Mono-Shadow (Masters | Anti-Skycrag)

Reached first-time masters from Diamond 1 - Masters playing this.

The deck is specifically teched against Skycrag / FPS Scream. The meta is swarmed with the hyper-aggro highway queens. This deck is able to tempo itself every turn, responding to threats while slapping down your own threats.

Big thanks to InGenuity with Team Rankstar for his original Mono-Shadow list that inspired me to push to Masters.

The Mono-Shadow Threats
These cards rely heavily on playing only shadow influence. Splashing other colors would throw off our consistency.
•Marionette Cross — An underrated card. A 5/5 unit on turn 3 is difficult to respond to, especially for our nemesis Skycrag. This allows it to sit out of Torch range, block almost any of their units without a 2-for-1 exchange (Champion of Fury, Crunch, the Hoarder, etc). Also has great synergy with Dark Return.
•Devouring Shadow — One of the strongest removal cards if paired with mono-shadow. A permanent stat reduction protects us from Dark Return and Haunting Scream, along with being able to kill nearly any unit this is played on.
•Umbren Reaper — Nothing too insane at face-value, but he has one of the biggest impacts when played. Able to swing 10 HP if destroyed immediately, great synergy with Dark Return and Sleeping Draught. And has high threat with 5 power with flying.

The Game Winners
•Vara, Vengeance-Seeker — One of the best 4-drop units available. She has insane lifesteal and destroys all aegis shields immediately. Aegis is one of our counters considering we have so much removal, and Vara is able to pop all aegis even if she dies immediately. Almost always a good idea to play on turn 4.
•Caiphus, Wandering King — Our newest promo unit is bonkers. His summon ability procs every time he is played, and because of Dark Return and Sleeping Draught it is not uncommon for him to hit 9 abilities. If your opponent has not killed him once he has 9 abilities, you've pretty much won the game by that point.
•Umbren Reaper — As explained above, he can easily close out the game if unanswered.

The Hate
With our toolbox of disruption and control, we can easily play aggressively. Being able to force Skycrag decks backpedal and play re-actively pretty much ruins their game plan.
•Sabotage & Shakedown — These allow us to disrupt the game very early in the game. With these we can shut down early gameplans, get an idea for what to expect, and then adjust our own gameplan to respond. Our deck allows us to match control decks, aggro decks, and some combo decks.
•Suffocate, Annihilate, Devouring Shadow, Stray into Shadow, & Vara's Favor — All of these cards allow us to respond to nearly any unit during any point of the game.

Our Smaller Units
Our main stone bros to help us through the game.
•Dreamsnatcher — A nice body for a 2 drop, along with lifesteal. Some synergy with our hand disruption, but don't delay tempo just to be cheeky and up his power. 3 toughness also goes a very long way at turn 2.
•Ripknife Assassin — Deadly is terrifying against most players. If unanswered, his warcry will turn the game around alone. Not uncommon to win games with him just because we were able to pull off 3 warcrys.
•Kerendon Merchant — Aside from our market access, he is able to generate threat on his own. Becomes a problem when returned with Dark Return.

The Excluded
•Devour — We generally don't have enough units to throw them away willy-nilly for some more cards. I would consider this card if we had some cards to steal units or had units with revenge / entomb.
•Argenport Instigator — I ran this card for a while, but don't like the feel of it. He works much better in a more aggro or swarm style, but not for the midrange/control we run. We need a lifesteal unit in our 2-slot as well.
•Holdup — I had 2 of these mainboarded for a while, and also did not feel too impressed with them. We have better turn 4 options with Vara, a 3 cost unit + 1 cost spell, or 2 cost unit + 2 cost spell. Often it felt like a skipped turn, works better in a more slow or controlly meta. I do keep 1 in the market though. It's worth grabbing if you get an early feel for their plan and know it will have an impact.
•In Cold Blood — Also taken out due to recent meta changes. Not enough Justice cards to warrant this mainboarded. We need earlier answers for the aggro decks. We keep a copy in the market because it is strong against midrange Justice decks.
•Devastating Setback — Yet another card excluded because of this meta. We used to keep one in the market, but we had to make some room for adjustments.Stray into Shadow is simply better against decks running Dark Return & Haunting Scream (hint: every deck).
•Impending Doom — Too slow at the moment. Simply dies with no benefit or impact on our half.
•Azindel's Gift — Taken out because of meta warps. Works better in control decks.
•Shadowlands Tyrant— Uhhhh I just don't have this card lol. I would consider trying 2 of these and 2 of Umbren Reaper to see which feels better. I think Umbren Reaper is a better fit until the new set releases.
•Deathstrike — Pretty much the same reason as everything else, meta changes.
•Cull the Deck — I haven't played this card and thought "this really helped" before. Not a fan of it.
•Steward of the Past — Doesn't make much of an impact on turns 4-6, otherwise you end up hanging onto it for too long trying to utilize it. Could make a way into our deck maybe, but I'm not feeling it.
•Fenris Nightshade — We have enough 2-costs and we need the lifesteal from Dreamsnatcher. Another guy whose butt isn't big enough for me.
•Eremot, the Gathering Dark — Ew.
•Auric Interrogator — We don't have enough ways to benefit from his draw power, and we need the bigger bodies from Marionette Cross.



Any questions or comments are much appreciated. I can add some matchup advice if wanted.
Looking to join a team wink wonk ;)



Other decks I used to get to diamond
[Reunion] _Kubi_'s Deck
Hooru Bezerks