They can respond to the equipping of the sword with a removal spell. I'd keep the Batterskull in.

No. You have priority to do any sorcery speed actions during your turn as long as the stack is empty.

They have to let the creature resolve (or land animation) to remove it. It is the same concept as being able to play the 2 extra lands from Azusa, Lost but Seeking before it can be killed by Lightning Bolt

Oh you actually mean responding to the equip itself. Yeah they can do that, sorry misread what you said. I generally don't animate lands without a couple back ups myself. I don't think it truthfully matters that much though, because by the time this deck has enough mana to animate a land and equip it probably has more available mana than needed (assuming they are also keeping some open for responses) so having a land eat a removal spell probably wouldn't be a huge loss. Just my thought anyway.

I am just saying if they plan to animate a bunch of lands, the sword is better than batterskull

Man lands are usually "Plan B". Batterskull is "Plan A".

Yea i rarely use man lands early its usually if i know they have no plays the following turn and/or they are hurting themselves via fetch+shock or thoughtseize etc... They are for the late game close out to finish the game.

Dark Confidant is dangerous in a deck that curves out at 4 with little way to regain life. I get that you want to accrue card advantage, but flipping a Cryptic Command or Rise/Fall on turn 3 will hurt a lot.

I agree, but with the amount of removal he generally can swing through anyway, so it basically balances out. It's almost like it reads draw a card and both players lose 2 life (on average). And against decks that he can't swing to the face, they will kill it off blocking, so they either take two or kill it, there's not really an in between.

iamacasual....you are absolutely correct. Dark Confidant can be quite painful :) In longer games; you really do need a way to gain life to make up for it...thus far, we have Batterskull and Sword of War and Peace ; but we'd love any other options as well. We did at one point have Vampire Nighthawk in here as well. There is every possibility he needs to be in here again in place of Sedraxis Specter ...we just really like the way he works with Liliana of the Veil , etc.

Having said this, we will make sure to keep track of how many games that our play was effected poorly by a slightly larger curve than average for Dark Confidant (i.e. where we couldn't play a second one, played an Anger of the Gods slightly early to help get rid of him, etc.) If it is a high enough percentage; we will need to work around it. It's a great point...thank you for the suggestion/comment.

Went 5-1 last night with my version. As we all know, Vexing devil is a beast. I took out think twice to try izzet charm and after last night i needed think twice more as mid to late game i dont have much of a hand. I lost to a tribal zoo deck with geist. Was unable to hit any lilianas on games 2 or 3. So far i havent encountered a super bad matchup as after sb any troublesome match gets much better. Phyrecian Crusader was nuts and so many people misplayed their angers with him out lol. Had a pod player swing with his kitchen finks when i blocked he said gain 2 life from persist then I reminded him that infect gives neg counters and he scooped.

What happened to you guys?

Hey there ScottKindle....Apologies...we got super busy with our company (apparently everyone is buying, selling, refinancing, and foreclosing at the same time! :) I'll be on here tonight; so I'll make sure to get things updated.

So right now I'm testing izzet charm over think twice as it brings alot to the game and helps feed snap. Also trying to cut 1 blightning for a baby jace to see how he fits. Might not work but we will see.

So where have you guys been? Wheres the updates and such?

Wow, I need to read cards better I'm working on a discard deck to Waste or Not to waste and passed over Rise/Fall . Boy do I feel like I deserve a kick in the pants. But I have to say that if you're not running more Blightning s because they don't have enough cards in hand to make it worth casting then Nyxathid might be worth including. A 7/7 body (at best) drawn for only 3 damage from Dark Confidant sounds enticing does it not?

This might seem a bit odd at first, but give it a shot...

Take a look at Looter il-Kor as a card drawing engine. I've made a similar deck to this, except I hate out nonbasic lands hard, and I have a tiny splash of white for Ajani Vengeant but other than that, it's the same basic concept.

I really like the looter, because he lets you pitch stuff to yard to use later. it's also basically unblockable 1 dmg vs dark confidant which can be blocked sometimes. Even though it's not actually generating card advantage, it lets you cycle through your deck just as fast, and you don't lose life.

Also, I suggest Engineered Explosives over Ratchet Bomb , simply because you are running Dark Confidant currently. You might want to look at my sideboard choices too for some ideas, as I have a few cards in it you probably haven't considered.

It originally started out as a red/black/white blood moon deck with spreading seas, but I changed colors so it could hinder more decks, and this deck actually came to mind when I added black, so thanks for the great ideas :)

I'll be sure to keep you updated if I stumble across any other cards that might benefit you.

I also stumbled upon Shadow Guildmage who looks like he could be fun with Vedalken Shackles but that's an idea for a different deck...

Figured I'd share if you were looking for a new idea.

Hey guys! We've been testing this a bit and had a few items we wanted to discuss; but also it's been great to see the success ScottKindle has had with his version of the deck (he's probably even better with it than we are!).

One thing we've thought about is the power of Anger of the Gods ...unfortunately, I'm not sure it works well in this deck; but it is one of the most powerful spells in the current meta. I've been playing a UWR list with 3 Angers main-board and it is ridiculous how much card advantage this can create.

Nyaxthid is a really neat card that synergizes well here. If we can't find a way to add it in here (although there is a DEFINITE possibility we will find a slot for it); we will be building with it ASAP. Too good of a card not to build in Grixis with.

And nbarry223 you are right...what a neat card Shadow Guildmage is. I'm surprised we don't see more of it.

It was interesting to see that a Jund list with three Liliana of the Veil and two Chandra, Pyromaster 's won the GP. It also had four Dark Confidant ; so they all are strong cards that in the right build can flourish. This one is definately quite close!

We'll provide a few new updates/cards we've been testing as well just to see what everyone thinks and to deal with some new archetypes that are growing in popularity (Scapeshift, U/W Enchantment control, etc.) as well. Sorry for the little break. Back to Grixis!

Grix fo life! Sidenote, Ashiok is a superhouse in moderm and will be adding him into my list along with some updates for the meta.

How cool is that ScottKindle! If there is one thing I love, it's Planeswalkers! I will try him out as well!

I'm trying out Think Twice as well (which I believe you suggested a while back) so I'll let you know how that goes...there's always something :)

Made a few changes to get a few Think Twice into the deck (down to one sword, no Chandra, etc.)....

Also, I'm CRAZY about Anger of the Gods and Keranos, God of Storms ...I began playing with a "version" of this deck that was much more "control" oriented that utilized Keranos; but it was too different to consider it this deck so I am going to post it seperately. I thought about main-boarding Anger of the Gods but can't find a place for them yet.

Also, based on ScottKindle's suggestion, I may try a few Ashiok's as well...right now the deck is pretty "set" in it's firm "mid-range" position; but decks are ALWAYS changing with the addition of new cards and the changing of the meta; so there is always room for change/improvement!

Really want to try out "Waste Not" in here (the new M15 Rare)...seems playable...I think I'm gonna proxy it and play it now to find out! I'll let you know how it goes!

Cannot wait for "Waste Not"....extremely powerful card for Grixis Control builds. Between it and Keranos, God of Storms , I have an entirely different Grixis Control build that is less "midrange" and more "control"...but I like it! I'll post it on here as well.

This is an interesting take on grixis control. I will say one thing on it though.Vexing Devil seems to not fit at all. Giving your opponent a choice in a control deck is one of the last things you want to do. I love the card just not in this deck. Have you looked into Grim Lavamancer ? Also 24 lands seems to low. 25 or 26 would probably be what you want with more card draw.

prophetryu....I have been testing this with Grim Lavamancer ever since I began playing him in my current Delver deck (as I forgot just how crazy good he is). Most likely this change will happen...I just want to test it enough to be sure. Vexing Devil has a positive in that he can be "reanimated"; however this is not enough in and of itself to keep it in the deck if Grim Lavamancer is a better card. Great call!

On the land front, I will look into it. I tend to play a pretty aggressive mana-base (and tend to always play one less land than some would like); but there is no reason not to try this. I don't seem to get mana skrewed a lot; but it may even help fixing a little more. Regardless, it's worth a shot :) Thanks for the great suggestions!

If 24 is good for you by all means do it. I play grixis pretty heavily and have tried so many variations of it. Usually I play an aggressive mana base too. But sometimes I fall short. So I typically run one more than most grixis decks. Typically they run 25 and I run 26. But I actually might drop down to 25. I just hate getting mana screwed. But like I said if that works for you go with it. Also at first I was not a Rise/Fall fan. And when I first saw your deck I thought it was a weakness but now that I am looking at it, you might be on to something. I am definitely going to try it out and least maybe a couple of them and see how they fair.