Grixis Death’s Shadow (Modern)

Updates logged below.

>January 14, 2020—Initial build

The only real difference here from other versions of Grixis Death's Shadow is that I run 10 fetchlands and 5 shocklands. This is for a few reasons. (1) I don't like running only 6 lands that tap for mana, (2) I wanted to run Anger of the Gods in the sideboard because there are a couple of graveyard decks in my meta, and I wanted it to be easier to hit 2 red mana, and (3) the 5th shock is $13, the 11th fetch—a Scalding Tarn—is $70. I'm not sure 4 Fatal Push will be the right call for my meta, which isn't terribly heavy on 1- and 2-drop creatures, so there may come a time when I start testing out different removal spells such as Terminate.

>January 21, 2020—Input from local experts

After some discussions with a couple of Grixis Death's Shadow players at my LGS, I made a handful of changes to the sideboard.

-2 Drown in the Loch
-2 Anger of the Gods
-2 Duress
+3 Leyline of the Void
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 The Royal Scions
+1 Ceremonious Rejection

This is based on the presence of CrabVine and E-Tron in the local meta. The consensus is that Anger of the Gods is too slow, and that seems like a valid point. Vs. CrabVine, turn 3 is usually the point at which there's no coming back from the onslaught of Vengevines, Gravecrawlers, and Narcomoebas, and we really want to start the game with an answer. There will be no further changes until I've played with the deck at least a couple times.

>February 1, 2020—Sideboard swaps

I decided that Kolaghan’s Command is a sideboard card for now, whereas the second Royal Scions could help with consistency in the main deck, so I went against the 1 main/1 side splits for each and went with 2 Royal Scions main and 2 Kolaghan's Command side.

>February 21, 2020—Sideboard swaps

I’ve tried a 1/1 split and I tried 2 Scions main/2 Kommand side, and now, I’m trying 2 Kommand main/2 Scions side.

>February 26, 2020—Drown in the Loch

It has come to my attention that this card is total gas. I want to try it in some measurable way, but I don't want to compromise anything I have going on in the deck. So I've gone down to 3 Fatal Push and added a Drown in the Loch to the main deck. The CrabVine deck has left the meta, so I have taken out Leyline of the Void from the sideboard and added 2 Surgical Extraction for dealing with Uros and other one-off graveyard synergies.

>March 11, 2020—Overhauling the sideboard

I took a lengthy look at my sideboard relative to my local meta and made a lot of changes. For my full write-up and method, see here: https://mtgfrenzy.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/how-to-build-a-sideboard-for-your-meta-in-magic-the-gathering/

>March 15, 2020—Kroxa testing

This deck has struggled lately, mainly against midrange decks that can take advantage of the scarcity of threats in GDS. I’ve also been underwhelmed by Snapcaster Mage, as it’s often a 3-mana “value” chump blocker for us. So I decided to cut the ‘casters and added a threat to replace him: Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger. Play testing has proven this to be a prudent move so far. Plan A is still to power out a turn 2 Gurmag Angler or Death’s Shadow, but Kroxa is a solid plan B in the late game and helps ease the pain of Thought Scour and mana flood that sometimes troubles the deck.

>May 19, 2020—LurrusMania

Lots of changes to cover in this build. This isn’t a final list by any stretch, but I do want to experiment with Lurrus of the Dream-Den, so I decided to give it a shot. I’m skeptical of losing Street Wraith and Gurmag Angler, but for now, I am going to run a mix of Snapcaster Mage, Sprite Dragon, and Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger. The only other changes were to the sideboard, where I took out The Royal Scions, Plague Engineer, and Ashiok, Dream Render. Anger of the Gods is our new tribal/graveyard answer, and Alpine Moon is our new best bet against Titan decks. I am toying with this list, but I am excited to see it in action. If Snapcaster Mage continues to underwhelm—as it was before Lurrus was printed—I’ll consider Dreadhorde Arcanist as a slightly more aggressive option that also has strong synergy with Sprite Dragon.

>June 25, 2020—Burn it Down

Now is a dark time for Grixis Death’s Shadow. The deck is struggling in the meta. This is as good a time as any to go back to the drawing board and start innovating. Once again, a lot of changes went into this edition of the deck. With Lurrus nerfed, I immediately welcomed back The Royal Scions, Plague Engineer, and Ashiok, Dream Render to the sideboard, along with the main deck copy of The Royal Scions. However, I wasn't so quick to reinstate Street Wraith as a staple. After discussing with the GDS community for a few days, I decided to give it another chance. I've also decided to take a break from Fatal Push in the main deck. There just aren't a lot of gruesome 2-mana threats right now, and the biggest threat in the format is Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, who laughs off a Fatal Push like a slap on the wrist before coming right back from the graveyard a turn or 2 later. In its place, I'll be trying out my favorite Magic card of all time: Lightning Bolt. I've always wanted to have both a Bolt and Snapcaster Mage in hand to pull off the fabled Bolt-Snap-Bolt for a win, and now I'll get my chance. I'm down to 1 Fatal Push in the sideboard, but along with Drown in the Loch, I have 2 sideboard removal spells. You might also notice the 2 copies of Lightning Skelemental in the sideboard. This is just an experiment, as I want to see if an Unearth-focused Grixis Death's Shadow build might have some legs. I wrote more about the decisions that went into the deck on my blog here.