[Standard] Grixis God Control

[Loykuaza]

https://deckstats.net/decks/66244/773612-grixis-god-walkers-control/en?revision=1

Hey guys!

Here is my take on Grixis Control, a deck that I looked forward to since Nicol Bolas God-Pharaoh was revealed. Obviously it features the elder dragon but a few other useful servant planeswalkers and Gods. Chandra torch of defiance is one of the best tools of the deck against a lot of different strategies going from midrange to control, and does so much for the deck between ramping into Bolas and card advantage or removal, and after testing I need to say I actually won a lot of matches with the ultimate which is how absurd the deck can be. The Scarab god does a lot in the long game, especially since he is hard to deal with, then you steal the opponents creatures that you countered/killed, and that's enough to win with the QA it provides if you get some zombies this way. Finally I have to admnit that dark intimations which I originally included for fun and flavor is quite an underrated card: when you kill everything and the opponent is left with the only big dumb creature that you can deal with, often a bristling hydra, you will happily do a three for one by making them lose two cards and drawing one, even more so if you get back a chandra or a gearhulk from your GY!

However I have some doubts about the numbers of each cards I should play, since it depends on the meta I play in where there are decks like UW monument, GB energy, GR pummeler and GR energy, Esper vehicles, and some weird ramp decks. So i question the perfect numbers of cards like abrade and sweltering suns and hour of devastation, also pull from tomorrow which is a strong but slow card in an agressive metagame sometimes.

So what do you guys think about the options BRU Control should play with?

[bulgymilk]

Hey there!

As a longtime Grixis player, I believe I can be of some assistance This deck looks solid. The only thing that makes me nervous is having 0 Magma Spray maindeck. With the resurgence of Mono-Red in the meta, it is more important than ever to have access to early interaction and removal, Magma Spray does a ton of work in aggressive matchups, which are usually the toughest for control.

Additionally, how comfortable are you with the 4-2 Harnessed Lightning/Abrade split? I've been really liking Abrade, as it kills 90% of early creatures, and can help hedge against random artifact nonsense (God-Pharaoh's Gift decks have also been picking up steam recently) I would advocate for a reverse of the split you currently have, 4 Abrade 2 Harnessed Lightning.

I also haven't really liked Censor that much in my control list. As much as I hate to say this (cause I love the card) it just doesn't fit with what the deck wants to do. I would replace them with some more hard counters, like Essence Scatter, or more removal (maybe replace them with the Magma Spray in the board?) 

Dark Intimations is a card I also love, but unfortunately had to cut down to 1 in my list. Though I also don't play Chandra, so you get a bit of extra value there. The Locust God is also really good, if you haven't tried it I would recommend slotting it in instead of the 2nd Intimations.

Also I think Supreme Will is definitely good enough to warrant the full playset. Also also the 1 Evolving Wilds seems out of place, any reason why it isn't just another dual land? Maybe one of the Showlands (Choked Estuary or Foreboding Ruins)

Overall seems solid, I'd be interested to hear matchup data and whatnot. Also keep in mind control decks need to be tailored to your meta, so what works for me may not work for you, take my advice with a grain of salt.

PRAISE THE GOD-PHARAOH!

[VonLehenstein]

Hi there! Praise the GOD-PHARAO!!!
I personally agree with all things said before. I prefer playing 2 Hour of Devestation and 1 Sweltering Suns, because I can early interact with Magma Spray and Abrade or Harnessed Lighting and if I need the Sweeper, the Hour of Devestation is just nuts! I love to see the Gideon players crying.
I was trying the Scarab God and the Locust God and they do a reasonable job, since the oppenent usually plays the Stasis Snare or the Cast Out on the God´s which helps me to drop the Bolas or the Gearhulks with less fear about another Removal.
Currently I am adjusting the Quantity of Gearhulks, I played a  4-off, but since Abrade is a massive threat in my meta I reduced the qty to 2 and looking for other options.
Surpreme Will is very great, cause you can play more 2 and 1 offs since you´re looking 4 Cards deep into your library ans selecting, what you need.

Great Deck and I really love to play it.
PRAISE the GOD-PHARAO!

[Loykuaza]

Thanks for the advice!

Well as you said the deck needs to be tailored for the meta I play in, but my current meta is pretty weird since there are various aggro decks(GB energy, RG energy, Naya exert, Boros Humans, mono red, zombies...), two tempo decks (monument and blue red) and two ramp decks which are horrible matchups so far for me so far(simic Nissa and RG eldrazi). I think I'm gonna playtest the magma spray main deck, although I will keep the censor as they worked fine for me since they act like the early supreme will. As for the harnessed/abrade split it is actually for three reasons: I didn't met vehicles deck so far, and the player with the monument doesn't come often; flexibility and the ability to kill bigger things like samut, glory bringer etc; the energy it can provide helps a lot with aether hub for fixing. Evolving wilds looks weird, but it has a dual impact here: fixing oc, but more importantly filtering, it is easy to be flooded with 26 lands and it is actually the only card in the deck with allows us to re shuffle it, when playing supreme will and only two gearhulks this is vital if for example in the early game you supreme will a gearhulk but need the land.

PRAISE THE SECOND SUN OF THE GOD-PHARAOH!!!

[Loykuaza]

https://deckstats.net/decks/66244/773612-grixis-god-walkers-control/en?revision=10

Reved-up the Amounts and the Sideboard after studying the meta of my local playstore, where abrade is not that needed since almost no one plays gearhulks or vehicles or Gift of the God-Pharaoh or Oketra's monument, and the rest of the artifacts creatures are dealt with by harnessed lightning anyways. So far my results are pretty average because I still make some fatal mistakes and did not expect some weird matchups or cards that punished my improper sideboard plan (I mean I lost to a f*** MILL deck out of nowhere X), so I need to practice with it a little more but now that I adjusted it to my Meta it should perform better at least.

[Loykuaza]

https://deckstats.net/decks/66244/773612-grixis-god-walkers-control/en?revision=11

Again. One commit // memory in the sideboard can ruin the mill deck plan in a fun and easy way if they milled it themselves. ^^ Control has it tough these days in standard, which is the sign of the diversity of the unstable format right now, even though the aggressive decks'dominance may be part of it, it is still a healthier format than before, aggro being a thing at the beginning is nothing new. Hopefully the main deck is already rotationproof, the side will be in constant change afterwards though. X)

[bulgymilk]

Liking the looks of this build. 

How has the Chandra, Torch of Defiance been working for you? I feel like this deck doesn't particularly want to tap out on turn 4, is it more of a lategame play? Or just having a midgame planeswalker to buy time against midrange/aggro decks and present a threat against control?

The sideboard is a little odd, not sure why Invasive Surgery is there, as it doesn't seem like you can get delirium easily. What sorceries are you trying to counter with it,  is it just for the mill matchup? Maybe Negate is better?  Also not sure about the Nimble Obstructionist, what effects are you trying to counter? or is it more for the mirror to have a flash flying threat?

Keep on tweakin' on, looks like it's coming together nicely!

[Loykuaza]

Chandra is simply insane in this deck most of the time I played it on turn 4 or 5 and use her +1 to cast a burn spell on the only creature I allowed my opponent to play, which leaves her at 5 loyalty on an empty board, then she slowly gives me sweet ramp or card advantage with either one of her +1, if I have 2/3 answers in my hand she gets to seven and ultimate to death my opponent, which happened quite often really, especially against midrange. So definitely an early game play but only if the situation looks clean of course, but it depends on the kind of deck you are facing oc. Against mono red aggro and combo you don't want to cast her though. ^^'

Invasive surgery is actually very situational but it has a lot of utility in my meta: against mill oc to exile the startled awake since thanks to their mill I'll have delirium; against ramp deck sometimes I'll have delirium with some cycling lands by turn 5 or 4 when they cast their hour of promise, and even without it a one mana counter to hour of promise is worth the opportunity cost; lastly ALL black decks side in discard like transgress the mind against me, which I hate, so it can spare me some excruciable pain.

Lastly the nimble obstructionist is as you said very good in any control matchup since if it resolves it will eat away their life more quicly than ours, and for cards like this you don't need to look at what it can counter specifically, although westvale abbey comes to mind, but rather the flexibility of the card makes it just awesome on its own, but yeah only against slow control or combo decks, monument decks and ramp decks.

Thanks for your output.