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Grixis Spellslinger

Commander / EDH Bracket 4 Flashback Magecraft Spellslinger Surveil UBR (Grixis)

SolePilgrim

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Land (36)

Creature (8)

Instant (22)

Artifact (13)

Commander (1)

Commander: Kess, Dissident Mage

Sorcery (19)

Planeswalker (1)

Maybeboard

Creature (28)

Sorcery (17)

Land (8)

Artifact (11)

Enchantment (9)

Instant (8)

Introduction

This is my first ever spellslinger-type deck and my first attempt at a Bracket 4 deck ever, aiming to win by copying Bolt-style cards over and over in a single massive stack.
It was inspired by a post on r/BadMtgCombos (credited and linked further down).

Play Pattern

The deck aims at tutoring a winning combo, consisting of a Bolt-style card and a way to copy it over and over on the stack.
Because Kess, Dissident Mage can cast a single spell from the graveyard on each of your turns, stacking the graveyard with combo pieces and utility while ramping enough mana for the game-ending combo is the main tactic.
Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy, Jace, Telepath Unbound  , and Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator provide extra graveyard casting opportunities.

Most Bolts are uncounterable to allow Counterpoint to be cast targeting it, see The Unlikely Combo With Counterpoint.
In a pinch, Cut / Ribbons or Maestros Charm could be used as a Bolt, but this will not work with Counterpoint.
If Boseiju, Who Shelters All is on the field, Ribbons is also available for the Counterpoint combo.
Twinning Staff and Primal Wellspring   are fallbacks in case Increasing Vengeance is unavailable from the graveyard to create an expanding stack of copy spells.
An alternate way to win is to stack two single-copy spells on top of each other (such as Twincast and Reverberate) with Professor Onyx on the field.

The Unlikely Combo With Counterpoint:

  1. Cast an uncounterable Bolt.
  2. Hold priority, cast Counterpoint targeting the Bolt.
  3. Hold priority, cast a copy spell targeting Counterpoint (ideally Increasing Vengeance from hand).
  4. Resolve the copy spell, creating a Counterpoint copy targeting the Bolt.
  5. Resolve the Counterpoint copy. Counter effect will not be applied, but the free cast effect will still resolve.
  6. Cast Increasing Vengeance (or any copy spell if Twinning Staff is on the field) from the graveyard with the Counterpoint copy effect targeting the original Counterpoint.
  7. Resolve Increasing Vengeance, and loop steps 5-7 an arbitrary amount of times.
  8. With an arbitrary amount of Counterpoint copies, resolve them to cast Increasing Vengeance over and over again, this time duplicating the Bolt.
  9. Explode the table.
    (credit to u/MegAzumarill on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BadMtgCombos/comments/1ixif2p/deal_infinite_damamage_to_any_number_of_targets/)

Performance

After goldfishing this deck, it seems capable of winning games consistently around turn 8. I've had one or two goldfish sessions where it played an infinite combo on turn 6.
With a perfect opening hand (At least 1 untapped land, 1 arbitrary land, Mox Diamond, Sol Ring and 2 signets) and topdecking, turn 4 or 5 should be possible with enough mana at the start of turn 2 to cast Kess.
Kess provides a ton of value in letting you reuse your cast spells, you'll often be spoiled for choice in longer games as to what to cast with her.
Be mindful that her ability works only on your own turn, so plan to use it mostly for sorcery-speed casting.
Quiet Speculation is great to get the draw spells Faithless Looting, Deep Analysis and card:Scour All Posibilities in the graveyard as well as to find Increasing Vengeance.
Fetching card:Mystical Retrieval with it to bring Increasing Vengeance back to hand is sometimes preferred over fetching an additional draw spell.
Gale, Waterdeep Prodigy provides excellent extra castings of graveyard spells with hand-cast spells, relieving the tension of having to choose which spell to "flashback" each turn.
Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator fulfills a similar one-time role, although he's much better as a recurring extra draw source.
Carefully consider when to send creatures to the graveyard. Outside of Lively Dirge there are no ways to return creatures from the graveyard, and Dirge is primarily used as a tutor for an extra spell in the graveyard.

Dangers

Archmage Emeritus and Archmage of Runes can cause you to lose the game if you start a recasting loop with one or both of them on the field. Resolving the loop early enough is crucial in this case.
Archmage Emeritus specifically is dangerous as he'll force you to draw a card for every cast AND copy, quickly spiraling out of control.
The recurring draw is however too valuable in longer games to forgo these creatures. Be wise in casting them.

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