I've been reading your matches, great job! Grixis control is my favorite type of deck. I was surprised to not see any of the decks I'm used to playing against i.e Affinity, U/R Delver, and Tron. I've been having the damnedest time playing Grixis control in my meta. Have you had a chance to play this deck vs that kind of firepower?

Almost forgot, +1 from me mate.

Hey, thanks! I have had the opportunity to play against that type of firepower actually, they're just not super frequent in my meta but Delver would be the most common. Those matchups are definitely best handled in the sideboard.

Delver actually isn't so bad post sideboard. Against Delver you want to side out some of your counter spells, and bring in some heavier aggro & restructure your midrange. So in my sideboard I'd drop both Remands, both Mana Leaks, both Thoughtseize, 1x Damnation, and a single Cryptic. Bring in 3x Arrogant Bloodlord, 2x Engineered Explosives, Anger of the Gods, and both Inquisition of Kozilek. Since the Bloodlords survive your own Angers, it turns them into a one sided board wipe, making it more ideal over the Damnation it replaces. Engineered Explosives are to deal with Young Pyro & the tokens to keep your Bloodlords as the king on the battlefield. Inquisition is good against just about everything, so you bring them in over Thoughtseize so you don't have to worry about life loss.

For Affinity, you want to play a little more tempo and restructure midrange again. You actually have all the tools to do it in this deck's sideboard, but it's not an easy thing to do intuitively. I definitely recommend practicing the hell out of this one with the post sideboard setup because I feel it comes down to experience and familiarity. Take out 2x Cryptic, both Thoughtseize, 2x Damnation, 1x Snapcaster, and Jace. Bring in 2x Rakdos Charm, 1x Engineered Explosives, Sowing Salt, Pithing Needle, 2x Inquisition of Kozilek, and Anger of the Gods. This helps by reducing the cost of your removal to speed up your deck while simultaneously trying to shut down their deck. Maybe drop another Cryptic/Damnation for two Arrogant Bloodlords if you find yourself wanting an extra blocker early on. Do not remove all 4x Cryptics, you need at least 1 explicitly for bouncing your opponents stuff (like Darksteel Citadel enchanted with Ensoul Artifact), or tapping them down if it's for the win. You'll utilize a late Snapcaster to hit the Cryptic a second time when needed.

For Tron, it's just kind of a tougher matchup. Mindbreak Trap can actually be useful in this matchup as a way to either exile Emrakul off the stack, or played early on as they cast their digging spells. For what I have here, I'd drop Jace, both Mana Leaks, 2x Lightning Bolt, and a Cryptic to bring in Pithing Needle, Sowing Salt, Hero's Downfall, 2x Rakdos Charm, and Surgical Extraction. Expect really obnoxious hate from their sideboards like Defense Grid. Ideally you're saving your Rakdos Charms to destroy their hate, and going so far as to Surgical Extraction said hate. If you can land an early Sowing Salt then you basically get to win the game.

Wow dude, very impressed by your answer, if I could +1 again I would! I was running Grixis Superfriends, and it was just too slow to deal with the aggro match ups. Not only that but I don't own the sweet cards that cost over 10$, but if I could play this deck I certainly would! Good luck in your future match ups! If you want, you can check out my modern deck Modern Goblins [Competitive]. Simple, but effective to keep up in my meta.

Thanks! And yeah, you have to be able to be fast for sure in modern. My land base is actually what makes Grixis Control possible IMO, because in any given scenario I can bring the land in untapped if I have to so I can always play the latest spells in my hand instead of having to waste a turn, and the 8 fetches help guarantee I can get the mana fixing I need when I need it. That's why I don't run anything like Lavaclaw Reaches or Creeping Tar Pit. Feel free to ask me any questions about matchups or general gameplay if you want, I love that sort of discussion.

I'll check out your deck for sure.

How do you match up against the Slippery Bogle aura builds?

I'm trying to run a competitive cruel control, not exactly modern but I do take a lot of ques from modern cruel control.I'm willing to say Liliana of the Veil, Anger of the Gods and Damnation could do well, except, in my case, is it enough to handle a Slippery Bogle and a Gladecover Scout both enchanted with totem armors and Rancor's with an Umbra Mystic out?

When you force an opponent to sacrifice a creature, totem armours cannot save it correct? They state that if the creature would be destroyed then destroy the armour instead. Well, if you let 3 creatures get out on the field with multiple totem armours on, you've definitely done your job wrong as grixis. But will sac effects like Lilly, and Barter in Blood you should be able to keep the field clear of issues. Boggles is a fairly easy matchup for Cruel Control in my opinion.

I've played around 10 games against Bogles. The best way to nuke their stuff is definitely via sacrifice. Geth's Verdict is perfect for this matchup. Grave Peril is also kind of neat little known tech that I haven't had the opportunity to play yet. That being said, I don't see Bogles frequently enough that I want to dedicate sideboard slots for it.

So back on track with what's in my deck and sideboard, the only sacrificing card I have is Lili, I actually use Engineered Explosives for my tech in this matchup so I can save my sideboard slots for different problems. Engineered Explosives is really, really good tech in general. It's saved me from Blood Moon, Runed Halo, and Choke. It nukes tokens for the sweet price of 2 mana. Really, this card is amazing.

Bogles is an extremely uninteractive deck, so a lot of your removal is a total joke. I'd side out Jace, all 4x Lightning Bolt, both terminates, and both Remands. Then I'd bring in the spare Anger of the Gods & Damnation, both Engineered Explosives, both Inquisition of Kozilek, 2x Arrogant Bloodlord and Surgical Extraction.

Your game plan for about the first 4 turns is hit your lands at any cost, you need your lands fast. You don't want anything to stay on the field for long and most of what you're packing is very high curve post sideboard. However, this is the rare matchup that if you're on the play with only fetches in hand for lands and a Thoughtseize, this is when you want to play and crack the fetch for a shockland, take the shock and Thoughtseize to deal 5 to yourself right off the bat. Otherwise, sit on your fetches and don't crack them unless you need them so as not to do any deck thinning and allow you to hit your land drops.

After that, you do not want them to land anything if possible. This is pretty unrealistic however, they're going to land something. Electrolyze stays in solely for the cantrip ability, so cast on your opponents endsteps if there was nothing to be countered by mana leak or what have you so you can cycle for everything you need. Be on the lookout for their Dryad Arbor however, you can hit that with Electrolyze and that is an excellent tempo play. You need to wipe, wipe, wipe and keep that board empty. After you nuke whatever initial creatures they have they tend to be in pretty big trouble, drawing a lot of enchantments that are dead in their hand until they find something to attach them to. This is where you really want to catch up, and you likely have the game on lock. Sit on your Snaps, save your cryptics. A Snap beatdown is totally possible at this point. Draw it out and take your time. If you can hit a creature with Surgical Extraction you tend to buy yourself some considerable time.

If you're seeing it a lot in your meta I'd definitely go the Geth's Verdict route in the sideboard. I have a spare playset of them just in case Bogles every became a "thing" in my meta. Extra Lili's certainly don't hurt either.

I really appreciate the detailed explanation m4ver1k, I'm pretty new to the idea of using a SB, so mine is essentially non-existent. That being said I have a few cards I kind of use like a SB. I've been considering Geth's Verdict but I've been seeing Tribute to Hunger more than the verdict, what are your thoughts? As a side not, I can't afford Cryptic Command, Damnation , Liliana of the Veil or Snapcaster Mage. So my options are no where new as flexible as what dedicated modern players are.

Either of those options will work fine. I'd base your choice on whether or not you have issues with health in this matchup or have a hard time consistently getting two black mana early on. If I were to hypothetically choose one for this deck it would be Geth's Verdict, because while life gain is a nice bonus, I care far more about the speed of the deck. And at 2 CMC it'd be far easier to quickly Snap it back.

I only have one question. Does the playset of Cryptic Command ever become problematic? It's mana cost can be painful in just U/R decks, not to mention tri color. Also, would you care if I stole this deck? Lol it looks like you have been playing it for a while and it looks to be working, and I'm working on switching all my decks from standard to modern.

JPODS0717 - Not really. It's no more problematic than mana screw, which I usually also don't get since I'm running 26 lands. Mana flood on the other hand happens fairly often, but it doesn't usually bother me because I can often turn that flood into fuel for Ob Nixilis, the Fallen making it significantly less detrimental and when it works, a win condition even. It took me awhile to figure out the winning landbase though because that was definitely the key. The 8x fetches give me a lot of flexibility to grab what I need, and then Reflecting Pool is actually what pulls it together. I just use the fetches to hunt out Steam Vents, then Watery Grave, and if I have Reflecting Pool then I play that. At that point, with those three lands I can tap RR for Anger, BB for Damnation, or UUU for Cryptic. I just need to keep hitting lands in general and I don't have to concern myself too much about which colors I need or what have you. The singleton Cascade Bluffs gives me a little flexibility if I draw it earlier on, as I can use a fetch to grab the Blood Crypt so I can Thoughtseize / BOLT right off the bat and still tap that Blood Crypt for U by using that Cascade Bluffs, and thus I only need one more U source to be able to cast Cryptic. If I drew into a fetch I'd grab a Watery Grave, and with that I'd again be able to tap for RR/BB/UUU.

But yeah, I find modern much more satisfying to play than standard. Good luck with your switches!

This deck is amazing. I use it as the ultimate challenge for my decks. So far it is the best non-counter control deck I have seen. Keep building decks.

Zigspusus - Thanks!

Y rnt u running tar pits? Manlands close out games

Doubletapped - I used to. I found they weren't worth it thought because they often caused me to lose games against really fast aggro decks. The current land base enables me to bring in any land untapped so that I can cast spells in my hand right away, rather than having to wait a turn if I had played a land that entered tapped.

I understand you like Ob Nixilis for this deck as a way to close out the game, and I do too; I've never thought of it. You say you've gone 4-0, so I don't want to act like I know what to do more than you, but did you ever consider Keranos, God of Storms for this deck? You might argue he's slow, but I might argue he's worth it. 1. If you get a land drop, you can actually draw a card (usually a spell), or you can bolt someone if you just flat out draw a spell. 2. Hitting the land for landfall trigger on Obby and drawing a spell can be a pummeling all in one turn (I know it's rare that you'll have them both on the board if they're both 1-ofs), or playing the land and having counterspell backup. I use it in my casual brew and every time I resolve it if I'm losing, I instantly make a comeback. IDK it's up to you. Either way, make sure to keep on controlling the world under Nicol Bolas!

Centaureayl - I guess I disagree on him being worth it. He doesn't accomplish what I need him to do in this deck in an efficient enough manner. Over time yes, he would make his presence valuable. But that's not going to be realistic enough in a meta with mostly aggro/combo. Often when I'm ready to cast a 5 CMC spell I need it to do something right off the bat because I'm leaving myself open likely without mana to counter the next play. I cannot afford to cast something that does nothing right off the bat and leave myself open like that against combo/aggro. Then the argument of "don't cast him at that time then" actually is self defeating, because if I don't want to cast him then I didn't want to draw him either and he's useless in my hand. I think if my meta was control heavy I'd give him more consideration, but I think he's much too slow even in a meta evenly split between combo/aggro/control, because I'll ultimately not want him against aggro/combo decks which is still very much the majority of modern. I feel like Keranos is a red herring in the format. I most certainly appreciate your input though!

Indulgent Tormentor could be interesting as another beatdown

Consuming Aberration is very powerful play test with a copy once.

i don't think that indulgent tormentor or consuming aberration have a place in this deck , and i certainly think they don't have a place in modern. they are just not powerful or impactful enough. remember , when ob nixilis comes down , he downright wins the game with the right , and easily achieved setup of 3-4 fetches in play.

Vaarek nails it here guys. Indulgent Tormentor just isn't realistic when most of the decks are packing bolts, or removal in general. And while I love Consuming Aberration, he isn't competitive enough unless I'd have the ability to chain a bunch of spells to mill them out or have a way to make him swing unblockable, and even then I have to wait a turn.

I'd run Tasigur, the Golden Fang over Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, Tasigur passes the lightning bolt test and can block siege rhino till the cows come home. He also can produce some "card advantage".