It's a Shade tribal in that most creatures are Shades... but it doesn't have anything that takes advantage of that fact. It doesn't use Cavern of Souls or Adaptive Automaton or Aphetto Dredging . Tribal decks get their strength from being the same creature type, which is how you're supposed to apply cards like Shared Triumph or Steely Resolve or Crown of Fury , although you seem to want to stay mono-Black.

You might want to use Cover of Darkness , Urza's Incubator , Patriarch's Bidding , and of course, Door of Destinies .

Liliana of the Dark Realms could work in here, also i would ditch a few of the shades, just because its a tribal deck doesn't mean thats all that has to be here. Mutilate would work nicely in here, and Cavern of Souls . i would drop the Perilous Shadow ,and Ihsan's Shade . also adding some kill spells would be good. a deck with just creatures isn't going to work. Doom Blade , Dismember , Go for the Throat , are all good choices.

This was made at about 2 am on a whim, guys. Gimme some slack.

Grunni: Cavern of Souls is waaaaay out of my budget. I'm willing to stretch it to allow for things like the Nirkana Revenant , but not much more. It is staying mono-black. Adaptive Automaton will be going in there. Aphetto Dredging is interesting. A pair may go in. Urza's Incubator would be good, considering overall mana cost of the creatures. Again, a pair may go in. Cover of Darkness would be an excellent evasion. Two will definitely be going in when I make changes.

Valentine35: Yeah, I was having issues figuring stuff out early in the morning. There's way too many 4-drops in the current state. It's almost a toss up between Undying, Haste, Flying, or some spare toughness. I'm gonna drop the Perilous Shadow s to start. I'd like to keep Ihsan's Shade , but only because it's a vanilla 5/5 before any other bonuses. I like to have a backup plan for my mana being somehow nonexistent. I'll be modifying to include spot removal as I go.

As for stuff that can help it from a tribal standpoint: Cryptic Gateway , Door of Destinies , Urza's Incubator , and Coat of Arms . I was also considering Pack's Disdain as (fun) spot removal. Thoughts, guys?

Pack's Disdain really shines as spot removal in a zombie deck, because you'll have upwards of 8 or 13 zombies out in a reasonable scenario. Each shade you play is from a card, so the potential for this is a lot slower. The advantage that Pack's Disdain has over Doom Blade though is that it gets around Indestructible, which means against certain green, white, or artifact decks, you'll love this card.

I fully support Door of Destinies over Coat of Arms . The latter is a double edged sword, because plenty of opponents' non-tribal decks will still end up having multiple humans buffing each other.

I think you're going to have to mainboard Urza's Incubator and or Jet Medallion . Shades are kept in check by their bad mana costs, and these two cards let you spend that Swamp mana on sweet, sweet black firebreathing.

Re: Shades

Nantuko Shade is probably your best shade. A 2/1 for 2 mana, before you spend the rest on firebreathing. Liliana's Shade probably stays too. She helps build the deck for the rest of it. You need to playtest and figure out how often your hand is empty if you're going to justify Slithering Shade . It looks like a first-turn chump and nothing more. Nirkana Revenant is obviously fantastic for your deck, but as you said, it's pretty expensive money-wise.

It's hard for me to say on any of the others. Drifting Shade seems bad, but firebreathing on a flyer might be what wins you some games. Evernight Shade seems expensive on mana, but an undying creature with firebreathing can let you safely play mind games for how they choose to block or not. I don't really see Ihsan's Shade being good for your deck, because it's a 6-drop, which probably would eat up the mana you need to do the other tricks that turn.

The more I look at your shades, the more I think that you've got really, really good potential here. If you really cut back on the amount of creatures, and make sure that you've got a huge mana base, the couple shades you field will absolutely wreck the opponent because of black firebreathing. Cover of Darkness will be fantastic for this deck.

Keep it going, I'm actually getting excited about this deck.

Additional Considerations:

Why'd you take out Perilous Shadow ? I think that'd be a better choice than Crypt Ripper . This deck isn't a rush deck, nor does the haste combo with anything in particular. Perilous Shadow is a good choice for 4 mana because it's out of reach from Lightning Bolt and safely blocks the myriads of good 3/3s that exist, without having to spend any mana on pumping it.

Consider just 1 or 2 at most of Extraplanar Lens . You might want to sideboard it away against a black opponent and keep it otherwise.

Cabal Coffers ?

I got a sweet deal on a playset of Cabal Coffers , so those will go in. I'm gonna cut the Lake of the Dead s for 'em. Found a friend who's got a playself of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth , so I'll be negotiating with him about them. Perilous Shadow is back in. Crypt Ripper will end up being a sideboard card. (I just like it. No real reason why.) Ihsan's Shade is cut for now, but may be sided later.

I might mainboard 2 Jet Medallion for the sake of speed.

Eh. I don't care for Extraplanar Lens .

What do you think about Army of the Damned or Promise of Power ?

Snow-Covered Swamp with a Extraplanar Lens will make a pretty nice fit in the deck, this will also allow you to use Chilling Shade which isn't half bad of a shade.

The snow cowered lands still counts as swamps, so it worn't hurt your Crypt Ghast or Nirkana Revenant .

Just my thought c:

That's an excellent argument for why I would run Extraplanar Lens . I was mulling over the Snow-Covered Swamp in regards to Chilling Shade , which beasts out Drifting Shade by just enough to be an excellent choice. Thanks!

Been doing a bit of research. I'd like thoughts & yay/nay on the following cards:

Sorin's Vengence, Sanguine Bond , Exquisite Blood , Tendrils of Corruption , Exsanguinate , Gauntlet of Power , and Caged Sun .

I would give a giant thumbs up to gauntlet of power. 4x in this deck would be awesome.

Why would that be any better than Caged Sun ? I don't mind it costing an extra mana, and it won't give my opponent(s) any extra advantage.

Okay guys. Running into a nasty dilemma with Chilling Shade vs Regular 'ol black mana.

Chilling Shade can't use the maelstroms of extra mana produced via Crypt Ghast , Nirkana Revenant , and Cabal Coffers . I'm going to swap it out for Drifting Shade if nobody gives me a good reason not to within 48 hours of this post.

Agreed. When the comment was first made about the Extraplanar Lens and snow swamps, I kept silent because I didn't realize that would be the problem with Chilling Shade 's pump. I'd go back to the Drifting Shade if I were you.

I'm very much leaning that direction. I cannot find any significant reason to keep Chilling Shade over Drifting Shade , even whilst researching combos that could salvage it as viable. I'm still going to allow the "timer" to run down as per my last comment.

Seeing as you are using Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth I would use "Shade-ish" cards with swampwalk like Dirtwater Wraith and Whispering Shade I would add in 1 or 2 more Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth if you add in more swampwalk cards, for more consistency. Nice deck though.

I'm trying to keep this as tribal as possible, so Dirtwater Wraith is out. Whispering Shade is one I had considered prior to my having Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth . With it, I may run Whispering Shade easily. Having the built-in evasion would be nice.

Experimental Changes: +3 Whispering Shade , -2 Drifting Shade -1 Perilous Shadow

Thought about it overnight. Evasion is what's gonna win me games, bar life drain.

+1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth +1 Cover of Darkness -1 Swamp -1 Perilous Shadow

Urborg doesn't seem close to worth just playing Whispering Shade . I'd much rather play more Drifting Shade .

No to Caged Sun can help ramp, minus well put a Coat of Arms if you do that.

Shaded Glory So uhhh....nice deck you got there, I'd appreciate if you'd look at my version i made close to a year ago

I tested out a Modern-legal version of your older version of the deck online with a friend, so there were a couple significant changes (nerfs, your deck probably performs better) to the land-base. From what I saw, though, I did use Liliana of the Dark Realms well for her +1 because Perilous Shadow would buy her two or three turns, I hated drawing Liliana's Shade because the mana always felt better spent on other shades pre-Ghast/Nirkana, and I loved getting Consume Spirit , it won me 2 of the 5 wins I had with the deck.

I had Adaptive Automaton in there, and honestly, the thing I liked the most about it was the fact that it was a 3rd-turn body to put down, because otherwise the rush deck I played against would have killed me really fast. Because of the inherent combat trick with Shades, the +1/+1 effect felt... negligible. I would chump block with him in a pinch more than Nantuko Shade .

Lastly, I used 2x Mutilate in there. It was a great lifesaver, because with a Nirkana Revenant on the field, I would wipe most of the board and spend 4 mana boosting the Revenant to 8/8. You could also do something like that if you had a Crypt Ghast on the field and one in hand, saving a Shade with pump but losing the Ghast and playing a new one the next turn while still swinging at an empty field.

I'll give your exact deck a try once I find someone willing to play casual, not-strictly-legal decks.

DEFINITELY needs Mutilate. Especially with you rocking Urborg.

saints4774: You're forgetting about Cabal Coffers , but I do see your point. I'm still working out evasion tricks.

Prevailed: Not sure what you're trying to say, but I do like Caged Sun , and had considered it. I refuse to use Coat of Arms in a deck this speed. I'm not getting my tribe out fast enough for that to help me vs other tribal or swarm builds.

iMorphious: o.0 Guess I should be giving credit where credit is due. Needs another pair of Nirkana Revenant , but is otherwise eerily similar. (I honestly didn't know about your version. +1 to you for doing it first.)

breakdownjason: A pair of Mutilate have been stared at for ages. I get the sense they'll be in rather quickly.

Last, but not least, Grunni: I'm hearing "Dump Liliana's Shade , add in Adaptive Automaton , and force in a pair of Mutilate ." I dig. This problem is figuring out what the other two cards to dump out would be.

Changes until further notice: -2 Liliana's Shade , +2 Mutilate

TO EVERYBODY: Thoughts on Aphotic Wisps , Nim Deathmantle & Vow of Malice ?

I would say Nim Deathmantle is the best out of those three. Reason being is because now you make things tricky for your opponent. Their only option is to exile or bounce your creatures to get rid of them. Aphotic Wisps is an ok card however its a one hit wonder. And may only be effective at certain times. Vow of Malice is only pseudo removal it stops the creature from attacking you but it will still be in the way...weird card.

Whoops. Guess I should clarify their collective purpose.

Notice how all three have black intimidate/fear. They point would be, as usual, combat tricks.

That stated, Sek_Etogaur, all of your statements stand.