B/U/R Control

[Schmeester]

Hi folks, I'm Schmeester! I'm new to this forum but am a long time Magic the Gathering player/collector.
After a LONG break, I decided to start getting back into it.
Last week, about 2 hours before FNM started, my thunder buddy and myself threw a deck together using Flores Wellspring engine. I piloted this deck to a 3-1-1 record, losing to an Elf deck because I was an *** and shuffled my hand into my library. Otherwise I would have been 4-0-1, but had to concede.
I feel the deck has potential, so here she is... Feedback much appreciated.
Is this considered a Grixis Control?

Artifacts
1 x Trading Post
3 x Ichor Wellspring
3 x Mycosynth Wellspring
1 x Sphere of the Suns
1 x Ratchet Bomb
1 x Hex Parasite
1 x Mimic Vat

Creatures
3 x Solemn Simulacrum
2 x Frost Titan
1 x Wurmcoil Engine
2 x Phantasmal Image
1 x Grand Architect

Planeswalkers
1 x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
1 x Liliana of the Veil
2 x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
2 x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Instants
2 x Vapor Snag
2 x Negate
2 x Mana Leak
1 x Dismember

Sorceries
1 x Black Sun's Zenith
2 x Ponder
1 x Life's Finale
2 x Duress
1 x Bonfire of the Damned

Land
3 x Phyrexia's Core
1 x Mountain
4 x Island
4 x Swamp
2 x Buried Ruin
1 x Blackcleave Cliffs
1 x Sulfur Falls
2 x Darkslick Shores
2 x Drowned Catacombs

Sideboard
3 x Doom Blade
1 x Kitesail
1 x Mimic Vat
1 x Sign in Blood
1 x Ponder
1 x Gitaxian Probe
1 x Dismember
1 x Killing Wave
1 x Tragic Slip
1 x Nihil Spellbomb
1 x Vapor Snag
1 x Liliana of the Veil
1 x Surgical Extraction

[Schmeester]

FNM tomorrow. Was really hoping for some feedback.
Week in, 200+ views, no opinions?

[vger]

@Schmeester,

Your build certainly doesn't resemble the traditional Grixis Control, but it doesn't necessarily mean you can't play a control theme with it. It probably can be considered as a Grixis Tezzeret Control deck, which plays a far more proactive game approach than the traditional Grixis Control decks.

Here are some of the changes I will be suggesting to you.

1) Increase the number of spot removal in your build.

To be honest, I thought that you are running too few quality spot removal spells. Granted that you actually have some sweepers to deal with other aggressive creatures, but they can be either too mana intensive (hence slow) or inefficient.

In my opinion, Vapor Snag isn't exactly a great removal spell in this archetype. Since it is only a temporary solution, it doesn't actually reinforce your control game plan which takes a far longer time to accomplish (as compared to tempo-ish Delver decks which also run Vapor Snag).

Instead I would suggest having Galvanic Blast and Pillar of Flame as your spot removal spells. Not only can they act as cheap permanent creature removal, they can also act as burn spells along with Bonfire of the Damned if required. Not to mention if the game happens to drag to the point where you can go ultimate with Tamiyo, you can cast Galvanic Blast/Pillar of Flame repeatedly to go for the kill.

Galvanic Blast seems a perfect fit in this build, given that metalcraft is so achievable with such a high artifact count. Meanwhile Pillar of Flame can deal with recursive threats like Gravecrawler/Strangleroot Geist/Geralf's Messenger etc while being able to deal with other cheap threats as well.

In addition to Galvanic Blast and Pillar of Flame, you may also consider Go for the Throat and Doom Blade as well.

2) Increase the number of cheap sweepers in your build.

Given that the meta is becoming more populated with aggressive decks that rely on several cheap threats, it seems so much better to be relying on Whipflare and Slagstorm than a mixture of BSZ, Bonfire of the Damned and Life's Finale.

I am only concerned that such a mix might be too slow to actually handle opposing aggression. Black Sun's Zenith can be either too slow or too inefficient whereas Life's Finale takes forever to come online to matter (especially when you aren't running any ramp spells). Bonfire of the Damned isn't exactly a bad card, but you can't ignore the fact that it can be of high variance to be effective at times (especially when you are only running a lone copy of it).

Whipflare deals with any army that is made up of small dudes (mainly mana dorks), whereas Slagstorm deals with every pesky threat we have these days (Blade Splicer, Geist of Saint Traft, Zombies, early Dungrove Elders, Delver, Elves and other Planeswalkers etc etc).

3) Phyrexian Metamorph instead of Phantasmal Image

While both obviously does the same stuff, doesn't it seem more logical to be running Phyrexian Metamorph in a Tezzeret deck?

a) It is "fetchable" by Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas.
b) It can also be animated into a 5/5 anytime, whether it copies a creature or an artifact.
c) It helps achieve metalcraft and helps Tezzeret's ultimate.
d) It can be abused with Trading Post, since it is both a creature and artifact.

These are the major changes I would recommend, below is a suggested list after having removed some cards which I consider clunky and insignificant to the strategy.

Grixis Tezzeret Control
Creatures:
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Wurmcoil Engine
3 Phyrexian Metamorph

Spells:
1 Doom Blade
3 Galvanic Blast
1 Go for the Throat
1 Pillar of Flame
3 Ponder
2 Slagstorm
1 Whipflare

Artifacts:
1 Batterskull
3 Ichor Wellspring
2 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Ratchet Bomb
3 Sphere of the Suns
1 Trading Post

Planeswalkers:
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage

Lands:
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Desolate Lighthouse/Ghost Quarter
2 Evolving Wilds
2 Inkmoth Nexus/Buried Ruin
3 Island
3 Mountain
3 Sulfur Falls
1 Swamp

I'll briefly explain the reasons for these changes and a few possible play interactions with the build.

Hex Parasite is now omitted because Slagstorm and other burn spells can deal with opposing Planeswalkers equally well, if not better. Not to mention with the increased number of Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, every artifact you have becomes a potential threat to deal with any planeswalkers.

Mimic Vat is probably just a cute card that doesn't contribute much to a lot of matchups.

Frost Titan isn't exactly spectacular in this format where little dudes run about while a lot of titans sit at bay. If we were to play Standard a year ago, Frost Titan probably deserves a second look... but not right now. Wurmcoil Engine is far resilient and does better against any aggressive decks that don't run Vapor Snag. Moreover it has stronger synergy with both Trading Post and Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas as compared to Frost Titan.

Grand Architect is omitted since it seems like an odd decision to be running a lone copy of it with no other blue creatures supporting it. Furthermore, you won't want it dying to your own Slagstorm.

Liliana of the Veil is probably better as a sideboard card here, since I don't see her having much synergy with the rest of the build. Probably she would work better against Dungrove Elder (since you can't kill it with your removal spells and Phyrexian Metamorph) and against opposing control decks.

Negate and Duress are also probably better off in the sideboard here, mostly used against other control decks.

Batterskull is now added since it acts like a cheaper but smaller Wurmcoil Engine, not to mention its living weapon mechanic can provide a token to recur artifacts with Trading Post.

Sphere of the Suns is increased in numbers for better mana, to increase the frequency of hitting metalcraft and to be used as a Tezzeret/Trading Post target. It also allows you to play a turn 3 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas or a turn 3 Solemn Simulacrum into a turn 4 Wurmcoil Engine.

Evolving Wilds, Solemn Simulacrum and Mycosynth Wellspring not only helps you improve your mana, they also provide shuffle effects for Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Ponder. You could manipulate such shuffle effects to grant you with better draws.

Inkmoth Nexus can become surprise kills with Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, especially in a format with Thragtusk. Helps to achieve metalcraft, acts as a blocker if necessary and can be abused with Trading Post as well.

Trading Post, in Brad Nelson's words, acts like a Planeswalker which can't be attacked into. It does have numerous synergies in this list for you to explore into, I can't really be bothered to list all of them down here.

As for the sideboard, I would recommend a mix of Negate/Duress, Liliana of the Veil, Nihil Spellbomb, Ancient Grudge, Karn Liberated, additional Ratchet Bomb, Galvanic Blast and Pillar of Flame and possibly Grafdigger's Cage/Torpor Orb.

Hope this has provided the help you need. I do understand that you probably can't get all the cards in time, but I just happened to see this thread rather late.

[tyrkae]

You only had 20 lands really its hard with so few lands and most of your spells need at least 5 mana i know you have some mana fixes but if you don't have 2 in your hand then you could be in trouble you will lose games when you have to mulligan i would suggest maybe more then 20 lands
And about shuffling your hand into your deck I'm pretty sure the ruling would be that you just end up not having a hand but then you would be not that well off anyways some judges are real big nerds at FNM they just don't understand it's a fun game (we got 2 judges 1 is a real prick other understands that FNM is for fun and that things like that happen)

[Schmeester]

@vger

Thank you so much for putting the time into this man. It is truly appreciated.
I'll first respond to your suggestions, and report back on the FNM results from last Friday.
As for finding the cards! I'm very proud and also embarrassed at the same time to show you these...

http://i1075.photobucket.com/albums/.../th_photo6.jpg

This is just 1 binder. 4 Ajanis are missing, they are currently in a white/green deck my Thunder Buddy uses. It is the M13 set. I have been collecting Magic Cards since it's inception. I have always gathered at least 1 playset of each card.

Now a days I collect 2 playsets, and 1 foil set for each set.
It's safe to assume I have at the very minimum, 2 full playsets of cards dating back to Mirage, Ice Age, Antiquities, etc..

Needless to say I was easily able to gather all the cards you had suggested before FNM started.

I have binders for all current sets as well, but the ones that cycle out get put in the safe for my children to fight over when I'm dead.

So onto the report out for last FNM.

Game 1 : Played a new player, he was playing Mono-White. We ended up playing open faced so I could help him learn the game.

He had an O-Ring in his hand that he didn't use for the first 6 turns, which was where I stepped in and started to worry less about losing/winning and more about helping the kid stay interested. I felt bad because I walked all over him.

Game 2 : Grix Tezz Control VS. Delver. This guy's good and I have played him several times before. He beat me twice, by the skin of his teeth. I made a few critical errors.

I did not Redirect a Vapor Snag to my Spellskite, which would have changed things dramatically. I did not take control of a permanent of his with Nicol Bolas when I could have, instead I destroyed a land of his. This did slow him down some, but not quite enough.

Game 3 : Grix Tezz Control VS. Mono Red Goblin/Burn. I found I was really mana heavy this match. It seemed all I could get was land, land, land.

After first round I actually took two lands out and swapped in 2 doom blades.
This brought the land count to 22, and gave me some more point removal.

I ended up losing regardless.

Game 4 : Green/Red/Black Control VS Grix Tezz Control. Game dragged on and on. I won first game no problem, second game I got slaughtered, and last game he won.

I had to leave at this point.

Here are some of the things I believe would have helped me further.

*Hex Parasite I found myself, in several situations, with too many counters on Ratchet Bomb, or no way to deal with an opposing plainswalker. I decided to put Hex Parasite back in for these reasons. If I'd have been able to reduce the counters on Ratchet Bomb I would have probably done far better against some of the decks that are heavy on 3/4 CMC permanents.

*Galvanic Blast You were right about this one.. It's awesome since it's so easy for me to achieve metal craft.

*Inkmoth Nexus I did take one win using this with Tezz, swinging for 10 infect over 2 rounds. Love the card in here, think it will stay.

*Phyrexian Metamorph Again, you are correct. This card was far better than Phantasmal Image. Helping to achieve metal craft, being able to fetch it with Tezz, 3 mana cost while spending 2 life. These are all things that I did and it all worked wonderfully. People were not impressed with my Legendary destruction use of it, and I did end up keeping my Buried Ruin which allowed me to return it to my hand even. Worked great.

* 24 Lands. I feel this was a little much for me since I have plenty of ways to semi RAMP up. The wellsprings, ponders, and solemns all contributed to me being able to fix my mana, and I found this worked well with 20 lands. I go in knowing that I may need to mulligan once or twice to get an ideal first hand, but I piloted my 20 mana deck to a better record than this week with 24. Once I subbed in the doomblades for 2 land things ran a little better.

I'm going to be keeping this deck until Ravnica probably, and later on when I have some time to sit down I will repost the current decklist.

Vger thank you very much again for the work you put into this response.

[Karlman]

i would suggest try the version of shadow Seraph deck list if your interrested just to take a look and see a different look

[Schmeester]

i would suggest try the version of shadow Seraph deck list if your interrested just to take a look and see a different look

Thank you Karlman. Would you be able to link it for me please?
I'm not having an luck at finding it.
Thanks mate.

[Schmeester]

You only had 20 lands really its hard with so few lands and most of your spells need at least 5 mana i know you have some mana fixes but if you don't have 2 in your hand then you could be in trouble you will lose games when you have to mulligan i would suggest maybe more then 20 lands
And about shuffling your hand into your deck I'm pretty sure the ruling would be that you just end up not having a hand but then you would be not that well off anyways some judges are real big nerds at FNM they just don't understand it's a fun game (we got 2 judges 1 is a real prick other understands that FNM is for fun and that things like that happen)

Thanks Tyrkae. I agree, some people are just weiners.
I'm one of the chilled out kinda guys and offered to concede, regardless of ruling. But that's still good to know should I ever pull a sweet move off like that again.

As for the land, I think I'm settling on 22 ATM. I'm going to get an updated decklist up here later on.
Peace!

[Karlman]

i will try find it.