Mana Sculpting

Standard Deck of the Week: Grixis Control

Posted by: Trevor Isham 4 months ago (comments)

Standard Deck of the Week

Each week I will bring you guys a new Standard list to try out at your local store. Some will be very innovative, some will be tweaks on tier one strategies, and some will be stock lists from pros with some advice on how to best play them from yours truly.

Introduction: Grixis Control

A few weeks ago Patrick Chapin brought a sweet Grixis list to Worlds that was probably the breakout brew of the tournament despite him being the only pilot of the deck to post a good win percentage with the deck (John Finkel, using the exact same 75 cards went 1-5 I believe, maybe 2-4 I can’t remember).  Chapin’s success encouraged a lot of people to bring the deck to FNM that next week and from all the reports I heard they promptly lost just as badly as Finkel did at Worlds.  What did Finkel and all these random FNM’ers have in common?  I am guessing the largest common trait was lack of experience with the deck.   It turns out that Chapin’s decks are pretty hard to play and only by intimately knowing the deck and its subtleties can you post a good record.  This is true of many “brewer” decks but especially Chapin’s as they tend to be more control oriented which makes them pretty hard to play to begin with. 

I picked up Chapin’s list right as everyone else was declaring it garbage and that Chapin must have just “run good” at Worlds.  This is very possible, but I have always had an affinity for Grixis and I thought with a few tweaks and some experience under my belt perhaps I could make the list run a bit smoother and pilot it a bit cleaner than the first batch of players after Worlds.  I worked on the list for the last three weeks or so playing a lot of test matches on Cockatrice and this Sunday I decided to take a version one card away from the version below to Sunday standard and it performed quite well against a pretty diverse field.

(Incidentally at the same time I took my list to Sunday Standard at LGG Chapin took a very meta specific Grixis Control list to GP Orlando and managed to finished in Second place; losing his finals matchup to fellow brewer Conley Woods and his Green/Black Kessig Grave Titan monstrosity.  I glanced at Chapin’s list just a few minutes before starting my Sunday Night Standard experience and was inspired to try out Whipflare, but couldn’t find the card in time for the tournament.  Here is the list below and after that I will explain the card choices and how the deck plays out.) 

Card Choice:

My experience with the format led me to believe that the list had to contain the following cards in order to compete: Snapcaster Mage, Mana Leak, Dissipate, Think Twice, Forbidden Alchemy, Doom Blade, and Olivia Voldaren (after all why play Grixis if you don’t have Olivia).  All the other slots were up for debate and I will go over each card and justify its inclusion.

Consecrated Sphinx: I would honestly cut this card if it weren’t for Kessig Wolf Run plus Inkmoth Nexus being such a pain.  I have plenty of answers post board for that deck but preboard Sphinx is actually the best finisher I can ask for as it can block a Nexus if it has to and still get ahead on cards as long as your opponent can’t kill it on their upkeep.  I considered Frost Titan in this spot as well and honestly would not put up much of a fight if somebody cut this for a Phantasmal Image, Frost Titan, or Grave Titan.

Grave Titan: Consistently the best card in the deck.  I never lost a game where I resolved a Grave Titan.  It was a one-of in testing when I realized that, while playing Sphinx against Illusions was terrible, playing Grave Titan was actually back breaking.  As the Zombies alone create a clock or can hold the Geist at bay.  Plus if the opposing players plan is to Vapor Snag your Grave Titan you are probably going to win that game anyway.  Conley Woods played four Grave Titans at GP Orlando because he said it was the best finisher you could have against UW aggro, he won that GP…UW aggro was 50% of the field…just sayin…

Liliana of the Veil: I played three Liliana main deck on Sunday and she was always good, but never insane and in some matchups I played her and she just sat there as a stopgap as I never wanted to use her as my card quality was too good and my opponent was just running every card he drew out anyway.  Because of this I cut the number down to two but if hexproof guys become more normal (as they proved to be at the GP) this number could go back up to three.

Despise: This card was insane in testing and it won me at least two matches this Sunday, it’s the one card that I would never cut from the list.  A one mana spell that takes any creature out of your opponents’ hand is pretty insane in a meta game filled with a diverse array of creatures that have a variety of protections and are insanely poweful.  The synergy with Snapcaster Mage is often backbreaking as well.  On my turn five against Wolf Run on Sunday I played Despise, saw Primeval Titan and Acidic Slime, took Slime, played Snapcaster, played Despise and took Primeval Titan.  Now he was drawing off the top and I had a hand of Doom Blade and Dissipate with Think Twice and Alchemy in the Graveyard.  I actually hit him for twenty with Snap… I can’t stress this enough, I NEVER cut this card in ANY of my matchups.   

Sideboard Card Choice:

Anti-Aggro: Devil’s Play, Galvanic Blast, Ancient Grudge (sometimes), Black Sun’s Zenith, Whipflare, and Curse of Death’s Hold

The key in the aggro matchup is to out card advantage them in 2 or 3 for 1’s and all of our sideboard cards do that excellently.  (Even Galvanic Blast can be efficiently flashed back with help from Snapcaster.)  Playing removal that doesn’t have flashback, wrath-like qualities, or staying power is not sufficient in the current creature dominated format which explains all of our choices here.

Anti-Control Cards:  Dissipate

Your control matchup is pretty good already as you have a high density of counterspells, lots of land, hand disruption (Despise) and a few threats that are cheaper than theirs (Olivia).  I would like a more robust sideboard for control though and my aggro matchup is already pretty insane and so I am thinking about making room for Jace, Memory Adept, Azure Mage, Karn Liberated or Nephalia Drownyard.  Let me know if you guys have some cards that have been good for you in those matchups.

(Also of note is the first card from both of Chapin’s lists I cut was Desperate Ravings.  This is a controversial cut as Chapin swore by the card in his deck tech at Worlds and judging by its inclusion in his GP deck he still believes in its power.  My own experience with the card was frustrating as I always wanted just about every card in my hand and I kept getting into situations where I wanted to hit my lands drops but couldn’t afford to discard one of my key spells and thus Desperate Ravings was just a dead card.  Thus I went all-in on Think Twice as it should really have been called “Hit all My Land Drops” which is pretty essential in this deck where the mana is pretty screwy to begin with.) 

Playstyle:

Clearly this is a control deck that strives to keep the board controllable and continue to make 1 for 1 trades until the coast is clear for a Grave Titan to go to town on their life total.  It was not uncommon to go 40 cards deeps in the deck before sealing the win.  In one such game I went to five cards left in deck before finally finding my Grave Titan to seal the deal.  There is no better turn one than being able to Despise them in order to neutralize their biggest threat.  This can especially punish speculative keeps made by ramp or UW players that keep just one creature.  Many people think that Despise becomes a weaker card as the game progresses but I actually disagree as this deck thrives on information.  Knowing your opponents hand in the mid or late game is actually insane as it allows you to tap low for Olivia or a Titan without counter backup thus flipping the tables on your opponent and forcing them to start reacting to your threat. 

Finding an opening for Olivia has been a bit tough in my experience.  She will dominate the game pretty easily if left unchecked, but because of this your opponent will expend a lot of resources taking care of her.  I don’t think my first Olivia I played ever stuck around for very long, especially in Game 1’s as they have their maximum removal package in.  This is of course why we play three and I have not had a problem getting my second Olivia to pretty terrifying levels very quickly.  Most of your opponents will swap out some removal for other options or more targeted removal (Celestial Purge).  If your white opponent actually swaps out Day of Judgments for other removal, we are actually quite happy as Grave Titan is generally our win condition and we don’t have any efficient creatures so there is no need for them to take out their answer- any-creature-four-mana-removal-spell (DOJ) for targeted single creature removal as I am more than happy to beat them over the head with my Zombies. 

The mana is pretty rough and sometimes it sets you back a bit. It’s important to note that in Game 1 you actually have no reason to worry about red mana as the only red card in your deck is Olivia and you are not casting her until turn four at the earliest. Instead judge your mana on getting to double blue and at least one black source as most of your deck can operate off that pretty easily.  In one game on Sunday by the ninth turn I had not missed a land drop, had not played an enters tapped land, and had not played two of any one land yet…sometimes you just run good.  (I won that game BTW.)  Against aggro strategies the red and black mana become much more relevant as many of your counters have come out of the deck at this point.  In all game situations be very diligent and intentional about your mana tapping as a few times I have had to silently kick myself for not leaving enough blue open for Dissipate or other such nonsense. 

Side note on mana tapping…the tapping and untapping of mana is the single easiest way to bluff/represent counter magic.  Against opponents that aren’t good at reading into the subtle nuances of the game’s pace, rhythm, and history you can easily play games with them by tapping, untapping, or retapping certain mana in order to make it extraordinarily obvious what you are trying to represent.  The mana in this deck is so varied that you can actually just use the many different types to keep your opponent on edge just worrying about what you can and can’t actually cast, the order you played your land in, what mana you are tapping, and what that all means.  Game manipulation using the physical cards themselves, your own body language, and your method of interaction is a very underappreciated art and the skilled practitioners have a great advantage over the rest of the field.

Conclusion:

If you are looking for a control deck that owns the aggro matchup, does a significant amount of durdling/card draw, and ultimately wins in a smashed mouth convincing fashion then I would highly encourage giving my list a spin.  I would love to hear any feedback you guys might have and hopefully I will see you at Lake Geneva Games real soon.

Trevor