Have you seen the newly-spoiled Bolas for M19? HOLY SHIT HE'S COSTLY BUT AWESOME.

Hi!

I made top 8 with Grixis at a PPTQ yesterday, and I wanted to let you know. I played a slightly different list, tweaked much more towards aggro. This was the list I played:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/grixis-control-top-8-at-pptq/

First things first, I misplayed severely in top 8 and should probably have made top 4, even against a control deck.

Second, a couple of my card choices: I chose not to include Bolas, because although he's amazing, he's very difficult to stick cleanly. Against aggro you're already winning if you play him, against control he never sticks. Therefore I played a Chandra. Good vs. Everything.

Next I played one disintegration main because I needed to be able to beat turn 2 Steel-Leaf or turn 4 Ghalta.

Finally, I only played one Lightning because I wanted other slots more. If I played the deck again I might even cut lightning altogether and play another glimmer and have more sideboard slots against control.

As you might have noticed, control is very difficult to beat, particularly pre-board. Post board it's reasonable, but not great. One thing I noticed was that I always kept Suns in. That might change if I switch up the side a bit though, as I plan to have a heavy control board next week.

I think that's everything. I hope you found this interesting.

TL;DR: I played a version tuned against aggro, it did what it was supposed to against aggro but I didn't like it against control and will change it in the future.

doraemon1088 Cool to know, would I have to rebuy all the deck on Arena or does it transfer from MTGO? And yeah I saw the new Bolas! Looks decent!

AlAnonymous Siding midrange depends vastly on the particular list you are facing, do you have a link?

eragon795 Thx for the report, always interesting! Seems like the deck ticks pretty well but yeah by knowing your meta well, you will definitely up those %

Sad to say but it does not transfer from MTGO. Took some time for me to build up the deck from scratch. Luckily there are wildcards that you can get which you can redeem for cards depending on the rarity.

Yeah I see this list a lot. http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=19359&d=323137&f=ST

Jesus Christ, yeah I think we are going to want to take advantage of this!

and um, how about getting copies of Hulk for 2U!? :)

First time I say this in 3 years, but I am seriously considering splashing white for Chromium...he's got everything we want in a wincon!...we haven't gotten a solid Hexproof dude since good ol Silumgar, the Drifting Death. Can't be countered AND Splash...sign me up!...

Else, Bolas is fine, but a 4/4 for 4 with no protection is risky asf...

Tezzeret, Artifice Master: Seems very powerful, with his 0 ability being the most powerful and having the most potential, imo. However it might dictate a more artifact focused theme, although if you've got the time the Thopter's can just help with that. Tbh if you get the emblem, you should already to be winning, so I'm not too sure about it. Also competes with The Scarab God cmc-wise, and imo The Scarab God is the more powerful of the two, since Tezzeret, Artifice Master doesn't leave behind anything that is truly scary, besides 1/1 flyers.

Mirror Image: As much as I like the opportunity to copy a Torrential Gearhulk, I don't think it's that useful, since it is literally a dead card in any other scenario, minus The Scarab God's ability.

Chromium, the Mutable: Every control players dream of a finisher xD. I guess mana-wise, you've still got some Aether Hubs that you can play more of to splash, although might want more than that. I've seen some people debate if Nezahal, Primal Tide is still the card to go for since the Dino draws card, but I think a Flashy 7/7 flying Dragon beats that.

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip: I'll admit, Bolas is the one card that intrigues me the most. The primary focus of him isn't to just play him for his face up side, but to flip him for his planeswalker side. With that in mind, I'm wondering if its better to play him turn 6 (or turn 7, if you're leaving up Torrential Gearhulk) and keep up 2 mana for removal, and flip him the next turn. Interesting card, and definitely something that I'll be testing and keeping an eye.

Just some cards I wanted to mention as well, since I think these might have "some" potential but I'm not too sure about them. Also some pet cards of mine :3

• Bone Dragon

• Spit Flame

• Liliana's Contract :3

• Patient Rebuilding

• Guttersnipe

• Anticipate

• Smelt

• Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist :3

• Rupture Spire

Tezz, Artifice is good by itself, dropping a chump blocker or drawing a card each turn is pretty good for us. Space-wise I'm not too worried because he will probably simply replace my Jayas

You are right about Mirror Image, I don't think I'll have the proper shell for it, but the idea of EOT a Hulk and then getting another one at the following main phase for 2U seems ridiculous!..

Chromium is just so BOSS, definitely will run 2 copies. 4 Hubs sure, + 1-2 duals with white in 'em should be fine. We'll just have to see what will happen when Hubs rotate out. Nezahal sucks so bad compared to Chromium; like his drawing ability is decent, but discard 3 to save him is absurb, his 7/7 stat on attack is pretty much a waste since he has no evasion. Never even tested with him, and never faced him...not really playable.

Bolas seems too fragile and expensive. First he can get killed as a creature, and we damn well know he can get just as easily be dealt with as a PW. Investing 11-mana for one discard ability + one activation seems like the worst value-loss...not a big fan. Perhaps a sideboard car...but against what? Seems like what we would want him against (midrange) would have all the answers to easily deal with him.

As far as the list you posted, Anticipate is always welcomed, Spit Flame will definitely see some play I like it too, Guttersnipe is cool but you got to build around him, Smelt seems redundant in a world with Abrade, Bone Dragon looks ok but doesn't play well with Hulk, the rest is jank! :P

If you are splashing white for chromium then you have to try Teferi, Hero of Dominaria. Teferi is REDICULOUSLY awesome. If you ever untap with it then you have around an 80-90% chance of winning (that’s at least my experience).

Legendary_penguin_of_death I'm looking into Teferi, but not sure yet.

JUST GOT MY 2 CHROMIUMS!! HE'S FUCKING INSANE! WHEN HE DROPS IT'S OVERRRRR!!!

Made a lot of fine-tuning over the weekend, deck is performing really really well! :) Still happy with the Chromiums!

Tried the deck out in MTG Arena. Chromium's wreaking havoc.

doraemon1088 YES he does!...I love the games where I'm at like 1 to 4 life, I flash-drop him to block/kill their last dude. Then proceed to win the game in 2-3 turns! Sometimes 2-swings of Chromium + drop Nicol Bolas and -4 him to deal 7. Boom!! 2 damage in 2 turns :D

Is it hard/pricey to gather specific cards to make a deck in MTG Arena?? Compared to MTGO?

Not really since you get to obtain wildcards which you can exchange for cards, depending on the rarity. I traded 2 Mythic Wildcards for the 2 Chromiums. Just tweaked the deck a bit to include a Field of Ruin. Some decks there run the lighthouse which spells doom for Chromium.

Disallow is a gem too. It disables the big blue dino from coming back from exile, making it permanently off the board. :D

Just wanted to comment that this is still wreaking arena quick leagues, have several 7-0 runs with this deck. Which is without the SB at all, so it's a more casual fast paced game...which means mono red all dang day. I've been following this ongoing genesis of your deck for a while now, and actually played it in paper a few times at my LGS (when my LGS was still in business) so...over a year at least, maybe two now. It's such a potent archetype that even if the meta is all PT decks it'll still get you pretty far.

The biggest flaw I see in this deck is that you have too many wincons. There are eight, and you should usually have between 3 and 5, with less being manageable. You end up drawing more than you need. You're also very ill equipped to go up against another control deck. I'd cut Moment of Craving (your weakest removal spell, in my opinion) for more counters. Still, this is amazing. Love it.

arglebargles Great to hear man! Keep kicking ass!!

Feltrix It all depends on your meta. Personally on MTGO, there are too many aggro decks not to run enough removal and the life-gain becomes very important. You can definitely make the case about the numbers of win-cons but running more win-cons than other control decks is actually what gives us an edge VS them. After the counter-war is done and we are both low on ressources and top-decking, the one that will top deck the win-con will likely finish on top. I know that you can make the deck more controlly with less win-cons and I don't think it would be a mistake, but at this point I think it's more a choice of playstyle. In a control match I usually want to be the one going under and jamming win-cons (you actually always have to pick one or the other, and two-color decks tend to be more controlly since they have less access to powerful win-cons like we do so they maximize on counters).

GRN previews are looking pretty sweet! We almost ticked off all the boxes for next rotation's core. A more solid/reliable win-con/finisher in Grixis colors would be appreciated, and we will also need board wipes. Counter-magic, card draw and removal already looks good.

Doom Whipserer is my new pet fav card :3

Dream Eater is looking really nice. Lots of bang for your buck.

Illuminate21 MrKabar Definitely 2 awesome creatures also on my radar! Although for a win-con I always always value protection and evasion which is why Chromium still might be my go-to...but I really wish to drop the white...Doom and Dream will definitely be welcomed in the deck but I don't think we will be able to consider them as main win-con since they can get removed ''easily''. Hexproof is where it's at hehe.

The synergy between Doom and Thoughtbound Phantasm looks awesome! But not sure if that's the way I'll be heading personally.

I'm REALLY exciting about Mission Briefing. Chemister's Insight will surely be a 3 or 4-of, with 1-2 spicy Hypothesizzle. We're good on counter magic with the new Dissolve and Ionization.

In the board-wipe department Ritual of Soot looks...ok...but far from Sweltering Suns...we also need an answer to Carnage Tyrant!

We got a sweltering suns reprint in Deafening Clarion but unless you want to add white to the deck I don’t think they will make any better boardwipes.