MTG Salvation

At 1cc the options are going to limited. flame slash can take out a 4 power creature. I mean, the best removal in the format is 1cc, but white.

yeah, i'm thinking until they print 1 cmc removal for us, maybe a threads of disloyalty in the sideboard could help out a bit since the main issue i think is the tempo loss that comes with 2 cmc removal. Id try murderous cut but the delve spells seem to be taxed already. I think though that the 3rd spell snare REALLY helps a ton though (since i'm mainly talking about goyfs and other 2 drops that dont die to bolt). That in combination with the threads in the side could be decent for now i think.

I think its really hard if you try to compare white with black. White is just so efficient. Black has slaughter games, so taking advantage of that is pretty important. Should give grixis the leg up vs scapeshift, jeskai ascendancy, ad nauseum, etc

almost forgot about tragic slip lol, idk if thats realistic though.

Would love to see a reprint of innocent blood

Quote from Sled_Dog »

Would love to see a reprint of innocent blood

I think many would love to see that including me. It's not like the card is broken...

Hey guys, I've been a part of this thread for some time now. Just a ghost reader with a few posts discussing my deck but I was curious to see if anybody could help me with a pretty solid mana base? I can post my deck in a sec but until I do I tend to run a few cards that tend to be hard on my mana base. I definitely use Geth's Verdict but I intend to use oountersquall now with the addition of polluted delta.

I'm just now getting back into modern again after stopping my play after eldrazi release for work but this deck has given me much success in FNM and casual play.
Oh, I also tend to run 24 or 25 lands. Thanks!

Glad to see your interest. I can't wait to see your list. There are a couple of sample manabases on page 95.

Hey all, I've cut down from 4 mana leak to 1, and replaced 3 of them with, 1 Deprive, 1 Logic Knot, and 1 spell snare. I've gotta say 3 spell snare is pretty amazing :). I've talked already about deprive and still feel its great as a 1 of card, and also thanks to whoever suggested logic knot its been pretty great currently ( i especially like that it cant be spell snared super relevant in counterwars) i've been playing 3 dig through time and 2 forbidden alchemy and i love alchemy a lot it helps fuel delve so beautifully and when you can dig for 2 mana you can come back from a lot of different situations where you may have fallen behind. 2 mana digs are great tempo swings.

I was playing with 3 alchemys and i thought that was pretty good, i think the ideal amount would probably be 2.5 alchemy. In that list I cut a cruel ultimatum for a dig through time to try that out and it was actually pretty good I thought, but with 3 digs and no cruel i wanted a very versatile card still that could potentially win the game, of course I used to play Jace AoT before replacing it with a dig but I heard that Jace AoT was being considered in the BUG (jundish cruise) decks so I thought that it wasnt that bad of an idea to replace one FA with a Jace since I felt the deck could use at least 1 more solid win condition aside from batterskull and that 2 fa could be fine especially if i still had jace card draw, also it had a lot of flexibility as I talked about earlier with helping you get ahead/control the game instead of trying to win with it outright. Stealing a win condition with the ultimate out of the opponents deck is something that I remembered was a viable strategy for ivan floch in his m15 pro tour victory as jace aot was his only win condition in his mainboard deck for that pro tour aside from mutavaults,(my thought is he liked it for his control deck because it could also be used to come back from a losing situation instead of outright win too). So i've been playing with that card again and have been liking it pretty solidly. So overall i'd say that the cruel-less version of the deck (just digs instead) could be stronger, and hey dig/cruise might get banned so at least during this time anyway i feel like we should be playing as many as we can afford to.

Okay so my decklist is currently this:



So this is the current list I'm testing out.
First, I run Negate but I'm thinking of putting Countersquall in its place to go along with Geth's Verdict. I'm curious to see how the mana can manage in a game and if the You can see. Also, Keranos. I must say that I played a few casual matches with my brother in law and I have not drawn Keranos, God of Storms yet. Nor have I really needed him in my matches, but I just wanted to see him in action lol. I may end up just removing him.
However, Dig Through Time is kind of upsetting me for some reason. I mean it gives us a deep draw and our own choice but it's just not as satisfying as I want it to be. I'm not sure how I want to replace it; maybe an earlier draw with Think Twice but decisions. Or maybe even fall back to my thoughtflare.
The mana is my main concern because although I don't have an issue getting the mana for cruel T7 I feel it's just a bit inconsistent with the favor of colors. I used to run lavaclaw Reaches but I never really loved the card. It didn't do much for me over the years I played it. Some damage here and there but never enough for me to want to love it and keep it. Tar Pits are the real gem. I cut my tar pit count from 3->2 because I didn't want to have too many citpt lands since I'm running Temple of Malice.
My sideboard is only like half way complete, if that so I can't be assed to fake one up atm but all input and suggetions are welcome.

Sapientissimus

Do you have a full list of your current build? I'm wondering how Rune Snag might fit into this slot. Although I do expect that it doesn't play well with DTD.

I used to run rune snag and it's great when you have some in gy but I tried mana leak and liked it for earlier drops. I used to run just 3 leaks but I upped it to 4 recently just to give it a shot and there isn't much of a difference really.

Blud Ale

I like the utility that you have tried to pack into the main. However, I am a little concerned about consistent draws. Maybe some of the general purpose spells are better as a suite of 3-4 and the others could be in the SB.

I would also recommend decreasing the number of check lands (start with removing the dragonskull summit, the reduce the number of sulfur falls and drowned catacombs).

Could you give me an example of what you would do preferably Atticus? Also I run the check lands currently because my deck is somewhat budget, at least mana wise it is but I never have an issue landing any UBR before dropping one so they hardly ever CITPT. When I do fix my mana base however the Dragonskull summits were gonna be the first to go so I'm glad we're on the same page about those.

Edit: While doing some play testing last night I noticed that maybe I would like it more if I cut out the inquisitions and put them SB and had the extra serum visions in its place. Or bring in gitaxian probe or even my old peek combo. Allowing us to see their plays and let us plan ahead as to what we want to burn spells on

I would consider the putting the dispel, negate, and geth's verdict in consideration for the sideboard. Replace the dispels and negates with counter magic for both creatures and non-creatures. You could potentially use hand disruption to fill one of these slots.

Replace the Geth's Verdict with targeted creature removal.

I like the Drowned Catacombs and Sulfur Falls, as long as I am not holding multiples. Consider increasing your fetch and shock land count. I am intrigued by the scryland but would prefer to see this as a Temple of Deceit or Temple of Epiphany. 3 Cryptic Commands will really pressure your access to blue mana.

This is only my opinion. I'm not a fan of serum visions as I like to hold up as much counter magic as possible. I feel like Cruel Control is already in a serious race most games to stabilize the board. Is my urge to hold up counter magic/removal a symptom of lack of experience with playing control or do I have the 'general' right idea?

What do you all think about using mana to scry or scry + cantrip? ie, Temples or Serum Visions

What are the trade offs for playing forbidden alchemy over scry effects?

I have never used FA so I'm not so sure of the trade offs and although I'm not crazy about scry, it serves me some use when I either put the cards on the bottom and draw into what I need/want or if I can see that next turn or two I'll have what I need. With enough draw you could even hit it sooner. However I do feel the draw is lacking for me and I can see how FA +DTT would be useful for some.

and I'd say you have the general down.

Quote from xJoSh »

I want to ask to all of those that are cutting Cruel Ultimatum completely, if you cut cruel completely isn't better just to go UWR? The big advantage of going grixis is having a real finisher in Cruel.

Well forbidden alchemy is still a powerful spell/element to consider, that and thoughtseize of course. There are other sideboard cards also but I think those 2 are reason enough.

Hey everyone! I have played Cruel Control exclusively throughout my whole time playing magic, and exploring the modern format. I have followed this thread for quite some time, blah blah blah, I LOVE THIS DECK. period. so, here's my list:


Mogis is solid, Pack rat is solid, dont knock it until you try it. We(Cruel Control) need more threats, and with my budget, i came up with this. Any suggestions to my list are appreciated, just wanted to share, Go Grixis!

I have always wondered about Mogis, God of Slaughter.

The idea of Pack Rat is interesting if you have Chalice of the Void in your board. Although to feel that this tech is better suited for a BGu attrition deck.