Magic: the Gathering ONE Top-Tier Standard Deck: Grixis Control

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.

Grixis Control – Daniel Lancion
Maindeck
26 LANDS
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Darkslick Shores
4 Haunted Ridge
1 Otawara, Soaring City
4 Shipwreck Marsh
1 Stormcarved Coast
3 Sulfurous Springs
1 Swamp
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
2 Underground River
4 Xander’s Lounge
 
11 CREATURES
1 Bladecoil Serpent
4 Bloodtithe Harvester
4 Corpse Appraiser
2 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
 
15 INSTANTS and SORC.
3 Abrade
2 Cut Down
3 Go for the Throat
3 Invoke Despair
3 Make Disappear
1 Spell Pierce
 
8 OTHER SPELLS
4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
3 Reckoner Bankbuster
1 Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting
 
Sideboard
1 Anoint with Affliction
1 Blue Sun’s Twilight
2 Brotherhood’s End
1 Cut Down
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Duress
1 Liliana of the Veil
2 Negate
1 Parasitic Grasp
1 Saheeli, Filigree Master
1 Unlicensed Hearse