The Evolution Of Chandra Grixis Control

Through out the last several months I have been playing versions of this deck, and I have settled on this build for the next Star City 10K in Fort Worth, TX in two weeks. I love this deck...it has everything you want in a deck: It Beats Jund, Has Explosive Wins, Runs Cruel Ultimatum, and did I mention that IT BEATS JUND. I have had several positive encounters with the newest build vs the cascade bastard deck; and I am not the only one (see What Beats Jund). According to their results, Grixis Control has a 65% win rate vs Jund.

Now on to the deck.

Maindeck
2 Chandra Abalaze
1 Sorin Markov
2 Jace Beleren
3 Cruel Ultimatum
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Terminate
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Deathmark
3 Earthquake
3 Flashfreeze
3 Double Negative
3 Couriers Capsule




These are the 4 primary win factors. Chandra Ablaze is awesome in this deck. She can Flame Javelin opponents or creatures. She can cripple a control mirrors hand with her second ability and refill yours, and her ultimate is GG. Sorin is a powerful addition to the deck. He helps syphon life and can reset your opponents life to 10 if their life starts to get to high. His ultimate Mindslaving ability is hard for your opponent to deal with. Cruel Ultimatum is the "I Win" card. Very few opponents can deal with 1 Cruel let alone Chandra and Cruel. And lastly is the power creature of the deck, Sphinx of Jwar Isle. This is the F you card that Jund hates to see. Jund has no answer for this guy and he puts your opponent on a clock that results in your win.

This deck is really good vs Jund maindecked. The sideboard has a few cards that help with certain matchups.

Sideboard
3 Malakir Bloodwitch - vs anything white and Baneslayer
2 Siege Gang Commander - vs RDW and Boros
2 Haunting Echoes - vs anything unearth, Vampires, and maybe other control decks
2 Swerve - vs control or burn decks
1 Flashfreeze - vs anything red or green
3 Countersquall - vs control mirror
2 Essence Scatter - vs fast aggro decks, vampires, or anything Sphinx or Baneslayer

Shroud Control

Everybody knows that Jund is the big bad boogeyman in the corner ready to crush anything that comes its way. Sure, there have been a few creative decks out there that have knocked Jund off its high horse. Eldrazi Green in Nashville and Naya Lightsaber at Worlds come to mind. But Jund still has the best percentages against most of the field. I've been working on a deck for a while now that absolutely crushes Jund but has struggled mightily against swarming token decks. I've recently made some changes to it to hopefully address the problem against decks like Eldrazi Green and Mono White Tokens...

Shroud Control

Creatures
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
4 Wall of Denial
4 Deft Duelist

Planeswalkers
3 Jace Beleren

Enchantments
4 Luminarch Ascension
3 Oblivion RIng
2 Journey to Nowhere

Sorcerys
2 Mind Spring

Instants
4 Arrow Volley Trap
3 Hindering Light
4 Harm's Way

Lands
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Sejiri Refuge
8 Island
8 Plains

Sideboard:
4 Celestial Purge
4 Flashfreeze
2 Devout Lightcaster
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Into the Roil
1 Telemin Performance



The only two changes that I've recently made is adding Arrow Volley Trap and Journey to Nowhere in place of Day of Judgment and Path to Exile. Arrow Volley Trap is a very experimental spell that may or may not work. The problem with Day of Judgment is that there were games that I had a couple of Wall of Denials and a Deft Duelist on the board and my opponent had 6 creatures looking to attack on his turn. Sure Day of Judgment took out all of his stuff but it also took out my Shrouded protectors as well. Most of the fast aggro decks can reload pretty quickly which put me at a significant disadvantage. Hopefully Arrow Volley Trap will solve the problem of swarming creatures while still keeping my creatures alive on the board. Path to Exile is great when you have the abiltity to use it on your own creatures if needed to mana ramp. Since all of my creatures have Shroud that becomes impossible and there were too many times where I gave an opponent the extra land that he need to play a finisher of some sort. Sure, I lose some speed with Journey to Nowhere but it's a safer spell with the type of deck that I'm playing.



The overall theme of the deck is to control the board until you can unleash either of your two finishers, Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Luminarch Ascension. The Ascension is my favorite card in the Zendikar block as it fits my style of play perfectly. I've always been a Blue/White type of player and the Ascension can end the game very quickly once it goes online. The Sphinx is the best Blue creature in the game right now. Jund has absolutley no answer for him.

I'm not claiming that this deck will take the field by storm or anything but I do think it has as good a shot as anything else out there short of Jund. It also has one big advantage in its corner... In 8 matches it's only lost to Jund once and I would like to think it was a fluke. If you do decide to play this deck let me know what kind of results you get. Thanks for reading and good luck on your next coin flip!