Hakeem you don't think having kozie in for the additional draw and reshuffle is worth the spot?! There are times where it is invaluable. Did you ever get around to testing the traumatic visions in place of the ogres? I think visions is probably my favorite card of the expansion.

I don't need the reshuffle effect and Obelisk lets me loot, which is a fine replacement. I can stop playing land at a certain point to save them for discard fodder. I also have the cycling on Resounding Thunder as an additional source of card draw and I've added the fourth Inspiration. This deck draws better than ever. Ten mana is a lot and I have a lot of good burn now, I don't think I'll miss Kozilek in this deck.

I did get around to testing Visions, but it's a different deck called "The Monkeem Project". I still think this one has a place so I'm keeping it separate.

If the Brackwater Elemental/Cloudfin Raptor interaction is anything to go by in my Simic deck, I think that will be a key addition. I'm just starting to build and test this, so will update as I go. I'm working away later this week though, so it may be sometime next week before I can geta round to it properly.

Also, as a lot of your own creatures will be dying automatically, things like Switcheroo and Rockslide Elemental may be desirable. In fact, may even be the way to go, but I want to keep it Grixis if I can for thematic reasons.

Like Zombies though, I'm not sure if it'll end up a workable deck unfortunately. It may just be the individual Unearth cards work better with other decks than they do each other.

I just got the multiplayer going and am trying out Tidehollow Strix. A few games in and it seems ok, pretty solid against some typically hard-to-answer threats, and can switch gears and supplement burn damage to close things out. Anybody else trying those out?

Hakeem, I came across your Grixis control with the revision of resounding thunder and it performs amazing like that, I will try your modifications but this deck has won me already, plenty of FFA and 1v1 games with Kozzie doing a fantastic job in shuffle or securing the win in a 1v1, Fantastic build anyway

I think once you play with the Obelisk you'll see how good it is for a control deck. If you're playing FFA, though, I'd recommend keeping Kozilek for that format.

Dayumn, 'Keezy. Your old Grixis was off the chains, can't wait to try out the refined edition, mate!

Having a very good day so far with this, using Hakeem's build as a jump-off point. I like the Darksteel Ingots as they ramp and let you gain life off the Obelisks late (which is relevant surprisingly often). As I mentioned above I'm trying the Strixes to interact with early threats and sometimes go on the offense, helpful when closing the game out with burn is very often the plan.

UPDATE 11/17: Dropped 2 Banefire, Added 2 Strix, Changed Inspiration to Think Twice, found room for an Elixir of Immortality in there, cut gates for like-colored tri-lands and moved some mana around. Having excellent results so far.

I feel like Kozilek is a better choice than Elixir, but there's a high density of expensive threats as it is, and the life gain is relevant against the deck's bad matchups.

UPDATE 11/25: Dropped Elixir and brought in Kozilek, Butcher of Friendship. A week later and no regrets.

The curve seems too high for my tastes, so the following advice is based strictly from that viewpoint. If you don't draw one of your two Strixes you can't casy anything until T3. On the draw, that's super-dangerous and still not that great on the play.

If you're only choosing four draw spells, I'd pick Think Twice over Inspiration. You end up paying an extra mana for your cards but being able to space out the payments gives a lot more flexibility. I think if you want to play Strix that you should add the full set. I think you could trim one Flesh to Dust and one Banefire or perhaps both copies of Flesh to Dust.

Normally I'd agree with you...rarely leave home without my full set of Shocks, but I think the novelty of the new cards has led to a lot of people trying midrange decks with slower mana and less aggro. That's what I've seen in the last 24 hours anyway, I'm sure that will eventually change. I'll try out the Thinks Twice and I agree that a Banefire can afford to be cut.

I feel like I'm missing something with Kozilek not being in there. Although I had one round where I lost to a Bone Sphinx which made me angrysad that y'all'd decided to take them both out. Still working great. But would the Kozy Bone as apposed to double Obilecks more of a preference? I think you answered my question about the preference for FFA, Hakeem. Thanks

I've been running the Obelisks over the Wand and Kozilek all day, and honestly the Obelisks provide more utility. It'd be nice to have the ability to heal, for when I need to recover from Tokens, but the brutal beatdowns provided by Angry Gods makes it easier to comeback.

Replace dimir with arcane sanctum. You're welcome.

Hakeemypoo why have you not done this already?!

EDIT: Oh because of the ogre. Witty you could run visions in place of ogre and run the arcane sanctum.

I'd like to have white mana for value, but the Ogre prevents a lot of damage. I don't have much experience with the new metagame, but it seems hostile to this deck right now. This is an anti-aggro deck. I'll test it further once things settle down a bit.

Anyone tried Elder Mastery in a deck yet? It's work great with Triton Shorestalker and even Cunning Sparkmage. It doesn't specify combat damage afterall, and you could make people discard as soon as they draw. Unless its an instant, they're never playing another card.

It is really pricey, that's why I haven't tried messing with it. Hero of Iroas could be nice for it potentially..

Thanks for this - I played some games but it didn't go well regretfully. I really wanted this deck to do well because I like the theme.

• With little defence or removal the deck falls back to a full-on aggro damage race however it's hard to build much of any momentum until the mid-to-late game. It almost feels like the deck needs/wants to stall as much as possible early game and use the unearth creatures to deliver the Coup de grâce once the opponent is exhausted (his cards).
• Any sort of life gain is a serious problem, if it's recurrable life again you may as well walk away.
• Burning Inquiry is quite good, I'd noticed it's use when I'd previously done some 'unearth deck' research on google so I'd already been experimenting with it.
• You really want Cloudfin raptor in your opening hand. Of course your opponent will remove it because it's more worrisome than the crab and more vulnerable than the ghast.
• I feel like undying evil may have a place here and that the self mill sub-theme doesn't actually contribute that much due to lack of mana in the early game.

Unearth is probably best used as a sub-component of a different main theme. Jund Devour would be able to extract additional value from Unearth creatures without having to include a bunch of bad cards to enable them.

Yeah, I am not feeling hedron crab here to try and capitalize on unearth..

Sounds like an unearth deck could probably capitalize on Thassa's Bounty.