In my first article for Troll Trader, I’ll be talking about a deck I’ve been playing online for quite some time to decent success. That deck is Death’s Shadow Aggro or Zooicide. It is an aggro/combo deck that is similar in some ways to infect. It is capable of turn 2 and 3 kills just like infect, however, it also gives you access to better disruption and is better placed versus Lightning Bolt since Death’s Shadow grows out of lightning bolt range quickly. Conversely, Zooicide is slightly slower than infect and is also less consistent, although not by much. A big advantage of the deck is that it is very hard to play against, particularly as many people are not familiar with its intricacies.

SUICIDE ZOO

__BMJ__, 5-0 in a Magic Online League

I’ll now take you through some of the card choices in the list above and try to explain why they’re in there:

Death’s Shadow – The namesake of the deck, this creature can become a 12/12 for one mana. Any build of the deck should play 4.

Monastery Swiftspear – This deck wants to play a lot of cheap spells to fuel delve, which pairs nicely with Monastery Swiftspear’s prowess ability. It also serves as the only haste creature in the deck, allowing you to Temur Battle Rage + Become Immense your opponent out of nowhere if they tap out.

Wild Nacatl – A 3/3 for one mana, I shouldn’t have to explain why this is good!

Steppe Lynx – The deck plays 12 fetchlands which work well with the Lynx, giving it +4/+4 per land drop. Keep in mind that you can leave fetches uncracked to wait until you want to cast Temur Battle Rage on your Steppe Lynx to get extra damage out of them. That said, Steppe Lynx is the worst creature in the deck and is often cut in sideboarding.

Street Wraith – Draws you towards your impact cards and loses life for Death’s Shadow. A neat play you can make against R/x decks is playing your Death’s Shadow as a 3/3, then wait until your opponent tries to Lightning Bolt your 3 / 3 Death’s Shadow and blow them out by cycling a Street Wraith. If they don’t, you can always cycle end of turn and they cannot respond with a Lightning Bolt because the loss of life is a cost.

Gitaxian Probe – Another free way to draw cards and lose life, Gitaxian Probe also gives you perfect information of your opponent’s hand which lets you know if it’s safe to go for the combo, or if the coast is clear to play a 3/3 Death’s Shadow.

Mishra’s Bauble – This costs 0 mana and draws a card, meaning there’s not really much of a cost to put it in the deck. Add that to the fact that it fuels delve and often offers you a free ‘scry’ with the fetchlands in the deck, it’s an obvious inclusion. It also plays nicely with a turn 1 Monastery Swiftspear.

Lightning Bolt – The only main deck removal spells. Lightning Bolt has added utility in this deck as you can target yourself to grow Death’s Shadow(s) if necessary.

Thoughtseize – Disrupts the opponent’s game plan while simultaneously losing life for Death’s Shadow(s).

Mutagenic Growth – Counters Lightning Bolt, grows Death’s Shadows and can be the last couple points needed to finish off an opponent.

Temur Battle Rage and Become Immense – The standard combo. It’s especially effective in this deck since both halves are great on their own.

Sideboard Guide

I’ll now take you through how I’d sideboard in some of the more common matchups in Modern:

Jund

In

1x Dismember, 4x Hooting Mandrills

Out

2x Become Immense, 2x Temur Battle Rage, 1x Steppe Lynx

Jund can be a tough matchup since they have so much removal and you’ve only got 15 creatures. Try to use the fact that your spells cost one mana and theirs cost 2 or 3 to your advantage and tempo them out of the game.

Infect

In

1x Dismember, 1x Pyroclasm, 1x Lightning Helix, 1x Inquisition of Kozilek

Out

4x Mutagenic Growth

This matchup is simply a race. Remember that they can use Vines of Vastwood to counter your pump spells if you are going to attempt a combo kill.

Affinity

In

1x Stony Silence, 1x Natural State, 1x Ancient Grudge, 1x Pyroclasm, 1x Lightning Helix, 1x

Dismember

Out

3x Thoughtseize, 3x Mutagenic Growth

Similar to the Infect matchup, this is pretty much just a race. However, our life loss is far more significant here so it is important to be careful.

Dredge

In

1x Grafdigger’s Cage, 1x Phyrexian Unlife, 1x Pyroclasm

Out

3x Thoughtseize

I admit to not having played this matchup much, but it seems like it should be straightforward since they don’t have a lot of removal and a lot of their creatures don’t block.

Nahiri Jeskai

In

4x Hooting Mandrills, 2x Inquisition of Kozilek, 1x Grafdigger’s Cage, 1x Forest

Out

2x Lightning Bolt, 3x Temur Battle Rage, 2x Become Immense, 1x Blood Crypt

Similar to the Jund matchup except much easier since only Path to Exile actually deals with a lot of your creatures. I’m still unsure if bringing in Grafdigger’s Cage is correct since while it does disrupt them a lot, you might just want it to be another threat.

Burn

Out

4x Street Wraith, 4x Gitaxian Probe, 3x Thoughtseize

In

4x Hooting Mandrills

2x Inquisition of Kozilek

1x Lightning Helix

1x Pyroclasm

1x Phyrexian Unlife

1x Forest

1x Natural State

Taking out as many cards that lose life as possible, and bringing in anything that could possibly be relevant. The basic Forest allows you to save some life by not having to shock yourself, and the Natural State while it looks weird is likely better than leaving in a Gitaxian Probe in case you get to kill an Eidolon.

Thanks for reading and hope this was useful to you all! If you have any comments about the deck or want to know how to sideboard against a deck i haven’t mentioned here please just comment below.