Hey everyone!

My journey continues to find new and exciting ways to build around my favorite companion, Lurrus. The Modern metagame continues to be dynamic as top decks each week are foiled by the next big thing.

Rakdos-based Lurrus decks have the tools available to survive in any metagame, but need to adapt to stay on top. There are four key pillars of the format: Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Urza's Saga, Shardless Agent, and Teferi + Wrenn and Six. It's also possible to shake things up by playing something outside of these four pillars and take home some wins if the metagame is vulnerable.

Grixis Control was popular for a few weeks as the metagame seemed to stagnate for a bit, making targeted interaction for low rates very appealing. It's a very good deck when you know what to expect, but has a hard time in a wide open metagame.

Izzet Murktide's interaction is more rigid, but the deck is naturally more proactive as the Regent can come down as early as the second turn. There are games where you can fold to a second turn Chalice of the Void or a creature equipped with a Colossus Hammer.

Hammertime continues to post results, but Rakdos Lurrus pilots know to respect Sanctifier en-Vec at this point, making it more difficult to get free wins. It's not uncommon for Rakdos Lurrus decks to play as many as three Engineered Explosives to even the matchup.

The most popular Shardless Agent deck was Temur Rhinos due to its high consistency, but falls short against a pile of Engineered Explosives. Sanctifier en-Vec was holding down Dredge's chance to shine and many players began to skimp on graveyard hate. This was the perfect recipe for Living End to make a comeback.

I don't advise playing Living End in the short run because it's back on everyone's radar and is strongly susceptible to hate. The idea is to find the next strategy that has been forgotten and strike while the iron is hot.

Teferi + Wrenn and Six piles come in all shapes and sizes. It's a good pillar of the format to exist in order to keep cascade decks in check. This opens up some space in the metagame for new players to emerge. The current best deck in this pillar is Elementals. The raw card advantage is able to compete with Lurrus and pitch Elementals help keep up with the speed of Hammertime. Void Mirror's stock has gone up to fight the pitch Elementals.

It may be more accurate to call this pillar, Teferi Piles. There are versions of Elementals moving away from Wrenn and Six as the format opens up and there are other important considerations besides killing Ragavan.

At the end of the day there are enough checks and balances in the Modern format because Modern Horizons 2 was a tide that lifted many ships rather than just a select few. This was a great design choice as sets in the last couple years would fail when a couple cards outshined the rest creating an imbalance. I'm looking at Oko, Omnath, and Uro.

Modern is resembling new Standard metagames where each week players find a forgotten relic of the past and quickly jump on it. Keeping pace with the pack will lead to weak results as these decks don't typically stand up to hate, but are good at exposing holes in the metagame.

One of the latest examples of this phenomenon is the recent high finishes of Mono-Green Tron. This deck is not inherently powerful enough in the post-MH2 world to compete, but is a solid choice when people forget it exists. Tron does have some good matchups, but it's not as scary as it was a couple years ago.

This leads me to my current favorite Lurrus deck: Dress Shadow. It's a Grixis Death's Shadow deck that takes advantage of Dress Down. I like this deck as the metagame evolves because you will get unexpected matchups and having a proactive game plan is preferred. Here's my list which is based on Aspiringspike's brew:

Grixis Dress Shadow | Modern | Aspiringspike

• Companion (1)
• 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den

• Creatures (14)
• 3 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
• 3 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 4 Death's Shadow
• 4 Dragon's Rage Channeler

• Instants (10)
• 3 Drown in the Loch
• 3 Unholy Heat
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (10)
• 3 Expressive Iteration
• 3 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Enchantments (3)
• 3 Dress Down

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Mishra's Bauble

• Lands (19)
• 1 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1 Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1 Fiery Islet
• 2 Blood Crypt
• 2 Scalding Tarn
• 2 Steam Vents
• 2 Watery Grave
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Polluted Delta

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 3 Nihil Spellbomb
• 2 Alpine Moon
• 1 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 2 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Flusterstorm
• 1 Aether Gust
• 2 Terminate
• 1 Kolaghan's Command

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I briefly discussed Dress Shadow a couple weeks ago, but now had the chance to play it. During this time Aspiringspike also won several trophies and modified his list. It has some legs.

Dress Shadow is an aggressive deck in Game 1 that uses generic interaction to answer a variety of threats. Unlike Grixis Lurrus, this deck has a nut draw that will kill the opponent on turn three:

Turn one: Fetch + black shock + Thoughtseize (15 life)

Turn two: Fetch +black shock + two 1/1 Death's Shadow (12 life)

Turn three: Attack with two Shadows and cast Dress Down to hit for 26 damage

After sideboard it's possible to play more targeted interaction and move away from the plan A of winning quickly with Death's Shadow. Inquisition of Kozilek has shined in the board for this reason.

Many Lurrus decks play Inquisition of Kozilek over Thoughtseize because Modern is a lean format. Most of the time you would be losing two life to discard the same card, but Death's Shadow encourages losing life as part of it's focused plan A. This is a boon when big mana strategies return to fight Ragavan.

The flex interaction, Inquisition of Kozilek and Unholy Heat, are important because they cost one mana. Death's Shadow is an honorary 1-drop, but requires special circumstances to enter the battlefield before the third turn. This will mess with your curve and make 3-drops, like Kolaghan's Command, awkward to cast.

Expressive Iteration is much stronger than Kolaghan's Command when it comes to card advantage. Finding extra lands can lead to stronger Death's Shadows. It's a turn three play that costs two mana which lines up very well to cast a Shadow on the third turn.

Dress Down is one of the reasons I like this deck. It not only synergizes with your own creatures, but can create favorable situations by weakening your opponent's threats.

Here are considerations when playing Dress Down:

• Dress Down is sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step. If you want to cantrip it's reasonable to cast it on the opponent's second main phase so the effect doesn't carry over to your turn.
• Lurrus will be able to cast Dress Down on each of your turns. Even though Lurrus doesn't have the ability to replay cards with Dress Down on the battlefield it's possible to flash in another copy to draw a card on the end step.
• Death's Shadow becomes a 13/13, but remember it reverts back to the normal power and toughness on the next end step. This means the combo is there to deal damage to the opponent and doesn't do well in combat which is a weakness compared to Temur Battle Rage. The pros outweigh the cons as drawing a card is worth the extra hoops.
• Kroxa is the other creature that combos with Dress Down. A common line is to cast Dress Down at the end of the opponent's second turn so it will be in play for your third turn to cast Kroxa. This means Kroxa will not be sacrificed, but the opponent also won't be discarding a card. There are times where it's better to have the opponent discard a card instead of keeping a 6/6.
• Sanctifier en-Vec loses protection from Red and Black making it less important to play cards like Pyrite Spellbomb and Kozilek's Return in the sideboard. Engineered Explosives is a generically good card in the format which provides five answers post board. The en-Vec's graveyard ability can also be temporarily shut off which means you can get delirium while the shields are down.
• Dragon's Rage Channeler will become a 1/1 without flying and no longer has to attack if able when you have delirium.
• Ragavan no longer has the ability that triggers when it damages the opponent. It's still a legendary creature. Even if you dash Ragavan it won't have haste until the following turn and will return to your hand at the beginning of the next end step Dress Down is not on the battlefield. It's rare you want to dash in this case.
• Pitch Elementals line up against Dress Down in an interesting way as they no longer have abilities when they enter the battlefield. It's not a completely free interaction for you because that also means the evoke trigger to sacrifice the creature also will not go on the stack. The body left on the battlefield may or may not be better than the ETB ability so it's a judgement call to cast in this situation.
• If a creature says "as this creature enters the battlefield" the effect won't work either. This applies to Modular, Murktide Regent, and Meddling Mage.
• Creatures without printed toughness will die when Dress Down is on the battlefield. Urza's Saga Construct tokens and Scourge of the Skyclaves come to mind. Tarmogoyf will become a 0/1.
• Lurrus loses lifelink which can be a boon with Death's Shadow.
• Dress Down can create some confusing game states. Most issues stem from Dress Down and another effect that changes the characteristics of a creature. Since two things want to take effect at the same time, whatever was played last will come out on top. This is known as a timestamp.

An example:

Opponent plays Temur Battle Rage to give their creature double strike and trample.

You let Temur Battle Rage resolve and then cast Dress Down causing the creature to lose all abilities, including double strike and trample.

You also have the option to cast Dress Down in response to Temur Battle Rage. If you do this your Dress Down will take away all of the creature abilities, but then the creature gains double strike and trample. Timestamps create order in an otherwise chaotic situation when dealing with layers.

Another strange card in this deck is Death's Shadow.

A counterintuitive rule in Magic is that creatures die to state-based actions rather than damage. State-based actions are only checked after a spell is completely finished resolving. The last step before checking for state-based actions is a spell going to the graveyard or combat damage completing.

Due to state-based actions, Death's Shadow also has some unique rulings:

• If Death's Shadow blocks a creature with trample the opponent must assign extra damage to kill the Shadow.

For example: I use a 5/5 Death's Shadow to block a 6/6 Primeval Titan.

The default is for the Titan to deal five damage to Shadow and one to the opponent. When damage resolves and state-based actions are checked my life total will be one lower which causes the Shadow to become a 6/6 with five damage. The Titan has survived because it only took five damage from the Shadow.

First damage, then state-based actions check. This is why the Primeval Titan wouldn't die.

The above situation also holds true if two creatures are attacking and you block with a Death's Shadow.

For example: Opponent attacks with a 2/2 and a 3/3 and you block the 2/2 with a 1/1 Death's Shadow.

In this case, Shadow will deal one damage to the 2/2 while the 3/3 pumps Shadow up to a 4/4 to survive.

Another way Shadow can unexpectedly survive is against Searing Blaze. If Searing Blaze deals three to Shadow and you there's the opportunity for Shadow to become at least a 4/4. The game won't check to see if Shadow should die until Searing Blaze reduces your life total by three.

These weird rules are also why a 2/3 Tarmogoyf will survive a Lightning Bolt if there isn't an instant in the graveyard. Goyf takes three damage, then Lightning Bolt goes to the graveyard, and finally state-based actions are checked while it's a 3/4.

It's reasonable to play a Dauthi Voidwalker in the sideboard. If it gets hit by an Unholy Heat then Voidwalker won't die until it sees the spell go to the graveyard and instead be exiled with a Void counter. After the Heat is exiled, the Voidwalker finally dies to state-based actions.

If Dauthi Voidwalker is targeted by a Fatal Push it will die as part of the spell resolving. First the Voidwalker is put into the graveyard and then Fatal Push. In this case the Voidwalker won't see the Push leave the stack so it won't be exiled.

I've been recommending people watch Brian Coval's video where he explains interesting Legacy interactions. Since Dress Down was originally in Legacy decks it's discussed as well as some of the layer rules. Give it a watch and you will learn more about the mechanics of the game. In the past I was memorizing these types of rules without understanding their logic. I highly recommend you study this video.

Death's Shadow being in your deck also means there are times you want your opponent to attack. Not every hand is capable of inflicting more than seven damage and you could use a boost. It's not always bad to be on the draw.

I won every game in my last LGS tournament with Dress Shadow and was on the draw five out of six times. My opponents would attack me in early turns thinking I was on Grixis Lurrus.

Lightning Bolt kills fewer creatures than Unholy Heat, but has a hidden mode of targeting yourself. It's going to result in more damage to the opponent in uninteractive matchups assuming the Shadow can attack.

It's possible you want a third Alpine Moon in the sideboard if Tron continues to be popular. The first Moon names the Urza land not yet on the battlefield which is most likely the Tower. This is because you get an additional mana if you have to tap the Mine or Power Plant to find the last piece. It's best to name an Urza land not on the battlefield because it taps for any color. A second Moon names Blast Zone for protection.

I haven't run into Leyline of Sanctity and see very few copies in sideboards. If you feel otherwise feel free to swap Nihil Spellbomb with Soul-Guide Lantern.

That's all I have for today. Give Dress Shadow a try as the deck provides a reason to learn the rules better. The learning curve will also help you against opposing Shadow decks.

Thanks for reading!

-Kyle