1 Kess, Dissident Mage

4 Snapcaster Mage

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Cryptic Command

1 Dreadbore

2 Fatal Push

2 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Kolaghan's Command

4 Lightning Bolt

1 Logic Knot

1 Magmatic Sinkhole

2 Opt

1 Remand

1 Search for Azcanta

2 Spell Snare

4 Thought Scour

1 Blood Crypt

2 Creeping Tar Pit

4 Field of Ruin

4 Polluted Delta

4 Scalding Tarn

3 Snow-Covered Island

1 Snow-Covered Mountain

1 Snow-Covered Swamp

2 Steam Vents

1 Sulfur Falls

2 Watery Grave

Sideboard

*2 Anger of the Gods

*2 Ceremonious Rejection

*1 Collective Brutality

*1 Countersquall

*1 Dispel

*1 Engineered Explosives

*1 Izzet Staticaster

*1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

*1 Plague Engineer

*1 Spell Snare

*2 Surgical Extraction

*1 Vendilion Clique

Hey everyone I just realized I never posted this to reddit. I wrote an article about Kess's role in modern Grixis recently. I'm super excited to play her post Horizons and I think she's going to breathe some new life into multiple different grixis archetypes. I'd love it you checked it out! https://mtgcorner.com/grixis-reborn-with-kess-dissident-mage/

So this is the list Corey took to GP Portland and posted an 11-4 finish with

Creatures:

4 Snapcaster Mage

2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Instant/Sorcery:

1 Anger of the Gods

4 Cryptic Command

4 Kolaghan’s Command

4 Thought Scour

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Logic Knot

2 Fatal Push

2 Spell Snare

1 Countersquall

1 Terminate

1 Dismember

Enchantments/Artifacts:

2 Search For Azcanta

1 Engineered Explosives

Land:

4 Polluted Delta

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Field of Ruin

2 Creeping Tar Pit

2 Steam Vents

2 Watery Grave

1 Blood Crypt

1 Spirebluff Canal

3 Island

1 Swamp

1 Mountain

Sideboard:

2 Young Pyromancer

2 Anger of the Gods

2 Dispel

3 Ceremonious Rejection

3 Surgical Extraction

1 Countersquall

1 Izzet Staticaster

1 Disdainful Stroke

Here’s the list he submitted against the field

Creature (6)

4 Snapcaster Mage

2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Sorcery (2)

1 Inquisition of Kozilek

1 Collective Brutality

Instant (24)

4 Thought Scour

4 Lightning Bolt

2 Fatal Push

1 Spell Snare

1 Dismember

1 Terminate

1 Countersquall

2 Logic Knot

4 Kolaghan's Command

4 Cryptic Command

Artifact (1)

1 Engineered Explosives

Enchantment (2)

2 Search for Azcanta

Land (25)

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Polluted Delta

2 Creeping Tar Pit

1 Sulfur Falls

2 Steam Vents

2 Watery Grave

1 Blood Crypt

3 Island

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

4 Field of Ruin

Sideboard (15)

1 Countersquall

2 Izzet Staticaster

2 Anger of the Gods

3 Surgical Extraction

2 Young Pyromancer

2 Disdainful Stroke

1 Dispel

2 Ceremonious Rejection

Of note:

-Pyromancers are now in the sideboard and we’re maindecking a brutality as removal and extra hand disruption and it squeezes out a few more percentage points game 1 against burn strategies

-8 Command forever

-moving the sideboard towards multiple specific hate cards against bad matchups than just value grixis cards

-No damnation at all possibly due to all go wide decks popping off by turn 3 and being anemic to Anger anyway

My 75 https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/visual/1145670

Sleeved this up and played it after long hiatus at a local event yesterday.

3-0-1

[R1] 2-1 vs Titanshift

I've played a lot of Titan, he played well. He got me one game with double Scapeshift and only one answer I had in hand. G3, he tried that once more but this time I had double Countersquall :D

SB: +2 Countersquall, 2 Surgical, 1 Disdainful Stroke

-1 Electrolyze, 1 Nicol Bolas, 3 Fatal Push

[R2] 2-1 vs U splash W Turns

I'm familiar with this deck, so knew what lines to take. When you see mono islands and Thing in the Ice, you can figure what they may be up to. He got a game from me with gigadrowse into triple exhaustion.

SB +2 Countersquall, 2 Surgical, 1 Disdainful Stroke, 1 EE

-1 Terminate, 1 Electrolyze, 1 Nicol Bolas, spell snare? Cant remember exactly what was sided out

He played Colonnade, at least 3 snap, and TiTi so I kept Fatal Push in Brought in EE to deal with Dictate of Kruphix, it's critical to their engine

[R3] 1-1-1 vs UW control

Game 1 was very long, I thought we might not have time to finish G2 so I tried very hard to win. I eventually stabilized but it was difficult dealing with his planeswalkers. 5 drop Teferi, 3 drop Teferi and 3 drop Narset. All the static abilities on the new planeswalkers were difficult to deal eith, Tef is must kill because it locks you down on instants. It came down to Field of Ruin. He had a lethal Collonade and I had a Fatal Push with only one black source left. He plays maindeck Surgical so he saw what I had and figured out what to do. I was able to steal a quick game 2 when he got stuck on 2 land. We didn't get time to finish G3.

SB +2 Countersquall, 1 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Dispel

-1 Nicol Bolas, -1 Terminate, -1 Electrolyze, -1 Tasigur

[R4] 2-1 vs Mono-R Phoenix

Lost G1 real fast on the draw as expected. In total I sideboarded 11 cards for this matchup. It ended up being very close but just enough to stay on top of him. I think SBing correctly is the only chance you have in these games.

SB -4 Cryptic, 1 Nicol Bolas, 2 Search, 2 Spell Snare, 2 K command

+1 Anger, Kalitas, Pia and K, 2 Dispel, 2 Countersquall, 2 Surgical, 2 Collective Brutality

Notes: Countersquall and Surgical extraction ended up being MVPs but I wouldnt put too many situational counterspells in the main. Spell Snare is an exception because it trades up and usually has a target.

Nicol Bolas was sided out almost every game. First time running it, but I knew triple black would be tough. Have to cut Field of Ruin to play it. Luckily no tron in my meta. I still like the card and will continue testing it. I do prefer it's proactiveness over JtMS at the moment.

Thought Scour is even more important now without Field of Ruin (in this deck) in combination with Surgical. Couple times I was Scouring their JtMS brainstorms which ended up revealing some vital hits.

Hey All,

I’ve been playing Magic since 2007 and I’ve wanted to play Modern Grixis Control since it started to make a name for itself in Modern. I’ve held off prior due to the entry cost for the deck, but I recently bit the bullet and made the investment. I understand the basics of playing a “Control” deck, but I am looking for:

-Any tips and/or tricks for playing the deck.

-Where the deck sits in the current meta.

-Unique card choices.

-Any consistent sources of media that feature the strategy (Specific players, YouTube Channels, Podcasts, etc).

The list I am currently playing is below for reference.

————————

Creatures

4 Snapcaster Mage

1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

————————

Other Spells

4 Opt

3 Hieroglyphic Illumination

2 Search for Azcanta

4 Fatal Push

2 Lightning Bolt

1 Terminate

1 Dreadbore

1 Dismember

4 Kolaghan’s Command

4 Cryptic Command

2 Logic Knot

1 Mana Leak

1 Countersquall

1 Spell Snare

————————

Lands

4 Polluted Delta

3 Bloodstained Mire

2 Watery Grave

2 Steam Vents

1 Blood Crypt

2 Creeping Tar Pit

2 Spirebluff Canal

3 Field of Ruin

3 Island

1 Swamp

1 Mountain

————————

Sideboard

2 Young Pyromancer

1 Izzet Staticaster

2 Dispel

1 Disdainful Stroke

2 Ceremonious Rejection

2 Surgical Extraction

1 Nihil Spellbomb

2 Abrade

1 Anger of the Gods

1 Languish

————————

Thank you!

Lady Kess is here for us to play with and experiment in modern horizons. What does this mean for us? Do we claim out birthright and become a viable control deck again or is this card too cute?

Hey everyone! I was recently informed that there was a Grixis subreddit, so here's my sort-of tournament report from my top 8 this past weekend at SCG Philly. My team went 10-3-2, drawing into top 8.

Round 1: KCI (W 2-0) - This matchup is basically that they only have so many cards that matter and I have far more answers for them. Surgical is just a beating.

Round 2: Storm (W 2-0) - This is a good matchup, improving out of the board, but it's a pretty difficult one and mistakes are more costly than usual.

Round 3: Affinity (W 2-0) - When the question is "Artifact?", Kolaghan's Command is the answer.

Round 4: G Tron (W 2-0) - So begins the my string of tron matches. I was lucky to capitalize on a bit of a flood and avoid turn 3 Tron on the draw, post board I have a lot of play and the match improves to the point of maybe being favorable.

Round 5: G/R Tron (W 2-1) - My opponent boarded into a Pithing Needle/Alpine Moon pachage to keep me off land destruction, but didnt't see them early and it didn't matter.

Round 6: G Tron (L 0-2) - This was Todd Stevens. He had so much redundancy on tron pieces that I had a lot of trouble keeping him down long enough to establish a clock... and I got turn 4 Ulamoged game 1.

Round 7: UW (L 0-2) - I didn't realize just how bad this matchup felt. I played a lot against Jeskai, but UW I didn't have a ton of reps. So... Many... Planeswalkers. Jeskai has burn spells like me, but where they play Helix and Electrolyze, I play Kolaghan's Command which is better in the matchup. UW just has more Planeswalkers and more Counterspells in those slots. I felt like I had to be the aggro and apply pressure, which I don't generally do very well.

Round 8: Jeskai (DNF) (1-0 when teamates won) - Game 1 was a slaughter where I had 5 cards in hand to his 2 pretty quickly with Kolaghan's Command snapcaster looping nonsense. Game 2 was down to me 2for1ing off a Lyra but I was up on cards, so I felt in the game. chaining Kolaghan's Command is the breaker in the matchup.

Round 9: DNF GR Valakut (was 1-0 and about to win game 2 when teammates both won) - Another "They only have a few cards that matter" matchup. Brought in more counters and surgical and the matchup feels very good.

Round 10: Bye - one of 7 or so x-2-1s into day 2, got the random bye. *shrug*

Round 11: Affinity (W 2-0) - Artifacts. My opponent had Karn post board, resolved it, activated it, didn't matter. Etched Champion is basically the only way to lose the matchup.

Round 12: UW (L 1-2) - This was Peter Ingram. These games were very good. Game 2 I got to execute the "protect the queen" plan with Tasaigur on the play. Game 3 he resolves Lyra, which I answered eventually, but we went to turns and I was trying to answer his collonade to not die and draw. Lost on turn 5.

Round 13: UW (0-1 when teammates lost) - Game 1 was a curve of planeswalkers preceeded by double clique to clear the way. Game 2 felt up in the air, considering we didn't get that far.

Round 14: Grixis Reanimator (L 0-2) - I've played this pilot before. He's very good and this matchup is very scary. As Foretold, goryo's, Kiki Combo, Living End present so many angles of attack. Game 1 he mulled to 5, looted into double reanimate effect. Endstep reanimate I countered, untap reanimate I die. Game 2 I mull to 5 and get Gonti'd to death post board.

Round 15: Drew into top 8

Quaterfinals: Jeskai (0-1 when teammates lost) - Jon Rossum. This match was great. I was on the back foot for most of the game. Eventually I killed Jace and Teferi and chained Kolaghan's Commands and Snapcasters to go up on cards. I put him to one with snap bolt available having every 3 card combination covered except for him having Cyrptic #3 and his last 2 bolts in his 4 cards in hand. He had them, i died. We didn't really get anywhere into game 2.

My thoughts after the tournament are that UW Control is worse than I thought and I need to find a plan that closes the gap on that matchup. This had been some time coming, but I think Tron is actually a favorable matchup post board. Sure you can't really afford to make stupid mistakes without maximum punishment, but the matchup just feels good with my configuration.

Overall my list felt very good against the field and I don't think there's much to change other than fixing the UW matchup post board.

Happy to answer questions. Deck linked below.

http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/122507

Aspiringspike has brewed a new grixis control deck thanks to throne with drown in the loch and into the story and for possibly the first time in years, grixis control actually looks real. The deck plays entirely at instant speed (aside from 2 tasigurs) and is an actual draw go control deck. It seems thought scouring your opponent is generally correct.

This is the current decklist: (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/2354512)

Instants (29):

3 Cryptic Command

4 Thought Scour

4 Fatal Push

3 Kolaghan's Command

3 Spell Snare

3 Lightning Bolt

2 Force of Negation

4 Drown in the Loch

3 Into the Story

Creatures (7):

1 Torrential Gearhulk

2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

4 Snapcaster Mage

Lands (24):

3 Field of Ruin

4 Scalding Tarn

4 Polluted Delta

3 Island

1 Mountain

1 Swamp

2 Watery Grave

1 Steam Vents

2 Creeping Tar Pit

1 Blood Crypt

1 Spirebluff canal

1 Mystic Sanctuary (seems actually good here, especially with into the story)

Sideboard

3 Collective Brutality

2 Engineered Explosives

3 Ceremonious Rejection

1 Damnation

3 Surgical Extraction

2 Vendilion Clique

1 Force of Negation

This deck has game against everything. Somehow has a goodish burn matchup, a solid tron matchup and can outgrind jund hard. (not great against dredge though but when has that not been the case)

Watching it be played is joyous.

The main problem this deck has is against planeswalkers it seems, so I think if I were to tweak things I would personally trim a bit of removal since 4 push, 3 bolt and 4 drown is too much IMO and try and shore up the deck against t3feri and other control decks because post-board we have quite a few dead cards.

- 1 Torrential gearhulk, -1 fatal push

+1 vendilion to main, +1 IoK (solid in control matchups: t3feri wrecks this deck).

I'd also tweak the sideboard a little: adding something like mystical dispute, countersquall or disdainful stroke. However, I'm not at all certain about these changes.

I also wonder if 3 spell snare's is too many but that's a hard call.

It's worth noting that we are in a meta that is particularly advantageous to this deck right now - stoneforge and urza make 3 maindeck kcommand godly & the minimisation of graveyard decks is massive. So up in the air how much staying power this deck will have but I think drown (and possibly into the story) are absolutely massive additions.

There's finally a reason to be playing ubx control.

Hello,

I've been playing Grixis Cruel Ultimatum Control for about six months now, and I've decided to make a list including the new Modern Horizons card I think have a spot.

For reference, this is my current list. It's been middle of the road in terms of performance, though I'm sure a better player than I could have more success.

This is the list I am going to sleeve up on release day. (Maybe not with the snow lands, I haven't decided yet)

I haven't had time to do a full write up on the card choices yet, but if there's anything that you want to discuss, let me know and I will go into my thought process.

This list 5-0d recently and thought it was interesting

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

4 Snapcaster Mage

2 Collective Brutality

4 Serum Visions

2 Cryptic Command

2 Fatal Push

4 Hieroglyphic Illumination

2 Kolaghan's Command

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Remand

3 Through the Breach

2 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Blood Crypt

1 Creeping Tar Pit

2 Field of Ruin

3 Island

1 Mountain

3 Polluted Delta

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Steam Vents

2 Sulfur Falls

1 Swamp

2 Watery Grave

Sideboard:

2 Collective Brutality

1 Kolaghan's Command

2 Nihil Spellbomb

2 Anger of the Gods

1 Damnation 2 Dispel

1 Dreadbore

1 Engineered Explosives

1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

1 Keranos, God of Storms

1 Rakdos Charm

Edit : Sorry for the typo, meant “what do you think”

He’s made the 5-0 several times in the last months, his build is very different from traditional Grixis Control

Here are some of the 5-0 https://www.mtggoldfish.com/player/Gods_Shadow

Hello all,

Long time fan of my favorite colour combo, and recent adopter of actually being able to play it in Modern. I have some thoughts on the recent shift I've observed in performance of Grixis in modern and what I view as the three distinct breeds of Grixis we might play and the advantages therein.

The three archetypes as I see them are Grixis Delver, Grixis Midrange and Grixis Control.

Grixis Delver: The most aggressive of our three flavours, Delver leans more on low cost creatures and spells to drop early threats including the namesake Delver of Secrets and Delve mainstays [[Tasigur, the Golden Fang]] and [[Gurmag Angler]] to get in as much damage as possible and finish the game out with both light control and reach with bolt/snap.

Example List: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=19514&d=324786&f=MO https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=19612&d=325651&f=MO

Grixis Midrange (tapout control): Moving into the forefront of decklists on MTGtop8 more recently. This archetype is the only one that plays more sorcery speed and a stronger discard package, and a lack of [[Thought Scour]]. [[Nicol Bolas, the Ravager]] has been hitting it big in here and [[Nimble Obstructionist]] and [[Jace, Vryn's Prodigy]] look to be finding spots here as well.

Example List: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=20012&d=329815&f=MO

Grixis Control: The Corey Burkhart special, characterized by playing the full 4 [[Cryptic Command]] and usually [[Kolaghan's Command]], a heavier leaning on [[Search for Azcanta]] as well as the full 4 [[Field of Ruin]] with 24-25 lands, and the Thought Scour/Tasigur package without Gurmag Angler. The deck wants to play at instant speed usually and is very similar in play pattern to something like Jeskai Control.

Example List: https://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=19686&d=326497&f=MO

Some new cards that have been popping up and I'd love to hear some discussion on are [[Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet]] and [[Pia and Kiran Nalaar]].

Kalitas really appeals to me for the usefulness against Bridgevine as well as just having lifelink giving you a really horrifying threat for many opponents. Pia and Kiran Nalaar I'm not really sold on but I'd love to hear from people who like it.

Thanks for reading, I look forward to some good discussions.

Edit: Added example decklists for reference. edit 2: Added new delver list with delvers.

I have been trying it sideboard against big mana and combo decks. What do you guys think?

I'd love to bounce around ideas

Can he warrant a one of slot in the mainboard despite the meta being full of fast and combo decks? The 4/4 evasive body and discard can sometimes be an advantage. Flipping him is game over most of the time but I feel like he is a win more.

Thoughts?

So I have noticed that alot of people are using Thoughtscour over Serum Visions for card draw. I prefer Visions because of greater card selection. I understand it is because they play Tasigur as the wincon/a card afvantage engine. That being said what if we cut the Tasigurs and ran a Scarab God as a one of. It can help close the game out fairly quickly on its own. Also, combine that with the fact if they dont have you use your mana on something else you can grab a creature out of their yard and make a zombie and possibly get and ETB trigger. Help against a decent amount of decks that recur creatures and helps us get the game over. Helps set up further live draws after activation with the scray and drains them, blocks well, hard to get rid of permanently, and combines well with Lili, Last Hope. I was thinking of doing like Gods_shadow and running 2 Nimble obstructionist beside it and maybe one more creature such as a single Pia and Kiran or maybe just run 7 dudes. All opinions are welcome. Please try to be constructive.

Tldr; Thinking of running serum visions over thought scour and cutting the tasigurs for a scarab god while running 2 nomble obstructionists.

At least Corey Burkhart thinks so: https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/grixis-at-grand-prix-toronto-and-for-grand-prix-las-vegas/

I thought the article was great at explaining why, and it also made me build a deck to scratch an itch I've been having to start grixising people out again. It's pretty close to Corey's list in the article, except I don't own the two search for azcanta so I'll be testing some spice in the form of [[mindswipe]] and [[undermine]]. I like some cards that can make racing aggro possible or beating combo before they go off. Thoughts are welcome but I mostly posted this to try and breathe some life into this sub. Cheers!

I have been playing grixis decks for about a year now. I started out in Grixis Delver and moved to Shadow when it started rising in popularity. I really like playing control decks and was wondering what the general consensus was on Grixis control before buying/trading into it. Any opinions are appreciated. Thanks

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1572686#online

I chose to go with [[Faithless Looting]] instead of [[Thought Scour]] so that I could get better card selection. I realize this makes the delve threats slower, but I figure picking what goes in the yard is better than getting slammed by variance.

I chose to go heavier on the [[Dreadbore]] / [[Terminate]] split because walkers are seeing more play and most of the spells in the deck are sorcery speed anyway. [[Dismember]] should probably be somewhere in the 75, but I'm not sure what it replaces; I'm not a huge fan of [[Collective Brutality]] so I could see replacing these in the side with it.

I'm not entirely sure that [[Lightning Bolt]] has a place here, but it's hard to deny it in a red deck; plus, it's great turn 1 removal for a bird!

I haven't tested this deck yet, but I've played countless games in Grixis and feel like I have a pretty good feel for how the archetype wants to be played, I'm mainly posting here because I like to hear other perspectives and perhaps you guys know some great tools I'm missing out on.

This has also been posted on r/ModernMagic.

Thoughts?