But with Moons, you can win in G2+G3 easily. What is the worst matchups for this (besides Abzan)?

EDIT: Just saw that Moon was being reprinted... Might be able to get some!

I wouldn't say easily, but hopefully frequently enough where it's worth trying. I haven't tested that matchup post board yet.

Junk isn't as bad as you'd think. Even with lingering souls, that matchup is not only winnable but might be neutral. However if they draw 2+ copies of lingering souls we're pretty much dead. Worst matchup is easily gr tron or eldrazi tron. Besides those, of the current meta, merfolk, bant, hatebears, and rw nahiri are all unfavorable.

Thanks! I'm getting the fetches and spells I don't have for my birthday... Also Bloodghast is $14.49 at my LGS :)

That's awesome!

As for the third tasigur, cutting murderous cut is probably a bad idea. Unconditional removal is really important, especially since you can't rely on always having revolt to kill siege rhino with that fatal push. Unconditional removal is even more important against eldrazi with their reality smasher and drowner of hope which can easily be dealt with if you have unconditional removal.

I'm in favor of cutting 1 thought scour because cantrip flooding is risky.

Another thing: delver can get away without having much unconditional removal because against eldrazi and junk, they're the beatdown and win before they miss not having the removal. This deck is stuck on the ground and thus, can't do that. Instead we try to disrupt their early game then win before they get their late game.

Hey. I've been testing against a friend at my LGS, and I can personally advocate that a third Tasigur, the Golden Fang in place of a Thought Scour is a good choice.

Cheers!

Awesome. What were you playing against? I'll get some testing in at some point. Probably not tonight, but almost certainly this weekend.

Grixis Delver

I just thought about how we could be using Cathartic Reunion instead of Looting. Thoughts?

Not as much of a fan. 2 mana is a much larger investment (turn 2 ghast on the table isn't possible anymore) and no flashback removes what's probably our best tool in attrition matches in the deck.

Damn. Mind explaining the changes to me?

Sure!

To start, I played the list with Thought Scour in a few tournaments with only okay results. I found that my opening hand oftentimes had a lot of cards that didn't do anything. Kalitas isn't useful until turn 4, Bloodghast doesn't interact with my opponent, and my cantrips don't interact either. A single piece of removal or a single discard spell plus a few cards that don't interact is a miserable hand in this meta, where pretty much every deck, especially Death's Shadow, requires constant pressure to beat. Basically in this meta I am not a proactive deck, I am the reactive control deck that needs to be interacting with the opponent pretty much constantly. Thought Scour was not useful in accomplishing this goal. So, I cut Thought Scour and the 3rd Tasigur.

After that I tweaked my interaction suite a bit. I'm back up to 2 Thoughtseize and 2 Inquisition of Kozilek instead of just 2 Thoughtseize. Discard I think is really good right now. Next I adjusted the removal to have 1 Fatal Push. Push is really good, but I want to be on 4 Lightning Bolt right now and since there are quite a few Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Gurmag Anglers running around, I don't want more than 2 Push tops, but for now I'm sticking to 1.

The last weird change I made was to add 2 Dispel to the mainboard. Dispel is amazing against every deck except Eldrazitron, which is a lost cause game 1 anyway. It counters Stubborn Denial, Path to Exile, and Collected Company, which is everything I care about. It's only a 1 mana investment and playing it so far, it has been amazing. The little bit of permission it brings is just enough to be super useful.

For the sideboard, it's mostly the same, but talking to people at my LGS, I should be playing Ceremonious Rejection instead of Blood Moon because I have Snapcaster Mage. Also a second Nihil Spellbomb over Rakdos Charm because spellbomb is so much better right now.

TheAlexGnan On a whim I re-read all of cardboard crack after being out of magic for few months. Now I really want to get back into magic, and that starts with updating my deck.

Here's my current mindset:

• I want to play grixis, but have the lands to switch over to esper.
• I do not want to play Cryptic Command. I don't want to spend much on upgrades.
• However I have nothing against cutting Bloodghast if this meta is not right for him.

I cut Kalitas because he's too clunky right now. Perhaps I should sideboard him for the Humans and Company matchups, but I think there's better things to be playing right now.

I'm up to 4 Thoughtseize because I think I really need it vs every other deck that tries to go bigger than Fatal Push. Burn is now a problem, but that's a separate issue.

I don't really know where I want to go with the list right now. Any input? Thanks!

TheAlexGnan On a whim I re-read all of cardboard crack after being out of magic for few months. Now I really want to get back into magic, and that starts with updating my deck.

Here's my current mindset:

• I want to play grixis, but have the lands to switch over to esper.
• I do not want to play Cryptic Command. I don't want to spend much on upgrades.
• However I have nothing against cutting Bloodghast if this meta is not right for him.

I cut Kalitas because he's too clunky right now. Perhaps I should sideboard him for the Humans and Company matchups, but I think there's better things to be playing right now.

I'm up to 4 Thoughtseize because I think I really need it vs every other deck that tries to go bigger than Fatal Push. Burn is now a problem, but that's a separate issue.

I don't really know where I want to go with the list right now. Any input? Thanks!

I would say look at the Ryan Overturf Grixis List, but since you don't like playing Cryptics I'm not sure where to go from there. That's the version I would recommend outside of Shadow. Corey Burkhart also top16ed GP OKC with this. It looks like all the Grixis lists are running Cryptic. I think that even if you don't want to spend a lot on Cryptics, they'll be worth the investment. Here's another Burkhart list that's more of a Blue Jund route.

The new Cryptics are fairly cheap, and Search for Azcanta  ^Flip have shaken up the decks in Modern. I know this deck has a history with being mainly , and it does heavily utilize the graveyard so Azcanta may help.

If you have any other questions, please let me know! Sorry if I couldn't be of help :)

tlhunter07 thanks! Input is always helpful.

I'm not a fan of Search for Azcanta  ^Flip. I know it seems like a perfect fit with this deck's heavy graveyard theme, but 2 mana to do nothing immediately does not seem playable in this meta. In particular, I don't want to out-grind control decks, I think I want to tempo them out. It's kinda the same reason I have never liked Jace, Vryn's Prodigy - I'm just to darn stubborn to accept standard aces into modern.

Those lists reminded me that Dismember is a thing. I'd forgotten about that card.

Cryptic is a great card, but I want to be proactive with Thoughtseize rather than reactive with a pile of counterspells.

How well do you think Bloodghast is placed in this meta? I can't tell. It seems super bad against stuff like company or 5C humans, but it seems super great against anything playing Fatal Push.

I hate to be such a downer on suggestions. I really do appreciate card suggestions even when I turn them down.

It's fine, I figured you wouldn't be easily swayed to the Cryptic train lol. I'm not sure how Bloodghast is positioned. Jeskai control has become really good, and BG seems good there. I would ask TheAlexGnan, because it's Been a really long time since I've played this deck.

sigh you're likely correct. Luckily I don't want to be playing 15 turn control, so it doesn't have a place in here. The deck just feels weak right now. I don't know how to fix its problems. I want to be proactive with Thoughtseize into a pretty aggressive gameplan, but I don't know if that can work right now.

I think it could work, you just need some major adjustments since you haven't played in a while. Sadly, I myself haven't played anything remotely like this in a long time, so I won't be the best of help. Good luck though, and feel free to ask me anything about Esper if you go that way, I have some past experience in those colors.

Esper doesn't sound like the worst idea in the world. Path to Exile, to me, seems like the best card in modern. And Lingering Souls seems pretty well positioned right now. And I have almost all the lands I'd need to play Esper. However I don't know what my other threats would be. Lingering Souls, Tasigur, Snap... but how do I win the game? I don't want to play Azcanta, so I need a way to close games. Vendilion Clique, perhaps?

TheAlexGnan, tlhunter07, do you think Thoughtseize and Cryptic Command can function in the same deck? I'm getting 1 cryptic command in a trade, and upon more thinking about it, Cryptic is just too good of a card to not play. But I still really like the proactive nature of Thoughtseize.

This meta does not seem like the time to be playing Bloodghast. Someday hopefully I'll sleeve them up again, but for now I want to play without them.

So the main confliction is obviously that counterspells and hand disruption are bad together. I think you could play Cryptics in the main, and have 3/4 TS in the side in matchups where you want to be proactive.

TheAlexGnan which is not a bad place at all :D

i would take out a bolt for a cryptic command and swap countersquall for logic knot and add an extra logic knot by removing a terminate. also i would run 3 fatal push and take out 1 copy thoughtsieze

I feel like upping Gurmag Angler by 2 is a smart choice, as the deck is able to fill the yard with over half of it's deck currently, dropping a Tasigur, the Golden Fang and a Kolaghan's Command

Possibly dropping a Thought Scour for an Opt, though I do like both, as instant speed draw is good in a deck that is running so many instants, in any scenario you hold up countermagic mana and don't use it, Opting or Thought Scouring is always good.

Past that, Spell Pierce is almost always better than Dispel. Annul is probably better than Ceremonious Rejection, except against Eldrazi, but normal tron is seeing more play recently over Eldrazi Tron anyway.