This card is the real deal for the deck. It doesn't look like much until you play with it. In normal games, you use it to rebuy Prophetic Prisms and Glint-Nest Crane before you get to storm territory, but it really shines when you do get to storm territory. When you storm with this card it buys you two spells for 2 mana by picking up and replaying a cheerio. That alone is enough to make it worth playing and is a very powerful way to increase your storm count, but if you're light on gas and have a lot of lands you can also use two to pick up each other and play as many times as you have 2 mana.
Another card I tested a lot but have recently abandoned is Containment Membrane. I mention it because it was borderline playable before and Sigarda's Aid makes it better. It's defense in a deck that lacks for defense and you can pick it up with all your bounce spells (except Engulf! Nonbo!). It also costs 1 mana, which is pretty powerful given that while storming I often find myself unable to deploy all the 2 cmc cards I have and with 1 mana left over. Similarly, Imprisoned in the Moon is okay removal that bounces back to hand but better with Sigarda's Aid. Plus I like using that on my own Cranes to accelerate into Crush of Tentacles a turn ahead of time.
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Looking at mtgtop8 for results from the last two weeks, Death's Shadow is sitting at a whopping 15% play rate. While we have tougher match ups, I would like to hear from others the approach that should be taken here as I consider DS to be somewhere between aggro and midrange. So I don't feel I can outright say we need to play control or not. Nor do I think role assessment is only based on going the opposite of the opponent. This is also the most played deck at the moment so we should really have this one down. Whenever I reach a new deck, I will want to focus on all the current variants of it, just like U and UG Merfolk. So let's dig into DS variants! I'll ask for Urza variants afterwards as not only can it be a hard match up, but it's also sitting close to 10% played.
So the template I'm currently following is this:
Death's Shadow:
Goal:
Win specifics:
Post game specifics:
Pyro's role:
For the decks with many different variants, I may just make several listings as roles could change quite a bit. Feel free to look at the attached list (Affinity and Merfolk so far) for details on how these are being filled out. These are not set in stone either so also feel free to suggest revisions/additions to previous lists. These personally help me a lot so I'm hoping it will do the same for others. (I absolutely crushed three different affinity players the other night due to compiling the affinity list and suddenly having a ton of confidence in my choices against them). I had no need to look at a sb list either!
*And as a little side note, just because I like throwing around card ideas. I think this is probably a little too janky but Breath of fury + Goblin Rabblemaster? I don't think this would work well for a lot of reasons but can't deny that if shields are down with a goblin token already in play, this can just win. Seismic Assault was also something I looked at for turning lands into shocks and also a discard outlet when flooded with lands for bridge. I admit these are both very janky ideas but I think it's better to post it than not.
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Affinity: Dedicated aggro. They do it better, period. We must forget our aggro and control them.
Affinity's goal: Win quickly. Artifact based.
Pyro's goal: The opposite. Stall the game. Don't try to win. Try to not lose. Once we are in control, we can win at our own pace.
*Review what helps this game plan. Does rabblemaster help us stall? No. Koth? Eidolon? No.
How about Anger of the gods? Shattering Spree? Yes! Whatever interrupts them will gain us turns.
Once controlled, we simply win with one of our slower win cons.
Does blood moon stall enough? My vote would be no as they don't need specific colors aside from maybe red for blast.
For anyone interested or that wants to chime in, I will be creating a list to hit most of the meta.
So next up, I would like to hear others thoughts on:
Let's beat Merfolk!
Merfolk: Aggro, vial, tempo. U or UG.
Merfolk's goal: Pump up army with lords to win quickly. Disruption through bouncing creatures. Slight land disruption.
Pyro's goal: Stall. Merfolk is very susceptible to bridge. Chalice on 2 hits their only outs (Echoing Truth/Hurkyl's). Render their creature bounce spells ineffectual by removing our aggro plan.
*How effective is blood moon? It hits UG Merfolk quite hard. Mutavault is also hit in mono U. Are moons worth the slot? Shattering Spree worth bringing in just for vials?
As you can see, I know the general ideas behind decks but there are nuances that should be considered when deciding how to handle them. Any input would be great as i'd like to make this as helpful as possible, even if it ends up being just for myself.
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Ex: Casting spells at sorcery speed will give you: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (37 health) as opposed to instant speed that can remain on the stack: 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 (36 health). That's quite a difference; only 6 spells are needed instead of 8!
So I thought, It's too bad we can't do this with our 0 cmc artifacts.. Oh wait.. We can!
Not to mention, Sigarda's aid is only 1cmc which works very nicely with a storm type deck. I apologize if this is common knowledge already but I didn't see it throughout this thread or a google search so I thought I would share. What do you guys think?