Death’s Shadow
 
Death’s Shadow has surged into Modern with a vengeance recently, proving itself to be a massive threat in decks built around it. For one black mana, you get a creature that scales really scarily into the late game (often coming out as a 5/5 or bigger); it gets bigger if you’re further "behind", and it's easy to use fetchlands and other self-damage sources to make it even more menacing. It’s an excellent creature against red-heavy strategies, since red rarely hits damage amounts high enough to kill Death's Shadow, and its cheap cost means it's not a huge loss if it gets killed by a Fatal Push, an Abrupt Decay, or a Path to Exile.
 
It's not a card that slots perfectly into every deck, since you want a shell able to support it and get it bigger without relying on your opponent. But it's a massive threat at any point, and the Grixis shells that have adopted it are well-suited to using it to close out a game. Even if it's almost never going to be a 13/13, you don't need it to be for it to be good.
 
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3
Commander: 2

David Fanany

Player since 1995