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Source: Atharva's Decklists & Strategies Thread

Grixis Control 2015 deck (Grixis Control)
60 Cards. 34 nonlands (3 creatures, 31 spells). 26 Lands (8 5 5).

Creature
-- 2x Rune-Scarred Demon
-- 1x Griselbrand

Spell
-- 2x Ulcerate
-- 3x Shock
-- 3x Vapor Snag
-- 3x Nullify
-- 2x Negate
-- 4x Think Twice
-- 3x Dissolve
-- 3x Tribute to Hunger
-- 2x Anger of the Gods
-- 2x Sanguine Bond
-- 2x Banefire
-- 2x Suffer the Past

Land
-- 3x Izzet Guildgate
-- 3x Dimir Guildgate
-- 2x Rakdos Guildgate

Throwing a bone at Grixis Control...

EDIT: Fixed some numbers.

A Grixis control deck would be a lot of fun, though I think you'd need some more color fixing. Griselbrand would be incredibly hard to play with only 9 sources of black mana. Similarly Anger of the Gods would be difficult to reliably play with only 9 red sources.

Darksteel Ingot could help a lot. Maybe cut the Sanguine Bonds, they don't seem to have much synergy with the rest of the deck.

I wouldn't run Griselbrand or Nullify in a 3 color deck.

I'm going to try grixis control in a different direction.

Guttersnipe Grixis

Creatures - 13
2 Goblin Electromancer
4 Kiln Fiend
3 Guttersnipe
2 Talrand, Sky Summoner
2 Charmbreaker Devils

Other Spells - 23
3 Shock
3 Negate
4 Think Twice
3 Voyage's End
2 Dissolve
3 Mind Rot
2 Tribute to Hunger
2 Flesh to Dust
1 Time Warp

Land - 24
4 Izzet Guildgate
2 Dimir Guildgate
7 Island
6 Mountain
5 Swamp

The Best Defense (premium)

4 x Doorkeeper
3 x Guard Gomazoa
4 x Ogre Jailbreaker
4 x Corpse Blockade
4 x Vent Sentinel
2 x Gargoyle Sentinel
2 x Burning Anger
2 x Anger of the Gods
4 x Negate
3 x Dissolve
2 x Illusionist's Bracers
2 x Flesh to Dust
4 x Dimir Guildgate
4 x Izzet Guildgate
4 x Rakdos Guildgate
4 x Island
4 x Swamp
4 x Mountain


Extensive deck testing has led me to realize that this deck works far better with blue sources of mana in it....

I concur that this deck is all kinds of brutal. Kinda deceptive since it just doesn't do that much for the first half dozen turns then just starts blasting you for 10+ damage a turn out of nowhere.

The more I play it, the more I'm in love with my own deck. There's just too much recursion going on after turn 5-6, making for some very surprise comebacks.
Undying Evil is also VERY effective in the deck, to the point where I'm pondering including more of them.
It's almost never a dead card.

Dissolve is always useful.
Turn 5-6 it can prevent big bombs that you'd have trouble fighting at that stage of the game.
Turn 9+, it'll help you protect your key creatures.

Can't wait to play test! The only thing: there are only 3 Vent Sentinels in the game, not 4. But I'm running an additional Flesh to Dust to offset it.

Update:

Just played 2 duels online, against 2 opponents both running variations of the popular goblin/ rdw hybrid. smashed them both. The deck doesn't even need more than 4 lands to start really dealing damage. I may substitute one of the Fleshes I added for an additional Island, though.

I am an idiot. I meant Gargoyle. You only get 3 of him.

I have been wrecking with this build, though.

This one's for you:

Fixed

I have been having really good luck with Illusionist's Bracers..in play testing this morning. Just added 2 in exchange for two Gargoyle Sentinel

I love how free deckbuilding really lets you build decks that suit your playstyle. I like to build and play long-game control decks that are really low on creatures and have to fight every inch for survival in the early game. "Getting there" is a thrill for me and how I like to play Magic.

The removal in this cardpool has been much-maligned, so I thought I'd do my best to create a removal-heavy control deck that inevitably wins with a few powerful finishers. Looking through the pool, it was obvious that Red was the color to focus on because it has the cheapest and most efficient removal available to it, and a lot of it can go to the face if you have no targets. Anger of the Gods is also an extremely powerful card if your manabase can support it. Splashing black for Auger Spree was a no-brainer, and having access to the lifegain of Tribute to Hunger as well as the basically unconditional Flesh to Dust sealed the deal. Rakdos control, here I come.

The only problem is that there really isn't much potential to gain card advantage in Rakdos; Anger can put you up a few cards, but eventually your one-for-one removal will run out and you'll lose while topdecking land or irrelevant spells.

Enter Guildgates. This type of deck doesn't mind taking the first few turns off to play lands that enter the battlefield tapped, so splashing blue for card draw is as easy as adding the eight blue gates that support your primary Rakdos colors.

This deck isn't just a complete theory-craft; I'm currently 5-0 with it in online ranked matches so far tonight which is why I'm sharing it. If you like to kill all the things, then this is the deck for you:

4 x Izzet Guildgate
4 x Dimir Guildgate
2 x Rakdos Guildgate
10 x Mountain
6 x Swamp

4 x Shock

4 x Think Twice
1 x Volcanic Geyser

4 x Bolt of Keranos
4 x Auger Spree
3 x Tribute to Hunger
2 x Anger of the Gods

4 x Ogre Jailbreaker
3 x Inspiration

2 x Flesh to Dust
1 x Stormbreath Dragon

1 x Inferno Titan
1 x Charmbreaker Devils


If you like playing control, then play this deck. Enjoy.

Ugh, Killspell.dek - my nemesis has now been brewed in DotP2015. Sorry to say Hakeem, but I hope it doesn't become popular. I'm still enjoying this game for the moment

I tried this out hoping for fun against the AI and I don't know if its me or bad luck but the deck just doesn't have any board presence to make it work, sure you can kill stuff over and over but after you're just stuck drawing lands or in my case drawing lands anyway when you need your win conditions. I even tried Mobius changes that he said about on the other forum and it didn't help >< I understand what he meant now by "How are you winning". Then again I'm not facing the AI only decks so that might be part of the problem. Lets just say this Grixis deck suffers against Mega's mono black control which has board presence as well as control elements.

I'm not hating your build btw just saying my experience from 5 games played against the AI, perhaps some Pharika's Chosen could be added to ward off early attacks. Pretty much what I'm saying is the deck needs some early creatures to stop the opponent aggroing you down or just getting creature advantage, you can kill their creatures all you want but eventually they will get them to stick, your out of removal and now you're just top decking land etc.

bump for moving posts

Playing removal-heavy decks without board presence isn't for everyone, but I love it; with that said, I did make a few changes but it was mostly at the top end. Here's the current list:

4 x Izzet Guildgate
4 x Dimir Guildgate
4 x Rakdos Guildgate
8 x Mountain
5 x Swamp

4 x Shock

4 x Think Twice
1 x Volcanic Geyser

4 x Bolt of Keranos
4 x Auger Spree
3 x Tribute to Hunger
2 x Anger of the Gods

4 x Ogre Jailbreaker
3 x Inspiration

2 x Flesh to Dust
1 x Stormbreath Dragon

1 x Rune-Scarred Demon
1 x Sphinx-Bone Wand

1 x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth


Sit back, kill everything, profit. I played this deck for several hours last night and only lost three games, getting up to the top 30 on the Xbox leaderboards by the time I was done. Really fun deck if you like to play control.

I run Griselbrand, what is your opinion on that card Hakeem?

I'll give this a test

I effing love the card, but I can't play it here. My manabase is red-heavy and is very intensive, even at 8CMC. This type of control deck can't just drop him and draw seven because life is a valuable resource here, so I need to untap and connect with him before I start getting some value.

It makes me sad, but we'll appoint him coach of the team, how's that?

@Nuke, the Kozilek is there for the uncounterable draw and because it will shuffle all your threats back in. mobius was correct to suggest Elixir, but Kozilek either wins the game or has the same effect while grabbing you four cards. Bone Wand is the inevitablity that the deck needed because now your removal spells are also throwing incremental damage at your opponent's face. And Rune-Scarred Demon is there to grab whichever of those two that you happen to need right now.

I love it, but I have an unhealthy obsession with control decks and with Grixis in general.