Grixis Control in Standard?
Deck Help forum
Posted on Feb. 21, 2013, 9:57 p.m. by DoctorMimic
I'm trying to put together a good, tournament list in standard, and I'd love to play Grixis Control. The problem is that no one else plays it. Every control list as far as I can see has some amount of white in it. I don't have many places to grab ideas from because of this, and it makes me feel like Grixis simply can't compete in the current meta.
But maybe I'm just missing something, so I'd love to hear some ideas from you guys. Here is my current list.
It's rough right now. I've done pretty well against control decks, but I've found it impossible to beat something like boros aggro consistently. The help is appreciated.
DoctorMimic says... #3
I feel ya man. One of the main draws to it for me was cards like card:Rakdos's Return, Slaughter Games and the almighty Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker . It just sounds so evil and fun in theory, but cutting green and white means you can't keep your life up nor can you keep a stocked hand. I've been thinking I'm gonna have to go 4C to make it work. Otherwise, I'll have to join the droves of Jund Midrange players.
February 21, 2013 10:29 p.m.
Exactly! It has some big cards that give it great potential, but the lack of low-CMC support due to differing playstyles of its three guilds makes the archetype horribly slow and leaves its main draws to be splashed into 4 and 5 color decks. Sad, really.
February 21, 2013 10:33 p.m.
Sweet-Nightmare says... #5
You could check out Bolas for a Better Tomorrow. Grixis draws a lot of its strength from removal. For inspiration, I use Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker 's abilities. Stealing creatures, destroying your opponent's resources, and of course straight up in your face lifeloss. Yes, Grixis is a tad suicidal, but now there's also access to Gift of Orzhova , which your could stick on an Invisible Stalker to keep you alive. I like to use the stalker with cipher spells and Guttersnipe to keep them under control and on the defensive. My under construction grixis is The Power of a Dragon if you want to take a peek.
February 21, 2013 11:03 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
What Grixis really has going for it is the ability to get card advantage through disruption. All 3 colors give you great options for removal, whether it's in the form of kill spells, direct damage, countermagic, or discard. If you want some ideas, I recommend checking out KrazyCaley's Bolas for a Better Tomorrow, Ertl's deck:super-friendly-grixis-undefeated-so-far, and my own Innistrad-Ravnica-M13 Legion of Doom.
February 22, 2013 7:51 a.m.
If you play it right you can definitely make it work. Use a deck with very little focus on creatures. That way your board wipe cn be killing wave. Multiply this spell with Chandra and its either die or allow the board wipe. Have blood artist out and it becomes a win either way almost. Just keep control until you get bolas down. Then it's almost game over
February 22, 2013 2:26 p.m.
KrazyCaley says... #8
The Daily Dose articles can give you a pretty good feel for Grixis Control's strengths and weaknesses.
Strengths:
Very flexible, can put up a really nasty fight against almost anything thanks to Dreadbore .
Best removal in the game. As Rhadamanthus suggests, card advantage and efficient play is easy in these colors. A skilled player can use this kind of deck to great advantage.
Probably the best deck vs. other control decks due to the crushing effectiveness of Slaughter Games . Generally has really good sideboard choices.
Weaknessses -
You will lose a LOT of game 1s compared to other control decks.
Weak against token/weenie decks due to the absence of any decent wrath. (Come back, Consume the Meek , come back!) The sideboard will help, but it's still a weakness.
Takes a high level of operator skill. Screwups in gameplay will have dramatic consequences. I'm not the best Magic player you've ever met, but I'm not the worst either, and this deck is HARD when it comes to knowing what the best play is in a given situation. You'll have to make some tough calls.
Anyway, bringing it back to your deck, I would say that, if you do nothing else, you really should include Dreadbore . Dreadbore is the defining card for us in Grixis Control; it is an incredible card that really provides one of the best reasons to PLAY this archetype.
xantastic says... #2
I'm not the most talented or experienced player, but I do have a lot of experience in attempting to make Standard-viable Grixis decks. I gotta say, while BUR is my favorite slice of the color pie, green and white are just way too dominant right now. Not using white means a loss of many of the key control cards in the current meta (card:Sphinx's Revelation, board wipes, etc) and removing green sacrifices many staples of standard (Thragtusk , Farseek , etc.)
The Grixis scheme is just lacking right now. You'd think that with the prevalence of multicolor cards that it would be easy to build, but unfortunately Izzet, Dimir, and Rakdos barely synergize with each other at all. That's a big part of the issue.
Hopefully someone finds a way to make the color scheme more viable, but I haven't seen anything of the sort yet. Let's cross our fingers that the next block has some Grixis love.
February 21, 2013 10:26 p.m.