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Thursday, October 6, 2011

Building Grixis Control Post Innistrad Release!

Hello everybody, this is Kevin again and today I am going to take some time to discuss the deck I am currently working on and my gameplan for defeating the curent metagame.  I will start out by telling you that I still have a lot of testing to do and this is only an early analysis of the deck.  So feel free to leave your opinions and suggestions.

Here is the list.

// Lands
    4 [SOM] Blackcleave Cliffs
    4 [M12] Dragonskull Summit
    6 [ZEN] Mountain (4)
    6 [ZEN] Swamp (1)
    4 [M12] Drowned Catacomb
    4 [ISD] Sulfur Falls

// Creatures
    1 [M12] Grave Titan
    1 [M12] Inferno Titan
    2 [MBS] Consecrated Sphinx

// Spells
    2 [M12] Sorin Markov
    3 [M12] Chandra, the Firebrand
    4 [M12] Doom Blade
    4 [NPH] Dismember
    4 [MBS] Go for the Throat
    2 [MBS] Black Sun's Zenith
    4 [MBS] Slagstorm
    2 [NPH] Tezzeret's Gambit
    1 [M12] Sorin's Vengeance
    2 [M12] Druidic Satchel

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [MBS] Black Sun's Zenith
SB: 4 [M12] Combust
SB: 4 [M12] Dragon's Claw
SB: 2 [MBS] Phyrexian Crusader
SB: 2 [SOM] Memoricide
SB: 2 [NPH] Surgical Extraction

The deck was originally only black/red control however I decided to try adding blue due to the sheer power of the Consecrated Sphinx.  Like the other creatures in the deck he is large enough to survive a Dismember which I feel is critical in a deck with so few creatures.

The main idea from the deck originally came from trying to kill someone instantly by casting Sorin's Vengeance and copying it with Chandra.  Because of this I originally ran 2 Vengeance and 2 Diabolic Tutor's to seach for the needed cards.  (remember you can copy tutor to search for 2 cards)  You can also drop the opponent to 10 life with Sorin Markov at 6 mana and then kill them with Vengeance at 7.  All that being said, the deck now only uses that as an alternate win condition.  The main idea is to keep the board under control with all of the creature hate main deck and then drop a bomb like Grave or Inferno Titan or even Markov.  The Tezzeret's Gambit are nice because they have proliferate.  This allows me to copy them with chandra and keep her counters up.

The most recent addition is the Druidic Satchel.  In one of my most recent videos of Blue / Black Control I saw the card being used and realized how powerful it can be.  Not only is it going to excelerate my lands but it will also gain me a lot of life being that most of the cards in the deck are non-creature.  If you want to check out that game you can see it here.





Moving onto the sideboard.

Combust - This is for use against U/W Illusions.  Not only is it solid creature removal against them but it also can not be countered which is very important.

Dragon's Claw & Phyrexian Crusader - These are for Mono-Red matchups.  The idea is to stay alive long enough in those matchups and these help with that.  Also, the Crusader does not die to slagstorm so I can keep those in post sideboarding and probably take out the Black Sun's Zenith.

Memoricide & Surgical Extraction - Both of these cards are intended for use against control decks and even more so against Solar Flare or other graveyard based decks.  I truthfully have never been too good at the control vs control matchups though.  Making them discard cards is what I feel is the best way to combat them though.  Other cards I have considered against them is Liliana of the Veil or Monomania.

That is pretty much it.  Like I said, the deck is still a work in progress and I may not even end up building it, but this is where I am right now.

2 comments:

  1. The deck looks good as is but it looks like it won't do well against another control unless I'm missing something, and no control is complete without some Mental Missteps.

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  2. I think i would pay more attention to blue, when u afterall decided to include it.
    So I would switch 1 Sorin markov and his vengance for 1 jace and 1 frost titan.
    - Because sorin and his vengeance is like WIN-more and for the mana you could get better cards.
    Besides I would switch out some of the removal, mby 2 doom blades, 1 black suns zenith and 1 go for the throat to get 4 mana leaks or other counter spells.
    - Because you have a ton of removal, you dont need the black suns zenith that much when u have 4 slagstorm, and everything with 3+ toughness dies to you other removal. And you will be better against other control players, instead of a lot of blanks in your hand you have counter.
    But nice deck ; )

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