Have you thought of Liliana Vess? Her -2 seems pretty good for draw/go. She has a pretty high CMC for Modern, but that doesn't seem to hard for a deck running AEtherling.

She was my first 5 cmc walker. She was much more potent against control, and finding the perfect answer in a deck full with nothing but answers to everything was very very powerful. But the fact that she didn't do anything to the board at all, and was super vulnerable after the first tutor against any board with stuff on it made me opt instead for Tamiyo, the Moon Sage.

But she might make a resurgence! With Ob Nixilis Reignited or Jace, Architect of Thought, she is just straight up Demonic Tutor, and I will never dismiss that synergy too easily.

Why are you running Breeding Pool and Steam Vents?

Engineered Explosives. But this list is outdated, with the introduction of Death's Shadow, it'll need to be overhauled.

Running 4 Field of Ruin in a three-color deck seems incredibly greedy.. How has the manabase been working for you?

I'd also love to know your reasoning to not play any copies of Inquisition of Kozilek, as well as how your Tron matches usually go. From what I can tell, you have 2 cards in your 75 that have any effect on Tron. Is this just conceding to the fact that Tron is unwinnable anyway, or how exactly to you plan to approach that matchup?

I like the more midrange approach to Grixis, definitely a cool build!

Nathanaiel Field of Ruin is an absolute must-have in this format, I fear. Any reactive or midrange deck that is not utilising the free land destruction provided by Field is a strictly inferior version of another deck that is. Celestial Colonnade, Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, Academy Ruins, Raging Ravine, Urza's Tower, Sea Gate Wreckage, Eldrazi Temple, Moorland Haunt, Gavony Township, Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and I could go on - the point is, there are a lot of lands with powerful effects in Modern, and to not have the free answer provided to them in the form of Field is a serious omission that only the most proactive strategies can afford to make. A land drop that also double times as a spell is extremely powerful, especially one that answers the powerful lands of other decks.

So, given the necessity of Field of Ruin, is it greedy to play 3 colours? With any less than 22 coloured sources, I think so, but given that I play 26 lands, generally speaking, being colour screwed is not an issue. This is also greatly helped by the fact that so many of my cards only require one mana of a certain colour - the exceptions being the planeswalkers and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. I think it would be extremely greedy to attempt to play Cryptic Command in this list, for instance, but when most spells can be cast within the realm of having just one black, blue and red, Field really doesn't hurt a lot. Also worth noting is that unlike Ghost Quarter, Field does not put you down a land, and also does fix your mana after it is activated, so in most cases, Field really shouldn't hurt.

The only time when Field is a real pain is if you have 2 of your 3 lands are Field of Ruin, because then your hand can be really slowed down. In such cases, either mulligan, or keep and pull through with Thoughtseize and Fatal Push. Consider also the early requirements of this list - with a single black mana, most of the relevant 1 and 2 drops are castable. The lack of Lightning Bolt is a conscious choice, one made for many reasons, one among which is the mana.

Inquisition of Kozilek misses too much. Cryptic Command, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, everything Tron plays, all of Jund's big drops including Bloodbraid Elf, Primeval Titan, Through the Breach, all the random four mana planeswalkers a bunch of different decks play, Gurmag Angler, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and I could go on - but the point is, in a deck that isn't seeking to proactively push through damage and end the game, unconditional answers are better than conditional ones, and Thoughtseize excels in many a situation where Inquisition is only medium. The life loss is not as big a deal as it is in other decks, owing to the 3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and 3 Collective Brutality.

The list initially did have 2 Inquisition of Kozilek alongside its current package, but that proved to be too much discard in a primarily reactive shell. They were removed for more versatile and unconditional answers in Kolaghan's Command and Dreadbore. So far, that choice has definitely served me very well. Only 3 pure discard spells means the chance of dead draws is much lessened; besides, Kolaghan's Command, Collective Brutality, Sedraxis Specter and Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip all double time as hand disruption that also has additional effects, and so unlike the one mana discard spells, is much less often a dead draw.

Re: Tron, yes, game 1 is god awful. Game 2, however, is actually favoured. If Tron is heavy in your meta, I would recommend sideboarding more Pithing Needle and Fulminator Mage; otherwise, the general plan is Thoughtseize into Extirpate + Field of Ruin , with a bunch of countermagic to survive through their big threats. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is invaluable in this matchup owing to his ability to exile Wurmcoil Engine; Thundermaw Hellkite can also come down and eat a Karn Liberated or a Ugin, the Spirit Dragon. You can also set up some nasty loops with Kolaghan's Command and Fulminator Mage that completely shuts the Tron player out of the game; and since, unlike traditional control lists, this one can turn the corner and end the game super fast, once you've gotten your disruption down, you should be able to power through to the finish before they start making their seventh and eighth land drops.

Another line of play to keep in mind is Extirpate on one of their big threats - Tron is not a threat dense deck, and if it is clear they are going to be able to make their mana and start casting big guys, then it may be worth your while to think of all the threats in their deck, and then just start cutting through the lot, so that they have nothing to do with all their mana. Tron does not really have a draw engine either, so once you've dealt with the first 3-4 threats, you're in a very very favoured position to win.

I will be testing a lot more with this deck and I plan to post the results to https://patreon.com/invite/bxlvxg in a few days; stay tuned if this deck is something that interests you, and you want to see where this goes!

While I definitely agree that Field of Ruin is a necessity in modern, I was rather referring to the fact that the full playset seems like quite a lot compared to what other 3-color shells run, however your explanations definitely do make sense, especially considering your above-average amount of basics. The choice to run 26 lands is definitely strong, however me personally I might run more than 2 manlands owing to the fact that getting flooded (which is much more likely when running 26 rather than the more usual amount in modern of 18-22) hurts a lot less with them. Then again, neither Lavaclaw Reaches nor Wandering Fumarole are particularly amazing.

I hadn't really considered the maindeck lifegain that the deck has. I think the main difference to usual grixis that I neglected is the fact that this isn't really a pure control list per se, it has a much quicker clock once it gets to drop its own threats.

While I can see the gameplan versus Tron definitely has merit, I wonder if you can close the game out quickly enough before Tron gets to hardcast its - arguably more scary - finishers. Definitely trust you on this, since I can't say I've played a midrange grixis list before. Hats off!

One last thing: Since this deck aims to somewhat generate cardadvantage by discard rather than draw, how have you found the 1-ofs to be? It doesn't seem like you generally get to see much of your deck very quickly given that you don't run cantrips, and your only real card selection is Search for Azcanta  ^Flip, which is a 1-of itself.

I really like the list and might play around with it a bit myself once I get the chance after finals season is over.

Nathanaiel - exactly, the other two options are not the best, and if I am to increase the number of manlands, I'd probably just advocate for the third Tar Pit. However, too many taplands is very much a concern in this list, so for now, I'm sticking to two. Hopefully, with Search for Azcanta  ^Flip, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Pull from Tomorrow, flood won't be an issue.

You definitely can't kill Tron before they start playing out their threats. That is not the plan, however; the plan is to deal with their threats with some combination of countermagic and discard to buy enough time to then enable one of your own threats to end the game. That said, Olivia Voldaren and Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet both do match up very well against Wurmcoil Engine.

Now, regarding the many 1 of's and 2 of's - the traditional deckbuilding strategy is to have as many 3 and 4 of's as possible in order to maximise the chances of seeing those cards over the course of a game. To what end? The idea is, if you see the same cards every game, then you will know what the deck does, and it will do so consistently. However, there is another way for a deck to be consistent, and this is seen, for instance, in EDH decks - you have a bunch of cards that perform a similar role, and so even though they are different cards, they carry out the same function, and therefore behave much like the same card in certain situations.

For instance, against a turn 2 Tarmogoyf, Terminate, Dreadbore and Fatal Push are eight cards that all do exactly the same thing - so instead of seeing the cards as 3 Terminate and 1 Dreadbore, you can treat the lot as four removal spells. Similarly, at the four drop slot, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Olivia Voldaren, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Nicol Bolas, the Ravager  ^Flip are all powerful threats that must be answered. Yes, it's 3, 1, 1, 1 - or, it's 6 powerful four drops.

Packages like this mean you can fill your deck with a lot of versatile and powerful cards so that you can in any given situation make use of that flexibility to concoct a game plan. Understanding the precise role and niche each card in the deck occupies means you can have a bunch of one-ofs that will do something in each situation, and then combined with the effects of the other cards drawn alongside those one or two of's, you can craft a cohesive strategy.

For instance, against dredge - you draw Kalitas, plus a bunch of removal spells. The plan? Play Kalitas, start exiling stuff, stabilise that way. But instead, say you draw Olivia. Then the plan is to use Olivia to recurringly kill their guys, then win the game quickly off burn and her giant flying attacks before they can dump their yard on the board again. Again, say against dredge, post board, the four drop you have is Damnation. Then combined with Extirpate you should be able to stabilise.

Again, against Jund - they have a Liliana of the Veil in play they just plused. If you have Sedraxis Specter, then you discard that, and finish Lili off in conjunction with any other threat or burn. If you have Dreadbore, just kill her straight up. If you instead just have four drop threats, use them and Snapcaster Mage or Kolaghan's Command to overload LoTV's minus.

Against tokens, you might draw Olivia Voldaren, Engineered Explosives, Izzet Staticaster, or Damnation. These are all 1 or 2 ofs, but they are all cards that will get you out against an army of Lingering Souls. Against zoo, you might draw Engineered Explosives, Damnation, or Fatal Push, and they'll all help you get through zoo's early aggression.

In none of these situations do you have exactly the same cards, yet with the cards you do have, you should be able to find a way out. That's because the cards in question are powerful and flexible, allowing you to craft different strategies according to the situation, meaning overall, you don't really mind which 1 or 2 specific cards you draw over the course of a game; even though you can't expect to see the exact 1 or 2 of every game, you can expect to see some number of cards which will together help you find a winning line.