So, with m15 on the horizon, block now behind me, I'm turning my head back to standard. And unlike before, where I netdecked, I want to brew. And I was wondering, what are peoples opinions on Grixis.
With JOU I think there are some nice cards for the deck, and I think the deck will be a nice investment since very few of the important cards rotate with Khans of Takir.
I beat all kinds of odd and random decks but I was losing to the real decks at game day although I always won at least one game... 3/3.
I kind of think my deck rotates with Khans... the red rotates out of my deck at least. Can't play a deck with hero's downfall, dissolve and anger the gods.
Ashiok is good though. BUG control is probably better.
I beat all kinds of odd and random decks but I was losing to the real decks at game day although I always won at least one game... 3/3.
I kind of think my deck rotates with Khans... the red rotates out of my deck at least. Can't play a deck with hero's downfall, dissolve and anger the gods.
Ashiok is good though. BUG control is probably better.
Really? Most of the Gods do nothing on their own, and the ones that do aren't exactly that bad for Control. Not saying you're wrong, but I don't think resolving a God ruins the whole deck.
I beat all kinds of odd and random decks but I was losing to the real decks at game day although I always won at least one game... 3/3.
I kind of think my deck rotates with Khans... the red rotates out of my deck at least. Can't play a deck with hero's downfall, dissolve and anger the gods.
Ashiok is good though. BUG control is probably better.
In a color combination with counters, board wipes, and gild I don't see how resolving a god is particularly common or a major hindrance. Thats like saying someone who resolves a stormbreath dragon auto wins against esper.
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Would Dark Confidant still be good if he punched you in the face for 5 damage a turn?
Grixis always had the problem that it can't deal with enchantments at all. That is dangerous for a control deck.
I remember last season were Grixis was at least a bit played. A resolved Burning Earth was and still is pretty much game over. Gild and Silence the Believers only work when devotion is reached and it that case you will probably take a lot of damage from the creatures that give that devotion. Erebos, God of the Dead is a huge threat since it's a card advantage engine and since the decks that use him have discard it's likely that he will end up hitting the board eventually and then you are screwed.
You can obviously try to make it work but don't expect a miracle. There is a reason that Esper is the premier control deck and the control color combination since white, blue and black get and have all the control tools. Green and red don't offer that much to control strategies generally speaking.
White has wraths, artifact and enchantment destruction, nonland removal with o-ring effects.
Blue has card draw and counters.
Black has excellent spot removal and discard.
I'd argue that Green and Black have better card drawing power than Blue does right now.
Well nothing beats Sphinx's Revelation that's for sure.
But I was talking about it in general. Blue has normally the best card draw. This season is an exception to that. I mean there is still Opportunity, Divination and Inspiration but it's all kinda meh. Think Twice would have been really good but I can understand that it was in Standard for a long time so they wanted to mix it up a bit.
Esper can supreme verdict a stormbreath dragon, If your opponent can amass enough creatures to turn their god into a creature you are already dead and silence the believers isn't going to save you, you have to take a lot of damage from those creatures in order to turn on the god. plus your opponent can always not turn on the god.
I have never beaten a resolved god.
Thassa, is pretty self explanatory, opponents have better card quality and you can't block mutavault. You can prevent it being a creature which also means you can't remove it from play.
Purphoros, burns you to death.
Heliod produces infinite 2/1 which eventually overwhelm you.
Nylea can pump creatures making even top decked mana dorks deadly, you just run out of removal.
Erabos, draws cards you get out carded.
Ephara, is card draw.
Xenagos, every top deck is terrifying and will 1 shot you. (died to it on game day)
Phenax, will mill you to death in any deck built to maximise it
Karametra, ok there you go, but I have never seen it played.
Mogis, I died to this at game day, my opponent had no other threats and no other cards and I just died to the 2 a turn.
Kruphix, hmm ok I haven't played against it, but I guess it has its moments.
Athreos, talk about a beating.. whats that every removal spell costs you 3 life good luck winning that.
Kreneos, either they are bolting you to the face or they are drawing cards both are bad for you.
Pharika, every creature you kill comes back as a snake. I guess.. that is a little weaker would depend on her deck.
Iroas, can't block that is going to kill you fast.
I am slightly exaggerating how bad the deck is, it has game against decks the problem is it feel like it needs a lot of luck to win a game. For example somehow my burn opponent wasn't able to draw two burn spells in the four turns it took me to kill him with my prognostic sphinx and that is how I won that game. My win against Gr devotion was on the back of Ashiok snaging a corser and my opponent taking too long to get off the ground. I used to have an even tougher time but I redesigned my deck to actually win a game fast enough (more midrangey) that I just don't run out of removal and die to mutavault beats.
Edit: For card draw I have found font of fortunes to be the best. divination or underworld connection are three drops, you cannot cast them turn three or.. you will die to a god. you must always have a dissolve (or other counterspell) up turn 3 and 4 or you will lose. Inspiration is too slow and you never want to draw opportunity in your opening hand or in the first three turns... I tried steam augury and I did quite like it its just that it prevents you from being the I am playing lots of 1 ofs deck you want to be.
Its not a question of viability its a question of what grixis offers that esper or american cannot. Esper has the amazingly versatile uw shell with verdict, sphinx revelation, detention sphere and azorius charm, and also has access to the best spot removal with hero's downfall and discard with thoughtseize., american also has the uw shell but with the added ability to use ral zarek, aurelia, warleaders helix, izzet charm and turn/burn which are all good spells for control.
The only thing that the grixis color combo offers that esper and american can't is dreadbore and dreadbore is not that great anymore.
Esper can supreme verdict a stormbreath dragon, If your opponent can amass enough creatures to turn their god into a creature you are already dead and silence the believers isn't going to save you, you have to take a lot of damage from those creatures in order to turn on the god. plus your opponent can always not turn on the god.
I have never beaten a resolved god.
Thassa, is pretty self explanatory, opponents have better card quality and you can't block mutavault. You can prevent it being a creature which also means you can't remove it from play.
Purphoros, burns you to death.
Heliod produces infinite 2/1 which eventually overwhelm you.
Nylea can pump creatures making even top decked mana dorks deadly, you just run out of removal.
Erabos, draws cards you get out carded.
Ephara, is card draw.
Xenagos, every top deck is terrifying and will 1 shot you. (died to it on game day)
Phenax, will mill you to death in any deck built to maximise it
Karametra, ok there you go, but I have never seen it played.
Mogis, I died to this at game day, my opponent had no other threats and no other cards and I just died to the 2 a turn.
Kruphix, hmm ok I haven't played against it, but I guess it has its moments.
Athreos, talk about a beating.. whats that every removal spell costs you 3 life good luck winning that.
Kreneos, either they are bolting you to the face or they are drawing cards both are bad for you.
Pharika, every creature you kill comes back as a snake. I guess.. that is a little weaker would depend on her deck.
Iroas, can't block that is going to kill you fast.
I am slightly exaggerating how bad the deck is, it has game against decks the problem is it feel like it needs a lot of luck to win a game. For example somehow my burn opponent wasn't able to draw two burn spells in the four turns it took me to kill him with my prognostic sphinx and that is how I won that game. My win against Gr devotion was on the back of Ashiok snaging a corser and my opponent taking too long to get off the ground. I used to have an even tougher time but I redesigned my deck to actually win a game fast enough (more midrangey) that I just don't run out of removal and die to mutavault beats.
Edit: For card draw I have found font of fortunes to be the best. divination or underworld connection are three drops, you cannot cast them turn three or.. you will die to a god. you must always have a dissolve (or other counterspell) up turn 3 and 4 or you will lose. Inspiration is too slow and you never want to draw opportunity in your opening hand or in the first three turns... I tried steam augury and I did quite like it its just that it prevents you from being the I am playing lots of 1 ofs deck you want to be.
Turn// Burn is a card
Far// away is a card
Cyclonic Rift is a Card
Thoughtseize is a card
Gild is a card
All of these are fine and efficient ways to deal with gods. You know what isn't a good way to deal with gods? Banishing Light and Detention sphere. With practically infinite enchantment hate around right now those options are WORSE than the above. Not to mention your decklist for grixis control strikes me as abyssmal.
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Would Dark Confidant still be good if he punched you in the face for 5 damage a turn?
Thanks man.. nice vote of confidence. Mine might be awful but no one else has a version that works either. I have played many versions of the deck for about 2 years and so maybe my dislike is simiply being sick of it. It feels like you are fighting with knifes against Sphinxes rev's gun.
Resolved god.
I am pretty sure of those only cyclonic rift deals with them and without agression behind it you are 2 for 1 ing yourself to counter it on the way down.
If the god is targetable by those spells then it is a creature then you are dieing to whatever they have used to turn it into a creature be it nightviel spector or underworld connections. Yes you can remove a god from play.. but at what cost?.
If they destory the sphere or light then they spent a card they don't have as may as we do we can find another sphere or light. white and green both have other cards to remove gods.
I am suggesting playing BUG and not grixis that is my opinion.
Really Turn // Burn doesn't deal with a resolved god? Gild doesn't deal with a resolved god? Silence the Believers doesn't deal with gods? I don't think you have ANY IDEA what you're talking about.
Here is a primer maybe you'll learn a thing or two.
That Primer is outdated and should have been taken down more than a year ago as Grixis as an archetype has been largely irrelevant for nearly as long if not longer. Literally no other shard has seen as little play this standard season and there are glaring reasons for that that some hopefuls might tend to overlook. Grixis simply isn't good enough and this is coming from a long time advocate of those colors.
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That Primer is outdated and should have been taken down more than a year ago as Grixis as an archetype has been largely irrelevant for nearly as long if not longer. Literally no other shard has seen as little play this standard season and there are glaring reasons for that that some hopefuls might tend to overlook. Grixis simply isn't good enough and this is coming from a long time advocate of those colors.
We aren't discussing winning a pro tour with this deck. Merely whether or not it is a viable brew. The deck isn't terrible by any means. It has good cards and in the proper meta will do fine at an FNM.
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Would Dark Confidant still be good if he punched you in the face for 5 damage a turn?
I understand that, any collection of powerful cards can win at FNM but pointing at a competitive Primer from a competitive section when the deck itself is not remotely competitive seems rather redundant.
So yes, Grixis is viable, but that depends on what the word viable means to you.
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They do not deal with a resolved God on an otherwise empty board. you are a control deck your goal is to have an empty board if your opponent has creatures or planeswalkers on the field you are probably losing.
I have read the primer and I went 3/3 at game day 9/6 in games that is respectable not awful, I'd probably do fine at FNM, I beat my friends decks all the time, its just not going to win any tournaments.
Apparently the grixis player has never seen a xenagod whip 10/10 hasted polukranos and 8/8 stormbreath dragons, and 8/8 hasted ghor clans at them. Xenagod is a house against control that grixis literally has no answers to when he resolves. If he doesn't have devotion you can't use silence the believers as he is not a creature, the same reason you can't target a non-creature with turn burn, you can't bounce a non creature with far and away or make them sac a non creature, and you can't gild a non-creature. This is the point people are making about gods. Purphuros, erebos, thassa, ephara, among others don't need to be active to cause problems.
Can't deal with banishing light, D-sphere, gods, assemble the legion. Also lifegain is pretty bad and card draw is second-tier to UW.
It's possible that you'll win some games and matches, but I think just as consistently you'll be getting shut out of games because you can't interact with simple permanents that get resolved. Right now there's no incentive to play Grixis control. Mana is bad. No "real" board wipe in the colors. Draw spells are meh. Lastly, most of the Dimir and Izzet cards are no good save Izzet Charm, and there's one card in Rakdos that's okay (Rakdos's Returns)
Grixis control I don't believe is viable currently without some solid life gain. All the powerful Thoughtseize and shocklands add up and you can just die to yourself. If it had some reliable life gain without wasting slots, then I believe it will definitely be competitive. Enchantment removal is lacking, but you do have access to discard and counterspells which deals with enchantments, not to mention Oblivion Ring effect aren't the safest things to lean on, in the other control decks, though Deicide would be nice to have ;P. Probably have to wait and see what happens after rotation but currently the only thing I can see going for it is a tempo based strategy with Young Pyromancer, Pack Rat backed up with discard, counters and card draw.
Grixis is not a deck, its a way of life. The Grixis is real, check out the on going decklists and posts Here. If you try to play it like a UWx deck then I would say that is potentially the first mistake. Grixis has a unique set of strengths that you have to play to, over UWx.
The volume of 1:1 answers you get is insane, just pick the right tool for the job. There are even a number of sweepers, like Anger of the Gods, Ætherspouts, and the two afore mentioned artifacts immediately come to mind.
Then you get to play with some pretty good walkers to top it all off. Liliana, Jaces, Ashiok, Chandra, and Ral Zarek.
Whenever I go play at FNM I WISH I could play against only the U/Wx decks in all 4 rounds. That matchup is probably the best one for grixis and I just have so much fun smashing the other control player. The look on their face when they realize you are playing Counterflux alone is worth it.
BUG is still better since it can use the same tools and will be supported by the Sultai after rotation.
Your deck appears to be UR based and not UB based. Keranos is an interesting but he doesn't do anything until it makes it around to your draw step.. if you are tapping out turn 5 you want bigger impact.
Yes. I play a base ub deck with a splash of black. Tapping out for keranos in practice is better than you make it you to be. And you could have used turn//burn before the vault. Lightning bolts or an extra card seems pretty good. Play test with it I promise its good. I look forward to the challenge of making a grixis deck with no official guild. Maybe I am a masochist.
Well he sees play in modern so I am pretty confident he is quite good, I have one but I am yet to try him in the deck.
The point that have I have been trying to say in every thread in this thread that doesn't seem to get through to anyone. Is that nothing kills resolved non creature gods. As a control deck you can easily keep thier devotion below the threshhold.. but even as enchantments the gods can crush you... Thassa finds gas, kreanos bolts you to death, ephara keeps giving them draw, erabos directly draws cards, Atheros makes you kill everything over and over, Heliod drowns your in 2/1s, Xenagos makes everything a terrorfying threat.... etc.
that was until the vault.. which does make the deck better.
I see what you are getting at. In that context the best that the color scheme can do is bounce, but you still need another card to take it from their hand or a counter for the recast. Unless they print Chaos warp...
I have admittedly lost to my share of resolved Zenagods. Thoughtsieze, and slaughter games help. You can Pithing needle the ones with active abilities. For the static abilities you have to just either beat them in card advantage or are forced into a race. I have used Trading Post for example to hold mogis at bay. They are definitely problematic but not necessarily the end of the game, you just need to gain advantage over the resource you are fighting for parity over. Fighting for card advantage is something that happens in every game the control deck plays. I often find I win if I see half my deck, and lose if I do not. Being able to race is not necessarily what control decks excel at but there are some good midrange cards that can help with that.
I also find that when I play other people with my grixis deck they are often not upset or mad that I beat them with a control deck because the answers are not as outright universal solutions like DSphere or ORing. So you are rarely "That guy" with the control deck.
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With JOU I think there are some nice cards for the deck, and I think the deck will be a nice investment since very few of the important cards rotate with Khans of Takir.
I beat all kinds of odd and random decks but I was losing to the real decks at game day although I always won at least one game... 3/3.
I kind of think my deck rotates with Khans... the red rotates out of my deck at least. Can't play a deck with hero's downfall, dissolve and anger the gods.
Ashiok is good though. BUG control is probably better.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Really? Most of the Gods do nothing on their own, and the ones that do aren't exactly that bad for Control. Not saying you're wrong, but I don't think resolving a God ruins the whole deck.
In a color combination with counters, board wipes, and gild I don't see how resolving a god is particularly common or a major hindrance. Thats like saying someone who resolves a stormbreath dragon auto wins against esper.
I remember last season were Grixis was at least a bit played. A resolved Burning Earth was and still is pretty much game over.
Gild and Silence the Believers only work when devotion is reached and it that case you will probably take a lot of damage from the creatures that give that devotion.
Erebos, God of the Dead is a huge threat since it's a card advantage engine and since the decks that use him have discard it's likely that he will end up hitting the board eventually and then you are screwed.
You can obviously try to make it work but don't expect a miracle. There is a reason that Esper is the premier control deck and the control color combination since white, blue and black get and have all the control tools. Green and red don't offer that much to control strategies generally speaking.
White has wraths, artifact and enchantment destruction, nonland removal with o-ring effects.
Blue has card draw and counters.
Black has excellent spot removal and discard.
Well nothing beats Sphinx's Revelation that's for sure.
But I was talking about it in general. Blue has normally the best card draw. This season is an exception to that. I mean there is still Opportunity, Divination and Inspiration but it's all kinda meh.
Think Twice would have been really good but I can understand that it was in Standard for a long time so they wanted to mix it up a bit.
I have never beaten a resolved god.
Thassa, is pretty self explanatory, opponents have better card quality and you can't block mutavault. You can prevent it being a creature which also means you can't remove it from play.
Purphoros, burns you to death.
Heliod produces infinite 2/1 which eventually overwhelm you.
Nylea can pump creatures making even top decked mana dorks deadly, you just run out of removal.
Erabos, draws cards you get out carded.
Ephara, is card draw.
Xenagos, every top deck is terrifying and will 1 shot you. (died to it on game day)
Phenax, will mill you to death in any deck built to maximise it
Karametra, ok there you go, but I have never seen it played.
Mogis, I died to this at game day, my opponent had no other threats and no other cards and I just died to the 2 a turn.
Kruphix, hmm ok I haven't played against it, but I guess it has its moments.
Athreos, talk about a beating.. whats that every removal spell costs you 3 life good luck winning that.
Kreneos, either they are bolting you to the face or they are drawing cards both are bad for you.
Pharika, every creature you kill comes back as a snake. I guess.. that is a little weaker would depend on her deck.
Iroas, can't block that is going to kill you fast.
I am slightly exaggerating how bad the deck is, it has game against decks the problem is it feel like it needs a lot of luck to win a game. For example somehow my burn opponent wasn't able to draw two burn spells in the four turns it took me to kill him with my prognostic sphinx and that is how I won that game. My win against Gr devotion was on the back of Ashiok snaging a corser and my opponent taking too long to get off the ground. I used to have an even tougher time but I redesigned my deck to actually win a game fast enough (more midrangey) that I just don't run out of removal and die to mutavault beats.
Edit: For card draw I have found font of fortunes to be the best. divination or underworld connection are three drops, you cannot cast them turn three or.. you will die to a god. you must always have a dissolve (or other counterspell) up turn 3 and 4 or you will lose. Inspiration is too slow and you never want to draw opportunity in your opening hand or in the first three turns... I tried steam augury and I did quite like it its just that it prevents you from being the I am playing lots of 1 ofs deck you want to be.
my deck for reference: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/standard-deck-creation/558737-grixis-controling
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
The only thing that the grixis color combo offers that esper and american can't is dreadbore and dreadbore is not that great anymore.
This post is so ignorant.
Turn// Burn is a card
Far// away is a card
Cyclonic Rift is a Card
Thoughtseize is a card
Gild is a card
All of these are fine and efficient ways to deal with gods. You know what isn't a good way to deal with gods? Banishing Light and Detention sphere. With practically infinite enchantment hate around right now those options are WORSE than the above. Not to mention your decklist for grixis control strikes me as abyssmal.
Resolved god.
I am pretty sure of those only cyclonic rift deals with them and without agression behind it you are 2 for 1 ing yourself to counter it on the way down.
If the god is targetable by those spells then it is a creature then you are dieing to whatever they have used to turn it into a creature be it nightviel spector or underworld connections. Yes you can remove a god from play.. but at what cost?.
You also keep not mentioning silence the believers in your lists.
There are two answers thoughtsieze and counterspells.
If they destory the sphere or light then they spent a card they don't have as may as we do we can find another sphere or light. white and green both have other cards to remove gods.
I am suggesting playing BUG and not grixis that is my opinion.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
Here is a primer maybe you'll learn a thing or two.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/competitive/established-standard/507431-primer-grixis-control
We aren't discussing winning a pro tour with this deck. Merely whether or not it is a viable brew. The deck isn't terrible by any means. It has good cards and in the proper meta will do fine at an FNM.
So yes, Grixis is viable, but that depends on what the word viable means to you.
I have read the primer and I went 3/3 at game day 9/6 in games that is respectable not awful, I'd probably do fine at FNM, I beat my friends decks all the time, its just not going to win any tournaments.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
It's possible that you'll win some games and matches, but I think just as consistently you'll be getting shut out of games because you can't interact with simple permanents that get resolved. Right now there's no incentive to play Grixis control. Mana is bad. No "real" board wipe in the colors. Draw spells are meh. Lastly, most of the Dimir and Izzet cards are no good save Izzet Charm, and there's one card in Rakdos that's okay (Rakdos's Returns)
Elixir of Immortality and Trading Post can both gain life.
Ratchet Bomb is a real card and so is Perilous Vault.
Yes your card draw suite does not include rev, but I would argue it is not needed. Divination, Jace's ingenuity, Thoughtflare, Opportunity, Jace, Architect of Thought, Liliana Vess, Font of Fortunes, Izzet Charm, and Keranos, God of Storms are more than playable options. You can play a higher threat density with cards like Stormbreath Dragon or other midrangy cards. Counterflux changes the way the control mirrors get played.
The volume of 1:1 answers you get is insane, just pick the right tool for the job. There are even a number of sweepers, like Anger of the Gods, Ætherspouts, and the two afore mentioned artifacts immediately come to mind.
Then you get to play with some pretty good walkers to top it all off. Liliana, Jaces, Ashiok, Chandra, and Ral Zarek.
Whenever I go play at FNM I WISH I could play against only the U/Wx decks in all 4 rounds. That matchup is probably the best one for grixis and I just have so much fun smashing the other control player. The look on their face when they realize you are playing Counterflux alone is worth it.
BUG is still better since it can use the same tools and will be supported by the Sultai after rotation.
Your deck appears to be UR based and not UB based. Keranos is an interesting but he doesn't do anything until it makes it around to your draw step.. if you are tapping out turn 5 you want bigger impact.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
The point that have I have been trying to say in every thread in this thread that doesn't seem to get through to anyone. Is that nothing kills resolved non creature gods. As a control deck you can easily keep thier devotion below the threshhold.. but even as enchantments the gods can crush you... Thassa finds gas, kreanos bolts you to death, ephara keeps giving them draw, erabos directly draws cards, Atheros makes you kill everything over and over, Heliod drowns your in 2/1s, Xenagos makes everything a terrorfying threat.... etc.
that was until the vault.. which does make the deck better.
Pioneer:UR Pheonix
Modern:U Mono U Tron
EDH
GB Glissa, the traitor: Army of Cans
UW Dragonlord Ojutai: Dragonlord NOjutai
UWGDerevi, Empyrial Tactician "you cannot fight the storm"
R Zirilan of the claw. The solution to every problem is dragons
UB Etrata, the Silencer Cloning assassination
Peasant cube: Cards I own
You can bounce it using Disperse, Cyclonic Rift, Void Snare, Jace, The Living Guildpact, and the less useful Dinrova Horror. If you had a sac outlet or just needed it gone for a turn you could always cast Catch // Release for extra flavor points.
I have admittedly lost to my share of resolved Zenagods. Thoughtsieze, and slaughter games help. You can Pithing needle the ones with active abilities. For the static abilities you have to just either beat them in card advantage or are forced into a race. I have used Trading Post for example to hold mogis at bay. They are definitely problematic but not necessarily the end of the game, you just need to gain advantage over the resource you are fighting for parity over. Fighting for card advantage is something that happens in every game the control deck plays. I often find I win if I see half my deck, and lose if I do not. Being able to race is not necessarily what control decks excel at but there are some good midrange cards that can help with that.
I also find that when I play other people with my grixis deck they are often not upset or mad that I beat them with a control deck because the answers are not as outright universal solutions like DSphere or ORing. So you are rarely "That guy" with the control deck.