Grixis Control was the most played Legacy deck at Pro Tour 25th Anniversary a couple months ago. One of the reasons it’s so popular is due to it having a slightly higher than 50% matchup against most decks in the field. It plays out like a classic Jund-style deck. These type of decks tend to be played a lot because people love gaining their value and trying to out attrition their opponents. If you want to be doing that then this is the Legacy deck for you. It does that by playing so many 2 for 1 type cards like Planeswalkers, Kolaghan’s Command, Hymn to Tourach, Snapcaster Mage, and even Baleful Strix. With these style of decks being popular over the years it’s important we know our game plan. I don’t see these types of decks going anywhere in the near future.
How does Grixis Control matchup against TES?
Force of Will, Flusterstorm – Typically the only main deck counterspell is Force of Will, with Flusterstorm being in the sideboard. If you have any experience with Legacy then playing against Force of Will shouldn’t be a surprise. It’s obviously great vs us and it’s something we really only want to play into when we have no other options or when the odds they don’t have one is great. We just need to prioritize when we use our discard spells to make sure to coast is clear and not use them several turns before our combo turn if we don’t have a second. Flusterstorm is even worse for us because it stops naturally draw storm cards, where Force of Will does not work as well.
Hymn to Tourach, Thoughtseize – Discard spells are great vs all combo decks, but that is especially true for Storm. It is easier for us to set up and wait for our combo turn to use a discard spell and clear the way of any counterspells, but proactive discard spells are difficult for us to interact with. We have very few ways to do so other than using our cantrips wisely and making sure we protect the most important cards by keeping them on the top of our library. Their ability to strip our resources is the best way to prolong the game and give them the time needed to put on pressure and find more disruption.
Marsh Casualties, Toxic Deluge – Grixis Control isn’t just cold to a large Empty the Warrens. In the sideboard, we can almost be certain that there are a couple sweepers. Not every deck brings sweepers in against TES, but Grixis Control definitely will because of how many dead cards they have in their deck. Empty the Warrens early in the game is also very good vs them and they know it, so they will be respecting this angle. I still leave Empty the Warrens in, despite them bringing in sweepers, because of how good it is typically and they play so few answers. I wouldn’t necessarily bring in more copies, but the 1 is fine.
Surgical Extraction – This isn’t that great vs TES. but people still bring it in against us, so we might as well respect and anticipate it. Another reason why Grixis Control may bring it in is because of how many dead cards they have otherwise. The card still has some play to it with the combination of discard spells. Like being able to discard a Burning Wish and then target it with Surgical Extraction is pretty brutal and forces us to use an Empty the Warrens. In the sideboarding section I will address this, but for now, we just have to be aware this is a card we may play against because it’s not as obvious.
Deck List
Main Deck
- 4 Burning Wish
- 4 Infernal Tutor
- 4 Brainstorm
- 4 Ponder
- 4 Thoughtseize
- 4 Duress
- 1 Empty the Warrens
- 1 Ad Nauseam