Magic: the Gathering Worlds Championships will be this weekend, and Standard is one of the formats they will be playing. As expected, the metagame of Izzet and Mono-Green as the top deck choices appeared in the decklists submitted by the participants. However, the Izzet Control deck gets a boost with the new version of the Grixis colors, and I think this is the best update of the deck ever. Having access to Black means spot removals and discard spells.

Lets us check the new decklist by looking at one that will be playing at the World Championships this weekend.

Main Deck
1 Smoldering Egg
3 Lier, Disciple of the Drowned

4 Fading Hope
2 Spikefield Hazard
2 Jwari Disruption
1 Cathartic Pyre
2 Galvanic Iteration
1 Power Word Kill
1 Cinderclasm
1 Demon Bolt
1 Prismari Command
3 Memory Deluge

2 Duress
1 Bloodchief’s Thirst
4 Expressive Iteration
1 Burn Down the House
4 Alrund’s Epiphany

3 The Celestus

1 Island
2 Mountain
2 Hall of Storm Giants
4 Riverglide Pathway
4 Blightstep Pathway
3 Clearwater Pathway
3 Shipwreck Marsh
4 Haunted Ridge

Sideboard
4 Malevolent Hermit
2 Mind Flayer
3 Cyclone Summoner
1 Power Word Kill
1 Soul Shatter
1 Unexpected Windfall
1 Duress
2 Go Blank

The Black spot removal spells they have added are Bloodchief’s Thirst and Power Word Kill to position well against aggro, whereas two copies of Duress are in the main deck for mirror matchups. The sideboard also included more discard spells and graveyard exile effects.

They have opted for Lier, Disciple of the Drowned over Goldspan Dragon because of its ability to grant uncounterable spells and giving them Flashback making it a strong late-game plan. They also have many ways to deal with the opponents’ Dragon which obviously does fewer functions than that of Lier.

We will see how the deck’s performance will be with the best players piloting it on the first day of the World Championships this Friday (Saturday early morning PH time).