My contribution to destroying the mental health of my fellow edh players; a bracket 3 anti-creature stax deck designed to keep my planeswalkers alive long enough to have that be a problem.
Welcome to Nicol Bolas the Ravager
Grixis planeswalkers suffers from a unique issue; the primary support for protecting permanents from damage, and the primary cards that allow you to immediately ult a planeswalker, are both in colors Nicol Bolas does not have access to. If you want your planeswalkers to ult - typically, the way that Superfriends decks accumulate enough value to win the game - you have to do it fairly, in a 4-play free-for-all experience where the most common permanent type can, easily, directly kill your very-expensive permanents. Imagine playing shrines, but your opponent's creatures all have " Destroy target enchantment." Now imagine that some of your most important shrines cost six-eight mana.
The design philosophy for this deck developed as a response to that issue; the only way this is a tenable strategy is if I dedicate significant resources to ensuring that the board is clear of creatures. Grixis has access to some wildly-underutilized anti-creature stax pieces - cards like Overburden, Lethal Vapors, and Tainted AEther that require an answer from most decks in the format in order to play - as well as a substantial number of competitive boardwipes. This deck runs basically all of them. Early turns are entirely dedicated to allowing people to play out a board presence, and then wiping it clean, waiting to build planeswalkers until your opponent's resources are drained. Drop stax wherever you can, and don't worry if they're removed - you'll find more.
I've found this is substantially more consistent than trying to lean into proliferate synergies and a standard control suite. Grixis planeswalkers is a slow strategy, and some of the most impactful planeswalkers cost 5-8 mana and then take 2-3 turns to ult; games with this deck are a grind, but despite that, this is one of my favorite decks to play. Due to the slow strategy and obvious weaknesses, it creates a gameplay experience where you're basically playing Archenemy - the table will need to band together to defeat you, and it will take substantial resources.
Win Conditions?
Because I leaned heavily into creature-hate, our own tokens die often - and not in a fun, aristocrats sorta way. Combat damage is seldom an answer in a deck that only runs three creatures including the commander. To maintain bracket 3 (this strategy crumbles in bracket 4 games), we also don't have access to many tutors, meaning that we will need to use good old-fashioned draw advantage to find our wincons. This deck has six - which sounds like a lot, but I promise it does not feel that way when you're desperately hunting.
Not Actually Chaining Extra Turns But It's Close
Ichormoon Gauntlet + a critical mass of planeswalkers.
This is the easiest way to win with the deck, and probably the one I default to hunting for if I find Beseech the Mirror or a good draw engine. We already want to be playing large numbers of planeswalkers in the mid-to-late game, after we've boardwiped 2-3 times and people's resources are substantially depleted. It also combos fantastically with Tangle Wire and a couple cheap planeswalkers, allowing for an early near-total board lock if your opponents don't have removal and mana ready to go. Mathematically, it is POSSIBLE to chain infinite turns with Ichormoon Gauntlet, but in-game you'll find that doesn't happen much - instead, Ichormoon will typically allow you to get the 1-2 extra turns you need to ult a planeswalker, and the value from that ultimate will typically win the game for you.
When I Said We Hated Creatures, I Didn't Mean You
Deepglow Skate + planeswalkers with game-winning ultimates.
There's a few planeswalkers whose ultimate abilities actually do eliminate players or win the game, but in Grixis planeswalkers we need those cards to be making mana, drawing us cards, acting as removal, and otherwise playing the game for us while we focus on keeping the board clear. So, unlike Atraxa, we can't ONLY run planeswalkers that win shortly after being dropped - we need them to last. Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, any Nicol Bolas, Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, and Vraska, Betrayal's Sting can all be ulted with a little set-up and a Deepglow Skate, allowing for a win apparently out of nowhere. That's as close to a 2-card combo as we get, and it typically costs 13 mana and happens in two, sorcery-speed, highly-telegraphed moments.
Atraxa Can't Do This
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God + Jace, Cunning Castaway + Chain Veil/Spark Double/Ichormoon Gauntlet
One of the major benefits of being in Grixis (other than being really unique and cool, bro), is access to Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, a truly insane value-piece in a Superfriends deck. Nicol Bolas and Jace have a very-cool interaction; Nicky B comes in with 4 loyalty counters, and Jace's ultimate (to make two copies of the ulting planeswalker) costs 5. If you use Spark Double to make a 5-loyalty Nicky B, use Chain Veil to allow your Nicky B's to +1 first, or use Ichormoon Gauntlet to proliferate with one of the Nicol Bolas', you can create an infinite board of planeswalkers. From there, Chandra, Legacy of Fire will kill all of your opponents at your end step; another activation of Chain Veil will allow you to use an infinite number of planeswalker abilities; OR, you can just sit menacingly until your next turn, daring your opponents to find a solution to that. And then they cast Praetor's Grasp, and...
Deepglow Skate's Weird Younger Brother
The Elderspell + a critical mass of planeswalkers, including one with a game-winning ultimate.
The Elderspell is a hard include that I just keep leaving in the deck. It can dump a TON of loyalty counters on one of your haymaker planeswalkers, but the downside - and this is a huge downside - is that a theft deck can use it to wipe YOUR board. That sounds incredibly niche, and perhaps it's just my local meta, but the number of times this thing has been Praetor's Grasp'd and immediately cast as a two-mana boardwipe against me is not low. It can also be hit with Deflecting Swat, and used to target every planeswalker on your board, effectively neutralizing it. Third-string win condition, but two mana to ult a Nicky B is just too good to leave out, even with the risk.
The Boring Teferi Line
Teferi, Temporal Archmage + Chain Veil + 3 Mana Rocks, including Sol Ring
Transparently, this deck is not great at using this. It's a classic line from Superfriends decks, and TECHNICALLY we have the pieces, but with only seven mana rocks total (one of which costs 2 life on each use, Staff of Compleation), I have never actually successfully put this together. What you MIGHT be able to do, is use chain veil 2-3 times in a turn using Teferi and what mana rocks you have, burning a little more of your land each time, and then exploit that with your other planeswalkers. Still, this line is only in the description because the individual pieces are all good in the deck. Your mileage may vary.
Finally an Actual Use for Ashiok
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries + Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator + Necropotence/Bolas' Citadel
Transparently, this deck was built so that I could play with my pet planeswalker, Ashiok. I love the character and have all but one of the iterations of them stuffed in here - so of course, I had to include the Ashiok win-con in the deck. This plays like a substantially worse Thassa's Oracle + Demonic Consultation, requiring, as minimum, , and at most (and less reliably!) . If you're unfamiliar with the combo - Ashiok allows you to exile cards from the top of your deck to pay life, so you can use Bolas' Citadel (with some luck) or Necropotence (reliably) to exile your whole deck with Jace on the field, and then use Jace's +1, or any other draw outlet, to win the game.
Pre-Game Conversations
Let me be clear: this is a contentious deck. There are people in my main play-group that have no issue with me breaking this out every week, and at least a couple people who will not sit at the table if I'm playing it. I am a huge fan of the brackets system for guiding conversations, but this deck specifically is a unique play experience that in many ways exploits that system, featuring many themes - discard, superfriends, stax, mass boardwipes, and combos - that your playgroup may not love. The deck does not work in high-power, bracket 4 environments where two card combos, instant-speed wins, and numerous gamechangers are commonplace; but it is an uphill battle the entire time for tribal decks, even tribal decks with strong combo lines.
I cannot stress enough, if you build some version of Nicol Bolas Planeswalkers/Stax/Boardwipe tribal, ensure that your group knows what kind of deck you intend to play, and is prepared for an Archenemy experience. Also, take your turn as quickly as you can - agonizing over which planeswalker abilities to use and losing track of them every turn will make your playgroup substantially less happy with you.
If you do build it, and find a group that is okay with this experience, HAVE FUN! This has quickly become one of my favorite decks to pilot, and I hope it'll be yours, too.
