This marks the return of guest writer Frank Lepore who previously authored the much talked about, “Has Magic Lost Its Way” on this site. With barely a weekend remaining in the current PTQ season he offers up a last minute control deck that has performed well for him online for those of your scrambling for a blue envelope this weekend.

Some exposition:  A while back, on ChannelFireball, Gerry Thompson threw out a Grixis control decklist in an article that never got very much attention.  I never saw it or a list like it ever make any headlines, but the deck always performed solid for me.  The threats were all resilient (Wydwen, Demigod, Banefire) and almost every card was a two-for-one (Jace, Cryptic Command, Cruel Ultimatum, etc.).  This was the deck I played at the last PTQ, going 6-2 and getting 13th.  My only losses were to mono-red, which prompted me to put four Magma Spray in the board for Anathemancer/Hellspark Elemental/Figure of Destiny/Outlander which I hoped would give me the time I needed to stabalize.  Well, I gave the deck to my friend Sal to play at an FNM and he immediately fell in love with it.  He took it to the finals and from then on wanted to play it at every FNM.  But something happened.

You know how sometimes a deck no longer feels viable, even though you can’t really explain how or why you feel that way?  Like the times have just changed?

Well, that was how I had felt.  Even though nothing from M10 had really changed in the deck, it just didn’t feel like the deck to play.  I didn’t know why though.  All the cards were still great!  The deck didn’t lose anything and the format hadn’t gained anything that really hindered the deck.  Maybe I just didn’t feel right that I was the only one playing this deck; maybe I was overlooking something, or getting lucky.  Either way, I kept telling Sal to play something else.

Well, last week (8/7) he texted me with a list he wanted to play and it seemed really good.  I got to the store early and started putting it together for him, changing a few cards here and there, tweaking the mana base, and making a sideboard for him.  The final list ended up as follows:

AngelFire 2.0

Baneslayer Angel

2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Jace Beleren
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Baneslayer Angel
2 Bogarden Hellkite
3 Plumeveil
2 Hallowed Burial
1 Banefire
3 Rugged Parerie
3 Cascade Bluff
3 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Meadow
1 Vivid Crag
3 Island
2 Plains
2 Mountain
Sideboard:
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Hallowed Burial
3 Runed Halo
2 Celestial Purge
1 Pithing Needle
2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate

Before Sal got to the store, I played a few games against Brad playing Faeries and it went 2-1 pre-board against them.  I loved playing the deck because it felt like I was always in control of the game.  It was then I realized that the list was just the Grixis deck but with white instead of black!  Ha!  Sal had managed to convince me to let him play the deck he wanted to play by simply switching out one color for another and forcing me to see the deck with new eyes.  I was impressed.

Sal played the deck to ninth place (out of our 49 person FNM!), going 4-1 and missing top eight only on breakers.  It was my fault really, as I should have run six rounds, but a lot of our players would rather only be playing Magic ‘til two in the morning rather than three.  Lesson learned though and next time we’ll run adequate rounds.

Despite this though, it was just an FNM, so I wanted to take this deck online and run it through its paces.

My first match was against Time Sieve.  At first glance, this match-up was actually ridiculously easy despite how many dead cards you have game one.  You just save your counters for Time Sieve and Tezzeret and they can’t really win.  After they play a Howling Mine or two you’re really just drawing more gas while they draw more…Kaleidestones and stuff.

Out: -3 Plumeveil, -2 Essence Scatter, -2 Hallowed Burial,

In: +4 Kitchen Finks, +2 Negate, +1 Pithing Needle

Volcanic Fallout is also pretty dead, but using it as two damage to either them or Tezzeret is perfectly acceptable and won me a few games; they add up in multiples.

There wasn’t really much to say about this match up since nothing really happens.  You just sit there while they play their artifacts.  In order for them to have Silence when they play Tezzeret they need six mana.  Which means you should also have six mana, which is enough for Cryptic and either a Broken Ambition for one or a Negate.  If you get Ajani down this also helps.  That being said, I blew up his lands in both games.

1-0

Jund Aggro

This match-up is difficult if only for all their two-for-ones.  Game one he’s just too fast for me.  I don’t remember too many details and the game has since become lost to the Modo abyss.

Out: -3 Ajani, -4 Fallout, -2 Negate

In: +4 Finks, +1 Burial, +1 Celestial Purge, +3 Runed Halo

Game two, I counter his first few spells and a Kitchen Finks trades with a Boggart Ram Gang.  Seems fair in my opinion.   He then plays his own Finks and I broken for two.  I see a Cryptic and keep it on top while he sees Anathemancer.  He keep it on top and it hits the bin along with Leech, Lightning Bolt, and Bit Blast.  Turn five I don’t draw a land and I Essence Scatter his second Finks.  Turn six I manage to play Baneslayer Angel with a second in hand.  He then plays Bloodbraid into Anathemancer and declines to swing.  I draw Cryptic with another in hand and swing for five.  He unearths Anathemancer and I tap his guys before combat.  He scoops.

Game three he’s on the play and he gets an early Sygg out.  He bolts me on turn three to draw a card after I play a Kitchen Finks.  Turn four he Blightnings me and I discard Bogardan Hellkite and Jace, keeping Broken Ambitions, Cryptic, Hallowed Burial, and my fifth land.  Turn five he misses a land drop and plays Bloodbraid Elf into Putrid Leech then passes.  I draw a second Burial then swing.  He blocks with Leech, pumps, I gain two and a four point life swing takes place before I wipe the board.

Next turn he plays another Leech and Anathemancer which I have no problem wiping away with Burial number two.  He hits his land drop and has two cards in hand.  Turn seven he plays Bloodbraid Elf into Maelstrom Pulse which he declines to play.  Nothing happens for two turns and he knocks me down to five life with Bloodbraid.  I then draw Finks with enough mana up to Cryptic.  End of my turn he Bit Blasts the Finks into a Sygg.  I let it resolve and go to nine since I can still block his Bloodbraid.  He swings and they trade.

Finally I draw a Baneslayer Angel, but on his turn he plays another Elf and cascades into…Deathmark.  I Broken for one with my remaining two mana and see another Broken.  I ship it to the bottom.  I draw another Cryptic and tap his team before they attack.  He then plays Blightning, followed by Anathemancer.  Even if I counter him I have no way to prevent him from being unearthed.

This match–up being so poor actually makes me want to put maybe two Double Negative in the board before I realize how awful that idea sounds.

1-1

Five Color Blood

Game one I feel behind, but really, my misplay is what cost me the game.  Late in the game he plays his seventh land, a vivid, and then I counter something and draw a card.  The correct play would be to either hold the counter in anticipation of the Cruel that is inevitably coming next turn, or bounce his Vivid and force him to draw another relevant land that doesn’t come into play tapped.  I don’t draw another counter, and next turn he Cruels me.  It’s academic from there.  Poor play.

Game two I win quite handily as his start is somewhat slow and he has to mull to five.  I keep a questionable hand of two Hallowed Burial, Hellkite, Baneslayer, and three land.  I end up drawing into two Kitchen Finks that manage to do about thirteen damage by themselves.  In the meantime he Thought Hemmorhages my Cryptics and my Ajani is keeping one of his Reflecting Pools on lockdown.  With him at seven I play a Baneslayer and he scoops ‘em up.

Game three is good in that he gets me to one life when I’m able to stick a Baneslayer Angel.  He has one card in hand and an Anathemancer on board.  He swings just to get it in the yard and I gain five.  Next turn I play another Baneslayer and swing gaining another five.  He doesn’t draw the Pulse and it’s over in two. I end the game at 21 life.

2-1

I played against Time Sieve again in the next two rounds.

The first round it wasn’t even close.  I don’t remember many details of the game but I remember my opponent not being able to really keep up; in other words he was playing the deck very sloppily and not really planning ahead.  He didn’t try to build up to his defining turn where he’s able to go off by winning the attrition war; he just kind of played his spells when he got them.

3-1

The next round however wasn’t in my favor.  The first game goes very late and he ends up having about twelve cards in his library with a Jace building up and multiple Howling Mines out.  I’m able to Volcanic Fallout two times in order to keep knocking his Jace back out of milling range.  Eventually though, in a final turn from Time Sieve, he’s able to draw the last card in his deck after sacrificing all the Howling Mines, then bringing them back via Open the Vaults.  This turn he mills me for twenty.  I have two cards in my deck, he has none.  There are four Howling Mines back on the table.  I draw my first card, then my second, and I have no way to force him to draw a card.  Close game, and all I can do is lament not redirecting an earlier Volcanic Fallout to Jace.

The next game he’s just able to go off super early and I don’t have the disruption to stop it.  That’s Magic though.

3-2

I played three more two-man queues and won them both, as well as another eight-man that I lost in the second round.  Overall the deck has gone 6-3 online.

Again this week (8/14), Sal plays this deck at FNM.  He once again makes top eight (this time not just in theory) and there’s a split in the top four.  Based on the results, I take the deck back to the drawing board.  I realize the following things:

-Despite how good Hellkite is I never wanted one early; he’s like Cruel Ultimatum in that he’s really good, only not so powerful as to necessitate on playing two.

-Plumeveil had become miserable.  That was tough for me to write, and it may come down to not having played against Faeries enough, but really, they seem to be on the decline again, so Plumeveil is on the decline again as well.  Maybe we can step it back to the board or cut it altogether.  It’s also a dead card against one of the most popular deck in the field right now.

-The deck needs more threats.  Not too many more, but maybe a couple.  We swapped in two Vendillion Cliques and they seemed to work great.  Being able to Rip a Bloodbraid Elf and Block a Boggart Ram-Gang is nice.  Ripping a Tezzeret is nice as well.  In summation, I enjoy disruption on a 3/1 flier.

-Essence Scatter is somewhat slow, and again, dead in certain matchups.

-Hallowed Burial sadly doesn’t do enough in this deck.  Usually the decks you want it against can recover too quickly.  I’m looking at you, Jund Aggro.

We ended up making the following changes:

-1 Rugged Praerie
-1 Bogardan Hellkite
-2 Hallowed Burial
-2 Essence Scatter
-3 Plumeveil

+1 Plains
+1 Mystic Gate
+2 Vendillion Clique
+1 Obelisk of Alara
+4 Lightning Bolt

The sideboard had also been retweaked in order to still have access to Hallowed Burial.

3 Hallowed Burial
4 Kitchen Finks
3 Path to Exile
2 Negate
3 Runed Halo

-The Lightning Bolts have been amazing in testing.  They keep the early pressure off, they deal the last few points, and they kill Planeswalkers.  I know this all goes without saying, but they seemed to be something the deck sorely needed.  It was also a simple replacement for the Essence Scatters.

-I also added another land.  26 is never too much for a control deck, especially when you definitely want to hit then all before turn five.

-The Obelisk was a simple swap for the Hellkite.  I managed to win a game against Time Sieve by using Obelisk on their Tezzeret and Sal said it was MVP all night.

All in all I think the deck is very solid after the changes.  I think the sideboard could still use some work, but I think the deck has all the components of being a contender in current standard.  I have yet to come across a completely unwinnable match-up, which is what I think it takes to survive right now.

The final list, for those uninterested in doing the math up there:

AngelFire 2.0 (2.1?)

4 Lightning Bolt
2 Negate
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Cryptic Command
4 Jace Beleren
3 Ajani Vengeant
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Baneslayer Angel
1 Bogarden Hellkite
1 Obelisk of Alara
2 Hallowed Burial
1 Banefire
2 Rugged Parerie
3 Cascade Bluff
4 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Meadow
1 Vivid Crag
3 Island
2 Plains
2 Mountain
Sideboard:
4 Kitchen Finks
1 Hallowed Burial
3 Runed Halo
2 Celestial Purge
1 Pithing Needle
2 Essence Scatter
2 Negate

BONUS MONO BLACK LIST:

My friend Jacob Gosche (who you might know through his JSS success) piloted this mono black concoction to the same top four (8/7) where a split was decided in favor of going home early.  Thurdsay night, or rather Friday morning, after doing about seven straight M10 drafts, Jacob says to me, “Geez, Tendrils, Corrupt, and Consume Spirit are in the format?  I want to play mono black tomorrow, can we make that happen?”  At this point my eyes light up since Jacob and I are very similar players in this respect; we love playing cool cards that are unappreciated, even if they aren’t obvious tier-one choices.  I emphatically say yes, and before finally falling asleep at around nine in the morning I start putting something together.

This ends up being the final version:

4 Thoughtseize
4 Sign in Blood
4 Doom Blade
4 Bitterblossom
3 Infest
4 Stillmoon Cavalier
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Corrupt
21 Swamp
4 Leechridden Swamp
Sideboard:
4 Duress
1 Infest
3 Pithing Needle
3 Warren Weirding
4 Murderous Redcaps

The deck is pretty straightforward, but I’ll comment on it a little.

Initially I had 4 Murderous Redcaps, 2 Consume Spirit and 1 Oona in place of the 3 Infest and 4 Bitterblossoms.  Jacob convinced me of the Bitterblossoms since the life loss is completely irrelevant, and Jesus, it’s Bitterblossom.  They also make turning on your Leechridden Swamps that much easier.  I considered playing Gargoyle Castle, but Swamps are so important in the deck that it didn’t seem necessary enough to cut them.

Of course one of the main problems was the lack of a sweeper.  Mono-black decks in the past, in their prime anyway, have always had access to either Mutilate or Damnation.  Their closest living relative, however, is Infest.  Infest does the job, but Honor of the pure makes it that much harder.  This isn’t a huge issues as most of your spot removal can take out the big guys and they need two Honors to prevent your infest from sweeping all their tokens, which is usually what it’s for.  Against both Kithkin and Faeries (but really the entire field), Cavaliers are amazing.  These guys can kill Baneslayer Angels, you know.  You’d rarely want to though since you have so many other efficient tools, I just think these guys are highly undervalued right now.  No Doom Blade, Pulse, Path, Celestial Purge, Terminate or Unmake, and every land you play can pump them.

Another problem would obviously be Great Sable Stag and opposing Cavaliers, which is when the Warren Weirdings come in.  The thing it though that the deck is able to gain so much life that Stag is not that threatening, especially when you consider all your threats go around him.  The Pithing Needles and Duress’ are for Time Sieve, and the Redcaps are just extra removal against mid range decks.  Deathmark was another option, but really there’s nothing Deathmark kills that Doom Blade or Tendrils doesn’t.  It was also another card that didn’t attack though, which was unappealing.

Anyway, I played this deck in a few casual games and it didn’t do too well against Jund aggro.  I think it’s resigned to being a casual deck, but its fun nonetheless.

Either way, I hope you guys find the nerve to take these lists for a spin at your local FNM, or if you feel confidant enough, something larger.

Thanks for reading,

Frank Lepore

Zartan@tampabay.rr.com

“Frank Lepore” on MODO