MTG Salvation

I recently placed 3rd at a Team Unified Event for Modern and wanted to show off the decklist that did so well. I played against Bant Spirits, Ad Naus, UR Phoenix, BR Hollow One, and Hardened Scales. I'll be giving a quick breakdown of each matchup and talk about what cards stood out for me.

vs Bant Spirits (1-0)
Between the large amount of removal and constant hand-hate, the Spirits player rarely had any permanents in play and a hand to keep. Angrath's Rampage helped me out against the duo Drogskol and even went overtime when I flashed it back later to kill off a Queller that had my Lili. When we went to Game 2 I was already ahead before my teammates finished their games. Overall I felt that if we were given more time that it would of ended the same as the first game.

vs Ad Naus (2-1)
Game 1 is just awful as I have a hand full of removal and he just goes off turn 5. Game 2 however I felt I was going to lose as he resolve Leyline of Sanctity, but pivoted into Fulminator Mage and K Command loops to stop him from ever having mana from lands and Lotus Bloom. Game 3 I am worried as now I am on the draw against multiple Leylines and we were the group that determined the team victory. I get an early Fulminator to slow'em down before resolving Liliana of the Veil and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God. Double uptick on discard made it impossible for him assemble combo. I eventually win with Nicol Ult. The matchup felt very dicey as at any moment I thought I was going to lose. Made me wish I had more counterspells.

vs UR Phoenix (1-2)
I got overwhelmed Game 1 and couldn't ever pull out. Game 2 I surprisingly milled all of his win cons with Ashiok, Dream Render so he scooped up for Game 3. Sadly that game doesn't go well for me as I eventually draw 5 lands in a row after stripping his hand apart. He eventually lands a Drake that I can't seem to draw removal for and get hit for 16 damage in one swing! The matchup seems reasonable post-board, but not having either Jace made card manipulation a bit tough. Makes me want to reconsider putting back Nihil Spellbomb back in the 75; even if to just cantrip. My other friend loses so we take our first team loss.

vs BR Hollow One (0-2)
Sometimes you just lose to the nutty turn 1 Burning Inquiry into double Hollow One. Sometimes it happens again Game 2. Never saw hate for them and actually got mana denied from discarding too many lands. Feels like a rough matchup with my current configuration. 2nd Anger would of done wonders. My team picked up the slack and we eventually won.

vs Hardened Scales (2-1)
Easily one of my favorite matchups as I have so much disruption to their plans. Game 1 really showed how much I like Blast Zone and Engineered Explosives in the main. Destroying the namesake card and all of the tokens makes the matchup so swingy in my favor. Game 2 I sadly flooded, but Game 3 was a repeat of Game 1. Aside from the hiccup Game 2, was the easiest matchup of the day.

So our team eventually ended the day going 4-1 securing 3rd place for us. My takeaways are:
- If you resolve Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God and are allowed to untap him, you win the game. He never once got hit and the amount of hand hate pairs so well with his plus. You drown your opponent so quickly that they concede before you even need to ult. 3 feels like the right number.
- The amount of checklands felt ok as I wanted to try and avoid having too many lands enter tapped, but some number of fastlands are probably the better call; even if it means having to play a fastland late game for Nicol. Probably change the Dragonskull Summit into Blackcleave Cliffs.
- Counterspells are certainly nice in some matchups, but I have no regrets not having any in the main. The deck just feels like a better Jund deck. Sure I don't have Goyf, but having such efficient 2-1s makes the deck feel pretty good throughout the entire game. I may bump my squall count to 3 in the board.
- I don't hate the land count right now, but I do mind the card manipulation. Not certain where I want to go with it at the moment.

Congratulations for the good results.

I'm trying to build a control deck different from the usual teferi's decks and I'm looking into grixis.

I like your list but as you said I'd add a couple of negate or maybe the new archmage's charm seems a good versatile tool less expensive than cryptic command

Also I'd remove the blast zone wich seems conflicting with the spells wich requires a lot of specific mana. Rise // fall seems a cool card but I'm not sure about it's utiliy... to me seems like collective brutality is a better choice.

Let me know what do you think, thank you.

Quote from Giulio »

Congratulations for the good results.

I'm trying to build a control deck different from the usual teferi's decks and I'm looking into grixis.

I like your list but as you said I'd add a couple of negate or maybe the new archmage's charm seems a good versatile tool less expensive than cryptic command

Also I'd remove the blast zone wich seems conflicting with the spells wich requires a lot of specific mana. Rise // fall seems a cool card but I'm not sure about it's utiliy... to me seems like collective brutality is a better choice.

Let me know what do you think, thank you.

blast zone is busted in that style of deck ,but it doesn't see much play cause of field of ruin taking its spot so you can have a chance against tron.

I have played Grixis like 4 years back. Haven't touched it since, but this card looks pretty nice. What do you guys think about this? I can't really evauate it, but it seems printed for this archtype. Will it change anything or not? (with all the artifact hate printed, I will most likely switch to a control archtype and grixis might just be it)

seems a good card for control.. a permanent snapcaster mage effect.

Need to be tested on the field to give a honest sentence.

Quote from Giulio »

Congratulations for the good results.

I'm trying to build a control deck different from the usual teferi's decks and I'm looking into grixis.

I like your list but as you said I'd add a couple of negate or maybe the new archmage's charm seems a good versatile tool less expensive than cryptic command

Also I'd remove the blast zone wich seems conflicting with the spells wich requires a lot of specific mana. Rise // fall seems a cool card but I'm not sure about it's utiliy... to me seems like collective brutality is a better choice.

Let me know what do you think, thank you.

I will agree that in a few rare instances Blast Zone can inhibit my early game plays as unlike Field of Ruin which can turn into colored mana later, Blast Zone cannot. This leads to a pattern that makes casting spells much more difficult turns 1 through 3. I have yet to have the scenario of drawing Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God and the land without drawing any other colored sources, but I can foresee that being an issue. With that said I will restate that it is rare that it occurs. With this style of pro-actively attacking the opponent's hand instead of countering, it allows the deck to let the opponent resolve certain permanents; only for them to get swept up by Blast Zone and other Terminate-style cards.
Rise // Fall on the other hand I can understand for not liking. It has a low-ground/high-ceiling as double land reveal is terrible, but double impactful spell reveal is backbreaking. Most times I cast it I get the unfortunate luck of only getting the opponent to discard a single card, which for its rate is overall not worth it. I do like it paired with the other hand-hate spells in the deck as the information of knowing what is in their hand offers me the opportunity to minimize misses. The Unsummon/Raise Dead function comes up sometimes; mostly in the midrange matchups (ex: bounce their Gofy, return my Snap from yard), but it is alright. I can be convinced to remove them in favor of Collective Brutality, card draw, or counterspells.

Quote from SeleneElizabeth »

I have played Grixis like 4 years back. Haven't touched it since, but this card looks pretty nice. What do you guys think about this? I can't really evauate it, but it seems printed for this archtype. Will it change anything or not? (with all the artifact hate printed, I will most likely switch to a control archtype and grixis might just be it)

I am so happy that this got spoiled! This will easily revitalize modern players to give grixis another chance. Aside from being Snapcaster Mage copies 5-8, she has evasion and great stats (dodges Lightning Bolt). She even pairs well with a discard-heavy decklist! I will definitely be playing some number of her.

now all we need is hymn and we are set to go

5-8? She is a 1-2 of. But she plays best with, again a tapout style control deck.

I think she will be strong, on the same tier as Kalitas at 4.

hi I just make a grixis deck, usually I play with UW control
this is my deck list
considering replacing card after modern horizons
1 cryptic command and 1 countersquall to 2 archmage charm
1 tasigur to 1 kess

Kess is bae + I'm happy we get to play her in Modern and all that. But realistically, isn't she too slow?

Casting spells from graveyards isn't something new to us. We already had access to Snap and baby Jace. What's the endgame here?

from my perspective Kess is on the same power-level-ish as 1UBR Nicol Bolas (NBR). You get immediate value (flashback 1 card vs opponent discards). Kess wins on this point.

NBR hits harder for a 5 turn clock in the air, Kess hits for 3, likewise in the air.
NBR has a much stronger top-end, but Kess keeps giving every turn as long as your GY is stocked, without any further input from the pilot (apart from the casting cost of the spell).

Perhaps the trickiest part of the equation is Kess needs you to keep her alive, which is best done with counterspells, but then her ability works best with discard, which puts tension on your deckbuilding choices. She wants Dreadbores, Rise // Fall, Inquisition of Kozilek, but she needs Countersquall, Cryptic Command, Spell Pierce.

Next question is - does she outdo the other 4 cmc sorcery-speed threat, JTMS? That appears to be on a whole other wavelength but make no mistake, they're in direction competition for the same slots in this deck. In fact JTMS despite being another permanent type probably has more in common with Kess than NBR, although Kess shares the same vulnerabilities as NBR.

Kess and Nicol Bolas Dragon God excite me for grixis. I feel that if grixis wants to get big again, it needs to take a different avenue than UW does instead of directly competing with UW. Kess and NBDG both fit in a more tap out discard shell that quickly wants to close the game once board control is established.

Kess passes the bolt test, but not the push and path test, so I'd want to run her together with some other creatures, like JVP and tasigur.

Quote from Bearscape »

Kess and Nicol Bolas Dragon God excite me for grixis. I feel that if grixis wants to get big again, it needs to take a different avenue than UW does instead of directly competing with UW. Kess and NBDG both fit in a more tap out discard shell that quickly wants to close the game once board control is established.

Kess passes the bolt test, but not the push and path test, so I'd want to run her together with some other creatures, like JVP and tasigur.

Kess and Tasigur work well together but in a very mana hunrgy way. They also fill relatively same roles, so I am not sure if you want them together.

You need some more creatures to get Kess to work, IMO. Otherwise she is jut going to get Path to Exiled.

This creature is intended to hit the battlefield only when the situation is quite clear and you know what's on your opponent hand(discard spells)

Quote from MarcWizard »

from my perspective Kess is on the same power-level-ish as 1UBR Nicol Bolas (NBR). You get immediate value (flashback 1 card vs opponent discards). Kess wins on this point.

NBR hits harder for a 5 turn clock in the air, Kess hits for 3, likewise in the air.
NBR has a much stronger top-end, but Kess keeps giving every turn as long as your GY is stocked, without any further input from the pilot (apart from the casting cost of the spell).

Perhaps the trickiest part of the equation is Kess needs you to keep her alive, which is best done with counterspells, but then her ability works best with discard, which puts tension on your deckbuilding choices. She wants Dreadbores, Rise // Fall, Inquisition of Kozilek, but she needs Countersquall, Cryptic Command, Spell Pierce.

Next question is - does she outdo the other 4 cmc sorcery-speed threat, JTMS? That appears to be on a whole other wavelength but make no mistake, they're in direction competition for the same slots in this deck. In fact JTMS despite being another permanent type probably has more in common with Kess than NBR, although Kess shares the same vulnerabilities as NBR.

What I have enjoyed and loathed about playing Nicol Bolas, the Ravager is that he is a card you generally just want to play once you have the mana. Once you get the discard effect he is generally their as a beat-stick. Should you get to 4UBR you are either already going to kill them with damage or you just played him the turn beforehand. Either way, he is great in the grindy matchups and why he sits in my sideboad. Kess, Dissident Mage on the other hand is good against a majority of matchups as having the ability to rebuy your spells is always good throughout the game and unlike Snapcaster Mage she has a sizeable body with evasion. I do think the large concentration of 4-drops is going to be an issue, but I would rather play Kess in the main alongside Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Something like this is what I am going to start testing with.

I play tested my list with Kess yesterday vs Madru and D&T. It's really good once bolas dragon god hit the table you almost always win.
I think the deck weak againts combo deck. Have to play test vs dredge and amulet titan.

What about a grixis pyro list including kess?

Funny you should suggest that, because I've been testing exactly that the last couple days:



Kess has been an absolute bomb with this kind of discard-heavy shell. I'm not sure about everything yet, but its been performing great overall. Pyromancer works incredibly well with Kess. One important thing I've found is that she is a quite aggressive card. You want to recast discard most of the time and keep opps game down while beating down with her. Let me know what you think