What happened to GrimPower?

[Phele]

There was a time I remember (must be 1-2 years ago) when the combo of Grim Monolith and Power Artifact giving you infinite mana was used in almost any keeper build. Now it seems it has disappeared.

I'm interested in the reasons for that and would also like to know, if it couldn't have some kind of comeback. Misdirection isn't used that much anymore (excepte fish and landstill) and the new killing option Decree of Justice also has the magical X written on it which is even uncounterable.

In a metagame not that rich of control but more of aggro, aggro-combo and combo wouldn't it be a nice addition to get the possibility to go combo too. You could even add at least one Isochron Scepter to get another possible even thoug not ideal target for the Power Artifact.

In Kroathan- and Trinity-Keeper builds you will find the combo anyway but I dislike the green splash in keeper builds and being dependent on your opponent using creatures. You even "waste" at least four sideboard slots for 3 Oath and one to Krosan Reclamation.

A possible list could be:

6 Solomoxes
1 Grim Monolith
1 Isochron Scepter

1 Mind Twist
1 Yag Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Skeletal Scrying

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Braingeyser
1 Time Walk
1 Fact of Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Power Artifact
1 Fire/Ice
2 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 FoW

1 Balance
2 StP
2 Decree of Justice
1 Humility

1 Gorilla Shamane

4 Flooded Strand
4Tundra
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 City of Brass
1 Island
1 LoA
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland

Sideboard:
2 Coffin Purge
2 REB
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Fire/Ice
1 Stifle
1 BEB
1 Misdirection
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Damping Matrix
1 StP
1 Disenchant
1 Cop: Red
1 Enlightened Tutor

A list that leaves you more vulnerable to control and artifact heavy decks but with better results against aggro and combo

To improve that weakness you could take the grim monolith as the only Power Artifact target and kick the Scepter:

Main:

- 1 Isochron Scepter
+ 1 Damping Matrix

Sideboard:

- 1 Fire/Ice
+ 1 REB

For an aggro light metagame:

Main:

- 1 Isochron Scepter
- 1 Humility
- 1 Tundra
- 1 City of Brass

+ 1 Damping Matrix
+ 1 Gorilla Shaman
+ 1 Wasteland
+ 1 Volcanic Island

Side:

- 1 Fire/Ice
+ 1 REB

The GrimPower combo even fits better in the new Control-Slaver builds I think and for sure in Scepter heavier ones.

[Nameless]

The problem with Damping Matrix and the Grim Monolith is that while you can get mana 1 time with it, you'll not be able to untap the Grim.

[Phele]

Sooo true, I just oversaw that. Thanks!

So the mix between both cards is not possible, but are there other reasons not to play the combo today beside a lot of artifact hate.

[Nameless]

Sooo true, I just oversaw that. Thanks!

So the mix between both cards is not possible, but are there other reasons not to play the combo today beside a lot of artifact hate.

Well, that depends entirely on your own perspective...

I've used it quite a bit myself in the last few months, because I main deck Stroke and 3x Decree, so with 4 kill cards, and 3 more cards that can tutor for them, killing an opponent when you have the combo is easy...  I also happen to think that the Grim Monolith is hardly a dead card, considering how many spells we run now in Keeper that can abuse that extra mana.  The only 'dead' card in the deck then would be the Power Artifact, but at least it can still be pitched to Force.

The thing is, most people don't like the idea of having a dead card like Power Artifact in the deck, becuase it's only good if combined with 1 other card that is only marginal.  In addition to this, even having the combo still requires that you fetch a kill card, and though there may be many, if you used a tutor to get a combo peice then you just burned up one of the ways to get your kill.  Bit of a drag that is.

Most people stick with the KroOathian version if at all because basically it's a 1-card combo.  Play Oath, however, and suddenly you don't need to draw all those crazy cards...  All you have to do is play the Oath, and the same mana that let you play the Oath will let you Flashback the Reclemation and win.  OK, so I didn't say anything we didn't already know...  Point is, it's just a hell of a lot easier to abuse with the Green.

The only real solution?  Hell, I play Green in my Keeper.   :shock:   I don't use Red anyway.  Between Oxidize now, the previous Naturlize, and good ol' Seal of Cleansing I didn't need Red.  Green let me even run Deed in my SB.

Second point then would be to not let yourself get so wrapped around the illusion of what Red has to offer.  Use what you're most comfortable with, and just pack as many answers as you can into that SB for whatever you're expecting.

The combo itself isn't bad at all, it just so happens that you might find yourself trying to play it in a metagame chock full of 4x Rack and Ruin SB's.

[runT1ME]

@Nameless, can you explain the deck you were talking about (kroOthian)?
I've never heard of it.  Is it just a blue based control with oaths?

[Phele]

You play an usual keeper with green instead of red or white and Morphling and GrimPower as kill condition.

Against any creature build you side out any creature and put 3-4 Oath of Druids and one Krosan Reclamation in. When opponent has a creature out and you enough mana you play the oath. Next turn you put your whole library in the yard, then flashback with Krosan Recalamation the Yagmoth's Will on top of your library. Next turn you can play your whole library out of the graveyard. With all moxen and fastbond you play the GrimPower Combo for the win.

Perfect against any aggro build. You can find a great list here coming in fourth:

http://www.morphling.de/coverages/top8decks.php?id=99

[Lunk]

@Nameless, can you explain the deck you were talking about (kroOthian)?
I've never heard of it.  Is it just a blue based control with oaths?

The deck runs on an Oath of Druids engine... works like this:
Activate Oath without any creatures in your library, milling your entire library
Flashback [card]Krosan Reclamation[/card], targetting a Yawgmoth's Will.  This leaves your entire (ex-)library at your disposal through the Will.
Proceed to draw step, draw Yawgmoth's Will.
Cast Yawgmoth's Will, and pull enough mana from your graveyard for counter support, Grim Monolith, Power Artifact, and the U for Stroke of Genius.  The most popular method for this that I've seen is using SoLoMoxen and Tolarian Academy, though due to personal budget constraints I've found that Fastbond + Zuran Orb can also do the trick pretty well.
Cast Grim Monolith, Power Artifact it, and Stroke for a billion.

While it seems like a fairly tenuous combo, all it really requires is an oath of druids (and an opposing creature to trigger it off) and 5 mana.

[Matt]

While it seems like a fairly tenuous combo, all it really requires is an oath of druids (and an opposing creature to trigger it off) and 5 mana.

Adiitionally, if you can survive the extra turn, you can Reclamation Lotus AND Will and just go off the next turn, in which case you'd only need two lands in play.