Hymn to TourachHymn to Tourach | Art by Liz Danforth

Welcome back to 60 to 100, a series where I take beloved decks from 60-card formats and convert them to Commander.

I often write about my competitive Magic origin story, which was mostly comprised of me voraciously consuming tournament coverage to get a feel for the game. My all-time favorite tournament to watch was Grand Prix Richmond, a Legacy tournament from 2018. This tournament is often referred to as GP Reid Duke, because the coverage for Grand Prix Richmond showed every match that legendary Magic player Reid Duke played. The table microphones were on, so the viewers could hear Reid and his opponent talking during each match and the commentators took a back seat. The result was magical. Everything that I know about the mechanical process of playing the game, I learned from watching and re-watching this tournament.

Because of how foundational this tournament was for my development as a Magic player, I hold a tremendous fondness for both the deck he played, Grixis() Control, and this era of Legacy as a whole. So, in this installment of 60 to 100, I'm going to take a stab revamping Reid's deck into a playable Commander deck. Let's get to the source material.

This build of Grixis comes from the tail end of what I call the two-for-one era of Magic. In this era, control decks like this one are highly card-advantage-focused. This deck wants to fend off the opponent's attempts to win the game while sitting back and building card advantage. Common play play patterns like using Kolaghan's CommandKolaghan's Command to make the opponent discard one card and get back a creature that builds card advantage, like Baleful StrixBaleful Strix and Snapcaster MageSnapcaster Mage. Once the opponent has been Hymn to TourachHymn to Tourached to death and buried in card advantage, winning the game can be accomplished with nearly anything.

Choosing a Commander

To reconstruct this Grixis Control deck in Commander, I'm going to have to pick a direction and commit to it. There are a ton of options, from a Superfriends strategy that wants to play and protect planeswalkers to simulate the experience of sitting behind a Jace, the Mind SculptorJace, the Mind Sculptor to a game plan focused around building card advantage by blinking dorky creatures, like Baleful StrixBaleful Strix or Augur of BolasAugur of Bolas.

I'm choosing to lean into the discard spells. Watching Reid go through the motions of resolving Hymn to TourachHymn to Touraches and ThoughtseizeThoughtseizes is my favorite part of GP Reid Duke, so I'm looking for a commander that enables me to run single-target discard spells, a type of card that is usually laughably bad in Commander. Thankfully, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate has just the solution: Zevlor, Elturel ExileZevlor, Elturel Exile. This Tiefling specializes in taking single-target spells that don't work very well in a Commander context and beefing them up by copying them for each opponent.

Key Cards for Grixis Control

Setting Up

The early turns with this deck follow a simple script: a turn-two ramp spell into a turn-three Zevlor, Elturel ExileZevlor, Elturel Exile (preferably protected with free interaction, like Force of WillForce of Will), then a two- or three-mana disruptive spell on turn four, copied with Zevlor. From then on, each turn will be copying the most heinous spell in my hand for each opponent until the opponents' strategies have been rendered totally inert.

The biggest point of failure for Zevlor is having the commander removed immediately, which is why I've invested seven deck slots into free interaction to protect him. I wouldn't be surprised to see a savvy opponent figure out that using their Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares on Zevlor at my end step on turn three is the only surefire way to avoid getting their hand (and everyone else's) Mind TwistMind Twisted away on turn four or five.

Being Annoying

Phase two of Zevlor's game plan is just being annoying! Turns four and five are for resolving cheaper spells to slow the opponents down just a little, like a speed bump. Hymn to TourachHymn to Tourach is my favorite, ripped straight from the source material. The part of playing the deck that I live for is when it's time to resolve three Hymn to Tourachs and I get to make my opponents shuffle their hands and lay them out on the table so I can roll a die to decide which ones they'll discard.

In a game where the three other players at the table understand what Zevlor is trying to accomplish, they should be using their combat step to put pressure on this deck's life total. ExhaustionExhaustion is a great release valve for that pressure, forcing your opponents to skip untapping their creatures and likely buying a welcome reprieve from being bludgeoned to death with big Dinosaurs.

Leadership VacuumLeadership Vacuum and RepulseRepulse are phenomenal tempo plays that help fend off creature decks while sculpting a hand that can carry Zevlor into the late game. More often than not, all it takes to turn the tide of a game is buying one or two additional turns to resolve the deck's haymakers.

Hand Destruction

In 2018 Legacy, getting a two-for-one out of a discard spell like Hymn to Tourach was often enough to start pulling ahead. In Commander, everything is just a little bigger. The threats are scarier and there are three times as many opponents out to get you. If I want to gain an advantage from discard spells, they need to scale up as well.

Mind TwistMind Twist is the definitive hand destruction spell. In the earliest days of Magic, using fast mana to slam an early Mind Twist was one of the best strategies in game. Decks were restricted to just one copy of Mind Twist in 1994, and it remains banned in Legacy today. Zevlor grants me the ability to Mind Twist three people at the same time! The ideal scenario is copying a Mind Twist with Zevlor to discard each opponent's entire hand.

Because of the nature of Commander, where each player has an eighth (or even ninth!) card in their opening hand conveniently stowed away in their command zone, Mind Twist can never be as backbreaking as it was in the early days of Magic. However, the task it accomplishes very well here is drastically reducing the range of plays my opponents can make for the next several turns. This frees me to tap out for more big spells for a few turn cycles while not having to worry about as much interaction or having to fear an opponent has a win condition in their hand that I have to hold up my own interaction for.

Despite Commander's singleton nature, I simply cannot accept only running one copy of Mind Twist, so instead I've decided to play three. Rakdos's ReturnRakdos's Return is a second copy of Mind Twist that comes with a FireballFireball attached. AmnesiaAmnesia takes the spot of Mind Twist number 3, but rather than getting to choose a value for , it simply looks at my opponents' hands and discards all the nonlands, all while being one of the most beautiful cards I've ever laid eyes on.

Winning the Game

The most straightforward way to close a game with this control deck is turning my opponents' cards against them. BriberyBribery is the best method for accomplishing this task, as it doesn't require the opponent to have anything on their board. Bribery lets me pick up their deck and find whatever the biggest, coolest thing is and turn it against them. I love pointing it at mono-green players, they always have the most absurd creatures to steal.

Rite of ReplicationRite of Replication and Relm's SketchingRelm's Sketching are really good in the early stages of a game for establishing a state of parity. Sure, everyone has a good creature on their board, but now so do I. As the game goes on, I'll be destroying or forcing my opponents to sacrifice all of those permanents that I've copied, and that parity will be broken.

Worst FearsWorst Fears may not have the text "you win the game" written on it, but it comes very close. Using Zevlor's ability to control an entire turn cycle will usually just result in the game becoming totally unplayable for everyone else. Wishclaw TalismanWishclaw Talisman is a venomous tool in combination with Worst Fears, enabling me to give it to an opponent, then use it while I control their turn and find a spell from their deck that is destructive to their game plan. This sequence just kills anyone that has a Toxic DelugeToxic Deluge or Fire CovenantFire Covenant in their deck, as I can tutor for it and then cast it paying their entire life total.

Finally, and one of the most common ways I finish games with my Grixis Spellslinger decks, Eldritch PactEldritch Pact is an unassuming seven-mana draw spell with a secret mode: in the late game the life loss inflicted by Eldritch Pact is often enough to kill players out of nowhere, especially when played in a deck that is forcibly filling opposing graveyards. I have yet to target myself with Eldritch Pact, and I hope I never have to.

Grixis Control Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This is an installment of 60 to 100 I've been looking forward to writing for a long time. Way back in December 2024 when I picked up writing this series, I pitched the series with a wildly different take on this deck, and I'm so thankful that I allowed my ideas to simmer for a year or so before coming back to it. Thanks for reading!