MTG Salvation

Welcome Richo! You can make very good budget versions of this deck (one of the reasons I play it). Creeping Tar Pit is for sure the first card you need to add, very important for closing games and killing walkers! A single Lavaclaw Reaches is cool too as it can just do lethal in one swing. Tarns are sadly the most expensive fetch land but you can actually do ok with a good mix of Rav m10 INN and filter lands, in fact decreasing damage from lands is extremely helpful for us.
Tribute to hunger has been pretty good for me at dealing with larg or hexproof guys and again we need life gain. Cryptic Command is also an important pick up, you need some hard counters in long games don't be afraid of Counterflux or Dissipate are solid!
The format is indeed week to isochon but I recommend no more than 2 as they can clutter your draws you realy want some Remands with them though!
Many decks are also very vulnerable to Curse of death's hold or Night of souls' Betrayal. Affinity, Twin and Pod basically can't win with this out! Tokens are also a problem for us, these sort it and make electrolyte even better, certainly good SB options at the least and powerful effect from black over white.

Thank you for further clarifying why spending resources to hit land drops puts you behind.
Loving the Gifts Ungiven plan with Mystic Retieval,feels like a draw 4 action cards or like fact or fiction, the card is frigin banned in Some formats!
Retrieval is quite powerful on its own, like mystical teachings but sorcery and half the flashback cost. In the late game used the same cryptic 3 times haha. Just spam whatever is best at the time.
Both of these provide hard selective card advantage that is more powerful than most of the compareably costed raw draw options.

Blightning is probably not what you want, I would just go with Rakdos return or consult the necro sages at that point. Discard just makes that end of Cuel pointless, the damage does not clear the board (decent vs walkers I guess) or help you draw cards or stack with other burn. If you are light on 3 s tribute to hunger is very helpful in this heck with not much life gain! Also a couple more hard counters would be good, dissipate and counter flux realy are fine. Cut those serum visions for lands son, aint no control deck workin with 24!

Well those GY guys are pretty much in what 1-2 decks? And its not like we want to let them live, you do get 2 cards in hand still. Heck you could just tutor for 4 lands if they are out to thin you deck, its still basically an instant speed draw 2! We aren't trying to do cute reanimation tricks just use it as a good draw engine. Gifts is REALY good vs UWR as it puts you about as far ahead as Revelation but vastly easier to protect. 4cc gifts has had more success than any thirst deck admittedly, but maybe its just cuz they are basically a fancy jund deck with blue...

Curse of deaths hold is starting to grow on me a lot, in a long game you blank sooo many guys and make burn better vs larger ones, finks persist, bob, snaps, lingering souls etc etc all locked out.  I wouldn't mind another bolt and snare in the main and young pyromancer or 2 could knock out some artifacts.  The singleton duress seems a bit odd but its live vs most decks and great vs problematic cards backed by cryptic bounce and checking the coast to resolve ultimatum vs blue decks.
Grixis Hybrid

Here is an even more tricked out version squeezing in green for life from the loam ravens crime and urborg hehe. The single card 4th color seems acceptable since all our lands produce colors.


Oh and we have a kind of Prophetic bolt Bituminous Blast! Could be a sweet build around that, cascade into Cryptics and izzet charms as the only counters. I used to run a cruel cascade deck back in standard, hehe Kathari Remnant is better than he looks.

Mmm Prof bolt!
With Thought Flare you are paying + 2 mana for +1 card over a thirst with no artifacts!
Just like thirst it is really great to see cards and more importantly filter bad ones in your hand. I love flare in itself but we just have better options, it didn't even see standard play...
Gifts Ungiven gives you 2 cards with 2 in the yard (of your choice, possibly ones with flash back)
Remand> Think Twice imo, I really enjoy the extra protection from losing tempo/ board position, though I dont mind it if you can easily get it in the yard discarded off thirst or Gifts.

Messed around with A Gifts Ungiven build today with mostly all spells (and trying out a couple Pyro noobs)
Its pretty strong to just have 1 Cruel in you deck then make a gifts pile of Ultimatum Mystic Retrieval Snacaster Land or removal. If they don't eat your yard you basically have infinite action after that!
Revival is slow but its super sweet, gives you tons of late game gass, like a double snapcaster!


I still just want this card U1 instant, draw 2 discard 1, is that to much to ask for?

I was just trying out Grave Titan as a temporary switch over 1 Cruel, he is not terrible by any means and there is very little removal that kills him. I like having both wurm coil and Batterskull in the deck as we have little life gain and you just pitch them to thirst and get them back when u want to close, they have so much upside vs some decks they are a solid piece of the Thist engine. Those creature finishers can come out a turn earlier than cruel and blunt more creatures if you have fallen behind.
Again we have thirst or even charm to filter these.

Thought Flare and think twice are just not modern cards at all in my eyes. We already have 4 thirst for Knoledge, just run some remands and more snap casters ( very often used on thirst) or Gifts Ungiven!

Oh and Slaughter Games is mostly for scape shift but it is fine vs Tron and control as well.

Cool list. Consult is interesting, so often I wish I could just strip my opponents hand, and certainly did use and enjoy that mode on Esper charm. Interested to hear how it works for you. I don't thing you need damnation main with this much removal, cryptic command would be much better.

Just an update of my artifact version. Thirst and Explosives are pretty much my fave cards in the format, as the most flexible removal (even artifact+enchantments!) and draw combo. This build has more ramp and finishers but they are quite resilient and dominating ones. Grave Titan has been amazing so much I shaved an ultimatum for him, he stabilizes u so well and one swing is game. Signets are great for getting to 4+ faster and save u vs blood moon! Pithing needle is a god send vs walkers, pod, man lands and tec edge. I feel this version has more flexibility and les holes than the all spell versions with outs to almost any situatin, not to mention the best draw and filtering engine.

Combo and control mu become very good with this board, not sure about all the lands still like reef, cairns, and pool...

Quote from ForestHex

Hi, ive been switching between Cruel control and Wafo Tapa Control for a few weeks and i ended up with this List in the end:

Chromatone's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Snapcaster Mage 3 Mulldrifter 3 Izzet Charm 4 Esper Charm 3 Lightning Bolt 3 Cryptic Command 3 Remand 2 Counterflux 2 Electrolyze 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 3 Duress 2 Cruel Ultimatum 1 Damnation	1 Kher Keep 4 Marsh Flats 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Watery Grave 2 Steam Vents 1 Blood Crypt 1 Island 1 Swamp 1 Sunken Ruins 1 Hallowed Fountain 2 Darkslick Shores 2 Celestial Colonnade 1 Seachrome Coast 1 Blackcleave Cliffs

Your list seems pretty sweet except for the lands, lol how good is Kehr keep? I think you want tar pits and some filter lands to help with ultimatum and more answers for hexproof guys.

Yea it is hard to justify point removal for board slots when we have so much already, even dark blast seems low impact when we have acces to red, Slay is quite sexy though! I do still recommend Volcanic Fallout over consume or even the 4th Electro. Geist is back on the rise and fall out acutely kills BBe. Pithing needle feels great as well especially as this deck becomes a known entity. Every one will side out all point removal vs you and you lock out all the man lands or walkers with this.

Tron is not worth dedicating specific hate, its not a very solvable MU any how, Im still more worried about improvements vs the common, Infect, Jund and Burn.
Slaughter Games Fix everything! Tron, Scapeshift, Storm, Eggs, Twin.
This baby is the ultimate combo powner!

Also I forgot I changed my disenchant to Hide // Seek, nice flexy card I may put in another. I could even see bringing it in Vs burn in case of blood moon or even just to gain a bit of life

Yea the red really lets you take the tempo role and that is where you want to be Vs Tron. Counter + Bounce a land with cryptic is amazing vs them and can pretty much keep them far away from Emrakul mana. You can Remand Pyroclasm as they often cant cast it again that turn.
The draw step mind rot mode on Esper charm is probably the best one!
I put in Pithing Needle in the Tec edge slot. Why not just stop all the man lands, Tec edges (in UW) , Eye of Ugin, Liliana, birthing pod etc etc etc. Chances are they wont board in something for it and we have the ability to protect it. I am also tempted to try Chalice of the void as putting it on 1 does little to us and can hose a ton of decks including Tron and their natures claims.

Well no one is looking at the Esper teachings forum so I will post my version of 4 Color teachings. I came around on Mystical Teachings a bit and like it at 2x not 4x. I usually tout that Gifts Ungiven is simply a beter card but it is easy to hate on and requires some strange cards you wouldn't normally play to be efective. Teachings lets you get whatever you need without giving your opponent any options (and wont get shut down by Leyline of Sanctity), adding another layer flexibility. Cruel Ultimatum is great, and you could easily make a version like this with it as your win con, but it has harsh mana requirements and is a sorcery. Sphinx's Revelation and White Sun's Zenith can put the game away almost as handily and teaching lets you have extra virtual copies, (though I do love my Gifts + Mystic Retrieval Tech). I like this build because its very hard to hate on with fairly decentralized card advantage like Jund.

I prefer the mana MUCH more like this, people dont give the "M10" lands enough credit, they are exactly what you want to supplement fetch+shocks. Path to Exile is still the best removal for the mid to late game especially when complimented by red, I may add a third.

BadB. is not kidding about Slaughter games, go look in the combo forums and see how much they cry about this card. Love that I can play it and Stony Silence (two of the strongest hate cards in Modern) in the same deck! I also surprised myself and beet tron in a game one... the trick, bouncing their lands with cryptic to keep them bottle necked, Remand is also surprisingly good against them.

I have really come back arround on Remand! Just think of it as a draw spell and its probably much beter to play that Serum Visions. When you have nothing but answers to draw into and need to hit land drops Remand plays out amazingly. You delay whatever they have early-mid game, draw a card untap and draw yet another! This puts you in range for Cryptic command, Electrolyze, Snapcaster, and sweepers to do there thing instead of playing catch up.

What about Annul? Seemed like it was good in the Resto decks, can stop an accelerated blood moon on the draw. A powerful sideboard card I want to try is Night of Souls' Betrayal. This locks out infect and affinity pretty well, even twin! I don't think you can go wrong with a bit of extra multi creature kill vs swarm decks. I really want to hyper focus the board, so what are the biggest threats besides Tron and blood moon?

I definitely put Slaughter games in my SB, its just too good in this kind of stall deck vs combo (I dont have Thought sieze as they are expensive atm). Pyroclasm, Electrickery and Volcanic Fallout also seem good Vs Afinity jund and Tokens. I dont think you need 4 Timely the card doesn't necessarily win all on its own and the tokens aren't especially relevant. One play I noticed him make is that remad can set up your Izzet charm to become active even Vs tron. The beauty of this deck and what I have believed is key to control in this format is just how few dead cards there are for any match up!

The Big issue I am having is working out the MANA wowza this is why I didn't want to tackle this kind of full on 4 color mayhem. Is he running Darkslick Shores because of the thought seizes in the board? There is actually very little black in the deck.