Grixis Control is a popular archetype in the current Standard metagame of Magic: the Gathering, and was observed in the deck’s popularity in last weekend’s SEA Regional Championships Cycle 2. The deck typically focuses on controlling the game through a combination of counterspells, removal, and board wipes, while also leveraging powerful card advantage engines and finishers.

Some of the key cards in a Standard Grixis Control deck may include the following:

• Abrade and Go for the Throat for efficient creature removal.
• Invoke Despair for versatile creature and planeswalker removal.
• Bladecoil Serpent, Corpse Appraiser, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker for card advantage and win conditions.
• Brotherhood’s End, and Gix’s Command for board wipes.
• Make Disappear, Spell Pierce, and Negate for efficient counterspells against opponents’ relevant spells.
• Duress for hand disruption in the sideboard as it is relevant to discard important spells before they even resolve.

Grixis Control decks may also run powerful planeswalkers such as Liliana of the Veil, Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting to further control the game and provide additional win conditions.

Here below is a sample decklist from the top deck finishers in the MTG SEA Championships Philippine Open Cycle 3 @ Oracle Events.