Hey there! Strap in tight and let me welcome you to less budgety Modern on Tuesday. Today we’ve got a good old old fashioned brewy brewbrew for your audio/visual enjoyment. It dices, it slices, it’s tribal, it’s got synergies, and it packs a punch! I like to call it Gideon’s Shadow.
Check this one out:
4 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Death’s Shadow
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tidehollow Sculler
4 Fatal Push
4 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
3 Gideon of the Trials
3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Collective Brutality
1 Damnation
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Godless Shrine
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Arid Mesa
2 Shambling Vent
2 Plains
2 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Path to Exile
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Stony Silence
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Wrath of God
1 Ranger of Eos
So, as per the title, it’s basically a tribal Gideon version of a Death’s Shadow deck. The idea came up when I was trying to make a Gideon of the Trials Fateful Hour deck work using Kytheon and Gather the Townsfolk. I even tried Hex Parasite to turn on the Fateful Hour, but that deck was just not cutting it. Didn’t seem worth it to get so low on life for some extra 1/1 tokens. What other cards could I use that work well with low life totals? Oh yeah, Death’s Shadow!
The shadow of death and I had a few matches with different builds and I quickly realized that there’s quite a bit of nuance when it comes to keeping ahead of aggressive strategies and when to go for the big Death’s Shadow. It’s not as intuitive as you might think. Knowing when to switch gears and what cards could be better in different gear switching moments and across a large and wild Modern environment is tough! But this list is where I got.
A lot of typical stuff in there, but a decent amount of spice as well I’d say.
Check out the Deck Tech and 5 round league:
Whew. Some real nail biters today.
(Watch the video before reading on if you don’t want SPOILERS)
Overall, we did okay. Found out that intentionally going to 12 against Titanshift is pretty rough. Granted our opponent naturally drew 2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, but still. Ouch. I’m definitely still learning the ropes as far as when to pump the shadow and when to be conservative. Certainly not easy to discern what’s correct.
The only bad loss was to Humans in round 3. It’s rough too because I was hoping to play against it, but I kept a one-lander game one and was punished. Then lost game two by inches when Bob revealed the wrong card first. Certainly a winnable match up, though. Looking forward to more reps against the new boogeyman of the format.
Oh, and let’s not talk about that loss to Affinity. Game 3 was pretty heartbreaking after being in such control.
Anyway. The deck needs some work. Like I said in the video: it’s close, but we need something to push it over the edge. Maybe it’s adding green for Tarmogoyf. Maybe we just need a better split of removal. Inquisition of Kozilek instead of Tidehollow Sculler? Not sure. I’ll have to do some more testing.
Let me know what your Gideon Tribal deck looks like. I’d love to check it out and maybe give it a whirl. Post it in the comments or come hang with me on twitch. I’m there most weekdays and I’m streaming almost full time. Also feel free to throw me and questions, lists, comments, or concerns @kaosofmind on twitter.
See ya next week!
