First of all, I would like to say thank you for taking the time to look over my deck list. Since August 2013, I have had a Grixis deck that started out as a creature based Sedris, the Traitor King that was pretty fun to play, but got shut down over time as my play group built into graveyard hate. Once the deck was no longer a contender at the table, I moved over to a creature/spell based Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge deck. This change didn't work very well since I would usually exile my awesome creatures and never be able to utilize them. Finally, I decided to go with Thraximundar as my general because he fits really well into how I structured this deck, which I will explain below.
Pretty much this deck is now a "Ninja, Rogue, and Friends" themed deck that utilizes combat damage triggers to either gain cards (creatures or spells primarily) out of opponent's graveyard, deck, or their hand. I also run some cute little Grixis tricks in the deck to add flavor and utility. That all being said, Thraximundar's benefit from sacrificing is utilized for some of the removal in the deck, but otherwise he is just a strong creature that this deck utilizes - AKA: This is not a Voltron deck. I affectionately have named the deck "Grixis Fun Times!" due to the reality I often leech off of other player's decks to win, which is never fun for them, but fun for me.
I will be going over the deck's strategy in more detail in the sections below, so just keep reading if you're curious
Okay, so you are interested Grixis, but what type of decks can you make?
Excellent question! There are some good strategies to go with that you might want to consider utilizing when building a Grixis deck. The combo of colors allows you to build down many different routes, so your options are pretty much open.
For your benefit, I will discuss some of the major deck options I have considered when I was planning my Grixis deck and what I finally chose to do:
Deck Types:
Voltron:
For those who do not know, Voltron strategy involves primarily structuring your deck so that the commander is the primary weapon and win-con. In UBR, you get a lot of cute little ways to make this work well for you through the use of good removal, counter spells, and even tutors for equipment/enchantments. A common and very easy Voltron combo using R is this: Aggravated Assault + Sword of Feast and Famine, which if you have your general getting through via Whispersilk Cloak, Cloak of Mists, or Protective Bubble, means you immediately win. Voltron decks generally perform consistently and allow you to be competitive every game, assuming your play group does not come up with ways to just directly counter your deck.
However, there is a little bit of caution to Grixis Voltron decks. ISBPathfinder summed it up with a good post in another Thraximundar thread regarding his deck list:
Personally, I think you are overly focusing on Thrax. He costs a ton of mana to get started and with utilizing artifact ramp to try to get him out I think you are overcommitting to you commander as a game plan. Without even tucking him someone can blow up mana stones and or answer him a few times to push you off your game entirely. High mana commanders are hard to pull off due to their cost making them difficult to recast several times. I think you would be better off utilizing more alternative control outlets and using him as a tool rather than trying to focus the whole deck into operating around him.
Most of the good Voltron Commanders in Grixis are high CMC creatures, or require some additional costs to even get in play. Protecting your board state is crucial with these Voltron decks. You can utilize some strong enchantments and Stax elements to protect you and your possessions - Grip of Chaos, War's Toll, Vile Consumption, Propaganda, Keldon Twilight, and No Mercy - to name a few. You also have access to reliable tutors from U - Fabricate and Tezzeret the Seeker - and B - Demonic Tutor, etc. - to fetch most of your necessary pieces to victory.
Control/Combo:
I feel like it is a rite of passage for people to at least have a control/combo deck once in their Commander lives. For me, that has come and gone, because I have been "that guy" at too many player tables to count. UBR Combo/Control relies on lockdown and combos to generate wins. Over my period of playing, I have found there are many easy ways to do this, so here are some combos I have seen or used:
I am not trying to tell you all the combos you can do with UBR, but what I am trying to let you understand is that there are a lot of combos out there and there are easy ways to get them due to the tutor capabilities of U and B. When it comes to the control to ensure you get your combos off, you may consult the many counter spells available in U and can bring in some of the enchantments I mentioned in the Voltron section. Pretty much you aim to slow the game down for your opponents until you get the winning combo online.
Stax (A specific form of Control)
For those of you not familiar with Stax, Stax is a term used to describe a deck strategy that relies on resource denial, taxing effects, disruption, and sacrifice enablers to potentially lock down opponents. A lot of cards I mentioned in the previous sections work into here, however I bring up Stax specifically by itself because UBR are some of the most prolific colors in Stax.
I would go into more detail, but Phil wrote an amazing primer specifically dedicated to Stax and you can find it here. It is an amazing discussion and is worth the read if you're interested in playing Stax.
Tribal Based Creature Deck - Most Likely Zombies or Vampires: UBR has generals of varying type that can be good commanders for tribal decks. The major two tribes available are Zombies and Vampires. Both of these tribes are good in their own right and can be fun decks to pilot, but I feel they have stronger bi-colored Commander options - Zombies using Grimgrin, Corpse-Born and Vampires using Olivia Voldaren - that play more into the colors of their respective tribe's strengths. Besides Zombies and Vampires, there are a couple other tribes that don't have many options for a commander (Wizards, Demons, Rogue, and Assassins) that you can have fun with as well.
Reanimation/Unearth:
Considering one of the Commander choices gives all of your creatures Unearth and B is a part of the deck, there are a lot of easy ways to get creatures into and out of the graveyard for benefit. Both R and U also assist this with their card drawing options that cause you to discard, such as Faithless Looting, Careful Study, and Frantic Search. If you are into this theme and love Unearth as a mechanic, you are fortunate that Worldgorger Dragon got unbanned and Deadeye Navigator was printed. These two cards made Sedris decks a lot more powerful considering the ruling on RFG/Bounce and the Unearth EOT Trigger:
10/1/2008: If a creature returned to the battlefield with unearth would leave the battlefield for any reason, it's exiled instead -- unless the spell or ability that's causing the creature to leave the battlefield is actually trying to exile it! In that case, it succeeds at exiling it. If it later returns the creature card to the battlefield (as Oblivion Ring or Flickerwisp might, for example), the creature card will return to the battlefield as a new object with no relation to its previous existence. The unearth effect will no longer apply to it.
I had a lot of fun playing this deck type back when this deck was originally Sedris, but it got to the point where my playgroup got wise and began using a lot of graveyard hate cards to stop me, so I moved on. Just be aware that your friends may get wise too...
Grixis Fun Times! AKA - The Deck type I made up...:
So, what is "Grixis Fun Time!"? Pretty much, take everything I just wrote above, pick and choose some of your favorite cards and strategies, and mash them into one deck! I enjoy making theme based decks and thought that Ninja's, with the Ninjutsu mechanic, and Rogues, with their ability to "sneak in" for cool effects, was a cool duo-theme to incorporate, besides the fact the creatures I chose are awesome (imo). However, since the creature base for just these two isn't good enough, they "needed" friends! Since most of the Ninja/Rogue effects require creature damage to go off, it needed a Commander that enjoys attacking (to utilize Ninjutsu), so it narrowed the choice down to Garza Zol, Plague Queen, Nicol Bolas, Sol'kanar the Swamp King, and Thraximundar. Thrax was the choice I went with because he offered more utility by providing removal and can increase in strength over time depending on how liberal people utilize sacrifice effects.
Besides the creatures and Commander, I included some control aspects (primarily the removal and the counter spells), some reanimation for win-cons, and some flavor spells that fit into my theme just for fun (and benefit).
To sum it up: "Grixis Fun Times" is pretty much a deck that has a loose theme that is not compromising to the deck's ability to perform. Magic, and especially Commander, are meant to be fun and enjoyable (for you, not necessarily your opponents) when you play it. You could call it GoodStuff.dec as well if you don't like the "Grixis Fun Times" label I made up.
As you can see, in terms of Grixis, there are a lot of deck possibilities and themes that you can build. Like my Aurelia Primer (yeah, I just plugged my own Primer, sue me! lol), I will go over *my* take on the available generals and the deck types that work well with them:
Commander Options:
Crosis, the Purger: Crosis to me seems like a control deck type of Commander. His triggered ability can really mess-up a mono or bi-colored deck if you want to be that guy. You can also be cute and use Telepathy to find the best person to hit each turn. If you want to go into Grixis control, he is a front runner of a choice, but my days of being that guy at the table are pretty much over, so he was a poor choice for me when I first looked into Grixis.
Garza Zol, Plague Queen: Garza Zol is pretty cool. Her combat damage trigger helps you draw up and you can build some ways into her +1/+1 counter ability (Basilisk Collar + Thornbite Staff anybody? lol). When I was new to EDH/Commander, I thought of making a tribal Vampire deck with her. Now that the Innistrad block as come and gone, there are a lot of R vampires that could make the deck do pretty well. However, Olivia Voldaren is almost a better choice for this route since there are few vampires that are in U, but that is up to the user to decide. In terms of why I didn't pick Garza Zol for my commander: One of the main players in my play group already has a deck made with her as the commander. Though the legend rule has changed, I personally find it boring to have the same decks as my friends, so I moved past her as an option immediately.
Gwendlyn Di Corci: Cool... I make you discard a card only on my turn.... I guess if you want a deck where the general is meaningless to the strategy and you want to go Grixis, go for it, but I personally hate having meaningless commanders for decks.
Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge: Jeleva type decks seem best if you build her only one way: a crap ton of spells (like 40+) to utilize on her attack triggers. In my experience, I really enjoyed exiling other player's artifacts and creatures for good. Often, this really hurt them in the long run. So Voltron/Control decks seem to be the best route here. Like I said in the introduction, I toyed with her for a couple of games and found I was whiffing/hurting myself more than my opponents with the creatures and artifacts I exiled from my library.
Lord of Tresserhorn: A 10/4 Beater at a low CMC cost that has some extra conditions to get in play. Honestly, he is kind of cool if you want to go for Zombie Token flavor, because you can get a lot of smaller zombies in play early to get him out faster. Based on my creature structure, he was a poor choice for me, but I still think he is also pretty good if you build into him well.
Marchesa, the Black Rose: A new addition to the Grixis family, Marchesa provides an interesting political mechanic in the form of her Dethrone ability. She compliments a goodstuff.dec strategy that involves attacking and she allows for a lot of creature recursion if they have +1/+1 counters on them. My only issue with her is she is rather weak herself and if you want to put someone on a Commander damage clock, you need to buff her a lot with enchantments or artifacts. Still, I think she would be a great addition to any combat Grixis deck and a decent option as a Commander for any combat-based decks.
Mishra, Artificer Prodigy: This guy is kind of a joke and one of the commanders that make zero sense based on the deck construction rules. However, I found TobyornotToby's deck to be a cute way to pull him off. Check that post out if you want more details on how to make this commander work out, but for me he was an obvious no-go.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer: Nekusar is pretty much Spiteful Visions on a creature. I kind of find this commander option as "cute", but also insanely competitive as well. You build into group draw spells and just murder people via the card draw. Or, like usual, you can just use him as a draw engine for yourself and not build around his triggers. I imagine if you go that route though, people are going to kill you first because of the amount of damage he causes on draws. Since he is not really a combat related guy, I moved past him as an option for "Grixis Fun Times".
Nicol Bolas: Nicol Bolas is a lot of resources (8 mana CMC, 3 mana upkeep cost per turn) for a 7/7 flier that makes someone discard their hand on combat damage. He can support Voltron or Control as a deck theme, but I honestly find the 3 mana upkeep to be a huge killer to using him. Grixis is obviously a color where land acceleration will rarely occur, so you lose out on a lot of resources keeping him Nicol Bolas in play. For that reason, I decided not to use him as my commander.
Sedris, the Traitor King: Sedris was what this deck was originally before my play group wised up and built in more graveyard hate. The un-banning of Worldgorger Dragon and printing of Deadeye Navigator really elevated the ability of Undying and Unearth decks to deliver some good knockouts. But, like I said above, a deck that can utilize timely graveyard removal makes Sedris a weaker deck, since Unearth can only be used as a sorcery. It got to the point that this deck was just not competitive when I played it, so I decided to change things up a bit and ended up with this deck list’s current build after a couple of iterations. If your play group or community does not use a lot of graveyard hate, take a look at some of the lists that are built around Sedris. Kenjutsu's deck list was the one I used as my original inspiration, so take a look to learn more!
Tetsuo Umezawa: A Tap, UBBR: Royal Assassin (okay, a little better because it kills blocking creatures too) that cannot be directly enchanted (you can't target him, but you can move enchantments onto him). He is 3 CMC for a 3/3, so he can be a cheap Voltron option, but I find him more of a "rattlesnake" type commander that will stall a game out more than make it go faster. That being said, he can also work well in a Control deck if you see fit. For me, it seems best if he doesn't attack ever, which is not the theme I want.
Thraximundar: Finally, we have Thrax! He is a 6/6 for 7 CMC that continues to grow as people sacrifice creatures. Not only that, when he attacks a player, they IMMEDIATELY need to sacrifice a creature before assigning blockers! He murders most Voltron decks he plays against due to the forced sacrifice. Thrax's abilities really benefit Voltron, Control, Token (with Sac outlets for benefits), and Theme/Tribal based decks. Since he really likes attacking each turn and often won't be blocked, I chose him to be my "Grixis Fun Times" Commander.
General Summary:
There are a lot of options available to you if you want to make a Grixis deck. Only a couple of Commander options only play into one type of deck or are just worthless, so if you have a personal favorite from the list, go for it! For this deck, since Ninjas and Rogues like when they deal damage to an opponent, I wanted a Commander that would facilitate attacking often and benefiting from those attacks. For that reason, Thraximundar was my choice for "Grixis Fun Times".
Okay, so I sold you on Thraximundar so far, but you’re not sure if this deck is for you...
So, here are some pros and cons of this deck list...
You're going to like this Commander/deck if...
1. You enjoy utilizing a Commander that likes to attack.
2. You like surprising your opponents with Ninjutsu.
3. You enjoy playing cards out of your opponent's hands, graveyards, and decks to help you win.
4. You don't mind using some control cards to keep your board position stable.
5. You like using mostly sacrificing as your removal tools because it gets around indestructibility.
6. You find wheel effects as good draw options since it puts cards in the graveyard for you to reanimate.
You're NOT going to like this Commander/deck if...
1. You enjoy utilizing a Commander that is passive and you hate putting it in combat situations.
2. You hate surprising your opponents with creature effects such as Ninjutsu.
3. You don't like to utilize other player's decks to your advantage.
4. You hate counter spells and other board control options.
5. You like to RFG creatures or directly remove them as opposed to using sacrifices.
6. You hate using wheel effects that force you to discard because you never want to lose that "one good card".
A little more background before the deck list...
Who am I?
My name is James and I am 26 years old currently living in Lake Charles, LA. I've played MTG off and on for the past 16 years and have really enjoyed the fun times I've had and the many people I have met. I started playing EDH/Commander with my close friends back in 2008 and my obsession with the format has been non-stop since then. I've made decks of all types ranging from Rhys the Redeemed Tokens, Reaper King Control/Tribal, and Tibor and Lumia Control/Combo to name a few. Over time, I have found that I have a tendency to build my decks so that they are efficient and effective, meaning that they are not one-trick ponies, but rather able to adapt and compete against the wide range of decks in this format. That being said, often a card that I've selected for a deck has the requirement that it is useful in any situation and not just part of one possible combo.
My Meta
So, I just recently moved from Seattle, WA, down to Lake Charles, LA, where I am now in a more competitive Meta than before.... The main "power house" decks I used to play against that helped structure this deck originally were The Mimeoplasm, Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, Sheoldred, Whispering One, Tariel, Reckoner of Souls, Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Mayael the Anima, and Thromok the Insatiable. TLDR: They liked to ramp a lot and get their mana curve up fairly high ASAP. Also, there were are a lot of decks in the playgroup that use graveyard interactions, so I purposely said "F@#% it" to Anger because it would just get removed from the graveyard anyways.
Now and days, I play against many different forms of control, combo, and aggro. The only saving grace is the LGS's have house rules of no infinite combos, so some of the more ridiculous UBR combos are off the table with this deck. However, this build has done very well against many of the decks I plays against since it packs enough control and aggro to keep pressure on my opponents. Also, the number of copy effects in this deck allows it to mooch off other players strategies/"good stuff".
TLDR #2: This deck is going to go through a little bit of changes every time I play it as I discover what cards work and don't work in my new Meta.
You can find the comprehensive statistics by clicking here.
Some Stats Regarding the Deck
Average CMC: 3.52 (including Thraximundar)
Net Value for the Deck: $1048 (non-foil values, updated 11/11/2014)
Card Explanations - Organized By Function
Creatures - Ninjas, Rogues, and Friends:
Higure: The champion of Ninjas.
Ninjas Ninja of the Deep Hours: Card draw is always good, especially when you deal combat damage to someone. At the earliest, I am usually Ninjutsu'ing Withered Wretch or Baleful Strix on T3 to get him in play, but even playing him on T4 is not terrible - he can usually get through someone on T5 if I am playing a multiplayer game.
Sakashima's Student: Clone with a 1U Ninjutsu?! Sweet!!! Really though, you can setup Sakashima's Student to come in as anything on the board, tapped and attacking, for major benefit. Silent-Blade Oni and Shadowmage Infiltrator are two creatures in this deck that Sakashima's Student would love to copy. Not only that, you can utilize him to cheaply double a Zealous Conscripts or Charmbreaker Devils for massive benefit. I mean, Clone is just a good card in general - Sakashima's Student takes it to the next level.
Higure, the Still Wind: Tutor for a Ninja on Combat Damage, okay that is good enough in my book. "2: Target Ninja is Unblockable"..... Now that is just broken. Keep in mind, Sakashima's Student is still a Ninja as a copy, so anything he copies now can be made unblockable. Additionally, considering all my Ninjas potentially do awesome things on combat damage, Higure is a huge enabler of the Fun Times!
Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni: "I want that creature in your graveyard, and I want it right now." Ink-Eyes is a boss in any deck if you want to include her. Not only is her combat effect great, she is hard to get rid of because she can regenerate for 1B. She benefits well from the fact I utilize some major discard and draw effects (Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, and Ill-Gotten Gains) to put creatures into my opponents graveyards, so if you plan to utilize her I suggest you have ways to put creatures into graveyards or she can be worthless.
Silent-Blade Oni: "So I see you just tutored for that Tooth and Nail.... I want that!" Silent-Blade lets you cast any non-land card out of an opponent’s hand. Often, I am aiming for one of their win-cons, or some mana ramp - in one game I was able to Ninjutsu him into play on T5 to grab a Boundless Realms from a G player (*insert troll face*). If people are playing with Eldrazi in their decks, you get to reap all the benefits from them being cast since Silent-Blade lets you cast them for free, not just put them into play. Pretty much Silent-Blade can syphon off your opponents fairly well and I absolutely love him for it.
Rogues
Sakashima: The "boss" of the Rogues.
Disciple of Deceit: This little gem of a creature is quite impressive in any list since he is effectively a tutor on a stick. The trick is the fact that we need to get a card with the same CMC as the card we discard, but in general there are a lot of cards at the 4 - 6 CMC level that are beneficial. Don't need that Memory Plunder right now? How about getting Damnation to use later! If you know your deck well, Disciple can be an effective tool to filter to needed cards.
Marchesa's Smuggler: This deck has been thirsty for a haste enabler for some time and this guy is awesome. For just 1UR, we get a creature with Haste and Unblockable for the turn. Not only is that great for the first turn something comes into play, but we can just use that effect again on other turns to give Unblockable to the good attacking creatures.
Marchesa's Infiltrator: Another card draw creature, only with the added benefit of becoming bigger over time - assuming he attacks the player with the highest life total each time. Making him unblockable early assists in making him a threat later, but after two +1/+1 counters on him, he becomes something that needs to be dealt with.
Thada Adel, Acquisitor: Thada Adel wants all your opponent's Sol Rings. Honestly, If I can get her out on T3, on T4 I am gunning for my opponents mana rocks - Darksteel Ingot, Chromatic Lantern, and Coalition Relic to name a few common ones other than Sol Ring. Later in the game, if someone is playing with equipment or combo artifacts, I will shift my focus to those cards to slow down said opponent. Thada is one of the best creatures I have at utilizing my opponents’ cards due to her evasion with Islandwalk and that she searches their libraries and not their hands. Her evasion also makes her a great enabler of Ninjutsu triggers as well.
True-Name Nemesis: The ultimate-elusive rogue for that one opponent that you want to connect with. True-Name is perfect at getting Ninjutsu triggers because he will not be blocked if you attack the player that you name, so attack with out fear! Thankfully he is more affordable than he was when he first came out, because he really shines in a deck like this.
Notion Thief: Notion Thief is an amazing creature if an opponent is going nuts with their drawing, or if they simply have a Blue Sun's Zenith (or similar effects) on the stack. Also, the biggest play you can make with him in this deck is this: Put Wheel of Fortune or Windfall on the stack, then respond with Notion Thief. Net Effect: Opponents discard their hands, you draw 7 x (# of opponents in the game + 1 [AKA, you]) cards. Talk about a momentum swing. Just remember to be really, really careful of Consecrated Sphinx coming into play - it can cause you to deck yourself on any card draw....
Sakashima the Impostor: Another Clone, but with a HUGE upside: She can copy my Legendary Creatures. As one of my favorite comedians, Lewis Black, would say: "I will repeat that.":
"She can copy my Legendary Creatures."
Do you like having one Thraximundar? How about having 2. How about 2 Wrexial, the Risen Deep? How about also having two copies of one of my opponents Legendary creatures (assuming Sakashima's Student, Phyrexian Metamorph, or Dack's Duplicate already copy one)? Are you beginning to see why I play with her? Now, factor in that she can be returned back to my hand for 2UU, which lets me reset her on the next turn. Sakashima has amazing utility and can be the source of some ridiculous reactions based on the available creatures to copy.
Friends Baleful Strix: A 1/1 Flying, Deathtouch is a great rattlesnake if you want to use it for defense, however it is an even better Ninjutsu enabler since most people will not want to block it with any non-token flying creature. Add in the card draw when it comes into play and you have a high effective creature.
Withered Wretch: Standard graveyard hate, great for preventing people utilizing reanimation shenanigans against me. I have always felt that having some graveyard hate, even though I love playing cards out of my opponents graveyard, is necessary to survive in Commander.
Burnished Hart: Explosive Vegetation on an artifact creature. Considering that UBR has no decent way to land accelerate, Burnished Hart is an auto include.
Fleshbag Marauder: One of those auto-included "Everyone sacrifice a creature" play for a Thraximundar deck. Giving Thrax several +1/+1 counters is awesome in its own right, but dealing with my opponents creatures is more of the plus here. Pair this card with Havengul Lich and we have "3B: Each player sacrifices a creature."
Shadowmage Infiltrator: I really wish his creature types included Rogue, because he pretty much plays like one. Shadowmage provides me with card draw via combat damage (always good) and also an excellent choice for Ninjutsu'ing any of my Ninjas, since his Fear mechanic makes him a lot more difficult to block.
Thassa, God of the Sea: Most of the Gods are good in their own right, but where Thassa really shines is the fact that she can cheaply make any of the creatures in this deck unblockable. I list her as a creature, but in reality you will be hard pressed to get her devotion above 5. The scry 1 mechanic is nice, but when you have Sensei's Divining Top, it doesn't really matter much...
Geth: One of the deck's best Late Game bombs.
Viashino Heretic: This guy is a great artifact remover and also provides a nice zap to the artifact's controller. I personally go with him instead of spell based artifact removal simply for the fact that he can be used multiple times if allowed to stay in play.
Dack's Duplicate: With this being the third Clone-like card aside, Dack's Duplicate can immediately effect change though the fact that he also has Haste and Dethrone. An auto-include in any UR deck IMO.
Phyrexian Metamorph: The fourth and final (I promise) Clone variant, only he can target non-creature artifacts and can come in T3 if I want to lose 2 life. This opens up a lot of possibilities: sometimes just a mana stone, or an awesome Mimic Vat, etc. He essentially is just a good utility card that I can utilize however I need.
Solemn Simulacrum: I don't think Sad Robot needs much of an explanation, but he fetches a land when he ETB and gives a card when he dies. Always good.
Havengul Lich: Graveyard creature recursion for the additional cost of 1 on top of the creatures CMC. Keep in mind, this applies to any graveyard, so if someone is in my colors, I can cast any of their dead creatures as I see fit. I already pointed out the interaction with Fleshbag Marauder, but you can also abuse other ETB effects if you have sacrifice outlets and the mana to recast the creature.
Zealous Conscripts: Now, I mentioned that I do not use Act of Treason effects due to rampant use of Homeward Path, but the big thing about Zealous Conscripts is I can take any permanent, not just a creature. Is someone going to take advantage of a planeswalker ultimate next turn? How about I do it instead. That Mimic Vat locking down my board? How about I take that and use it how I want. Being able to exploit my opponents is what this deck does best, and Zealous Conscripts contributes to the cause very well.
Charmbreaker Devils: These guys are here primarily as a method to recur any of my control and removal cards I have already used. The +4/+0 buff can become something meaningful in some games, but I really just like the chaotic recursion element they bring to my game. However, if you want to force a recursion, you can use Withered Wretch to exile non-needed spells from your graveyard. To highlight Charmbreaker Devils' effectiveness, I have cast an early Overloaded Cyclonic Rift that I was able to get back every turn and reuse as I saw fit.
Geth, Lord of the Vault: Geth goes beyond being a great creature, he is a dirty old grave robber! He allows me to take any artifact or creature (dependent on my available mana of course) and put it into play and then mill the card's owner for the chosen card's CMC cost, which can give me even more targets to pick from later. During the Late Game phase, Geth is usually a nasty bomb and can net me a fast win by bringing back the cards my opponents were trying to win with earlier.
Hellkite Tyrant: Commander is a game type that is overloaded with awesome artifacts in any deck. Why not just steal them all from an opponent? I can snatch up a bunch of mana rocks for big X spells and abilities or take the utility artifacts my opponent is utilizing for their combo or control schemes. I love Hellkite Tyrant in my R decks, and he just fits the theme of taking from my opponents for my own gains.
Wrexial, the Risen Deep: Wrexial is a "Rogue in Training". His Islandwalk and Swampwalk let him get through a lot of decks for damage, which then lets me use any of their instance or sorcery spells! At the same time, I get to exile the spell once I cast it, so I don't need to worry about my opponent reusing it either. Like other cards with similar evasion, he makes a good option for Ninjutsu, though he is usually better to be kept in play attacking for his effect.
Sheoldred, Whispering One: What is a deck that utilizes sacrificing if it doesn't have her in it? Providing additional removal and +1/+1 counters on Thraximundar is great. The added recursion is also nice in any deck as my creatures are removed or discarded from my draw spells. If Thraximundar was looking for a wife that would best benefit his "desires", I would wager Sheoldred would be the best choice for him
Counterspells and Reanimation Cards:
Pact of Negation: SURPRISE!
Animate Dead: Cheap and effective recursion from any graveyard.
Pact of Negation: 0 CMC cost with a 3UU upkeep cost instead. This Counterspell lets you utilize all your mana on your turn and counter something that needs to be stopped right away, just don't forget to pay the upkeep cost!!! What I love about this card is my playgroup starts to anticipate me having Pact in hand as the game goes on and will miss-play their own turns because they are worried about the counterspell stopping them.
Counterflux: Often, the stack gets very layered when people are slinging spells back and forth. Sometimes, someone just needs to say "No" and that is what Counterflux does when it is Overloaded. Worst case, it is an un-counterable Counterspell.
Cryptic Command: One of the best utility counter spells in the game. Sure the 1UUU mana cost is annoying, but honestly it isn't hard to have access to that mana early with the mana base I use in this deck. Add a Cryptic Command to any of your blue decks and enjoy how much benefit you can reap from it.
Force of Will: This Legacy bomb is again one of those Counterspells that allows you to utilize your resources as necessary on your turn and still stop your opponents from doing nasty things. The extra cost is easy, often there is a blue card in my hand that I probably don't need during this game and can afford to RFG.
Reanimate: Creature recursion from any graveyard for B. The life lost can be costly, but I would rather pay the life and keep my mana open for other spells.
Animate Dead: An aura that can bring back any creature, only it gets -1/-0. Low cost and efficient, only less powerful if your playgroup runs a lot of enchantment destruction.
Mana Rocks and Card Draw:
Darksteel Ingot: My personal favorite mana rock
Wheel of Fortune: "Yes, please add "fuel" to your graveyard :D"
Sol Ring: I am still shocked this card hasn't been banned yet....
Fellwar Stone: Best case: It can make any mana I need. Worst case: It taps for 1. Considering I can play this on T2, I like this mana rock a lot.
Coalition Relic: I like this rock a lot because it can provide me with 2 extra mana (one from the counter and tapping the relic) a turn, which can be necessary at times.
Chromatic Lantern: Besides the mana rock the Lantern is, the fact that it immediately fixes my mana base to be able to cast anything is awesome. If a deck is 3+ colors, it should be packing a Lantern.
Commander's Sphere: A new gem out of the Commander 2014 set. This is a pretty solid mana rock because in the off chance it is removed or destroyed, you just draw a card instead. Hopefully you have more luck than me and draw something better than a land, because that's generally all I get...
Darksteel Ingot: Considering how often artifacts get blown up, it is nice to have a mana rock that is indestructible. I usually always play with an Ingot in my decks for that reason.
Sensei's Divining Top: Card filtering, draw immediately if I absolutely need it. Pretty easy to reset the top of my library from the number of tutors I run, so Top is an obvious auto-include.
Phyrexian Arena: Standard auto-include for a black deck wanting draw. I have yet to ever see anyone die from the life loss, so don't let that stop you from running this card.
Rhystic Study: Saying the phrase "Did you pay the 1?" gets fairly old after a while, but most of the time this card will net me at least 4-5 cards a game before it gets destroyed. Some people are stingy and will always pay the extra 1, which effectively slows their overall game down, so technically it is a win-win.
Wheel of Fortune: Putting cards in graveyards can help this deck a lot, so there is the first plus. Factor in I am making my opponents dump their good cards away, second plus. Factor in I am getting a fresh 7 cards compared to the previous cards I had, third plus.
Windfall: Same CMC as Wheel of Fortune, but can be better or worse depending on the highest hand size, which is what everyone will draw to. I have caused a U player with Consecrated Sphinx in play to mill himself with the # of cards he had to draw (he had 35 cards in hand) when this card resolved.
Fact or Fiction: I love this card, especially since it is an instant. Again, I don't mind cards being put into my graveyard, so it really isn't a big deal how my opponents setup the piles, I just pick the one that helps me. It is always cute when someone else at the table is the main threat and I get someone putting all 5 cards into one pile for me since I am not the threat (*troll face*).
Tutor/"Cast What I Want" Effects/Removal:
Pongify: Sometimes you have to play with
cards that are just funny
Gamble: R's only "tutor for anything" card, with the cute adder of discarding the card immediately. Relevant statistics for you: If you cast this on T1, assuming you played a R source and then Gamble, you have a 16.6% chance of discarding the card you tutored for. Not to keep beating the drum, but putting cards in my graveyard is not a terrible thing, so don't be afraid to use this card early if it will effectively accelerate you!
Mystical Tutor: There are 22 other Instance and Sorcery spells in the deck, so having an instant speed tutor for U to get one of the other cards that I want sounds good to me. You do need to reveal the card and it does go on top of your library, so playing it on the end step before my next turn is the preferred time to cast Mystical Tutor to avoid someone causing you to not get that card.
Vampiric Tutor: Same concept as Mystical Tutor only it is for B, I can pick any card, and I don't reveal the card to my opponents. The added cost of 2 life is not much to pay considering what you can gain.
Demonic Tutor: One of B's main tutors. If you play B in a deck, you should have this card. It is worth it.
Ill-Gotten Gains: It seems disasterous to allow my opponents to also recur back three cards, but the trick is that I can recur my counter spells, board wipes, or even tutors to get into my win-cons in this deck. Also, through Withered Wretch, I can exile away my opponents cards that I don't want them to have. For now, I am going to give this card a shot and see if it pans out how I think it will.
Memory Plunder: A non-creature leech! My usual targets for this spell are mana ramps like Explosive Vegetation or Cultivate, but sometimes I can luck out and grab a draw spell, a removal spell, or a tutor. Utility is always a plus to me and this card provides it depending on how your opponents are playing.
Bribery: There are few decks out there that don't use good creatures. Being able to snatch one away from their library is awesome, especially how early you can do it. An early Eldrazi is always cute to put on the table and abuse if someone is foolish enough to play with them.
I can't have a Rogue theme without one
of the best Rogue cards printed
Knowledge Exploitation: Prowl is an awesome mechanic, though I don't have a bunch of Rogues to guarantee it will be cast for that cost. Searching my opponent’s library for an instance or sorcery that I can cast at will is perfect. Obviously, you will pick the player that is most likely to have the type of spell you need (ramp, tutor, removal, etc.). This card can be used very politically or for your own desires, so be aware of the power that it commands and the possible retaliation that could come from it resolving.
Pongify: When I cast this spell, I seriously say "I tap one U to cast PONGIFY!!!" I play with this card because it is a one U removal spell, but also because it is hilarious and has stupid flavor in my playgroup. Otherwise, I am sure there are better removal spells I can utilize instead, but the flavor is just too much to ignore.
Cyclonic Rift: This card is one of the best "removal" spells I utilize. Sometimes, an early game permanent needs to be sent back to its controller's hand. When Overloaded during Late Game, I immediately gain huge momentum and can wreck my opponents. The fact that it is instant speed too lets me respond to a threat. If you really want to be nasty to your opponents, cast Wheel of Fortune or Windfall after Cyclonic Rift resolves. If you don't have a Cyclonic Rift in your U decks, I humbly suggest you get one ASAP.
Syphon Flesh: Situational removal and sacrifice fuel for Thraximundar. The 2/2 zombie tokens are really just chump blockers most of the time.
Decree of Pain: Excellent board wipe that can net me a lot of fuel during Late Game. Mid game, if a token deck is getting out of control, just cycle Decree to get a card and deal with the tokens. Remember you can cycle at instant speed, so you can use that effect as a response to a spell or ability.
Utility Lands:
Cabal Coffers: If you are in B and have
a decent Swamp count, run this card.
Cabal Coffers: B's most explosive mana acceleration card. Currently, this deck contains 11 Swamps, and I only need 4 in play to make Cabal Coffers be an acceleration. You can abuse this card a lot more if you play with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, but I find it not crucial for this deck to perform.
Maze of Ith: Utility land for preventing damage against me or for protecting my creatures from bad blocks. Can't make mana for me unfortunately unless Chromatic Lantern is in play
Minamo, School at Water's Edge: A lot of creatures are Legendary in this deck. This land is primarily used to suddenly create a blocker that my opponents were not expecting to be available - I can not tell you how many times I have been able to nail my opponents by doing this.
Reliquary Tower: No maximum hand size in a deck that has a tendency to draw, nice.
Rogue's Passage: Another way to make my creatures unblockable. It is the most expensive way, but it does provide mana so it isn't a wasted draw.
Volrath's Stronghold: Like any game of EDH/Commander, someone is bound to wipe the board at least once or twice. Being able to easily recur creatures into my hand is nice and Volrath's is one of the staple ways to do so.
Playing the Deck - Tips and Tricks
Memory Plunder: Utilizing any G Player's ramp
since day 1 in this deck.
General Statement and Ways to Win
This deck's overall goal is for the pilot to have fun - albeit my messed-up version of fun - and interact with the players at the table as the game goes on. That being said, it is important to understand the three major methods this deck has to win:
1. Thraximundar dealing Commander Damage: I list this specifically because Thrax is a large-bodied commander (6/6 at minimum) that has a "tendency" to grow over time. His sacrifice-on-attack trigger provides a nice form of removal that makes it easier to get through to opponents. An important note to make is that this deck does not contain any special tricks to increase Thrax's damage, so this is generally a very situational win-con. Sure, Sheoldred, Whispering One does help make Thrax bigger, but she has a tendency to die really fast in most games due to her overall annoyance to your opponents.
2. Graveyard Recursion: Through the use of Reanimate, Animate Dead, Memory Plunder, Geth, Lord of the Vault, Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, Wrexial, the Risen Deep, and Havengul Lich, this deck is able to bring back creatures, artifacts, or even spells from mine or any graveyard and utilize them to my advantage. Through the use of removal and discard effects, especially the two wheel cards, it is not hard to get good recursion targets in the graveyard. Note: It is always imperative to pay attention to the board when taking creatures out of an opponent’s graveyard, Homeward Path ruins those plays and turns them against you immediately...
I would also like to point out something now that I have listed the generic methods this deck wins: usually all three methods of winning are utilized in any given game. It isn't hard for one opponent to fall victim to Thraximundar's commander damage when I reanimated a Rafiq of the Many from an opponent's graveyard - and yes that actually has happened. It also isn't uncommon for me to grab huge tempo cards such as Rite of Replication or Tooth and Nail out of an opponent's hand or deck and exploit it for my own gains. The strategy of utilizing other player's cards may sound weak on its own, but most Commander decks I play against have win-cons or huge tempo gaining cards in their decks - this deck is built to take those win-cons and utilize them against my opponent. There are enough good creatures in this deck to pose their own threats, so don't think this deck can't win by itself, this deck is just built to easily utilize what your opponents have in their own decks to help it win faster.
Shadowmage is one of this deck's best Ninjutsu enablers.
Early Game - Turns 1 through 5
The major goal during Early Game with this deck is to start getting a draw facilitator online and get some mana rocks in play to rush to the Mid Game stage, where a lot of possibilities begin to open up. The five cards I look for to get early game draw going are Sensei's Divining Top, Shadowmage Infiltrator, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Rhystic Study, and Phyrexian Arena. Of the five, Shadowmage is always incredible to get online since he is difficult to block, which will make Ninjutsu that much easier to accomplish.
In terms of spells, both Fact or Fiction and Memory Plunder are nice to use on T4 or earlier. Fact or Fiction can be great because, beyond the additional card draw, you may be able to put a creature into the yard that can be brought out with some form of the early recursion cards - Reanimate and Animate Dead being the obvious two. What Memory Plunder brings to the table is always situational, but if someone else is casting spells that benefit you early (card draw or ramp), I always use it early. If I need the spell later in the game, I will turn to Ill-Gotten Gains to get it back.
Finally, A clutch creature to get online early is Thada Adel, Acquisitor. The power of being able to RFG an opponent's artifact from their library is pretty impressive. The added effect of letting me play the card until end of turn is what makes her incredible. On T4, I can grab an opponent’s Sol Ring and then cast it, increasing my overall mana production for the turn from 4 to 5. Obviously, her power is dependent on the decks you play against, but rarely have I seen a situation where everyone at the table does not have an artifact in their deck. Beyond what her triggers are, she is also a key creature to trigger the Prowl cost on Knowledge Exploitation, which can open up all kinds of impressive plays for you. Usually if I am utilizing this spell this early, I like to target ramp spells since they are the least likely to paint me as the main threat this early, but if you have the hand to back it up, feel free to steal a bomb spell and go off with it.
In short: Try to get your mana base up through the mana rocks in this deck or by luckily getting Burnished Hart and recurring it again. If you draw into a tutor early, use them to get some card draw or evasive creatures online to get yourself prepared for the Mid Game stage.
Wanting to cast that good card in your hand?
Think again.
Mid Game - Turns 6 through 10
During Mid Game, things begin to get really interesting for this deck. This is the stage when players have probably tutored for their strong cards and there should be some cards in graveyards that we might want to bring back into play and utilize for our own. This is the point when Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni, Silent-Blade Oni, and Wrexial, the Risen Deep begin to shine.
However, sometimes people play boring and do not do much other than play lands and cast tutors during their first 4 to 6 turns. In those situations, this is the point in the game where Wheel of Fortune and Windfall can put those cards into their graveyard to setup impressive plays for yourself. I've never had a situation where a Wheel or Windfall did not bring me something I can now target in an opponent's graveyard. Granted it is possible my opponents getting a new hand that improves their situation, but that's why Silent-Blade Oni is here: To take those good cards away from them! Or, if you don't want your opponents to draw at all, just play Notion Thief in response to the wheel effects.
If all else fails and you have been unable to draw into or tutor for any of these creatures, casting Thraximundar as soon as possible is not a terrible thing for this deck. Like I said in the General Statement section, this deck does not have any specific cards that buff or make Thrax into an unstoppable killing machine, but he is an impressive creature none-the-less. His Haste effect lets you cast him and immediately use him for combat. Assuming the defending player has a creature in play, not only did Thrax now become bigger, but we have also put a possible recursion target into the graveyard. If he gets removed, it isn't the end of the world - 6UBR CMC is not hard to generate with this deck, especially considering Cabal Coffers is in the deck.
In short: Play to the strengths of the Ninjutsu creatures you have available to you. If people are being stingy with their hands, holding back cards, don't be afraid to use a Wheel effect to put their hands into the graveyard. Getting Thrax into play as soon as you can is not a terrible idea, because he can add fuel to the graveyard while also putting someone on a Commander damage clock.
Late Game - Turn 11+
Compared to Mid Game, the type of plays you should be making in Late Game are the same, only some of the cards in the deck can now be used at their fullest potential.
Sheoldred, Whispering One can begin to make your opponents be put in a tough spot. Not only is Thraximundar making them sacrifice a creature on the attack, now in their upkeep they have to get rid of another. Add in that, if I am lucky, on my upkeep I can recur in Fleshbag Marauder for even more sacrifice triggers!
Hellkite Tyrant becomes pretty devastating for opponents if he connects during late game since by now all the utility artifacts should be in play. I've never seen anyone close to the 20 artifact Win-con, but just the fact of being able to ninja away all of someone's artifacts can hurt any player during late game.
And lastly, it goes without saying too much that the more mana available for Geth, Lord of the Vault, the better. Geth can almost chain himself into a bunch of nasty cards your opponent's need to deal with. The awesome thing about him is the milling he does, which could put even better recursion targets into the graveyard for you.
In short: Keep utilizing the strategy from Mid Game, only begin using the cards mentioned above and especially the mana dump creatures in this deck - those creatures are able to provide a lot for their associated mana costs. Also, continue to count on Thraximundar as necessary and ride your cards and your opponent's cards to victory!
Hand: Shadowmage Infiltrator, Sakashima's Student, Charmbreaker Devils, Fleshbag Marauder, Command Tower, Swamp, Mountain
Keep or Ditch?: Absolutely Keep!
Reasoning: 3 mana and Shadowmage in hand means I am going to be just fine. Also, Sakashima's Student's Ninjutsu is only for 1U, so I can get him into play immediately if someone casts a creature worth copying. Both Fleshbag and Charmbreaker Devils will be good for Mid and Late Game, so all in all awesome hand.
Potential Difficulties When Playing
Grixis is notorious for having some weaknesses and I will go ahead and point out some of the more annoying weaknesses I have found to be an issue with this deck:
1. Pillow Fort/Stax Decks - Propaganda, No Mercy, Other negative effects (AKA: "Attack me, but be ready to pay the price for it!"): It may or may not be obvious, but these type of cards can start to be annoying because, similar to my Aurelia List, the real win condition in this deck is creature damage - either from Thraximundar himself or the reanimated creatures I have in play. RUB is very notorious for not being able to deal with enchantments, but there are some decent options available if you play against these type of decks. The first cards I can think of to look at are Spine of Ish Sah, Karn Liberated, or Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker to destroy these cards. Capsize can get rid of these cards as well, but does not completely remove them like the other three I mentioned.
2. Graveyard Hate cards such as Leyline of the Void, Withered Wretch, Night Soil, or Relic of Progenitus to name a few: Let's face it, this deck loves graveyards and most competitive Commander players pack some form of graveyard removal. A common thing I have noticed is that either the ability is an activated ability or a card that will target you, so some defenses you can employ are Stifle and Trickbind to counter the activated abilities of card removal or use Witchbane Orb to prevent the player targeted spells. The Leyline is a rarely seen card to deal with, but like the Stax comment, look to include some permanent removal to get rid of that card.
3. Lack of Ramp Spells: Like many non-green decks out there, this deck does not have it easy in terms of being able to ramp out a lot of lands consistently. Sure, Burnished Hart does help a lot in this deck, but if you play against a lot of ramp decks in your play group, I would suggest including some copy spell effects such as Reverberate, Reiterate, or Fork to leech off some ramp spells that your opponents are casting.
4. Sigarda, Host of Herons: She's earned a special place in my hate list because of her ability to make it very difficult for this deck to deal with her. Not only does that player no longer have to sacrifice creatures on my attacks, but Sigarda also has Hexproof to make her impossible to spot remove. I do not have to deal with any Commander decks with her as the leading star, but she has made her way into several decks I play against often, and once in play she can really hurt my chances to win. The best trick to dealing with her is to include more board wipes or nail her with an Overloaded Cyclonic Rift. I personally went skimpy on the board wipes because of my play style, but look to include some cards like Blasphemous Act, Black Sun's Zenith, or Plague Wind if you want more board wipes.
5. Thraximundar's mana cost: I say this because it's true: a 7 CMC commander gets mana intensive to recast as the game goes on. If you are able to get some early card draw going, it is difficult for this deck to miss its land drops. The fact that Thrax can become so difficult to cast later in the game is the reason I chose to not make this a Voltron style deck, but instead I have him complimenting the overall strategy and contributing to the plan in most of my games.
6. Tuck Effects (such as Hinder, Spin into Myth, Condemn, etc.): Speaking of Thraximundar, since he has a reputation to be a Voltron commander, do not be shocked if he ends up getting tucked into the deck during a game. Thankfully, Thrax decks are in B and have access to tutors to get him back. This deck runs with 3 tutors already - Gamble, Vampiric Tutor, and Demonic Tutor - to get him back but if this continues to be a big problem for you during any of your games, look to adding some other tutors like Increasing Ambition, Diabolic Tutor, Beseech the Queen, or Skyship Weatherlight to bring back Thrax and smash face!
Notable Exclusions from the Deck
Obviously, this is not a complete list of cards not included in my deck, but I figured I would go over some specific cards that I decided to not include and comment as to why:
Instants and Sorceries
Barter in Blood: A common card to include in most Thraximundar decks posted on this forum, I find the fact that it forces me to sacrifice two creatures as well to be somewhat difficult in the games I play.
Cauldron Dance: While being an interesting card, the setup conditions of having a creature in my hand and also in the graveyard that I want to exchange places with is often not possible.
Chainer's Edict: A decent sacrifice enabler, I just dislike how it only targets one player.
Lim-Dul's Vault: Pretty much a tutor for any card I want, just at varying cost. I already use 3 good tutors so I just find it not necessary.
Living Death: An excellent card when setup, the only issue is this deck has poor methods to set it up.
Plague Wind: A really high CMC board wipe that keeps my creatures alive, it is just too clunky for my tastes.
Rite of Replication: A huge mono-blue bomb that can usually end games, and just like Bribery, I decided to not include it simply because I am bored of the card....
Terminate: Truthfully better than Pongify because it doesn't put a token into play, I just have a flavor love for Pongify and play with it instead.
Creatures
Anowon, the Ruin Sage: If Thrax was a vampire, I would totally use Anowon, but since he is not one, Anowon has a good chance of forcing me to sacrifice Thrax or another one of my really good creatures.
Ashling, the Extinguisher: Awesome at enabling sacrifices, but she would need to be unblockable to be consistent. This deck does not play into enabling unblockable for non-Ninja creatures, so unfortunately she is not included.
Butcher of Malakir: Besides the 7 CMC issue, the fact I do not have many methods to force my creatures to die makes her less awesome for this deck.
Consecrated Sphinx: Generally an auto-include in blue decks, but like the previously mentioned strong blue cards - Bribery and Rite of Replication - I purposely did not include this card just because of the desire to always play it in a game for the card advantage.
Dimir Doppelganger: A great card at becoming a copy of a creature in a graveyard, I just don't like the RFG factor to it.
Prince of Thralls: An awesome way to gain from people putting permanents into their graveyards, only his 7 CMC is too clunky for my tastes.
Sepulchral Primordial and Diluvian Primordial: Both of these guys are awesome, but again the 7 CMC cost to them is clunky to me and I do not run with bounce effects to abuse these guys consistently.
Enchantments and Planeswalkers
Grave Betrayal: An interesting concept, but as usual my complaint is it is slow and would make me a target if played on T5-7. Late game, it wouldn't contribute much by itself, so it could be seen as a dead draw as well.
Grave Pact: Great to force sacrifices when you build into this card, but unfortunately I did not do that with this deck so it would be a wasted card slot.
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker: While providing a lot of utility and awesome effects, I have come to find the 8 CMC for him to be just too much to commit to and clunky in a competitive multiplayer game.
Sleeper's Robe: A good way to provide evasion for my creatures, but in my experiences I haven't necessarily needed it to Ninjutsu any of my ninjas into play.
Spiteful Visions: The extra draw is nice, but the 1 damage ping this card does to everyone when they draw puts this deck on a serious clock when it is already difficult to gain life as it is.
Change Log
3/14/14:
No specific changes to report at this time. I made some massive changes over the past couple of months and updated this post accordingly. Some individual card changes will come soon for sure!
Reasons: Rise of the Dark Realms, while being an awesome sorcery, is now a dead draw because most of my playgroup has begun playing with Homeward Path in all of their decks. Cruel Ultimatum is just too high a CMC and mana commitment for me to enjoy in most of my games, and Boseiju, Who Shelters All is losing effectiveness as I am cutting sorceries out. The three added cards contribute to the control, syphon, and sneak effects I like to employ with this deck and I have wanted to use them for some time, so now they get a chance!
Reasons: Where to begin.... First of all Volcanic Island, Underground Sea, and Imperial Recruiter were all proxies, so they needed to be cut for the league. I also felt that I wanted to bring in some of the new rogues/cards from Conspiracy, so they are in and replacing some creatures I didn't really "need" for the deck to work. What I spent a lot of changes making were also to try to get more competitive, so good cards like Bribery, Voidmage Husher, and Cryptic Command were added to bring some more control to the deck while Rogue's Passage, Thassa, God of the Sea, and Marchesa's Infiltrator were added to give Thrax and other creatures easier access to my opponents. Chromatic Lantern provides better mana fixing for the deck and can provide better tempo for the deck than Gilded Lotus, which usually was not something I wanted to cast on T4 or T5. Exsanguinate was proving to be a "win-more" type of card and I just felt it was not in line with what this deck is made to do. I've overlooked Zealous Conscripts for awhile now and honestly forgot it could grab any permanent, and with the # of utility artifacts and Planeswalkers I am finding in this league, it deserved a spot. Lastly, Volrath's Stronghold will provide me more ways to recur creatures as the game goes on, so I decided to throw it in with the required land cuts.
Reasons: Voidmage and Whip were pretty heavily situational in this deck and in my efforts to turn this deck back into the more rogue/ninja theme, they didn't really fit the deck anymore. In their place, I finally got a copy of True-Name so he definitely went into the deck to keep the creature count up. Commander's Sphere is a new little gem I am excited to add - having more mana rocks is never terrible and also it has no big downside because if it is targeted for removal or forced via a wipe, I can just draw a card instead.
Last but not least...
I would like to say thanks again for taking the time to read this list. I hope you find it enlightening and a fun deck to play. I have thoroughly enjoyed the deck so far and look forward to any suggestions or comments you have regarding it!
Reasons: Rise of the Dark Realms, while being an awesome sorcery, is now a dead draw because most of my playgroup has begun playing with Homeward Path in all of their decks. Cruel Ultimatum is just too high a CMC and mana commitment for me to enjoy in most of my games, and Boseiju, Who Shelters All is losing effectiveness as I am cutting sorceries out. The three added cards contribute to the control, syphon, and sneak effects I like to employ with this deck and I have wanted to use them for some time, so now they get a chance!
Should have some interesting experiences when I play the deck tomorrow, but I think these three changes will let me be a little more competitive and consistent in the games I play.
Is there any particular reason to be running Izzet Chronarch instead Archaeomancer? I'm guessing its a flavor thing.
My current thraxy build is pretty spell heavy. I really like your creature based build though. I used to play something more creature based but I wanted to try something new. Anyway, cool deck. Thanks for posting it.
Is there any particular reason to be running Izzet Chronarch instead Archaeomancer? I'm guessing its a flavor thing.
My current thraxy build is pretty spell heavy. I really like your creature based build though. I used to play something more creature based but I wanted to try something new. Anyway, cool deck. Thanks for posting it.
Truth be told, I have a foil Izzet Chronarch that just looks cool. Also, I like how he isn't a double U commitment - I believe I have a pretty solid mana base already with this deck, but losing access to U has hurt me in the past by not allowing me to cast certain cards when I needed to.
Regardless, Archaeomancer is clearly an upgrade, so probably on my next card order from Starcity I will add it to the list and try it out.
Also, thanks for the comments about the deck build I find that URB is often utilized as a "spell slinger" setup, so when I bring this deck to new play groups they are generally shocked at the amount of creatures and interactions the deck employs. And since I dodge hated cards like Bribery and Acquire, people have a tendency to not hate the deck off the table.
I dont really have the time to keep track of my own grixis thread. Do you think it would be okay for me to post my list here and get some feedback from you and other Thraxy players?
I dont really have the time to keep track of my own grixis thread. Do you think it would be okay for me to post my list here and get some feedback from you and other Thraxy players?
Go for it! I hope others will contribute feedback as well, but regardless I love discussing other decks and providing feedback as needed
Okay so here is my deck. I feel like I'm lacking focus. Also, how the heck do you get the section labels to stay in the decklist? Every time I write 'lands' or 'creatures' in my decklist to label things they don't show up in the post.
By listing them like that in the deck and /deck, it worked out.
Before I go into commenting about your deck, what is your overall strategy or how do you like to win generally? Starting from there, I can comment on how cards fit the mold
My general strategy is to ramp into draw spells. Protect myself with spot removal and counters along the way. And then win with some sort of combination of fliers and thrax. Kiki-Jiki has been a pretty sweet win con with certain paths.
Rune-Scarred into Kiki. Tutor up answers every turn and beat for 12.
Sphinx of Uthuun with Kiki does basically the same thing.
I added the two ninjas to tone down the deck for my playgroup. They really hated the Notion Thief + wheels line so I added them to make the deck more combat oriented.
The ninjas are interesting in this deck, though I wonder if you wouldn't benefit more by dropping the small amount of R cards (that really don't do much for you in this list) and go straight UB using Vela the Night Clad. The majority of your deck is trickery and stealing which is primarily not red. The couple of wheel effects, sneak attack and imperial recruiter could easily be replaced with draw spells and a tutor or two.
[EDH] It's built to be a casual format and to a specific vision, and if you don't like the vision, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not going to change to accommodate everyone. Big tent is not a goal.
My general strategy is to ramp into draw spells. Protect myself with spot removal and counters along the way. And then win with some sort of combination of fliers and thrax. Kiki-Jiki has been a pretty sweet win con with certain paths.
Rune-Scarred into Kiki. Tutor up answers every turn and beat for 12.
Sphinx of Uthuun with Kiki does basically the same thing.
I added the two ninjas to tone down the deck for my playgroup. They really hated the Notion Thief + wheels line so I added them to make the deck more combat oriented.
Okay, I will start working on a response with that in mind. I have not forgotten about you, I just want to have a detailed thought regarding my suggestions!
The ninjas are interesting in this deck, though I wonder if you wouldn't benefit more by dropping the small amount of R cards (that really don't do much for you in this list) and go straight UB using Vela the Night Clad. The majority of your deck is trickery and stealing which is primarily not red. The couple of wheel effects, sneak attack and imperial recruiter could easily be replaced with draw spells and a tutor or two.
First, I don't think Vela the Night Clad would really be that much of an improvement for a Commander with this deck because though Ninjutsu is one of the core mechanics, beyond that not many creatures leave play unless they are killed. To take advantage of what Vela does, it would require me to build more into the blink strategy and I feel like the deck would turn into more of a combo deck and not a combat deck. Also, Thraximundar is way more deadlier since he is a strong body that loves attacking and will grow over time through sacrifices done by all players.
Second, the R cards do a LOT in this deck actually. Hellkite Tyrant is a BOSS at taking strong cards away from my opponents. Also, for artifact removal, Viashino Heretic is quite strong and can dish out a large amount of damage. I think people have under-rated him as removal and need to just play with him a bit to see his upsides. In the limited amount of time that I have had them in the deck, I have locked down 2 games with Charmbreaker Devils and Cyclonic Rift being the only spell in my graveyard (thanks to Withered Wretch setting that up :D) and in other games I have swung with them for 20 damage to an open opponent. Gamble is a cheap and effective tutor since I play into reanimation and GY recursion.
Okay so here is my deck. I feel like I'm lacking focus. Also, how the heck do you get the section labels to stay in the decklist? Every time I write 'lands' or 'creatures' in my decklist to label things they don't show up in the post.
Okay, looking at the deck I have a few comments I would like to touch on:
1. You seem to have a lot of targeted removal spells - Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Terminate, Dismember, Hero's Downfall, Murder, Dreadbore - I think you may want to cut some of these back and go more for cards that make your opponents sacrifice. Granted, maybe your meta is SUPER creature heavy and people don't play with Hexproof-enabling cards so the targeted removal works, but I just think you're too heavy on it. I would look to some of the cards I use and perhaps others, which would allow Thrax to grow over time.
3. Speaking of ETB abilities, have you considered Deadeye Navigator to help fuel them? Personally, I find Deadeye to be broken at setting off ETB abilities, and you have a lot of them already that would be nice to use and abuse
6. Since you're in Grixis, have you considered Burnished Hart to provide you with some ramp? Anything helps IMO and these colors lack great land ramp...
7. Also, you don't seem to have ways to abuse Nin, the Pain Artist, any specific reason you run her?
8. Crucible of Worlds seems out of place.... Do you deal with a lot of MLD in your meta? I see you run 5 fetch lands, but I don't know if that alone warrants Crucible.
10. Continuing on the land theme, why do you run the artifact lands? Just because of Tezzeret the Seeker? I would consider swapping those out due to the sheer number of board wipes that hit artifacts out there, but perhaps these are not prevalent in your meta.
11. Assuming you make no changes to the spells that I mentioned above, or continue to have a high spell count, I would add in Charmbreaker Devils to the deck simply because they provide you a cute way to get spells back and also can get a lot of +4/+0 triggers from the number of spells you have.
And lastly (for now..), 12. You don't seem to have any GY hate, so I feel like adding in Withered Wretch wouldn't be a bad idea. He can setup the Devils so that you only get the spell you want back, but also he will ruin any reanimator decks you play against, which is always a good thing IMO.
I am sure you will have a lot to comment on from this post, so I look forward to your comments and the continued discussion
I like the deck. Have you thought about naming it something like, "Thraximundar's Hive of Scum and Villainy"?
Hahaha, honestly the "Fun Times!" name was given to this deck from someone I played against often. He always hated how I would steal his good cards and use them for my own gain: my favorite play was to get his Tooth and Nail and then exile it away with Withered Wretch
Okay so here is my deck. I feel like I'm lacking focus. Also, how the heck do you get the section labels to stay in the decklist? Every time I write 'lands' or 'creatures' in my decklist to label things they don't show up in the post.
Generally, they are a bit finicky but you cant have a space after them and you need a space before them and it should work as you can see I added them to my quote of your list.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
Generally, they are a bit finicky but you cant have a space after them and you need a space before them and it should work as you can see I added them to my quote of your list.
Thanks for providing him with the feedback on how to fix his deck post, I wasn't sure how to address that issue myself lol
So I've been playing Thrax for about 4 years now and I notice that our decks are very different, I was wondering what you thought of my list, it goes for a more Control build, I don't rush for Thrax rather playing a patient game and then summoning when I can protect him and start beating people down. or suiting up one of my other creatures in the deck:
My overall observation is you have a pretty good control build setup, the creatures you use are quite effective and all of them have a purpose clearly.
General observations:
1. You pack only 3 counter spells, and of which 2 are good but Counterspell is pretty weak... I would replace it with a Pact of Negation or Force of Will. Even a Cryptic Command would be great since it can provide a lot of utility.
2. Your overall CMC seems high, yet you have very little mana ramp via rocks - have you been consistent in getting your deck going? I would suspect you may get mana screwed from time to time based on my experiences with my own deck.
3. Again, another situation where I think Crucible of Worlds is not necessary (assuming you do not play against a lot of LD of course). If you packed more MLD or direct land hate like Ruination, Aftershock, or Wildfire, I would go with it, but for now I think a mana rock would be better with your list.
4. You have a lot of creature theft in your deck, I would caution you that your meta may get wise and shove in a Homeward Path in their decks, which would ruin a lot of cards you use. That land is just too common in the Metas I have played in.
5. Any reason to not include Sheoldred, Whispering One? Or even any of the "Each Player Sacrifices a Creature" dudes? They seem to find homes in most control builds as well so I would think they would work well for you.
6. Any particular reason you run Rakdos Charm? Unless you play vs a lot of token decks, it seems weak here.
7. I like your tutor package, though I would trade out Diabolic Tutor for Beseech the Queen since it can be used later for less mana.
8. Since you run a lot of equipment, and also include Sword of Feast and Famine, why not include Aggravated Assault? That will allow you to win out-right with Thrax or any other creature you can get through to an opponent.
Is there any specific cards I did not mention that you're interested in discussing? I think I hit a lot of the ones I had questions of, but perhaps I am overlooking the value you see and should include them in my own deck.
My overall observation is you have a pretty good control build setup, the creatures you use are quite effective and all of them have a purpose clearly.
General observations:
1. You pack only 3 counter spells, and of which 2 are good but Counterspell is pretty weak... I would replace it with a Pact of Negation or Force of Will. Even a Cryptic Command would be great since it can provide a lot of utility.
I think that Pact would be best since it's cheaper then FOW and I don't like the UUU in Cryptic command. Now all I gotta do is find a pact.
2. Your overall CMC seems high, yet you have very little mana ramp via rocks - have you been consistent in getting your deck going? I would suspect you may get mana screwed from time to time based on my experiences with my own deck.
I input my deck into Deckstats.net and it looks like my curve is actually pretty good (curving at three) I don't remember having too many issues in the past (I'm currently living in Japan and have no one to play with ) though I should probably add a rock or two though suggestions for the best ones at low cost
3. Again, another situation where I think Crucible of Worlds is not necessary (assuming you do not play against a lot of LD of course). If you packed more MLD or direct land hate like Ruination, Aftershock, or Wildfire, I would go with it, but for now I think a mana rock would be better with your list.
I don't run any MLD but the place I used to play everyone packed at least strip mine and some had the MLD. That and I love using it with a fetch. I wanna get a Dust bowl for the deck as well which will make the crucible even better.
4. You have a lot of creature theft in your deck, I would caution you that your meta may get wise and shove in a Homeward Path in their decks, which would ruin a lot of cards you use. That land is just too common in the Metas I have played in.
5. Any reason to not include Sheoldred, Whispering One? Or even any of the "Each Player Sacrifices a Creature" dudes? They seem to find homes in most control builds as well so I would think they would work well for you.
I would but having only 7 targets for her second ability kinda makes her meh to me that and she attracts a lot of hate.
6. Any particular reason you run Rakdos Charm? Unless you play vs a lot of token decks, it seems weak here.
I love me some Rakdos Charm all of its abilities have been useful not just killing a token player, wreaking a key artifact is good, exiling a GY is amazing especially for the dredgers and re-animators.
8. Since you run a lot of equipment, and also include Sword of Feast and Famine, why not include Aggravated Assault? That will allow you to win out-right with Thrax or any other creature you can get through to an opponent.
Is there any specific cards I did not mention that you're interested in discussing? I think I hit a lot of the ones I had questions of, but perhaps I am overlooking the value you see and should include them in my own deck.
for me to run something like Aggravated Assault I would have to swing more then I do. For combo pieces I think that they have to be amazing by themselves as well as when they have their partners. I just dont swing that much preferring to control and try to let my opponents kill themselves first or just poke and prod nothing huge.
a friend of mine just suggested I switch Animate Dead for Necromancy probably gonna do that as well
5. Any reason to not include Sheoldred, Whispering One? Or even any of the "Each Player Sacrifices a Creature" dudes? They seem to find homes in most control builds as well so I would think they would work well for you.
I would but having only 7 targets for her second ability kinda makes her meh to me that and she attracts a lot of hate.
8. Since you run a lot of equipment, and also include Sword of Feast and Famine, why not include Aggravated Assault? That will allow you to win out-right with Thrax or any other creature you can get through to an opponent.
Is there any specific cards I did not mention that you're interested in discussing? I think I hit a lot of the ones I had questions of, but perhaps I am overlooking the value you see and should include them in my own deck.
for me to run something like Aggravated Assault I would have to swing more then I do. For combo pieces I think that they have to be amazing by themselves as well as when they have their partners. I just dont swing that much preferring to control and try to let my opponents kill themselves first or just poke and prod nothing huge.
a friend of mine just suggested I switch Animate Dead for Necromancy probably gonna do that as well
The two I just highlighted I don't agree with - Sheoldred doesn't necessarily need to bring you back a creature every turn to justify her, I feel the fact she makes your opponents sac each upkeep is excellent and preventing them from getting a board presences setup. Also, depending on some of the dudes you add (or if you do), she could really allow you to setup more sacrificing or CIP effects.
And, if you feel like Aggravated assault isn't worth it, why are you packing 5 combat related equipments in your deck? I would cut most of those and put more control spells in the deck if you feel like you don't attack much because I just don't see the reason to occupy the card slots if you dont use them often enough.
Also, I would definitely add Necromancy, but also try to keep Animate Dead as well - it is an amazing enchantment to also have.
I also noticed you did not use a Burnished Hart - any reason? I find it an auto-include in non-G decks because it essentially is a Explosive Vegetation on T4.
Englishboi - You might want to consider replacing both Crumbling Necropolis & Crosis's Catacombs with City of Brass & Mana Confluence. Although both lands hit you for 1 life, they do come in untapped, so you don't lose momentum. If you are attached to those lands, you could also swap out basics.
I agree that you should add at least one other mana rock, maybe Mana Crypt and/or Chromatic Lantern. I don't know about swapping out Crucible of Worlds because it's so good. But as mentioned above, you don't pack any MLD. I also noticed that you run very little fetch lands. This makes Crucible of Worlds less impactful, so I guess you could swap it for now. You probably could replace Evolving Wilds for one of those mana rocks as well.
Also, if Homeward Path does become a threat, then you may want to pack some more land destruction. Wasteland, maybe? You could always find a place for one of my personal favorites, Stifle. It's always funny when I cast it, my opponents are always surprised.
Hope this helps!
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"I play blue in everything! Everything!"
"Use mana rocks... They are an investment in your future."
"What's my favorite thing to do in a TCG? That's easy man... Draw Cards!!!"
"Winning is always cool, but losing by drawing out is cool too!"
Englishboi - You might want to consider replacing both Crumbling Necropolis & Crosis's Catacombs with City of Brass & Mana Confluence. Although both lands hit you for 1 life, they do come in untapped, so you don't lose momentum. If you are attached to those lands, you could also swap out basics.
I agree that you should add at least one other mana rock, maybe Mana Crypt and/or Chromatic Lantern. I don't know about swapping out Crucible of Worlds because it's so good. But as mentioned above, you don't pack any MLD. I also noticed that you run very little fetch lands. This makes Crucible of Worlds less impactful, so I guess you could swap it for now. You probably could replace Evolving Wilds for one of those mana rocks as well.
Also, if Homeward Path does become a threat, then you may want to pack some more land destruction. Wasteland, maybe? You could always find a place for one of my personal favorites, Stifle. It's always funny when I cast it, my opponents are always surprised.
Hope this helps!
I have also considered adding the two lands you mentioned to provide me more mana and less CIPT lands, so I appreciate you bringing them up! Do you also play Thrax as well? What type of deck do you employ?
My first CMDR deck was Grixis with Nicol Bolas at the helm. I switched to Thrax, then played Sedris for awhile. So with those changes between commanders, I've played Grixis Combo/Control, Grixis Stax, and Grixis Reanimator. Now, I'm back to Nicol Bolas, playing combo/control with a few stax effects. Grixis was my first pet deck.
I also run a U/W blink with Rasputin Dreamweaver. This is probably my second pet deck. After a year or so of playing Magic, I realized that my true color combo is U/W. Rasputin was a great choice.
I recently put together the beginnings of a Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. I'm still working my mana base on this one.
I also put together a Zombie Horde deck to add some variety.
But to stay on topic, in my experience, Grixis has problems keeping up with fast mana producing decks, typically any deck containing green ramp (which I see a good amount of in my meta). With that being said, I believe mana rocks are crucial to the early game. I usually play anywhere from 6-10 mana rocks, with no less than 36 lands (this may seem high but I include non-mana producing land in my land count ex. Maze of Ith).
I usually include any combination of the Signets, Talismans, Gilded Lotus and/or Thran Dynamo, Mox Opal with Sol Ring and Mana Crypt.
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"I play blue in everything! Everything!"
"Use mana rocks... They are an investment in your future."
"What's my favorite thing to do in a TCG? That's easy man... Draw Cards!!!"
"Winning is always cool, but losing by drawing out is cool too!"
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The dragon-riding Zombie Assassin of awesomeness!
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4/03/14:
Out: Boseiju, Who Shelters All >>> In: Sneak Attack
Out: Rise of the Dark Realms >>> In: Hellkite Tyrant
Out: Cruel Ultimatum >>> In: Urabrask the Hidden
Reasons: Rise of the Dark Realms, while being an awesome sorcery, is now a dead draw because most of my playgroup has begun playing with Homeward Path in all of their decks. Cruel Ultimatum is just too high a CMC and mana commitment for me to enjoy in most of my games, and Boseiju, Who Shelters All is losing effectiveness as I am cutting sorceries out. The three added cards contribute to the control, syphon, and sneak effects I like to employ with this deck and I have wanted to use them for some time, so now they get a chance!
Should have some interesting experiences when I play the deck tomorrow, but I think these three changes will let me be a little more competitive and consistent in the games I play.
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My current thraxy build is pretty spell heavy. I really like your creature based build though. I used to play something more creature based but I wanted to try something new. Anyway, cool deck. Thanks for posting it.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Truth be told, I have a foil Izzet Chronarch that just looks cool. Also, I like how he isn't a double U commitment - I believe I have a pretty solid mana base already with this deck, but losing access to U has hurt me in the past by not allowing me to cast certain cards when I needed to.
Regardless, Archaeomancer is clearly an upgrade, so probably on my next card order from Starcity I will add it to the list and try it out.
Also, thanks for the comments about the deck build I find that URB is often utilized as a "spell slinger" setup, so when I bring this deck to new play groups they are generally shocked at the amount of creatures and interactions the deck employs. And since I dodge hated cards like Bribery and Acquire, people have a tendency to not hate the deck off the table.
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GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
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Go for it! I hope others will contribute feedback as well, but regardless I love discussing other decks and providing feedback as needed
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1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
1 Watery Grave
1 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Malice
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Academy Ruins
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Strip Mine
5 Island
3 Swamp
3 Mountain
1 Sol Ring
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
2 Armillary Sphere
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Chromatic Lantern
3 Worn Powerstone
4 Thran Dynamo
5 Gilded Lotus
3 Phyrexian Arena
5 Future Sight
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
5 Tezzeret the Seeker
8 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
0 Pact of Negation
1 Pongify
1 Rapid Hybridization
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Impulse
2 Terminate
3 Dismember
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Murder
3 Sudden Spoiling
4 Cryptic Command
4 Fact or Fiction
2 Demonic Tutor
2 Dreadbore
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Night's Whisper
4 Damnation
6 Time Spiral
8 Decree of Pain
2 Nezumi Graverobber
2 Nin, the Pain Artist
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Imperial Recruiter
3 Trinket Mage
4 Archaeomancer
4 Disciple of Bolas
4 Evil Twin
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Sakashima the Impostor
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Slum Reaper
5 Body Double
5 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
5 Mulldrifter
6 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
6 Silent-Blade Oni
7 Rune-Scarred Demon
7 Sphinx of Uthuun
Okay so here is my deck. I feel like I'm lacking focus. Also, how the heck do you get the section labels to stay in the decklist? Every time I write 'lands' or 'creatures' in my decklist to label things they don't show up in the post.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Creatures (Qty: 29)
1 Goblin Welder (1cc)
1 Baleful Strix (2cc)
1 Sygg, River Cutthroat (2cc)
1 Withered Wretch (2cc)
1 Burnished Hart (3cc)
1 Fleshbag Marauder (3cc)
1 Imperial Recruiter (3cc)
1 Shadowmage Infiltrator (3cc)
1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor (3cc)
1 Viashino Heretic (3cc)
1 Lazav, Dimir Mastermind (4cc)
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours (4cc, 2cc Ninjutsu)
1 Notion Thief (4cc)
1 Phyrexian Metamorph (4cc)
1 Sakashima's Student (4cc, 2cc Ninjutsu)
1 Sakashima the Impostor (4cc)
1 Solemn Simulacrum (4cc)
1 Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief (5cc)
1 Havengul Lich (5cc)
1 Higure, the Still Wind (5cc, 4cc Ninjutsu)
1 Izzet Chronarch (5cc)
1 Urabrask the Hidden (5cc)
1 Charmbreaker Devils (6cc)
1 Geth, Lord of the Vault (6cc)
1 Hellkite Tyrant (6cc)
1 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni (6cc, 5cc Ninjutsu)
1 Wrexial, the Risen Deep (6cc)
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One (7cc)
1 Silent-Blade Oni (7cc, 6cc Ninjutsu)
Sorcery (Qty: 11)
1 Gamble (1cc)
1 Reanimate (1cc)
1 Demonic Tutor (2cc)
1 Exsanguinate (2Xcc)
1 Windfall (3cc)
1 Wheel of Fortune (3cc)
1 Damnation (4cc)
1 Syphon Flesh (5cc)
1 Torrent of Souls (5cc)
1 Knowledge Exploitation (7cc, 4cc Prowl)
1 Decree of Pain (8cc, 5cc Cycling)
By listing them like that in the deck and /deck, it worked out.
Before I go into commenting about your deck, what is your overall strategy or how do you like to win generally? Starting from there, I can comment on how cards fit the mold
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Rune-Scarred into Kiki. Tutor up answers every turn and beat for 12.
Sphinx of Uthuun with Kiki does basically the same thing.
I added the two ninjas to tone down the deck for my playgroup. They really hated the Notion Thief + wheels line so I added them to make the deck more combat oriented.
GWUBAtraxa, Praetor's Voice PrimerGWUB
GWURoon Bant Blink WhateverGWU
BRGLord Windgrace LandsBRG
Okay, I will start working on a response with that in mind. I have not forgotten about you, I just want to have a detailed thought regarding my suggestions!
First, I don't think Vela the Night Clad would really be that much of an improvement for a Commander with this deck because though Ninjutsu is one of the core mechanics, beyond that not many creatures leave play unless they are killed. To take advantage of what Vela does, it would require me to build more into the blink strategy and I feel like the deck would turn into more of a combo deck and not a combat deck. Also, Thraximundar is way more deadlier since he is a strong body that loves attacking and will grow over time through sacrifices done by all players.
Second, the R cards do a LOT in this deck actually. Hellkite Tyrant is a BOSS at taking strong cards away from my opponents. Also, for artifact removal, Viashino Heretic is quite strong and can dish out a large amount of damage. I think people have under-rated him as removal and need to just play with him a bit to see his upsides. In the limited amount of time that I have had them in the deck, I have locked down 2 games with Charmbreaker Devils and Cyclonic Rift being the only spell in my graveyard (thanks to Withered Wretch setting that up :D) and in other games I have swung with them for 20 damage to an open opponent. Gamble is a cheap and effective tutor since I play into reanimation and GY recursion.
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Okay, looking at the deck I have a few comments I would like to touch on:
1. You seem to have a lot of targeted removal spells - Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, Terminate, Dismember, Hero's Downfall, Murder, Dreadbore - I think you may want to cut some of these back and go more for cards that make your opponents sacrifice. Granted, maybe your meta is SUPER creature heavy and people don't play with Hexproof-enabling cards so the targeted removal works, but I just think you're too heavy on it. I would look to some of the cards I use and perhaps others, which would allow Thrax to grow over time.
2. Since you like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker as a win-con, have you considered going with more ETB, like Diluvian Primordial, Sepulchral Primordial, Molten Primordial? What about attack trigger creatures like Grave Titan, Frost Titan, Inferno Titan? Personally, I would only use Diluvian, Frost, and Grave from that list, but who knows what works for you and your meta
3. Speaking of ETB abilities, have you considered Deadeye Navigator to help fuel them? Personally, I find Deadeye to be broken at setting off ETB abilities, and you have a lot of them already that would be nice to use and abuse
4. I like the Jace, the Mind Sculptor for a Planeswalker, but Tezzeret the Seeker seems out of place and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker seems to be clunky IMO... Perhaps to replace Tezzeret, I would use Fabricate for the artifact tutor side (which I believe is his strongest purpose). For Nicol, if you had a Karn Liberated sitting around, I would go with that instead. Otherwise you can roll with a permanent destroyer like Spine of Ish Sah or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
5. Has Future Sight gotten their for you? I would replace that card with either Mystic Remora or Rhystic Study to give you more draw.
6. Since you're in Grixis, have you considered Burnished Hart to provide you with some ramp? Anything helps IMO and these colors lack great land ramp...
7. Also, you don't seem to have ways to abuse Nin, the Pain Artist, any specific reason you run her?
8. Crucible of Worlds seems out of place.... Do you deal with a lot of MLD in your meta? I see you run 5 fetch lands, but I don't know if that alone warrants Crucible.
9. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth but no Cabal Coffers, reason?
10. Continuing on the land theme, why do you run the artifact lands? Just because of Tezzeret the Seeker? I would consider swapping those out due to the sheer number of board wipes that hit artifacts out there, but perhaps these are not prevalent in your meta.
11. Assuming you make no changes to the spells that I mentioned above, or continue to have a high spell count, I would add in Charmbreaker Devils to the deck simply because they provide you a cute way to get spells back and also can get a lot of +4/+0 triggers from the number of spells you have.
And lastly (for now..), 12. You don't seem to have any GY hate, so I feel like adding in Withered Wretch wouldn't be a bad idea. He can setup the Devils so that you only get the spell you want back, but also he will ruin any reanimator decks you play against, which is always a good thing IMO.
I am sure you will have a lot to comment on from this post, so I look forward to your comments and the continued discussion
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Hahaha, honestly the "Fun Times!" name was given to this deck from someone I played against often. He always hated how I would steal his good cards and use them for my own gain: my favorite play was to get his Tooth and Nail and then exile it away with Withered Wretch
Excellent! I look forward to hearing back regarding the changes!
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Generally, they are a bit finicky but you cant have a space after them and you need a space before them and it should work as you can see I added them to my quote of your list.
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[Modern] Allies
Thanks for providing him with the feedback on how to fix his deck post, I wasn't sure how to address that issue myself lol
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1x Thraximundar
Creatures: (8)
1x Geth, Lord of the Vault
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Olivia Voldaren
1x Rune-Scarred Demon
1x Sepulchral Primordial
1x Solemn Simulacrum
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Trinket Mage
Atrifacts: (16)
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Champion's Helm
1x Chromatic Lantern
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Expedition Map
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mimic Vat
1x Oblivion Stone
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of War and Peace
1x Tormod's Crypt
Enchantments: (5)
1x Control Magic
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x Phyrexian Arena
1x Rhystic Study
1x Animate Dead
1x Capsize
1x Chaos Warp
1x Counterspell
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Desertion
1x Hero's Downfall
1x Hinder
1x Intuition
1x Lim-Dûl's Vault
1x Memory Plunder
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Rakdos Charm
1x Tainted Strike
1x Vampiric Tutor
Soceries: (15)
1x All Is Dust
1x Beacon of Unrest
1x Black Sun's Zenith
1x Bribery
1x Damnation
1x Decree of Pain
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Diabolic Tutor
1x Dreadbore
1x Past in Flames
1x Reanimate
1x Recurring Insight
1x Rite of Replication
1x Vandalblast
1x Yawgmoth's Will
Planeswalkers: (3)
1x Liliana Vess
1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
1x Academy Ruins
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Command Tower
1x Crosis's Catacombs
1x Crumbling Necropolis
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Island
1x Maze of Ith
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
4x Mountain
1x Polluted Delta
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Rogue's Passage
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1x Steam Vents
1x Strip Mine
1x Sunken Ruins
4x Swamp
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Tolaria West
1x Vesuva
1x Volcanic Island
1x Watery Grave
Thraximundar Control voltron
Darien, King of Dudes The swarm
Karador, Ghost ChieftainJunk graveyard
Erebos, God of the DeadMy BIG BLACK.......deck
Zedruu the kindhearted My take on Pristaxcontrombmodruu!
Roon of the Hidden Realm Bounce house
General observations:
1. You pack only 3 counter spells, and of which 2 are good but Counterspell is pretty weak... I would replace it with a Pact of Negation or Force of Will. Even a Cryptic Command would be great since it can provide a lot of utility.
2. Your overall CMC seems high, yet you have very little mana ramp via rocks - have you been consistent in getting your deck going? I would suspect you may get mana screwed from time to time based on my experiences with my own deck.
3. Again, another situation where I think Crucible of Worlds is not necessary (assuming you do not play against a lot of LD of course). If you packed more MLD or direct land hate like Ruination, Aftershock, or Wildfire, I would go with it, but for now I think a mana rock would be better with your list.
4. You have a lot of creature theft in your deck, I would caution you that your meta may get wise and shove in a Homeward Path in their decks, which would ruin a lot of cards you use. That land is just too common in the Metas I have played in.
5. Any reason to not include Sheoldred, Whispering One? Or even any of the "Each Player Sacrifices a Creature" dudes? They seem to find homes in most control builds as well so I would think they would work well for you.
6. Any particular reason you run Rakdos Charm? Unless you play vs a lot of token decks, it seems weak here.
7. I like your tutor package, though I would trade out Diabolic Tutor for Beseech the Queen since it can be used later for less mana.
8. Since you run a lot of equipment, and also include Sword of Feast and Famine, why not include Aggravated Assault? That will allow you to win out-right with Thrax or any other creature you can get through to an opponent.
Is there any specific cards I did not mention that you're interested in discussing? I think I hit a lot of the ones I had questions of, but perhaps I am overlooking the value you see and should include them in my own deck.
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I think that Pact would be best since it's cheaper then FOW and I don't like the UUU in Cryptic command. Now all I gotta do is find a pact.
I input my deck into Deckstats.net and it looks like my curve is actually pretty good (curving at three) I don't remember having too many issues in the past (I'm currently living in Japan and have no one to play with ) though I should probably add a rock or two though suggestions for the best ones at low cost
I don't run any MLD but the place I used to play everyone packed at least strip mine and some had the MLD. That and I love using it with a fetch. I wanna get a Dust bowl for the deck as well which will make the crucible even better.
I have been thinking of taking out Control Magic for Charmbreaker Devils since it has 27 targets (Beacon of Unrest and Black Sun's Zenith shuffle back in when used).
I would but having only 7 targets for her second ability kinda makes her meh to me that and she attracts a lot of hate.
I love me some Rakdos Charm all of its abilities have been useful not just killing a token player, wreaking a key artifact is good, exiling a GY is amazing especially for the dredgers and re-animators.
That makes sense now all I gotta do is get a hold of one.
for me to run something like Aggravated Assault I would have to swing more then I do. For combo pieces I think that they have to be amazing by themselves as well as when they have their partners. I just dont swing that much preferring to control and try to let my opponents kill themselves first or just poke and prod nothing huge.
a friend of mine just suggested I switch Animate Dead for Necromancy probably gonna do that as well
Thraximundar Control voltron
Darien, King of Dudes The swarm
Karador, Ghost ChieftainJunk graveyard
Erebos, God of the DeadMy BIG BLACK.......deck
Zedruu the kindhearted My take on Pristaxcontrombmodruu!
Roon of the Hidden Realm Bounce house
The two I just highlighted I don't agree with - Sheoldred doesn't necessarily need to bring you back a creature every turn to justify her, I feel the fact she makes your opponents sac each upkeep is excellent and preventing them from getting a board presences setup. Also, depending on some of the dudes you add (or if you do), she could really allow you to setup more sacrificing or CIP effects.
And, if you feel like Aggravated assault isn't worth it, why are you packing 5 combat related equipments in your deck? I would cut most of those and put more control spells in the deck if you feel like you don't attack much because I just don't see the reason to occupy the card slots if you dont use them often enough.
Also, I would definitely add Necromancy, but also try to keep Animate Dead as well - it is an amazing enchantment to also have.
I also noticed you did not use a Burnished Hart - any reason? I find it an auto-include in non-G decks because it essentially is a Explosive Vegetation on T4.
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I agree that you should add at least one other mana rock, maybe Mana Crypt and/or Chromatic Lantern. I don't know about swapping out Crucible of Worlds because it's so good. But as mentioned above, you don't pack any MLD. I also noticed that you run very little fetch lands. This makes Crucible of Worlds less impactful, so I guess you could swap it for now. You probably could replace Evolving Wilds for one of those mana rocks as well.
Also, if Homeward Path does become a threat, then you may want to pack some more land destruction. Wasteland, maybe? You could always find a place for one of my personal favorites, Stifle. It's always funny when I cast it, my opponents are always surprised.
Hope this helps!
"Use mana rocks... They are an investment in your future."
"What's my favorite thing to do in a TCG? That's easy man... Draw Cards!!!"
"Winning is always cool, but losing by drawing out is cool too!"
I have also considered adding the two lands you mentioned to provide me more mana and less CIPT lands, so I appreciate you bringing them up! Do you also play Thrax as well? What type of deck do you employ?
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I also run a U/W blink with Rasputin Dreamweaver. This is probably my second pet deck. After a year or so of playing Magic, I realized that my true color combo is U/W. Rasputin was a great choice.
I recently put together the beginnings of a Derevi, Empyrial Tactician. I'm still working my mana base on this one.
I have a mono-black Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, for friends that want to play casually.
Athreos, God of Passage has recently caught my eye, so I'm working a deck with him.
I also put together a Zombie Horde deck to add some variety.
But to stay on topic, in my experience, Grixis has problems keeping up with fast mana producing decks, typically any deck containing green ramp (which I see a good amount of in my meta). With that being said, I believe mana rocks are crucial to the early game. I usually play anywhere from 6-10 mana rocks, with no less than 36 lands (this may seem high but I include non-mana producing land in my land count ex. Maze of Ith).
I usually include any combination of the Signets, Talismans, Gilded Lotus and/or Thran Dynamo, Mox Opal with Sol Ring and Mana Crypt.
"Use mana rocks... They are an investment in your future."
"What's my favorite thing to do in a TCG? That's easy man... Draw Cards!!!"
"Winning is always cool, but losing by drawing out is cool too!"