Some questions on your list:
No charge lands? Any reason to omitted to run storage lands?
How was Downfall? I have yet to test it curious if it is good.
Have you tested Ashiok or Elspeth 3 in the board?
Do you prefer WSZ over another Revelation or a Planeswalker to finish the game?
Why Geist in the board over Lingering Souls?
Most lists run 25-26 lands this includes lands like Dreadship Reef, you can't afford to miss your land drops.
Terminate is okay, but in black alone Smother hits most of what you want to terminate (Wurmcoil I do not want to terminate), Electrolyze and Bolt are great, but there are other options for cheap efficient removal.
I am not arguing that Bolt and Electrolyze are good just that it does not seem like enough justification for a grixis deck.
As for Ashiok, it is very good when protected are dropped early, but more than 2 seems like to much
I would not extrapolate to much data from this GP it was relatively small in terms of attendance and despite 3 BG/x decks in the top 8 the top 16 had a decent amount of variety, but as I commented it is easier to meta the field when it is smaller
Izzetmage elves can win on turn 2 now, but it almost never happens and you are still incredibly weak to removal and sweepers, Glimpse seems fine the only hands it breaks are ones that can win early anyway aka nettle ×2 draw with ways to tutor for druid
Do you have a decklist that uses ThopterSword that is any good in Modern?
I am not disputing that it could be unbanned, my testing indicates that its a lot closer to the grave-troll-do-nothing than many people think. I'd love to see a ThopterSword deck that has reasonable matchups vs Jund/Pod/Tron.
Not at the moment I have a tezzeret shell that runs foundry for value atm
There are some heavy advantages to UW over UWR, other than a slightly more consistent manabase, you can utilize a lot more color dense cards and can afford to run more value creatures like Wall Of Omens.
Yes you lose bolt, but the gains are present as well, you also get better vs Blood Moon decks and Tec Edge rarely can color screw you.
Thopter Sword powers up Tezz based control mainly if they wanted to diversify control it is a perfect unban
Modern needs more shells to increase in power level mainly, as many have said the b/g shell has no real single weakness that a banning would help with. Just increase other shells like Boros, Azorius, etc in power level to compete with b/g
This list is a bit out of date, but this is pretty much what I've found to work. Also the sideboard is way out of date. Ignore it.
If you (or anyone) tries this list, I suggest:
Shave an Elspeth for a Gideon. Treetop tramples her and UWR has too many fliers.
Shave an Azorius Signet. Abrupt Decay is too ubiquitous.
More Azorius Charms. That card is insanely good.
I have been testing UW recently using Andrew Cuneo's UW list (modified slightly), similar to yours main differences:
Karn over Batterskull
Pristine Talisman over Signets (surprisingly the life gain aspect is extremely relevant)
3 Think Twice and one Shadow, no Charms nor main Negates (I admit charm I want to test)
Only 2 Paths and added a dismember
No D Sphere, playing 2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Leaks, 2 Remands
Jace, AoT going to test Elspeth 3
I recommend Pristine Talisman it edges out a good number of MUs (oddly) and has over performed for me a lot
Not a fan of Crucible in the board? It edges the Tron MU a bit since well no sowing salts or LD
There are few ways to abuse Visions in Modern outside of suspend, the cascade spells available to cast it are nearly good enough, the closest may be Ardent Plea and in a control deck I really don't want to be spending 3 mana to concentrate on my own turn
Nykthos is fringe playable if you need either a budget sanctum or a sanctum that adds G over W
Spear is great if you want removal and don't want to delve outside of GW, the anthem effect can do something if you are running Humility
Commune With The Gods is okay in heavier Replenish focus builds it digs and fills up the GY
Bow fits the same niche role of the Spear if your meta is infested with Delver decks Bow should be fine in the sideboard as other than the counter it is good vs Delver
Heliod and the other Enchantment creatures just seem unplayable, but I may test Archon a 4/4 flying lifelinker with shroud is nice
So please, can you elaborate why such hideous card did not make the GBx shell dominant between the BBE ban and the Ooze print?
Because after BBE ban, DRS was still active and GBx did nothing expressive until Ooze joined the party.
Some questions on your list:
No charge lands? Any reason to omitted to run storage lands?
How was Downfall? I have yet to test it curious if it is good.
Have you tested Ashiok or Elspeth 3 in the board?
Do you prefer WSZ over another Revelation or a Planeswalker to finish the game?
Why Geist in the board over Lingering Souls?
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/carlosgutierrez-legacy-modern-standard-commander-08312013-decks-you-cant-miss-this-week/
Lingering Souls is insane, but I would not run it main
Terminate is okay, but in black alone Smother hits most of what you want to terminate (Wurmcoil I do not want to terminate), Electrolyze and Bolt are great, but there are other options for cheap efficient removal.
I am not arguing that Bolt and Electrolyze are good just that it does not seem like enough justification for a grixis deck.
As for Ashiok, it is very good when protected are dropped early, but more than 2 seems like to much
Is there any reason you are running Red over White or Green? Other than burn you're not running a card like Cruel to put you ahead
Also have you tried Steam Augury?
Lavaclaw Reaches can end the game quite quickly despite not having evasion
Not at the moment I have a tezzeret shell that runs foundry for value atm
Yes you lose bolt, but the gains are present as well, you also get better vs Blood Moon decks and Tec Edge rarely can color screw you.
Modern needs more shells to increase in power level mainly, as many have said the b/g shell has no real single weakness that a banning would help with. Just increase other shells like Boros, Azorius, etc in power level to compete with b/g
I have been testing UW recently using Andrew Cuneo's UW list (modified slightly), similar to yours main differences:
Karn over Batterskull
Pristine Talisman over Signets (surprisingly the life gain aspect is extremely relevant)
3 Think Twice and one Shadow, no Charms nor main Negates (I admit charm I want to test)
Only 2 Paths and added a dismember
No D Sphere, playing 2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Leaks, 2 Remands
Jace, AoT going to test Elspeth 3
I recommend Pristine Talisman it edges out a good number of MUs (oddly) and has over performed for me a lot
Not a fan of Crucible in the board? It edges the Tron MU a bit since well no sowing salts or LD
From there if you have blasting station and Emrakul in your deck you can just 4 Horsemen the game
Nykthos is fringe playable if you need either a budget sanctum or a sanctum that adds G over W
Spear is great if you want removal and don't want to delve outside of GW, the anthem effect can do something if you are running Humility
Commune With The Gods is okay in heavier Replenish focus builds it digs and fills up the GY
Bow fits the same niche role of the Spear if your meta is infested with Delver decks Bow should be fine in the sideboard as other than the counter it is good vs Delver
Heliod and the other Enchantment creatures just seem unplayable, but I may test Archon a 4/4 flying lifelinker with shroud is nice
So anyone tried compulsive research in no post builds seems good after to dig for gargadon and threats
Incorrect
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpsd13/welcome