Grixis Control (M13)

Standard* steelydanno

SCORE: 1 | 4 COMMENTS | 876 VIEWS

TNM, 24 July 2012 - Curio Cavern, Springfield VA —July 25, 2012

ROUND 1 – Mono-Black Aggro-Control

This deck used Vampire Nighthawk and Phyrexian Obliterator as its main threats, equipping them with Lashwrithe and using just a ton of hand destruction spells—he cast multiple copies of Despise, Duress, and Distress. I’d say he got fair value out of them, only once coming up empty. He beat me down Game 1, but after board things looked a lot better with a slew of extra removal. He wasn’t able to keep bodies to strap Lashwrithe to, except once when he did stick one to a Phyrexian Obliterator…only for Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker to steal him away the next turn. RESULT: 1-0 (2-1).

ROUND 2 – U/W Ughhhhhhhhhhhh

Turn 1 Gitaxian Probe, then Seachrome Coast? Audible sigh and even more audible berating of my opponent for his deck choice. With me sullenly on the draw, he got a Geist of Saint Traft on the board on his third turn, tempoing and countering any resistance I tried to put up. Second game went much better, although I have to admit a lot of it is luck…he had two Delver of Secrets  ^Flip sitting on the board unflipped for about 6 straight turns. I got Nicol Bolas to stick, stole one of the Delvers, flipped it on the next turn and killed him with it. Yeah, sure I lost Game 3 to a pair of blind-flips on turn 3, but getting to finally turn the tables on the Scourge of Standard was almost worth it. RESULT: 1-1 (3-3).

ROUND 3 – Mono Red Goblins

When I first returned to the game last September, I started out with Mono Red and played it for a good 3-4 months, so his turn 1 Vexing Devil and turn 2 Shrine of Burning Rage really brought back memories. I very nearly learned what it was like to be Shrined to death, but on my last-chance draw I drew a Ponder, cast it into a shuffle, and ripped a Red Sun's Zenith which, combined with my Fettergeist, was good for exactly lethal. The second game wasn’t as close. RESULT: 2-1 (5-3)

ROUND 4 – G/W Midrangel

That look familiar? Played this same guy last week to a draw. We quickly traded the first two games (miracled Bonfire of the Damned will move things along, as will an unblocked Sigarda, Host of Herons) and, noting that almost 30 minutes remained on the clock, we would almost certainly be able to settle the score from last week. I had sideboarded in lots of “target player sacrifices” removal, thinking he couldn’t drop an early Sigarda in three straight games, and thinking incorrectly. After game 2, however, I boarded in something else: Talrand, Sky Summoner. After the game I learned my opponent had sided out his board sweepers and Rancor for Celestial Purge and that other card that kills black permanents. Talrand came down in response to Sigarda, and although the game drew out a ways longer, that held his offense entirely at bay until I could R-X him into the ether (Rx? Paging Dr. Bolas, paging Dr. Bolas) RESULT: 3-1 (7-4), 6th out of 32.

AFTER ACTION REPORT

I admit, I was actually kind of pessimistic about the deck, since without Talrand it just felt suddenly very short on win conditions. However, one of the substitutions was Batterskull, itself a very capable win condition and the second Gilded Lotus was so freaking good. As I thought, it obviously powers up Bonfires and gets to Bolas faster, but just having all that extra mana laying around is so useful for end-step tomfoolery—not the least of which is the usually-impossible Forbidden Alchemy flashback. While I feel I had a little more luck on my side than I do most nights, I also feel like I made very few mistakes to earn the wins. The one glaring exception is that against Sigarda & Friends, I inexplicably sided in, and KEPT IN, about 4 sacrifice-removal cards. This was stupid and I am really lucky I didn’t lose with all those dead Tribute to Hunger I had in my hand. On the plus side, the decision to move Talrand to the sideboard was even better than I thought—my maindeck creature base is VERY nonthreatening, and my round 4 opponent probably won’t be the only one to sideboard out sweepers and removal against me in the future.