Honestly, I'd ditch the concept of Master of Cruelties . I tried to make him work as well, but at 5CMC, you have to build a deck to suit him--and if something goes wrong, you will most likely lose the game.

Cyclonic Rift and Mizzium Mortars should be in the mainboard--if you don't want two of each, try to stick with 2 Mizziums and 1 Cyclonic Rift, with 1 Rift sideboarded.

I'd do something like this--

-2 Master of Cruelties -3 Magma Jet -1 Desecration Demon

+1 Steam Augury +1 Cyclonic Rift +2 Mizzium Mortars +2 Essence Scatter /Dissolve /Syncopate

You don't have to remove D.Demon for Steam Augury, but I'd definitely find room for a third one. The draw is much needed.

Cyclonic Rift can help late game when you are feeling overwhelmed, but can also destroy tokens and remove enchantments for a turn.

Mizziums help deal with a lot of different creatures, but can also just help against a full board later in the game as well.

And any counterspell added will help against different types of decks. Essence Scatter is great if you feel the threat is more creature based overall, whereas Dissolve helps against all types of decks + gives Scry. Syncopate is similar to Dissolve, but might not always be as useful.

thanks guys.. made a few changes based on your reccomendations..will try this out

took out chandra instead of a demon.. don't want to exile a counter

I've been testing the master as well but it seems that the opponent always has some sort of creature to block him, i did end up taking out the master and adding a playset of Frostburn Weird . Take a look at my deck please, i used to run a control variant of grixis but i wanted to try a more midrange approach, Heres my deck. Grixis, why not?

Breaking/Entering, Mizzium Mortars, Blustersquall, and/or Street Spasm?

2x Mizzium Mortars in main.. and not a lot of room left for the others really.. id rather get rid of the creatures instead of tap them however.

Have you considered Ral Zarek ? I've been running 2 of him in my grixis deck and he works wonders with my experiences.

Nevermind, just saw the sideboard and what you took out, forget I said that, what are your experiences with him?

yes sir! i do use him.. I only own one but i rotate him in and out often.. he works well, and although he isnt listed as part of this deck.. he is always in the box with the deck, and i use him often. he rocks!

Have you tried Chandra, Pyromaster yet? People tell me that I should run her but i want to hear more peoples experiences with her.

Mind taking a look at my decklist? Its kinda creature heavy but right now im just testing what kind of grixis i want to run because grixis is just so awesome. Here it is Grixis, why not?

What decks have you struggled against? Have you identified any particular cards that give you fits? Deck archetypes that are difficult?

Once you figure that part out, creating a solution to them isn't that hard.

For instance, I had a problem with Blood Baron of Vizkopa . Mizzium Mortars is a good answer, but not against a Master of Waves . For that reason, neither is Anger of the Gods due to the pro red. So I came up with using Turn / Burn as a better option. It's instant speed (1R for 2 damage to x/2 creatures in aggro decks), still can get rid of Blood Baron of Vizkopa , and at its worse can turn Master of Waves into a 0/1 thus getting rid of all of his token. Not to mention it's a great answer to a resolved "god" on an opposing side (such as Erebos, God of the Dead or Thassa, God of the Sea from the mono colored devotion decks.

I went with a 2/2 split of Far / Away & Turn / Burn for this reason. I also went with using Ratchet Bomb instead of Anger of the Gods as it was more versatile and I can take out Detention Sphere s or Pithing Needle s games 2 and 3 (still a 2 mana board wipe for tokens :) )

The problem I also had to start with was I was trying to have all 3 colors "coexist" with the same priority. I realized that this was hard to do (trying to run things like Dissolve , Anger of the Gods , and Desecration Demon which all require double colored mana makes it hard without mana "fixing" that green has). So I took it down to mostly blue (45-50%), party black (35%), and the remaining as red

You also need some hand disruption (like Thoughtseize ) in the main deck to disrupt any "combos", ways to take out YOUR threats, or simply to take out the card that gives you the most fits

If you would like to compare notes/decks, here's a link to mine that I went 3-1 with at my last FNM (losing only to Esper Control due to bad draw - I didn't have enough "draw" cards at the time...i have since updated it to its current form). I beat a monoblack aggro, U/G Simic evolve/aggro, and a monogreen devotion deck with it

Long live Bolas!

You can't cast both sides of Turn / Burn to kill a Master of Waves . Once you cast both sides it becomes a multicolor spell with red in it. So Anger of the Gods would serve the same purpose in killing all the tokens. If you mentioned this already and I missed it I apologize.

you cant cast either side of turn/burn on it,i dont think.. it is a blue and red card.. which master is protected from. making it an illegal target.

just like you cant cast a Far / Away on a Blood Baron of Vizkopa

No, it's true. If you cast only half of the card, the spell is considered only the color of that half.

So you can cast Turn and Far onto Master and Baron, but if you cast both Turn / Burn and Far / Away , then the targets become invalid.

But still, the point stands--Anger of Gods would kill a lot more than Turn/Burn, but Turn/Burn is a great sideboard card for other targets besides Master of Waves.

No, you can cast Turn on it by itself, just like you can Far a Blood Baron of Vizkopa but you can't Far / Away to bounce the Baron and sac something else. If that makes sense

right on, good to know

If you read my comment, I said you could "turn" a master of waves into a 0/1 and make it lose all of its abilities, thereby killing all of the 2/1 elemental tokens. a 2/1 is MUCH easier to manage than it and 3 + 2/1 creatures.

Anger of the Gods would do the same thing, however that is at sorcery speed and you would be tapped out (or close to it) on your opponent's next turn.

Turn / Burn allows you to do this at INSTANT speed, as well as being a great answer to the gods, Blood Baron of Vizkopa (which is seeing more and more play), Obzedat, Ghost Council ('cuz we all know how sorcery speed kill spells suck at killing Ghost Dad), and other troublesome creatures. It can still be used to kill an x/2 creature with the Burn half, or even deal 2 damage to a player and redirect it to a planeswalker.

My point was that Anger of the Gods SOUNDS good, but there are better options. Ratchet Bomb in the main instead is:

1) easier on your mana (2 colorless is MUCH more consistent than having to have 1RR in a 3 color deck with NO fixing)

2) more versatile: Meaning it can kill enchantments (like Detention Sphere which Grixis has a hard time dealing with

Ok taking this to FNM tonight.. how does it look?

IMO Frostburn Weird didn't work out that well for me my last FNM. I think Omenspeaker would be a better spot as it still comes down early enough and allows you to smooth out your next draw or two.

I think you should find something to cut and add at least one more land as 24 you could get stuck with some sucky starting 7 hands.

I also tested Steam Augury and it didn't work out as well as I had hoped. if you NEED an answer your opponent won't give it to you. For the same mana cost, running Inspiration will draw you 2 cards instead, and still be an instant speed draw

Good luck and let us know how it goes!