Years ago, Grixis Death’s Shadow was a dominant force in the Modern format. Being able to play enormous threats, including Shadow and Gurmag Angler, for just one mana apiece was a huge reason for the deck’s success.
As more and more powerful tools were printed, the deck faded out over time. However, it’s starting to come back with a vengeance. Grixis Death’s Shadow just won a Magic Online Modern Challenge, and it even features a new Final Fantasy legend that serves as an excellent support piece. This resurgence is cool to see, so let’s jump right in and see how the archetype has changed over time.
Classic Cards
As you might expect, some of the key cards that give the archetype its identity are still here years later. In the creature section, Death’s Shadow is an elite threat that has stood the test of time. Reducing your life total enough to jam Death’s Shadow and have it survive key damage-based removal spells like Lightning Bolt is easier than you might expect.
First of all, you have Fetchlands and Shocklands that do most of the work for you. Thoughtseize is another excellent tool that this deck gets extra mileage out of.
You won’t find more dedicated sources of life loss such as Street Wraith in the deck since you’re less all-in on Death’s Shadow and don’t run Delve payoffs that reward you for filling your graveyard. Nonetheless, as many of your opponents naturally attack your life total, you’ll get to cast your Avatar soon enough.
Once you’re able to get Death’s Shadow into play, a common play pattern is to use your copies of Stubborn Denial to protect your monster. Stubborn Denial is a great card against the slew of combo archetypes in Modern. Plus, as we will see in the next section, you have a lot of creatures that reliably enable Ferocious.
From there, Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push can clear away problematic blockers. These removal spells also allow you to assume the control role against creature decks. Throw in Expressive Iteration as a source of card advantage and Dragon’s Rage Channeler as a way to smooth out your draws, and you’ve got a great gameplan.
Newer Additions
What’s helped Grixis Death’s Shadow make a bit of a comeback is the addition of some elite threats in Modern Horizons 3 and more recently Final Fantasy. Modern Horizons 3 brought us two all-stars that each can be enormous threats on their own.
Nethergoyf is a one-drop that can grow to be as large as a 5/6 here. Dragon’s Rage Channeler and Mishra’s Bauble fuel it, and with such a low curve of spells, it doesn’t take much effort to get at least four card types into your graveyard and turn on Ferocious for Stubborn Denial. Nethergoyf’s Escape ability certainly comes up in grindy games as well.
The other Modern Horizons 3 creature, Psychic Frog, doesn’t need much of an introduction. It’s tough to kill, draws cards, and can gain flying on a whim. It’s the only creature to make an appearance that isn’t one mana, but its raw power earns it a slot in Grixis Death’s Shadow.
Finally, we’ve made it to perhaps the coolest addition to the deck: Cecil, Dark Knight. Cecil often shows up in Standard as a beefy one-mana play that works well defensively and sets up Kaito, Bane of Nightmares. The competition is much higher in Modern, though, so you need some pretty good synergies to make Cecil worthwhile.
Luckily, Grixis Death’s Shadow is the perfect home. The life loss “downside” associated with Cecil is largely negated by the fact that you’re already trying to maximize Death’s Shadow. Furthermore, by using your other tools to lower your life total, you’ll transform Cecil without breaking a sweat and be able to maximize Stubborn Denial to keep it around.
Technically, Cecil, Redeemed Paladin’s Lifelink ability is anti-synergistic with Death’s Shadow. This isn’t a big deal because Cecil, Redeemed Paladin is strong enough by itself that it demands an answer or your opponent’s in trouble. You just have to be careful to not play out your copies of Death’s Shadow if your plan is to keep attacking with Cecil.
Metagame Decisions
At first glance, it may seem like a really weird choice to play Cecil over Ragavan in the maindeck, yet feature a full playset of Ragavan in the sideboard. After all, all it takes is connecting once with Ragavan before the game spirals out of control for your opponent.
This really goes to show how important it is to prepare for the metagame at hand. There’s no doubt Ragavan is a better card in a vacuum. However, it’s very difficult to connect versus Boros Energy and is a bad blocker in the matchup, and it lines up incredibly poorly in the face of Orcish Bowmasters.
By contrast, Cecil can hold back opposing copies of Ragavan or Ocelot Pride. Thanks to Deathtouch, it’s hard to block down profitably. Add in the synergies with Death’s Shadow, and you’ve got a card that pulls its weight.
Where Ragavan shines is against combo decks that are light on creatures and removal. As a result, bringing in Ragavan versus Ruby Storm or Belcher lets you keep the pressure on and gives you a mana advantage that comes in clutch.
Part of what makes Grixis Death’s Shadow intriguing overall is that you have game against a lot of the top decks. Against combo, using tempo to your advantage and backing up a fast clock with Thoughtseize and Stubborn Denial is a recipe for success. When facing creature decks, having threats that outsize the opposition is quite valuable.
Grixis Death’s Shadow can certainly struggle against Solitude out of Orzhov midrange, since it gets around Stubborn Denial. Getting Ketramose, the New Dawn off the board is impossible once it sticks, and the graveyard hate pieces that pair with Ketramose, like Relic of Progenitus, make Nethergoyf and Dragon’s Rage Channeler much worse.
The combination of Scion of Draco and Leyline of the Guildpact is also a nuisance out of Domain Zoo, considering your lack of enchantment removal. In this sense, Grixis Death’s Shadow has its struggles, but has a wealth of strong matchups, too. It’s a solid deck choice at the end of the day with a lot of play to it. If you’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to break out your 13/13s, now’s a good time.
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