Came in 1st at a 32-man PPTQ with this list. I'm new to Traverse Shadow, although I have past experience with Abzan Traverse and GDS. This list was sent to me by a friend who cashed a number of competitive events with it. I changed 3 cards for the PPTQ meta, replacing Kommand in the side with Abrade, taking out a fetchland for Breeding Pool, and running Radiant Flames over a second EE because I only own one.
Round 1: Mono G Tron 2-1
Round 2: Bogles 2-1
Round 3: Hollow One 2-1
Round 4: ID
Round 5: ID
Quarterfinals (3rd seed): BW Eldrazi and Taxes 2-0
Semifinals: GDS 2-0
Finals: Split, invite plus some some credit
The list needs some refining but I really like having access to white. If I were to go down to 4 colors, I'd probably add in grindy cards like a single Snapcaster to the side. I'd probably also like an additional piece of removal in the main. Liliana the Last Hope has been decent but she might be relegated to the side soon. I like her -2 in this deck because it almost always reads "get yourself a threat, buff your dudes, and/or draw a card." Her floor is much higher here than Jund.
Having recently switched from Jund to this, my personal opinion is that it's better positioned than any other Thoughtseize deck.
It feels like a straight upgrade from Jund. Titanshift becomes a bye, I feel favored versus Tron, and Hardened Scales becomes winnable. Jeskai is awful but Jund never really beat Jeskai anyway. UW is slightly worse. My strategy versus UW is to slow-roll threats, waiting to play the next threat after they've dealt with the previous one while disrupting them along the way. Post-board I take out red for white. Slamming a turn 3 Lili also works very well.
Regarding Mardu, that deck has very few good matchups if any at the moment and gets murdered by all the graveyard hate running around.
Then there's Abzan Traverse, but that deck cannot beat control and has a very hard time versus big mana. Lingering Souls is merely okay at the moment and Abzan needs Lingering Souls to be perfect to win.
Now for the GDS comparison. The deck has way more air, half of its threats require significant setup, it has a hard time casting multiple threats, and it has a very hard time versus Leyline. It also feels super bad to get a hand with multiple snapcasters or gurmags. I think Traverse is the superior shadow deck at the moment.
How do you attack the Bridgevine meta? i already run 2 anger of the gods, and even then that's not enough. Leyline of the void is not an option since i don't like the high variance.
Leyline of the Void out of the board. Use Faerie Macabre to exile their Bridges and Vines (note that Bridge has an intervening clause, so if you respond to a bridge trigger by exiling bridge, that trigger will fizzle as bridge is no longer in the yard). Fulminator Mage and evoke creatures also deal with getting rid of Bridge.
I'm currently running a variation of Kyle Smitherman's list with decent success. Combo (aside from Valakut) aggro, and midrange feel great. Tron even feels better than for most Bx midrange decks. Unfortunately, the UWx matchups feel miserable. Does anyone have any suggestions for improving these matchups? It feels as though the moment they land a Jace or Teferi that it's lights out. The deck primarily plays at tap-out sorcery speed and has so many dead cards.
Recently replaced a swamp in my tribal Gideons list with Shizo, Death's Storehouse. It's worked wonders versus grindy decks like valuetown and Jund. Being able to make Gideon unblockable is fantastic. I highly recommend the switch, despite being slightly worse against decks carrying Blood Moon.
The biggest issue with Tron is that we're 2-5 damage short almost every game. The person who suggested the change said Tron ends up dealing this much damage to themselves through Contaminated Ground.
@maxivz I looked at your list and, while I do sometimes have to mulligan 5, you're having to mulligan way more often than I do because you're so light on ramp and because of your manabase. Ideally, you'll want around 16-17 ramp cards (not including planeswalkers). I'd highly recommend finding room for 4x Overgrowth and 2x Voyaging Satyr in your list. Secondly, while I see why you're doing the Knight of the Reliquary plan, you're hurting yourself so much in the early turns. You really want an untapped green source on your first turn, yet I only see 13 in your manabase. I've minimized the number of non-green sources in my list to just Nykthos and Kessig for this reason.
EDIT:
After some testing, Thrun is starting to look at a lot nicer. Grixis Control isn't the easiest matchup unless we're fast. Also, Hallowed Moonlight is a bad card and I'll likely swap it out for Grafdigger's Cage.
-1 Fertile Ground, +1 Walking Ballista: Fertile Ground is sided out extremely frequently. Walking Ballista gives me a way to deal with go-wide creature decks. Still not 100% on the change but I'll see with more testing.
The sideboard + white splash: I wanted to have more answers that could be tutored with Primal Command. Eidolon of Rhetoric helps with the Storm and Ad Nauseam matchups. Kataki is tutorable artifact hate, as is Reclamation Sage (Qasali Pridemage or Acidic Slime may be better here). Hallowed Moonlight replaced bolts, as I have Walking Ballista mainboard and I don't side in bolts super frequently. It helps shore up matchups such as CoCo, Dredge, Breach, Kikichord, Goryo, and Mardu Pyromancer (to a lesser degree, stopping 2-3 tokens is at least SOMETHING considering we have to side out the combo in this matchup).
On a random note, Panglacial Wurm is nuts in Tooth & Nail. Unlike other Gx devotion decks, which have consistency issues hitting 7 mana, Tooth & Nail has 7 mana by turn 4, and being able to flash this guy off of a fetch wins me so many rounds. Plus, he's better than Emrakul in a few scenarios (they've gone wide with spirit tokens or Birds of Paradise). He has single-handedly shored up the biggest weakness of the deck by being flood insurance.
Depending upon how bad the Jace decks turn out to be, I may end up finding a slot for Thrun, the Last Troll. However, Primal Command works fine against Jace in theory by placing him on top then shuffling their graveyard into their library, effectively burying him, ruining their brainstorm, and getting rid of snapcaster targets. I'll see how it goes.
4 Mishra's Bauble
Creature (14)
4 Death's Shadow
2 Grim Flayer
4 Street Wraith
4 Tarmogoyf
Instant (11)
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
2 Fatal Push
1 Manamorphose
3 Stubborn Denial
2 Temur Battle Rage
Land (18)
1 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Watery Grave
1 Breeding Pool
1 Marsh Flats
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
Sorcery (10)
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Damping Sphere
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Delay
1 Abrade
1 Godless Shrine
2 Collective Brutality
3 Lingering Souls
1 Radiant Flames
Round 1: Mono G Tron 2-1
Round 2: Bogles 2-1
Round 3: Hollow One 2-1
Round 4: ID
Round 5: ID
Quarterfinals (3rd seed): BW Eldrazi and Taxes 2-0
Semifinals: GDS 2-0
Finals: Split, invite plus some some credit
The list needs some refining but I really like having access to white. If I were to go down to 4 colors, I'd probably add in grindy cards like a single Snapcaster to the side. I'd probably also like an additional piece of removal in the main. Liliana the Last Hope has been decent but she might be relegated to the side soon. I like her -2 in this deck because it almost always reads "get yourself a threat, buff your dudes, and/or draw a card." Her floor is much higher here than Jund.
Having recently switched from Jund to this, my personal opinion is that it's better positioned than any other Thoughtseize deck.
It feels like a straight upgrade from Jund. Titanshift becomes a bye, I feel favored versus Tron, and Hardened Scales becomes winnable. Jeskai is awful but Jund never really beat Jeskai anyway. UW is slightly worse. My strategy versus UW is to slow-roll threats, waiting to play the next threat after they've dealt with the previous one while disrupting them along the way. Post-board I take out red for white. Slamming a turn 3 Lili also works very well.
Regarding Mardu, that deck has very few good matchups if any at the moment and gets murdered by all the graveyard hate running around.
Then there's Abzan Traverse, but that deck cannot beat control and has a very hard time versus big mana. Lingering Souls is merely okay at the moment and Abzan needs Lingering Souls to be perfect to win.
Now for the GDS comparison. The deck has way more air, half of its threats require significant setup, it has a hard time casting multiple threats, and it has a very hard time versus Leyline. It also feels super bad to get a hand with multiple snapcasters or gurmags. I think Traverse is the superior shadow deck at the moment.
Leyline of the Void out of the board. Use Faerie Macabre to exile their Bridges and Vines (note that Bridge has an intervening clause, so if you respond to a bridge trigger by exiling bridge, that trigger will fizzle as bridge is no longer in the yard). Fulminator Mage and evoke creatures also deal with getting rid of Bridge.
2 Cast Down
2 Fatal Push
4 Path to Exile
1 Settle the Wreckage
Land (25)
4 Field of Ruin
2 Godless Shrine
2 Isolated Chapel
4 Marsh Flats
6 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
2 Swamp
1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
2 Gideon Jura
3 Gideon of the Trials
4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Sorcery (15)
1 Bontu's Last Reckoning
2 Collective Brutality
1 Day of Judgment
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
3 Thoughtseize
1 Wrath of God
3 Damping Sphere
1 Pithing Needle
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Bitterblossom
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Collective Brutality
1 Cleansing Nova
4 Concealed Courtyard
2 Godless Shrine
3 Mutavault
2 Shambling Vent
3 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Plains
4 Marsh Flats
1 Polluted Delta
Artifacts (4)
4 Smuggler's Copter
Instants (5)
4 Fatal Push
1 Path to Exile
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
3 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
Planeswalkers (3)
3 Liliana of the Veil
Creatures (15)
3 Bloodghast
4 Dread Wanderer
4 Gravecrawler
3 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Anguished Unmaking
2 Path to Exile
2 Damnation
1 Disenchant
Not traditional Dead Guy Ale but I've been having success with this list. I wrote a primer here.
Someone also suggested Contaminated Ground over Fulminator Mage to help shore up the Gx Tron matchup, although Fulminator Mage is also great versus manlands such as Celestial Colonnade.
EDIT:
After some testing, Thrun is starting to look at a lot nicer. Grixis Control isn't the easiest matchup unless we're fast. Also, Hallowed Moonlight is a bad card and I'll likely swap it out for Grafdigger's Cage.
Here was my old Tooth & Nail list:
//16 Creature
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Hornet Queen
1 Primeval Titan
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Voyaging Satyr
3 Eternal Witness
4 Arbor Elf
1 Panglacial Wurm
//11 Enchantment
2 Blood Moon
4 Overgrowth
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Fertile Ground
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Ground
10 Forest
2 Verdant Catacombs
//4 Planeswalker
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
//8 Sorcery
1 Harmonize
3 Primal Command
4 Tooth and Nail
1 Dragonlord Atarka
1 Obstinate Baloth
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thragtusk
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Choke
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Nature's Claim
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Creeping Corrosion
2 Crumble to Dust
Here is my new list that I'm testing:
//
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Hornet Queen
1 Primeval Titan
1 Xenagos, God of Revels
1 Panglacial Wurm
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Voyaging Satyr
3 Eternal Witness
4 Arbor Elf
1 Walking Ballista
//10 Enchantment
2 Blood Moon
4 Overgrowth
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Temple Garden
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Stomping Ground
9 Forest
//4 Planeswalker
1 Nissa, Worldwaker
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
//8 Sorcery
1 Harmonize
3 Primal Command
4 Tooth and Nail
1 Dragonlord Atarka
1 Obstinate Baloth
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Thragtusk
1 Choke
1 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Hallowed Moonlight
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
2 Crumble to Dust
Why the changes?
-1 Fertile Ground, +1 Walking Ballista: Fertile Ground is sided out extremely frequently. Walking Ballista gives me a way to deal with go-wide creature decks. Still not 100% on the change but I'll see with more testing.
The sideboard + white splash: I wanted to have more answers that could be tutored with Primal Command. Eidolon of Rhetoric helps with the Storm and Ad Nauseam matchups. Kataki is tutorable artifact hate, as is Reclamation Sage (Qasali Pridemage or Acidic Slime may be better here). Hallowed Moonlight replaced bolts, as I have Walking Ballista mainboard and I don't side in bolts super frequently. It helps shore up matchups such as CoCo, Dredge, Breach, Kikichord, Goryo, and Mardu Pyromancer (to a lesser degree, stopping 2-3 tokens is at least SOMETHING considering we have to side out the combo in this matchup).
On a random note, Panglacial Wurm is nuts in Tooth & Nail. Unlike other Gx devotion decks, which have consistency issues hitting 7 mana, Tooth & Nail has 7 mana by turn 4, and being able to flash this guy off of a fetch wins me so many rounds. Plus, he's better than Emrakul in a few scenarios (they've gone wide with spirit tokens or Birds of Paradise). He has single-handedly shored up the biggest weakness of the deck by being flood insurance.
Depending upon how bad the Jace decks turn out to be, I may end up finding a slot for Thrun, the Last Troll. However, Primal Command works fine against Jace in theory by placing him on top then shuffling their graveyard into their library, effectively burying him, ruining their brainstorm, and getting rid of snapcaster targets. I'll see how it goes.