Hey, new to playing Grixis Control, but I just started. Began with taking Shoota's deck, and looking online for improvements that can be made to it. Some of my testing indicated that Thing In the Ice was just too slow and vulnerable to the removal being tossed around. So, I cut the Things and made the swap to add in Goblin Dark-Dwellers. In addition, I also added in another Gearhulk to keep threat density, and also one copy of Chandra, Flamecaller. Cut Painful Truths also, due to expecting an aggro-heavy meta, and also added another Essence Extraction and a Ruinous Path. I am still looking to find another copy of two of Wandering Fumarole, and a 4th copy of Glimmer of Genius. Thoughts are welcome, and I would like any advice on how to play vs the various matchups.
The deck as it stands is:
FNM results were a disappointing 2-2, although I think that was often due to my inexperience with the deck. Made some major punts in multiple games, but won vs UB Metallurgic and Mardu Vehicles, and got crushed by GB Delirium and UWb control.
Thoughts are that Succumb can be used more reactively against control, along with being able to be flashed back with both Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Torrential Gearhulk. The addition of another Transgress is for more power against GB delirium and control, along with being another strong target for Dank-Dwellers. Keeping 1 Essence in, but am still on the fence about maybe swapping in To the Slaughter over Ruinous Path. Delirium is reasonably hard to enable it seems with the deck, so ruinous is just more reliable vs Walkers.
I personally have been running a mono-blue version, almost straight from the net Brain in a Jar. However, at my last FNM i tried adding 2 Jace's Sanctum to the deck, taking out one brain and one Rise from the Tides. It really over performed, and I actually ended up winning most of my games that night without brain, and just getting Sanctum out would allow me to 10 mana Rise+Part. The scry let me dig really fast though the deck in conjunction with other cantrips. I did lose to BW Superfriends and Monowhite, after getting screwed on mana for the MOnowhite game. So, I cut the 4 Brains and put in 4 Sanctums, and I would be interested in what you guys think about it.
I personally set off to the side the rares I open, then sort everything else by colors. Take the unplayables out, and stack those in one pile. After that, look at what colors are deep, and see what kind of rares or removal is worth splashing. If you are still short on playables, go look through the unplayable pile for those 23rd cards that you REALLY need over that last forest.
I think that the Maindeck Bone Splinters looks sketchy, mostly due to the fact it is a Sorcery, and so you cannot use it as a combat trick like you suggested (Saccing a blocked creature). Apart from that, I think you want to go a bit lower to the ground than Felidar Sovereign, and possibly consider a different approach than BloodBond Vampire. If your main win condition of Felidar Sovereign relies on hitting 40 life, then lower beatdown cards directly hurt this goal, example of Expedition Guide. Bloodbond Vampire, although being a massive payoff card, also runs into this problem (Not directly helping your lifegain).
On the other side, felidar sovereign is a not very efficient creature at 6 mana for a pure beatstick, where you could be casting some other card at a lower mana cost(And earlier). Alternatively you could be casting something like Sunscorch Regent, if you still wanted to be keeping the life gain pings goal.
Now, assuming you want to transition to a more beatdown role, cards like Kalastria Healer or Zulaport Cutthroat(Which really belongs more in a sacrifice deck) are directly inferior to other 2-drops, and the 2 mana slot would be better served by the most efficient 2 drop you can't find. However, it seems you are trying to use cards like March from the tomb to reanimate the valuable allies that die, so you may be waiting for Oath to bring you better black-white beatdown allies.
TLDR Commit to beatdown or commit to sovereign gameplan, waffling between the 2 doesnt help much. Also swap bone splinters for different removal, suggestion of Ruinous Path or Murderous cut
Early turns are all about stalling and finding cards to try and curve out with. You want to kill whatever they put out early, if you can, ex mantis rider or Jace. Essentially holding up and disrupting their game plan as much as possible. You also want to be casting tormenting voice, searching for draw or the right burn or goggles, depending on what point in the game you are at. Don't be afraid to pitch a goggles or a bowl if you desperately need lands or smaller burn to survive. If possible, try to curve out with turn 4 thunderbreak into turn 5 goggles.
TLDR early turns cast stuff without caring for copy spells, you just need to survive. Howl and goggles are for the ending of the game turn 6+
How often did you see Orbs of warding? I feel that smash may be a good idea, but also consider that doubling smash requires to smash 2 separate targets if you want the damage. Good to hear that Narset works, another idea for graveyard hate out of the sideboard would be Burn Away. Are you running strictly the list that you posted earlier, or one with more Howls?
Howl of the Horde allows you to get 1 turn kills off, but admittedly, it is a gimmick yea. It's just a very powerful gimmick. I feel like my next cuts for more hangarbacks would probably be 1 hordeling outburst and probably 1 or 2 less wild slash. Possibly Tormenting voice if i moved into a more aggressive area. Howl of the Horde looks slow and poor, but it combined with almost any other spells probably have gotten me more wins than i would if i was running just more burn in its place. It also acts as something to Dig through Time for. Moving it to a singleton may actually be the correct move if I had other cards that can copy stuff, ex. Narset.
I started running with this deck on even more of a budget haha. Played Treasure Cruises over the dig through times, and was missing the Howl of the Hordes, and ran Magmatic Insight as a 4-of, for more delve and card selection. Basically it looked like a Sphinx's Tutelage deck without the Tutelages.
I never considered Narset actually. Just didn't think of her, because this list started as a Red/blue burn deck, and only added white for Jeskai charm.As I said earlier, this deck can use plenty of optimization. I don't think that rebound actually works with pyromancer's goggles, by that i mean i don't think that it gives an additional copy on the rebound cast, because you are casting the spell from exile without paying its mana costs.
Yea, Jace would definitely fit into this shell. The only things i can see counting against him are 1. My poor abused wallet, and 2. He is an easy target for removal. This deck likes that their cheap removal (Ex. Fiery Impulse) is wasted against either my Hangarback walkers, which leave tokens lying around, or goblins from Hordeling Outburst. Past that they have to pay 3 life to kill the Thunderbreak Regent or just have dead cards in their hand game 1.
In response to PixelW, I have not tested with Mage-Ring Network, though that is one place that would be exceptionally good, esp. because the color requirements for the deck aren't that strenuous except for Jeskai Charm. Volcanic Upheaval I don't think is the right direction, because on 4 mana you want to either 1. Cast Thunderbreaks, or 2. Cast multiple removal spells, or 3. Tapland+ 3-cost spell(Usually removal). If you are at the point that you can copy it, wouldn't you rather be copying a massive crater's claws, or even another Exquisite firecraft/Hordeling Outburst? I just don't think it fits into the deck.
Rolling Thunder was in a prior version of the deck, but I just kept finding that when i wanted a x-spell I just was shooting face, and for that Crater's Claws would be a superior choice, especially when doing something like casting Howl of the Horde into x-spell. The extra 1 mana cost makes a massive difference, and the ferocious trigger actually happened far more than I expected.
TL:DR Jace makes my wallet cry, Volcanic upheaval doesn't fit on curve, and Rolling thunder was weaker than Crater's Claws in testing
Hey! I'm the original maker actually. I bet you could go a lot farther if you have the budget to account for fetchlands, and i didn't run them because I simply don't have any. Still, the sheer power level of being able to deal 8+ damage chunks with Pyromancer's Goggles combined with the various 4 damage spells or crater's claws managed to take me to the win in a lot of my games. However, I will say that I am most definitely not the master of piloting any deck, and I definitely lost several games that I could have won if I had taken a different line of play. Any optimization advice is appreciated though, even if I have put the deck down for now. Howl of the horde proved the strongest combo with Pyromancer's Goggles though, by simply being able to put out 5 copies of Jeskai Charm or Exquisite Firecraft or Hordeling outburst on turn 6 in the most ideal of games. Did manage to cast 5 copies of Dig through Time during one game also.
This is totally out of the blue, but in my R/W ally aggro deck that i managed to pull together, my MVP was the 2/2 flier for 3. It won me at least 3 specific games, chipping away in the air to eventually whittle their health away. Another notable MVP was the 3 Valakut Predator that i pulled out. A card that never got me anywhere was the Akroum Hellkite. It got 3 damage total, and never got to swing in all of the matches i played. However, as expected the doublestriking ally won me most of the games i landed him, esp. comboed with the Ondu Champion. Went 3-1 at the prerelease, losing to 5-color bomb deck that had 3 copies of evolving wilds, and ran the 4/5 blue flier and oran-reif Hydra. He also managed to turn 5 a Prism Array with all 5 colors converged my second game. Still, despite having some very close matches, went home 9th in the release with 3 BFZ packs at an event with 40+ people. Good times.
Yes, Ravaging Blaze is an instant. However, i dont know if that is really what he wants to include. It is another late-game removal/burn finisher though I suppose.
I made a similar list, though less based on counters and more based on creatures. http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/temur-tempo-3/
Hey, I've been really wanting to run a deck just like this! Still trying to get my hands on some of the cards, but I put together a similar list that also includes Surrak, the hunt Caller. He can come down as a 5/4 haste most of the time, and if he survives keeps hasting creatures, although he may not be exactly what you are looking for, considering you have a ton of Flash creatures, and they don't need haste.
Also, what does chord really do for me? It basicly makes me pay 3 extra mana for the creature of my choice, rather than simply having another random ramp target in my hand. I just cannot see the benefit of that card. I mean, maybe hornet queen semi-combo, but again, paying 10 mana for a 7 mana creature.
So are you suggesting taking out the treasure cruise? I like idea of replacing the mystic, probably filling my voyaging satyrs. So would you suggest something like this?:
I just worry about the number of low drops- only 10 2 drops in a deck seems inconsistent. On another note, Polymorphist's Jest could be very good against some creature-based decks. They swing in, and all die when slamming into voyaging satyrs and kiora's followers.
The deck as it stands is:
3 Torrential Gearhulk
3 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
Planeswalkers
1 Jace, Unraveler of Secrets
1 Chandra, Flamecaller
Instants
4 Galvanic Bombardment
3 Anticipate
3 Harnessed Lightning
3 Glimmer of Genius
3 Scatter to the Winds
2 Negate
2 Essence Extraction
2 Unlicensed Disintegration
1 Transgress the Mind
2 Radiant Flames
1 Ruinous Path
1 Collective Defiance
Lands
1 Wandering Fumarole
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Island
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
1 Mortuary Mire
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Sunken Hollow
3 Smoldering Marsh
Sideboard is:
3 Weaver of Lightning
2 Summary Dismissal
1 To the Slaughter
1 Negate
2 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Flaying Tendrils
1 Essence Extraction
1 Fevered Visions
FNM results were a disappointing 2-2, although I think that was often due to my inexperience with the deck. Made some major punts in multiple games, but won vs UB Metallurgic and Mardu Vehicles, and got crushed by GB Delirium and UWb control.
As a result of this, deck edits include:
-1 Collective Defiance
-1 Essence Extraction
+1 Transgress the Mind
+1 Succumb to Temptation
Thoughts are that Succumb can be used more reactively against control, along with being able to be flashed back with both Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Torrential Gearhulk. The addition of another Transgress is for more power against GB delirium and control, along with being another strong target for Dank-Dwellers. Keeping 1 Essence in, but am still on the fence about maybe swapping in To the Slaughter over Ruinous Path. Delirium is reasonably hard to enable it seems with the deck, so ruinous is just more reliable vs Walkers.
On the other side, felidar sovereign is a not very efficient creature at 6 mana for a pure beatstick, where you could be casting some other card at a lower mana cost(And earlier). Alternatively you could be casting something like Sunscorch Regent, if you still wanted to be keeping the life gain pings goal.
Now, assuming you want to transition to a more beatdown role, cards like Kalastria Healer or Zulaport Cutthroat(Which really belongs more in a sacrifice deck) are directly inferior to other 2-drops, and the 2 mana slot would be better served by the most efficient 2 drop you can't find. However, it seems you are trying to use cards like March from the tomb to reanimate the valuable allies that die, so you may be waiting for Oath to bring you better black-white beatdown allies.
TLDR Commit to beatdown or commit to sovereign gameplan, waffling between the 2 doesnt help much. Also swap bone splinters for different removal, suggestion of Ruinous Path or Murderous cut
TLDR early turns cast stuff without caring for copy spells, you just need to survive. Howl and goggles are for the ending of the game turn 6+
I started running with this deck on even more of a budget haha. Played Treasure Cruises over the dig through times, and was missing the Howl of the Hordes, and ran Magmatic Insight as a 4-of, for more delve and card selection. Basically it looked like a Sphinx's Tutelage deck without the Tutelages.
In response to PixelW, I have not tested with Mage-Ring Network, though that is one place that would be exceptionally good, esp. because the color requirements for the deck aren't that strenuous except for Jeskai Charm. Volcanic Upheaval I don't think is the right direction, because on 4 mana you want to either 1. Cast Thunderbreaks, or 2. Cast multiple removal spells, or 3. Tapland+ 3-cost spell(Usually removal). If you are at the point that you can copy it, wouldn't you rather be copying a massive crater's claws, or even another Exquisite firecraft/Hordeling Outburst? I just don't think it fits into the deck.
Rolling Thunder was in a prior version of the deck, but I just kept finding that when i wanted a x-spell I just was shooting face, and for that Crater's Claws would be a superior choice, especially when doing something like casting Howl of the Horde into x-spell. The extra 1 mana cost makes a massive difference, and the ferocious trigger actually happened far more than I expected.
TL:DR Jace makes my wallet cry, Volcanic upheaval doesn't fit on curve, and Rolling thunder was weaker than Crater's Claws in testing
Cards I WOULD think about if I had more of them/Would be willing to pay for:
Fetchlands(As said above)
3rd and 4th Hangarback Walker
Manabase for Jeskai Black- to get Crackling Doom or possibly Mardu Charm
Possibly Dragonlord Ojutai
2nd and 3rd copies of Exquisite Firecraft probably for sideboard
Possibly 3rd copy of Dig through Time
I made a similar list, though less based on counters and more based on creatures.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/temur-tempo-3/
4 Kiora's Follower
2 Taigram's Scheming
2 Treasure Cruise
3 Murderous Cut
2 Verdant Haven
2 Sultai Charm
3 Reaper of the Wilds
2 Silumgar, the Drifting Death
2 Sagu Mauler
2 Hornet queen
1 Garruk, apex predator
3 Villanous Wealth
3 Thornwood Falls
1 Dismal Backwater
7 Forest
5 Island
3 Swamp
2 Evolving Wilds
I just worry about the number of low drops- only 10 2 drops in a deck seems inconsistent. On another note, Polymorphist's Jest could be very good against some creature-based decks. They swing in, and all die when slamming into voyaging satyrs and kiora's followers.