I love me some Grixis. I also love me super control. So me and my playtest partners have been working on a Grixis Control build for awhile with no good results. Then during the Pro Tour, we saw Shota Yasooka and his Grixis build and light bulbs turned on. We stopped watching and went back to the white board and brain stormed this out. Made our cuts and finalized the deck. Went to playtesting and making tweaks along the way for a week straight and this is what we came up with. Took this deck to my LGS for Gameday and took 2nd place. Only losing in the first round to R/W Vehicles due to bad draws. Here are the reasons behind the teams decision:
Thing in the Ice
- Corner stone of the deck. You have Thing in the Ice
on 1 counter left, flash in Torrential Gearhulk, recast your spell, all creatures go back to hand. Same goes for Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Amazing combo. Or if your in a bind against lethal attack, Harnessed Lightning you dude for 0 (if counters on 1), return them all to their hands and that can swing a game to our favor. So many things you can do with this guy now. Plus, he can block all those little pesky creatures for days.
Torrential Gearhulk - Do I need to say anything about this decision? It should be clear.
Goblin Dark-Dweller - Same as Torrential Gearhulk. Menace is very relevant when turning the corner.
Ruinous Path, Radiant Flames, Unlicensed Disintegration, Harnessed Lightning - Creature removal. Can hit everything in the format. Including Smuggler's Copter and Fleetwheel Cruiser. Just wait till they "crew" it up.
Anticipate and Glimmer of Genius - Card draw. We need that. Can also flash back with Torrential Gearhulk and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. This really helped out late game getting me the card advantage.
Void Shatter and Negate - Counter spells. This is a very reactive deck and he don't like artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, or pesky creatures that can get pumped up. Plus we can flash these back with Torrential Gearhulk if need be. Nothing better than Void Shatter an Emerakul, the promised end or an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.
Transgress the Mind - We want information about what they are playing, what they are plannning on doing, and just get rid of something that we don't want them to have. Think of this as another "counter" spell.
Chandra, Flamecaller - She is multipurpose in a deck like this. +1 = pressure, 0 = card draw (3 lands in hand, swap them for 4 new cards), -x = board wipe. When she hits the board and you have kept their board clear, it is now a 4 turn clock on your opponent. You don't need to play threats, just leave mana open for counters and removal.
Aether Hub over Evolving Wilds - Aether Hub can 1) help with mana fix, 2) help with Harnessed Lightning, 3) Doesn't come into play tapped mid to late game when we need all mana available. Really makes a difference.
Life points - We use this as another resource. Don't be affraid to take 1 or 2 from creatures. Just keep an eye on it. I was able to stabalize with 1 point of life left and then put pressure on and win. Did this 2 or 3 times.
So this deck is a very reactive deck. We hardly ever play anything on our turn. Most plays are during their turn, in the middle of combat, or at the end of their turn. Once we get to six or seven mana, this when we can start to think about turning the corner. And when we do play our threats, we have mana available for counter "backup". And our threats are big and can pack a big punch quickly. A flipped Thing in the Ice
, a Torrential Gearhulk that was flashed in at the end of their turn, we swing for 12, play a Goblin Dark-Dwellers for defense for potential swing back and their dead next turn.
Match ups as follows:Aggro - More than likely losing game 1, after sideboard it is 2 game win 98% of the time.Combo decks (Aetherworks Marvel/Aetherflux reservoir/Panharmonicon) - We own them. Mid range - Can struggle 75% win game one, 90% win post boardMirror match - Depending on the type of control they playing, our main board and sideboard are setup up to win the counter wars.Decks that we struggle with badly, G/R energy aggro. The energy gain and the early pumps are just 2 fast for us.
Thanks for checking out the deck. Remember to +1 it if you like it.
