(POST ROTATION) JESKAI BURN

[BlakLanner]

Anticipating shifts in the game based on the PT, I am moving to this:

[deck]Raka Counterburn[/deck]

More control decks mean Searing Blood and Deflecting Palm is less useful. I traded in the Bloods and a land for a rack of Magma Jets. I shaved a Palm and a Negate for a pair of Ashcloud Phoenixes to give another durable threat as I always felt a little threat light.

The sideboard lets me move to 3 of either counterspell that I may want. Erase still seems to be a great way to fight Courser/Doomwake/Whip/Ascendancy. Ride Down is a pet card of mine so I had to leave it in. I cut the Chandras but I really only want it vs control and I already have access to counters, Stormbreath and Keranos.

[Valdarith]

Not running Seeker is a mistake. It's one of the best cards in the deck.

[LP, of the Fires]

Gonna run something close to Shahar and Ben Starks list with 3 maindeck Nullify:

[deck]3 Seeker of the Way
4 Mantis Rider
4 Goblin Rabblemaster

2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

4 Jeskai Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Stoke the Flames

3 Dig Through Time
3 Nullify

4 Temple of Triumph
4 Mystic Monastery
3 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Battlefield Forge
2 Shivan Reef
4 Temple of Epiphany


2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Keranos, God of Storms
2 Negate
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Erase
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Glare of Heresy[/deck]

The Changes where cutting the 4th seeker for a land to enable the sideboarded Keranos. The board is a blending of things. I like Keranos and glare of heresy a lot, but glare is probably not as good as something like Hushwyng griff, so I plan to test that out this week and the angers may not be necessary. I can also see the Keranos becoming Prognostic sphinx with all the Erases in peoples sideboards.

[Valdarith]

It doesn't look like your manabase can support Nullify.

[LP, of the Fires]

Got the same comment on Facebook!

I basted this out of trice without updating the manabase

3 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Mana conflunce
4 Shivan Reef
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Flooded Strand
4 Mystic Monastery
2 Plains
2 Island
1 Mountain

[Valdarith]

That's much better. I'd probably swap one Temple of Enlightenment for a Temple of Epiphany since you need RR with Stoke and Sarkhan. Shouldn't effect Seeker much.

[Purp]

Nullify just seems bad. Why not play 3 disdainful strokes, everything you would want to counter is above 4 mana.

[dpaine88]

Yeah I saw some decks running Stroke main.

Its not horrible but pretty crappy in the mirror.

[BlakLanner]

Even in the mirror they are ok. They counter Sarkhan, Stormbreath, and Stroke in game 1.

[Purp]

Found a post from Strasky on reddit:

---

[–]straca3 10 points 6 hours ago

Ok I feel I'm obliged to add something to this thread. I'll just answer all the questions.

-What are Jeskai Wins strong match up? Weak match ups?

Good matchups - Devotion, Mardu control, probably Phanteon UB (never played it, but Yuuya crushed Owen pretty badly) Bad - Abzan, Floch's UB (Stan beat me like 7-2 in testing) Even - Mirror (God's Willing seems like the best card to me), Aggro (Mono Red/Black)

-Painlands vs scrylands?

My manabase was Frank's job, so I would suggest sticking to it. You for sure need 4 trilands and I dislike Confluence, Rietzl had it against me and it dealt like 4 damage to him. -Is hushwing gryff an effective way to deal with siege rhino?

Well I guess my decklist answers this question, but I'll write some more about why our team decided to play the full four. So during our testing we quickly came up to the conclusion that the three most dominant decks are Abzan, Jeskai and Green Devotion.

Basically Devotion > Abzan > Jeskai > Devotion. I really liked Jeskai at the beggining but then I played couple of games against the Abzan and it was pretty dissapointing. I got ran over by Rhinos and Rocs (we had both as 4-of in our list). So we tried to came up with something to change that, I suggested trying to go big with Hostilities and Elspeth + extra land in sb and Frank suggested trying out Gryffs. Well one plan worked, the other didn't. We already didn't like Rabblemaster and tried other creatures (Brimaz, Vaporkin). Rabblemaster just seems good only in those games where your opponent stumbles and you should be winning these anyway. So we added 4 Gryffs, our matchup against Abzan got even, we had a slight disadvantage in mirror preboard, but sometimes having an EOT creature doesnt hurt. Plus we figured no one would find out how good Phoenix is, so we would have edge anyway.

-Are there any cards that could have been added or removed that would have given jeskai players an advantage during the protour?

I really liked my decklist, only card we forget about was Erase, should have played at least one. It also might be worth trying Vaporkin over Seeker, but the lifelink is probably still more important than flying. -How effective is ashcloud phoenix vs the various match ups?

That card is just amazing and it just doesn't get enough recognition. It straight up won me like 2 matches in that tournament, so you guys should definitely try it. -Why doesn't every deck run banishing lights? It's universal removal! Don't know, I think they should. -What are the necessary cards to have in the sideboard? Strokes, Sphinx, Suspension Field and Magma Spray. -Is deflecting palm any good in the mainboard? Never tried it, but it seems too situational to me.

So that's it. I really like this deck, feels like it should be positioned pretty well in LA, because people will play Ari's version, which is fine matchup for us (you can notice I threw away both of our games in the feature match area) or try to beat Abzan by playing Devotion or UB Pantheon. Feel free to ask more questions if you are more interested about my decklist and the thought process behind it.

Ondrej Strasky

[Toddington]

Found a post from Strasky on reddit:

Does he say anything more about the Sphinxes?

[Purp]

Yes, so the questions(bolded) are what was asked him, and his response:

Have you tested Chandra in the main? If so, how do you feel about it? Played couple of games with it, Phoenix is just strictly better and you can't have that many expensive cards. Is 4 Seeker of the Way without a doubt the correct number? In my mind yes. Does Anger of the Gods hinder your gameplan at all? I have mixed feelings about bringing in AoG when it kills everything you are playing.

You bring it in only against aggro decks, where you turn into UWR control with Sphinx, so it doesn't hurt you much. How present was aggro at the PT, and how did you feel about/approach the matchup? Not sure about it's presence, but I didn't play against it. Matchup is slightly unfavorable preboard, Anger should help. Finally, what do you think about Mclaren's take on the list? It's interesting, basically he plays completely different deck than I do. Can't really say how good is it.

[Toblakai]

I am tooling around with a more control oriented take on Jeskai

[deck]Star Spangled Control[/deck]

I had played around with dropping the Rabbles in the main for some Angers, and the Stokes for something else whose name escapes me at the moment of my typing this list. SB will include Hushwing, Disdainful Stroke, Keranos and other goodstuff.

[Valdarith]

I'm on board with Hushwing Gryff provided we try and play a different game than we've been playing. I think we need to focus more on going over the top of Siege Rhino like we did during the days of Thragtusk. This lines us up well against opposing planeswalkers as we get to play with more evasion and promotes more play at instant speed, but reduces our explosiveness as we must cut Goblin Rabblemaster from the 60.

We should also consider going to Stormbreath Dragon over Sarkhan if we really want to beat Abzan Midrange. It can't be killed by attacking into it, it's immune to Utter End and Abzan Charm unlike Sarkhan, and it can't be blocked by Wingmate Roc.

This is what I'm considering:

[deck=Valdarith's Je"skies"]
Creatures (16)
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Mantis Rider
4 Hushwing Gryff
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells (22)
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Jeskai Charm
2 Banishing Light
4 Stoke the Flames

Lands (24)
4 Shivan Reef
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Mystic Monastery
2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
3 Plains

Sideboard (15)
2 Erase
3 Magma Spray
2 Glare of Heresy
1 Reprisal
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Negate
1 Pillar of Light
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
[/deck]

[Valdarith]

If we really want to go deep we could play Vaporkin over Seeker, but it would make our other matchups worse.

[Purp]

The only matchup where I want sarkhan over SBD is Green devotion, and even then, its close.

[Valdarith]

Yeah, he's been good but he's kind of awkward against decks with 5+ toughness creatures as well as Wingmate Rock, and Dragon is better against Jeskai. I like moving Sarkhan to the board for control matchups.

[LP, of the Fires]

Nullify is the godamn truth.

Sarkhan is dope. Ya'll nigga's are high.

But yeah, Stormbreath is worth considering in an Abzan heavy world. I'm still gonna stick with Sarkh cause I like him more in the mirror and Against Green Devotion which I actually expect to pick up in a post abzan world.

[Valdarith]

Hey I love Sarkhan, but if playing Stormbreath increases the Abzan percentages while holding against the other decks then I'll run it instead.

[Whole]

I've been doing a 3-1 split of SBD-Sarkhan, and 4 SBD online. Yea, Sarkhan is great, versatile, ect...but Stormbreath Dragon can literally win games out of nowhere versus Abzan. They have draws that simply cannot deal with him.

[Toblakai]

Do you all think my build with a 3-3 of SBD and Sarkhan is going too big at the top end? Val, I'm not sure about MD Disdainful Stroke, unless of course you expect Abzan in abundance.

[Valdarith]

I would not run 3-3. That's far too high and you'd need 26 lands to hit them on curve with any sort of consistency.

Top-heavy green decks are in abundance in my meta, so Disdainful Stroke is rarely dead. I anticipate a ton of Abzan because the locals love green so much.

[dpaine88]

yeah any hand with 2 of those is a mulligan and they suck as your first 3-4 draws.

[Toblakai]

Perhaps 4-2? It has tested well in my Mardu midrange.

[rcwraspy]

Perhaps 4-2? It has tested well in my Mardu midrange.

3+3=6
4+2=6

I think the point is that running 6 5-drops is too clunky.

[Toblakai]

Maybe. I'm bringing this one to FNM and I'll let yall know how it works out.

[deck]Fireworks[/deck]

[BrainsickHater]

If you're upping your land count to 25 lands then running 6 5-drops is obviously more reasonable. The "6 is too many" argument is about a 24-land manabase.

[Valdarith]

No, 6 is definitely too many on 25. 4 is pretty much your max at 25 land. This deck doesn't run mana dorks after all.

[Toblakai]

My basis for this lineup comes from looking at the variations on "Big Mardu" in the recent standard events, they do something similar with their SBD/STDS (lol). I would buy that Ashcloud Phoenix might get pricey, given the cost to morph it. Perhaps I am looking at these decks the wrong way, and trying to build a Jeskai from that skeleton is the incorrect approach?

[Toddington]

Strasky has posted some more on reddit (username = straca3)

Q. How were stormbreaths for you? With an expected rise in Wingmate Rocs, would you consider going up to 3/4?
A. They are great, but you probably don't want more than 2, because they are really expensive.

Q. How many times did you cast Phoenix as a morph throughout the tourney?
A. Once when I had like 11 lands in play.

Q. How were the Hushwing's in the non-green matchups?
A. There aren't really any other decks that play ETB effects. As you can imagine they are nothing special, but if you think about it neither is Rabblemaster and you can just side them out after g1. In mirror match Rabblemaster makes one token max and sometimes it's useful to have an EOT creature.

Q. Is Sphinx there mainly for the mirror? Do you use it in control matchups as well?
A. Mainly for mirror, where it's the best card you can have in my opinion, but it's obviously great against deck with lots of removal. Kinda sucks that Crackling Doom answers it pretty effeciently.

[talking about Dig Through Time] When I received the deck from my teammates the card already wasn't in it, so I figure it wasn't very good in their initial testing. In the end half of our group played one Dig Through Time in sideboard as a last minute decision. Personally I think it's only good in mirror match, I wouldn't want it against Abzan or Devotion.

SB plan
Jeskai (Mirror)
Out - 4 Hushwing Gryff, 3 Ashcloud Phoenix, 2 Stormbreath Dragon, 2 Jeskai Charm
In - 3 Prognostic Sphinx, 3 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Gainsay, 3 Magma Spray, 1 Anger of the Gods

Abzan Midrange
Out - 4 Magma Jet, 1 Jeskai Charm, 1 Stoke the Flames
In - 3 Disdainful Stroke, 3 Suspension Field

G/x Devotion
Out (play) - 2 Stoke the Flames, 1 Ashcloud Phoenix, 3 Lightning Strike
Out (draw) - 3 Stoke the Flames, 1 Ashcloud Phoenix, 2 Seeker of the Way
In - 3 Disdainful Stroke, 3 Suspension Field

Mono Red
Out - 4 Hushwing Gryff, 3 Stormbreath Dragon (???), 1 Jeskai Charm
In - 2 Prognostic Sphinx, 3 Magma Spray, 2 Anger of the Gods

(Other matchups are either obvious or we didnt play them.)

[DXI-Edge]

That mirror plan is so weird O.o

[LP, of the Fires]

[deck]Creatures:
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Mantis Rider

Spells:
2 Sarkhan, the Dragon Speaker
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Stoke the Flames
3 Nullify
3 Dig Through Time

Lands:
4 Mystic Monastery
2 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Shivan Reaf
2 Battlefield Forge
1 Mana Confluence

Sideboard:
3 Hushwing Griff
2 Disdainful Stroke
1 Keranos, God of Storms
2 End Hostilities
2 Negate
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Erase[/deck]

This is the build I'd play if GP LA where today. So far haven't been able to test out the sideboard as much as I'd like, but I have been able to test the Abzan matchup a bunch and it seems very good.

So far, flex slots in my board are 1 brimaz and 1 erase. Cards that I'd be looking to make room for include Prognostic Sphinx, Ashcloud Phoenix, or Elspeth.

Not sure how any of them would perform, though I've heard good things about Sphinx, and Ashcloud is just a fantastic card. Dem board plans dough...

[LP, of the Fires]

Nullify>Stroke main because it's playable in your opener on the draw.

[dpaine88]

Nullify main seems like a beating on your mana.

Strasky is the man. Major props for him to helping us on reddit.

Love his teams idea to cut the card draw and just put actual threats. It is hard to do nothing that effects the board and tap out for a turn in the midgame unless you are both in topdeck mode.

[LP, of the Fires]

Nullify's not that much trouble, especially since you don't NEED to have it early, that's just a boon. The fact that it counters stuff like courser when you're ahead or caryatid when your opponents mana-light is pretty huge.

Strasky's deck is fine, but Dig Through Time is just an absurd card. Given the choice between more gas, and Dig, i'll admit that it's a non-trivial decision and fairly close, but i'm going with Dig. The big push is that it makes your sideboarded deck much more powerful as you have infinite more access to the powerful cards you're bringing in.

[Valdarith]

Indeed. Dig gives you a lot more leeway to play as a control deck whenever you desire.

Strasky's mirror plan seems pretty standard, but I guess I have the advantage of understanding the matchup despite having played so little

LP, I like the list. Nullify is so good, but I wonder if it's actually better than Banishing Light. It's clearly better in postboard games since it dodges enchantment removal, so maybe it's worth it for that alone.

[Jasper]

[deck]JeskHigh[/deck]

Thoughts? The deck leans on Evolving Wilds pretty hard to allow me to used CttR. Quickling may be too cute, but I've had plenty of times where I had a Hushwing Gryff out, and they simply removed it before playing their second rhino. Quickling lets me blank a removal spell, and in the late game I can save my Gryff and then replay it.

Magma Jet is not in the list simply because of the 6 Fetches, and lack of room.

[BlakLanner]

Well, I just got annhilated in two mirrors on the DE. I am certainly doing something wrong. Feel free to watch and pick at my mistakes

Round 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rxk29seolI

Round 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw2Op4SE2Ng

[Jasper]

Well, I just got annhilated in two mirrors on the DE. I am certainly doing something wrong. Feel free to watch and pick at my mistakes

Round 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rxk29seolI

Round 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw2Op4SE2Ng

Laughed so hard when he had quad Mantis Rider.

My thoughts:
Not having access to Seeker of the Way really hurts you in the mirror.
Disdainful Stroke isn't what you want to be bringing in, not enough targets.
Anger of the Gods, it's a sorcery speed answer, to an instant speed problem. What I mean is, when you cast it, whatever you're killing with it has already hit you for some damage, whether it be a Rider or a Goblin token.
Ride Down is, in my opinion, a useless card.
Mindswipe never really came up, but I don't think it's that good in this kind of deck to begin with.

Since you are already running Brimaz, King of Oreskos, and you've been casting it pretty reliably, I'd suggest adding some number of Devouring Light. It deals with a lot of problems, at instant speed. Can also be Convoked off of Brimaz and his tokens, and Mantis Rider, if you are struggling to get the White.

I'd also recommend a 2-drop. Some of those games were lost simply from Tempo swings. You hold up mana to have an answer for a threat, and then they do the same, and it ends up with you just being beaten to death by a 2/2.

Seeker of the Way is the obvious first choice. Raise the Alarm has also been pretty good to me in various lists I've been trying out.

I also think you, in particular, really need some card draw in there. Either Chandra, Pyromaster, or one of the mana good draw spells currently in the format. Font of Fortunes may also be worth considering, since you can cast it on 2 when you normally aren't doing anything, and it can get you cards at Instant speed when you're holding up mana to counter/burn something and they end up not casting anything. Dig Through Time is most likely better though, given, that's what everyone else is doing.

Play wise, I think you learned by the end what you were really supposed to be doing. You don't cast anything until you are able to swing the tempo into your favor, or if you have multiple threats. Even representing Lightning Strike is powerful. You should probably accept the trade with your Ashcloud Phoenix more often as well. There was a time where you could have blocked a Mantis Rider with it, but didn't. In that scenario, the Ashcloud Phoenix was going to remove a creature, gain you 3 life, and return as a 2/2. It was highly unfortunate that he had the burn spell when you played it down as a Morph, I think you could argue that decision either way, and your thought process was pretty sound.


P.S. I enjoyed watching you play, and your commentary. I look forward to watching Squidward play MTGO again in the future.

[BlakLanner]

Yeah, quad Mantis, with my other opponent getting trips while I play 8 lands in 11 turns was a bit tilting. I am willing to chalk a lot of it up to "the shuffler hates me" but that does not excuse other misplays.

You are right that the lack of a two drop hurts me in the mirror. Seeker just feels so bad late game or against a lot of the other decks.
Disdainful Stroke hits Stoke, Sarkhan, Stormbreath, Phoenix, Chandra, Keranos. I definitely don't bring in my third but having one or two available seemed worth it.
I agree that Anger is suboptimal here but I had no better answer in my 75. I have it more for Devotion and hyper aggressive strategies. It gets real awkward to Anger after dropping a Mantis.
Ride Down has been excellent for me vs Green and Abzan. It is what allows my Rabblemasters to still have a presence after a Courser or Siege Rhino hits the board. Hitting things like Polukranos or Arbor Colossus is just a bonus. I certainly don't bring them in for this fight.
Mindswipe treated me very well early on. It is starting to become more of a hit or miss card. I freely admit that it, like Ride Down, is a pet card and may need to be shaved or cut.
I am not a fan of Devouring Light. It doesn't hit Stormbreath and Ride Down answers blockers better. You are correct that my mana supports it fairly well and the Convoke might prove useful.

I will likely try Raise the Alarm if I go for a 2-drop threat. It is instant speed and isn't killed by a single removal spell. It also trades better with the red decks that are showing up in numbers online.
I like Chandra. I had her in my sideboard for a while but ended up cutting her because I was never bringing her in. It may be correct to replace a Mindswipe with her. If I go for an actual draw spell, I will probably go with Dig. UU is not the easiest with this deck but I should be able to pull it off by the time I need the card selection. Font does give me something to do on turn 2 but I often want to hold up a burn spell at that point or put a CIPT land in play.

You are correct about my sequencing. I am inconsistent when it comes to going aggro or staying back as control. That last Phoenix I should have just cast face up. The odds of him having another Disdainful are lower than him having more burn. I would have had to spend all my mana the next turn flipping it any way. I bring in Ashcloud as it is resistant to removal, then fail to actually use that ability. I definitely need more practice in the mirror in Dailies. Running riot over the players in the Tourney Practice Room is apparently not enough. I am also the only remotely competent player at my LGS that is trying Jeskai so I have little practice there as well. My results at States proved that I needed to make some changes. Those changes definitely helped but were obviously not enough.

Thanks for the kind words. Please ignore the sniffling as I have a nasty head cold still. Who is Squidward?