Inspiration ,Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver or Ratchet Bomb

more Jace

more Thassa

Inspiration is one of my draw cards, and I don't want to remove a 3 drop to add a 5 drop. I think I'll take out the Prognostic Sphinx and just accept the fact that Thassa will rarely become a creature lol

good choise. But I think there's better draw.

Not until turn 6 with Opportunity and I'd rather not wait that long to get Thoughtseize d

Have you considered Stormbreath Dragon ? At my LGS Esper control will often scoop if you land him.

I have, but he requires RR and this deck focuses more on Blue and black. I COULD adjust the mana base to run him, but I wouldn't run him main deck as he isn't that good vs monoblack or monoblue. I wanted to build this to have good games against a majority of the field's top decks (Esper Control, U/W control, Monoblue Devotion, Monoblack devotion, most aggro decks)

Jace, Memory Adept or AEtherling are my current win cons of choice vs the devotion/midrange/control decks as they have a HARD time dealing with them. (by the time I'm ready to drop a JMA, I could have Thoughtseize 'd a Hero's Downfall from monoblack and Cyclonic Rift doesn't do anything against it from monoblue)

I don't have any at the moment, but I COULD pick them up if he playtests well enough. I'll try adding him in for some testing games. Where would you suggest I put him in and why?

Thanks for the comment!

Haunted Plate Mail ... Like a Mutavault .. Of course it is susceptible to Putrefy , but there's not much GB in my local meta. I like the deck man, seems solid, though I would use more hard counters. I'm not a big fan of Essence Scatter , it's too narrow, in my opinion. Why not a Psychic Strike ? Hard counter for a single blue, though I'm sure you have your reasons. Anyhow +1 from me

Most people run creatures in their decks so the 1 of Essence Scatter is a 2 mana counterspell vs them. I would up the count of Dissolve if I were to replace it however, as the extra scry tacked onto it helps me smooth out my draws.

As for instant speed removal vs Haunted Plate Mail , it works whether it's against that or Desecration Demon , however against monored they can just sac a dude to keep the beats up whereas Haunted Plate Mail can still block the same turn and FORCE them to use a burn spell if they want to kill it. Thus I 2-for-1 them and gain card advantage.

The other upside is that Selesnya Charm can't hit Haunted Plate Mail when it's animated, so as long as I don't block something with toughness > 2 they will still trade and again I gain card advantage.

Thanks for the comment and the +1 though! long live Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker !

Read the Bones > Divination

@Kyuwrath:

Thanks for the comment! I had tried running Read the Bones , however Grixis doesn't have much of anything to recover life lost so ever little bit helps. I'm already losing life using Thoughtseize so I need to limit my life loss to aggro decks.

I'm thinking of adding 2 x Dimir Charm to the sideboard instead of the extra Ratchet Bomb and the other Thoughtseize .

I just like Thoughtseize too much to just let it go! But, Dimir Charm can COUNTER an opposing Thoughtseize and has GREAT UTILITY vs monoblue as most of their creatures are power 2 or less (Nightveil Specter , Master of Waves , etc)

Dimir Charm would be a great addition. In addition to the counter and kill it has, it can filter your draws (albeit discarding the other 2 cards), or it can save you from having them getting that top-decked game changer.

That was my reasoning for adding it...I'll have to weigh the pros and cons and decide which is best

Thanks for taking a look and commenting!

what about Desecration Demon ?

I had him in here originally, however against the control decks or monoblack he would eat a removal spell that they hadn't used yet and had been sitting in their hand since turn 1. If I can catch someone tapped out, then Stormbreath Dragon having haste at least gets me to drop them by 4 before he eats a removal spell. Not to mention that Esper/ UW control can't touch him really (pro white) and He can block a Blood Baron of Vizkopa as well as Boros Reckoner without fear of dying.

Good question though!

Oooh can't wait until Born of the Gods is released.... there are some NICE black removal/sweepers that will make this deck MUCH more smooth

How's your mono-black match-up?

It's been pretty solid. Game one can go either way, but I usually take out the Mizzium Mortars for Dimir Charm s (to increase my chances of taking out a Mutavault ) and to also counter a Duress or Thoughtseize from them.

Monoblack is usually a good matchup for us, but Monoblue was harder as it was a faster "tempo"/"aggro" type deck. I've made some adjustments to improve on that recently

You would get wrecked against a good midranged deck.. Gruul or Jund with early game board flooding of creatures and good 4-6 cmc support is gonna be extremely tough for you to deal with.

How so? I run 12+ forms of removal in this deck to start with, alongside 3 counterspells for "midrange" cards and some hand disruption. Post board, I add in 2x Rakdos's Return and change my win cons according to what I'm up against.

Jund is usually a slower deck, which works in my favor. And I have not seen a "Gruul" midrange deck surface as of late so could you link an example of one to me?

Playtest against my Vraska, Xenagos, and Nylea have a threesome!l deck.. I won 10 out of 10 match ups against this with it.. and Gruul/Mono Green Devotion both would do the same.

@sboardman: I find it hard to believe that you ACTUALLY playtested properly against my deck 10 times in the hour that I put that post on the deck help forum

sboardman Troll harder bro! Vraska is a trash card and I highly doubt you won 10 of 10 properly playing Grixis. The only decks that I consistently lose to are White aggro, W/G Aggro, Red Deck Wins or some variation of Aggro. I destroy Mono Black, Esper, and any form of tempo or midrange deck. Like I said, troll harder.