This is one variant of hard Control in Pauper. This basically means this deck takes a while to win, but makes your opponent rage in fury against all the creature removal and permission this deck packs. This deck has a lot of positive matchups, because in this format people use mostly creatures as their gameplan.
The Grixis colour trinity is perfect for this deck's goal, which is removing every single threat that drops in the battlefield. Red and Black are the perfect killing combination, and backed up by blue's consistency and card advantage, makes this deck one of the hardest decks to play, because you need to manage your mana in early turns and try to estabilize the board position as the games develops. This deck is fun because it is the opposite of linear. Every turn you have to figure out what's the best possible play.
Lands:
I use Swiftwater and Backwater as main lands because they provide blue mana and gives 1 life, which is pretty important in this deck. Evolving Wilds is the fetchland, and the single Bojuka Bog is relevant in sometimes, but it can be replaced by something else.
Win Conditions:
Gurmag Angler is the perfect critter in Pauper. A giant 5/5 body with a relative easy cost to play in the midgame. This is your main threat if you want to win the game as fast as possible. Curse of the Bloody Tome is the second win condition and the slower one. This takes a while to win you the game, but it's effective against most decks. Only green and white decks can remove it consistently.
Draw Spells:
Preordain is the best cantrip for card filtering. Accumulated Knowledge is great, and it gets better as the games drag out (our main gameplan).
Removal:
Firebolt is the best removal sorcery in Pauper, as it can be used twice for value. This card is extremely important for this deck, as it deals with early threats from your opponent's side. Chainer's Edict follows the same reasoning, cheap removal that's re-usable. This card is great against decks with few creatures like Tron and GW Auras. Terminate is the best creature removal in the format. Electrickery and Diabolic Edict are silver bullets that can be found with Mystical Teachings, and can be important in some cases.
Permission:
4 Counterspell is a staple in this format, play no less than 4. Exclude is the second best permission, as it counters your opponent's threats and gives you a draw.
Tutor and Utility:
2 Pristine Talisman is ESSENTIAL in this deck, but 2 is the golden number. This card makes you gain 1 life every turn, while helping you with additional mana. Don't cut this card if you expect to win against Burn or Goblins. Mystical Teaching can be upped to 2 in numbers, maybe cut an Exclude for it. It's the basic tutor for instants in Pauper, it can save you from almost any situation if you have the mana avaliable.
Sideboard:
This one is pretty straight foward... Pyroblast because Mono Blue Delver is probably the most common deck in Pauper (and one of the strongest, also). Negate to replace your removal against decks where you don't need removal, like GW Auras, Burn and some other combo stuff. Crypt Incursion is ESSENTIAL in the sideboard, as it can help you recover lots of life after removing all your opponent's creatures. Also great against decks that abuse the graveyard recursion like Grim Harvest and Tortured Existence decks. Shattering Pulse is great against affinity, as it is recursive by nature and can be fetched with Teachings. Shrivel is another great card against GW Auras and swarm decks like Goblins and Elves. The extra Curse of the Bloody Tome comes when you need to speed up the kill, and against other Control decks as well. Syphon Life is my personal choice for an alternate win condition that helps you gain some life when you're in trouble.
Looks good. Cool to see another control deck beside Blue, Black, and Dimir. Does you ever miss the 3rd damage from Lightning bolt when you play fire bolt?
Not really man. Creatures in Pauper hardly ever have 3 toughness (some notable exceptions: Kor Skyfisher, Aven Riftwatcher). Every other playable creature have either 1~2 toughness (inside Firebolt reach) and 4+ toughness (outside Lightning Bolt reach). And I don't really use burn into my opponent's life, 95% of my Firebolts target creatures. The recursion is better than the extra point in damage I think.
I would probably play some number of Mulldrifter and Evincar's Justice and basically cut Curse of the Bloody Tome altogether. You have already a win condition in Angler, so having more creatures to beat face in Drifter and Justice to slowly buyback and kill a player seems good. Another 1-2 copies of Teachings seem good too.
Pristine Talismine seems pretty solid too as it gives you a bit more time against aggro decks, in which you could stabilize with so much removal and 8 counters. It actually looks like it plays similar to modern/legacy jund which trades for all your cards until there's nothing left except them having an Angler. Have you played enough to know which are your good and bad matchups?
I've played like 50~60 Bo3 matches with the current version of the deck. Well, the most difficult matchup is Burn and Goblins, because they can usually swarm and burn you down before you stabilize. Curse of the Piercing Heart just trashes on this deck because we take a long time to win. The best matchup is probably Elves and Mono Blue Delver because you can kill every single creature they have. GW Auras is a toss game 1 because 20% of your deck is useless against them, but postboard it gets easiler with Shrivel and Negate (I usually leave 1 Terminate to fetch with Teachings in case they run Aura Gnarlid). RUG Tron is also a good matchup, because you can control their board and save Counterspells for those Rolling Thunders.
Just started out with this deck last night. Jammed some cards together just to pass the time with some friends and actually liked how it worked out.
Always been a fan of hard control, but got quite tired of UB and thought "Hmmm, Grixis... why not?"
Your card choices are pretty much the same as mine, except for the fact that I cant afford to buy Accumulated Knowledge and my dislike of Gurmag Angler in this deck. The two main reasons I think this deck has competitive potential are:
1. It kills everything that moves, and (almost) everyone in pauper is trying to kill you with creatures, even the new iterations of UB control
2. It blanks all removal spells, essentially "countering" a lot of cards in your opponent's deck without spending anything. Think of how awesome it is to play against MBC and he starts out with 4 cards in his initial hand against our 7.
Now, that second reason just goes to waste with Gurmag Angler on the main deck. The second you play your Angler, you turn on all the dead cards in his hand. This is the same reason why I don't play any Mulldrifters or Oracles. On the other hand, packing a number of Anglers on the sideboard and bringing them in G2 after our opponents just sided-out all his removal spells sounds pretty nasty haha
Didn't think of Crypt Incursion, trying that card latter today, but it sounds awesome.
It's really a combination of control and bord wipes as well as burn and finishers. I would like to know what you guys think of the list as well as the sideboard. I'm thinking of maybe upping some numbers or maybe having other cards like Agony Warp or Bump in the Night.
Just started to work on a grixis control list. Still running the testing phase. When I‘m done with the testing, I‘ll post my list for discussion. A fewcearly observations from initial testing:
-Forbidden Alchemy is the real deal in this deck.
-The deck is rather slow, but has incredible late game power.
-
EDIT: I‘m testing different versions of the deck. Until now, none of them did fully deliver. Burn is basically unwinnable game1. And the lategame is still dominated by tron. I will try a version with Devious Cover-up.
EDIT2: I'm done with the deck. Three coloured mana bases are too slow in pauper, so a tron version will almost always be better. If someone is interested in my last I can post it, otherwise that's it.
This is one variant of hard Control in Pauper. This basically means this deck takes a while to win, but makes your opponent rage in fury against all the creature removal and permission this deck packs. This deck has a lot of positive matchups, because in this format people use mostly creatures as their gameplan.
The Grixis colour trinity is perfect for this deck's goal, which is removing every single threat that drops in the battlefield. Red and Black are the perfect killing combination, and backed up by blue's consistency and card advantage, makes this deck one of the hardest decks to play, because you need to manage your mana in early turns and try to estabilize the board position as the games develops. This deck is fun because it is the opposite of linear. Every turn you have to figure out what's the best possible play.
This is my list, for reference:
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Bloodfell Caves
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Island
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
1 Bojuka Bog
Win Conditions [7]
4 Gurmag Angler
3 Curse of the Bloody Tome
4 Preordain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
Permission [8]
4 Counterspell
4 Exclude
Removal [12]
4 Firebolt
4 Chainer's Edict
2 Terminate
1 Electrickery
1 Diabolic Edict
Tutor and Utility [3]
2 Pristine Talisman
1 Mystical Teachings
4 Pyroblast
4 Negate
3 Crypt Incursion
1 Curse of the Bloody Tome
1 Shrivel
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Syphon Life
Card choices:
Lands:
I use Swiftwater and Backwater as main lands because they provide blue mana and gives 1 life, which is pretty important in this deck. Evolving Wilds is the fetchland, and the single Bojuka Bog is relevant in sometimes, but it can be replaced by something else.
Other card options: Terramorphic Expanse, Izzet Boilerworks, Dimir Aqueduct, Radiant Fountain
Win Conditions:
Gurmag Angler is the perfect critter in Pauper. A giant 5/5 body with a relative easy cost to play in the midgame. This is your main threat if you want to win the game as fast as possible. Curse of the Bloody Tome is the second win condition and the slower one. This takes a while to win you the game, but it's effective against most decks. Only green and white decks can remove it consistently.
Other card options: Mulldrifter, Sultai Scavenger, Delver of Secrets
Draw Spells:
Preordain is the best cantrip for card filtering. Accumulated Knowledge is great, and it gets better as the games drag out (our main gameplan).
Other card options: Brainstorm, Ponder, Think Twice, Deep Analysis
Removal:
Firebolt is the best removal sorcery in Pauper, as it can be used twice for value. This card is extremely important for this deck, as it deals with early threats from your opponent's side. Chainer's Edict follows the same reasoning, cheap removal that's re-usable. This card is great against decks with few creatures like Tron and GW Auras. Terminate is the best creature removal in the format. Electrickery and Diabolic Edict are silver bullets that can be found with Mystical Teachings, and can be important in some cases.
Other card options: Lightning Bolt, Doom Blade, Magma Spray, Electrostatic Bolt, Wail of the Nim, Strangling Soot, Agony Warp, Ghastly Demise
Permission:
4 Counterspell is a staple in this format, play no less than 4. Exclude is the second best permission, as it counters your opponent's threats and gives you a draw.
Other card options: Mana Leak, Rune Snag, Deprive
Tutor and Utility:
2 Pristine Talisman is ESSENTIAL in this deck, but 2 is the golden number. This card makes you gain 1 life every turn, while helping you with additional mana. Don't cut this card if you expect to win against Burn or Goblins. Mystical Teaching can be upped to 2 in numbers, maybe cut an Exclude for it. It's the basic tutor for instants in Pauper, it can save you from almost any situation if you have the mana avaliable.
Other card options: Forbidden Alchemy
Sideboard:
This one is pretty straight foward... Pyroblast because Mono Blue Delver is probably the most common deck in Pauper (and one of the strongest, also). Negate to replace your removal against decks where you don't need removal, like GW Auras, Burn and some other combo stuff. Crypt Incursion is ESSENTIAL in the sideboard, as it can help you recover lots of life after removing all your opponent's creatures. Also great against decks that abuse the graveyard recursion like Grim Harvest and Tortured Existence decks. Shattering Pulse is great against affinity, as it is recursive by nature and can be fetched with Teachings. Shrivel is another great card against GW Auras and swarm decks like Goblins and Elves. The extra Curse of the Bloody Tome comes when you need to speed up the kill, and against other Control decks as well. Syphon Life is my personal choice for an alternate win condition that helps you gain some life when you're in trouble.
Other card options: Hydroblast, Gorilla Shaman, Echoing Truth
Give this deck a try, you'll be surprised how good it is.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Just started out with this deck last night. Jammed some cards together just to pass the time with some friends and actually liked how it worked out.
Always been a fan of hard control, but got quite tired of UB and thought "Hmmm, Grixis... why not?"
Your card choices are pretty much the same as mine, except for the fact that I cant afford to buy Accumulated Knowledge and my dislike of Gurmag Angler in this deck. The two main reasons I think this deck has competitive potential are:
1. It kills everything that moves, and (almost) everyone in pauper is trying to kill you with creatures, even the new iterations of UB control
2. It blanks all removal spells, essentially "countering" a lot of cards in your opponent's deck without spending anything. Think of how awesome it is to play against MBC and he starts out with 4 cards in his initial hand against our 7.
Now, that second reason just goes to waste with Gurmag Angler on the main deck. The second you play your Angler, you turn on all the dead cards in his hand. This is the same reason why I don't play any Mulldrifters or Oracles. On the other hand, packing a number of Anglers on the sideboard and bringing them in G2 after our opponents just sided-out all his removal spells sounds pretty nasty haha
Didn't think of Crypt Incursion, trying that card latter today, but it sounds awesome.
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Gurmag Angler
(10) Burn / removals
4 Firebolt
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Blightning
(8) Counterspells
3 Counterspell
2 Exclude
1 Mana Leak
1 Prohibit
1 Remove Soul
(7) Cantrips
3 Ponder
3 Preordain
1 Brainstorm
3 Chainer's Edict
2 Terminate
1 Disfigure
(1) Other
1 Mystical Teachings
(22) Lands
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Island
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
3 Hydroblast
3 Pyroblast
2 Crypt Incursion
2 Duress
1 Blightning
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Shrivel
1 Syphon Life
1 Wail of the Nim
It's really a combination of control and bord wipes as well as burn and finishers. I would like to know what you guys think of the list as well as the sideboard. I'm thinking of maybe upping some numbers or maybe having other cards like Agony Warp or Bump in the Night.
Cheers!
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
-Forbidden Alchemy is the real deal in this deck.
-The deck is rather slow, but has incredible late game power.
-
EDIT: I‘m testing different versions of the deck. Until now, none of them did fully deliver. Burn is basically unwinnable game1. And the lategame is still dominated by tron. I will try a version with Devious Cover-up.
EDIT2: I'm done with the deck. Three coloured mana bases are too slow in pauper, so a tron version will almost always be better. If someone is interested in my last I can post it, otherwise that's it.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/other-formats/mtgo-pauper/developing/647850-primer-angler-delver
Modern: Sultai Death's Shadow
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/773885-sultai-deaths-shadow-bug-aggro]
Legacy: Snake&Show
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?27217-Deck-Sneak-and-Show
Discuss my Cube @ MTGsalvation:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=207309
Here you go: Grixis control and Grixis Tron (with some green)
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/other-formats/mtgo-pauper/developing/647850-primer-angler-delver
Modern: Sultai Death's Shadow
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/773885-sultai-deaths-shadow-bug-aggro]
Legacy: Snake&Show
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?27217-Deck-Sneak-and-Show
Discuss my Cube @ MTGsalvation:
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=207309