Hey everyone, welcome to the first in a new series of articles exploring a subject very close to my heart—unexpected decks built to break metagames and surprise your opponent.

Every week I’ll showcase an exciting and quirky deck that has performed well in a recent event,explore why it was able to put up such great results, and highlight why it might be a great choice for your next local tournament.

So without further ado, for your consideration, I submit Cruel Control.

Pilot: Matblues87

Event: MTGO Modern Daily 2nd June 2015

Record: 4-0

First thoughts

Do you know what feels better than resolving a Cruel Ultimatum? No, you don’t, because the answer is nothing. Nothing feels better than resolving a Cruel Ultimatum. When I imagine casting this card, I picture myself dropping it onto the table from a great height and shooting my opponent a cheeky wink as they sit with their jaw agape, reeling in awe of its dense text and prohibitive casting cost.

In a format full of small, often unexceptional spells designed to grind out incremental advantage, I want to be the guy in the room tapping 7 to cast this.

But let’s not get too caught up in the deck’s namesake powerhouse spell. Here we have a slightly different form of Grixis shell—one which does away with Delvers, Snapcasters, and Splinter Twins in favour of a spell-heavy late game advantage engine.

This isn’t a tempo deck like so many of the others it shares colours with, it’s control deck to its core. Lure them in, counter their spells, kill their creatures, and laugh in their face as you resolve an impossibly huge game ending ultimatum—simple and oh so effective.

Things I like

4 Terminate: It takes some serious bravery to go into a modern tournament today without a reliable way to kill Tasigurs, and if you have access to the colours, terminate is one of the best tools for the job.

2 Tasigur: I like having Tasigurs almost as much as I like killing Tasigurs. The card is just extremely powerful. If you can play it, you probably should.

2 Cruel Ultimatum: Obviously. This card is a vision of beauty. Cast spell, end game.

1 Consume the Meek: I really don’t think creature-heavy decks are playing around an end step board wipe at the moment. Punish them and make them think twice before overextending again.

Things I’d like to see

1 Damnation: Perhaps I’m being overzealous as the deck has access to great spot removal, but I’d probably want access to another sweeper here. Damnation feels like the right fit as an extra “1-of”.

2 Snapcaster Mage: I think the decision to exclude Snapcaster was probably made for 2 reasons: he will get caught up in sweep effects, and he costs a lot of money. Still, I think there is a clear case for playing 2 here. You have so many powerful spells, why would you not want to recur them?

2 Creeping Tar Pit: Again, probably a budgetary constraint, but I think I’d rather be playing Creeping Tar Pit over Lavaclaw Reaches as the “man-lands” of choice in this deck.

Is the deck right for you?

If you’re a control player looking to break into modern, this is one of the most accessible and budget-friendly decks to do it with. The deck also has the added benefit of being comprised of many essential modern staples.

Your Grixis-coloured land base will help you easily transition into tier-1 decks such as Delver and Splinter Twin, and key cards such as Mana Leak, Electrolyze and Tasigur will fit nicely into those decks too. This deck is something of a “low risk” investment.

If you’re already a modern player, this deck might be right for you if you love casting giant spells and hearing your opponent say “hold on, can I just read that a second?” It’s a different take on control, and while the principles remain the same, slightly less conventional card choices open up some great opportunities to have fun and catch your opponent off-guard.

If you do decide to sleeve the deck up and see how it does, let me know how it went! You can reach me any time over on Twitter at @TTSkuax.