When I first started working on Throne of Eldraine Standard decks, I couldn't help myself - like so many others I was drawn to many of the mono-colored deck ideas. For anyone who read last week's article (The Throne of Eldraine Red Review), you'll be unsurprised to learn that my first deck was a Torbran, Thane of Red Fell deck. I came out of the experience even more impressed than I'd expected to be by the sheer power of the card. At the same time I had some questions on an important question: mana.

The tension between these two cards is very real, as is the tension between any of the other Castles and the other non-basic "basics". That first Torbran deck I was working on was also a Cavalcade of Calamity deck, and trying to balance all of the cards that I wanted to include was a challenge. I started thinking about each of the color pairs and whether any of them truly inspired me to make a mono-colored deck.

Ultimately, they all felt exciting in numerous different ways, and I found myself thinking about what it would take for me to not want to play them. "A lot of colors," was the thought that came back, and my mind initially went to Niv-Mizzet Reborn. That would be a good reason to not play a Castle. My second thought was also of a Dragon, but this one actually got me excited.

I've loved Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God for a while. With the departure of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God has become the clearest grinding Planeswalker that ends with the opponent's demise - though usually they scoop before the Dragon's ultimate comes into play.

In building a grinding Grixis deck featuring Nicol Bolas, I went with some of my old favorites for finishers to join in: another Dragon (Ugin, the Ineffable) and another God (God-Eternal Kefnet). Grixis has a few problem cards to manage, and while Dispersal can be helpful in managing them, Ugin is invaluable in controlling random unpredictable cards. God-Eternal Kefnet is just an incredibly potent and resilient finisher that is surprisingly huge when on defense, and can be a real pain in a deck that is using Discovery.

Joining to this, I initially included Brazen Borrower, as my signature "Disperse"-style card that I've often used in decks like this, but ultimately, I kept finding myself slightly underwhelmed by both halves of the card. I still wouldn't be surprised if I find myself bringing Brazen Borrower back into the deck at some point, but I'm not there yet. However, another Faerie, Rankle, Master of Pranks did manage to make the cut. In this deck, Rankle is not great at making an opponent sacrifice a creature because it will usually cost too much to do so for us, but I still like either grinding out the hand or pumping up the hand, depending on my needs. The most important part of the card might just be being a big hasty flier for only four mana.

With all of these choices starting to work themselves out, the easy call was finding room for four Murderous Rider. Especially with the loss of Vraska's Contempt, this just felt like a no-brainer. Lifelink on the creature side ends up being remarkably important, despite the Rider's fairly small size. Even at six mana for both sides of this spell, it still feels like a bargain.

Finishing up the rest of the deck are a selection of efficient, powerful controlling cards. Thought Erasure is obvious, but four Legion's End is a nice card to join it, especially with how it can increase the grinding down of an opponent. Legion's End is complemented by a variety of other removal spells, with Chemister's Insight joining Rankle, Master of Pranks as a means to toss excess cards of the wrong kind. Tying it all together are Discovery and Temple of Epiphany among the lands to try to help keep things whirring smoothly.

Here is my current list:

Nicol Control | Eldraine Standard | Adrian Sullivan

• Creatures (6)
• 1 God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1 Rankle, Master of Pranks
• 4 Murderous Rider

• Planeswalkers (5)
• 1 Ugin, the Ineffable
• 4 Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

• Instants (7)
• 1 Drown in the Loch
• 2 Bedeck // Bedevil
• 2 Bedevil
• 2 Chemister's Insight

• Sorceries (17)
• 2 Enter the God-Eternals
• 3 Ritual of Soot
• 4 Discovery // Dispersal
• 4 Legion's End
• 4 Thought Erasure

• Lands (25)
• 2 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 3 Swamp
• 2 Dismal Backwater
• 2 Temple of Epiphany
• 3 Steam Vents
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Duress
• 2 Negate
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Aether Gust
• 2 Fry
• 1 Noxious Grasp
• 2 Enter the God-Eternals
• 3 Vampire of the Dire Moon

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Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God is a very demanding card and while Fabled Passage does an incredible amount of work in fixing your mana, it does make demands too. The basic land count started at five, but, surprisingly, I found myself feeling like I needed more, in part to fuel the Fabled Passage, but also because Discovery (of Discovery // Dispersal) and Enter the God-Eternals could both end up taking out basics, and the first time you whiff on a Fabled Passage feels like your kite crashing into the ground.

I'd tried other mana sources, and many of them seemed worthwhile, with Mana Geode as a front-runner. Without cards that cost a single mana, these accelerants tended to feel dangerous, especially if land was ever missed, and ultimately, I was mulliganing too much, so the extra mana rocks turned into land and that fourth Discovery // Dispersal that I'd cut in previous versions of Nicol Control. I still might cut that fourth Discovery // Dispersal for another card advantage card, but for now, I'm liking it.

Aside from that fourth Discovery, Drown in the Loch is the card I'm closest to cutting from the main, with the three cards I'm most thinking about being another mana source, a third Chemister's Insight, or another finisher like God-Eternal Kefnet. For now, I'm on a winning streak with this deck, so I expect I'll continue to play it out as is, but I'm keeping my mind open to other options. If I were to add a great deal more mana, I'd think about adding in another six-mana Planeswalker: Ugin, the Ineffable, Chandra, Awakened Inferno, or Liliana, Dreadhorde General all have a lot going for them if you can reliably survive to them.

Most of the sideboard is pretty straightforward but versatile hate spells, rather obviously attacking strategies or color. The third and fourth Enter the God-Eternals seemed to clearly be necessary the more I saw Red decks, but also, they are just generally powerful against aggressive decks. The three Vampire of the Dire Moon simply seemed better as a supplement to the Enter the God-Eternals than running Sorin's Thirst.

The sideboard is aching for a copy of The Elderspell, but I haven't fit it in yet. If I were forced to add it in, I'd probably cut Disdainful Stroke, but so far, I've been quite happy having the versatility of Disdainful Stroke as a counter, finding it quite useful against Simic Flash, Reclamation/Explosion, numerous midrange decks, and more. I've also been thinking about a single copy of Tale's End, in part because I think the card is just quite solid as a counterspell, but also because I love the card against Hydroid Krasis.

I've been really happy playing this deck, and if you have loved Grixis in the past, I think you'll love this deck too.

Speaking of "love", this weekend is an exciting moment for me! I'll be at Misty Mountain over Pre-Release Weekend, much to my absolute joy. I missed playing in my favorite game store over the last Pre-Release, and so it is awesome to be back in the welcoming arms of Misty Mountain Games! I hope you end up joining me if you're in Madison, and if you're elsewhere, I wish you an incredible Throne of Eldraine prerelease weekend!

- Adrian Sullivan

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