Grixis wincons viability
Modern forum
Posted on Dec. 25, 2022, 1:33 a.m. by MrGuizee666
Evening!
I've been thinking about brewing different archetypes in UBR and came up with some ideas. Most if not all grixis control decks will use Snapcaster Mage and manlands to achieve a win whilst running lots of disruption. I thought about using cards like Manamorphose with Cormela, Glamour Thief + Dramatic Reversal in order to cast big spells earlier or storm off with Grapeshot. I also thought about using Lazav, the Multifarious + Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger for the disruption followed by a Ob Nixilis, the Adversary or a turn 5 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God to punish my opponents. Since I don't have some of these cards it'll be an investment to make. I'd like to use them in Leagues (MTGO)
What do you guys think? Any ideas? What about infinite combos?
MrGuizee666 says... #3
wallisface Thanks for your valuable input. Unfortunately I can't buy Ledger Shredder, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer or Murktide Regent yet, they're too expensive. Gonna brew some decks with Manamorphose. I thought about using creature cards like Monastery Swiftspear, Sprite Dragon and Dreadhorde Butcher with Mutagenic Growth, Gut Shot and Manamorphose for explosive damage.
December 25, 2022 9:47 a.m.
wallisface says... #4
Sounds like you’re building something very close to a Prowess/Blitz deck. Some examples of varying cost here and here.
Whatever you end up brewing, feel free to tag me if you’re wanting thoughts/feedback :)
December 25, 2022 2:35 p.m.
Dead_Blue_ says... #5
I’d just use Death's Shadow to be honest …then/or maybe some delve creatures like Gurmag Angler or Tolarian Terror
Murktides are only like 10$ right now …you could probably trade into them even
You can literally make the rest of your deck any kind of interaction and draw spells and be decent.
wallisface says... #2
I think you're going about this a bit wrong. Grixis decks typcically don't want to be winning by any kind of big flashy-combos, or high-mana-cards. Their gameplan is typically to grind away any kind of proactive play from the opponent, and then quickly edge-out a win before the opponent can recoup from all that early-game disruption.
To that end, iconic Grixis spells include Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Counterspell, Spell Pierce, and Stubborn Denial, as well as occasionally some stuff like Drown in the Loch, Expressive Iteration, and Unholy Heat. Their creatures are often cards that can hit hard fast, or come with free value - things like Death's Shadow, Snapcaster Mage, Dragon's Rage Channeler, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Gurmag Angler, Ledger Shredder, and occasionally things like Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Murktide Regent.
So, their gameplan is typically a very straightforward one - every one of their cards provides value on its own, everything is fairly low-mana-curve, and the overall goal is to quickly disrupt your opponents ability to play, and then kill them before they recover.
In terms of the cards you've suggested, I would say they don't really fit into any kind of typical Grixis shell, for the following reasons:
Cormela, Glamour Thief is a very high-costing card with very low relative value for that mana-investment. Same goes for Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God.
Grapeshot is a combo card and something better having a deck dedicated towards making it work. Instead of trying to do value-plays, you try and combo off asap. This archetype already exists in Modern as Storm, so has no real home/reason-to-exist outside of that. Similarly, as Grixis isn't trying to do any flashy combos, Manamorphose & Dramatic Reversal have super-limited/non-existant use.
Lazav, the Multifarious doesn't really do anything or add anything important to be worth building around, imo. Grixis decks especially often have a super-low creature count, which makes its ability pretty niche. Maybe it's a "pet card" that could fit as a 1-of in a death's shadow brew?
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger is a fine card to include in Grixis decks, as many decks already run this (though often as only a 1-of or 2-of at most) - it definately requires some deckbuilding considerations to include it though. I think Ob Nixilis, the Adversary could potentially fit within a Grixis shell, though Grixis decks do often run a very small quantity of creatures, and this may pose a problem.
Now, most of these cards you can still easily build decks around, though I would say you generally don't want to be trying to fit them into typical "Grixis" builds. Some of these cards fit a lot better in UR combo decks (Grapeshot, Manamorphose) for example. I would say that all the cards you've mentioned will have some home within modern, baring only Cormela, Glamour Thief (the card is trash) and Dramatic Reversal (there's just better ways to achieve anything this card is trying to achieve).
December 25, 2022 3:27 a.m.