We knew the Pro Tour was going to bring out some control decks. It’s just the natural order of things. Aggro dominates early, and then we have a somewhat defined metagame that is exploitable and players find the right mix of reactive cards to exploit it. And there’s perhaps no one better at finding that right mix of cards than Shota Yasooka.
Shota is unique in that he always brings something different to the table, often something that no one else would have thought of. And that was certainly true last weekend as he took an innovative Grixis Control deck to the Pro Tour Kaladesh title.
The red removal here is excellent, as Galvanic Bombardment deals with early creatures while scaling into the mid-game to take out larger threats, all for the low cost of one mana. Harnessed Lightning also takes out early threats, notably Smuggler’s Copter, and scales similarly in conjunction with Glimmer of Genius. I imagine that these removal spells are one of the big draws to the deck and certainly the reason to play red.
Painful Truths is the big draw to black, as there really isn’t a more efficient draw spell in Standard. However, making the mana work for this card since the fetchlands in Khans of Tarkir rotated has been too difficult, and the life loss is a significant liability in an aggressive metagame. But with the great red removal and maindeck Radiant Flames, Shota has compensated enough in those matchups to allow him to play the most powerful card draw spell available.
And then we come to blue. Torrential Gearhulk was a breakout star at the Pro Tour, showing up in control decks of every ilk, and unsurprisingly we see it here along with a large suite of counterspells to help combat Aetherworks Marvel. But the most surprising addition? Four maindeck copies of Thing in the Ice.
Thing in the Ice was much hyped upon its release but was among the biggest losers in a format defined in large part by Reflector Mage. Having your work at removing counters completely undone time and time again made the card a liability, but now that Collected Company is gone and Reflector Mage’s numbers are down, Thing in the Ice can serve double-duty as an early blocker/sweeper against aggressive decks and a cheap threat against midrange and control decks that can let you shift gears on a dime.
Simply put, Shota is a master. This deck was great for the Pro Tour metagame and has the tools to adjust as the format evolves so long as you put the work into it. But the most impressive part is that this is still just a collection of card draw, removal, counterspells, and win conditions. It’s a classic control deck, nothing too fancy, and goes to show you how difficult refining even well-known shells can be.
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (26)
Spells (27)
