It seems to curve well into Obliterate, and while searching for it on the gatherer, i came across Vicious Betrayal, both of which would be good cards to use with this. I guess when I saw this card, I didn't immediately think "monored deck," but instead I thought mass removal.
When you play Obliterate, it wipes out artifacts, lands, and creatures, but not enchantments, all the dead creatures will mean pain for you opponents. Also, the lack of lands will also mean that your opponents hand size will build up, making Vicious Shadows more potent. Further, if you have Protean Hulk in play when you obliterate, you will have the only creatures on the board after the wipe.
Another way to go would be elf mana ramp, drop the shadows, then drop a devour creature, which I assume this card was designed for, to convert all the elves into damage.
A simple Phyrexian Altar or Skullclamp *eep* w... (see all)
Posted By:
Kenji18
(10/16/2009 8:01:29 AM)
Nice with Malfegor, I guess. In multiplayer.
Posted By:
LiXinjian
(5/10/2010 7:18:15 PM)
(Spoiler) Use in Commander/EDH with this summer's UR legend Nin, the Pain Artist as your commander: For those who haven't seen her, she has Pay {X}{U}{R}: Deal X damage to target creature, it's controller draws X cards. Kill the creature, VIcious Shadows triggers and goes on the stack, the creature's controller draws cards to finish Nin's trigger, VS goes off and deals damage to the player. Maybe you even have a Runeflare Trap in hand as well. Seeing a fun deck yet?
Posted By:
sarroth
(3/20/2011 6:39:50 PM)
Use it in a devour deck as a finisher? build up the tokens, drop a devourer and tell them good game.
Posted By:
Johnald
(5/16/2010 9:41:45 PM)
This is going into my Kresh the Bloodbraided EDH deck for sure.
Posted By:
HairlessThoctar
(12/27/2009 7:20:43 PM)
This screams two things to me: Goblins with Brightstone Ritual and Skirk Prospector
OR
2x Myr Retrievers on a Ashnod's Alter cycle.
But both of these combos have other ways to win, so, w/e, just another cheap rare to be used as a finisher in a deck full of expensive infrastructure.
Posted By:
Ritius
(1/14/2010 11:12:49 PM)
This card became incredibly overpowered with the new eldrazi spawn. For each one sac'd it hits them, your opponent will die quick if they play it slow, maybe add a howling mine or 2. Just get a ton of land via fetch cards and your set. Seething song is always helpful if you play type 1 a lot. 4.5/5
Posted By:
Redeemer707
(4/28/2010 12:25:57 AM)
A bit of a steep mana cost for my taste but my buddy runs this in his goblin deck and with Blood Rites and I begin to weep.
Posted By:
raptorman333
(10/26/2011 2:30:56 PM)
I think this was another one of those 'testing the waters' cards.
In the set after this one, we got Runeflare Trap. A little cheaper, but utilizes the Trap subtype to allow it to be even more playable when it counts (they have a lot of cards) opposed to this which is so late in the game it barely shocks them at time. Next set, we got Molten Psyche, which is arguably close is mechanic and is still in 
.
Then we come to the current embodiment of this effect, one of the nigh broken sword that ironically ruins RDW's day; Sword of War and Peace. I'm pretty sure it is second only to Feast and Famine in power for the whole cycle.
So there you go, while in itself it wasn't that awesome of a card, it did give us a handful of decent progeny. Yeah, there were older versions like Adamaro, First to Desire, Gaze of Adamaro, and Sudden Impac... (see all)
Posted By:
OmegaSerris
(11/19/2011 7:33:09 AM)
Like Sarroth mentioned, I use this card in a Nin, The Pain Artist EDH deck to great effect. Pop this out and no one will want to throw down a boardwipe. Especially with Nin out. Considering you cast this for 7 mana, you can force someone to draw up to 5 cards at that point. So even if they had 0 cards in hand, which us highly unlikely in EDH anyway, only 8 creatures need to be on the board for a kill. This card is top-notch board insurance against wrath happy friends.
Posted By:
Mr.Wimples
(1/1/2012 1:31:18 AM)