It's a good, generic, run down of the Shadows house.
I play just as much online as you do - so I have to agree. Every deck that tends to beat me has Shadows in it.

I expressed my views to the mods.

At work, can't read your article. Would love to discuss this HERE, but you don't even reply or talk in the numerous threads you start. Say something here and I'll happily contribute!

I realize I'm instigating when I say this again but I don't think current online play should enter into analysis. EDIT: Permit me to rephrase that. Online play discussion and analysis should be considered separately from face to face play. I think it's a different experience.

another great read Jon!

I think Shadow is great right now because players are all about getting AEmber as fast as possible. Not a bad strategy, but another strategy is board control: removing problem creatures and keeping powerful creatures of your own on the field. Shadow is great at taking the opponents' AEmber, but less good at maintaining board presence. The fact that Brobnar (a House that's great on board presence) managed to beat the Shadows deck proves that Shadow is not unbeatable.

Do we know what other houses were in the winning deck besides Brobnar?

While steal is the best form of aember manipulation and Shadows is the most/best steal cards, I don't consider it a necessary house to be competitive. There are plenty of other cards within the various houses that can manipulate aember enough and provide you with something Shadows is pretty bad at..........board control.

While their elusive creatures provide some benefits that are sometimes overlooked, they are all relatively weak and roll over to sweepers, which a competitive deck should try to have.

Bait and Switch is a good card, but, for the most part I find it to be highly overrated. I have seen plenty of solid shadows decks that don't have it. In a sealed event where someone can't see your list you essentially have it, even if you don't because players know how to play around it. Bait and switch is one of those card that punishes bad players but rarely hurts someone that knows what they are doing.

Gun to my head......I would have to give Dis or Untamed the title of house that is "most competitive" although keep in mind not all decks are the same. This assumes that the houses have the cards that make them dangerous, just as the op has done with Shadows.

Dis generally has some sort of disruption and or Arise which can swing a game in a big way. This generally sets up a board postion that can be maintained for several turns and ultimately has a bigger long term impact on the game. Untamed is the easiest house to accelerate keys with and that trumps aember manipulation because you can forge keys before your shadows opponent can steal aember and lessens the impact of steal effects.

I think it's a bad idea to say one house or the other is mandatory for competitive since deck contents have extreme amounts of variance. One should really look at the deck contents not just the houses.

"Styles make fights."

I've seen plenty of decks be successful without dis, shadows, or whatever house/deck is the flavor of the week.

A 22 person event a couple weeks into the game's release is nothing to draw any conclusions about.

Besides we all know logos is the best House. 😛