CKL Plays (Modern) Grixis Azcanta Control

Posted on by Card Knock Life

The saga continues…

As I continue to test and develop my Grixis Azcanta Control deck, I remain impressed by its versatility.  Beyond that, what drew me to the deck in the first place was its potency against 5C Humans, a deck that I had been matched up against more than any other deck in the format.  In roughly 50 MTGO queue or league matches, I’ve battled humans six times and won every time.  I’ve kept track of my results in these matches:

This document will continue to update and may not necessarily reflect my thoughts at the time this article was written.

Updates

One of the most significant changes to the deck since my last Follow-Up Article is the inclusion of Opt in place of 4 Serum Visions.

I had never been happy with Serum Visions in the early turns because it often required me to fetch/shock before I knew exactly what I was up against.  On the play, I would be tempted to do this every time that I didn’t also have a Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push in hand only to find out that I was playing against a Burn deck that was thankful for the free damage I had done to myself.  Beyond that, hands WITH Bolt and Push made me wonder if I would regret tapping out for Visions when I soon would find out that my opponent would cast a Noble Hierarch on their first turn (one of my favorite T1 creatures to Bolt).

After seeing a few Grixis Death Shadow decks play Opt in place of Visions, it became clear that this was the correct choice here.  The trade-off of seeing fewer cards was far outweighed by the advantages that Opt provided in the following two situations.  Also, a deck with Snapcaster Mage is much happier to have an instant speed cantrip in the graveyard rather than sorcery speed when simply playing a creature and drawing a card is the right thing to do.

Deck Tech/Updates

Corey’s Grixis Azcanta Control (12/2017)

Creatures (8)
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 Gurmag Angler

Spells (28)
3 Fatal Push
4 Opt
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Thought Scour
1 Countersqual
1 Spell Snare
2 Logic Knot
3 Terminate
1 Dreadbore
3 Kolaghan’s Command
3 Cryptic Command

Enchantments (2)
2 Search for Azcanta
Lands (22)
1 Blood Crypt
3 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave

Sideboard (15)
1 Countersquall
2 Collective Brutality
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ceremonious Rejection
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Fulminator Mage
1 Damnation
1 Spell Snare
1 By Force

Grixis Azcanta vs 5C Humans

Grixis Azcanta Control vs Burn

Previous Content For Grixis Azcanta Control

Tokens?

We’re giving away tokens!  This double-sided CKL token features a 4/4 Angel (for Geist of Saint Traft or Entreat the Angels) on one side and a generic Samurai token on the other.  Original art by Roberto Rivera.

For a chance to win, simply subscribe to the Card Knock Life Youtube channel and/or follow us on our Facebook page.  That’s it!  We’ll pick one lucky winner from each spot on our next podcast in January and ship 3 copies of the token free of charge to your doorstep.

Discussion