Pyro's Grixis Kess Control

Commander / EDH Buyback Combo Control Counterspell Infinite Combo Pillow Fort Spellslinger Twin UBR (Grixis)

Pyrobound

Land (35)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crosis's Catacombs
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Graven Cairns
• 3x Island
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Power Artifact
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Splinter Twin
• 1x The Abyss

Instant (21)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Increasing Vengeance
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Reiterate
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Damnation
• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Windfall

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

Commander (1)

Artifact (12)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Forcefield
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Primal Amulet  ^Flip
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box

Creature (11)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Deceiver Exarch
• 1x Goblin Electromancer
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Nightscape Familiar
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Talrand, Sky Summoner
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Thassa's Oracle

---

Maybeboard

Instant (6)

• 1x Crosis's Charm
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Pongify

Creature (3)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Guttersnipe

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Blatant Thievery
• 1x Cruel Ultimatum
• 1x Enter the Infinite
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Artifact (1)

• 1x Sensei's Divining Top

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Control Magic
• 1x Court of Ambition
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence

Land (1)

• 1x Ancient Tomb

---

So I finally decided to put in a more significant amount of effort into creating my own ultimate ideal commander deck, or at least mostly ideal. Not copying from anyone and designing it fully from scratch to be 100% me. I will attempt to go into the details of the deck here and the many ways it wants to try and win.

Combo Wins

Draw Deck Wins

Thassa's Oracle or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Demonic Consultation = Draw your whole deck and then win the game.

Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact = infinite colorless mana + Pull from Tomorrow = Draw your whole deck + Thassa's Oracle or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries to win.

Infinite Mana Wins

Basalt Monolith + Power Artifact = infinite colorless mana + Exsanguinate, Comet Storm or Torment of Hailfire = infinite damage/ lose of life.

Mana Geyser + Reiterate buyback with net mana gain = infinite mana + Exsanguinate, Comet Storm or Torment of Hailfire = infinite damage/ lose of life.

Aetherflux Reservoir + Dramatic Reversal imprinted on Isochron Scepter with 2 mana from a non land source = infinite mana to recast Dramatic Reversal to pump up Aetherflux Reservoir to shoot everybody dead.

Other Notable Combos

Notion Thief or Narset, Parter of Veils + Windfall = Very sad opponents with no hands plus a lot of cards for you.

Notion Thief or Narset, Parter of Veils + Teferi's Puzzle Box = Your opponents lose their hands and never draw another card again (:

Deceiver Exarch + Splinter Twin = Infamous modern combo of making infinite hasty tokens to kill everyone.

So, those are the win cons. In these colors I can breath wrong and accidently combo off so I wouldn't be surprised if there are hidden combos in there I haven't recognized yet. Anyways the deck has to have a backbone to support getting to these wins, and the backbone of this deck is all about control. Time to go over the various ways of controlling the game and why they're included.

Control

Counterspells:

Counterspell - self explanatory

Arcane Denial - Hard Counter with the small drawback of giving the opponent a card, unless you have Notion Thief or Narset, Parter of Veils.

Cryptic Command - Hard Counterspell with a variety of control options in addition.

Mystic Confluence - A slightly worse Cryptic Command, but still good.

Single Target Removal:

Chaos Warp - Can hit any permanent, including enchantments which are particularly difficult to answer in these colors when they hit the board.

Hero's Downfall - Destroys any creature and planeswalker at instant speed. Better murder basically.

Cryptic Command + Mystic Confluence - can also bounce creatures and permanents.

Terminate - Probably the most simple and efficient kill spell in the game.

The Abyss - Gets around indestructible and puts a clock on every creature.

Fire Covenant - Can usually destroy any creature in the game if you're at decent life.

Capsize - Potential infinitely usable bounce spell for any permanent.

Mass Removal

Damnation - Black wrath of god, simple and effective.

Comet Storm - Can be used in desperation to destroy many creatures.

Torment of Hailfire - If pumped up enough can act like a forced board wipe.

Cyclonic Rift - Blue's best mass removal, doesn't permanently get rid of everything, but sends everyone back to the stone age.

Toxic Deluge - Paired with aetherflux you can kill almost anything on a board and get around indestructible too.

Fire Covenant - Can mass remove creatures based on how much life you put in it.

The Abyss - Left alone long enough can act as a permanent board wipe effect.

Vandalblast - Mass removal for artifacts.

Card Draw/Filter

Consecrated Sphinx - If left alone for even a single turn rotation will draw an absurd amount of cards.

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   - Allows you to loot to both gain card advantage and put key cards in the graveyard for Kess.

Notion Thief - Steal your opponents card draw instead.

Brainstorm - The best cantrip in the game, not counting ancestral recall.

Ponder - Basically scry 3 and draw a card

Preordain - Worse Ponder, but still ok.

Arcane Denial - Counterspell with card draw attached.

Cryptic Command - Card draw attached to many options.

Mystic Confluence - Can be used to draw three cards if needed.

Fact or Fiction - Opponent is put into a lose lose scenario since Kess can get back most of what they put into the graveyard.

Pull from Tomorrow - Simple mana sink for drawing cards at instant speed.

Windfall - Wheel effect to renew hand and can pair in a few combos.

Phyrexian Arena - Simple extra card draw each turn.

Rhystic Study - Do you pay the 1?

Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Narset, Parter of Veils - both have card draw options for loyalty abilities.

Tutors

Demonic Tutor + Vampiric Tutor - Basic Black tutors that can find anything.

Dark Petition - Black tutor with a ritual attached.

Mystical Tutor - Finds any spell needed.

Tolaria West - Can find any land in the deck. Basically rampant growth for 3 mana.

Stax

Notion Thief + Narset, Parter of Veils - No more extra card draw for opponents.

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - Worse 3 mana Teferi, but we gotta work with what we got in Grixis colors.

Teferi's Puzzle Box - No one keeps the same hand ever.

Forcefield + Maze of Ith - Stops singular creatures from hurting us.

Propaganda - Deters attackers from hitting us.

Past this point; the remaining cards in the deck are more focused on spell payoffs or simply copying things or making mana such as mana rocks or cards like Talrand, Sky Summoner which is a really good payoff for playing the deck. Because of the more independent nature of the remaining cards I won't go over them here. The only other thing I want to add is that I have a maybe board up for this deck of various cards I feel would be a good fit for the deck, but for some reason or another didn't quite make the cut. Should you have actually been insane enough to read this whole thing, I thank you as this took far too long to write, but I felt it was necessary for explaining the various complexities of the deck, if not to simply reiterate them to myself.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	WG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.75
Tokens	Copy Clone, Drake 2/2 U, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy