I have been brewing with Piercing Grief for a while now and I wanted to show the latest evolution of the old Grief Crown deck from before:
The deck is still not competitive, but it sure is fun, and it’s definitely closer than the last version. If you find a low-interaction match (not a lot of Silence) then you can often stall out and then go over the top of nearly anything. The deck works by combining void abilities like Ephemeral Wisp and the revenge of Piercing Grief with Xenan Cultist to build inevitability in the form of obscenely large creatures and grind out a win in the long game. It also combines together the synergy of Ephemeral Wispand Devour or Vault of the Praxis to keep drawing cards and Katra, the Devoted to sub as additional copies of Xenan Cultist. The kills this deck gets become absolutely insane, where you can chain together Varas and Cultists to grow monstrous Griefs to hit for 20+ a turn. Dawnwalker is a card that’s always awkward in the deck and could certainly be a possible cut as it is amazing when being returned with Vara or a massive Ephemeral Wisp, but that often requires a lot of set up and it does very little before that. It could be worth checking out ways to fit bigger creatures into the deck, like Sandstorm Titan or Mystic Ascendant or to sneak in some Annihilate or Deathstrike.
DECK LIST
*mouse over any card to see what it does
4 Dark Return (Set1 #250)
2 Seek Power (Set1 #408)
4 Dark Wisp (Set1 #264)
4 Devour (Set1 #261)
4 Ephemeral Wisp (Set1 #84)
4 Piercing Grief (Set2 #143)
2 Talir’s Favored (Set0 #11)
4 Temple Scribe (Set1 #502)
4 Xenan Initiation (Set2 #44)
4 Dawnwalker (Set1 #86)
4 Xenan Cultist (Set1 #516)
2 Katra, the Devoted (Set2 #208)
1 Memory Dredger (Set2 #159)
4 Vault of the Praxis (Set1 #480)
3 Vara, Fate-Touched (Set1 #307)
8 Time Sigil (Set1 #63)
9 Shadow Sigil (Set1 #249)
4 Seat of Mystery (Set0 #61)
4 Xenan Banner (Set2 #201)
