After reading fellow writer Andrea Fonseca's article I liked the Cruel Ultimatum decks a lot so I quickly logged on and began building a CC deck. While trying to make this as budget as possible I did some research on which deck build I like the most and came up with these. If you want to read Andrea's article for a couple of more deck ideas here is the link http://puremtgo.com/articles/overlooked-standard-decks-can-win-you-packs-grixis.
I ended up liking Chad's build a bot more, It runs the usual Sedraxis Specters for hand control followed by Blightning, Spreading Seas, Lightning Bolt to control the board, lands, and hands also 4 Siege-Gang Commanders closes up the creature control part. After studying the deck I came up with this build.
I moved the 4 Goblin Ruinblaster to the sideboard and brought in 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir because of his ability to force your opponent to sacrifice a creature helping you establish board control. I also dropped the 2 Staggershock and brought in 2 Earthquake to deal with aggro and creature heavy decks. And substitued 4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor for 4 Divination to help with card draw. On another note Vampire Hexmage owns any Planewalker so I felt she had to be a 4 of in the sideboard. Well it's off to the tourney practice room.
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urafever (RDW)
He played a bunch of quick burn spells, while I tried to control his hand with Blightning and Sedraxis Specter eventually he started top decking and drew into lands.
Sideboard -4 Spreading Seas +4 Negate
He landed some early burn spells, and played a (Devastating Summon)s for 4 with a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker when I tapped out to play Divination. It was over after that.
Sideboard same
He landed 3 Goblin Guides and control the game while I only drew into 1 of my red sources and not being able to play enough removal.
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Game Results 7-6
Match Results 4-2
4-2 isn't bad if it was a Premier I would of had a chance of top 8 depending on tiebreakers but then again the event would of had different decks. After playing some decks I came to the conclusion that Vengevine is SUPER annoying no matter how many times you kill him he keeps coming back. Right now I'm debating if I want to add a 3rd Cruel Ultimatum to the deck and maybe Relic of Progenitus, or (Haunting Echos) to SB. This deck is pretty awesome to pilot it has a lot of interaction with other decks, with the ability to steal a win with Cruel Ultimatum underneath their noses. here is a price breakdown on how much the deck costs.
Fairly cheap deck to build if you want to add in the extra 3 Creeping Tar Pit and 2 Lavaclaw Reaches it will come to a extra $19.25 bringing the total to $52.40 making it more competitive which I highly suggest I found myself in situations where I needed another color drop and I would draw into Gargoyle Castle which was kinda like a dead card for me at times. Plus having numerous 3/2 unblockable manlands in play to deal that last 3-6 damage to win the game isn't so bad either.
Having as much fun with this deck I plan on tweaking it out some more and play testing it non stop I feel this deck is competitive and agree with Andrea Fonseca that this deck is cheap and has great potential to win you packs and making this a profitable deck. I suggest you guys go and build it and hope you have luck with it and get on a nice win streak for some profit. Until next time have fun and good luck.
8 Comments
right now I am 2-4 in the 2 man queues. beating jund by attacking 1 color with spreading seas and ruinblaster while going to 7 with cruel. and burn with removal and hitting my cruel to end the game.
I lost to UW control opponent was down to 7, I had 3 all he had in play was a sphynx of lost truths and tapped out. I was sitting on 6 lands and a cruel ultimatum in hand but i drew into a blightning. RG eldrazi won because they dropped a manabard and eldrazi. and lost to 2 jund decks, it just felt like i couldn't hit my 7th land drop when i needed it the most resulting in loses 3 out of the 4 times.
I need to change my SB again after doing this article i dropped the 3 hexmages and added in (Suffer the Past) works beautifully against Vengevine, Hellspark, Hell's Thunder, and plus gaining x life while doing x damage is just beautiful seals the deal or buys you more time to dig for anwsers. but im thinking about cutting the hexmages and going 3 pithing needle, 3 negate, 3 ruinblaster, suffer the past, 3 consuming vapors. vapors should help against the more aggro decks since your killing and gaining life at the same time.
when ever this gets posted, I came to the conclusion that Grixis Control is a pretty strong deck main weakness I felt while playing this deck was NLB Vengevine is just a pain to deal with and the Mythic deck is a pain as well. But with the rest of the field it can hold it's own and be some what competitive. But i still consider it a tier 1.5 deck.
I'm not sure why the Cruel pic is not loading in the article, I apologize for that.
Yeah, in a Cruel Control deck I'd rather be running basic's than Gargoyle Castles. When your win-con requires seven colored mana it's just not worth the risk. Bolas Control's another story. I also think that if you're wanting to keep the budget the same it may even be worth outright replacing 1x Drowned Catacombs and 2x Dragonskull Summit with 2x Creeping Tar Pit and 1x Lavaclaw Reaches. To be honest, though, I hated drawing Lavaclaw Reaches XD
Otherwise good read and I agree that this is an amazing deck for its price range when played properly... Of course I'm a little bias.
EDIT: Also, Thought Hemorrhage in the sideboard is your easy answer to NLB and Vengvine in general.
i totally agree thought hemorrhage is killer, it can anwser multiple threats, but with the new dredgevine deck increasing in popularity i think relic of progenitus might be added in.
Awesome well written article. It was quite informative. The only thing I could say against it, well personally I hate control decks. But thats nothing you can fix. Look forward to more of these from you.
Good Article I've been playing with a Grixis list myself, also on a budget. Our list are pretty close except I don't run seige gang.
yeah siege-gang commander has gone down in price. But Sphinx of the Lost Truths of jwar sphinx can take it's places and those are way cheaper than SGC. And try to get some consuming vapors that card will save you so many times against RDW, NLB, Mono G Eldrazi or atleast buy you enough time to stabilize again.