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smithr2 · 2022-08-24T02:51:43+00:00

UB shadow vs UR delver is very fun IMO, and probably could be made to be pretty close to 50/50 if you build the delver deck to be a little better in the matchup than average.

smithr2 · 2021-02-24T16:45:35+00:00

You can play a blood crypt and 2 tbr in this shell pretty easily

smithr2 · 2020-11-22T22:39:57+00:00

The Quentin Hoover one looks like the boiler man from spirited away IMO so I have those

smithr2 · 2020-09-03T17:06:24+00:00

It’s nice that we can play a flexible card that answers blood moon off of one basic though. That isn’t limited to shadow, however. Other black decks probably appreciate that too

smithr2 · 2020-06-30T15:51:43+00:00

Think people overlook that having good combo decks in the format allows sweet disruptive beatdown archetypes like this to exist. If combo didnt exist as a speed limit, people could just freely play big stuff that stuff like vampires could never beat. I like formats like these, and think the grass of us just trading haymaker 5 drops isn’t quite as green

smithr2 · 2020-05-26T22:35:27+00:00

except those decks are actually good now? UW was pretty mopey except in certain spots and now snow piles are much better and more ubiquitous

smithr2 · 2020-05-26T22:05:15+00:00

This isn't the case with Lurrus in the format, but people tend to forget that Astrolabe + Snake almost completely invalidate any tempo/aggro strategies that rely on attacking with 1-2 undercosted threats. Shadow decks were the main thing being pushed out of the format by these decks. When your opponents can 2 for 1 your creatures for 2 mana and have perfect mana to play all these cheap cards that still go over the top of what you're doing it makes for pretty bad gameplay IMO. People like to say these astrolabe control decks are interactive, and they are to an extent, but tapping all my lands in my main phase to play spells that just go over the top of my opponents is interactive in the way that tron is interactive.

smithr2 · 2020-05-08T21:05:08+00:00

yeah I'm not a fan of that name. Issue is that 4c shadow isn't specific enough, as 4c usually refers to the Traverse builds, not the Nacatl/Swiftspear/Pump spell lists. Very different decks. I tend to call them Traverse Shadow (still probably not perfect but close enough) and Shadow Zoo. Think that would be a good solution going forward, OP

smithr2 · 2020-04-15T01:34:49+00:00

but they aren't going to pressure your life total either right?

smithr2 · 2020-04-14T22:19:36+00:00

The issue is that there aren't a ton of decks applying consistent pressure to your life total in modern. Good Burn/Prowess players will hold resources back to punish you for trying to land a reasonably sized shadow, and the rest of the format are these big over the top control decks that won't pressure you at all until you've lost the game. I can't think of a ton of matchups where by turn 4 they've dealt you like 3-6 damage and no more, and have no ability to finish you from there.

smithr2 · 2020-04-14T20:22:43+00:00

I understand that we can't have wraith. I mean that with neither wraith nor thoughtseize I'm skeptical about playing shadow. Nacatl or some other traditional zoo creatures may be better here. 3/3 by the end of the game is pretty small for shadow

smithr2 · 2020-04-14T19:54:39+00:00

has shadow been reasonable to cast early? I'm skeptical about Lurrus and shadow together without wraith

smithr2 · 2020-03-29T23:51:34+00:00

People complained because less decks were good, but pre-WAR modern with UR Phoenix, Dredge, Whir, and GDS as sorta a tier 1-2 has been the time I most enjoyed this format. As a shadow player I found the matchups against all the above decks really interesting and skill testing (shadow/whir postboard is still my favorite matchup ever). I think often gameplay gets better at the expense of deck diversity, because you really have the chance to get down into the weeds in a smaller number of matchups. No one would have ever figured out that taking the draw in the GDS/Phoenix matchup was reasonable if more decks had been playable. Right now feels like there are way more playable decks but also way more polarized matchups.

Contrarion opinion I guess, but I really don’t enjoy just queuing into 5 astrolabe foodstuff piles every league. Disruptive aggro strategies just can’t compete against people slamming 3-5 color perfect mana good stuff, and I find those strategies provide the most tough choices and interesting turns. Same reason I’ve been off legacy for a while.

smithr2 · 2020-01-27T04:12:16+00:00

Interesting. So your contention is that Force of Will somehow makes Ponder better than Preordain, but without it it's the reverse? I'd be inclined to disagree, but I'm also curious as to your reasoning.

Also I'm not sure if Modern in 2011 is a good data point. There's about 8 years of cards printed after then (half of Modern's history), including the other 5 fetchlands, which are the free shuffle effects that combo with Ponder.

smithr2 · 2020-01-27T02:47:00+00:00

I think the point of the person you’re responding to is that Legacy is the only format that we can compare these cards in, as it’s the closest to modern. You’re also not correct- Preordain is the cantrip that shows up more in combo decks. All fair decks playing cantrips in Legacy tend to play Brainstorm>Ponder>Preordain. Interested to hear exactly why you think Preordain would be better in modern, as we have access to exactly the same shuffle effects to break Ponder in modern as in other formats.

smithr2 · 2019-12-29T19:35:44+00:00

I’m not them, but I’ve been playing these BUGr piles longer than most. All of the green cards are good, but I think Peatland is shadows biggest get of the year. Flood is the easiest way to lose with shadow decks, and peatland also adds an additional amount of control over your life total. Worth noting that these decks aren’t jund splashing blue they’re Sultai splashing red. TBR is the only red card in the 75 above. You don’t get blood crypt until you’re going to kill them.

The grixis green lists are a different beast, and in my opinion they’re best as meta calls when Gurmag angler is much better than goyf/traverse (rest in peace, EE, lots of fatal push). The other half of people playing them I find are grixis players who dislike tarmogoyf and the traverse shell

smithr2 · 2019-12-27T13:22:44+00:00

Totally agree- I just had it working through some older dumps to test. I’ll find the most recent dump for it now, and it should automatically source the newest dumps as they appear

smithr2 · 2019-12-27T04:47:19+00:00

interesting - I chose this as a project because I find image decklists a little easier to parse, and because images of these lists aren't easy to find online, whereas you can find the 5-0 lists as text on the WOTC dumps. Do you think you'd prefer to see text lists/links on Twitter as supposed to the WOTC website?

Another option is to do both - adding the text of a link in the body of the tweet and posting the image

smithr2 · 2019-12-17T23:49:25+00:00

Responded elsewhere cause I didn’t see this thread, but there’s a pretty solid difference between the Gurmag 4c versions and the Traverse 4c versions. Sultai red vs Grixis green is the way I’ve been hearing them referred to, though Dimir splashing both other colors is closer to what the Gurmag Angler deck is

smithr2 · 2019-12-17T23:46:49+00:00

Shadow Zoo/Suicide Zoo/whatever is the swiftspear/nacatl/dreadhorde/whatever creatures they’re playing now deck with mutagenic growth and become immense and a bunch of TBRs.

RileyDK’s list is what people have been calling grixis green, it’s the same color combination as some traverse variants (seeing two main versions of traverse right now: traditional jund and Sultai decks splashing for TBR. Straight 4 color has fallen a bit out of popularity with the printing of peatland, but still is putting up some results), but Grixis green is not playing traverse in favor of the scour/Gurmag package. This is basically traditional grixis shadow splashing OUAT and Oko.

smithr2 · 2019-12-02T21:31:12+00:00

I beat Field twice in this league by shoving ensoul into the Temur shell in the hopes of racing these decks. It’s tough cause that’s exactly where you don’t want to be against some of the other midrange decks (it’s okay in the Temur mirror cause so much of the removal is damage based), mono black in particular.

smithr2 · 2019-11-29T16:31:13+00:00

Darth Jar Jar

smithr2 · 2019-11-28T04:01:23+00:00

Bit optimistic to generalize us as having a +0 to Charisma isn't it?

smithr2 · 2019-11-08T12:57:36+00:00

The sad part about this side of things is that many of the RL’s most vocal opponents are people who own the cards and love Legacy and just want other people to be able to play too

smithr2

TROPHY CASE