Control is a tough place to be in Modern for many reasons. In general, threats are more efficient than their answers, and the breadth of strategies in the format makes it difficult to find a combination of cards that can effectively handle them. That said, every couple of weeks, we see the format line up in such a way that a new control deck puts up a great performance. This week, it's QBTurtle's Grixis control deck:
Grixis Control - Modern | QBTurtle, 11th Place Modern PTQ
- Creatures (7)
- 3 Torrential Gearhulk
- 4 Snapcaster Mage
- Instants (28)
- 2 Fatal Push
- 2 Glimmer of Genius
- 2 Kolaghan's Command
- 2 Lightning Bolt
- 2 Logic Knot
- 2 Mana Leak
- 2 Think Twice
- 3 Consume the Meek
- 3 Terminate
- 4 Cryptic Command
- 4 Opt
We're all familiar with the Grixis midrange decks featuring Snapcaster Mage and Kolaghan's Command, but what happens when you take that deck and go much, much bigger? Instead of staying lean with Lightning Bolts and Fatal Pushes, this deck wants to drag the game out until you can hit four, six, or even more lands. This comes about because decks like Scapeshift and Tron are at a high point in the metagame, which means you have time to hit your first couple of land drops and leverage your late-game spells to win.
So what's your payoff for surviving the first four turns of the game? This deck packs the full four copies of Cryptic Command backed up by Snapcaster Mage and Torrential Gearhulk. You can just lock out the decks that are threat-light by using your Cryptic Commands and Kolaghan's Commands to rebuy your Gearhulks and Snapcaster Mages to counter all the relevant threats in your opponent's deck. You can even leverage cards like Think Twice and Opt on turns where you leave up counterspells but your opponents don't bite.
Perhaps the most interesting card in this deck is Consume the Meek. This is a card that hasn't seen a ton of play, but may be uniquely well-positioned in Modern. This card hits everything out of beatdown decks, up to and including creature-lands and hexproof creatures. You can even cast it at instant speed after waiting for your opponent to cast all their pump spells or equip their Cranial Platings. You can even rebuy your sweeper with Torrential Gearhulk and leave your giant monsters unaffected.
If you're expecting to see a lot of midrange and big mana decks in your local metagame, then this seems like a great way to go big. You've got a high density of hard counterspells and an indomitable late game recursion engine. If that's the kind of thing you're looking for in your Modern games, then this is a great time to be doing it.