yeah that's my main concern... though i'm still debating. gonna get a 3rd one and give it a try
Not discouraging you, but I think an interesting data point you may wish to consider is Mythic Championship contenders Luis and Petr played UW control and they both had 2 copies of Teferi, and 3 copies of JTMS. Their curve and land count is not unlike ours, so I think this could be relevant.
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yeah that's my main concern... though i'm still debating. gonna get a 3rd one and give it a try
Not discouraging you, but I think an interesting data point you may wish to consider is Mythic Championship contenders Luis and Petr played UW control and they both had 2 copies of Teferi, and 3 copies of JTMS. Their curve and land count is not unlike ours, so I think this could be relevant.
Yeah I wanted to make exactly the same point. NBDG is much like Teferi in the sense that if it lands on an empty board, we are pretty much locked to win. However, as a control deck, you don't want to get overloaded in win conditions, because then you just draw them far too often.
However, it is a matter of fact that we will be wanting to land NBDG on T5 much more often than UW wants to have Teferi on T5. I maintain that playing 2 is the correct number, especially considering that we have several lines of play on 5cc anywya (i.e. Snapcaster K. Command, Tasigur+activation/kill spell), and to compensate for the 3rd, the correct choice is to play 4x Serum Visions so you can dig deep enough to find him in the first turns.
the Dragon god bandwagon peaked my interest for fun. But i realized i haven't played modern control in a while, let alone grixis.
Tried my hand at making a grixis list but realized i made that classic mistake. went half discard spells and half counter magic.
for modern grixis whats the best plan counter spells or discard?
In a 4 round tournament I went 3 ties against rock, blue red kiki combo/control, blue white control. Got a bye round 3 cause of my 2 ties
I liked the new narset with liliana, turned off my opponents extra draws, kept them down to 1 card or 0 when the liliana lock worked.
yeah that's my main concern... though i'm still debating. gonna get a 3rd one and give it a try
Not discouraging you, but I think an interesting data point you may wish to consider is Mythic Championship contenders Luis and Petr played UW control and they both had 2 copies of Teferi, and 3 copies of JTMS. Their curve and land count is not unlike ours, so I think this could be relevant.
yeah that's my main concern... though i'm still debating. gonna get a 3rd one and give it a try
Not discouraging you, but I think an interesting data point you may wish to consider is Mythic Championship contenders Luis and Petr played UW control and they both had 2 copies of Teferi, and 3 copies of JTMS. Their curve and land count is not unlike ours, so I think this could be relevant.
Yeah I wanted to make exactly the same point. NBDG is much like Teferi in the sense that if it lands on an empty board, we are pretty much locked to win. However, as a control deck, you don't want to get overloaded in win conditions, because then you just draw them far too often.
However, it is a matter of fact that we will be wanting to land NBDG on T5 much more often than UW wants to have Teferi on T5. I maintain that playing 2 is the correct number, especially considering that we have several lines of play on 5cc anywya (i.e. Snapcaster K. Command, Tasigur+activation/kill spell), and to compensate for the 3rd, the correct choice is to play 4x Serum Visions so you can dig deep enough to find him in the first turns.
yup you guys are correct, tested 3 and didnt like it. but my original list was a bit flooded with 2 cmc removal, so now im playing -1 terminate and +1 azcanta, since this list doesnt need to hold mana for counters and wont mind tapping out.
the Dragon god bandwagon peaked my interest for fun. But i realized i haven't played modern control in a while, let alone grixis.
Tried my hand at making a grixis list but realized i made that classic mistake. went half discard spells and half counter magic.
for modern grixis whats the best plan counter spells or discard?
In a 4 round tournament I went 3 ties against rock, blue red kiki combo/control, blue white control. Got a bye round 3 cause of my 2 ties
I liked the new narset with liliana, turned off my opponents extra draws, kept them down to 1 card or 0 when the liliana lock worked.
this list does look a bit all over the place, but a good place to start.
some of the lines you might want ro reconsider:
- narset does not forward your current gameplans at all, she's much stronger in a ub lock shell backed by notion thief
- shriekmaw simply doesnt make the cut here. grixis color is full of removal.
- logic knot for counters alone is a bit odd, the reason we played cryptic is because of its flexibility and card advantage, it's never a dead card, and is our only answer to resolved enchantments (bounce).
- full set of collective brutalities might be a bit overdone, you definitely want a package of inquisition and thoughtseize in there as well.
- yahenni's expertise is an interesting inclusion, i never thought about it. my list is full of targeted removal and snapcaster to flash back, but since you are not playing snapcaster, mainboard wipes could be a good option, and the main contender for this spot is anger od the gods.
Narset is ok, but 3 is a bit excessive. I would not want to have more than 1 3CMC-do nothing spell, especially if your meta is aggro (from what I understand). Search isn't necessarily an auto include, but in a relatively slower meta I would always want at least one.
Yahenni's expertise is just ok. There are better mass removals (engineered explosives and/or damnation) however that I would look at first. The chaining off of the Expertise is more often cute than effective, especially considering most of your spells are removals/counters which don't benefit from chaining them with a mass removal. If you were to play Ancestral Vision that would be a different story.
For me, I play 2x Mana Leak. However I go the heavy discard/tap out route. If you want to play a bit more on your opponents turn then probably go for the 3-4x Crytpics for the raw power.
K.command into Snapcaster into Snap-K.command is why the deck functions in the first place. It is the thing we have going over every other control deck. It is the most relevant interaction. K. command their draw step to take their card and get back a snapcaster and repeat next turn with snapping back the k. command. I would suggest if you can find older videos of Corey Burkhart to watch, it will be immensely helpful to understand the play patterns of the deck.
Shriekmaw can't kill black creatures, and the most important creature atm is black (Death's Shadow).
Lili TLH ranges from OK to great depending on your meta.
I'd say search for azcanta has different values at different stages. I used to play 0 discard 10-11 counter mainboard, and i hated tapping out on turn 2-4 for azcanta. But in the current configuration, i play a much more proactive game, so tapping out on turn 2 - 4 is not that bad, hence making azcanta better. It gives you a surveil every turn at least, as a 2 mana enchantment, not too shabby. then when you flip it, it actually ramps you, in addition to providing that dig ability. I'm happy playing 2 at this point, don't recommend going above that count.
Snapcaster recursion is crucial to our game plan. but I spot few worthy targets to flashhback in your list. Ideally chaining Kommand+Snapcaster & cryptic command + snapcaster will net you a lot of card advantage, and snapcaster mages can basically flash back every removal you've used, making sure you profit from 1 for 1 trades, especially we have access to some of the best spot removals, lightning bolt, terminate, liliana's triumph, and fatal push.
In addition, Snapcaster+Bolt is a quite effective clock. With 4 mana open, bolt-snap-bolt is 6 damage upfront usually played EoT, 8 damange counting snap's combat dmg, combined with a single tar pit swing, that's basically 11 in 2 turns, considering modern's fetch/shock manabases, enough to threaten lethal in the 3rd on many occasions. Shriekmaw is simply not as effective.
Im playing LoLH as a 1-of because a) she does something different than LoTV, which I already packed 3 copies and b) she's the 4th copy of liliana to turn on liliana's triumph. she's also pretty much a 6 turn clock if left unattended. And that isn't impossible, given that our game plan involves resolving targets of much higher priority.
I was thinking of playing this as the core of walker control in
the last 4 spots is the win condition planeswalker I originally wanted something that makes tokens, but then realized this deck has bolt snap bolt going on, So it only seemed to make sense to use Chandra, Torch of Defiance, That way when Dragon-god lands he is either doubling up on lilly's effect with his own version of discard or he's shooting and looting with chandra.
In building this Angrath, Captain of Chaos caught my attention since he is on color and makes an amass token and grows it. Menace isn't all that necessary since the board is pretty well wiped.
On top of that Widespread Brutality looked interesting as well.
Some number of Invade the City doesn't seem unviable either.
Hey all,
Since Bolas hit the format I've been testing him out, and I'm glad to see that everyone's pretty much on the same page when it comes to the Grixis Tapout style of deck. I've had very good results with the deck so far, and I'm looking forward to grinding more games to get down to a solid 75. The current build that I'm on is pretty similar to the ones already posted. The only major difference I've noticed is that I'm on 2 JVP. I've actually considered to a 3-3 split with him and snap. That being said I'm not there yet. My current build:
I saw that some people were down on Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in the maindeck… I've bee extremely happy with him. The incremental life gain that he comes with can help to stabilize appropriately. That being said, there is definitely more testing to be done. Let's see what we can do to put Grixis back on the map!
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Dead at birth as we slowly decay - We're born only to fade away
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet its worth considering these Amass makes zombie tokens so some cards by making a zombie army token for sake of feeding Kalitas. Sometimes opponents drop creatures that are bigger than 3/4 or they make no creatures at all and a 3/4 clock needs to go faster.
I did badly with my list at FNM going 1-2. I lost to another grixis brew involving Dreadhorde Arcanist and Burn. I beat Storm.
It's perhaps not unexpected that my weakpoints would be aggro and a deck like storm would be stripped down to nothing, but I felt like I was lacking options in my games. I lost to a simple 1/3 trample value creature (arcanist), which is ridiculous for grixis. I wasn't finding any of my pushes or terminates. Conversely I would find myself with countersqualls when facing creatures, pushes when facing Bump in the night... ugh.
I think I'll be increasing the number of cantrips to assist in finding the right answers for the right times.
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I did badly with my list at FNM going 1-2. I lost to another grixis brew involving Dreadhorde Arcanist and Burn. I beat Storm.
It's perhaps not unexpected that my weakpoints would be aggro and a deck like storm would be stripped down to nothing, but I felt like I was lacking options in my games. I lost to a simple 1/3 trample value creature (arcanist), which is ridiculous for grixis. I wasn't finding any of my pushes or terminates. Conversely I would find myself with countersqualls when facing creatures, pushes when facing Bump in the night... ugh.
I think I'll be increasing the number of cantrips to assist in finding the right answers for the right times.
As far as hitting spells and digging through the deck, I've found that the combination of Thought Scour and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy help me get trough the deck pretty well. Considering how many removal spells we have access to, the ability to dig deeper should take care of that, and the aggro decks shouldn't be a problem. Also, the aggro matches is where Kalitas shines. He's also not terrible against phoenix because of the exile clause.
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Dead at birth as we slowly decay - We're born only to fade away
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
angrath's rampage that card has me curious. Seems like a good 4 of main deck despite being a sorcery. Hits 80% in the format.
"Hits" is a bit of an overstatement. Can't hit anything as long as there is another permanent of that type on the board. It might be great with PWs, where there is usually 1, but creatures/artifacts that are problematic are usually in decks that go wide with them. It really is not that great, if not just plain bad, against e.g. Humans, Hardened Scales, Whir decks.
Yes it has some applications especially against Tron, midrange decks, GDS, and some other stuff, but as a 4 of would definitely stretch it. I am using 1 copy and I am satisfied with it.
Fact or Fiction - Best 4 mana draw spell for Grixis. Feeds your graveyard and gives a 2+ for 1 at instant speed. better for heavy cryptic low creature builds.
Blue Pact - Great sideboard card, too narrow to maindeck. As much as people want to believe this is 'force' its too narrow to maindeck in modern. Lots of decks just don't care about its effect
Black Pact - Insane against humans, affinity, anything that will be playing 2-3 creatures per turn. Even as a 'fair' card that kills 2 things for 3 at instant speed? Its good. Add in potential game saving potential at 0 mana for a 2 for 2 or 3 for 2 it has HUGE potential. Perhaps good enough to just take a card like damnation out of your deck for more card advantage (FOF anyone?) I will say if you can enough black spells 2-3 maindeck is worth trying.
Firebolt - People probably missed/forgot this but its great value with Jace, Azcanta, LOTV, on and on. Could be a 1-2 of in builds that want to go late in a creature heavy meta. I don't think its better than bolt necessarily, but its a consideration.
the thing about black pact though is if you draw it late its dead and does nothing. if humans establishes a huge board by turn 4 and you draw it t5 instead of Damnation you're toast.
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Not discouraging you, but I think an interesting data point you may wish to consider is Mythic Championship contenders Luis and Petr played UW control and they both had 2 copies of Teferi, and 3 copies of JTMS. Their curve and land count is not unlike ours, so I think this could be relevant.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
However, it is a matter of fact that we will be wanting to land NBDG on T5 much more often than UW wants to have Teferi on T5. I maintain that playing 2 is the correct number, especially considering that we have several lines of play on 5cc anywya (i.e. Snapcaster K. Command, Tasigur+activation/kill spell), and to compensate for the 3rd, the correct choice is to play 4x Serum Visions so you can dig deep enough to find him in the first turns.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Tried my hand at making a grixis list but realized i made that classic mistake. went half discard spells and half counter magic.
for modern grixis whats the best plan counter spells or discard?
In a 4 round tournament I went 3 ties against rock, blue red kiki combo/control, blue white control. Got a bye round 3 cause of my 2 ties
I liked the new narset with liliana, turned off my opponents extra draws, kept them down to 1 card or 0 when the liliana lock worked.
3 liliana of the veil
3 narset, parter of veils
4 snapcaster mage
1 kalitas, traitor of ghet
1 shriekmaw
3 lightning bolt
3 kolaghan's command
4 collective brutality
4 Logic Knot
4 serum vision
3 yahenni's expertise
3 scalding tarn
3 polluted delta
3 watery grave
2 blood crypt
1 steamvents
4 darkslick shore
1 mountain
2 swamp
2 island
yup you guys are correct, tested 3 and didnt like it. but my original list was a bit flooded with 2 cmc removal, so now im playing -1 terminate and +1 azcanta, since this list doesnt need to hold mana for counters and wont mind tapping out.
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | URPhoenixUR | UWMiraclesUW |GBRJundGBR | UBFaeriesUB | UBWAd NauseumUBW |GBRWBlueless ShadowGBRW |
MTGA
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | UTempoU
this list does look a bit all over the place, but a good place to start.
some of the lines you might want ro reconsider:
- narset does not forward your current gameplans at all, she's much stronger in a ub lock shell backed by notion thief
- shriekmaw simply doesnt make the cut here. grixis color is full of removal.
- logic knot for counters alone is a bit odd, the reason we played cryptic is because of its flexibility and card advantage, it's never a dead card, and is our only answer to resolved enchantments (bounce).
- full set of collective brutalities might be a bit overdone, you definitely want a package of inquisition and thoughtseize in there as well.
- yahenni's expertise is an interesting inclusion, i never thought about it. my list is full of targeted removal and snapcaster to flash back, but since you are not playing snapcaster, mainboard wipes could be a good option, and the main contender for this spot is anger od the gods.
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | URPhoenixUR | UWMiraclesUW |GBRJundGBR | UBFaeriesUB | UBWAd NauseumUBW |GBRWBlueless ShadowGBRW |
MTGA
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | UTempoU
Yahenni's expertise just my preference since i can chain off of it and it hits most of the meta right now that swarms.
Should the only counter magic be cryptic command then?
how relevant is retrieving dead snapcaster mage off of kolaghan's command?
that was the thinking behind shriekmaw initially.
I assumed the same would be relevant is liliana, the last hope was in the deck.
Narset is ok, but 3 is a bit excessive. I would not want to have more than 1 3CMC-do nothing spell, especially if your meta is aggro (from what I understand). Search isn't necessarily an auto include, but in a relatively slower meta I would always want at least one.
Yahenni's expertise is just ok. There are better mass removals (engineered explosives and/or damnation) however that I would look at first. The chaining off of the Expertise is more often cute than effective, especially considering most of your spells are removals/counters which don't benefit from chaining them with a mass removal. If you were to play Ancestral Vision that would be a different story.
For me, I play 2x Mana Leak. However I go the heavy discard/tap out route. If you want to play a bit more on your opponents turn then probably go for the 3-4x Crytpics for the raw power.
K.command into Snapcaster into Snap-K.command is why the deck functions in the first place. It is the thing we have going over every other control deck. It is the most relevant interaction. K. command their draw step to take their card and get back a snapcaster and repeat next turn with snapping back the k. command. I would suggest if you can find older videos of Corey Burkhart to watch, it will be immensely helpful to understand the play patterns of the deck.
Shriekmaw can't kill black creatures, and the most important creature atm is black (Death's Shadow).
Lili TLH ranges from OK to great depending on your meta.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
I'd say search for azcanta has different values at different stages. I used to play 0 discard 10-11 counter mainboard, and i hated tapping out on turn 2-4 for azcanta. But in the current configuration, i play a much more proactive game, so tapping out on turn 2 - 4 is not that bad, hence making azcanta better. It gives you a surveil every turn at least, as a 2 mana enchantment, not too shabby. then when you flip it, it actually ramps you, in addition to providing that dig ability. I'm happy playing 2 at this point, don't recommend going above that count.
Snapcaster recursion is crucial to our game plan. but I spot few worthy targets to flashhback in your list. Ideally chaining Kommand+Snapcaster & cryptic command + snapcaster will net you a lot of card advantage, and snapcaster mages can basically flash back every removal you've used, making sure you profit from 1 for 1 trades, especially we have access to some of the best spot removals, lightning bolt, terminate, liliana's triumph, and fatal push.
In addition, Snapcaster+Bolt is a quite effective clock. With 4 mana open, bolt-snap-bolt is 6 damage upfront usually played EoT, 8 damange counting snap's combat dmg, combined with a single tar pit swing, that's basically 11 in 2 turns, considering modern's fetch/shock manabases, enough to threaten lethal in the 3rd on many occasions. Shriekmaw is simply not as effective.
Im playing LoLH as a 1-of because a) she does something different than LoTV, which I already packed 3 copies and b) she's the 4th copy of liliana to turn on liliana's triumph. she's also pretty much a 6 turn clock if left unattended. And that isn't impossible, given that our game plan involves resolving targets of much higher priority.
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | URPhoenixUR | UWMiraclesUW |GBRJundGBR | UBFaeriesUB | UBWAd NauseumUBW |GBRWBlueless ShadowGBRW |
MTGA
UBRGrixis ControlUBR | UTempoU
the last 4 spots is the win condition planeswalker I originally wanted something that makes tokens, but then realized this deck has bolt snap bolt going on, So it only seemed to make sense to use Chandra, Torch of Defiance, That way when Dragon-god lands he is either doubling up on lilly's effect with his own version of discard or he's shooting and looting with chandra.
[deck]
4 snapcaster mage
3 Fatal Push
4 lightning bolt
2 bedevil
2 kolaghan's command
1 Damnation
2 collective brutality
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
2 Nicol Bolas, dragon-god
1 liliana, the last hope
4 liliana of the veil
4 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
[deck]
In building this Angrath, Captain of Chaos caught my attention since he is on color and makes an amass token and grows it. Menace isn't all that necessary since the board is pretty well wiped.
On top of that Widespread Brutality looked interesting as well.
Some number of Invade the City doesn't seem unviable either.
Since Bolas hit the format I've been testing him out, and I'm glad to see that everyone's pretty much on the same page when it comes to the Grixis Tapout style of deck. I've had very good results with the deck so far, and I'm looking forward to grinding more games to get down to a solid 75. The current build that I'm on is pretty similar to the ones already posted. The only major difference I've noticed is that I'm on 2 JVP. I've actually considered to a 3-3 split with him and snap. That being said I'm not there yet. My current build:
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
PLANESWALKERS:
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God
REMOVAL:
3 Fatal Push
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Liliana's Triumph
2 Terminate
3 Kolaghan's Command
HAND HATE:
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
1 Rise/Fall
4 Serum Visions
2 Thought Scour
LAND:
1 Blood Crypt
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Island
1 Mountain
2 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Countersquall
1 Dreadbore
2 Narset, Parter of Veils
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Damnation
1 Shatterstorm
1 Engineered Explosives
I saw that some people were down on Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in the maindeck… I've bee extremely happy with him. The incremental life gain that he comes with can help to stabilize appropriately. That being said, there is definitely more testing to be done. Let's see what we can do to put Grixis back on the map!
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
It's perhaps not unexpected that my weakpoints would be aggro and a deck like storm would be stripped down to nothing, but I felt like I was lacking options in my games. I lost to a simple 1/3 trample value creature (arcanist), which is ridiculous for grixis. I wasn't finding any of my pushes or terminates. Conversely I would find myself with countersqualls when facing creatures, pushes when facing Bump in the night... ugh.
I think I'll be increasing the number of cantrips to assist in finding the right answers for the right times.
BGW Elves BGW|BW Tokens BW|WBR Sword&ShieldWBR|BUG DelverBUG|UWR Kiki UWR | UR Storm UR
As far as hitting spells and digging through the deck, I've found that the combination of Thought Scour and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy help me get trough the deck pretty well. Considering how many removal spells we have access to, the ability to dig deeper should take care of that, and the aggro decks shouldn't be a problem. Also, the aggro matches is where Kalitas shines. He's also not terrible against phoenix because of the exile clause.
We got no future, we got no hope
Our life is pain and it's hard to cope.
Is it pronounced "Kah-Lee-Tass" or "Kah-Leetus" or something else?
Lands
8 fetches
2 watery grave
2 steam vents
1 blood crypt
3 island
1 mountain
2 swamp
2 creeping tar pit
1 field of ruins
1 urborg
Creatures
3 snap
2 tasigur
2 pyromancer
Other
2 nihil spellbomb
1 engineered explosives
1 bloodmoon
Spells
4 thought score
3 cryptic commabd
1 expansion/explosion
1 logic knot
2 countersquall
2 k command
2 bolt
1 fatal push
1 Liliana's triumph
1 terminate
1 angrath's rampage
1 remand
2 thoughtsize
1 tyrant scorn
Planes
2 Nicol bolas, dragon god
1 Liliana of the veil
Lands
8 fetches
2 watery grave
2 steam vents
1 blood crypt
3 island
1 mountain
2 swamp
2 creeping tar pit
1 field of ruins
1 urborg
Creatures
3 snap
2 tasigur
2 pyromancer
Other
2 nihil spellbomb
1 engineered explosives
1 bloodmoon
Spells
4 thought score
3 cryptic commabd
1 expansion/explosion
1 logic knot
2 countersquall
2 k command
2 bolt
1 fatal push
1 Liliana's triumph
1 terminate
1 angrath's rampage
1 remand
2 thoughtsize
1 tyrant scorn
Planes
2 Nicol bolas, dragon god
1 Liliana of the veil
Yes it has some applications especially against Tron, midrange decks, GDS, and some other stuff, but as a 4 of would definitely stretch it. I am using 1 copy and I am satisfied with it.
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
Fact or Fiction - Best 4 mana draw spell for Grixis. Feeds your graveyard and gives a 2+ for 1 at instant speed. better for heavy cryptic low creature builds.
Blue Pact - Great sideboard card, too narrow to maindeck. As much as people want to believe this is 'force' its too narrow to maindeck in modern. Lots of decks just don't care about its effect
Black Pact - Insane against humans, affinity, anything that will be playing 2-3 creatures per turn. Even as a 'fair' card that kills 2 things for 3 at instant speed? Its good. Add in potential game saving potential at 0 mana for a 2 for 2 or 3 for 2 it has HUGE potential. Perhaps good enough to just take a card like damnation out of your deck for more card advantage (FOF anyone?) I will say if you can enough black spells 2-3 maindeck is worth trying.
Firebolt - People probably missed/forgot this but its great value with Jace, Azcanta, LOTV, on and on. Could be a 1-2 of in builds that want to go late in a creature heavy meta. I don't think its better than bolt necessarily, but its a consideration.
'