt/Terminate, and you'll have a real answer against Finks, Voice etc, while maximizing your Snappy potential (Snap on cc1 removal is much more easy to play).
I'm actually on Delver in Wrath's place, as I felt the need of another threat without exposing too much myself to grave-hate. He's doing a good-job at clocking the opponent, or just exposing less our Shadow to removals, eating them before. It's also insane when facing Company/Chord, because they have SERIOUS issues against flying threats. The shell is exactly the same, so I can suggest you to try it (yup, I understand that you dislike Delver, and so do I. But in this metagame it really feels good).
On Delver in Esper Shadow that is? Hmm, wraith brings that free card draw/loss of life which is key. If you are going to drop that maybe it would be Ok to run Deprive? Pick up a shock to replay for more life loss. Just an idea. Also, I see a list from Hareruya run 3 SSea's in the board.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
I was going to bring up Spicklemire's list too. basically Jund shadows with Stubborn denial. No Battle Rages. No white packages. I don't think it's the place we want to be to be honest. Leaves it soft to mirrors and midrange wars. Its configuration does not help vs swarms like Elves/Dredge either.
Deprive basically feels free late game when you run out of lands to fetch. I guess you could always use them to lose 1 life when needed. I'm really tempted to run Deprive just to have that counter anything suite. When I played Shadow Delver one week it really threw people off. They thought I was running normal Delver so they're instinct was to kill him asap. This freed up Death's Shadow which came down late game. The only problem we have with Delver is his flip rate is 30% or that is how it feels most the time. He did speed up my kills vs infect when I dropped two back to back. Not that we have a problem vs. Infect.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
As I repeated several times, you should focus less on Stony Silence and more on Disenchant. SS is crap for this deck (seriously, it doesn't answer anything that we care about except Affinity, and even then the white istant spell is still fine). Disenchant is, against any mu in which you care about destroying artifacts, strictly better than Kommand, cause the Snap-recursion is only really appealing in grindy mu, where you still sb in Lily/Souls. Disenchant is a key play against Bridge, Leyline, Moon and RIP, which are some of the best cards to play against us.
I think K Command is better than Disenchant against Affinity. Shatter + Shock is real good vs. them. The flexibility vs. enchantments is good though. Edit: also, that K Command is good against grindy decks too makes it a better card to have access to. Slot efficiency is good.
I've never, ever had issues in enabling Shadow without Wraiths. We can argue about IF playing Delver instead of an istant cantrip is better or worse, I'm fine either way (and I'm still not sold on it). But, expecially against creature-strategies like Company/Chord, having a cc1 Delver is a crucial play, and landing a Shadow to block the opponent's threats is fine even without Wraiths in the deck.
I sometimes have trouble getting Shadow into play fast enough even with Wraiths, so this seems crazy to me. And wraith doesn't just fuel shadow, he also fuels delve creatures too.
Deprive is good for, both, consuming more life and get rid of opposings Spreading Seas, which are a beating against us.
I have a real soft spot for Deprive, but I have trouble supporting the color requirements for it. Double blue can be fairly tough, espeically when you need triple blue to snap it back or to have Deprive + Denial up. And vs the faster decks like Affinity and Burn, Deprive is atrocious early. Though cutting Street Wraith does make up for this somewhat. I see your point that Deprive does help fuel Shadow, but it's still not as good as Street Wraith in this regard, and again, I have trouble fueling Shadow at times even with 4 MD wraith.
I've been constantly bouncing back and forth between 3 leaks and 2 leaks + 1 deprive MD, but I keep finding spots where Deprive's mana cost and/or need to pick up a land are awkward. Though it is also often really good as a hard counter, so it keeps bringing me back.
Commander GUR Maelstrom Wanderer BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith RRR Feldon of the Third Path WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
Bant Eldrazi: Kommand is basically dead in the matchup, would side out all copies (they can't play Chalice and all your threats are getting exiled by Path)
They'll save the Paths for your Delve threats because that's the only way for them to get rid of them short of Smasher combat. What's going to get your Shadows is Engineered Explosives. Between that and their general 2-for-1 playstyle, I would be wary of calling Kommand 'basically dead'.
You would probably want to run 3 Watery Graves and 2 Steam Vents then. I find myself wanting to fetch back to back graves often.
This will fix the Deprive problems, but there's a very real cost. Black mana is at a premium in the deck too, because of how often you want to play 2 of shadow/push/thoughtseize/delve fatty on the same turn. And it's nice to be able to get watery grave + blood crypt with your first two lands and mostly fix your mana for the rest of the game. Deprive hurts the manabase one way or another.
Re: the discussion about siding out Street Wraith in grindy matchups. I always side 1 out, and often side out 2-3, depending on what I have to bring in and the matchup. I'm not very sure about this though, so I'm definitely willing to be wrong. But my impression is that we lose grindy *midrange* matchups in one of two ways: 1) they chip shot us just a little too much, and our superior grinding power doesn't have time to take over - a hit from a goyf here, a resolved siege rhino there, and suddenly we have to play very conservatively to not die to a removal spell, or 2) they have lingering souls, and our life total isn't high enough that we can grind through them in time with LtlH or forcing them to chump repeatedly to avoid dying. Well, and 3) variance, of course. Anyway, to mitigate 1) and 2), I like siding out 2-3 Wraith for more business cards. Snapcaster + stuff will eventually take over the game against all but the most over-the-top midrange decks, and sometimes multiple Street Wraiths can be a liability. And having enough of a life total cushion can make it much easier to fight through a pile of lingering souls.
Vs. Control decks, I approach things a little differently. Yes, the matchup is grindy, but we no longer are clearly the grindiest deck. We can generate short term card advantage, but stuff like Ancestral Vision and Damnation will eventually outrun us. So I try to play to convert the card advantage we do generate into tempo, which means getting those delve creatures and death's shadows into play as soon as possible. I still often side out 1 Street Wraith because the game will still likely go long, and getting flooded on Wraiths can be bad vs. a Snap + Bolt + Tar Pit deck for example, but I do still want to make those fatties early and often. To some extent this depends on *which* control deck you're playing against. Grixis Control is definitely more grindy than us, but also threatens us with snap + bolt, tar pit, and also k command, so it's a delicate balancing act. UW control doesn't threaten our life total at all, so we can go ham on Street Waiths early and just try to KO them before their card advantage takes over. Just don't play into Supreme Verdict if you don't have to. UWR control is somewhere in between.
But like I said, I'm not really sure about this, so I'm interested in alternative takes.
Bant Eldrazi: Kommand is basically dead in the matchup, would side out all copies (they can't play Chalice and all your threats are getting exiled by Path)
They'll save the Paths for your Delve threats because that's the only way for them to get rid of them short of Smasher combat. What's going to get your Shadows is Engineered Explosives. Between that and their general 2-for-1 playstyle, I would be wary of calling Kommand 'basically dead'.
K Command to kill a sky spawner / hierarch / reshaper and get back a threat is good, but not great. Sometimes the discard mode is good, but often you just nab an extraneous land. I think I typically only have 1 K Command in vs. them postboard. But they only have 4 paths, and you have 12 juicy targets to return, so yeah, it's not dead.
Hey guys I'm working on my deck for a modern tournament coming up in 2 weeks that I really want to do well in. I'll post my current deck, sideboard, cards I have and some decks I know will be there ahead of time. this is my first post so I hope I formatted it correctly.
decks I know for sure will be there
boggles (we had a guy come in and win an entire tournament with boggles so now at least 3 other players always bring boggles. why I have liliana of the veil in my side)
naya burn
naya zoo
colorless eldrazi
bant eldrazi
sun and moon
jund
abzan company
naihiri control
death's shadow jund
storm
at least 2 affinity
martyr proc
titan shift
any help or advice would be really appreciated.
also what is the opinion on shivan reef
Just started following this thread, so pardon my n00bishness for the following query:
Is Apostle's Blessing worthy to be in the 75? It protects and pumps...
Lastly, I would also like to contribute to the 2 Vents - 2 Crypts discussion. I am totally sold on the 2 Vents type for one single reason. Imagine the following hand:
Inquisition
Thoughtseize
Serum Visions
Thought Scour
Tasigur
Death's Shadow
and Blood Crypt/ Steam Vents
You would never keep this hand with Blood Crypt, but you probably would with Steam Vents. Cantrips just make up for the lack of a black source, because you can just scry one on top and continue playing on curve. You could turn 1 serum visions, turn 2 discard and scour instead of just discarding turn 1 and hoping to find a land. Feel free to discuss the issue, though!
My thoughts exactly. The only scenario I can see myself keeping a 1 land Swamp/Crypt hand is if I had 4 Street Wraiths in it.
For the Delver vs Street Wraith argument, I've tested both versions before. Delver not flipping as much as I'd like it to was kind of awkward but the thing I hated the most was the fact that it made for a horrendous topdeck. Wraith doubles as a cantrip or a 3/4 unblockable(in the matchups when you do cast this guy he's unblockable let's be honest) which is much much better for a deck like this. Early or late game Wraith becomes an excellent draw, whereas Delver is super iffy.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern URBSome variant of Death's Shadow URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version) JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / Infect
for burn, I think I would pull out a thought seize before a thought scour.
I am not sure about straight UW control, but I have played a few matches against UWR control, I find leaving a single fatal push in the deck to be quite good. At least the specifics of the decks I have played against there win con's are colonades and bolt snap bolt.
if you can rip a snap out of there hand, and surgical extract it, and fatal push the colonnade it makes it really difficult for them to close the game out.
I am not sure it is the correct approach, but it gives you another angle of attack.
I think this angle is actually good against any deck which has a low threat density, just remove the threat from the game
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
Faerie Macabre, Architects of Will, Fulminator Mage. Not the greatest argument for Anger.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
I have been playing around with going down to 3x serum 3x thought scour for 2x mana leak and it has been doing alright in testing. I am not married to the concept but at the same time i have found when running 4x of each as well as street wraith, there are a few too many hands that are a glutted with cantrips and delve consistency was never really an issue. That being said, i could see situations where we board out the wraiths causing problems but I just wanted to start a dialogue on the idea. I do think going down to 3x serum visions is correct.
Mana leak has been performing well and i like it as a strict 2x, will also try a 1/1 split with countersquall. I find that the meta right now is pretty land light. Also, decks are all about playing their most powerful spells as fast as possible and even though i generally dislike the card, i believe it is pretty underrated right now and may have a place in this deck.
This is pretty close to my current thinking, and not just because of the Mana Leaks. I've cut the MD K Commands completely and went up to 5 delve creatures. I tried shaving a Snapcaster for the 6th delve creature, but Snapcaster is really good vs the Counters Company deck that is now everywhere. This is my most recent list:
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
2 Blood Crypt
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Gurmag Angler
4 Death's Shadow
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Street Wraith
4 Thought Scour
3 Fatal Push
2 Terminate
1 Lightning Bolt
3 Stubborn Denial
4 Thoughtseize
3 Mana Leak
1 Stubborn Denial
2 Terminate
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Collective Brutality
2 Kolaghan's Command
1 Kozilek's Return
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Temur Battle Rage
I know I've railed against bolt in this thread, but when adding delve creatures it's worthwhile to shrink the mana curve back down a little bit (I used to be on a 3-3 push-terminate split), and Push has been awkward for me several times vs. Kitchen Finks specifically, so I'm in for a bolt now. My Temur Battle Rage experimenting continues. It's still been medium, though still the only thing that wins certain games, so I'm still trying it. Making room for the 2nd LtlH is a good choice right now because of Counters Company, though I'm not sure what I would cut. Mana Leak is another card that's gone up in value because of Counters Company. Preventing Kitchen Finks, Eternal Witness, and CoCo from resolving is pretty important.
We gain vs:
Past in Flames (not that we need help vs. Storm)
Collected Company/Chord of Calling (Vizier Coco, meaningful interaction here)
Ad Nauseum
Primeval Titan (big target vs. titanshift and amulet)
Scapeshift (another big target)
Bring to Light (if that's still a thing)
Cryptic Command
Worship (corner case vs. Bant Eldrazi, but it's coming in anyway)
We lose vs:
Plating/Ravager/Etched Champion (hurts the most vs Etched champion since that's realistically our only out vs. it)
Chalice X=1 (Eldrazi Tron, Sun & Moon)
Everything in Lantern
I've had trouble with affinity too, and Rejection hasn't helped that much, though it does help. I really just want more K Commands and K Returns there.
Vs. many of the Chalice decks, Rejection shouldn't come in - e.g. vs. Sun & Moon or Merfolk. Not enough targets.
Rejection is also good vs Scrap Trawler Combo, whereas Stroke can't hit Scrap Trawler itself, or random cantrip artifacts. Also, randomly, it's good vs. the mono black Rack/Bridge decks. Not that this really matters, but I'm a little salty about losing to it the other night ;). Vs. Tron, Rejection can hit O Stone where Stroke cannot, which occasionally is important.
1) K Command is still in the SB, 2) K Return in the SB, 3) TBR in the SB (though I'm not completely convinced yet), 4) Mana Leak. The white SB cards didn't impress me that much in Shadow shells tbh. Stoney Silence is nice, except for when you're facing off against Ensaring Bridge. Or Chalice. Having actual factual artifact destruction is really good, and it's hard to justify SB slots dedicated to Stony and, e.g., Disenchant at the same time. EE solves some of these issues by being more broadly useful, but it's also really awkward to board in along with Stony, which has burned me before. And most of the other white SB hate we can't really play given our shell - Timely and Rest in Peace, for example.
Cutting Wraith seems real bad to me. It's just such a key enabler of all of our fatties, and allows us to get that land count down to 19. Right now I want to make sure I can get my fatties into play as soon as possible, not slow them down. One of the best things to do vs Counters Company, for example, is to have a massive blocker in play. When you have a 5/5, they have a hard time generating relevant card advantage because their creatures are so much smaller.
I've considered trying Delver again and almost sleeved up / mtgoed up one of those recent UB lists that were going around, but removing our enablers is the opposite of what I want to be doing right now. All I really want is more fatties. The Jund + Stub list that T8ed the main event in Nashville is really intriguing to me, for example, because it has more fatties than we can ever hope to play, plus Stub, which is the best part about having access to blue (Sorry Tiago).
On Delver in Esper Shadow that is? Hmm, wraith brings that free card draw/loss of life which is key. If you are going to drop that maybe it would be Ok to run Deprive? Pick up a shock to replay for more life loss. Just an idea. Also, I see a list from Hareruya run 3 SSea's in the board.
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
I think K Command is better than Disenchant against Affinity. Shatter + Shock is real good vs. them. The flexibility vs. enchantments is good though. Edit: also, that K Command is good against grindy decks too makes it a better card to have access to. Slot efficiency is good.
I sometimes have trouble getting Shadow into play fast enough even with Wraiths, so this seems crazy to me. And wraith doesn't just fuel shadow, he also fuels delve creatures too.
I have a real soft spot for Deprive, but I have trouble supporting the color requirements for it. Double blue can be fairly tough, espeically when you need triple blue to snap it back or to have Deprive + Denial up. And vs the faster decks like Affinity and Burn, Deprive is atrocious early. Though cutting Street Wraith does make up for this somewhat. I see your point that Deprive does help fuel Shadow, but it's still not as good as Street Wraith in this regard, and again, I have trouble fueling Shadow at times even with 4 MD wraith.
I've been constantly bouncing back and forth between 3 leaks and 2 leaks + 1 deprive MD, but I keep finding spots where Deprive's mana cost and/or need to pick up a land are awkward. Though it is also often really good as a hard counter, so it keeps bringing me back.
GURB Grixis/Jund Shadow
RBG Dredge
xUx U Ballista Tron
Commander
GUR Maelstrom Wanderer
BWU Sydri, Galvanic Genius
BGB Meren of Clan Nel Toth
WGW Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
RRR Feldon of the Third Path
WWW Heliod, God of the Sun
They'll save the Paths for your Delve threats because that's the only way for them to get rid of them short of Smasher combat. What's going to get your Shadows is Engineered Explosives. Between that and their general 2-for-1 playstyle, I would be wary of calling Kommand 'basically dead'.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
This will fix the Deprive problems, but there's a very real cost. Black mana is at a premium in the deck too, because of how often you want to play 2 of shadow/push/thoughtseize/delve fatty on the same turn. And it's nice to be able to get watery grave + blood crypt with your first two lands and mostly fix your mana for the rest of the game. Deprive hurts the manabase one way or another.
Re: the discussion about siding out Street Wraith in grindy matchups. I always side 1 out, and often side out 2-3, depending on what I have to bring in and the matchup. I'm not very sure about this though, so I'm definitely willing to be wrong. But my impression is that we lose grindy *midrange* matchups in one of two ways: 1) they chip shot us just a little too much, and our superior grinding power doesn't have time to take over - a hit from a goyf here, a resolved siege rhino there, and suddenly we have to play very conservatively to not die to a removal spell, or 2) they have lingering souls, and our life total isn't high enough that we can grind through them in time with LtlH or forcing them to chump repeatedly to avoid dying. Well, and 3) variance, of course. Anyway, to mitigate 1) and 2), I like siding out 2-3 Wraith for more business cards. Snapcaster + stuff will eventually take over the game against all but the most over-the-top midrange decks, and sometimes multiple Street Wraiths can be a liability. And having enough of a life total cushion can make it much easier to fight through a pile of lingering souls.
Vs. Control decks, I approach things a little differently. Yes, the matchup is grindy, but we no longer are clearly the grindiest deck. We can generate short term card advantage, but stuff like Ancestral Vision and Damnation will eventually outrun us. So I try to play to convert the card advantage we do generate into tempo, which means getting those delve creatures and death's shadows into play as soon as possible. I still often side out 1 Street Wraith because the game will still likely go long, and getting flooded on Wraiths can be bad vs. a Snap + Bolt + Tar Pit deck for example, but I do still want to make those fatties early and often. To some extent this depends on *which* control deck you're playing against. Grixis Control is definitely more grindy than us, but also threatens us with snap + bolt, tar pit, and also k command, so it's a delicate balancing act. UW control doesn't threaten our life total at all, so we can go ham on Street Waiths early and just try to KO them before their card advantage takes over. Just don't play into Supreme Verdict if you don't have to. UWR control is somewhere in between.
But like I said, I'm not really sure about this, so I'm interested in alternative takes.
K Command to kill a sky spawner / hierarch / reshaper and get back a threat is good, but not great. Sometimes the discard mode is good, but often you just nab an extraneous land. I think I typically only have 1 K Command in vs. them postboard. But they only have 4 paths, and you have 12 juicy targets to return, so yeah, it's not dead.
Abzan Traverse / Traverse Shadow / UR Kiki
2 swamp
1 island
4 polluted delta
4 scalding tarn
3 bloodstained mire
2 watery grave
2 steam vents
1 blood crypt
planeswalkers
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Creatures
4 snapcaster mage
4 death's shadow
4 street wraith
2 gurmag angler
2 tasigur, the golden fang
4 thoughtseize
2 inquisition of kozilek
4 serum visions
instants
4 thought scour
4 fatal push
2 stubborn denial
2 kolaghan's command
1 terminate
1 temur battle rage
1 liliana of the veil
1 painful truths
2 stubborn denial
1 kozilek's return
2 surgical extraction
1 collective brutality
1 temur battle rage
2 nihil spellbomb
2 ceremonious rejection
1 izzet staticaster
other cards I am considering are
lightning bolt
molten rain
and more of what i already have in deck.
decks I know for sure will be there
boggles (we had a guy come in and win an entire tournament with boggles so now at least 3 other players always bring boggles. why I have liliana of the veil in my side)
naya burn
naya zoo
colorless eldrazi
bant eldrazi
sun and moon
jund
abzan company
naihiri control
death's shadow jund
storm
at least 2 affinity
martyr proc
titan shift
any help or advice would be really appreciated.
also what is the opinion on shivan reef
Is Apostle's Blessing worthy to be in the 75? It protects and pumps...
My thoughts exactly. The only scenario I can see myself keeping a 1 land Swamp/Crypt hand is if I had 4 Street Wraiths in it.
For the Delver vs Street Wraith argument, I've tested both versions before. Delver not flipping as much as I'd like it to was kind of awkward but the thing I hated the most was the fact that it made for a horrendous topdeck. Wraith doubles as a cantrip or a 3/4 unblockable(in the matchups when you do cast this guy he's unblockable let's be honest) which is much much better for a deck like this. Early or late game Wraith becomes an excellent draw, whereas Delver is super iffy.
URB Some variant of Death's Shadow
URB Grixis Control (Chapin Version)
JFM Storm / Treasure Cruise Delver / Splinter Twin / InfectCommander/EDH
This pile of cards when I feel like it
Death's Shadow discord link