Greedy No-Green

I was looking for a new deck to play in Modern, something that played a strong mid-range control plan. There are plenty of good options available right now, but I've never been much for following the top decks. I don't play enough serious magic to want a top tier deck. I love esper, I love grixis, and I was at a loss for what to play. I could go with a stock Grixis Death's Shadow or control deck, or I could homebrew some pile with esper cards. Or I could home brew a pile with the best of both combinations! It started as a fun project, but now it seems to actually have some promise. Just play the best non-green cards in a mid-range control deck, add some spice, and see what happens! I will be taking this to a moderately sized tournament in a couple weeks, hoping to have fun and steal some wins.

3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Geist of Saint Traft
2x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Vendilion Clique

4x Serum Visions
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Fatal Push
1x Terminate
2x Remand
2x Spell Snare
2x Kolaghen's Command
2x Esper Charm
3x Lingering Souls
1x Ajani Vengeant
1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Sphinx's Revelation

2x Spirebluff Canal
1x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Seachrome Coast
2x Flooded Strand
2x Scalding Tarn
1x Polluted Delta
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Arid Mesa
1x Watery Grave
1x Steam Vents
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Godless Shrine
1x Blood Crypt
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x shambling vent
1x Island
1x Swamp

Sideboard
2x Meddling Mage
2x Stony Silence
1x Detention Sphere
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Blessed Alliance
1x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Anger of the Gods
2x Path to Exile


Am I crazy? YES. Is this a fun pile of shit? YES!!! Hardest part is nailing down the mana-base. I wonder if I should just stuff in more fast-lands, use a few buddy lands, not sure. Against Blood Moon I laugh, play my one bolt in hand, and move on to game 2. I honestly wonder if I should have any basics at all...

So please, any thoughts are welcome! If I'm missing a card, using a sub-optimal choice, or if you think it's just too greedy on the mana, let me know! More than anything I'd like feedback. My goal is simple: play the best card advantage I can in these colors and try to bridge the gap between esper and grixis.

If nothing else, drop a nice joke in here. I love jokes.

For a deck that seems like it wants to go late game you're spreading yourself really thin on true control. Lightning Bolt + Fatal Push + Kolagan can take out smaller creatures, so you've got the fast aggro decks covered pre-board, but in terms of anything else it looks like you're going to have a hard time. 3 Inquisition + 2 Remand are your only real hopes of slowing down non-creature decks, and that's only 5 cards with a lot of weaknesses themselves. If you want to go the hand hate route I'd use Thoughtseize in addition to Inquisition. In my 4 color gifts deck I use a 4 TS + 2 Inquisition split since I have abrupt decays to cover for me against resolved fast creatures but nothing against Tron/Eldrazi fatties or whatever bomb win condition people are playing (same boat as you). If those are all the slots you can devote to hand hate or counterspells, just focus on one of them. I use remands in 4c gifts but I think it's much better there since delaying 1 turn can give me an Iona to seal the deal, whereas in this deck you're going for extreme grind and Remand seems worse; one turn gives you almost nothing.

Esper Charm is way too greedy and not good enough for 4 color. I know it doubles as discard, but you're going to use it to draw over 90% of the time anyway, so you might want to just go with some better forms of draw or discard that don't require perfect mana. I'm a big fan of Collective Brutality in decks that discarding can offer any benefit at all to, and you have Snap + Lingering Souls so you have a good reason to run them already. It doesn't draw cards but it hits every deck at least a little, and gives you some life gain options if you decide to use Thoughtseize (small but surprisingly relevant). I would also consider cantrips in this slot since even though you're not digging for a combo or anything, Sleight of Hand and its ilk will smooth your mana and draws, which is going to be a big part of getting to play the cards you want to.

Your 2 planeswalkers seem weird and don't offer a whole lot of synergy. Sorin is fine since he gives you tokens and life gain options, but Ajani really seems out of place. Not only are you trying to hit grixis colors first with blue/black being the most important lands to fetch early making him difficult to drop by turn 4, you can't really capitalize on the tap down effect well enough to make him worth it.

Don't run things like Eiganjo Castle, it's way to cute to be playing an off color utility land in a 4 color deck, especially a non-green 4 color deck since green gives added fixing options.

Sideboard I would consider RiP and taking out Tasigur + snapcaster. It's a huge beating against a lot of decks right now and you can adapt to graveyardless strategies better than Grixis DS can.

Nice, thanks! I'll drop the Ajani straight away, no problem. I think the natural card to go in is Supreme Verdict, which can affect the board in a big way against bigger threats.

Eiganjo is gone, I'll slot in another Blackcleave cliffs, or a Darkslick shores, or even another fetchland.


EDIT


+1 Inquisition of Kozilek
+2 Supreme Verdict
+1 fetch
+2 Path maindeck
+2 Thoughtsieze


-1 Ajani
-1 eiganjo
-2 Esper Charm
-2 Remand
-2 Fatal Push

I figure in this case, Path is better than Fatal Push, and I have terminate/bolt (5 copies between the 2) to deal with early creatures. Path deals with bigger ones, along with Verdict. Esper Charm is gone, PW's gone, and the only counterspell in there now is Spell Snare maindeck and Negate sideboard (I have room now!)

Thanks again for the feedback. Will try to somehow attain/work in Brutality soon. Card is awesome.

EDIT #2

Meddling Mage and Fulminator in the board are for eldrazi/tron decks, but I understand where you're coming from. Lots of improvements can happen maindeck before I get to sideboarding.

What about electrolyze in the esper charm slots?

Electrolyze is always a decent card but I think it is another card that's good at shutting down small creatures and not good at handling the bigger decks in late game. If you really want to make the deck its namesake, try a couple Cryptic Commands. That card does it all, but you might want to make sure you're running mostly blue duals.

Good thoughts. In testing I've noticed a massive amount of lifeloss from lands, just staggering. Maybe I built the mana-base incorrectly, but I think without any sort of powerful lifegain option (that comes along with an already powerful effect) I don't think this is viable at all, honestly. Four color gifts has haymaker plays that make the late game amazing (Rites/Iona/Elesh, control piles.) This deck...plays a Snapcaster into Kolaghan's Command? Meh.

I'll keep tinkering with it, but there are a couple cards it needs: 2-4 Collective Brutality, simply for the versatility and the life gain, possibly Helix's, and maybe something with lifelink (like Soulfire Grandmaster or Seeker of the Way, just a couple examples.) I also felt that it needed a dragon-like creature at the top end of the curve, maybe Thundermaw Hellkite, or a planeswalker that could take over the game. Cruel Ultimatum would also be fairly decent, but getting to that point is just really hard. Officially resigned to a side project. Thanks for the great feedback! I value your feedback on modern highly, it seems like you're always on top of the format.