W I N

Grixis! Oh, it does my heart good to see a Grixis deck out there. I've been contemplating a Grixis Control deck for a while now. Funnily enough, though, I was planning on making room for Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. One slot, possibly two.

I must say, I love Swerve in the sideboard. Swerve your Banefire? WIN. And other things, but that's my dream scenario.

I want to talk about a few things: First of all, it looks like several Mainboard cards should be sideboard cards. For example: Double-Negative. That's tech against 5 Color Blood, or other decks with Cascade. Why, then, is it mainboarded? Wouldn't Remove Soul or Negate be a more cost-effective, less color-intense option?

Second of all, and this is just me spouting my personal preference, I would love to see more card advantage. Ponder sounds great. Mulldrifter is a well known card. I love the Jace in there. (I love card advantage; the deck is solid as is, I just want to add more card draw/selection. I can't help it.)

I'd also prefer some other creature over Plumeveil, because it can't attack. The Win conditions in this deck are 1) Demigod. 2) Mill with Jace. I'd just like to see something else that can do damage. But again, that could very well just be me.

I agree with Engineer's Double Negative comment, if your that concerned over cascade, maybe mainboard 2 or even 1 because against any other deck i dont see any way for it NOT to be a dead card.

Card draw = good, and Mulldrifter is a solid card, maybe switch it for Plumeveil ...

Engineer you forgot Banefire and Cruel Ultimatum as win conditions. Although You cant just banefire for X=20, (itd be pretty amizing though) so either way you need Demigod to smooth out. Also, you usually win when you cast Cruel Ultimatum . I mean games just turn upside down the second its cast

Thanks for the comments guys. Concerning win conditions, banefire cannot be counted out (as adrul mentions).

The demigods are really, really intense. To say that there are only four instances of them would be to lessen their function greatly.

And concerning your opinions on double negative: I think you guys are on crack! You could go negate or remove soul, but why bother. It's not like r/u is going to be a stretch with this manna base. There are decks in which I would play cancel before I would play remove soul or negate. So why not play "cancel +" ? Sure, it's no cryptic, but that's why it's three mana (and that's also why we have cryptic!). I have never found a double negative to be a worthless card in hand: it has such utility. It either counters one or two, regardless of the "creature vs. non-creature" clause.

But, as I said, that's just me. I love double negative, especially in the current meta.

Oh, I'm not a fan of the plumeveils either. I'd just go hard removal there.

Well, I'm inclined to take your word on the Double Negative issue. I really like the card, too, I just wasn't sure if it ever was difficult to play. Or (seeing as there are so many high costed card in the deck) if you ever had to choose between playing a threat and saving three mana for Double Negative (whereas a 2 cmc counter would have let you do both). Seeing as you've actually played the deck, it sounds like Double Negative was a good card choice.

And yes, I overlooked Banefire, which is definitely a win condition. And with 9 cards that can draw you at least one card, you're right to say that "Just" four Demigod of Revenge is enough.

hmmm i guess double negative could work, i just see it, as most of the time being a color intensive cancel... soft counters such as remove soul (im sorry essence scatter) just dont require you to make that mana commitment both in cost and color. in any case i guess its up 2 personal choice.

About Demigod. He doesnt play well with Path to exile, and if im not mistaken, PtE is good removal. You probably wont get there with just demigod beatdown unless you've got some of them in the graveyard, and PtE prevents that. Thats why Demigod was the bomb to go to bfore Conflux, or maybe a little bfore that. Now Broodmate Dragon has taken the role precisly because its naturaly resitent to spot removal, which is at such high quality in this meta. Celestial Purge is also seeing some SB play so...

Either way, this deck's role is to control until you can send your win conditions in a favorable manner (wait, this is a control deck, scratch that last sentence). in any case, we know the deck can win, if not we probably wouldnt be talking about it.

From personal experience running a list fairly close to the one detailed here, Grixis control is too much fun (and it wins you lots of boosters!)- and it's only going to get better after M10 (die kithkin, die.)

@Adrul, Demigod did lose some of its potency with the release of conflux, but he's still one of the most resilient creatures in it's colors. I've found myself vs Blightning beatdown at 6 hp, chucking demigods, then swinging for 15. With the release of megrimish discard all over again, I can see him sticking around.

That said, I also like having a copy of Oona, Queen of the Fae around. Especially since mono colored decks are going to be abundant with the release of M10.

I'm wondering why Twincast didn't make the list... Twincast a banefire,a cruel ultimatum, or their cryptic command. Take your pick...bane fire for 7 or 10? You have no counter for my cruel ultimatur...why don't you do it twice? You have a counter for cruel ultimatum, counter your counter.