--A humble apology for purple prose poorly penned.
Alara was reforged in the conflux. Alara had found harmony once more.
Naya's godsires do battle with the tyrants of Jund, Esper's etherium-sculptors vie to outdo the tactics of Bant's armies. Grixis's factions fight for dominance just as they all do. Just as with every reborn shard, the lich-lords and scheming demons of the wastelands of Grixis would offer no quarter against their enemies. And oh, but there were so many more enemies. So many more corpses to dredge, so many more deals to make. Perhaps, if only for a time, Grixis could unite to claim the fertile fields laid out before them.
Perhaps Grixis could go to war, the putrid tools of its trade united in the universally desirable goal of total domination. As it should be. As it is meant to be.
It is the hope of the humble author that in some small way, Grixis can be encapsulated for consumption; bottled, sealed away and opened for those who wish to pit themselves against Grixis's endless horrors.
To survive on Grixis is no easy task. One requires one of three things: to be ruthless, to be cunning, or to be willing to sacrifice anything to achieve their goal. These traits are the bare minimum to even hope to survive the perils of Grixis's environs.
Grixis loves nothing more than to offer poisoned gifts. Grixis has all manner of tools to ensure victory, but why risk dirtying one's hands when you can take advantage of the greed of the card-starved masses and let them slowly destroy themselves as you make yourself more and more unassailable?
This is the reason Underworld Dreams are so beloved on Grixis. Those unprepared cannot hope to sustain themselves through the Fevered Visions and
Spiteful Visions
which the Fate Unraveler s and hungering
Kederekt Parasite
s so gleefully devour and dissect. Time and again, fools will take these poisoned gifts thankfully, paying in pounds of flesh until they are so thoroughly weakened that the savvy Grixite can finish the job in an effortless, if no less bloody stroke. The mind is a soft, and oft-ill-guarded thing.
To wit, Grixis offers gifts in one hand:
Fevered Visions
Temple Bell
Nekusar, the Mindrazer
Spiteful Visions
Skyscribing
Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
And joyfully takes away with the other:
Fate Unraveler
Kederekt Parasite
Mindslicer
Sire Of Insanity
Mogis, God of Slaughter
Syphon Mind
Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
The minds of your opponents are yours to drain as you desire, devouring them from the inside out until their life totals are as large as their pea brains.
Even if an unusually astute oaf realizes the damage you intend to reap in time to do something, Grixis's denizens know quite competently how to deal with such unwelcome attention.
The infamous lich lords of Grixis are nothing if not resourceful and uncommonly hard to kill after all.
Grixis knows plenty when it comes to the art of the one-for-one after all:
Fleshbag Marauder
Malfegor
Anathemancer
Even those merely sojourning know how it's done.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Baleful Strix
Glen Elendra Archmage
Attrition
Grave Pact
But of course, none of Grixis's residents can truly claim to be known for their tremendous physical presence. But the grave is by no means eternal on Grixis. One can expect to be dragged back into the fray in short order and made to serve once more, exhausting the enemy's resources oh so easily.
Hell's Caretaker
Sheoldred, Whispering One
Victimize
Torrent of Souls
Ever After
Extract from Darkness
Necromantic Selection
Spelltwine
Marchesa, the Black Rose
What is one or two lives sacrificed if the ones doomed to die are mere pawns, those resurrected queens? There is so much chaff with the wheat, after all. And that is ensured with tools such as these:
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Dread Summons
Blatant Thievery
Dack Fayden
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
If there are not enough toys to use as kindling, simply take theirs.
And if they won't let you have their toys and you have none of your own, then no one may have them.
Blasphemous Act
Damnation
Toxic Deluge
Shattering Spree
Necromantic Selection
Grixis will never comes out unharmed, but it always comes out on top. Whether it's by reanimating that which was lost or simply skirting around catastrophe with artifacts stolen from other lands like Erratic Portal and Crystal Shard , or simply ensuring that final curses are particularly painful with Strionic Resonator .
With creatures like Etherium-Horn Sorcerer , Sheoldred, Whispering One , the self-styled Lord of the Void or even the infamous Thraximundar himself there is no shortage of beings with whom to take advantage of such powers as a Resonator, and ensuring they live to see another day with a Shard or Portal is worth the effort.
Thraximundar in particular thrives in the carnage reaped in Grixis's wake; the Rite of the Raging Storm leaves his endless hunger almost sated, even.
But even amongst the heavy hitters that populate the highest echelons of Grixis's power structure certain entitities prove themselves decisive finishers.
The ageless and unspeakable being fearful corpsehaulers call only It That Betrays stands as a true power, one that hungers for the countless artifact baubles filled with such delectable mana. The eldritch Consuming Aberration in its own way inspires just as much fear, particularly thanks to the hungry efforts of Grixis in its entirety to ensure that graves are full, and minds stretched thin. The middling Extractor Demon has its own role to play, after all.
As minds and bodies are ground to dust in the wake of the well-tuned Grixis torture machine, even the most resolute foes will find their
Crumbling Sanctuary
torn down. Where the flesh does not yield, the mind will. Where the mind won't, the body will. Grixis understands the duality of the two, if only in the interest of ensuring neither survives.
Of course, to that end Grixis understands the value of a well-aimed fireball.
Terminate
Volcanic Offering
...Or tear in reality, as the case may be.
Chaos Warp
Grixis savors chaos. It adores infighting, and the inestimably satisfying feeling of swooping in for the kill on an unsuspecting opponent.
To survive on Grixis is no easy task. One requires one of three things: to be ruthless, to be cunning, or to be willing to sacrifice anything to achieve their goal. These traits are the bare minimum to even hope to survive the perils of Grixis's environs.
To thrive on Grixis, one needs all three.
The humble hope here is that Grixis itself is embodied here. If one ever hopes to do battle against that terrible shard in its glory, one would be welcome to pit themselves against these amassed forces.
