Back in the Shadow Again

Hello, Shadow Erans! It's been a while. I've been completely off grid for close to a year now, but I'm back amongst the living now and that includes Shadow Erans. And alongside my return, I bring twenty minutes of in-game commentary, in which I show off why not to leave the game for eight months and then expect to win events. What can I say, I learn things the hard way.

For those of you who've never heard of me before, I'm a veteran of the Shadow Era competition scene known for a few things. There was the Ghostmaker control deck ZhannaX, first of all, which had plenty of fun in the sun. There was my stint on the Shadow Era design team, in which I was chiefly responsible for a number of important CotC cards such as Aeon Stormcaller. Then there was Shadow Era TV, the livestream account which used to host the official coverage for all the World Championship events with myself as host. And last but not least, There's The Boweh itself. To make a long story short, The last year away from Shadow Era has been far too long.

I decided it would be cool upon my return to surprise the community by entering in a tournament under alias. I never expected to do to well, especially after being away for so long. I had a little practice, but it wasn't enough. Mistakes were made and games were pretty much thrown. I thought picking a deck I had some familiarity with would help, which is why I chose the Zaladar Total Control deck created by BlanketEffect. Blanket does a good job talking about the deck in his thread, but I'll discuss the list a little and why I chose to run it.

Zaladar Total Control 4.0

Hero (1)

• Zaladar

Allies (12)

• 4 Ironhide Karash
• 3 Infernal Gargoyle
• 3 Death Mage Thaddeus
• 2 Darkwood Wraith

Abilities (20)

• 1 Word of the Prophet
• 4 Bad Santa
• 3 Feedback
• 2 Soul Reaper
• 2 Shadow Font
• 2 Interference
• 4 Mind Control
• 2 Ley Line Nexus

Items (7)

• 4 Bazaar
• 3 Shadowvein

This potent control deck uses plenty of 'everybody draws' cards in tandem with Feedback. The idea is, in a world where both players have an endless supply of cards, tempo matters more and card advantage matters less. Your deck is designed less around getting the most out of individual cards and more about using your arsenal in tandem for great effect. Rather than a specific win condition, Zal wins by attrition, poking with any excess Lightning Strikes, Shadowvein hits, DMT pings, and and even an ally attack or two.

I like this list, but for the Amber matchup, I wish I had made a couple changes. You can find that information in the videos, shown below.

Thanks for watching, a belated Merry Christmas, and be sure to keep an eye on The Boweh for more of everything you love (or love to hate) about Shadow Era.

Boweh out.