Theorycrafting Standard: Grixis Artifacts

Look: I really, really love playing Grixis. Whenever a new set comes out, the first thing I try to do is brew a Grixis list in Standard. Fortunately for me, it’s actually been hovering around tier 2 for a while. Would I prefer it were a tier one list? Of course I would, because I might actually win somewhat consistency in Standard in that case. But whatever, Magic isn’t just about winning, especially since I don’t play super competitively.

When Kaladesh spoilers started coming out, I was pretty excited. I’ll keep my impressions brief, since that’s not the point of this post, but it seemed like a set with incredible flavor and a high power level. And Chandra was a perfect win condition for Grixis! And then spoiler season marched on, and we weren’t really getting any great Blue cards. My hopes waned for Grixis Control being real – I brewed it, and then realized straight Rakdos was just better.

Anyways, I built that deck, but was still left hungry for Blue cards. I toyed around with a bunch of Emerge strategies, which were fine, but not super exciting. I wanted to either play hard control, or at least do something kind of different. Anyways, what really got me thinking was when they spoiled this guy:

Contraband Kingpin is initially unassuming – a 1/4 for two isn’t all the great, even as a speed bump in a control deck. What really put the card on my radar was the Lifelink. It’s a bit reminiscent of Jorubai Murklurker, a card I was glad to have in my UB/Grixis control sideboard two years ago.  The thing is, in addition to blocking early creatures (Advocate, Recruiter, Tracker, etc), Kingpin acts as a life total buffer, so when it eventually dies or is overwhelmed, it still buys time.

Even then, I didn’t think it was quite good enough to justify adding Blue to a control shell, considering I didn’t play any Artifacts to take advantage of the second ability. But that got me thinking – shouldn’t I just be playing Artifacts? The thing is, I was already playing this bad boy, and the deck was having trouble with Planeswalkers:

Disintegration is so easy to turn into a 2-for-1 that playing it as a Murder is just so underwhelming. This card may not kill off a Planeswalker immediately, but it certainly drops their loyalty. Considering it’s a common play pattern to tick down Liliana, Nissa (both of them), Ob Nixilis, and both Chandras there’s definitely a window in which Unlicensed Disintegration can easily take out a Creature and a Planeswalker. Even if there’s no ‘walker on the board to take down, getting an incidental three damage can still be good, and makes closing out the game much easier if the second ability is consistently triggering.

At this point, I was feeling pretty good about myself. Scrolling through spoilers, looking for Grixis colored cards to put in my deck, and generally just being a happy dude. And then I remembered Saheeli Rai.

Now, I know there are some people wondering how I could possibly forget about the set’s lead Planeswalker. Well, to be honest, I had written her off initially. She has no defense mechanism, which is incredibly important, especially in a Standard with such a heavy focus on creature combat. She also requires Creatures and/or Artifacts with solid ETB triggers to really take full advantage of her -2. Of course, when presented with an empty board, she does work. Her ultimate is a bit far off, but she filters through the deck and pings the opponent, both of which are decent in grindier decks.

The thing with Saheeli is that, while she doesn’t protect herself, she’s incredible if she get’s to stick around. And the best way to make her stick around is to neutralize whatever threats the opponent can present, be it through hard removal or solid early blockers to hold them at bay. Fortunately, there’s plenty of removal to play around with in Standard right now, especially in Grixis colors.

I think the most difficult part about this deck was narrowing down the removal suite. Ultimately, however, this is the package I settled on:

• 3x Harnessed Lightning
• 4x Unlicensed Disintegration
• 3x Die Young

Now, cutting the Grasps and Ruinous Paths may seem a bit odd at first blush, but it all comes down to one card:

Getting raw card advantage is integral, and Live Fast may very well be the best way to do that in Standard. The key part about it is that it gives you energy, hence fueling both Die Young and Harnessed Lightning. You can stockpile Energy to take down a big threat, or or just use two to kill a smaller creature. The flexibility afforded to the removal suite by its Energy theme is immensely powerful. Of course, cutting Ruinous Paths makes the deck a little weak against Planeswalkers, and for that reason I have a few copies in the sideboard. However, between Unlicensed Disintegration, Saheeli’s +1, and the creatures the deck plays, I feel like there’s enough pressure to keep ‘walkers down.

On the topic of the creature package, this was the most difficult part of the deck to build. The deck obviously needs Artifacts, and most of the playable Artifacts in Standards are creatures. The thing is, it also needs creatures that are good tutor targets for Saheeli’s ultimate (as well as Inventor’s Fair) and her -2 ability, so good ETB effects are key. Fortunately, Kaladesh has plenty to choose from.

Preliminary builds of the deck were playing some number of Puzzleknots, so the spoiling of Smuggler’s Copter and Glint-Nest crane made me really happy. Familiar, Copter, and the Crane are great early creatures that can be copied to excellent effect. Skysovereign and the Gearhulks are solid tutor targets – of course, some are far more powerful than others – I’m not even sure I want to play Combustible Gearhulk, and with only a relatively small number of Instants Torrential Gearhulk is difficult to play as more than a one of.

Ultimately, my biggest concern was not having Artifacts lying around, but Glint-Nest Crane was way too powerful to not have in the deck, and I wanted some number of Kingpins to hold down the ground. This is the package I ended up on, though I’m not convinced it’s optimal:

• 4x Glint-Nest Crane
• 4x Filigree Familiar
• 1x Skysovereign’s Flagship (not technically a creature, but for these purposes Vehicles count)
• 3x Contraband Kingpin
• 2x Noxious Gearhulk
• 1x Torrential Gearhulk
• 2x Smuggler’s Copter
• 4x Pilgrim’s Eye

Pilgrim’s Eye is a card I hadn’t listed above, but I quite like it for mana fixing and threatening Planeswalkers. It does die to a Liliana +1, but you’ve already gotten value at that point. The rest of the package is just tons and tons of value. Looting, blowing things up, buying back Instants, gaining life, drawing cards, Scrying – basically everything I want a deck to do!

This is the final deck list:

• Creatures:
  • 4x Glint-Nest Crane
  • 4x Filigree Familiar
  • 1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship (not technically a creature, but for these purposes Vehicles count)
  • 3x Contraband Kingpin
  • 2x Noxious Gearhulk
  • 1x Torrential Gearhulk
  • 2x Smuggler’s Copter
  • 4x Pilgrim’s Eye
• Instants
  • 3x Harnessed Lightning
  • 4x Unlicensed Disintegratios
• Sorceries
  • 3x Die Young
  • 4x Live Fast
• Planeswalkers
  • 3x Saheeli Rai
• Artifacts:
  • 2x Smuggler’s Copter
  • 1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• Lands
  • 2x Foreboding Ruins
  • 2x Inventor’s Fair
  • 1x Island
  • 3x Mountain
  • 3x Smoldering Marsh
  • 4x Spirebluff Canal
  • 3x Sunken Hollow
  • 5x Swamp

Honestly, I’m still kind of concerned about the Artifact count, but that’s something that I can play with pretty easily – adjusting the number of removal spells and Live Fasts could help bolster it if necessary.

Of course, spoiler season isn’t even over yet, and I haven’t gotten the chance to really do testing yet, so at this point, as the title would suggest, this is all just theorycrafting. But I’ll try to keep updating this list over the course of this Standard season, and if you have any ideas or input, feel free to leave them in the comments!