Every once in a while technology appears, not with a flash and a bang, but quietly, calmly, and patiently, waiting to strike from the shadows. Armed with such technology, a prepared competitor could easily leap from these shadows, crushing the field and standing victorious on the mountaintop of his enemies, basking in glory. We saw this in GP Oklahoma City with Zac Elsik’s Lantern Control. We almost saw this in Charlotte with Zach Jesse’s Grishoalbrand. I believe that in the near future, we will see this phenomenon reoccur, this time with Grixis Control. Let us begin.

The Beginning

Since the printing of Kolaghan's Command and Tasigur, the Golden Fang, black has become a force to be reckoned with in Modern. Previously used primarily for Thoughtseize, Liliana of the Veil, and multi-colored spells like Terminate, Lingering Souls, and Siege Rhino, black finally had the tools and depth to become more than just a splash. Seemingly forever plagued by a shallow, wide field of effects (Night of Souls' Betrayal/Goryo's Vengeance/Leyline of the Void?!) black traditionally finished second-best to Modern’s “better” colors. A victim of circumstance, black’s most powerful creature, Dark Confidant, swayed wildly from unbeatable to unplayable, depending on the context of the format. Phyrexian Obliterator seemed like it might elevate the color, but Path to Exile had other ideas. For a while, this imbalance went unnoticed, due in large part to the relative power of Liliana of the Veil and Thoughtseize compared to the rest of the format.

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Today, we are at a tipping point. The Event Horizon of Modern’s radical transformation is quickly approaching, and weeks from now we will look to this weekend and call it Patient Zero. Behold the new face of Modern:

We’ll get to this deck in a second, but before we discuss the present and look to the future, we must first familiarize ourselves with the past.

Grixis Control 1.0

Grixis Control's origins can be traced to Grand Prix Charlotte, in the hands of a player of adequate skill named Patrick Chapin.

Prior to GP Charlotte, Grixis Control had been slowly picking up steam on Magic Online. This deck featured the combination of Kolaghan's Command and Tasigur, the Golden Fang in a blue shell powered by Snapcaster Mage and Thought Scour. At its worst, this deck boasted incredible resiliency to discard (blue’s primary enemy) and could “only” play a 4/5 that draws cards on turn four. At its best, this deck could outgrind Jeskai Control, obliterate Affinity, and got to play Black Lotus. Pat Chapin barely missed Top 8 with this 21 land, four Cryptic Command monstrosity, but the message was clear: this deck is here to stay.

Grixis Control v1.5

Shortly after the release of Magic Origins, I wrote an article discussing the inclusion of Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in Grixis Control. Here's my list from then:

Alongside Thought Scour, Jace seemed like a natural fit, enabling crazy plays like turn one Thought Scour, turn two Jace, turn three flip, cast Tasigur, the Golden Fang for one mana and pass. That left you holding up Mana Leak, a 4/5 for B, and a flipped planeswalker on five loyalty. Even when our deck wasn’t operating at high velocity, casting and flipping a Jace normally assured victory, as planeswalkers with high loyalty are incredibly difficult to remove in Modern. With most decks relying on Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, and Terminate for interaction, flipping a Jace meant we could rely on keeping him around, as spells like Hero's Downfall, Detention Sphere, and Maelstrom Pulse aren’t widely played. Abrupt Decay did see general play, but the rest of our deck was built to make Abrupt Decay actively bad as we were casting Tarmogoyf-sized threats at Tarmogoyf speeds, but with “protection from Abrupt Decay” thrown in for good measure.

Unfortunately, Jace did die. A lot. A 0/2 for two was often awkward, especially alongside expensive delve creatures and weird spells like Cryptic Command and Remand that pushed us in different directions. Many Game 1’s saw us losing our Jace to relatively dead removal that our opponent was more than happy to cast, but even then, these interactions were more often than not favorable for us. Grixis’ best draws were its proactive ones, the draws where we cast Gurmag Angler on turn three and start beating our opponent to death. Tasigur and Gurmag Angler were already warping the metagame around themselves, forcing every deck to pack interaction that could kill an X/5, all the while making Dispel one of the best cards in the format. As the grindy control deck, forcing opponents to keep in situational removal to deal with our fast, gigantic creatures was positioning Jeskai Control could only dream about. Even if our opponents could remove our threats, they were behind on development and card advantage once we cast our Kolaghan's Command.

Using Jace, Vryn's Prodigy as a focal point for our strategy had some interesting effects on deckbuilding as well. Providing a pseudo-Snapcaster Mage effect, albeit at sorcery speed, Jace incentivized unique effects and de-incentivized counterspells. While the comparative merits of Terminate, Go for the Throat, and Dreadbore could be debated, when we were employing Jace it really didn’t matter, as once we had access to more of whatever effect we desired, having multiple options available provided us extra value. Somewhere around this point, the line between “control deck” and “midrange deck that abused the graveyard” started to become blurred, and sideboard cards like Rest in Peace/Relic of Progenitus were no longer a nuisance, but rather an actual disruptive element that punished our strategy. A rift began to grow among Grixis Control pilots, with this imaginary archetype line as a divider in the sand.

Modeling his Grixis “Control” deck after Jund Midrange, almost all the way down to the manabase, Michael Majors’ struck a major blow for the Grixis Midrange team when he Top 8’d SCG Charlotte with this list. Focusing on proactive elements rather than attempting to reactively control the game with Cryptic Command, Majors sought to overpower opponents with lines like discard into Jace into Liliana into spell flashback spell. Incorporating a playset of Inquisition of Kozilek in the maindeck, with more discard in the sideboard, this deck simultaneously worked to disrupt the opponent, protect its own Jaces and Tasigurs, and even gain an edge in the mirror with both cheap disruption and an increase in threats. Rather than trying to protect its Jaces with counterspells, this list is prepared to let him die, taking advantage of positioning by forcing the opponent to react to its game, rather than the other way around. Besides, with Kolaghan's Command and Snapcaster Mage to continually re-buy creatures, who says Goodbye has to be Forever?

Grixis Control v2.0

This brings us to today.

Abandoning Spell Snare, and dropping the counterspell count from 5-7 all the way down to three, Danny Jessup is firmly in the “Grixis Midrange” camp, pushing the tap-out control strategy to the max. The playset of Inquisition of Kozilek remains, and is in my opinion one of the strongest draws to playing this variation of the archetype. Most strategies in Modern focus on executing their own gameplan and play the bare minimum of interaction to get by, meaning a timely Inquisition of Kozilek can steal a Path to Exile from G/W/x, Terminate from Jund, or Roast/Lightning Bolt from Twin. This lets our Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Tasigur, the Golden Fang hit the field and survive to start taking over. Even when we’re looking to disrupt, and not necessarily to protect, Inquisition is excellent for snagging Eidolon of the Great Revel, Remand, Tarmogoyf, Etched Champion, and countless other spells that give us trouble. Playing discard, into Jace, into flip rebuying discard can be absolutely devastating (right Marshall Sutcliffe?) and access to both Liliana of the Veil and Kolaghan's Command to clean up can end the game in a hurry.

The real technology, however, comes in the form of Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Rise // Fall. Borrowing a page from Jeff Hoogland’s book, Danny Jessup correctly noticed the power of Chandra’s parents in Grixis Control, and its inclusion blurs the line between Grixis Control and Jund Midrange even further. To start, Pia and Kiran Nalaar is four power stretched across three creatures for four mana. This is already comparable to Lingering Souls, and doesn’t force us to splash white. Based purely on rate, Lingering Souls is probably slightly stronger, as the option for “3+2” is better than four up front, and the flashback does synergize well with Thought Scour.

When we add in the Shock ability, however, the tables start to turn. Combining with Lightning Bolt to kill big threats, gunning down opposing small creatures, going to the face for a quick kill, Pia and Kiran Nalaar literally does it all. In our deck, they really seem to be a combination of Huntmaster of the Fells and Olivia Voldaren, proving the “machine-gun” ability of Olivia Voldaren with the “creature buffer” ability of Huntmaster of the Fells. Easily trading with Affinity’s board and diminishing opposing Lingering Souls, Pia and Kiran can even buy us time against an angry Tarmogoyf if we need it to. Mana requirements notwithstanding, the debate between Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Lingering Souls in our deck is close (which really speaks to the power level of the card), except for one fact: Pia and Kiran Nalaar is absolutely amazing with Kolaghan's Command and Rise // Fall!

When looking at the utility of this creature in combination with these spells, our view of Pia and Kiran Nalaar really starts to change. No longer is it a slightly more expensive Lingering Souls that comes with a cool ability attached. When our deck is built with returning creatures from the graveyard in mind, Pia and Kiran Nalaar becomes a legitimate endgame we can build to, similar to Cryptic Command in Chapin’s “old” list. Alongside Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Pia and Kiran Nalaar really puts our opponent in the squeeze, as no removal spell can favorably interact with all of them (sound familiar Delver of Secrets/Geist of Saint Traft/Restoration Angel?).

If you haven’t had the pleasure to cast Rise // Fall, you’re missing out. Sometimes, it’s Hymn to Tourach. When it’s not, it’s returning our Jace, Vryn's Prodigy in our graveyard and our Pia and Kiran Nalaar on board to our hand (for two mana), leaving a few Thopters behind for free. The inherent resiliency to discard, and the built-in ability for this deck to grind anyone out, is just off the charts. Besides the discard (and some of the removal), literally every spell in the deck either cantrips or provides some sort of two-for-one to pull us back into the game. Serum Visions sets up our draws, assuring we find action. Kolaghan's Command and Rise // Fall generate effects far beyond their mana cost. All of our threats are both great early and can take over the game single-handedly going late.

Can this deck be hated out? It doesn’t seem likely. Leyline of the Void is definitely a nuisance, as are similar effects like Rest in Peace, Relic of Progenitus, etc. Jace as just a looter isn’t the worst, and we are actually playing fewer delve creatures than we did in the past, reducing the chance that we have 4/5’s for six or 5/5’s for seven mana stuck in our hand. The fourth Snapcaster Mage was cut to fit some of this spice, and both Liliana of the Veil and Pia and Kiran Nalaar don’t care about the graveyard at all. Worst case scenario, graveyard disruption is still a solid plan against us, but we still have discard and counterspells to fight it.

Conclusion

I think we are on the verge of a large metagame shift in Modern. Grixis Control has adapted to adopt a proactive strategy that complements its strengths: controlling the game and generating value with Snapcaster Mage and Kolaghan's Command. This proactive strategy is not necessarily as potent as others in the format (as it is still a Plan B, a “means to an end”) but still powerful enough that other archetypes will be forced to adapt as a result. We’ve already seen this in the widespread adoption of removal to fight the dual roadblocks of Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Gurmag Angler, and the increase in graveyard hate to fight Grixis Controls’ inherent synergies. The shift towards discard and away from counterspells increases Grixis’ weakness to strategies that are resilient to hand disruption. For those looking to fight the evolution of this archetype, that is where I would start. What do you think? Let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!

Trevor Holmes
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