Grixis Hand Control! lol

Hey I've been watching this deck for a few weeks now and I'm putting it together with a few modifications due to budget for the upcoming HOU standard and I'm really excited to test it out at my local store. I'm wondering if there's a place for some artifacts? Either manalith or the draw then scry pyramid. I am trying to figure out a place to slot in a couple to get the 3 damage out of disintegration.

Also I know that hulk is an artifact. I am just wondering if there's a more early game way to activate the clause while still having it be useful.

BrownBearsable Hi, thx for dropping by! Honestly I wouldn't worry at all about the Disintegration clause. For one thing we are not running the playset, and for another what we really want from that card is being able to kill anything. The 3-damage thing is a nice-to-have but really not a priority (obviously I do keep it in mind when casting back cards, I'll try to use another card to flashback from GDD if possible and keep the Disintegration for hulk).

If you want to add an artifact or two for budget considerations, I think that the ones you mention are fine although keep in mind that it is brutal out there, we just want to be packed with answers and ways to get to them!! All about removal man, personally if I had to make budget cuts, I would add more removal and/or counter magic BUT I guess that more digging, filtering and perhaps light ramping can't really hurt. Cheers! Enjoy the deck!

Thanks for the feed back. Only been playing magic for just under a year. Started in commander and have only started seriously playing standard about a month or two ago. Had a swing at zombies. Wasn't my style. Figured I'd give control a try seeing as I have enjoyed more controlling commander decks. I'm excited to crush my opponents with the mighty power of our grixis lord bolas. Love the deck! Keep it up!!

So I went to the Saturday morning pre release. Guess who was my promo? Lord Bolas. I opened 14 pieces of removal AND the scarab god!! I managed to play grixis control in a sealed environment and went 4-0! I only lost a single game the whole tournament. It was amazing, PRAISE BOLAS!!!!

I traded my promo hour of promise for lord bolas. Managed to win 3-1 with white green life gain with horse tribal.

I built a similar list Only reason I have 1 bolas is because I opened him in my prerelease pool!!!

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/08-07-17-hou-grixis-control-copy/

Sorry wrong one

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/-grixis-control-1/ here is the correct link

Wheres chandra torch to ramp for bolas

aliensoup Chandra Torch isn't good for control decks because we don't want to play cards on our turn, and she exiles those cards so we can't Hulk them back. Also we don't need to ramp for bolas. Rarely will we slam it turn 7 anyway, we want to get him on the board and keep him there so waiting until turn 9 for a counter or turn 10 for removal is the norm.

What do y'all think of the scarab god? Do you think he could find a home in grixis control? I've seen some people toss around the idea elsewhere. Just thought I'd see what y'all think.

Definitely not mainboard, at least in this list anyways. If he gets killed right away we lose quite a bit of tempo, which we don't wanna give. We also already have lots of win cons already anyways. (Chandra, gearhulk, Liliana, Bolas, thing in the ice, dark dwellers, and wandering fumarole). But if you really wanted to use it I'd say sideboard against midrange is the best place for it.

Congrats on all your prereleases! I'm quite happy with the current balance, no matchups are real problematic (hell everytime we had a problem with a matchup, they banned the deck, thx Wizards!)

Congrats on all your prereleases! I'm quite happy with the current balance, no matchups are real problematic (hell everytime we had a problem with a matchup, they banned the deck, thx Wizards!)

As a card on its own, The Scarab God is powerful. The opponent will usually spend every type of removal they have so they can to take The Scarab God down, however unless they have actual god removal like an exile effect, The Scarab God just eats up the removal and returns to your hand.

Iv been testing The Scarab God in a UB Control build, and I can say that he is absolutely awesome with Liliana, Death's Majesty . If they are both on the field, the opponent would usually rather get The Scarab God out of the way before dealing with Liliana, Death's Majesty. If they go the other way around, then I'm happy to trade Lili for some eternalized 4/4 creatures that help ping my opponent and scry every turn. However if they deal with him rather than Lili, she just ends up finishing the game by herself.

Making a minimum of 3 2/2 zombies and then sweeping your opponents board is pretty decent. While the opponent gets rid of The Scarab God, u try to crowd the board with your zombies. Combining Liliana, Death's Majesty with Hostile Desert which exiles the lands u milled with can be pretty lethal after the struggle they went through to get rid of the God. Also reanimating Torrential Gearhulk or The Scarab God from mill/removal/counter can cause the opponent to scoop xD

Overall The Scarab God is fun to play and can be very scary left unchecked. I usually just eternalize my opponents stuff as they drop more creatures and ping em as the turns go by with my army of blockers. When vs'ing control, the game usually goes slow (Like always) making me play my win cons at turn 7 or further while keeping up a counter. I also want to point out that unless the opponent has direct planeswalker removal, I usually get Liliana, Death's Majesty up to 10+ loyalty before I end of the game.

P.S. Soz for writing so much lol

I think the gods are going to be largely unplayable. Their CMC is high, they do nothing when they ETB and exile effects are everywhere. The only reason some of the other gods are seeing play is that their CMC is low. Like Rhonas for example. The only god that may see play is the Locust God because he fits well in control shells and even then I'm not convinced he would be more than a 1 of in the main. This set is fun in limited but very lackluster in constructed.

Illuminate21 You make a good case for the Scarab Dude God but it is true that people are gonna run exile effects because they are straight up everywhere. I like that the God never ''dies'' but you do have to pay 5 each time while any black deck are going to kill it for 3CMC on average your getting tempo'ed out right there every time the cycle occurs and you have very limited mana left to dig/draw and remove opposing threats which is what you really want to be doing in the first place. I can see how you could run 1 in the 75 with other cards that fit well with him to maximize his potential but it seems like it is unnecessary when you can just drop win-cons that are netting you value right away, all the time, every time.

I don't see going out of my way to make more zombie producers (like big Lili which I don't even naturally run 1-of at this time), or even less cast zombies to accommodate the God. If I was running one God it would be Locust, but even he doesn't make as strong of an initial impact as our other wincons.

I think that by being Dimir you do have more outs to play him, but in Grixis colors, I just largely prefer GDD and Chandra.

EastsideRock My way of looking at my deck is that it is a control deck that wins by pinging your opponent to death, however can adapt and survive when the wincons r killed, unlike other control decks, where they can just crumble as soon as the wincon is killed. Kill The Scarab God; Ill kill u by boardwiping with Liliana, Death's Majesty and swing in turn after turn with my zombies and Hostile Desert. Kill Liliana, Death's Majesty; Ill get up some creatures with The Scarab God and attack u while pinging every upkeep. I tend to play em on turn 7+ and leave up Essence Scatter/Negate for their turn.

I try to get Liliana, Death's Majesty out first whenever I can since I can start milling and reanimating Torrential Gearhulk or The Scarab God, and they also can waste removal on my zombies :P. Quick question, reckon I should test out Nimble Obstructionist since I can use it to stifle something then reanimate from either of my wincons?

Last thing, the cards aren't necessarily meant to be good for your deck, just something I'm thinking about brewing as a different control deck. I'm also going Dimir to make it more of a challenge, although they r truely my favourite colours :3

Illuminate21 How many Lilis and Scarab God are you running though? If you want to consistently bank on their interactions, you definitely would need at least 3 copies of each, that seems like it would really muck up your 5-CMC slots! You could perhaps get away with 2 copies of the God since he's ''unkillable'' but you obviously would need to run a lot of digging/drawing which any blue-based deck should anyway. I think Nimble is pretty cool, considering your build is on the little more casual side, you could definitely try him.

I've almost got my version of this deck put together!! Just need the hou cards and a few lands are still in the mail! I'm super excited to crush my local game store.

BrownBearsable Awesome!! Remember that to be efficient and good with control decks, you need to know your meta very well and how to take every matchup! Ideal deployment of your mana-base in early turn is also crucial based on what you have in hand, possible early draws and what you are facing. You might not crush right away, but don't discourage yourself as the more you play the deck, the better pilot you will become. Takes time to be a control master but so rewarding when mastered, and I wouldn't have it any other way!! :D

Always happy to see the birth of new control players! :)

The meta pre hou at my store is a lot of zombies temur energy with that stupid bristling hydra and blue white spirits. Not really a dedicated control player which I'm excited to fill. I'm not sure what they will brew post hou but I'm sure it will be quite similar creature heavy Aggro to mid range decks.

Mine is pretty much UB Control and Zombies with a hint of Spirits

EastsideRock I am running 3 The Scarab God and 3 Liliana, Death's Majesty to consistently be able to flood the board with zombies, and as long as I am able to always able to hit my land drops then the curve isn't really a problem. The only draw spells I have r 4x Glimmer of Genius, 3x Supreme Will and 1x Commit / Memory, with the rest of the deck being counters and removal to control the board until I get my wincons out.

Something else I have been thinking about, should I add 1 more wincon? Atm I have Torrential Gearhulk, The Scarab God and Liliana, Death's Majesty as the only wincons, but should I add some more cards like Liliana, the Last Hope, Razaketh, the Foulblooded, Ob Nixilis Reignited ect?