No control deck with black in it doesn't run Thoughtseize . What do you take out in place of it??

By the way, I believe that you have done what I've tried to do for months: make Grixis control competitive in standard. I made a few changes to this list and at my store's Sunday tournament, I went undefeated through all 4 rounds. I made these changes, partially because I didn't have access to Mizzium Mortars and Jace, Architect of Thought , but also because the meta at my store is WAY more creature heavy.

Walkers:

-2 Jace, Memory Adept , +1 Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver +1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Instants / sorceries:

-1 Turn / Burn , -1 Far / Away , +2 Thoughtseize

-2 Mizzium Mortars , +2 Lightning Strike (I will say, that I personally preferred lightning strike to mortars for its speed. Although my store REALLY needs to get more mortars so I can properly test because no one will trade them T.T)

-2 Ratchet Bomb , -2 Counterflux , +2 Doom Blade , +2 Essence Scatter

I changed the sideboard entirely as well:

1 AEtherling

2 Dark Betrayal

2 Essence Scatter

2 Pithing Needle

2 Counterflux

2 Ratchet Bomb

2 Peak Eruption

2 Slaughter Games

@MadStyx --- I'll address your comment in detail since you spent the time to make a very detailed explanation...

First off, I like the idea of replacing the Jace, Memory Adept with Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver . While I still like mill as an alternate win-con in this deck, after playtesting in many games, Ashiok will very likely out-perform Jace in most games, assuming my opponent isn't playing control.

For Chandra, Pyromaster , If I was to remove anything in this deck for her, I would likely replace Ral Zarek because Chandra can finish an opponent after a master-poke, but unlike ral, it can break him through with her +1 ability instead of Ral's -2. Furthermore, Ral has slight mana-accelleration whereas Chandra has pseudo card draw, which UBR lacks compared to UW control decks with access to Sphinx's Revelation. (I already intend to make that change when I get the money to buy one)

While Thoughtseize is an amazing card no matter how you look at it, I have a couple reasons for not playing it in this deck. First off, this is a 3-color control deck with 12 shock lands and no lifegain whatsoever. Currently the deck I have the most trouble with is RDW, and Naya/Selesnya midrange (with Loxodon Smiter ). Against RDW, 2 life is a bit costly to force a discard on something I will likely have an answer to deal with already. Against GW, I do not want to go against smiters that can't be countered or discarded without other answers to quickly deal with them, such as Doom Blade /Dreadbore /Mizzium Mortars . If Vampire Nighthawk was still legal, I would GLADLY throw in 3-4 thoughtseize.

Mizzium Mortars vs Lightning Strike - When I was making this deck, I eventually decided that lightning strike was not needed in a deck that main-boards 3x Anger of the Gods . Since most aggressive decks I play against use creatures with 1-2 toughness, I just use the Magma Jet to deal with all the small bodies, anger for boardwipes / 1 for 1's on the 3 toughness guys and Mizzium for the fatties.

Ratchet Bomb vs Doom Blade - As I said with the Chandra explanation, UBR has very limited card draw. With that in mind, you NEED as many 2-for-1's as you can possibly come up with. Ratchet bomb is one such example. It can deal with aggressive decks rather effectively, boardwiping their T2 Burning-Tree Emissary combo, potentially being a board-wipe on its own. It can also deal with Domri Rade , Enchantments, and mana-dorks very well, whereas doom-blade is a 1-time 1-for-1 removal that can only target NON-black CREATURES. I simply prefer the flexibility of Ratchet Bomb, although it admittedly makes your opponent hold back on you if they play aggro-midrange, which can hurt for control. (although that's what they should be doing anyways if you run boardwipes...)

Essence Scatter vs Counterflux - I did play this deck for a while with 3x Essence Scatter and 2x Syncopate , but after much playtesting, I still largely prefer Counterflux to Essence. While essence scatter is still AMAZING in this meta with gods and creature heavy decks, I prefer having the ability to say 'No' to a planeswalker, enchantment, game-changing card, or anything else that could lose me the game, instead of just being able to fight off aggro decks' main win-con. (heck, in most cases I'd prefer running doom blade instead since it can hit Loxodon Smiter, which still beats me in a dumb number of games if I don't have an answer in hand right away.

Peak Eruption in sideboard - While a 3-drop land destruction can ruin anyone's day, I'd rather have a turn 3 Ashiok on the field than to 'maybe' screw up my opponent's land. Would I side it in against RDW? I personally would NOT. If you topdeck that late game, you lose. If you play it early, they get a free ash zealot smack against you while you're tapped out.

You definitely bring up excellent points, and I often forget that ratchet bomb isn't only effective against tokens, lol. I run Peak Eruption SB because Chained to the Rocks has rendered my wincon useless on a few occasions. I will definitely MB mortars when I can actually get them, and yes, Ashiok performs amazingly. I stole an Auralia once, that was fun.

Also, what is your opinion on Swan Song ? I've considered it on multiple occasions, but have not yet tested it.

(Maybe concisider clearing comments at this point)I also wanted to address Thoughtsieze by saying that the issue with the 2 life loss can be mitigated by only running 2, as you are currently testing. And in the case where you are against RDW or GW or GRW, you can always side out Thoughtseize for something more favorable on game 2.

Like I said, this deck excites me, and I'm pleased to have received inspiration from this deck to perfect a control strategy that isn't goddamn Esper (white is my least favorite color).

Steam Augury sounds a lot better to me than Opportunity .

@SovietPumaWhat happens when you hit your wincon? Steam Augury is NOT Fact or Fiction and there is no way your opponent will let you take the pile with AEtherling in it, no matter what. Opportunity guarantees a 4 card draw and you can keep your bombs.

OK. Makes sense, but it has worked fine for me before i got Sphinx's Revelation for my American control deck. obviously if you need lets say AEtherling they wont give it to you but that almost guarantees everything else in the 5 cards reveled, which could also hold the answer you were looking for. And it costs less. just my opinion.

@MadStyx - In a creatureless control deck, you do not want to run Swan Song , as the only thing you are doing is 2-for-1-ing yourself by 'countering a spell' but then having another creature to deal with. Swan song would only really be relevant in a blue deck with heavy flying defense, or maybe a control deck running 4x Hover Barrier ? (maybe?)

@SovietPuma - I playtested Steam Augury at a state tournament a couple weeks back, and it performed far worse than I had anticipated. At best, you draw 2 decent cards. At worst, you draw 2-3 cards that do nothing for you. (And your opponent sees ALL of them, so they can play around what you just drew) I had high hopes for the card, but it fell on its face for me. It's only really playable in a deck like America or Izzet control with Spellheart Chimera or other decks that run a lot of 4-of's, that way you are much more likely to get a card you ACTUALLY need. No matter the circumstances though, I prefer Inspiration over Steam Augury .

Continuation of discussion---

@MadStyx - In a creatureless control deck, you do not want to run Swan Song , as the only thing you are doing is 2-for-1-ing yourself by 'countering a spell' but then having another creature to deal with. Swan song would only really be relevant in a blue deck with heavy flying defense, or maybe a control deck running 4x Hover Barrier ? (maybe?)

@SovietPuma - I playtested Steam Augury at a state tournament a couple weeks back, and it performed far worse than I had anticipated. At best, you draw 2 decent cards. At worst, you draw 2-3 cards that do nothing for you. (And your opponent sees ALL of them, so they can play around what you just drew) I had high hopes for the card, but it fell on its face for me. It's only really playable in a deck like America or Izzet control with Spellheart Chimera or other decks that run a lot of 4-of's, that way you are much more likely to get a card you ACTUALLY need. No matter the circumstances though, I preferInspiration over Steam Augury .

Question, Beetall:

Quicken vs Inspiration ?

Much lower cost, and can cast Dreadbore , Rakdos's Return , Anger of the Gods , and Mizzium Mortars at instant speed. Is that all worth the sacrifice of drawing 1 less card? I think it COULD be.

@MadStyx --- I actually thought about ashiok and will be running Hypersonic Dragon in its place for the time being as I think it will be far better than ashiok. That being said, why run a cantrip when I can run something that gives me card advantage? Quicken is a decent card, and it finds a home in grixis, but I personally don't think its ability is worth running.

Nothing to do with the deck but pretty sure the lyric is "no way you can CHANGE me". i looked it up out of curiosity and if its the motorhead song then yeah its change.

@Evaro --- I was looking up the lyrics after I heard the song, and I saw 3-4 different words there, but I thought that logically, 'Chain' made the most sense in context. It very well could be 'change' but whenever I listen to the song, it still sounds like 'Chain' since I can never hear the hard 'g' sound at the end of the word. I looked up lyrics on several different websites, and while 'change' was the most common result, there were others that said 'chain' or 'shake'.

it certainly does sound like chain.

i love grixis, but im not a big fan of heavy or cruel control.i made myself a midrange list. you might consider take a look: Deathproof Aetherling

if you dicide to run Master of Cruelties i can say for sure you already have enough burn to do so.

against the mono-blue i would recommend Anger of the Gods kills aggro and pretty much all there blue drops except Master of Waves and thassa.

on takeing out ral and rift i would put 2 Illness in the Ranks in it against Assemble the Legion Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Young Pyromancer it kills those decks. <- this is pure personal choice.

currnely you seem to run 1 Turn / Burn to much in the side giving 2 free slots. would fill it with additional copys of mb cards or Hero's Downfall

the master of grixis is back is my version of grixis control

@Sagi007 - I will probably replace Niv-Mizzet with Prognostic Sphinx and AEtherize with 2x Master of Cruelties .

Against mono-blue, I NEVER want to tap out because if you don't counter Thassa, God of the Sea it's an uphill battle.

For Turn / Burn , I forgot to update my deck on tapped out, the 3x turn burn in the mainboard were supposed to be 3x Hero's Downfall . (which is what I played with)

last thing. do you consider Rakdos's Return a burnspell for Master of Cruelties ?

if not i would add switch 1 Far / Away main to the side and replace it with a Turn / Burn from there.

during my games with the Master if i only play 2 i generally want 4burns afterwards each aditional master gets company of an extra burnspell.

Nice!

I USED to try to get Master of Cruelties to work in Grixis, but if you run a control deck then using a "combo" as a finisher seemed too hard to pull off. Control can redraw more cards (as well as monoblack devotion and Underworld Connections ).

Aggro was a pain so I ended up using Returned Phalanx to combat them. I put 3 main just because my local meta is about 65% aggro based

I have one question. How does the Pack Rat ply in this deck?

@xXghostwolf13Xx I've been playing pack rat in my decks long before rotation, and it's one of my favorite win-cons in standard. Playing against a deck without board-wipes? play him turn 5 and every card in your hand becomes a pack rat. Against low-removal aggro? (e.g. gruel/selesnya/Naya) play him turn 2 and race their field. Once pack-rat is on the field, you no longer need to worry about top-decks, every card becomes a pack rat. It then turns to your opponent for answers to pack rat before he/she is overwhelmed.

Anger of the Gods is mainboardable for a grixis build in standard right now with all the aggro. Grixis hasnt been an actual wedge in play recently because of a lack of a board wipe like Supreme Verdict , so they gave us a present with Anger. lol

@kriskurse - I playtested the deck for a while with anger, but in about 4/5 games, it was a dead draw. Against control, it does nothing. Against aggro, it taps out your mana so they can land purphoros or burning earth or chandra. Against midrange, it kills the rampers, but nothing else.

anyone else see a "rare" RTR symbol instead of a "uncommon" symbol on syncopate F?