It's sometimes hard to get to 6 lands so you can Snapcaster Mage + Cryptic Command in the 22 land grixis deck. So yeah, if you wanna cast Cruel in a Delve shell, you need 24 lands.
It's a hard to deal with permanent vs. control and give you recurring blockers against anything not named Blighted Agent vs. Infect, forcing them into a position where they have to play more spells a turn so that they can kill you, leaving them open to Terminate etc.
I've begun testing Chapin's list and it's very refined. I'm under the impression that it's the best Cryptic Command deck in the format as Command can both keep the board clear or tap dudes down to help push through zombie fish damage.
The SB of his list is excellent and very developed for a Jund/Tron/Twin meta.
No Cruel Ultimatums though. 7cmc Sorceries are a bit antiquated and inefficient when you can die on turn 2 in this format.
This is my current list. Been having success with it on Cockatrice, but I still feel like there is plenty to tweak. I would like to maybe play a second spell snare. Not totally sold on Keranos in the main. Izzet charm has been pretty good, though. How are you guys trying to beat burn?
The deck isn't great vs. burn. At least compared to UWR control. Negate, Dispel, and the like are your friends and you can play Dragon's Claw (which you have), Sun Droplet, or even weird stuff like Palace Siege to try and gain life. I've tried Murk Lurker but it's just a tad too mana intensive. I personally think you have a pretty good sideboard and I wouldn't change much but, if you're having trouble with the deck, you could even try stuff like Augur of Bolas. He's not incredible but he does provide some amount of a road block for cards like Goblin Guide. Monastery Siege is a tad weak for my preference (it really just slows them down, it's sort of like a Rule of Law against burn) but people here seem to think it's ok. Idk, I haven't played much with it.
Keep in mind that you only have 14 R sources for Anger of the Gods, so it's not a sure thing t3 postboard.
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Soul Ransom is going to be a 4 cmc Mind Rot 80-90% of the time. When it works, you'll remember it as the best card in your deck. However, most of the time you're going to be better served just playing another Terminate or something. You can play Sower of Temptation for the same cost as well. Or, heck, just play Bribery.
Minor changes to the 75. Blood Moon post board is a really good strategy, especially if you can hide the light splash. Because my list isn't "stock" you can have "gotcha" situations -- which is cute at worst.
Disruption, Damnation, and Ashiok is a very good gameplan against decks like Abzan and Jund. You stick him/her they the need a Abrupt Decay or Pulse in 1-2 turns. Otherwise you slam a Rhino or Courser and start generating advantage and their life starts to suck.
Tron still sucks. Clever Impersonator does work, but I definitely don't want more than one in the board, it just doesn't do enough.
I'm at 16 B sources which is OK. Victim hits most relevant things. Olivia is a foreseeable problem but I feel like my MU is good enough there.
9 R sources postboard isn't ideal, but it's probably not the worst. I could cut a Darkslick Shores and up a Scalding Tarn to get myself to 10, but that impacts the aggro MU since Darkslick Shores is maybe the best card against them (land being best card? that's weird).
Not having Shatterstorm is abosolutely fine. Vandalblast is nasty enough and the mana can handle it.
I completely forgot about Rakdos Charm. Cross applicability is always great and having outs to the random Dredgevine decks is nothing to sneeze at. Those MUs are nightmares.
Given that everyone and their mother is incorporating Blood Moon into their control/aggro/midrange decks, being resilient to them has been great. Would not complain.
____________________________________
I played UWR control in modern for a long-time. After a while, I gave up after a few too many t1 Powerplants sitting across from me round 1. I then finally branched out and started playing other strategies like Twin and Scapeshift. If those decks taught me anything, it's that pressure is one of the most important parts of running a control deck in modern. You can durdle into Cruel if you want but then sometimes you have to back it up with countermagic and then sometimes you don't even win when you resolve it. It's not often that you don't win when you resolve it, but weird stuff can happen. That's basically why I'm running so many walkers. They generate value when you play them and then they present a clock. If you slam an Ashiok against UWR control on turn3, y'know what happens? They start doing stupid stuff like trying to ambush it with Snapcasters and throwing multiple bolts in it's face. It they don't, they will lose the game when you ultimate her. Combo decks, as well, can't really handle walkers. If you have a bit of early disruption you can start pressuring w/ ultimates and hopefully ride a walker to victory. Whereas with other control decks you're stuck trying to burn them out, sticking an early walker and riding it out for the last couple turns lets you play a tempo game, which is necessary to take out these "inevitability combo" decks.
Anyway, this is the reasoning behind my list. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Slam the Blood Moon and watch your opponent scramble. Force them to answer Ashiok. Force them to deal with Jace. Outside of BGx, decks don't just walk around with Hero's Downfalls, y'know? If you notice winning control lists from SCG IQs, they usually present good and cheap threats -- be they Lingering Souls, Gideon, or Taisugur. This is no longer a format where you can pack 4x Snapcaster and 4x Colonnades and say, "this is good enough. I have inevitability." If you say that the U Tron player will sit across from you and say, "inevitability? I've heard of such a thing. I'll play a Platinum Angel with Spell Burst with buyback on turn 8. GLHF."
Anyway, in most T2 formats, control is the "big" deck, y'know? Where nobody else is doing anything bigger. In modern, there are plenty of decks that just don't care about counterspells and have a bigger end game. So you have to play a sort of midrange w/ counterspells if you want to have any business taking down more than 50% of your games in a large tournament. There are just too many kids who sit down across from you that have no intention of playing a fair game of magic. Non-interaction is reaching saturation, between burn and then a literal slew of tier 2-3 combo decks that can get random heaters and stay in the top brackets.
Engineered Explosives is where you want to be with Boggles. It's very, very good and has cross-application. I wouldn't mess with anything else when it comes to enchantment removal. You can also play with all sorts of weird tech, depending on how deep you want to go with artifacts.
It's been a very rewarding approach. I've had a few comments here and there on the thread but I've been strictly playing this deck for some time now, and I believe in the idea of mastering a deck, I intend to master this deck.
Night of Souls' Betrayal is SB tech that you should consider. Lingering Souls can be a bummer. Plus it's fine against Affinity when they get a derp draw. If you're budgeting, think about Curse of Death's Hold.
Anyway, good luck with CC in modern. Control is pretty hard to play right now but you'll learn a lot (like how to sneak games from Tron).
It looks more like a grixis moon deck than a grixis control deck, which I don't really like but I thought I should share.
I played with this deck tonight. It's pretty powerful. It could use another land and fewer one-ofs.
If you really wanted to go deep, you can play 2-3x Gurmag Angler and run +3 Thought Scour and perhaps a Forbidden Alchemy. Vanilla 5/5s aren't, y'know, incredible but finding a median between control and Chapin's delve list might be perfectly fine.
I still think guerrilla tactics could be a solid card in the new modern format since i'm expecting just a ton of liliana decks and that really is one of our biggest weaknesses in that matchup. If anyone else has tried that card out let me know how it went.
Perhaps it's a bit cute? I think a card like Dreadbore covers a lot more of the format. I won't disagree that Guerrilla Tactics is a Liliana blow-out.
I'm probably going to be cutting Cruel Ultimatum. It's great but it's a ton of mana for an effect that doesn't always win the game (it just usually wins the game). I'll post a list in the next day or two.
The list could easily run another land and maybe another delve spell (especially if it dropped the Serum Visions and went all in on Thought Scour). It looks super cool and a direction that I want to take my lists (although with fewer creatures).
I haven't played Modern in over 6 months, but it looks like we'll have a small local here next month. Is it a given now that Serum Visions and Think Twice are not good any more? I remember playing at least a few of each before, but not builds seem to have them now.
It's a hard to deal with permanent vs. control and give you recurring blockers against anything not named Blighted Agent vs. Infect, forcing them into a position where they have to play more spells a turn so that they can kill you, leaving them open to Terminate etc.
The SB of his list is excellent and very developed for a Jund/Tron/Twin meta.
No Cruel Ultimatums though. 7cmc Sorceries are a bit antiquated and inefficient when you can die on turn 2 in this format.
I'd fit in another Spell Snare by either dropping Go For the Throat or Izzet Charm. Your call.
The deck isn't great vs. burn. At least compared to UWR control. Negate, Dispel, and the like are your friends and you can play Dragon's Claw (which you have), Sun Droplet, or even weird stuff like Palace Siege to try and gain life. I've tried Murk Lurker but it's just a tad too mana intensive. I personally think you have a pretty good sideboard and I wouldn't change much but, if you're having trouble with the deck, you could even try stuff like Augur of Bolas. He's not incredible but he does provide some amount of a road block for cards like Goblin Guide. Monastery Siege is a tad weak for my preference (it really just slows them down, it's sort of like a Rule of Law against burn) but people here seem to think it's ok. Idk, I haven't played much with it.
Keep in mind that you only have 14 R sources for Anger of the Gods, so it's not a sure thing t3 postboard.
_____________________________________________
Soul Ransom is going to be a 4 cmc Mind Rot 80-90% of the time. When it works, you'll remember it as the best card in your deck. However, most of the time you're going to be better served just playing another Terminate or something. You can play Sower of Temptation for the same cost as well. Or, heck, just play Bribery.
4x Polluted Delta
3x Scalding Tarn
2x Watery Grave
1x Steam Vents
1x Blood Crypt
2x Darkslick Shores
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Tectonic Edge
1x Academy Ruins
2x Swamp
5x Island
Creatures (8)
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Tombstalker
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Artifacts (2)
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Batterskull
Instants and Sorceries (21)
2x Mana Leak
3x Victim of Night
2x Spell Snare
3x Cryptic Command
2x Damnation
1x Thought Scour
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Serum Visions
1x Thoughtseize
1x Jace's Ingenuity
2x Slaughter Games
1x Clever Impersonator
1x Curse of Death's Hold
1x Dispel
1x Negate
1x Pearl Lake Ancient
2x Jorubai Murk Lurker
1x Vandalblast
1x Rakdos Charm
1x Vedalken Shackles
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Blood Moon
Minor changes to the 75. Blood Moon post board is a really good strategy, especially if you can hide the light splash. Because my list isn't "stock" you can have "gotcha" situations -- which is cute at worst.
Disruption, Damnation, and Ashiok is a very good gameplan against decks like Abzan and Jund. You stick him/her they the need a Abrupt Decay or Pulse in 1-2 turns. Otherwise you slam a Rhino or Courser and start generating advantage and their life starts to suck.
Tron still sucks. Clever Impersonator does work, but I definitely don't want more than one in the board, it just doesn't do enough.
I'm at 16 B sources which is OK. Victim hits most relevant things. Olivia is a foreseeable problem but I feel like my MU is good enough there.
9 R sources postboard isn't ideal, but it's probably not the worst. I could cut a Darkslick Shores and up a Scalding Tarn to get myself to 10, but that impacts the aggro MU since Darkslick Shores is maybe the best card against them (land being best card? that's weird).
Not having Shatterstorm is abosolutely fine. Vandalblast is nasty enough and the mana can handle it.
I completely forgot about Rakdos Charm. Cross applicability is always great and having outs to the random Dredgevine decks is nothing to sneeze at. Those MUs are nightmares.
Given that everyone and their mother is incorporating Blood Moon into their control/aggro/midrange decks, being resilient to them has been great. Would not complain.
____________________________________
I played UWR control in modern for a long-time. After a while, I gave up after a few too many t1 Powerplants sitting across from me round 1. I then finally branched out and started playing other strategies like Twin and Scapeshift. If those decks taught me anything, it's that pressure is one of the most important parts of running a control deck in modern. You can durdle into Cruel if you want but then sometimes you have to back it up with countermagic and then sometimes you don't even win when you resolve it. It's not often that you don't win when you resolve it, but weird stuff can happen. That's basically why I'm running so many walkers. They generate value when you play them and then they present a clock. If you slam an Ashiok against UWR control on turn3, y'know what happens? They start doing stupid stuff like trying to ambush it with Snapcasters and throwing multiple bolts in it's face. It they don't, they will lose the game when you ultimate her. Combo decks, as well, can't really handle walkers. If you have a bit of early disruption you can start pressuring w/ ultimates and hopefully ride a walker to victory. Whereas with other control decks you're stuck trying to burn them out, sticking an early walker and riding it out for the last couple turns lets you play a tempo game, which is necessary to take out these "inevitability combo" decks.
Anyway, this is the reasoning behind my list. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Slam the Blood Moon and watch your opponent scramble. Force them to answer Ashiok. Force them to deal with Jace. Outside of BGx, decks don't just walk around with Hero's Downfalls, y'know? If you notice winning control lists from SCG IQs, they usually present good and cheap threats -- be they Lingering Souls, Gideon, or Taisugur. This is no longer a format where you can pack 4x Snapcaster and 4x Colonnades and say, "this is good enough. I have inevitability." If you say that the U Tron player will sit across from you and say, "inevitability? I've heard of such a thing. I'll play a Platinum Angel with Spell Burst with buyback on turn 8. GLHF."
Anyway, in most T2 formats, control is the "big" deck, y'know? Where nobody else is doing anything bigger. In modern, there are plenty of decks that just don't care about counterspells and have a bigger end game. So you have to play a sort of midrange w/ counterspells if you want to have any business taking down more than 50% of your games in a large tournament. There are just too many kids who sit down across from you that have no intention of playing a fair game of magic. Non-interaction is reaching saturation, between burn and then a literal slew of tier 2-3 combo decks that can get random heaters and stay in the top brackets.
Ratchet Bomb is also reasonable.
Where are you getting all this excess mana to feed into a Teachings package?
Teachings is a build around card. If you want more copies of Cryptic Command or Snapcaster Mage, just run more copies of Cryptic Command or Snapcaster Mage. Teachings for Snap or CC is really mana inefficient.
4x Polluted Delta
3x Scalding Tarn
3x Watery Grave
1x Steam Vents
2x Darkslick Shores
2x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Tectonic Edge
1x Academy Ruins
2x Swamp
5x Island
Creatures (8)
4x Snapcaster Mage
1x Vendilion Clique
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Tombstalker
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Artifacts (2)
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Batterskull
Instants and Sorceries, and Artifacts (21)
2x Mana Leak
3x Victim of Night
2x Spell Snare
1x Remand
3x Cryptic Command
2x Damnation
1x Jace's Ingenuity
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Serum Visions
1x Thoughtseize
2x Slaughter Games
2x Clever Impersonator
1x Curse of Death's Hold
1x Dispel
1x Negate
1x Pearl Lake Ancient
2x Jorubai Murk Lurker
2x Vandalblast
2x Vedalken Shackles
1x Blood Moon
That's too many Cruel Ultimatum's. 2x is the high end. Also, Terminate is a fine card and better in a format with Lingering Souls than Geth's Verdict.
Night of Souls' Betrayal is SB tech that you should consider. Lingering Souls can be a bummer. Plus it's fine against Affinity when they get a derp draw. If you're budgeting, think about Curse of Death's Hold.
Anyway, good luck with CC in modern. Control is pretty hard to play right now but you'll learn a lot (like how to sneak games from Tron).
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Taisugur, the Golden Fang
1x Torrent Elemental
2x Olivia Voldaren
4x Thought Scour
4x Serum Vision
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Dreadbore
1x Forbidden Alchemy
2x Cryptic Command
2x Kolaghan's Command
2x Murderous Cut
2x Mana Leak
1x Remand
2x Spell Snare
2x Darkslick Shores
4x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Island
1x Sulfur Falls
1x Mountain
1x Swamp
1x Desolate Lighthouse
2x Watery Grave
1x Blood Crypt
1x Steam Vents
Kolaghan's Command is quite good. Possibly moving more discard main or taking out some cantrips. We'll see.
I played with this deck tonight. It's pretty powerful. It could use another land and fewer one-ofs.
If you really wanted to go deep, you can play 2-3x Gurmag Angler and run +3 Thought Scour and perhaps a Forbidden Alchemy. Vanilla 5/5s aren't, y'know, incredible but finding a median between control and Chapin's delve list might be perfectly fine.
Perhaps it's a bit cute? I think a card like Dreadbore covers a lot more of the format. I won't disagree that Guerrilla Tactics is a Liliana blow-out.
I'm probably going to be cutting Cruel Ultimatum. It's great but it's a ton of mana for an effect that doesn't always win the game (it just usually wins the game). I'll post a list in the next day or two.
Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time just got banned.
You can, and should, consider playing Think Twice and Serum Visions.