Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet; Chandra, Flamecaller; and even Wandering Fumarole, it would appear that Grixis now has the option of turning the corner in a manner that was previously only available to Dragonlords.
The majority of this Grixis deck’s early curve is your semi-normal removal suite, with special care being taken to maximize the number of instants which play well with the seven main-deck counterspells.
While Grasp of Darkness is excellent at removing creature-lands, it isn’t able to remove Siege Rhino from the battlefield, which can certainly be problematic for this flavor of Grixis and its notable lack of Roasts.
On the other hand, savvy Standard players are starting to notice the general weakness to flying creatures that is currently present in the format and Grasp is great at handling both Mantis Rider and Thunderbreak Regent.
Kalitas and Chandra, Flamecaller are the major workhorses in this deck, both capable of stabilizing the battlefield and winning games incredibly quickly. The two work together particularly well in tandem; wiping the board of small creatures with Kalitas on the battlefield will suddenly create a horde of angry zombies.
Esper Dragons is capable of creating a “soft lock” with Dragonlord Ojutai; repeatedly hitting your opponent and digging into more countermagic can put them into a stranglehold that is near impossible to get out of.
Chandra, Flamecaller can serve a similar purpose. If untapped with, her 0 “Wheel of Fortune” ability can dig into more counterspells and interaction so that she can never be removed from the battlefield and will eventually kill the opponent.
Kalitas, Duress, and the counter suite give this Grixis deck game against Four-Color Rally, and it’s notable that while normally jamming creatures into blue instants is normally a fine game plan for the Rally player, WAHYOHYO has chosen to include Spell Shrivel and Void Shatter, which are both capable of exiling to prevent any recursion shenanigans!
While it isn’t apparent that Standard Grixis Control has been completely figured out, it’s certainly clear that it’s got game.
Creatures (7)
Planeswalkers (4)
Lands (27)
Spells (22)
