Shadow the HedgehogShadow the Hedgehog | Art by Tracy Yardley

When I was a kid, I went over to a cousin’s house and played a new and mysterious thing called a Sega. Aside from Mortal Kombat, we played some of this strange, colorful racing platformer with a blue blur. I drew pictures of the game for months afterwards in an age without the internet to look it up and find it again. My video game journey would go on from there, with me picking up a GameCube so I could play Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. There’s where I first encountered Shadow the Hedgehog. He was cool, he was dark, he was edgy. He… died at the end of the game.

Shadow got better under mysterious circumstances and went on to star in his own video game, which I also played to completion (be nice, I was only 13). After suffering through that, I was less of a Shadow fan, but the grumpy antihero still holds a special place in my heart. When the Secret Lair for this was announced, I was taken aback, but the idea of a Shadow deck sounded too good to pass up, so let’s board the ARK and take a look at the Ultimate Life Form!

What Does Shadow the Hedgehog Do?

Shadow is a 4/2 with haste and two major abilities. He draws cards when any creature you control with haste or flash dies. The flavorful Chaos Control ability grants split second to spells you cast using mana from an artifact. This means that a spell you cast will have zero counterplay: they can’t sacrifice something in response to removal, they can’t cast Teferi's ProtectionTeferi's Protection to dodge an ExsanguinateExsanguinate, and of course no CounterspellCounterspell. Both of these abilities have layers of interesting possibilities, so let’s dig in for a minute.

Shadow’s first ability incentivizes you to find a bunch of creatures with flash or haste for the deck, and that’s an interesting road to go down. There are only 58 creatures with flash in his colors, but nearly 600 with haste. You could genuinely choose to just fill it up with the best haste creatures and go to town, but let’s keep digging. Red has ways to make hasty tokens repeatably, which often exile or sacrifice themselves. Red can also steal opposing creatures and give them haste until end of turn; with black’s sacrifice outlets, you have a stew. I don’t want to go too niche here, though. The final ability encourages artifacts, but not in a big flashy payoff; a subtheme is fine.

I like Shadow as a midrange deck, using a mix of red’s hasty tricks and black’s sacrifice outlets to maximize his card draw abilities. By using a mix of standard artifact ramp and a Treasures package, the deck can gain some inevitability with a handful of big late game plays that work with the deck’s themes.

Key Cards for Shadow the Hedgehog

We need three ingredients for our deck: sources of hasty creatures, ways to ensure they die, and a solid ramp package to keep up with the card flow. This deck wants to stay on the board and overwhelm the table, so let’s look at the ways the deck makes haste.

In my build, there are only 11 creatures with haste. Rankle, Master of PranksRankle, Master of Pranks is a good card, but even with reanimation tricks, he and his fellow haste-havers can only die so many times. That’s fine, though: we have cards like Urabrask's ForgeUrabrask's Forge, which make a hasty token that we sacrifice. There aren’t a ton of these, but enough to ensure we can draw them with some regularity. In a similar vein, there are cards like Feldon of the Third PathFeldon of the Third Path that make a token copy with haste. This boosts our count a little higher (giving a 50% chance of drawing one of them in the opener).

For the final ten creatures in our deck lacking haste or flash, there are ways to get around that. We don’t have the original FervorFervor, but Rising of the DayRising of the Day and The Fire CrystalThe Fire Crystal get there with additional utility. This sets us up for fodder for draw, but how do we make it happen?

Plenty of our creatures will die in combat, but not always. It’s best to control things and make sure it happens. Free and unrestricted is our “best in class” (Ashnod's AltarAshnod's Altar). Free and once per turn is usually good enough (Keskit, the Flesh SculptorKeskit, the Flesh Sculptor), and mana-restricted is acceptable under rare circumstance (SkullclampSkullclamp being “acceptable” is hilarious, but you get what I mean). Special shout out to the new free sac outlet coming to us from Edge of Eternities: Umbral Collar ZealotUmbral Collar Zealot. This need for sacrifice also bends our draw pool, so expect a Deadly DisputeDeadly Dispute. This ensures that we can get our creatures to die exactly when we need them to.

This deck should never go into topdeck mode unless something goes seriously wrong. With a full grip, we’ll need one more ingredient to keep our foot on the gas: mana. Lots of mana. Wizards of the Coast is starting to give red more ways to search up lands and produce mana, but Treasures are still one of the best ways to go. This deck especially likes Treasures for the Chaos Control split second rider, so in addition to the seven-mana rocks, we have ten cards which repeatedly make Treasure (and three more that do it once). Some of these cards, like XornXorn, are pure Treasure cards, but most pull double duty. For instance, Mahadi, Emporium MasterMahadi, Emporium Master plays into our sacrifice theme, and The Reaver CleaverThe Reaver Cleaver leans into the aggressive play pattern. In this category, we of course bring in Knuckles the EchidnaKnuckles the Echidna. Knux might be Sonic’s friend, but he does some good work with Shadow.

Beyond that, we have a slew of mana rocks, a few removal spells, and one special category of interaction: protection spells. This deck has some serious midrange elements going on with it (Phyrexian ReclamationPhyrexian Reclamation is an old school card that still puts in work), but this deck really wants to keep the commander on the field. Shadow the HedgehogShadow the Hedgehog is going to draw a lot of fire, especially early on. Black’s death prevention spells work to dodge any kind of destruction spell, while red’s redirects can deflect any targeted removal, destruction or exile. The black spells are especially flavorful here: Shadow accidentally pulls off Feign DeathFeign Death in the story. I focused on finding one- and two-mana versions of these effects (shout-out to Shadow’s power being four, meaning Bolt BendBolt Bend gets its cost reduced), but red doesn’t have enough yet, so in goes Wyll's ReversalWyll's Reversal. Return the FavorReturn the Favor has more versatility, but it’s also more color-intensive, and with Shadow being four pips, that generic cost is going to be a clencher from time to time.

With hasty creatures dying, our hand growing, and mana exploding… how does the deck actually close out the game?

How Does Shadow the Hedgehog Win?

The card draw engine is itself part of the wincon. Hasty creatures are creatures that can attack faster. This deck gets in the red zone on turn two and stays there. Drawing those extra cards each turn keeps the deck from running out of steam if the other players start building up defenses. The Treasures and ramp package keep the deck running fast enough to overwhelm.

Attacking with a bunch of weenies is a good opener, but there’s a lot of damage to distribute. The deck needs more than just attackers. In the midgame, we’re going to rely on cards like Descent into AvernusDescent into Avernus and Garna, Bloodfist of KeldGarna, Bloodfist of Keld to sling out some extra damage while pulling double duty in our ramp and draw needs. The devil, the myth, the legend in Mayhem DevilMayhem Devil is going to really up the ante on this with our Treasures and everyone sacrificing all kinds of permanents. This is not a full-on aristocrat deck to make way for the haste and Treasure package, but that’s not a bad direction to take the list. The Balrog, Durin's BaneThe Balrog, Durin's Bane could pass for Black Doom from the original Shadow: the Hedgehog (2005) and works as a big beater that can be discounted pretty heavily with Treasure mana.

Speaking of big beaters, though, there are some proper finishers in the list. Bladewing, Deathless TyrantBladewing, Deathless Tyrant and Ardyn, the UsurperArdyn, the Usurper are big plays that immediately impact the board while also playing into our haste theme. Mob RuleMob Rule is not a full InsurrectionInsurrection, but it gets the job done well enough. It grants haste to those creatures, so Shadow will draw cards off of them so long as there’s a sac outlet down and ready to chew up those stolen goods. If none of those show up, there’s always a trusty ExsanguinateExsanguinate for an absurdly high number.

And with that, the deck is ready to show off as a brave-hearted hero… or a black-hearted evil?

Shadow the Hedgehog Commander Decklist

Conclusion

Morbid confession: for a brief time in 2004, I ran a forum on a fan fiction website dedicated to Shadow the Hedgehog. So I may have been in the target audience for this card, but I accept that. It was a blast and a half considering how to build this. I loved the mechanics, but still found myself picking a few cards for flavor reasons.

There’s been rumblings for a while about how cracked Shadow is, and I can absolutely see it. I’m sure there are Optimized (4) versions (some claim cEDH-viable but I don’t go there, so I’m not making claims), but this grindier Core (2) version is my type of playstyle. I could see someone trimming out the artifact ramp, going all in on Treasures, and picking more flavorful cards (like my aforementioned Balrog for Black Doom) to make it a story-driven Exhibition (1) deck or going more towards a true aristocrats strategy for an Upgraded (3) experience.

Let me know where you land on the black hedgehog and what kind of deck you’re building with him!