Jenara, Asura of ETB Goodstuff

[Scott]

Ahhh goodstuff, you dirty, dirty word. We all know that guy or gal that has that terrible 5 color monstrosity composed of all of their favorite cards crammed into a rather disorganized package, and like me, I am sure most of you hate sitting down across from that deck. Why? Because goodstuff is good.

But not all goodstuff decks are like that. While I hate the term itself because of the negative connotations it has associated with it, I can't deny that this deck is indeed a goodstuff deck. It doesn't fit into any other category, so I am left with that terrible term.

Luckily for anyone who sits down across from it, it isn't a deck crammed full of a random assortment of awesome cards. Unluckily for anyone who sits down across from me, it is crammed full of the best of my favorite cards.

This deck isn't a solitary work, though I did initially start to come up with the ideas on my own; I
would be remiss if I didn't at least mention a few names who may or may not ever see their mention, or may or may not ever care; ISBPathfinder, MrCoupon, nurse.jason, Massive_Marc, and everyone who has worked on this project.

Like most decks out there, mine is hardly a completed work, and I am still actively working towards getting a few key pieces for it, however some of those pieces are incredibly expensive.

So on to the General of choice, Jenara, Asura of War...

...My first EDH deck was a Sigarda, Host of Herons deck. Much like this one, it was a goodstuff deck, however unlike this one, it was terribly thought out, with the best of what I had laying around crammed into the deck because I had never played EDH before, and when you go from making 60 card decks, often with 4 of's of a lot of the cards in it, to 100-card singleton you can get a little overwhelmed. About two weeks into having it I abandoned it for a [card]
Rafiq of the Many[/card] voltron style deck. Six months later, losing interest in Voltron, I made the switch to Jenara, Asura of War after a friend gave me a copy. He had given it to me to add her to my Rafiq deck, and now every time we sit down to play he regrets ever giving her to me.

What makes Jenara unique compared to Sigarda or Rafiq is the way you play her; she's not critical to the decks success. I've had her get tucked or killed so many times that casting her would be pointless, and still walked away with the victory. With my Rafiq deck if he got tucked I would often be forced into a scoop; not so with Jenara. Often I will cast her as soon as I have the mana for her and start swinging as soon as possible. The other nice thing about her is the way she scales as the game goes on; early game she's a 3/3 flyer, but every turn I will almost always pump my extra mana into her. By midgame, if she hasn't been killed or tucked, it isn't unheard of for her to be
a 10/10 or bigger.

The deck itself focuses on creatures that do things as they enter the battlefield. The first time I thought about this, it didn't sound like a good idea, but I was wrong.

Anyway, I don't like to ramble on too much, and I've already written more than I have in my other thread for this deck. Get a drink, sit back, and take a peek at what we've got going on. Hopefully you will like what you see, and have some nice suggestions for me at the end.


GENERAL
1x Jenara, Asura of War
CREATURES
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Ixidron
1x Duplicant
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Archaeomancer
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Stoneforge Mystic
1x Eternal Witness
1x Gilded Drake
n1x Sun Titan
1x Consecrated Sphinx
1x Body Double
1x [card]Sakashima's Student[/card]
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Coiling Oracle
1x Farhaven Elf
1x Wood Elves
1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1x Sakashima the Impostor
1x Restoration Angel
1x Rafiq of the Many
1x Mulldrifter
1x Harmonic Sliver
1x Acidic Slime
1x Sphinx of Uthuun
1X Reveillark
1x Karmic Guide
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Sylvan Primordial
n1x Stonecloaker
PLANESWALKERS
1x Venser, the Sojourner
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
INSTANTS
1x Hinder
1x Spell Crumple
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Beast Within
1x Krosan Grip
1x Bant Charm
1x Ghostway
1x [card]Eladamri's Call[/card]
1x Return to Dust
SORCERIES
1x Cultivate
1x [card]Green Sun's Zenith[/card]
1x Wargate
1x [card]Akroma's Vengeance[/card]
1x Hallowed Burial
1x [card]Time Warp[/card:
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1x Chord of Calling
1x Rout
1x Austere Command
1x Rite of Replication
ENCHANTMENTS
1x Equilibrium
ARTIFACTS
1x [card]Sensei's Divining Top[/card]
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Skullclamp
1x Sol Ring
1x [card]Conjurer's Closet[/card]
1x Birthing Pod
1x Crystal Shard
LANDS
1x [card]Alchemist's Refuge[/card]
1x Seaside Citadel
1x Sejiri Refuge
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Azorius Chancery
1x Sunpetal Grove
n1x Selesnya Sanctuary
1x Hinterland Harbor
1x Graypelt Refuge
1x Simic Growth Chamber
1x Breeding Pool
1x Temple Garden
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Command Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
1x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Bant Panorama
1x Krosan Verge
1x Strip Mine
6x Island
6x Forest
6x Plains

There, that wasn't so bad, was it? The mana base needs a touch of work. Krosan Verge is a throwback from my less informed days, but I just haven't cut it for anything yet. I did recently add two
more shocks, so now I have all three, but I don't have any of the good onslaught or Zendikar fetches yet. I'd also love to get my hands on a Temporal Manipulation to give me a second timewalk effect, but 60 dollars is a little outside of anything my wife would let me spend on a single card.

A few interactions;

Venser, the Sojourner/Crystal Shard + Archaeomancer/Eternal Witness + Time Warp = Infinite turns. I almost never pull something like this off, but if I have access to a way to do it and I am losing, I may very well do it. The deck isn't tuned for combo, and it never will be, but this is one that sort of just happened.

The main focus of the deck is to win through greater resources. By keeping my average casting cost fairly low, I try to get into a position where I am casting way more than you are
each turn. I also try to have a few draw effects, as well as a healthy amount of ramp to set myself ahead of you as early as possible. I tried to have it so that most cards can interact with each other in some fashion, or at least further my cause in some way.

There are a few cards that eventually will get cut as I find better replacements, like [card]Conjurer's Closet[/card] (which I want to replace with Mimic Vat) or [card]Sakashima's Student[/card], which is like an only slightly better version of Clone.

Anyway, thanks for checking out my deck.

[Scott]

Reserved for changes, ect.

[Khaospawn]

This is so weird. My brother has a Rafig deck that he's had for over a year and has pretty much followed the same path as your deck. He still keeps Rafiq as his general but he rarely needs to cast it. I showed him your list and we had a good laugh because you two have an almost identical maindeck.

The deck is a beast. If you play anything like my brother, then I'm pretty sure you rarely lose. The only suggestion that my brother had for your deck is that you should probably take out some of the boardwipes like [card]Akroma's Vengeance[/card] and try to find room for extra turn spells like Temporal Mastery or Walk the Aeons.

Other than that, the mana base could always use some improvement with dual lands and such. I know they're expensive and your mana base is a work in progress, but I feel like that's the only bit of advice I can offer.
I know how the deck plays out and it already has neat ways to ramp out and fix your mana.

Anyways, good stuff.

[Azrael]

Neat deck. Love the repetitive Gilded Drake bouncing in particular.

Mana Reflection and Doubling Cube seem like that could be pretty good here. Especially if you bouncing Doubling Cube to re-tap multiple times.

If Time Stretch is prevalent enough in your meta, you could run Knowledge Exploitation as a very inexpensive and mana-efficient way of racking up extra turns. You could also just run Time Stretch. Huh, Bribery is up to $16 now. Stonehewer Giant.

Indrik Stomphowler seems worse than your current options, for the most part. Terastodon might be good enough, but he's expensive.

Card draw and tutors are pretty light. Mystical Tutor, Recurring Insight would be good.

Oh! How about Spitting Image?

Planar Guide? Prime Speaker Zegana? Avenger of Zendikar? Glen Elendra Archmage?

[Khaospawn]

Prime Speaker is just a complete house. Especially when you can flicker her in and out.

[Scott]

Sorry for the long time responding;

@Khaospawn - Yeah, in my playgroup I do win quite a bit. I don't always win, strong control decks can and often do beat me, and if I don't properly address threat levels sometimes things can get away from me. Also, stax can kick my ass pretty hard, as I learned this last weekend at the Grand Prix (I was well ahead when the jund stax player jokul'd, I clawed my way back to a decent board with Elesh Norn and Avacyn in play, but one player bounced Elesh and stole Avacyn for a single turn, the stax player chaos warp'd her and I got a cultivate, garbage. He jokul'd again and then proceeded to kill us both despite being at 2 health. Happens.) It is a really solid list.

I think it is maybe a testiment to how powerful bant ETB can be that people end up with rather similar lists.

I do need to get my hands on some more extra turn spells, however the wraths are useful in my meta; I play
against two rather insane token decks, both of which can run the board very quickly. I tend to recover from the wraths faster, or, alternately, if I have Avacyn on board the wraths will effect me very little.

@Azrael - I actually had Knowledge Exploitation in the deck for awhile, but ended up cutting it. I found that it just wasn't giving me enough value, and often I'd rather have one of my own spells in hand versus trying to get something good from someone else.

Terastadon would be fine, but I recently added Sylvan Primordial, and he is a real beast. Rite plus kicker with Sylvan, not to mention the amount of clones I run, and it can be a runaway win if no one can stop me. Glen Elandra is on my list of wants, so are a few other suggestions you made, many of which are all solid. Prime Speaker Zegana was one I wasn't so sure about, but as Khaos pointed out, it can be incredibly powerful, and I've heard from a few other bant players that run similar lists that it is an allstar, so I'll probably try
and snag a copy when I can.

[Khaospawn]

Another new card that's pretty is Progenitor Mimic. Being able to copy an Eternal Witness or an Archaeomancer every turn is just degenerate as hell but it's fun to do.

[Scott]

Another new card that's pretty is Progenitor Mimic. Being able to copy an Eternal Witness or an Archaeomancer every turn is just degenerate as hell but it's fun to do.

I actually don't think it is too degenerate unless you cheat it into play (which is possible with this deck) - it is a fairly costed creature for what it does. That said, it is an incredibly powerful clone, and when I get a copy it will be going in.