Grixis Strategy Guide: Strengths and Weaknesses of Grixis Decks in Commander 

Lol “feed the swarm is terrible” 😂 best common from the set.

I grew up on grixis decks and always will be my favorite try color combo

I always play grixis. I play Nicol Bolas the Ravager edh, Grixis midrange in pioneer, I played grixis thermoalchemist in pauper (that was basically burn with the delvers and gurmags and some sideboards) and so on... I just love this combination and playing midrange is my style. All that to tell you this: Feed the Swarm is the most important card ever printed for Grixis. It's even in pauper so it really changed grixis in every format. Anyway guys what you said is correct the drawback is huge and hopefully we will have something better in the next years, but guys trust me, it's a GREAT thing to have Feed the Swarm even as it is. Anyway, great job as always, biggest fan!

Although Grixis has a general weakness surrounding enchantments, there are still ways to play around it. Steal enchantment can be useful, you can use stuff like fork to redirect an opponent's removal at the enchantment you want gone, pyro blast and red blast can kill blue enchantments even after they hit the board, there's also a colorless spell that just exiles a permanent ( but kind of unplayable due to the cmc). You have this in addition to a dense amount of counter magic. There are also many instances when a trouble enchantment also messes with your other opponents too. In those situations, you can just use a rift to lift it just for your turn. You may also chain of vapor something and hope your opponent will copy that to deal with a shared problem enchantment. This also gives you the option of maybe countering it after a bounce if the enchantment just cannot come back onto the board.

SO GLAD TO BE HERE RIGHT NOW, nearly 100k subs after this video was released. Love the channel! UwU

Grixis color identity is having your 800$ goodstuff deck lose because someone made a Gaddock Teeg indestructible

Marchesa, the Black Rose is my favorite commander deck 😁

Kess is my most hated deck within my group. Grixis is always a fun color combo. Great commanders and a variety of strategies. I like Sultai best but Grixis is a close second.

Hey, Opposition Agent has synergy in my Mardu Human Hatebear deck!

I am most hyped that your videos always have zero thumbs down.

12:32 I think Grixis has an, "I steal your stuff" identity. It is about making your opponents troops commit treason, reanimating your dead soldiers, and denying the opponent their resources by taking them for yourself. It is about foiling your opponents plans, and installing spies within the opponents ranks. Grixis doesn't feel like it has an identity, because it's identity is about interacting and destroying the opponent from within, through dissension. Grixis is probably the most insidiously evil of all the tri-color pairings, because it takes your strengths and uses them against you, leaving you with only your weaknesses and the crippling despair that follows.

I was at my LGS the other day and heard a guy cast a Grave Titan, and I instinctually said "ew" cause Ive been watching you guys so much.

Nicol Bolas is one step closer to being a god with thanks to Tyrite Sanctum. My favorite Grixis commander is Lord of Tesserhorn (100% nostalgia) but have yet to make something work with them. I find it interesting that certain colour wedges aren't as natural in deck building than others for me. Abzan, Jund, Mardu, Sultai I get those but as soon as I try to make a Esper, Bant, Jeskai, Grixis I am out of my element. Funny that you mention the concept that black gets more enchantment removal...the colour pie identity weeps in the corner into the shoulder of Richard Garfield who is yelling, ''You don't understand balance and how the colour identity exists. If every colour could do everything every other colour does there is no more identity and might as well not have a colour pie let alone mana.'' ;p

Hey Joe & Beezy. Thanks for the great content. This series is awesome!

ah, grixis. its bolas. and everything else doesn't matter because BOLAS *cowers in fear*

Years ago I couldn't find a Grixis commander I wanted to play. That was due to other people in the group playing different ones and I didn't want to copy them. Aside from that, none truly called to me. Nekusar was cool. Now there are so many options and I'm loving it. My top three are Kess, Inalla and Nicol Bolas, the Ravager. I have even thought of making Grixis pirates. I'm glad they gave Grixis so much love lately.

I play Jeleva (with blim as a hidden commander) and it is such a fun deck to play! Great video guys!

I dunno about Grixis. As you say, there’s so many staples that it feels wrong to play something so devoid of the player’s identity. Maybe with partners one can brew something more off-kilter? Anyway great video. Temur next?

Decent vid bois, keep it up!!

I have built a Grixis Nicol Bolas the Pirate King (Ravager) deck. every nicol bolas planeswalker I could find with as many pirates as I could stuff in a deck.

I know this is an old video, but to add to what @matthewdancz9152 said: @ 13:20 , you asked what the identity of Grixis is. This is a weird question to me, given that a complaint levied against Grixis is that there is a core 20 cards that are staples in most Grixis deck - which, you would imagine, gives the shard a defined identity. If you look at the popular commanders - Kess, Bolas, Xander, Nekusar, Marchesa, and either Obeka - you see a constant through-line: Grixis is defined by accruing value from _bending the rules of_ Magic _itself._ Whether by theft, mill, paying life, changing how the turns themselves work, etc, Grixis upends the typical and predictable patterns of the game. Instead of mana-based ramp, Grixis uses your own life, and rewards you by activating Marchesa's dethrone. Instead of playing your own big creatures, you play everyone else's. Normally your opponents _want_ to draw cards, but not against Nekusar's wheels of doom or Xander's nuking of their library (particularly alongside Sheoldred and Orcish Bowmasters). Kess lets you cast the same spell multiple times, defying the built-in limitation of instants and sorceries. Obeka allows you to play otherwise bad/limited cards by either multiplying your upkeeps or by stopping your own cards from hurting you. Heck, even Lord of Tresserhorn messes with the MTG's usual pace by actively taxing you for casting your commander - the literal thing every deck wants to do in the format! All of this wackiness is fueled and supported by constant interaction with your opponents via strong counter-magic, removal, and recursion from any graveyard. So give Grixis a chance today, and see how annoyed you can make your friend group by further complicating an already overcomplicated game!

My primary deck is a Nicol Bolas the Ravager Group Slug deck, what's a way I can make the deck more fun to play against? It's super fun for me to play but a couple of my friends aren't as thrilled

Do a top 10 best politicking deck

Nice information dude, i hope you will cover all colour combination

No synergy? *side-eyed smirk to nekusar*😏

I'm not even from the states and I understand the Bills fans beeping their horns and shooting off fireworks!! That was not out of line and it was definitely not going to far! I would love the super bowl to be the Bills against the Bucs, but sorry guys I stand with the Bucs and I just love that Brady is now playing there because everyone talks about them and I can easily watch the games and stuff like that. By the way I think you forgot to mention Nicol Bolas super friends, I'm under the impression it is a very popular deck, at least down here in Mexico City. Good luck to the Bills and my best wishes for this year to you.

Grixis is pretty much just Nekusar or Vial Smasher + blue card. I looked up the archetypes on EDHREC and wheel decks had over 2000 entries and everything else had like

Obeka does well with big creatures and attacking

Nice, I had thought about throwing together a Brute Chronologist deck so its good to understand grixis colors.

Hey, any chance we can see a guide on angels?

Next deck I'm planning on building is Obeka (reanimation/haste token/stealing), and I know about artifact ramp (I have experience from my Varina deck), but..... it hurt my SOUL to know that this shard has NO ANSWERS to enchantments.... time to pack Extra counter spells I guess (or extra steal stuff that does it for me).... PS: thank you so much for the great content, considering I'm still getting ideas, seeing an Obeka from you guys would be a godsent XD.... Thanks guys

I think not having a clear cut identity is the point. Blue involves a lot of shapelessness and fluid, free-form imagery (think Orvar), Black involves a lot of deception and lying (think Valki), and Red involves a lot of chaos and unpredictability (think Zurzoth). Add shapelessness, deception, and chaos together and you get something that can't be strictly defined. Compare this to the colors it lacks, Green and White. Both colors together want to establish themselves as not only an open and welcoming community, but a public prescence that demands people respect it's power and authority when challenged (think March of the Multitudes).

In cedh where we dont win by combat dmg mostly we use dmg to denai recources, black uses life as a recourse so it is a comon understanding to hit the player playing black to reduce the power of necropotence and ad naseum, you could use the same tought line against grixis

I made a nicol bolas goblins for a lot of creatures and the two colors gods from aminket and Greek god plain

Great theme.

I like grixis mill, grixis goblins, grixis wizards(4) different decks, grixis taking turns, grixis burn, wish I grixis had a viable life gain option but it only black. Also grixis vampire is the worst tribe in grixis worse then minotaurs. Grixis minotaur is an option. After kaldhiem grixis dwarfs the options are almost endless. Also of your not playing five color slivers grixis slivers is next best sliver deck.

Aye #BillsMafia let’s gooooo! And we need more Bolas talk on this channel

A whopping 10 cards meet the criteria of “not grixis” and include the text “counter target spell” (although often with caveats) on scryfall.

Grixis Identity is Wizards for Inala, Spell slinger storm for kess and lots of stealing and copying with bolos.

I probably miscounted somewhere, but it looks like 33 counterspells can't be played in grixis, now some of these are super situational, (Counter Target Enchantment etc.) but they do target something on the stack and counter it, rather than give a thing Hexproof (Hunters Guile doesn't count) or Exile the stack (Glorious End was not considered)

Grixis' most common mix is Dimir and Izzet. These are 2 combos of colors that have hate spells and remote damage colors. Discard is a common theme and a good one for Grixis.

So I'm 8 months watching this and I do agree the blue and red make it gear more towards spells but I'm building partners to be a grixis creature deck with spells being for value, draw and control. Stuffs like consuming aberration, some eldrazi(reanimated), dragons, goblins, clones, etc.

My only grixis deck is ... Crosis. I prefer to run commanders not specifically made for commander/brawl but rather creatures I like.

I mostly agree with your assessment that Grixis is sort of devoid of a central identity, you guys mentioned graveyard synergy and I agree but If I had to pinpoint the core "strategy" of Grixis commanders I'd say it's taking advantage of or "breaking" unearth type, recursion/token copy effects. Inala wants to do this (to keep the wizard token copies) Sedris wants to do this to keep the unearth creatures from graveyards, and of course Obeka wants to do this (sundial all the things!) That's my assessment anyway, but could be way off. And there's not really a "catchword" or "catchphrase" for this "cheating token/unearth creature value" thing that Grixis seems to like that i know of? I'd love to see more of this as wizards continues to explore design space and really fleshes out some of the stranger wedge/shard pairings that still don't have a clear identity.

I like to use Grixis as Izzet+ I can use all the izzet stuff plus the black staples to help with various things. Anhelo, the Painter kinda facilitates this concept, but it works well

Do this for dihada in oathbreaker.

Aura thief is soooo good for enchantment hate in marchesa

Do you have a Guide for Jund too?

Sedris and Obeka - Unearth

if you wanna start somewhere that i think grixis does well, i really, really like my jeleva spellslinger deck and i never see anyone else with one. it even skirts the grixis artifact ramp issue by synergizing absurdly well with oblivion sower. i don't think that means grixis=spellslingers, but it's a great way to play grixis without relying on too many staples. i don't know that there's any other commander that actually wants cards like din of the fireherd and curse of the cabal. jeleva rules.

Noise pollution is a type of a disturbing the peace and I'm pretty sure you can be fined for stuff like that at least here in Canada . there is usually warnings issued but after multiple infractions your fined

Recoil has been around for 20ish years and it's definitely better in most circumstances than Feed the Swarm for Grixis. Does this Bills talk mean you guys are from Western NY?

Best cedh color combo

Grixis CAN actually have good token generation with creatures that make tokens when you cast a sorcery or instants like young pyromancer. With storm (viable since you have blue red) you can easily swarm the field with tokens or mana with Phyrexian altar for more spell storm. A few hundred tokens with one spell is possible if you know to bullshit storm.

I think you guys card evaluation is kinda harsh bc momo black is most know for it ability to destroy creatures and before feed the swarm i ask what enchantment removal were you playing before in mono black meteor golem but do admit it would be way better if it were instant and if ur in a deck with any combination of black there are better options.

Sooo.... what's in the do not open box?

Close guys! According to scryfall there are 19 cards that can counter that are not in grixis, and most of those are extremely narrow

yo but yuriko is a pretty dope dimir commander

Obeka sneak attack is fun

I am working on Admiral becket brass treasures, winning with revel in riches,

Now we know what grix is!

Im just here for the pirates

Its not me but it has to be done for the memes "Sonic Wallet!"

Wooo! Pirates!

Yoooooo..... I'm subscribed your welcome

You need a promo for ppl buying cards on the app

Only way to play grixis is wizard tribal the rest don't count :😁

Grixis may not have efficient Enchantment removal, but it does have counter spells 😏

I think grixis is good at just taking/ copying peoples stuff and keeping it. It’s not direct for all of the commanders but that’s basically what you can do with all of them. It’s like if changeling was a deck type instead of a creature type. Half of the grixis commanders could all go in a deck together and be fine. They’ll just be doing their own thing but it will pretty much work with the same strategy.

Not knowing what grixis does is what grixis does best.

Rhaaagh and Aaarh or in English: Nekusar and Pirates.

If I had to give grixis a basic play type, Itd be spell slinger

Core fan baybeeeee Also commenting because I’m an even bigger BOLAS FAN BAYBEEEEE love me some grixis my edh Bolas deck is all foil lol

PIRATES DAMN IT!

what food is the most grixis?

I'm making Sedris the traitor king. It's going to be party steal. To be completely honest, it's surprising how similar now and days cards can work together In grixis.

going to buy new grixis precon in new capenna,put on it all nicol fucking bolas and have much fun

I've bought a few hundred dollars worth of cards this week and used your affiliate link each time. But I don't feel like your name was in the url at checkout. If you don't get a decent bump next time I'll know something is wrong with it

howdy yall

My play group has been getting into playing some original commanders (so the elder dragons but their retrained forms). Ive always loved bolas but he is kinda poopy compared to the newer grixis commanders

Me with a Crosis deck

Strengths pirates Weaknesses ramp

grixs has not many creatures... looking at my nicol bolas dragon tribal xD

Omg bolas lover? For Brazilian viewers that's the funny shit ever xD

Grixis Zombies....let that sink in.

Please...do for my lovely weak mardu... I need so much feedback I can't find 😭

Grixis Stengths: Blue and Black Grixis Weaknesses: Red

Grixis is pure control it's gonna be burned discarded sacrificed bounced if I have my way I will take it from you or I'll make sure to copy it so you don't have the upper hand

Fine! I subscribed! Now leave me alone!

I play nicole bolas then another and another....

Grixis identity is telling the opposition no. Red destroy artifact and raw damage, blue counter and tapping/stealing creatures and spells etc, black destroy and discard and life steal its all about manipulation of the opponent. Read books on dark triad traits to understand grixis best

If I did math right. I count 11.

Grixis is the color combo of imbalance and dishonesty. Look at their haymakers. Their identity with their combos are always something that manipulates the rules often at instant speed. At least that's how I see it. Every notable grixis commander cheats on something or is always up on advantage.

Imma comment now while you guys can still read all of them and you’re not buried in subs yet :) Cool video, like your stuff as always 👍

feast of the swarm sucks because grixis is great! if you can't steal a bit of life, don't play black. you'd run necropotence, grim tutor, vampiric tutor, mystic tutor .... to get a chaoswarp anyway... and maybe twice with Kess grixis is stuck using rocks because grixis is great! you steal, counter, and destroy ramp and the things ramp plays. including enchantments. and our decks are allegedly broken spells and broken static dudes so why fear aura shards? we want your aura shards!

People who thumbed down were late to the "cho cho train" 🛤️

Pretty sure noise pollution is just excess noise that is harmful to people or animals like how airplanes can actually damage your hearing

s....s...SONIC WALLET

*FIRST ALPHA MALE*

Never ever say “Bolas lover” to a spanish speaker.