POSSIBLE HOT NEW SHIREI TECH.

Sultai Emissary + lower power / Sorceress Queen / Phyrexian Plaguelord / Plagued Rusalka + Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker = PUT CARDS INTO PLAY EVERY TURN??

WHAT HAPPENS?? JUDGE. HELP.

Ever thought of running Shadowborn Apostle with more demons? It could lead to playing every demon in the deck. Plus Shirei brings 'em all back, and you could do it all again during their turn! Ummmmmm Beat-face much? Plus it would make the deck quicker.

MTGMachine

Yep, we know. Everyone who plays Shirei knows. Building a shadowborn apostle deck is a very tricky balancing act. Either stax or full-on raging combo are very effective. But neither is very fun, since the deck can be built to run very efficiently. My Shirei apostle deck is years (well, 1 year) in the making, and I still find ways to update it almost every time that I look at it.

The ideal Shirei shadowborn build doesn't need to have Shirei on the field. She becomes Lifeline -- an insufficient but necessary part of a sufficient but unnecessary win condition for the deck as a whole. In the type of deck shown here, and by extension, the more commander focussed shirei deck, this isn't the case. Shirei is the backbone of those decks, which only include a limited set of options to jellyfish along should she be permanently removed.

I run a Shirei deck as well and I love it. Let 'em Die

Can you compare and contrast Viscera Seer and Spawning Pit for me? I've decided to replace my Bubbling Cauldron with one of these, but I can't decide which....

Does the life loss from Phyrexian Arena or Necropotence ever hurt? I def love the card draw but I'm worried about slowly draining myself.

I run Butcher of Malakir instead of Dictate of Erebos. It's way more expensive, but it's a decent heavy-hitter creature with flying. Can you persuade me to switch?

I think that Deathgreeter is a bit better for life gain than Bottle Gnomes, assuming you have your engine rolling. But the fact that the gnomes can sac themselves is really nice.

Do you face a lot of situations where you need Heap Doll to empty someone else's graveyard? I haven't dealt with that too much yet, but that may just be that i don't get out too much.

I was a little confused why you had both Junk Diver and Myr Retriever in here, but when i realized you have 23 artifacts, it makes a tad more sense. Even if all your artifact creatures should all come back with Shirei, back up plans are always good. Hmmm... I'll consider that.

Mindless Automaton and Scarecrone are good card draw too. I'm tempted....

And lastly... how come no Jar of Eyeballs? I easily get 20+ counters on it in 2 turns or so.

I'd never seen Coffin Queen or Wake the Dead before, that's neato.

@SmokeyBear15 I don't actually play this deck anymore (It's now a Sidisi, Undead Vizier deck) so I'm not really taking suggestions, but it's nice to see someone stop by so I'll answer your questions as best as I can.

If you are between Viscera Seer and Spawning Pit, go with Viscera Seer. It has way more synergy with Shirei and the deck in general, and the scry is super valuable for setting up your future turns.

Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence are both absolutely worth it since this deck can gain a large amount of life with Blood Artist and Bottle Gnomes and it wants extra cards pretty badly. I would imagine the new Zulaport Cutthroat would also help offset the life loss, as well as Deathgreeter, as you mentioned.

Dictate of Erebos is far better than Butcher of Malakir for several reasons. One, it is instant speed and can be used as a trick. Two, it costs less mana. Three, it is an enchantment and is thus much more likely to stay on the board for an extended period of time.

Heap Doll is a great counter to reanimator-style decks, as you can just take things out of their graveyard in response to whatever they are trying to do. In my experience, most EDH decks have some sort of graveyard interaction so I found that it was always worth having.

I highly recommend both Mindless Automaton and Scarecrone. Automaton is a better Phyrexian Arena with Shirei out, and Scarecrone isn't all that much worse.

@SmokeyBear15

I still play my Shirei deck :), to add to those suggestions:

Dictate of Erebos ya of course, but also -- Urborg Justice is a fun one turn pact for those tricky "my pact just got blown up" situations

You should absolutely run Karn Liberated over Scour from Existence if you can, and you should also run Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, because Iona, Shield of Emeria always will name Black.

Yeah, Viscera Seer, it can sacrifice itself.

Heap Doll --> Also Martyr of Bones

nice deck +1I am working on a similar build myself and trobaldo referred me to you, can you take a look at this build staxificientThanks

Magistrate's Scepter + Coretapper + Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker = Infinite

Yep, bad combo though.

Need to go way artifact heavy to make any of those pieces useful outside the combo. At that point, you are better off with a Mindslaver lock or just changing to an artifact deck

Pfft. It's not a bad combo at all. Scepter is reasonably useful outside of the combo, and having a pretty easily tutored/played game winning combo seems kinda useful.

Imma post my deck here in a second...

3 piece, vulnerable to disruption, slower than sorcery speed, barely useful pieces (without building the deck around them) = not a good combo, in my estimation.

There are far better combos with much more useful pieces in a typical shirei deck. Like, Nether Traitor + Pawn of Ulamog + Phyrexian Altar, for instance.

That said, it is a fun combo to pull off.