Humans is probably our worst matchup. Death and Taxes is just as bad in my experience. I tested out Grim Lavamancer and he seems pretty good. I was actually thinking about Archfiend of Ifnir as well since it can block the turn it comes down, Freebooter misses it, and we have a lot of discard effects (maybe with extra CB's post board). If he sticks then we can have recursive board wipes and a finisher.
Why aren't there more cards in Modern that attack creature strategies from a unique angle? (Aside from sweepers) What I mean is that creature strategies have been given all these tools to provide more play and resiliency as opposed to just spilling their hand on the board turn after turn just to have everything swept up. (Cavern of Souls, Vial, Collected Company, Chord, Undying, Return to battlefield triggers, Cost reduction etc etc etc..) However, there are very few cards that fight creatures in a general sense and from different angles. Sure, there are the usual sweepers but more controlling decks haven't been given much in the form of resilient countermeasures if you will. I think Modern could really benefit from something like an enchantment that made a player pay 2 colorless whenever a creature came into play for example. The only effective one I can think of is Ensnaring Bridge.
3 year ad nauseam player here, lookig for a second good combo deck to play. Played already some torneys with the deck.
One thing ive always wondered is why no maindeck thoughtseizes?
-Plan A - Disrupt the oponent plan (hatebears and hatecards in general), or secure the combo against control (acts like a safer pact of negation mostly)
-Plan B - Discard Grisel stuck in hand - proceed to goryos it next turn and win (increasing the probability of turn 2 kill)
I understand your logic, but the list is tight and I think there are a few issues with adding Thoughtseize:
1) Life loss matters - There are a ton of aggressive strategies in Modern currently. This also could mean less life to pay for drawing with Griselbrand.
2) Against control we want to be splicing our Goryo's or TTB's in order to play around counters. This is already an effective way to combat control which is one of our easier matchups already.
3) Top deck advantage against grindy matchups - Against decks that need discard to interact with our combo (Jund, Mardu), we need to heighten our chances of finding our threats or payoff cards. I remember back in the day when I used to play Jund in standard and people would say to take out discard in the mirror so that your top decks are more live. We want to keep card draw against the discard decks and against Jund specifically I want to either have a turn two kill or a spirit guide/ritual into a T1 or T2 Blood moon.
4) I have noticed that each card in the sideboard configuration that we are used to seeing at this point (3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice, 3 Bontu's Last Reckoning, 1 Engineered Explosives, 2 Shattering Spree, 2 Pact of Negation, 1 Removal Spell, Typically Collective Brutality or Lightning Axe)really serves a crucial purpose in the problem matchups and it would be hard to find room for anything else. At most maybe a couple of T.S. in place of the piece of removal and something else depending on your local meta might work.
What would be really sweet is an original fastlands reprint (Blackcleave Cliffs, Darkslick Shores, Seachrome Coast, Razorverge Thicket, and Copperline Gorge)
Wait, doesn't fit number crunch, but the Zendikar Fetch Lands do....
One other thing I wanted to suggest. I think it might be a great idea right now to sideboard a few Grim Lavamancers. I know its sort of a non-bo with sweepers but it can get around some discard effects (Kitesail freebooter) and Thalia. I think humans and Death & Taxes might side out a lot of their creature interaction cards. Right now I have found those sort of disruptive creatures the hardest things to overcome. Any thoughts?
EDIT: Ooh, what about Necroplasm to get around Kitesail and Thalia?
Has anyone had any experience sideboarding 4 Leyline of Sanctity in their Grishoalbrand list? I found myself wanting more Manamorphose in the main in order to hard cast it in case I drew it and it wasn't in my opener. I run the obligatory 1 Manamorphose like all the lists I see. Does anyone have any advice on possibly running more?
Could Fortune Thief be a viable sideboard option versus Humans and possibly other aggro strategies that might side out removal?
I understand your logic, but the list is tight and I think there are a few issues with adding Thoughtseize:
1) Life loss matters - There are a ton of aggressive strategies in Modern currently. This also could mean less life to pay for drawing with Griselbrand.
2) Against control we want to be splicing our Goryo's or TTB's in order to play around counters. This is already an effective way to combat control which is one of our easier matchups already.
3) Top deck advantage against grindy matchups - Against decks that need discard to interact with our combo (Jund, Mardu), we need to heighten our chances of finding our threats or payoff cards. I remember back in the day when I used to play Jund in standard and people would say to take out discard in the mirror so that your top decks are more live. We want to keep card draw against the discard decks and against Jund specifically I want to either have a turn two kill or a spirit guide/ritual into a T1 or T2 Blood moon.
4) I have noticed that each card in the sideboard configuration that we are used to seeing at this point (3 Blood Moon, 3 Chalice, 3 Bontu's Last Reckoning, 1 Engineered Explosives, 2 Shattering Spree, 2 Pact of Negation, 1 Removal Spell, Typically Collective Brutality or Lightning Axe)really serves a crucial purpose in the problem matchups and it would be hard to find room for anything else. At most maybe a couple of T.S. in place of the piece of removal and something else depending on your local meta might work.
We may have reached critical mass for an Ob Nixilis tribal deck
Wait, doesn't fit number crunch, but the Zendikar Fetch Lands do....
One other thing I wanted to suggest. I think it might be a great idea right now to sideboard a few Grim Lavamancers. I know its sort of a non-bo with sweepers but it can get around some discard effects (Kitesail freebooter) and Thalia. I think humans and Death & Taxes might side out a lot of their creature interaction cards. Right now I have found those sort of disruptive creatures the hardest things to overcome. Any thoughts?
EDIT: Ooh, what about Necroplasm to get around Kitesail and Thalia?