The Other Worst Deck *Primer*

Modern Casual Combo Competitive Control Death's Shadow WUB (Esper)

JKRice

Land (18)

• 3x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 2x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Island
• 1x Plains
• 4x Polluted Delta
• 1x Swamp
• 4x Watery Grave

Interaction (14)

• 2x Fatal Push
• 2x Inquisition of Kozilek
• 2x Kaya's Guile
• 4x Path to Exile
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 3x Thoughtseize

Draw (7)

• 3x Dark Confidant
• 4x Serum Visions

Core (11)

• 4x Death's Shadow
• 3x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 4x Spoils of the Vault

Survivability (10)

• 3x Angel's Grace
• 3x Gideon of the Trials
• 4x Phyrexian Unlife

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Sideboard

Other (6)

• 2x Kaya's Guile
• 3x Solemnity
• 1x Suncleanser

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shamelessly deceitful, yet still truthful pitch for the deck: you can gain 50+ life with a single one mana spell

The Deck

This spawned off of my other deck, The Worst Deck (Primer), which uses One with Nothing to gain value and play out creatures. After getting rid of your hand, I tried to think of other things you could get rid of for value. I finally settled on library and life total, and this became an esper Death's Shadow combo deck, which I have to admit is much better than the original worst deck.

This deck uses fetches and shocks, Thoughtseize , and Spoils of the Vault to get to a very low, and usually negative life total, while playing Phyrexian Unlife , Gideon of the Trials , and Angel's Grace to keep yourself from dying. Then, you can play death’s shadow and swing for the full 13. If you are playing a grindier game, you can also play out Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and then cast Spoils of the Vault naming something that isn’t in your deck, finally using jace’s +1 to draw and win.

Card Choices

Mainboard

1: Phyrexian Unlife is the go-to defense card, since it is hard to remove and easy to combo with. Gideon of the Trials is probably stronger than unlife, but is much easier to remove, so we only run 3. Finally, Angel's Grace lets us combo easily into the jace/spoils win, and it can also gain us a heck ton of life. Here’s how it works: you have phyrexian unlife or gideon on the field, and since you can lose or pay life in this deck without taking damage, you will be at a negative life total. During your opponent’s combat step, if they try to attack you to either kill gideon or give you poison counters, you cast angel’s grace. When you take damage, your life total becomes one, no matter how low your life total was before.

2: Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are played as defensive cards here, meant more to protect your deck’s functioning than ruin the opponent’s.

3: Fatal Push and Path to Exile protect your life total when you don’t have a defensive card on the field, or when they are outracing you with a big creature on the field. Supreme Verdict helps when they try to go wide. Kaya's Guile is a good situational card, keeping your life total up in matchups where you need it while also providing some hate and defense.

4: Serum Visions helps to dig for the wincons, and Dark Confidant keeps our life total low for death’s shadow.

5: Spoils of the Vault , Jace, Wielder of Mysteries , and Death's Shadow comprise this deck’s core. Spoils can find an important card even if you aren’t ready to combo off yet, but it also sets up both of the main wincons.

Sideboard

Gameplay

Early Game

Mid Game

Late Game

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 6 Rares 4 - 0 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.79
Tokens	Emblem Gideon of the Trials, Spirit 1/1 WB