Dauthi Slayer
Two black mana buys a clock that almost nothing on the opponent's side can interfere with: a 2/2 attacking into a parallel combat where only other shadow creatures can block, which in most games means no one can. The Dauthi were the engine that turned shadow from a curiosity into a real threat, and this is the variant where the design pushed hardest, granting near-guaranteed evasion from the moment it lands. The compulsion to attack every combat is what balances that out. The creature cannot be held back to defend, cannot sandbag against a race, and cannot sit home in a board stall to trade blows; the rate works precisely because the controller surrenders all choice about when it swings. A 2/2 almost nothing can block and that you never have to track would be quietly oppressive; tethering it to a mandatory attack hands a sliver of agency back to the opponent, who at least knows the damage is coming and can plan around the missing blocker. It states the logic of one specific archetype plainly: the all-in shadow beatdown that makes no pretense of defense and accepts a genuine drawback for evasion that, on a board without shadow creatures, may as well read "this damage cannot be stopped by blockers."




