never #BabyRage
eats removal, if they dont have it they eat 7, if they do they either probably have to play inefficiently around it or waste their removal on a 4-drop instead of doomguard/dr boom. the drawback has proc'd for me literally one time, and it has never been something even on my mind because you either already lose games where it would have mattered or are far ahead enough that it won't matter.I've been toying around with Ancient Shade in Zoo. People have been way too quick to dismiss Ancient Shade because of its 4 health and vulnerability to BGH, but it fits perfectly in a deck that is focused on trading up and maintaining board control. If the opponent BGHs Ancient Shade, it's not even a big tempo swing because they have to drop it on 4 or 5, which really fucks with the curve. Yes, your Shade dies, but their turn 4 or 5 play is going to die to your 1 or 2 drop or even just a spider token. They also won't have that BGH for Dr. Boom later on. The 4 health is bad against pretty much just Eviscerate and Frostbolt because if your opponent wants to Truesilver or Death's Bite it, they're eating 7, which is kind of the point. Eviscerates and Frostbolts also rarely last to turn 4/5 because the opponent wants to spend those early removal spells on Imp Gang Boss and Knife Juggler.
Running Ancient Shade over Shredder means the rest of your early game really has to stick and the opponent's minions really have to die, so I'm running double Power Overwhelming and a Void Terror to go along with it and a Zombie Chow + a Loatheb to make sure the board sticks later on.