It's a bit inelegant, especially in Grixis Control, but I've been using Graveblade Marauder as a way to slow early rush decks and the death touch allows him to wall off Gaea's Revenge.

Plus, with Murk Lurkers, Planeswalkers, etc., he can usually swing for 4-5 late game, which is far from nothing. Of course, my build is also a little bit different than some of these in that I don't run counters (unless you count Disciple of the Ring) for a little more midrange fat like Nightfire Giant.

Now that I've got some more unlocks, here's a Thopter build I've been working on. It is the grindiest thing of all time and not very economical timewise, but I'm on a very good run with it right now. Disclaimer, I just added the freshly unlocked Molten Vortex and Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and took out 2 copies of Possessed Skaab and haven't tested it yet, but I believe it will be an improvement (as much as I like the Skaabs).

2 x Fiery Impulse
1 x Molten Vortex
3 x Bone Splinters

2 x Alchemist's Vial
4 x Perilous Myr
3 x Telling Time
4 x Twin Bolt
2 x Disperse
1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

4 x Calculated Dismissal
2 x Artificer's Epiphany

2 x Thopter Spy Network
2 x Whirler Rogue
2 x Inspiration
2 x Languish

3 x Foundry of the Consuls
2 x Dimir Guildgate
2 x Izzet Guildgate
4 x Evolving Wilds
2 x Sulfur Falls
2 x Drowned Catacombs
2 x Mountain
3 x Swamp
4 x Island

I really like the Graveblade idea, so long as you can count on there being a reasonable number of dudes in the yard so you can close the game out. At the moment my inclinations are very creature-light so he's not optimal, but I will keep this guy in mind. Good call.

alright so I sorta had the idea for this deck earier today while I was wondering what you could do to activate chandra. now I'm a pretty bad deck builder but I'm pretty satisfied with most these cards just the mana base I'm having issues deciding what to do with but anyways. maybe the removal/draw packages can be a little more fine tuned

Chandra's Control
1 mana
4x Fiery Impulse

2 mana
1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2x Disperse
3x Telling Time
1x Ravaging Blaze
4x Twin Bolt
2x Reave Soul

3 mana
3x Fleshbag Marauder
1x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
3x Sphinx's Tutelage
3x Read the Bones
1x Exquisite Firecraft

4 mana
2x Languish
1x Avaricious Dragon

5 mana
1x Disciple of the Ring
2x Cruel Revival
2x Necromantic Summons

Land
4x Island
5x Swamp
5x Mountain
2x Drowned Catacomb
2x Sulfur Falls
2x Dragonskull Summit
4x Evolving Wilds

Alright so the premise of this deck is pretty simple step 1) stay alive using instants and sorceries 2) activate chandra 3) Profit

So this deck sorta came from some ideas on ways to get chandra to untap and use her activated ability to flip.
1) use an activated jace to flashback the red spell needed to flip chandra
2) disciple of the ring can untap chandra so she keeps plucking away
3) good old fashioned spells from your hand

Alright but chandra isn't the only win condition
we got Sphinx's Tutelage, just sit back control the board and grind your opponent out
Necromantic Summons can fetch any juicy creatures your oppenent might have gotten milled
Disciple of the Ring is a win condition all on her own
and even the Abbots can put in some serious work if you draw enough board control cards

Edit: this is the ending of what was basically the dream game I did the disciple trick with chandra (although jace was also online when chandra came in) oh and sorry about the black lines something is funky about my graphics card and orgins

ugh I miss having the trilands in 2015 those were so useful in making these kinds of decks playable

whoops double post

Ok, BA Baracus Bassoonist--

Off the bat, things that probably can stand to go--

Shadows of the Past: I don't think you have enough creatures to reliably get to the fun mana-sinking value of this card. The scrying alone doesn't warrant the slot, I don't think.

Displacement Wave: Harshes on your planeswalker buzz pretty hard.

I like replacing these with extra copies of Telling Time and Twin Bolt. I would also like to find room for more unconditional spot removal along the lines of Cruel Revival but not really sure what it should be replacing.

I haven't played with Sphinx's Tutelage yet so I'm not sure about that one. Without them, the deck doesn't have a reliable way to close out. If I have some time I'll throw this together and give it a spin.

yeah shadows has already got the axe and yeah the displacement wave was an over reaction to 6 thopter decks and one roil deck in a row good idea to cut it

also the tutelage serves the dual purpose of giving some more food to necromantic summons

I played 6-7 matches with it. I cut one of the Summons for another Cruel Revival. It's actually pretty good, but you have to play very tight and there's not much room for mistakes. I hardly ever drew Chandra, unfortunately. Tutelage was the way to victory most of the time. I had two losses and both were against aggro, although I made a bunch of gnarly misplays in one of the games and that one probably should have been a W. Disciple of the Ring is the truth. She put in some WORK.

The Abbots and the Firecrafts didn't do too much for me. Might try adding more Fiery Impulse and maybe a different threat like Avaricious Dragon.

I have to get to work on Grixis, I feel like a phoney for not trying to force it. I want that license plate, I'm going to look into local laws on vanity plates. No joke.

Keep Canada Cruel!

Grixis has been fun man, there's lots of decent angles to work from.

unfortunatly I have yet to get a win off Chandra's Ulti I expect it would be easier in 2HG to pull something like that off (note: replace the read the bones with inspiration and this deck probably partners pretty well with turbo mill in 2HG)

feel free to just steal my list

oh another thing after some recent testing -2 disperse +2 fiery impulse

the card only delayed things with the only countermagic in this deck affecting noncreatures disperse wasn't needed

edit: and yeah -1 necromantic +1 revival seems like a fair enough change
edit2: oh and -1 swamp + 1 mountain

I actually left Disperse in. A lot of people play white auras on the Xbone and it's huge against them. Decent tempo play late, too, when you're trying to mill them out.

I cut one of the Firecrafts for an Avaricious Dragon just to see how it worked. Turns out it works REALLY GOOD with even a single Tutelage out.

mm fair point on the auras somehow slipt my mind I probably take out the abbots to put back the disperse in that case

Edit: oh and real quick how has ravaging blaze been I've found thats typically just a card I use to loot with

Blaze won me a game a little while ago, exactsies, when I would have lost the next turn. I think 1 is exactly the right number.

With those changes, I've been 5-0 with this today. And a couple of my opponents had high rankings too so its not just a scrub killer!

4 x Fiery Impulse

1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 x Telling Time
2 x Disperse
1 x Ravaging Blaze
4 x Twin Bolt
2 x Reave Soul

3 x Fleshbag Marauder
1 x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
3 x Sphinx's Tutelage
3 x Read the Bones (This has been fine. I'm afraid Inspiration might be too expensive here)
1 x Exquisite Firecraft

1 x Avaricious Dragon
2 x Languish

1 x Disciple of the Ring
2 x Cruel Revival
2 x Necromantic Summons

4 x Island
4 x Swamp
6 x Mountain
2 x Drowned Catacomb
2 x Sulfur Falls
2 x Dragonskull Summit
4 x Evolving Wilds

I lost one to my "favorite card" but other then that it's been pretty good (haven't drawn Avaricious Dragon yet though)

Yeah admittedly I haven't run into Greenpeace's Reacharound yet. I guess the only outs there are the marauders and the disciple.

yup