Grixis Not – Waste Away your Hopes



Reminder: I’m not english or such, so grammatical errors are not my fault (well, yes they obviously are...)

What’s all About
Grixis Not is a deck built around one of the most powerful yet useless enchanment ever printed: Waste Not. The idea came from the Waste Not Storm, a deck focused on ending the game with Grapeshot supported by Pyromancer Ascension. Good but too unstable: not having Waste Not means your inexorable defeat, aggro decks don’t enhance your draw engine making storm count low and suffers from spot removals (aka Abrupt Decay). But the concept offers so much potential, so I managed to raise its power level adding some sinergies and making it a combo deck.

The List
This is the list I’m currently playing.

Artifacts [4]
4x Prophetic Prism

Creatures [7]
4x Simian Spirit Guide
3x Snapcaster Mage

Enchantments [8]
4x Liliana’s Caress
4x Waste Not

Instants [8]
4x Dream Salvage
4x Manamorphose

Sorceries [15]
4x Burning Inquiry
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Raven’s Crime
2x Reforge the Soul
4x Wistful Thinking

Lands [18]
4x Blackcleave Cliffs
2x Blood Crypt
2x Darkslick Shores
1x Island
1x Mountain
4x Scalding tarn
2x Steam Vents
2x Watery Grave

Side [15]
4x Pyroclasm
1x Ricochet Trap
3x Spellskite
3x Spell Snare
4x Thoughtseize

Main Strategy
Kill the opponent before he/she does. This is a fast deck with explosive openings that can win the game on turn 3. It’s not a combo, so is not totally sure to achieve the game, but the massive discards and the multiple effects of Waste Not are a huge help in quite all matches. Waste Not can transform the match in a zombie apocalypse or assure you to draw Liliana’s Caress and do lethal damage usimg a massive ammount of resources in terms of mana and hand draw. When it starts to stack multiple effect, the deck will become more and more solid and capable to create an enormous advantage allowing you to chain multiple spells in sequence. It can also win without this pseudo-storm trick (and even without much trouble).

Card’s Explanation
I’m sure this may be a little confusing, seeing these piles of junky, strange and unplayable cards. Let begin a proper explanation.

4x Prophetic Prism: Its role is fixing the black mana produce by Waste Not. No one woul be happy to see tons and tons of black mana and no cards to play (with full hand obviously). Also is a draw engine.
4x Simian Spirit Guide: Allow us to set our favorite enchantment on turn 1. Nice trick when you have only black mana and with Manamorphose.
3x Snapcaster Mage: Oh, I already used that Burning Inquiry, how can I win now?
4x Liliana’s Caress: Despite the deck name’s references, this is our main finisher. Transform each Burning Inquiry in a double copied, non “misdirectable” Lightning Bolt.
4x Waste Not: Oh, yes. The core is here. The incredible ammount of discard engines fist perfectly with the multiple effects allowing to replicate them multiple times (and continue storming over time). Makes chumpblockers, insane drawings and generate mana, but we gladly see this before Liliana’s Caress.
4x Dream Salvage:Treasure Cruise anyone?
4x Manamorphose: Mana fixer and draw engine. What else (like Nespre**o)?
4x Burning Inquiry: Randomly hitting for 3 cards? After the draw? Even with an empty-handed opponent? Only one red mana? This is insane. With Waste Not and a little luck we can attenuate our drawback. The random thing is very good, in fact it’s strictly better than opponent’s choice.
4x Inquisition of Kozilek: Switchable with Thoughtseize in the side if the meta need them.
1x Raven’s Crime: We drew a bunch of useless lands? Good. Also is not affected by self discard.
2x Reforge the Soul: Solve the game at topdeck. Literally. I won quite all the matches after resolving this (or at worst I restart playing magic).
4x Wistful Thinking: Best mass discard, perfect when the opponent has only two cards in hand. Not doing on yourself digging for cards: it’s useless, I assure.
4x Blackcleave Cliffs & 2x Darkslick Shores: Lots of fastland. We have to win fast, like very fast.

4x Pyroclasm: Against aggro faster than your discard effects. Afterresolving one of these, Waste Not does the rest.
1x Ricochet Trap: Little tech I like. It goes 2/1 with cards like Abrupt Decay and bouncers. It may be usen on counters, redirecting on Ricochet Trap itself.
3x Spellskite: I’m sot sure, I said we don’t like Abrupt Decay? And also a good blocker.
3x Spell Snare: Counter almost all other counters, spells that destroy enchantments, Ratchet Bombs and Engineered Explosives played with no care of consequences .
4x Thoughtseize: Add solidity versus control decks.

Final Consideration
I think this deck has great potential if well built and developed. But also great limits. Leyline of Sanctity almost nullifies our efforts, aggro decks are very rough to go against on G1 and spot removals (like… ah, I know you've thought about it !) possibly stops our play. I thought on adding a 4th color to add artifact and enchantment removals, but I’m not sure. Red and black are essentials to our strategy, and blue has a heavy impact, so may a Jund list will appear? Or Mardu? Unfortunately I haven’t tested the Grixis Not in a tournament, only with friends. And university makes my time runs out faster than this combo.

Hope you found this deck interesting, I’m here for suggestion, other explanations etc.
And to undergo english sessions.