Historic 101: Bolas' Intimation
Nicol Bolas may be in the Prison Realm but he's alive and thriving in our hearts so I made the last video of 2020 about our favorite elder dragon! We jammed some Grixis Control and we got some fun cards in the deck to go with our elder dragon...
Gameplan
We're a tap out control deck that hopes to disrupt our opponents early as we try to find our footing. By being a "tap out" control deck, we don't rely heavily on cards like Sinister Sabotage or other permission spells. Instead, we try to keep the board and our opponent's hand empty. The best way to go about that is to use everybody's favorite spell, Thoughtseize and Thought Erasure. Since we pack a ton of discard spells, I'm not a fan of packing counterspells as our topdeck wars become extremely weak. Otherwise, the counters we do have are in our sideboard. We're also loaded to the brim with spot removal and we have a diverse suite of sweepers for all types of match ups. These cards should help us clear the path for Nicol Bolas!
Our main win conditions will be none other than Nicol Bolas, the Ravager and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God. Two cards that are powerful but extremely fair in terms of historic. In the event these cards are taken out, we also have a few other singletons for wincons like Ashiok, Nightmare Muse and Torrential Gearhulk. There's debate to put Shark Typhoon in the deck, which I agree with. You know what Shark Typhoon doesn't do though??? Get back our Dragon God or give our Dragon God another loyalty counter...
Okay, Dark Intimations is nowhere near Shark Typhoon levels of good but it is a sweet card oozing with flavor. I loved playing Cruel Control in Modern but without Cruel Ultimatum in Historic, I'll turn to the ultimatum's extremely distant relative that is fun to cast and probably won't win you the game. However, we don't need wins when we've got flavor! Plus, the card could pull us out of spots against Carnage Tyrant and indestructible threats while refueling our hand!
Conclusion
I think Grixis Control has a place somewhere in the tier 2 decks of Historic but it's just too much fun not to play. We don't have any matchups where we're really favored and we'll have to grind out all of our wins. This playstyle is fun for me as I also played Faeries in Modern. Our worst matchup might be Sultai Midrange as Narset, Parter of Veils is our only clean answer to cards like Hydroid Krasis. However, it's hard to keep up with the value that is Simic with Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Nissa, Who Shakes the World. I do believe that our matchups outside of Sultai aren't that bad otherwise. If you're a fan of Grixis, stay strong friends! Our time will come when we rule the meta! Until then, back to the drawing board.
Cheers to all my supporters and I hope your new year goes well!
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-Your Friendly Neighborhood PirateAvenger
Twitter: @TheAsianAvenger || Twitch: twitch.tv/TheAsianAvenger || Email: theasianavenger@mtggoldfish.com
