Grip of Desolation

Instant

Devoid (This card has no color.)

Exile target creature and target land.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

Yeti_Confetti on Eldrazi Exile

3 years ago

Some cards I've found that you may want to consider: Seal Away is low CMC and has flash for a surprise when they swing, Cast Out comes with cycling to help you draw if you really need it, Brain Maggot has a small body but can grab anything nonland from their hand, Baffling End may be better than silkwrap depending on what creatures you're up against normally. Dire Tactics / Anguished Unmaking are unconditional creature removal, at the cost of some life. Maybe even Bane of Bala Ged for fun. Finally Warping Wail has some flexibility that you may find useful.

I personally would drop Grip of Desolation . For 6 mana you'll want to be doing more than what it offers, could play two or three spells instead even. Maybe add more copies of Utter End in its place, or Vraska's Contempt can hit 'walkers and creatures, and the two life is a nice touch.

I hope you find this helpful, neat deck and best of luck with it!

golgarigirl on

3 years ago

Other ideas to speed us up: Urza's Incubator, Ugin, the Ineffable, Herald's Horn, Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Chromatic Lantern, Arcane Signet, Fist of Suns, Kozilek's Channeler I don't know if just more scion-makers are a good idea here too.

Other ideas to draw us fuel: Mystic Forge, Vanquisher's Banner, Fathom Feeder

Other ideas to close out games: Molten Nursery, Barrage Tyrant, Dread Defiler

Other support pieces: Ruination Guide, Tide Drifter, Warping Wail, Scour from Existence, Grip of Desolation, Unnatural Aggression, Eldrazi Mimic

CrimsonWings3689 on The Swarm

4 years ago

To Remove:

Extricator of Sin  ^Flip - easily one of the least impactful cards you have and you have 9 to cut.

Abstruse Interference - a 3 mana Force Spike/Mana Tithe seems bad, even if the upside of getting a creature token is there.

Otherworldly Outburst - Like Extricator, a 3/2 is unlikely to make a very big difference.

Isochron Scepter - with 109 cards in deck right now, there are only 4 cards that could even meet the criteria to use this. Fall of the Titans won't work because this won't let you pay alternative costs.

Planar Gate - quite expensive, and while awesome, you would get more mileage out of something like Ugin, the Ineffable, since your Devoid spells are technically colorless. It would benefit your artifacts as well as your Eldrazi. His activated abilities are nothing to sneeze at either.

Rhystic Tutor - someone is going to pay the 2... if you could pick the opponent, different story. As is, it's unlikely to ever resolve. you would be better off with something like Vampiric Tutor if you were going for another tutor effect, but that one is rather pricey as well.

Shard Convergence - Have this be something like Cultivate or Kodama's Reach to make sure that you can cast your spells sooner.

From Beyond - very slow for what it does, not sure it's worth it in the long run.

Endless One - a big mana sink with no keywords or activated abilities is underwhelming.

Desolation Twin - the 10/10 token is only on cast, so if there are any effects that would reanimate it, put it into play, etc that happen to go off, it's just a vanilla 10/10. For 10cmc, you would be better off running either version of Kozilek or Ulamog.

Emrakul's Evangel - I didn't realize that the condition to get the 3/2's required "non-eldrazi" to be sacrificed. It's a non-bo with the deck.

Cards to consider:

Void Attendant - Mana sink to potentially get more scion tokens.

World Breaker - a recurrable threat that exiles permanents.

Essence Depleter - Mana sink to lifegain/drain someone.

Grip of Desolation - 2 for 1 removal spell.

Ruination Guide - Colorless, front-end creature pump.

Sire of Stagnation - Jerk card for jerks. Slows opponents down or exiles their fuel. slows them down either way to give you more time to amass your army.

Spell Shrivel - This is a counterspell that's better than the one you have in the list currently (Abstruse Interference).

Call the Scions - Similar to Awakening Zone and From Beyond it gives you 2x 1/1's for 3cmc all at once.

Cards to Add:

Herald of Kozilek - cost reduction for your deck.

Swarm Surge - Colorless creature pump and First Strike.

Smothering Abomination - Card draw for sac'ing a token on upkeep.

Brood Butcher - turns your tokens into removal for BG to -2/-2 something.

Deepfathom Skulker - lets you draw for each attacking creature you control that connects with a player.

Dango on Invincible Under the Sun 天下無双

5 years ago

PhotogenicParasympathetic thank you for the comment! I've had a lot of fun with the list up until recently now that my playgroup has become more competitive. I've been thinking about adopting more storm and reanimation lines to accommodate for the recent increase in competitive level. Lately I've been playing a lot of Tasigur Control however.

Fated Return has pulled off some stupid shenanigans. Since it's instant you can kill someone's Vorinclex for example and then follow it up by paying seven mana to reanimate it and make it indestructible under your control. Mana intensive yes, but in more casual metas I've been able to pull off that sort of jank. Toshiro is a good enabler to essentially flash it back right after a kill spell too. Not for all metas, but for the one I played this deck in at the time the slot was warranted.

I've been wanting to slot in Grip of Desolation for some time. I've just struggled to figure out what kill spells are worth cutting because I can't seem to figure out what's been too subpar to justify putting on the chopping block. I get anxiety just thinking about revisions.

Thrilling Encore was thrown in here when I saw it spoiled. I have a copy, but I haven't actually gotten a chance to test it unfortunately. I thought it might be decent to bring in if I were to adopt more reanimation lines, but I'm not sure how to reconstruct the deck in a modular way that incorporates such ideas.

My collection has expanded tremendously since I created this deck, so I have more mono black staples like Yawgmoth's Will , Vampiric Tutor , and Demonic Tutor . I'd like to make this list more competitive but I'm not sure where to start. Some degeneracy with Isochron Scepter , Paradox Engine , and Aetherflux Reservoir seems decent. I feel like with enough mana and Toshi triggers I might be able to storm off with him alone but I'm not entirely sure how viable that would end up being. Every time I've tried, his ability just feels too limited to bring to the competitive level. He's such a cool commander though, and I wish I could improve him more. I just don't have much of a reason to throw more money at him at the moment. It's honestly a shame too. I love him with all my heart, but my playgroup doesn't allow him to do what he wants to do anymore.

PhotogenicParasympathetic on Invincible Under the Sun 天下無双

5 years ago

Hi user: DiverDown!

First off, thanks a bunch for the mention in your description! I'm glad you found my primer helpful, and I'm glad you enjoyed a Toshiro build as well! I'm sorry to hear you've retired it for the moment, although I can certainly understand that - while a lot of fun, Toshiro is not highly competitive by any means.

Quick question: How did you find Fated Return to work for you? I've not yet tested it because it seems so mana expensive but... that's also a really powerful effect. Did you find it useful/worth the cost, or did it tend to sit in hand unused more often?

Also, if/when you do revitalize the deck: I've tried out a few cards in your maybeboard since I first wrote the primer, and Grip of Desolation has been phenomenal. Getting to remove opposing problem lands is reward enough, but having it also act as devoid removal to get around things like Iona and Akroma has been excellent. Thrilling Encore ... less so. I never felt like a large enough group of creatures was dying at the same time due to my own kill spells, and since the card costs 5 mana, I was frequently having to kill fewer creatures than I wanted to in order to fire it off. I could also wait for an opponent to board wipe, but that was less reliable to happen. I tested it, but ended up cutting it after it underperformed.

SynergyBuild on The Orzhov Syndicate desires an …

5 years ago

Just Oblivion Strike , Scour from Existence , Grip of Desolation , Wasteland Strangler (if small), make them sacrifice it, board wipe, mass bounce/exile, counter over and over with an effect like Deathgrip , Nevermore , Preacher , Gideon's Intervention , etc.

thijmnesoy on

5 years ago

It's okay. I'm not in a hurry ^̮^

This seems pretty cool and very control-y. I have a couple suggestions: Price of Fame; Vona's Hunger; Succumb to Temptation; Detection Tower; Grim Return; Primal Amulet  ^Flip ( cast more copies of your instants! And sorceries.) ; Wretched Confluence; Tragic Slip; Thrilling Encore; Malicious Affliction; Hero's Downfall; Crypt Ghast; Revel in Riches; Fated Return; Harvester of Souls; Demon of Dark Schemes; Sepulchral Primordial; Sangromancer; Kothophed, Soul Hoarder; Archfiend of Depravity; Chainer, Dementia Master; Massacre Wurm; Avatar of Woe; Noxious Gearhulk; Puppeteer Clique; Sheoldred, Whispering One; Ogre Slumlord; Kokusho, the Evening Star; Grip of Desolation; Stunning Reversal; Tainted Strike

Let me know if you can use these suggestions

Struyk on

5 years ago

Love it! Was looking for a nice Liliana's Contract deck and I just found it! Needs more Hexproof cards though, you CAN NOT play her without being able to counter the next spell... Enemy will just take one of their control spells and kill her.

Urza's Incubator is really good but too expensive for my taste :(

Searching for Ob Nixilis, Unshackled then playing him for 13 damage is pretty broken haha

Dark Tutelage you can't play this unless you want to kill yourself

Corrupt is really really bad for it's cost

I would remove Rune-Scarred Demon, Exquisite Blood, Living Death and Urza's Incubator for my budget

And then remove Unhallowed Pact / Unmake the Graves / Twilight's Call / Omen Machine / Hythonia the Cruel / Grip of Desolation // Druidic Satchel / Price of Knowledge because they either don't fit in the deck or are just weak / too slow