MTG Salvation

Pull away from the turbofog idea. It's cool, but it's not what this list wants. Verdict, Eviction, more land, more shocks. Eviction solves burning earth. Run more Revelation, more Aurelia's fury, run Volcanic Geyser. Then, in terms of keyrunes, you want rakdos, selesnya, and azorius. Your goal is to cast a verdict to sweep away the board, and then start to pump out X spells that start winning you the game. Debt to the Deathless belongs here. Remember that the 3 power and evasive keyrunes are the best: you need multiple game plans, and when your X spells can't do the job, you have to be ready to get to the red zone with the keyrunes: and that means you want keyrunes that won't take 3 million years to kill your opponent.

KEYRUNE BALL

I've posted this elsewhere, but: the ideal curve is a turn one elvish mystic, turn two a keyrune, turn three two keyrunes, and then start casting massive X spells like Aurelia's Fury, Volcanic Geyser, or, and this one is my personal favourite, a Sphinx's rev for 5 on turn four. And if you can't win off pure X spells, then you supreme verdict to clear the board and start getting into the Red Zone with keyrune activations.

Alright, I think I got the top on this one. Five colour keyrune ball. Elvish mystics, keyrunes, and X spells. My personal favourite X spells would be Sphinx's Revs, Aurelia's Fury, and Volcanic Geyser. You just ramp to all ehll with keyrunes, and if your X spells don't work, wipe the field with Merciless Eviction or Supreme Verdict, and then start getting into the red zone with them keyrune activations: Rakdos Keyrune and Selesnya Keyrune seriously do damage in that kinda scenario.

My friend played it and ... It's fun, and doesn't do as terrible as you might imagine. Keyrunes are scary.

You can up the black sources: that card is REALLY good. (It seems like) Elspeth will just kill you, and you cannot rely on winning by turn six with the removal romping around in elspeth lists. Uh- planeswalkers are REALLY GOOD right now and I imagine you will have some issues with cards like Elspeth, Kiora, and Jace.

Alright. The idea here is it's going to be centered on a basic idea of good versus evil on a plain as yet unrevealed in MTG lore. The plain is fairly basic, with a civilization of humans that has only barely begun working into technology, with planeswalkers coming and going, their coming being seen as the descent of a god to the earthly realm, their going being viewed as the plain and their peoples being deemed unworthy. The 'commanders' have been dragged here by a small clan of five walkers who summon them to begin restructuring the world, to help these humans survive a new threat: a 'walker by the name of Fyna has been summoning her own brood of slivers to this plain, and the commanders have been brought forth to gather the armies, to rally the humans of the plane, and to stop the other.... Or, to help her, depending on their allegiance.

The idea here is, once again, diplomacy, so the commanders have all the choice they want to let the world burn, or to help burn it, or to stop the armageddon of slivers. And what they choose to do will decide the fate of the plane.

I want to start out by saying that this is not originally my idea- it came from someone else's mind, but it appears to have died, so I wanted to try and revive something similar.

I would like to do an EDH-ish RP: multi-person format, with each one a different commander, the battles all about diplomacy and intrigue and backstabbing and the like: no rules other than we, as the writers, should be having some fun with it. Paragraph format IS preferred, and I would hope any who want to participate put some effort and pride behind what they're writing.

If you want more details, I have a more specific scenario in mind, but before I start going that far into specifics: Is anyone interested?

With the planeswalkers romping around the format I would recommend Downfalls at least in the main or in the board, and the witchstalkers should move into the board: Sometimes they're just a low costed beater, and I think Smiter is better for that role. I REALLY like this list, though, it's really interesting and is something I plan to try out in the near future.

As for card suggestions, I would like to point out that Ajani and Spear are cards: removal is sweet.... Archangel of thune is also quite strong, but since you're so aggressive I guess it's not amazing. This list seems really good, and I don't know if there's anything I would change as of right now.

Alright, I'm interested. I think if you want to go the direction of some small mana fixer, I would recommend the Lantern as a choice over grisly salvage. You're not creature dense enough for the secondary ability to be worth it. Second, I think that deathrite shaman is amazing... but not in standard. His abilities are so narrow that they won't come online until your removal does, and that's too late to be worth it, really, because you're using your mana to remove things, and you don't want to feel bad for not tapping him down with one of his abilities every turn. In these colours you have the most possible 2cc kill a thing spells, and you need to take advantage of it: you MUST be able to deal with their early threats before your bigger stuff comes online, and without the consistency that u/w or esper has, you need to rely on always having one of your early game destroy target thing spells. Assemble the legion seems a bit random: It's inevitability, but.... It just seems meh. Quicken is the only other card I take issue with: It's dead way too often, even when you are running a lot of sorceries. But it's good when you pull off your tricks with it, so I guess I'm not really complaining.

Last breath and negate are sideboard cards in general; they're dead too often, or damn near dead. I know from experience that drawing a card like that in any non-perfect scenario can lose games. Same with Doom Blade- mono black is too big in general to trust it- ulti price is better, and hero's downfall is better still. Uh- Fated Retribution is neat but seven mana is a LOT- remember, you said you lost to early planeswalkers, and both Xenagos and Domri will ult by the time you play Retribution if you play it on curve- you want earlier answers

I have a bad tendency to look at a control deck, thin out the removal, and make it into a midrange deck: And that's pretty much the plan with this list.

Now to start with, I want to say I read an article written early in Theros standard (I believe that was when it was written, at least) which talked about U/W control as a 'Tap-out powerhouse' control list, which is an archetype I have struggled to understand, being an avid supporter of the idea that control should NEVER tap out. Except maybe for Rev. And not even then, really. But I've tried to take that to heart in the games that I've played, and so with that said, this is the list I wrote. It starts out with a seriously scary suite of 'Walkers which give us methods of picking up a fair amount of card advantage against most decks, and- other than ashiok, they all hit the board with a bang, making immediate downfalls unfortunate, but not game-ending. Elspeth allows us to start setting up advantageous board states with the serious threat of a field wipe if we fall too far behind. Both Jaces, at a total of 5 for redundancy versus D sphere and Downfall- allow us to, at worst, cycle, and at best, cast divination: and sometimes just win the game when they go unanswered. Architect is solid versus aggressive lists, and Memory adept will give us a serious threat when games go long versus mono black or control. Many people dislike Ashiok, but I think she's a three mana card that if she goes unanswered for even a turn, can seriously change the game. And a 3 mana gain five in control is- passable, even if it's not what we want.

The next set is what really makes our midgame solid. Starting out with black white midrange all stars like Archangel of Thune and Obzedat, it gives us serious methods at five mana to stop aggro in its tracks, leaving us in an advantageous board state and with the threat of running away immediately if we aren't stopped. Brimaz, King of Oreskos gives us a serious early game threat to toss out, putting on pressure from turn four and blocking against aggro in a way that's fairly unstoppable- at the point where this guy sticks, people are going to start digging for an answer, or dying- either one is fine. Whip of Erebos provides us with a way to trigger our ARchangel, giving elspeth tokens lifelink and when our Obzedat or Brimaz- es start turning sideways, the lifegain quickly puts us out of range of most decks. It also gives us recursion in the long game, and it has great synergy with Obzedat.

Our deck is blue for this last set, once you look past the 'walkers. This removal suite gives us more methods of interacting than most midrange lists run in the main, while also only holding relevant answers, leaving us with less dead cards versus control than a more solid control list would run. It means we have more consistency, while also giving us the ability to cut away threats that we can't outrace. Supreme Verdict can be awkward to cast with a Brimaz on board, but in a perfect curve it sets up a game-winning obzedat or Archangel on an empty board.

Now, on to the sideboard.


Rounding out our seventy five are cards that should seem obvious in their specific and powerful utility. Dark Betrayal and Blood Baron give us a series of solid, deadly answers to the granddaddy deck of the format (as far as I see it), mono black. Ultimate Price, along with our mainboard cards, gives us answers to mono-u and aggro lists like G/W, and Glare of Heresy/Revoke Existence are pulled in for the mirror and because there are some enchantments and permanents like Elspeth, Thassa, Underworld Connections, and Erebos, that we need an answer for, but don't want too many of in any given game. Thanks for taking the time to read my list, and I look forward to hearing what you think of this brew!

Black for just toil//trouble? I would reccomend adding in the relevant R/B and W/B temples and cutting out any other splits. Master is at the TOP of your curve, meaning one of a few things. Either: They've killed everything else, in which case there's a solid chance he just ends the game for you because they run out of gas before you slam him and prepare to turn him sideways. Or they answer him, and then you keep fighting like you would have, perhaps a turn set back. I recognize why it might seem awkward, but it answers the problems you were saying you have, and when he sticks on an empty board, the game literally ends. And if they block him, you're clearing the field for everything else as the game goes on. The thing is is if you play your hand right you can clear their board out of nowhere with him and a spell or two, and then kill them before they have a chance to topdeck an answer, or to stabilize at all.

I took my version of Grixis to the SCG open in Seattle a few weeks back, so here's my thoughts on the whole thing (I went 3-4 and I'll explain a bit more in detail.)
Let me just say, my biggest mistake was doom blade over ultimate price: I underestimated Mono-black's presence there. That being said, let me explain my take on this whole thing: Jace and Chandra are really good, the latter especially if you can scry prior to 0-ing her. I ulted my mill Jace twice. Niv-Mizzet seems odd over Aetherling, but it's really good (Grinding card advantage and shooting down mutavaults late game. It eats a downfall, but so does everything else.) . Underworld connections will give you any game when it goes long, and really, it will, if you're playing well. I also should have pulled slots for a Master of Cruelties. Steam Augury fills a really good role in a version of this list I've played against: where you have all the redundancy in the world. I have a friend who plays nothing but instants, angers, and Aetherling, and in a list with a high density like that, Augury is REALLY GOOD. I think Grixis has a place, as a fringe deck, but it needs to be written right: Grind card advantage, like my list does, or keep everything at instant speed so you always have something up and ready with a response: The latter struggles more in aggro matches, the former againsts lists like mono-B which can out-grind it in the long run. (Erebos and Underworld HURT!.) That said, these are just my thoughts on where Grixis sits right now: I'm hopeful for Journey to Nyx, but I still think it's playable, in the right meta with the right setup, even though my play was sub-par, personally. (I got excited when going to my first Open, sue me)

I like the list: seems just like a solid r/w list- which leads to my issue... What are you running black for? My reccomendation would be another answer or two for master of waves, and maybe aggressive creatures. Or, at least, thoughtseize to strip cards you can't outrace or fight, or something of that source: otherwise you're shocking yourself for more cards out of the board. (I know the feel, that's where my Grixis ended up for awhile.) Master of Cruelties will END THE GAME if you can get through. It makes their lifegain irrelephant.