Aretherk ToolmasterOfBrainerd another variant of pili pala combo. This one should be the strongest color combination against aggro decks, but loses hard to decks with "go wide" strategies like merfolk and elves, and is very weak to Stony Silence. It also leaves itself pretty open to graveyard hate, but with the way this deck works, if that is my opponent's best tech option against me, I am probably favored against his deck.

ToolmasterOfBrainerd with this deck specifically, I would love your help. No-one knows Grixis better than you.

This deck is way too white (referring to all the 'white effect' cards, not making a racist joke). Important note about grixis: Do not under any circumstance attempt to 'pillow fort' your opponent. It simply does not work. Instead, you have to be removing their threats through spot removal or sweepers. This rings especially true for those Ensnaring Bridges in the sideboard - they need to go. Instead play Engineered Explosives, Pyroclasm, and Damnation. Anger of the Gods exiles Pili-Pala which is bad so I'd advise not running it, although it is normally one of the better sweepers in grixis. The one exception to the no pillow fort rule is Remand. That card is beautiful and should probably be a 4-of in here.

What are the Faithless Looting for? I don't think you have anything you really want to be discarding and card disadvantage matters in most decks. Thought Scour and Serum Visions are both fine alternatives, with the latter being the better choice in here.

I'll be honest. I don't think Painter's Servant is that great vs eldrazi. On the play it's probably fast enough, but I don't see it doing much when you're on the draw. Not if they get 2 turns, in which they can do quite a lot. It's also kinda a pillow fort card too. Darn white mages.

Do you plan on ever using Hurkyl's Recall to bounce your own Pili-Pala to your hand or do you mostly expect to side it in vs affinity to buy a few turns? Cuz sideboarding 1 more Kolaghan's Command is so much better at hurting affinity if that's what you're going for. That said, this deck is capable of racing affinity, so while my deck prefers to outright kill them, this deck may actually be better off stalling boardstate, but we'll see.

I don't have much for the maindeck. I haven't playtested it yet and don't have time right now, but in the next few days I'll definitely have to.

Looting isn't included becauese I particularly want to discard anything, but rather it filters really nicely. If I draw land heavy I can sack lands. If I draw 3 pili palas I can bin one or two. If I draw a bunch of removal... Well I probably should have mulligan'd but still. It also helps me filter Aether vials after the first one. Only one vial is wanted per game, and looting starts providing actual "draw" when it filters out vials.
Pyroclasm over bridge seems solid. Most of my creatures don't die to it which I like. I can drop one recall for another sideboard Kommand and the other for something like an engineered explosives. Having one against token decks and decks like lantern control isn't too bad.
I see your point with painter's. One of the reasons he is good is that if he names blue he lets me turn GA into a superion factory... But that isn't as potent in this deck as it is in the Esper version. I can replace him with damnation.
Remand isn't gonna happen. This deck doesn't need more long game, so I don't want a card that takes me there. Yes the deck can grind for a while, but I would rather have those 2 for 1 grinders than what is technically a 0 for 1 stall card. Not to say remand is bad, just that it's outclassed here.

I'd recommend a 1-of Desolate Lighthouse over Faithless Looting then. You really do want to break even in card advantage. One of the biggest quirks about Rocket Science is that with looting, I absolutely cannot cast it until I have something to discard or need an out. Until either of those conditions are met, I just let it sit in my hand.

Remand is technically a 0-for-0 tempo play because it cantrips, but regardless I see your point. I'll have to test the deck before I know.

Ping

I can't access the temur Oz deck, but this version looks weird. Whispers of the muse seems like it doesn't belong, although it is a way to draw your deck with infinite mana. No more transmute is an interesting choice. A different and possibly better option is to play 4 tasigur, 4 thought scour, and some number of kommand, then you use tasigur's filter ability to draw your deck instead, while also probably being more competitive.

What does myr superion add to this list?

Superion is a secondary long game plan. Can be recovered with Kommand and ruins, and it's not that hard to play. The point of whispers is its synergy with snappy. One blue to draw one and if you have infinite mana, snap is now a wincon. Since snap is a wincon, Kommand is a wincon.
Tasigur though... What a thought! That never even occurred to me! Maybe I can run him and then... Yeah thought-scour over WotM.

Only problem is that I have quite a few blanks for my opponent to give back to me. Aether vial blanks four copies of tas. Bolt blanks another four. Pili blanks another three. That's 11 activations for 22 cards... Architects are another 3 so 26 cards that I have to have in my deck before I guaranteed get back a cantrip, which hopefully gets a wincon from my deck. I'll have to test how reliably tas can find a way to jank into a Kommand, snappy, or profane command. That seems solid though!

Actually another thing worth mentioning: tasigur is a non-bo with goyf, which is what superion is functionally replacing from the tournament list. All the more reason for superion!

With tasigur, you can't deck yourself, since you're not actually drawing any cards. You can activate him 60 times to get your entire deck and not lose due to mill, so wincon concentration is not an issue.

Okay so Tass over WotM... That means I have four new cuts I can make for changing into a Grixis control list.
It also gives me two new sideboard slots.

Should the sb have a batterskull, just for some synergy with ruins?

So I found the temur oz deck on mtgtop8, finally. It was well hidden. Interesting list; definitely some ideas you can pull from.

First, in this list, I'd increase to 3 Kommand.

Second, with Tasigur, you can actually cut Profane Command. With just Lightning Bolt, you can actually have infinite burn damage since you can bolt them, recycle with tasigur, and repeat arbitrary times.

Their list was a strong beatdown tempo deck when not comboing. The Minefield was an esper control deck. This version should probably be a grixis control deck when not comboing, and any good grixis player can tell you that grixis control has a fast beatdown with the likes of Tasigur and Bolt-Snap-Bolt.

I'll miss Muddle the Mixture. The combo seems more fragile without the tutors, but I guess Zombies in Kansas demonstrated that mill into recursion is a great way to assemble a combo, and I think Thought Scour into Kolaghan's Command could work to help assemble the combo as well.

Fixed the link in the description

So I'm thinking visions into scour and one Kalitas into a batterskull?

Serum visions is too good not to play. Run 4 visions and 4 scour. I playtested a few times and found this current version to be clunky. The combo felt tough to assemble and the otherwise beatdown plan was restricted by pili-Pala dead draws. It's like you either want to draw the combo or draw the control, but never a mix of the two. Running more cantrips would help.

Superions probably have to take that hit then, and become scours. At which point ruins might as well become an island.

Whats that little a next to some of the cards does it mean its custom art or something?

Yep. Cards with an a after them are alters.

It's tough to say the best direction for this deck. The challenge is to make the combo version better than grixis without the combo, which I'm not convinced it is doing right now.

The question you need to ask right now is what is the competitive advantage to playing the combo in grixis? It doesn't need to be higher tiered than grixis control, but there has to be some reason grixis control isn't nearly strictly better, and once you know that, then you can build to make that your advantage.

What I am currently trying to do is simply create somewhat refined lists which are built similarly to the GPLA deck, with my own personal modifications. I plan to make an esper variant too. The lack of refinement and direction (and lack of an esper list) is due to time constraints on my part :P.

I'll get to it.. eventually.

How did you get a magic players rewards card?

You can change the printings that display when you add a card to your deck. Promo cards have the tag (000)

I might drop Thoughtscour in this list for the new saheeli. She lets me scry or duplicate a pili-pala with haste to go for the win. Given that Grand Architect can pay for pili, that would mean another potential turn 4 wincon. Thoughts?

Hmmm. I dunno about Saheeli. Her +1 is pretty bad - a scry is nice, but the damage is irrelevant. Giving Pili-Pala pseudo haste is good, but I don't see when you would use it. You can tap Grand Architect for mana on the turn you play him despite summoning sickness, so you can play Pili-Pala on turn 3 with Architect if you want. So you'd love to make Pili-Pala hasty if you topdeck it turn 4 with architect in play turn 3, but with 4 mana you can just make Pili-Pala blue and go off anyway. I just don't see the use for Saheeli, but if I'm missing something, let me know.

You're not missing anything really, I just still dream of a playable haste granter for pili :P