oh, and Arid Mesa , Flooded Strand , Marsh Flats , Misty Rainforest , Verdant Catacombs , and Wooded Foothills should be taken out. In a grixis deck they're like having basic lands that deal one damage to you on the way in, it's pointless. I know they cut down on your probability of drawing land, but your commander is seven mana

Agreed, the mana base can absolutely be shut down by something like Blood Moon , but so can any deck that runs as many non-basics as I do. It's one of the risks of playing 3-color decks. I have lots of mana rocks that produce colored mana as well, since its a very color-saturated deck. However, cards like Karn Liberated are capable of handling it should it resolve and I have no rocks out.

The planeswalkers are nice to have, but I'm never really worried about them dying. Most of our planeswalker hate in my meta comes in the form of Vindicate or other 'destroy permanent' spell, and less damage driven.

If you're referring to Mystical Teachings , its in the deck, but forgot to remove it from sideboard :) For reference, the sideboard are cards that used to be in the deck that I don't currently have in there, and maybeboard are cards I'm considering acquiring/playtesting.

I will disagree though on the fetch lands. That many fetches are absolutely necessary. Since they let you search for 'Swamp' or 'Mountain' or 'Island', they can grab the shock lands or dual lands in addition to basics. For example, Wooded Foothills can grab Steam Vents , Volcanic Island , Badlands , or Blood Crypt . Its extremely helpful for mana-fixing and smooths out my mana base very well. I usually just use my commander for quick attacks and removing creatures from an opponents board anyway

Actually for some reason Mystical Tutor was in your sideboard when I was first looking.

But yeah you had a good answer to everything else I said

What is Mana Web for? Your opponents can just float their mana in response to it's triggered ability.

Mana Web combined with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth causes an opponent to tap out every time they play a spell. Yes, you can float mana, but that mana won't carry with you as you change phases so it keeps the instants and big spells out of play. Makes for some very frustrated playgroups haha. Right now I'm experimenting with it out with Molten Psyche in it's place.

Dope. But why Thraximundar? This isn't a Voltron deck. Or are there no decent Grixis commanders? Do you simply like his sac ability? Also, why Time Stretch? Why not time walk? lol jk. But what about the 5-drop single-turn giver. I think there's two. Do you often get ten mana for Time Stretch?

Thanks for the +1! Personally, I love Thrax, and flavor-wise this deck fits him very well. I use him mostly for control purposes. In most cases, its 7 mana to kill 2 creatures or even a planeswalker, which helps keep my opponents board clear. The foil version of him is really badass too.

As far as Time Stretch is concerned, I can ramp very well with this deck so I hit 10 mana around turn 5-6 usually. But it's a bomb which, if it resolves, I'll usually win the game with it. It also allows me to take infinite turns by using Archaeomancer + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker . If I'm not playing Time Stretch , chances are I'll play a Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur instead

Have you considered Liliana of the Veil or Tamiyo, the Moon Sage . Tamiyo's ult will win you the game.

Tamiyo, the Moon Sage was in here earlier but she didn't fit the curve as nicely as I had hoped and I found her to be somewhat underwhelming, so I pulled her out.

I love Liliana of the Veil , but I think her abilities are better suited in Modern/Legacy/Standard than in EDH. Good suggestions though!

I agree about Lilianna of the Veil she just did so much work in standard that she's won me over, but Tamiyo, the Moon Sage wins in standard b.c every other deck burned out and she didn't. Then again, that was before Sphinx's Revelation but that's Azorius. Jace, Architect of Thought maybe? He's pretty good himself.

Tamiyo and Lil2 thrive in standard environments because their ability offers huge advantage against 1 opponent. Thats not really the case in EDH. Great cards, but they don't necessarily fit the mold I'm looking for with this deck.

Jace4 is good, but again, seems better in standard than In EDH. He just seems underwhelming in my opinion. When the average P/T of a creature in EDH is around 4, giving them all -1/0 will still kill him off and not dampen an alpha strike. If I used him it would mostly be for his -2, but I'd sooner run Fact or Fiction .

EDH is a whole nother monster compared to standard. The only serious suggestion was Tamiyo because of her ult and her ability to tap any commander.

What about Olivia Voldaren ? She can pump herself up even when the opponent doesn't have creatures to seize, and take control of other creatures. Use Kiki-Jiki to clone then, and take control of the tokens forever with Olivia.

@artakha, I'm not sold on Olivia Voldaren . To take control of a creature, it's an 11-mana investment to get it that turn, and to do what you're describing, would require that I have Kiki-Jiki in hand or in play to capitalize on the investment. At that point, I'd rather do something else

What are your typical Intuition targets?

Thanks for the +1!

@dangerwood: It depends on the situation. Some of my favorites are Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed + Necropotence + Phyrexian Arena if I need some card draw, or Force of Will + Swan Song + Pact of Negation if I need a quick counter spell. If I'm using Intuition for Myojin of Night's Reach + Time Stretch + Devastation , the game is over.

Thanks for the reply, alexsmith21. I really like the look of this deck. I'm building one similar, mainly to combat an annoying Derevi, Empyrial Tactician deck. I know your deck will crush opponents in 1v1, but how does it do against a bigger table? Do you find the lack of Thraximundar artifact protection, such as Lightning Greaves , Swiftfoot Boots , or Whispersilk Cloak , to be a challenge?

Nice! I'll take a look.

It does very well against a large table actually. I have a reputation of building strong decks in my play group, so my decks need to be able to handle 4-5 opponents at once because I tend to get ganged up on. And this deck does that well. More than that it can get dicey.

The extra protection is never really an issue. I usually play Thrax a couple times a game and its for board control exclusively, like attacking into an opponent to kill a few creatures or getting rid of a planeswalker. Very rarely do I ever win by commander damage.

Very nice. A couple more questions/points.

Have you considered including Cavern of Souls to cast an uncounterable Thraximundar ?

It also seems that Imperial Recruiter and/or Duplicant could find homes here, particularly with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Venser, Shaper Savant to combo.

Also, Crystal Shard always gives my opponents fits. Both for protecting my own creatures and removing theirs. Could be extra profitable with Ral Zarek and Tezzeret the Seeker to untap. Just some things to consider.

Having an uncounterable Thrax is less important to me. It's a win-win because if they counter my general, they wasted a counter on a spell that could be used to counter something like Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur or Devastation .

Crystal Shard seems underwhelming for the theme I'm going for. Good card and would work well in another deck, but maybe not so much in here.

Duplicant is too expensive, I'd rather play Karn Liberated for its effect. I do have Imperial Recruiter on my list of potential cards. Any idea what to pull for a test run?

I'd suggest swapping out Gamble for Imperial Recruiter , everything else looks pretty tight. This deck doesn't run much graveyard recursion, so if you pitch something useful with Gamble , you won't see it again.

That would be my pick too. I love Gamble but it does mean giving something up. I'll playtest it and see how it goes. Thanks for the suggestions!

You seem to like a lot of Cruel Control, so maybe adding an Omen Machine wouldn't be a bad idea.

As for abusing planeswalker abilities, perhaps The Chain Veil and Teferi, Temporal Archmage would help out a bit.

I thought of suggesting Altar of Shadows, but it's kinda expensive mana-wise, but I thought I'd just put it here just in case.

I love thrax too, I just like to make him super duper big using my main EDH Deck: The Phyrexian Undead

In one of the earlier comments, you write that your deck generally doesn't win via commander damage. That being the case, can you explain the general path (or paths) to victory that you aim for instead?

What do you think about replacing Devastation for Apocalypse? Better mana cost, and exiles versus destroys, which is nice when you are matched up against an all indestructible deck.

Food for thought. Hope you like it!

@freakingShane, Apocalypse isn't as good as it looks. Devastation lets me keep a hand while Apocalypse has me lose mine while my opponents keep theirs.

Also, Devastation lets me keep my artifacts and enchantments in play while getting rid of everything else. Appreciate the input though!