If you've played Modern ranked this season, you've met this team. Probably several times in a row.
Grix with the Dragonlord Mancer archon is the most played Grix combo among strong Modern players by a wide margin, and it's the one people complain about most. So I decided to stop complaining and look for counters, using analysis tools I've built and tuned against real battle logs.
This is Part 1 of a series. Each post takes one Grix combo, shows what it actually looks like at each mana range, and gives the counters that held up best in analysis, along with why they work.
How common is it, and how often does it win?
In my dataset of recent strong-player Modern battles there are 2,060 team-games with Grix. 1,335 of them (65%) used Dragonlord Mancer, and those Mancer + Grix teams won 74% of the time.
| Mana | Mancer + Grix games | Grix team won |
|---|---|---|
| 12–21 | 64 | 72% |
| 22–29 | 98 | 81% |
| 30–37 | 256 | 74% |
| 38–45 | 264 | 73% |
| 46–55 | 299 | 73% |
| 56–69 | 209 | 76% |
| 70+ | 145 | 72% |
It doesn't have a weak mana range. That's a big part of why it feels like you see it everywhere.
What you're actually facing
Grix almost never comes alone. Across the most common lineups, these show up next to it:
| Ironcoil Bulwark, 70% | Kobold of Burden, 64% | Gramel the Hunger, 50% | Calamity, 43% |
The tactic is nearly always Bloodlust.
The shape changes with mana:
- Low mana (12–29): Grix, Forked-Tongue Sage, Calamity and Canary Keeper, often with Surly Drunk or Kobold of Burden.
- Mid mana (30–45): Kobold of Burden, Calamity, and Shiraza or Portia Nyr. Ironcoil Bulwark and Zarin the Scorch come in from about 38.
- High mana (46+): Ironcoil Bulwark, Sira, Gramel the Hunger, Thessok Hunter and Empusan Darkguard, plus Rage at the top end.
The engine of the team is recursion. Grix brings Taunt, Swiftness, Bloodline Tribute and Rebirth, and Kobold of Burden adds Resurrect. You kill something, and it comes back. Meanwhile Calamity, or later Gramel and Ironcoil Bulwark, do the actual damage.
The counter core: four cards
Above 30 mana, almost every strong counter was built around the same four cards:
| Bera Dallin: the wall | Kobold of Burden: fight fire with fire | Rila Fen: Final Rest | Halo Wisp: the back-line assassin |
- Bera Dallin (Taunt, Shield, Void Armor, Armored Strike) soaks 69–92% of the Grix team's damage in winning simulations. Take it out and the counters collapse by up to 99 points.
- Kobold of Burden works for you too. With Resurrect it brings back your key unit, and it survived in nearly 100% of wins.
- Rila Fen carries Final Rest. A lot of players say Final Rest feels nerfed, and it doesn't stop every revive. In simulation, though, Rila still kills Grix in roughly 60–65% of wins in the high-mana counters.
- Halo Wisp (Sneak, Divine Shield) goes past the tank and removes Calamity or Gramel the Hunger early. That's the real damage source.
Best counters by mana range
How to read this:
- Sim win % is the average over Standard, Silenced Summoners, Armored Up and Equal Opportunity, against the 10 most common real Mancer + Grix lineups at that mana.
- Worst is the result against the single toughest of those 10 lineups.
56+ mana: Nidhoggr: 96% (worst 91%)
Nidhoggr + Bera Dallin, Rage, Kobold of Burden, Halo Wisp, Rila Fen, Nephket. Tactic: Death Blast.
- Bera tanks about 70% of incoming damage and still kills Grix in about half the wins.
- Halo Wisp removes Gramel the Hunger in about half the wins, usually in round 1.
- Nephket (Sneak, Stun, Knock Out) helps break Ironcoil Bulwark.
- The same team scores 88% (worst 78%) at 70+ mana.
46–55 mana: Elias Max Pruitt: 92% (worst 85%)
Elias Max Pruitt + Bera Dallin, Kobold of Burden, Rila Fen, Phlegmor, Nephket, Halo Wisp. Tactic: RepairCleanse.
The most consistent counter of the whole study. It scores 93–95% under every one of the four rulesets tested.
38–45 mana: Elias Max Pruitt: 93% (worst 69%)
Elias Max Pruitt + Bera Dallin, Lifeward Channeler, Kobold of Burden, Rila Fen, Taark Nightbloom, Halo Wisp. Tactic: RepairCleanse.
Halo Wisp kills Calamity in about 60% of wins, and Bera takes about 87% of the damage. Armored Up is its weakest ruleset, at 90%.
30–37 mana: El Jefe: 97% (worst 86%)
El Jefe + Bera Dallin, Snippet, Taark Nightbloom, Halo Wisp, Hrolfa, Gorvash the Pallid. Tactic: Soul Siphon on Bera and Halo Wisp.
The surprise of the study. The tactic is worth a huge 93 points here: it keeps Bera and Halo Wisp alive through the Grix pressure. Hrolfa kills Grix in 57% of wins, and Halo Wisp removes Calamity in 87%.
22–29 mana: no clean answer (best 61%, worst 2%)
Razi Clanktrap + Thornmaw Berserker, Vextali, Doldrus, Lucky Longshot, Daigendark Surveyor, Tilly Gearspring.
It reaches 87% under Standard and Silenced Summoners, but drops to 9% under Equal Opportunity. This is Mancer + Grix's best range, where it wins 81% in real games. Honestly, nothing I tested beats it reliably here.
12–21 mana: no clean answer (best 40%)
Razi Clanktrap + Halfling Refugee, Daigendark Surveyor, Lucky Longshot, Doldrus, Tilly Gearspring, Water Diviner.
Daigendark Surveyor (Magic Reflect, Slow, Stun) kills Grix in 72% of wins. But there isn't enough mana to fit a tank and a back-line answer for Calamity.
The uncomfortable part: there's no budget answer
I ran the same search using only Common and Rare monsters, with any summoner. The best budget team topped out at 33%, and most were under 25%. Every working counter above leans on Legendaries and Epics: Bera Dallin, Halo Wisp, Nephket, Rila Fen.
So if you don't own those cards, the honest advice is to avoid wasting rating on trying to out-tech Mancer + Grix with commons. It's a collection check, not a skill check.
Caveats (please read)
- These are simulated win rates, not live results. My analysis has historically run about 8 points optimistic against real games. Treat 96% as "very strong," not a guarantee.
- The opponent lineups are the 10 most common real ones per mana range, with their usual tactics assumed. A player who adapts can still beat any single counter.
- Only four rulesets were tested. Rulesets that ban a key ability (Taunt, Sneak, Shield) can break a counter. When that happens, swap in a card that does the same job.
- All cards were assumed at max level.
Next up
Part 2 will cover Eternal Tofu + Grix, the second most common Grix combo (270 games, 74% win rate), followed by Bella Ratajowlski and El Jefe + Grix.