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Grasp of Darkness isn't much better than Harnessed Lightning. If we are playing red in our control decks, Harnessed Lightning becomes a four-of and Grasp of Darkness becomes the fifth or sixth copy in the two-mana removal spell slot. Harnessed Lightning feeds off Live Fast, Aether Hub, and unused energy from killing slightly smaller creatures. Three is the magic number in this format, so that combined with a very difficult to cast mana cost, pushes Grasp of Darkness to the side in red-based control decks. 
Throwing in a third color just for Radiant Flames isn't too difficult. I knew a month before the release of Kaladesh that Radiant Flames would be the go-to sweeper for Standard. Languish was on its way out, and I had a funny feeling that WOTC didn't have any qualms with leaving the four-mana mass removal spell slot empty for the new Standard. Although Radiant Flames requires a third color to be effective, that opens the door for playing creature lands, which ramps up the power level of any control deck. This doesn't mean that B/R or other two color decks without creature lands aren't viable, but I'm leaning toward the riskier mana base to have access to the best mass removal spell in the format. 
Live Fast is not Read the Bones. I knew this already, but I was hoping it wouldn't be as bad as it looked. Live Fast is a necessary evil in these Goblin Dark‑Dweller decks, because hitting land drops isn't optional. The games where you stall out on three or four lands are the games you lose easily. I've toyed with more copies of Painful Truths in the main, but that severely weakens Goblin Dark‑Dwellers when the board is neutral and their hand is weak. Two copies of Live Fast have been working great for me and I never board them out. I learned from Ralph Betesh that, even against Mono-White Humans of old, leave in all your copies of Read the Bones unless you are hoping to get lucky with lands No. 4 and 5 every time. 
Ruinous Path is much better than I, and the rest of the world, ever thought it would be in this format. I know it's a sorcery, slow and hard to cast, but you have to be able to kill Planeswalkers. The simple truth is you have to play this card if you don't have the ability to reliably cast Anguished Unmaking. Control decks can't beat ANY planeswalker that is unchecked, and even though we have access to big creatures, a Liliana, the Last Hope, Chandra, Torch of Defiance, or the devastating Gideon, Ally of Zendikar can easily be lights out for us. I was able to get away with having 10 main deck sources of white in this Mardu Control list without making every land come into play tapped, but if you hate Ruinous Path with a fiery passion then play more white sources and Anguished Unmaking instead. This deck has been a lot of fun to play and has tested very well. If you want to defeat the aggro menace, punish B/G Delirium (your best matchup), and defeat emerge decks with ease, this is the deck for you. The toughest matchups are ramp and Aetherworks Marvel decks, which will typically plague any deck I ever build. The Mind Rots, Transgress the Minds, and Goblin Dark‑Dwellers for repeat are the pathways to victory. I wish you all the best of luck this weekend at the StarCityGames.com Regional Championships! — Shaheen Soorani, @Shaheenmtg |
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