Do you like wiping permanents off of the board? Do you like wiping spells off of the stack? Do you like that depressed sigh when your opponent finally realizes they have nothing left to do but watch as you incrementally take over the game and win like clockwork with The Bluebox of Fun in four measly turns.
Hi. My name is Zeb and I will be taking you on an adventure of dull, grey wonder as we seek to let nothing fun or exciting happen in a single game of Magic: The Gathering.
After over a month of testing, tweaking, and occasionally changing a poopie diaper, I present to you this deck. This is my Grixis Control list. There are many like it, but this one is mine. As you can see, we operate primarily at instant speed. In fact, only five slots in the main deck must be cast during our main phase. This is because of the power of instant speed control and the support of The Bluebox of Fun toward instant speed spells. We draw cards when we want, we kill creatures when we want, and, most of all, we win the game when we want.
On my scale of The Equation of Control, this deck contains a score of 8-8-8-12.5-26. My meta features a plethora of aggressive lists including, but not limited to, Mardu Vehicles aplenty, even more GB Snakes decks, RW Humans decks, and a few scattered aggressive lists of other types. For this reason, my list is heavy on removal and operates as smoothly as possible, leaving little opportunity for the opponent to sneak wins off when you leave your shields down. The breakdown is as follows...
Win-Conditions
Torrential Gearhulk (4): The big, fat, fatty that makes instant speed control and blue as a color competitive. The keystone of any blue control deck, Torrential Gearhulk comes down right when we need to um... recast any spell out of our graveyard? Sure, your opponent can play around it, but just like with any of the highly competitive cards in Standard these days, playing entirely around a really good card just causes you to lose against the rest of your opponent's deck. Lands exactly when you need him (instant speed), squeaks extra value out of our best spells, and slaps your opponent onto a four-turn clock. Perfect card. We want at least one every game.
Chandra, Torch of Defiance (1): Turn four is not generally when you look to land this gal. While playing her on turn four to kill a creature with her -3 ability is an okay play, we're looking to use her on a later turn to establish a win-condition that can generate card advantage under the right circumstances, but simply chucks two damage at the opponent's face, sometimes at one of their planeswalkers with her uppermost +1 ability. Obviously, her -3 is great for slicing up small-mid-sized creatures, but we like her inevitability the most. Game Day, I needed her ultimate to slam through an opponent who was using his Aetherflux Reservoir to gain more life than my threats could deal. She is very potent for her inevitability and versatility on a variety of board-states.
Jace, Unraveler of Secrets (.5): This guy is classified as .5 of a win-condition and .5 of a card draw/selection slot. The fact of the matter is, there is no better card-draw planeswalker than this Jace. Scry 1, THEN draw 1, on a +1. Busted. To add to this, consider a scenario: Your opponent has been playing about one threat per turn and has been answered by one of your removal/counterspells about once per turn. Many games of Magic go this way for a control deck that is flowing well. Your opponent lands one large creature, say a
Verdurous Gearhulk
and turns it into an 8/8 Trample. Damn...Don't have the kill spell for something that large. Oh look, Jace, Unraveler of Secrets. Land Jacey, -2 to bounce the
Verdurous Gearhulk
back to the opponent's hand, pass the turn. They replay the Geahulk, same scenario. You now have one extra draw step, possibly one extra land, and a planeswalker ability to use. You're now in a good position to +1 your Jace, Unraveler of Secrets, allow your opponent to attack in, slam Torrential Gearhulk to either outright kill the
Verdurous Gearhulk
with a Murder in your graveyard or Grasp of Darkness from your graveyard it to cause your Torrential Gearhulk to win in combat. I've won two games this way vs GB Snakes and that's just part of what makes this Jace so great in the current Standard meta. How is he .5 of a win-condition? Well, Jace, Unraveler of Secrets does support our control strategy in every way a win-condition should and has a bit of inevitability with his -8 ultimate. Unfortunately, he doesn't actually win the game for us, but he will absolutely set us up to win the game in another way, even if he does perish in doing so.
Wandering Fumarole
(+1.5): At .5 each on the win-condition slot,
Wandering Fumarole
fills in our win-condition bracket with a last-ditch method of closing out the game. Combined with an end-of-turn Torrential Gearhulk, a
Wandering Fumarole
slams in for nine damage from a previously empty board. Honestly, the least impressive of the five available manlands. Be wary of every single instant-speed removal spell in Standard as basically everything can off the wiry UR manland. Occasionally useful as a blocker when we get mana-flooded, but otherwise lackluster. In other words, we play this because manlands make great utility lands and can sometimes help finish off a heavily weakened opponent.
Counterspells
Disallow (4): The best Cancel clone ever printed. Voidslime was considered playable in a couple Modern sideboards and a staple in any UG Commander deck. This is the same effect on a card that can be cast for a measly 1UU instead of the difficult UUGG. Need to stop literally any spell? Yup. Need to counter a manland activating? Got it. Need to stop a planeswalker from activating their ultimate? Mhmm. Aetherflux Reservoir activating to deal 50 damage to you? Not anymore. Fantastic spell. Honestly, I decided to play Control in the current Standard metagame when Disallow was revealed on Aether Revolt spoilers.
Negate
(3): Surprisingly useful in the Standard metagame,
Negate
is seen in some number in every Control strategy at the moment. We love to have a cheap answer to a vehicle spell. This also stops a planeswalker before it can activate once. Shuts down every somewhat competitive combo deck in Standard. At its worst, it's used to protect one of our win-conditions for a reasonably quick win in the late game.
Brutal Expulsion
(.5): Responding to spells that cannot be countered by putting it back into your hand makes
Brutal Expulsion
surprisingly good in some post-sideboarded games. However, its main purpose is to remove
Scrapheap Scrounger
permanently while simultaneously putting a crewed vehicle back into your opponent's hand or wasting a turn of the GB Snakes deck when they go for a
Bristling Hydra
or
Verdurous Gearhulk
, whilst removing a Glint-Sleeve Siphoner or Grim Flayer or Longtusk Cub. Can also stop a Copy Cat Combo expensively while putting Felidar Guardian back into our opponent's hand. At its best, it wastes your opponent's turn and removes a threat without allowing it to come back in any way. At its worst, bounce their biggest creature. Good enough for the two slots in the 75.
Confirm Suspicions
(.5): Cancel for five sucks, but isn't terrible. Being able to draw three cards over the next couple turns makes this a great way to get card advantage back from our, Glint-Sleeve Siphonering, Tireless Trackering opponent. This is a great way to take over a game, though terrible against Mardu Vehicles and RW Humans. If you have time to get to this CMC and have Cancel still be useful, an excellent 1-of. Recast with Torrential Gearhulk to see utter defeat in the eyes of your opponent.
The other three pillars to come soon.
