Devour Flesh also helps against the occasional Naya Hexproof deck. Plus you can use it on a creature stolen with Ashiok for health in a pinch.

Looking at making a grixis deck myself, and I'm using Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver and Ral Zarek , what is the point of jace in this deck? I'm looking but I dont see how he fits in.

phaze08 Card draw. In grixis it is incredibly important to maximize your hand and refill it because you empty it killing the opponents creatures.

Jace is essentially an auto include in any blue control deck. His great stalling and drawing power make him a vital part of the deck. He is just too good not to include. Ashiok is probably the one that is least important.

He can also blank Aggro decks a little bit and he adds stress to your opponent by forcing them to make 2 piles. Not to mention you can dig for a spell you need.

Technically Ashiok is one of my win conditions and he has outperformed jace in almost every match. But jace is still needed.

I might do a one of Ashiok though. What do you think? Grixis is Hella Scary

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is a GREAT win con as 90% of the decks out there are filled with creatures. Nothing frustrates and opponent more than forcing them to use removal on their own Stormbreath Dragon or Polukranos, World Eater haha

More and more people keeping discounting her as a viable win con, but she is BOSS. If left unchecked, U/W and Esper can kiss their hands goodbye. Against aggro, she is bad early, but that's where your removal comes into play. You shouldn't cast her until you have 5-6 mana available so you can leave up for a counterspell or a removal spell. She is GREAT to follow up on turn 6 after a turn 5 Far / Away as their most annoying creatures will be gone

She? Look close, I'm pretty sure that's a guy.

Nope. In the official notes she is a girl :)

Seriously?

Yep. There's actually an article on this site that talks about it

The official wiki page says his/her gender is unknown

Ashiok's gender is officially undefined.

Hey, how has running only 25 lands treated you? I had to up mine to 27 to allow more consistency.

I also removed the Haunted Plate Mail s as they weren't doing enough and went the full 4 of Jace, Architect of Thought .

Pilfered Plans and Psychic Strike have both worked out well for me as they aid in my main deck mill plans with Jace, Memory Adept and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver . I also am now maindecking an Elixir of Immortality so I can reuse everything and get back my Rakdos's Return , AEtherling , or planeswalkers

It also helped smooth out mana so I didn't have 3 different cards that I wanted to cast by turn 3 with double colors in their casting cost (Anger of the Gods , Hero's Downfall , and Dissolve )

harrydemon117 I haven't run into mana issues playing 25 lands. I shuffle very well and I haven't had much trouble. I made changes over the last weekend before a recent IQ so I will post those soon. I also went back to 4 Jaces because I really love having them in hand for when he dies. I also play 3 Nightveil Specter to apply pressure while shaping the opponents hand and field. All in all this deck as outperformed all my expectations and I've received many compliments from players, including 2 ex Pro Tour players. =D

Nice!

I may go back down to 26 lands again, but my recent GPT I went to irritated the crap out of me getting cut 1 landers all day...maybe I went a bit overboard in adding the extra land. I'll have to test it both ways to see what I would put in instead

why Essence Scatter and not Nullify ? I personally prefer Steam Augury over Pilfered Plans . I believe I played this exact deck in a "mirror match". I took a giant shit on it. Here's my deck if you want to take a look see.Grixis Control - Suggestions Welcome

What auras could you possibly need to counter? Bestowed creatures? They aren't seeing as much play as one would think right now outside of Boon Satyr and a couple others.

UU is harder to cast than 1U and in a 3 color deck without mana fixing this is REALLY relevant

benwah3000 Haven't come across any other Grixis decks like mine yet and I've played in 4 different area IQ, FNM and such. I doubt you played against this exact deck because I made it up completely. No net deck at all. Also, Nullify is far to difficult to cast consistently with the UU cost. Negate and/or Essence Scatter deal with everything Nullify would on a more consistent basis. Steam Augury is an interesting card. I playtested it but it's not as good as I wanted it to be. Pilfered plans works better in my oppinion because it costs 1 less which allows me to leave mana open to bluff on turn 4, or activate mutavault.

harrydemon117 DrFunk27 Auras that need countering Detention Sphere comes to mind.Mutavault in a three colored deck fucks your mana more than casting UU or BB or RR. 60% of your land is blue... if you don't have 2 of each color in your hand in your draw hand than you are doing something wrong. if you don't have 2 of each color out by turn 3 or 4 then i really don't know what to tell you... maybe you should redo your mana because the only counters you are gonna find with out UU in them are Psychic Strike and Syncopate unless you load up your side deck with Essence Scatter and Negate . All the good removal spells are all BB or RR (Hero's Downfall , Anger of the Gods , Mizzium Mortars , Bile Blight ). You run 25+ mana to avoid not have enough mana to do stuff... with as much dual land as you have in the lands you say you are playing you can drop Temple of Deceit turn 1 and Blood Crypt turn 2 and you already have BB, BR, BU, UR in your mana pool. So if you shocked yourself you can already cast Bile Blight or if you wait to turn 3 to shock and play a Steam Vents you will have BBU, BBR, BRR, BUU, RUU, or RRU in your mana pool allowing you to play Hero's Downfall or Dissolve or Anger of the Gods turn 3. I don't see where you are having trouble playing BB, UU, or RR cards...

Detention Sphere is NOT an aura..it is strictly an enchantment. Auras would be something like Ordeal of Thassa that have the word "Aura" in its subtype

benwah3000 lol Detention Sphere. Anyways, I have not had trouble with my mana fixing but I still don't think devoting UU for Dissolve is worth it when I already have Aetherling and Jace that have UU costs. I guess it just boils down to opinion. I'm not saying Dissolve is wrong, it's a very good card, I have just been playtesting Psychic Strike in its stead.

So you've never played against an opponent that played Chained to the Rocks , Domestication , Madcap Skills , Underworld Connections , Unflinching Courage , or Viper's Kiss ?

I have, but I only have AEtherling as a creature in MY deck, and I have removal like Devour Flesh and Far / Away to deal with enchanted creatures