6 lands that enter tapped seems really loose for a format as fast as modern. maybe try fast lands like Darkslick Shores or even some off-color horizon lands for the lifeloss.

I agree with Nathanaiel. Also you might need more ways to turn on Death's Shadow . Rite of Consumption seems like the opposite of what you want to be doing, unless I'm missing something.

Maybe add Watery Grave to help the shadow?

Whoops I’m blind

@nathaniel @CheeseE

Thank you for yor input, gentlemen.

I realize that 6 untapped lands are not optimal. However I don't absolutely require an untapped land T1, like all the other shadow decks. If the meta shifts away from GY decks, I'll certainly replace the Bojuka bogs. And being able to control land flood with Lonely Sandbar is valuable. In fact, I've been testing a version with darkslick shores and I feel this one is superior.

As for Rite of Consumption , due to the continuous life loss, and if paired against very agressive decks, it extends my life span. Also hits planeswalkers. Testing proved I need some life gain either way

Dismember , Night's Whisper , Street Wraith , Notion Rain , and Bloodstained Mire are all the cards I could think of for this deck

Death's shadow player here. As incredible as it seems, DS does not pair that well (in my opinion) with dark confidant and bitterblossom because you do not choose the lifeloss. The ideal spot for you in the game is where you are at 5-6 lifepoints, clear to bolt but low life to have a big DS. Here, the 5-6 lifepoints spot, you will be staying it one turn or two, which can be not enough to shut the game.

Just my opinion but many have tried to pair DS with Bitterblossom or bob and it did not go well.

Honestly, I believe that Bitterblossom can absolutely work with Death's Shadow , I‘m just not sure it usually fits the gameplan. In this list, I feel that it‘s a decent fit with the midrange-y type gameplan. I do agree though that Dark Confidant is too uncertain for what the deck is trying to achieve, in that it can potentially chunk you hard when you‘re already low. It may be more worth it if you had trample enablers to fully make use of the sudden power spike, but going to 3 or lower life without any reliability on whether you can actually end the game seems too risky even for a shadow list.

Still, you are the person who has playtested this deck, and if you feel the small amount of lifegain helps you to overcome this issue, big props to you for deckbuilding.

Another idea that just popped into my head: Have you tried River of Tears at all? Might be worth a shot in a strict Dimir build. Taps for black turn 1, comes in untapped and while it is in some ways a blue-only land, if you have multiple untapped lands in your opening hand it usually works out fine.

@Toak83 thank you for taking the time to comment!

That being said, I'll be completely honest here and tell you I don't like your comment. That's not being salty or anything and I don't feel bad about it and I certainly don't intend to be mean here. If you don't have anything constructive to contribute, why comment at all?

The whole spirit of building this deck was exploring the idea of combining the cards you see in the description. If I, or we as a community, can make it work somehow, that would be really cool (hence the "needs help" tag).

I've been playing Shadow decks for a long time myself, and I'm aware of the challenges. One way to control life loss with Dark Confidant is Serum Visions for example. Playing mostly CMC 1 spells also helps a lot, and again, I'm using Rite of Consumption to be able to reset half of my life.

Please understand that not only I, but anybody, don't appreciate dismissive comments on their decks when they are having a certain idea and try to make it work, even if it ends up not being competitive or eventually unplayable at the end of the process.

Cheers, and thanks for reading!

@nathaniel wow, river of tears was totally under my radar! I'll put it in the maybe section and might toy around with it at some point, thanks!

The big battle is managing bitterblossom/bob life loss, however blue has tools to deal with this through card filtering. I'd look at topdeck control options- Condescend Treasure Map  ^Flip and Counterbalance are decent, and with a lot of relevant spells in the 1/2 mana cost slot you should have a lot of hits. Counterspells, counterbalance and bitterblossom was really good for a time.

Other interesting cards - Incubation / Incongruity for consistant creatures Ancient Stirrings style

Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip offers card advantage and then stablization in the danger zone.

Faerie Seer / Spellstutter Sprite /ninjitsu offers tools- not just for tempo/disruption, but also to tuck confidant back into hand.

Devour Flesh old school edict effect which can gain life in a pinch. Very situational

Font of Agonies interesting but impractical

Gonti's Machinations Black lightning helix/rift bolt hybrid. Often too slow, may work here.

Plunge into Darkness a weird nieche pick that sometimes saw play in ad nausiem. The lifegain mode is surprisingly strong in bitterblossom lists, and the 'oh crud I need an answer' is decent against combo.

Shadowfeed I saw this in someones sideboard instead of surgical- it tested surprisingly ok, and in a deck which needs life total manipulation is a contender.

I may be wrong but Phyrexian mana counts as cmc so Dismember wouldnt work. Also I love Lili and I think it would be great here if you get the budget.

I_Want_To_PlayAllTheDecks "Permanents"

oh oops :P

Also- Lurrus is kinda a no-go with lurrus cuz it has lifelink.

Well, lifelink is actually pretty good in this deck, because the lifegain is optional in a sense that I can choose not to attack or block with it, but can do so when I'm in trouble (Game 1 vs Burn for example). Can always lose more life for the Death's Shadow. Lurrus' resurrect ability is pretty bananas as is, but the lifegain actually pushes it over the top for me, plus the fact that it's basically always in my hand being a companion.

Add at least 1x Necrogen Spellbomb. It allows you to have a permanent instant speed discard, winning by itelf most matchups.

SinsOfTheMoon doesn't really fit in this deck. It only supports synergies between creatures and non-permanent spells

Humm, maybe you didn't realize this very easy lock it creates with Lurrus' ability to cast it back from graveyard every turn, making it a permanent instant discard for 2mana (1 colorless during your main phase, then 1 black mana after your opponent's draw step to make him discard that card he just draw). I believe its the best possible interaction Lurrus can have with a card.

Or... maybe you missread Lurrus' ability to cast non-permanent cards?

I see that interaction, but still. I'm not even saying they don't interact well, I'm just saying this interaction wants a different build-around. Un-targeted discard like the spellbomb will always take their worst card, unless they only have 1 card in hand, but in that case I better not be behind on the board. The spellbomb has no interaction with my other spells. I'd much rather resurrect my creatures, especially snapcaster mage, for a two-for-one interaction. I'd also like me playing the companion to be optional in any game, but the spellbombs would push me to play it every game. Again, I'm not saying your suggestion is intrinsically bad, but requires a different buildaround and I'm not willing to make the changes. That would be a different deck.

If you ditched Lurrus, I'm not sure why you aren't running the classics from boomer UBR shadow (man I used to play that in 2017 and it was hella fun): Street Wraith and our new Gurmag Angler which is Murktide Regent. Glad to see some Stub at least.

4 Dismember seems very suspicious, I normally don't like seeing more than 2 of them. Is there a ton of Kaldra Compleat in your meta or something? If not, I'd probably cut 2-3. Infernal Grasp is a nice unconditional removal, and Counterspell is also a decent 2 of which could replace Quicken.

Consider might be better than Thought Scour. Personally I'm not sure which one's better, but Consider is almost certainly better if you aren't running Murktide. If you are it feels 50/50 to me. I guess you could replace the Serum Visions with Consider.

Any reason for no 4x Thoughtseize + 2-3x Inquisition of Kozilek package?

Also Dress Down is pretty nice in shadow since it kills a lot of stuff and shuts down other stuff. Makes your shadows 13/13. Also if you drop one on the opp end step you can cast TITI on your turn and it enters with no counters so you can flip it after only 1 spell. Cool stuff.

Yeah the list is definitely not up to date. Going to rework this at some point... Thanks for the suggestions!

Oh didn't see the cards in not considering.

I'm not really sure why you say Thoughtseize is dead late game and then go and run 4 IoK? TS is a much better topdeck than IoK, although they both aren't great.

It's a personal preference/design philosophy of mine. I understand most list that play discard have at least 2 Thoughteize.

When I publicly post a deck, I'm trying to show some novelty or uniqueness - no need to repost an already optimal meta deck with just a nuance for the 100th time. I should probably be pointing that out more clearly tho in the description.

That's also part of the reason most of the cards you mentioned are missing - I was definitely aware of those when creating the deck.

My logic behind the lack of Thoughtseize is that I wanted as little mandatory life loss as possible. If you're at 5 life, risk a thoughtseize and you might get bolted. For the same reason I play 4 dismember... can always pay mana only to cast it.

Again, the goal here was mostly variation, not a tweaked meta list, but that line is blurry anyway.

Nevertheless, I do appreciate your comments!