[Modern] Budget Death's Shadow??

[angorashi]

Budget(ish) Death's Shadow??

So, this is my attempt at making a Death's Shadow deck near MY budget- not above $300. I'm a Rakdos player so I own the bloodstained mires, blood crypts and kolaghan's commands, so I'm building around that. Pain lands are testing out extremely well. Mishra's Baubles are the most expensive part of the deck, but I'm loathe to do without them as they're an excellent delirium enabler, not to mention all around card- but if anyone has any budgetable suggestions, I'd love to hear them, not to mention your opinions about the deck overall

[Jabilac]

If you just looking for a 0 costed artifact that can be sacrificed at will then Tormod's Crypt fits the bill.  If you want to replace the Draw a Card aspect then your gonna have to have to go with Conjurer's Bauble or a card like Chromatic Star. 

One of the biggest things Death's Shadow decks are currently doing is running 8 main-board Hand Disruption spells like Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality, Inquisition of Kozilek or Duress.  It not only makes it harder for your opponent because you are taking their best spells but you are also looking at their hand and know what they are planning to do.  Is there a reason you are skipping on them?

Last thing is to consider upping the count of your removal suite, 2 Tarfire and 2 Fatal push is kind of low, with Seal of Fire (Delirium Enabler),Dismember (Life Loss), or 2 more Fatal Push. 

You could trim down on the Mutagenic Growth, Boon of Erebos, and Faithless Looting/Night's Whisper to make room for any changes.

[angorashi]

Those are some excellent suggestions! Thank you, I will do some editing soon

[angorashi]

https://deckstats.net/decks/65144/683419-budget-death-s-shadow-/en

Alrighty, I made some pretty hefty revisions. I've been playtesting them on untap, and it's doing excellently Chromatic Star is an excellent budget substitute for mishra's bauble! The early game mana fixing has even helped me out a couple times ^^

I guess as an extremely-budget player, I've always shied away from inquisition and thoughtseize, but they're not as expensive as I thought they were for some reason- I'll be investing in playsets, and dumping mishra's baubles made this deck even more budgetable despite adding them in! I don't have QUITE as much removal/hand disruption as you suggested as I want to keep traverse the ulvenwald integral- essentially running 7 death's shadow is extremely beneficial. I AM reaching delirium more consistently than I was before, I think. I had honestly considered seal of fire earlier today when I began putting this together, not sure why I didn't end up going with it. Excellent addition though!

I AM worried that although I've been fine without much removal, I haven't really been playing against decks in which it's necessary. Going to have to keep finding different decks to test against.



Any sideboard suggestions? Tormod's Crypt is an obvious one, and I've put my two kolaghan's command into the sideboard, but traditional death's shadow decks I've looked at have more colors than I possess in their sideboards.

[Jabilac]

I think what you've got together right now looks pretty good.  It will need some play testing and tweaking obviously but I think your numbers overall are pretty solid.  You might find you want that last Traverse the Ulvenwald.  Almost every deck I've looked at and played against have had 4.

Sideboard advice is tricky at best.  We will need to know your Meta before we can start suggesting cards though Tormod's Crypt is obviously the graveyard hate you are going to want to use.  So update this with the decks you play against and we will try to help you flesh out your Sideboard

Edit: Ran across an interesting article talking about Death's Shadow and Temur Battle Rage here.

[angorashi]

Thanks man! I'll have to edit the decklist here later, but i did fit in that last traverse, think you're right that it's a solid addition

Very interesting article about the temur battle rage by the way. Unfortunately, seeing as how the article is in favor of a build that revolves heavily around tarmogoyf as much as it does death's shadow, I don't think I can tweak my build in that direction while keeping it budgetable. Maybe one day!

His points about probe are in-depth and I find them interesting, however. It makes me wonder if i need to add in some more card draw- perhaps manamorphose, or re-adding the draw 2/lose 2 life drop sorc to reach the critical cards quicker. Metamorphosis lets me draw and cast what i draw unimpeded, while draw/lifeloss may leave me unable to cast on a critical turn 2, but definitely sets up a stronger turn past that. On the other hand, looking at previous decklists compared to today's decklists, it seems that traverse mostly negates the loss of probe, assuming delirium is reached quickly, which is the majority of games. Just going to take playtesting and more playtesting, I think!