Decks For Every #SCGATL Format

Grixis Control fresh off of my Pro Tour qualification a few weeks prior. The deck is still super-powerful and there is no staggeringly difficult matchup outside of W/B Control. There are a few pros that emerged from the cons-filled weekend, luckily. I am so close to Silver that I had to replace this missed tournament with GP Columbus, which happens to be Legacy.

Legacy is one of those formats that rewards old players like me, because reps with Brainstorm, Force of Will, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor improves play significantly. There is a reason why this old Tom Martell special is still helping me put up results in 2016.

The best news is that I had tons of time to refine, brew, and metagame a host of deck lists for my fantastic readers. Today’s article is going to highlight seven decks with a small explanation for each to get you all started if you dare to play on the fringe. Let’s get the obvious, most relevant decklist out there for you Standard enthusiasts.

Standard Decks

This is very close to the list that got me to 13-2 at GP New York. I’ve shifted the mana very slightly, changed the maindeck to give a little more early-game consistency, and added the fourth Goblin Dark-Dwellers to give late-game inevitability (especially with the two copies of Dark Petition). The deck has performed very well against the heaviest hitters of the format, with its only weakness to other control decks Game 1.

Grixis Control doesn’t have the luxury of a large end-game package due to the synergy requirements of Goblin Dark-Dwellers. The bulk of the spells have to be close to the bottom in order to guarantee a spicy Flashback on turn 5. Against control decks game 1, there are many occasions where removal is used sparingly, which really hurts the stock of our overcosted Snapcaster Mage until the sideboard is introduced. The deck dominates aggro, punishes B/G, and annihilates midrange, but does suffer in the mirror department. Changes can be made to compensate, but not without dropping the rest of the numbers across the board.

I believe I wrote this deck list while partially asleep, waiting for a connecting flight to finally get home. It’s not my style, but it is something I’d find to be pretty fun to toy around with for an FNM or other casual event I may find myself at. Thought-Knot Seer and Reality Smasher are criminally underplayed due to their power level; however, the control mage side of me is extremely happy about this situation. The Eldrazi are very powerful in Standard. The answers that exist for them in older formats don’t have playable equivalents here. Path to Exile’s closest sibling is a three-mana, double-black sorcery as far as “answer all” goes. Take this deck out for a spin and see if mono-colored decks can pack a punch without one-drops.

Modern Decks

Grixis is a powerful color combination across Legacy, Modern, and Standard. The removal, card draw, and win conditions are all forces to be reckoned with regardless of the age of the format. The biggest fallacy in the Grixis Control strategy is its historic difficulty with the most aggressive of decks. There isn’t a great way to gain life in this shard’s arsenal that doesn’t involve using clunky artifacts like Dragon’s Claw, Golden Urn, or Sun Droplet. The biggest issue with using artifacts to gain life is the Destructive Revelry response from aggressive players.

Luckily for Grixis Control fans, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is the whole package. It gains life, provides a win condition, gives maindeck hate for graveyard strategies, has four toughness, and rewards the use of spot removal. Grixis in Modern and Standard relies on Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet until a better form of lifegain presents itself.

At #GPCharlotte, I piloted a Jeskai Control list very similar to this to an 11-4 record. Nabbing two more Pro Points on the way to a Silver run was nice, but the results weren’t what I was hoping for. Naturally I began to refine the list and changed the focus from a “Nahiri, the Harbinger or bust” strategy to a control victory with a little side of combo.

I increased the amount of Goblin Dark-Dwellers, added Gideon Jura back to the maindeck, and completely revamped the sideboard. I found that two Stony Silence was one too few, because not having one on turn 2 against Affinity is asking for trouble. The card is also very effective against the #GPCharlotte-winning Ad Nauseam and Tron. Lingering Souls also proved to be a dilemma, so Izzet Staticaster joins the team to help out.

If the ways of Jeskai fail me, I know Esper will always pick me back up. I love the Esper shard and it will not take much to get me back to the glorious blue, black, and white combination. I feel like Jeskai is still too strong to put down; however, this list is no joke.

With the exit of Eldrazi, Modern has opened up the gates for control decks to make an impact. I still think that control is easily the weakest strategy to use in Modern, but that is changing little by little as the format becomes more defined. The biggest issue for control in Modern is the variety of powerful decks for any mage to choose from.

Control thrives on honing in on the four or five best decks and then eliminating them. A fifteen-card sideboard leaves us vulnerable to strategies that we simply didn’t have the room to defend against. For that reason, this list has to have an aggressive element to it. This Esper Control deck has the power to close out games quick with Lingering Souls, Monastery Mentor, and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. If you are going to choose a control deck for Modern, be sure to include a way to win the game shortly after stabilization.

The Season Four Invitational last year handed me a devastating loss in the final round to not make the Top 8. This loss came at the hands of a Temur Twin player while I was operating a U/R Delver list similar to this one. That list had maindeck Blood Moon and fewer aggressive creatures, focusing more on the power of Young Pyromancer.

I decided to create this list with a more aggressive first game, attack them down with a ton of blue interaction, and then sideboard into the more gritty strategy. Young Pyromancer is great after sideboardig when it’s time to shave off the one drop creatures that can’t get past a Kird Ape or Tarmogoyf in game one. Blood Moon is another card that can be an absolute dud in the first game but an auto-win against others. This is a deck that I’d resort to if control doesn’t pan out in the next few tournaments.

This is my revised pet deck from the first Modern Pro Tour in Philly many years ago. I played this Protean Hulk combo deck in a world where there were no banned cards in Modern besides the initial list when the format was created. Now the format has lost some of its power level and great red cards were created to help boost graveyard strategies. Faithless Looting and Izzet Charm make this deck much more viable than it ever was.

Magus of the Bazaar was the go-to looter, but with Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, the poor creature lost its job. Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy not only puts Protean Hulk in the graveyard, he also flashes back Footsteps of the Goryo if the initial attempt failed. This deck has a fairly hard-to-stop turn 3 win Game 1but can get completely shut down by graveyard hate. It’s up to the hand disruption package; otherwise the costly Engineered Explosives has to be deployed to keep the combo dream alive. I never liked getting hated out by a bullet in someone’s sideboard, which is the reason why I shelved this deck many moons ago. If you like to live dangerously and win with a quirky combo deck, this is the one for you.

Finally, Legacy

Since I am now battling at GP Columbus, it is time to dust off the old Legacy deck. Esper StoneBlade has won me more matches than any other deck. It has the best spells from my old Standard decks and gives me sweet Flashback of control’s better days.

The deck had to undergo some change in order to defeat the can that was kicked down the road, Eldrazi. Eldrazi in Legacy is an absolute nightmare for fair decks like mine, playing a Chalice of the Void for one, destroying my land with an early Wasteland, or simply dropping a turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer. I lost so many games in testing to it that I had to put the deck down for a moment, gather my thoughts, and hit the tank.

At the end of the study session, I determined that the love of my life, Lingering Souls, has to hit the bench until the popularity of the colorless decks drops. True-Name Nemesis is the answer to these creatures and is a much better option than Lingering Souls against all decks that don’t use either Liliana of the Veil or countermagic in combination with aggressive creatures. I also dropped a few bucks on a Moat, transitioning the sideboard to contain a few more targets for Enlightened Tutor. The changes I implemented have definitely helped against the Eldrazi decks and I hope it didn’t damage my better matchups.

Be sure to take Grixis Control out for a spin for the SCG Tour^® this weekend in Atlanta. Out of all of the decks I unveiled today, this is easily the most dominant and proven. Whoever I have given this list to has had success at a GP, PPTQ, FNM, or in testing against their buddies. Go get that trophy!