{"ops":[{"insert":{"card-link":"Obeka, Splitter of Seconds"}},{"insert":" has the very powerful and rarely seen ability to duplicate upkeep triggers. She has some light built-in evasion with Menace, but requires combat damage to be dealt in order to trigger her effect. She is rather open ended in that Grixis allows for a multitude of cards and playstyles to achieve the goal of hitting opponents directly. Grixis colors also provide powerful upkeep trigger effects to drown the table in damage or value.\n\nTo minimize the negative effects of a monolith commander build, I have focused on incremental value through "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Undercity // The Initiative"}},{"insert":" and "},{"insert":{"card-link":"The Monarch"}},{"insert":" with several redundancy pieces to ensure the deck can still win in the case that Obeka is frequently removed, or if I can't ensure Obeka deals damage. If you prefer a more high-risk, high-reward playstyle feel free to cut pieces of redundancy for more protection and damage effects. That will allow you to operate more quickly and efficiently, but if the removal does get through you'll have a difficult time closing the game without Obeka.\n\nPros:\nPowerful group slug effects that continuously push towards a win."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The Initiative, Monarchy, Enchantments, and Suspended cards are difficult to interact with, which make your strategy resilient."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"Obeka allows for modular construction to tailor the deck to your meta. If your pod often plays combo, include more counterspells and high-impact upkeep permanents. If your pod plays grindy decks, add equipment and extra combat cards to increase your speed and aggression."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"No other commander quite does what Obeka does, so you'll get to enjoy playing synergistic rarely-seen cards."},{"attributes":{"list":"ordered"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\nCons:\nYou will struggle to make deals and play politics. Expect to be archenemy once the upkeep effects start rolling and the table takes huge chunks of damage all at once from upkeep triggers and from you continuously slamming creatures for free from the last room of the Underdark."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The deck requires multiple pieces to work at full power: Obeka, evasion, protection, and upkeep effects. There are times where you may struggle to find one of those pieces."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The deck takes good judgement and patience to run well. You are often deciding between multiple high cost cards to play each turn and can't have it all."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"The strongest upkeep effect cards from MTG's history as of today are all over the place when it comes to mana value, and most monarchy and initiative cards hang around 4 cmc. That coupled with Grixis' reliance on artifact ramp means that your curve will often feel a bit awkward with some turns being dead or passing while holding up interaction."},{"attributes":{"list":"bullet"},"insert":"\n"},{"insert":"\n\nPlay Patterns:\n \nCurving turn 2 ramp -> Obeka -> Initiative -> Upkeep Enchantment + holding protection \nThis will work the first two to three games only. Expect opponents to hold removal for Obeka, so plan accordingly by playing setup pieces and getting incremental value until the time is right to run out Obeka. \n\nRamp -> Initiative -> Obeka + holding protection -> Upkeep Enchantment\nThe safe play for when you expect immediate removal to come your way.\n\n4 cmc is a real sweet-spot for our list. Most Initiative enablers are 4 mana, as is Obeka herself. In decks that want to curve directly from an engine into their commander, or commander into an engine, it is a major downside to have mana go unused. In our case, we can try to embrace it! One or two open mana becomes essential in setting up our pieces and protecting them so that we can extract maximum value. Just one good hit from Obeka can rocket us far enough ahead that even a board wipe won't stop us from quickly re-establishing a dominant boardstate.\n\nIf you are not expecting early removal, play Obeka first and on the following turn play an upkeep engine so that Obeka can attack to get you value. If you are expecting removal, play your engines first. Taking a turn or two to set up can allow you to still be progressing your board and setting up for an explosive future play while ensuring you don't become the nail that needs to be hammered down first.\n\n\nNotable Exclusions:\n\nX card that grants Shroud - We are leaning hard on Initiative to continuously put +1/+1 counters on Obeka which is a targeted ability and thus does not work if we grant her shroud. There are many additional cards in the deck that allow us to target Obeka for massively beneficial effects (like "},{"insert":{"card-link":"Rilsa Rael, Kingpin"}},{"insert":") that make hexproof a much better option for us over shroud, unless the shroud is a short-term effect (Silver Shroud Costume).\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Court of Cunning"}},{"insert":" - On its face this card is an cool alternate wincon with Obeka that also costs less than our other courts to play. In practice, this card will draw a lot of aggression in casual pods and will enable graveyard strategies for opponents that need it. It is also likely to be the only card in the deck enacting a mill strategy and it is only worth having if it can stick to the field for the duration of the game.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Court of Ire"}},{"insert":" - A bit over-costed at 5 cmc and it only deals damage to a single target. For this list, every one or two open blue mana becomes very important to protect our pieces. We would rather run lower to the ground enchantments to leave up mana for protection, counterspells, and evasion, and enchantments that hit the entire table rather than a single creature or player.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Hatred"}},{"insert":" - This card is too sharp of a double edged sword. When played early, this lets you snipe one player out of the game. When played late, and with some setup, you can suddenly avalanche into 20+ upkeep triggers to win on the spot. That is incredibly powerful, but will make you an immediate public enemy and the single player removal is often unnecessary when the rest of our deck excels at table removal through group slug. This can be an excellent card to close out the game for a win, but your pod will begin planning for it in future games whether you have it in your hand or not which makes it a serious liability towards playing a meaningful game. This is one for the bracket 4 lists.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Mechanized Production"}},{"insert":" - This struggles on the basis of optics. When an alternate wincon like this hits the table, it draws eyes. Similarly to Hatred, once the table sees this win the game once they will be reluctant to ever leave you alone in the early game. Being able to win immediately after Obeka connects is pretty sweet, but it will be more reliable in a build focused on Voltron and extra combats to ensure she hits hard enough to make the 8+ copies necessary immediately.\n\n"},{"insert":{"card-link":"Rousing Refrain"}},{"insert":" - Inspiring Refrain is an all-star in this deck, which has me continuously coming back to Rousing Refrain and being disappointed. It's a powerful effect, and you can have turns where it goes off multiple times for an explosion of mana. This list simply doesn't have much to do with it. We are more content chugging along with incremental value and cheating creatures via The Underdark.\n\nX card with Take the Initiative - Many cards in Grixis with Take the Initiative are rather mediocre, but the mechanic is so powerful and consistent with Obeka that we are willing to include them. What we can't afford to include, however, are Initiative cards that are 5+ mana or are too situational. The current iteration of this list has enough Initiative cards included to ensure we can consistently see it in the early or mid game and running the remaining worst versions of those cards is not worth leaving ourselves open to removal.\n"}]}