I spent one night last week slinging spells at my brother’s apartment. After a couple of grueling games of EDH, where I slaver-locked my brother and he went to bed about it, I stayed up talking to his roommate, Nik.
“I’m back in the mood to brew.” Nik admitted while leafing through his binder.
“Oh yeah? What were you thinking?” I asked, scrolling through some bullshit on my phone.
“Grixis Control in Modern.”
“Dude, I’ve tried it. I just don’t think it’s as good as UWR. It’s probably not even as good as Esper which is also not a real deck.”
“It could be sweet though. Main deck hand disruption, Creeping Tar-Pit, maybe even a Mystical Teachings package…”
I know he was setting me up as soon as he said Teachings package. You see I have an unhealthy love for Mystical Teachings. Ever since I cast one in Standard in 2006 to find a one-of Seize the Soul and flashed it back to grab Teferi I was hooked. I first pick it every time I see it in my Pauper Cube even though I can probably catch it on the wheel. I think about getting my foil copy altered so it’s my face on the levitating guy. I love Mystical Teachings.
This time though, I tried not to let my love of this clunky tutor cloud my judgment on a brew. I did, however, take out a pen and started scribbling down some notes and a decklist. Before I talk about a couple potential builds, I think we need to answer a few fundamental questions.
The biggest question when it comes to a new control deck is, how is this deck better than Jeskai Control?
In short, I think that Grixis Control has more disruption available against combo decks and could be built to beat up on the current slew of UR delver and Burn decks. In general, I think that Jeskai Control is a more well rounded deck, has a more proactive way to end games, and is better against a wide open field. However, that isn’t going to stop me from trying to jam some Creeping Tar-Pits in a Modern deck. Let’s look at a recent Jeskai Control list to see what white offers us in the first place:
Jeskai Control
This list is from Christopher Ward who took it to a top eight finish at a StarCity PIQ in Columbus earlier this month. It actually took me a little while to find a current Jeskai Control list online as it doesn’t seem to be fairing well on the MTGO dailies or at StarCity events. If we were to take out all the white cards we’d be losing Restoration Angel, Lightning Helix, Path to Exile, Sphinx’s Revelation, Supreme Verdict, Timely Reinforcements, Celestial Colonnade and the sideboard Celestial Purge, Stony Silence, and Wear//Tear. While a few of these cards aren’t standard issue in UWR control, we’d be losing some of the best removal in Modern (Path & Helix), Snapcaster’s best friend (Restoration Angel), and the best win condition in the deck (Celestial Colonnade) if we were to switch to Grixis.
What do we get in return?
Playing swamps in our decks allows us to potentially play these cards in our 75
Terminate—I love the efficiency of this card; unconditional removal at instant speed for two mana. While it’s not as mana efficient as Path to Exile, the fact that you’re not ramping your opponent, especially in a deck with Mana Leak, shouldn’t be understated.
Inquisition of Kozilek—One of the biggest draws to black is having hand disruption, even in a format where Treasure Cruise is running rampant. Inquisition is cheap, so you can continue to hold up counter magic, it is disruptive, which is important especially on the early turns, and it gives you information, which is crucial when you’re formulating a long term plan. I understand that in some situations it is a dead card, or a bad top deck, but it’s still something I want in the starting 60 of a black based attrition or control deck.
Damnation—A board sweeper in black. Cheaper options in Anger of the Gods or Pyroclasm might be better in this meta, but having a catch all wrath is never a bad thing.
Thoughtseize—I prefer to start with Inquisition in a deck where life points matter and UR Delver and burn are so popular, but this is a good sideboard option.
Liliana of the Veil—Liliana feels a little out of place here given that this deck doesn’t want to tap out ever, yet it’s a potential option as it’s a house against Boggles, Geist Midrange decks, and other control decks.
Creeping Tar-Pit—While we don’t get Colonnade, we get the next best option in this evasive manland.
Slaughter Games—This is purely a sideboard card but with the current popularity of Scapeshift, Games is very well positioned.
Oh yeah and let’s not forget…
Cruel Ultimatum—For seven mana you get to do all of the things; draw cards, gain life, get a Snapcaster back from the dead, make an opponent sac creatures, lose life, and discard. Unfortunately, I’ve found that casting this card doesn’t necessarily win you the game and that’s kind of a deal breaker. Having a seven mana win condition we will need to tap out for most of the time just isn’t good enough. I’ve seen a lot of Cruel Control lists online cutting this card down to a one of but I think that cutting them completely is warranted despite how fun it is to cast.
Lastly, before we look at some potential lists, I want to throw out there that while we are in some effect cutting white cards for black ones, this is not a one to one switch. While Jeskai and Grixis share some cards, and some elements of their control strategy, it would be fallacious just to cut Path for Inquition or Lightning Helix for Terminate and assume the list is fine.
Let’s look at a sample list. I found this one on the MTGsalvation boards and liked the gist of it.
Grixis Control v1
| Land (26) 1 Blood Crypt 4 Creeping Tar Pit 1 Drowned Catacomb 3 Island 1 Mountain 4 Polluted Delta 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Steam Vents 2 Sulfur Falls 1 Sunken Ruins 1 Swamp 2 Watery Grave Creature (4) 3 Snapcaster Mage 1 Vendilion Clique Instant (24) 4 Cryptic Command 2 Dig Through Time 3 Electrolyze 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Mana Leak 3 Remand 2 Shadow of Doubt 1 Spell Snare 2 Terminate Sorcery (4) 1 Cruel Ultimatum 1 Damnation 2 Inquisition of Kozilek Artifact (2) 2 Batterskull | Sideboard (16) 2 Anger of the Gods 2 Counterflux 1 Damnation 1 Dispel 1 Pyroclasm 1 Rakdos Charm 1 Slaughter Games 1 Spellskite 3 Sun Droplet 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir 2 Thoughtseize |
I want to try tweaking some numbers here as I don’t like the one-of Spell Snare or Cruel and think that some of the sideboard choices could be changed to anticipate a room full of nothing but UR Delver and Pod (this is what I imagine my meta to be). This is what I plan on trying out on Modern night at my LGS:
Grixis Control Test
| Land (26) 1 Blood Crypt 4 Creeping Tar Pit 1 Drowned Catacomb 3 Island 1 Mountain 4 Polluted Delta 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Steam Vents 2 Sulfur Falls 1 Sunken Ruins 1 Swamp 2 Watery Grave Creature (5) 3 Snapcaster Mage 1 Vendilion Clique 1 Keranos, God of Storms Instant (23) 4 Cryptic Command 2 Dig Through Time 3 Electrolyze 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Mana Leak 2 Remand 2 Shadow of Doubt 2 Terminate Sorcery (4) 4 Inquisition of Kozilek Artifact (1) 1 Batterskull | Sideboard (15) 2 Anger of the Gods 2 Counterflux 1 Devour Flesh 1 Dispel 1 Pyroclasm 1 Rakdos Charm 1 Slaughter Games 1 Spellskite 3 Dragon’s Claw 1 Thoughtseize 1 Notion Thief |
The original list had Sun Droplet over Dragon’s Claw in the sideboard. While I suppose that Sun Droplet may have some utility against non red decks, you are only bringing it in for Burn or UR Delver. In both cases, I think I’d rather have Dragon’s Claw as you gain the life immediately and don’t have to wait until the next upkeep. In terms of other sideboard slots, Anger comes in against Pod, Affinity, Zoo, or any other aggresive creature deck. Counterflux is good against various flavors of combo and control, especially Scapeshift and Twin. Devour Flesh is a flexible removal spell that can occasionally mise Boggles opponents and Thrun. Dispel is another flexible card that comes in against blue based combo and control. Pyroclasm is fantanstic against UR Delver, Affinity, Soul Sisters etc. Rakdos Charm destroys Birthing Pods, prevents persist shenanigans, and will sometimes win you the game against an overconfident Twin player. Slaughter Games is mostly for Scapeshift but is such a beating in that matchup. Spellskite is good against Burn, Boggles, and Twin. Thoughtseize offers cheap disruption that can get rid of just about anything in matches where life points aren’t too important. And the last card I wanted to include in the sideboard is a spicy one, a one of Notion Thief. I can’t imagine anything better than flashing this guy in to respond to a Treasure Cruise, Sphinx’s Revelation, Thoughtcast, or Jeskai Ascendancy activation. A boy can dream.
For the record, this deck has a ton of potential sideboard options. I’d really love to fit Volcanic Fallout somewhere in the 75 because it’s an instant speed Pyroclasm option in a deck that doesn’t want to tap out. Combust, Vandalblast, Illness in the Ranks, Threads of Disloyalty, and Hurkyl’s Recall are all other
My plan right now is to take my list for a spin and see what I’m dealing with. A control deck is only good if it can efficiently answer the threats coming at you. This is difficult in Modern given the number of different threats available, however, I think it’s entirely possible to develop a control deck that is tuned to beat a certain percentage of the metagame.
Either way, I hope for the love of Nicol Bolas that it goes better than the last time I tried to play Cruel Control.
At age 15, while standing in a record store with his high school bandmates, Shawn Massak made the uncool decision to spend the last of his money on a 7th edition starter deck (the one with foil Thorn Elemental). Since that fateful day 11 years ago, Shawn has decorated rooms of his apartment with MTG posters, cosplayed as Jace, the Mindsculptor, and competes with LSV for the record of most islands played (lifetime). When he’s not playing Magic, Shawn works as a job coach for people with disabilities and plays guitar in an indie-pop band.