Dies to Removal

Squidward is a character from Spongebob.

You know what Devouring Light does hit, besides Stormbreath Dragon? Everything. It hits Sarkhan. It hits Mantis Rider. It hits Siege Rhino. It does these things, when they are attacking you, which is something that Ride Down does not. I think it deserves testing at least.

[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.

Evolving Wilds is bad. Chained to the Rocks as early removal doesn't make up for the fact you'll lose more games to your manabase. Mountains are really bad when you want to cast Jeskai spells, or multiple spells in the same turn.

Gryff turns off the ETB of Quickling...

Evolving Wilds is bad. Chained to the Rocks as early removal doesn't make up for the fact you'll lose more games to your manabase. Mountains are really bad when you want to cast Jeskai spells, or multiple spells in the same turn.

Gryff turns off the ETB of Quickling...

lol, I'm so bad at reading...


You got me on that one, but I'm no longer sure that Evolving Wilds is bad. I mean, if they played it in the Pro Tour...

Doesn't Gods Willing do the same thing as quicklnig?

For the most part. It was definitely a last minute addition while I was looking at the pool of available fliers, and I decided it was a good idea while I was super tired. Ignore it.

Seeker of the way is an absurdly powerful two-drop and you should probably just play 4.

It actually scales very well into the late game vs. a variety of decks and it's generally better vs. red then raise the alarm. I won a game vs. Abzan Aggro solely off the back of seeker gaining me 3 life a turn and it safely attacks into courser of kruphix the majority of the time.

Also, According to Frank Karstens data, Ben Starks Jeskai deck(I'm playing the exact same starting 60) had the highest win% at the PT.

Thinking in playing Stratskys list in Saturday, but I don't know if I can get the 3 Flooded Strand at time, or what number I can get in the store in time. Can anyone give me some help to some alternative mana base, please.

Thinking in playing Stratskys list in Saturday, but I don't know if I can get the 3 Flooded Strand at time, or what number I can get in the store in time. Can anyone give me some help to some alternative mana base, please.

How about...

-3 Flooded Strand, -1 Temple of Triumph, -1 Temple of Epiphany
+3 Temple of Enlightenment, +1 Battlefield Forge, +1 Shivan Reef

(+1 Temple, +2 Painland, -3 Fetches)

This keeps the colour distribution the same (UW land better than choice of U or W land?), but at the cost of having one more EBT land.


On an unrelated note, Strasky's list has a W/U/R land distribution of 14/14/18. I'm looking into whether you want 13(+)/16/18, to help with the Prognostic Sphinxes out of the board. I haven't decided whether this is a problem or not, and if it's worth fiddling with the manabase.

Here's Frank Karsten's sideboard thoughts;
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... of-tarkir/


Abzan Midrange
Out - 4 Magma Jet, 1 Jeskai Charm, 1 Stoke the Flames, 1 Lightning Strike, Ashcloud Phoenix
In - 3 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Prognostic Sphinx, 3 Suspension Field

Mirror
Out - 4 Hushwing Gryff, 2 Stormbreath Dragon, 2 Jeskai Charm
In - 1 Disdainful Stroke, 3 Prognostic Sphinx 1 Gainsay, 3 Magma Spray

Green Devotion
Out - 2 Stoke the Flames, 2 Lightning Strike, 1 Seeker of the Way, Ashcloud Phoenix
In - 3 Disdainful Stroke, 3 Suspension Field

UB Control
Out - 3 Banishing Light, 1 Lightning Strike
In - 3 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Gainsay

Jeskai Ascendancy Combo
Out - 1 Banishing Light, 2 Hushwing Gryff
In - 2 Anger of Gods, 1 Gainsay


With regards to card choices;

We were actually expecting more Ashcloud Phoenix in the Pro Tour because the card was performing quite well in testing, so we ran 3 Banishing Light in the main deck and 3 Magma Spray in the sideboard to fight it. In hindsight, Ashcloud Phoenix was not as popular, so Suspension Field or Nullify might have been better in the main deck and Dig Through Time might have been better in the sideboard.

Speaking of Nullify: Team ChannelFireball ran this card in their Jeskai deck, and I like it a lot. There are so many great 3+ mana cards in the format that it's hard to find an edge there, but you can get an edge by running 2-mana cards that can still trade up in the late-game. Nullify fits that criterion admirably. It might require a bit of a retooling of the mana base, but that may very well be worth it.

Personally, the more I look at all these sweet UU spells, the more I want to include them. Nullify, Dig Through Time, and Prognostic Sphinx definitely reward you for skewing your mana towards blue.

I have further modified my list, making way for some Seekers. Loving the 3/3 lifelinking.

[DECK=Crow's Eye]
Creatures
3 Seeker of the Way
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
4 Mantis Rider
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Planeswalkers
1 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Spells
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
3 Nullify
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Stoke the Flames
1 Dig Through Time


Lands
3 Temple of Triumph
3 Temple of Epiphany
1 Mystic Monastery
3 Mountain
1 Plains
3 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Shivan Reef
2 Battlefield Forge[/DECK]

Not sure if I'm running hot, or if I'm on to something...

8-2 against Abzan.

[deck]
Creature 16
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Mantis Rider
4 Hushwing Gryff
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Spells 20
4 Lightning Strike
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Crackling Doom
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Treasure Cruise

Lands 24
4 Mystic Monastery
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
3 Battlefield Forge
2 Mountain
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mana Confluence
[/deck]

Splashed for Crackling Doom because it deals with everything. Low blue count means no Digs, but Treasure Cruise has been pretty sick. There seem to be very few cards that I just don't want to draw late game.

Does your mana make you want to cry or has it been okay?

That mana needs work. 8 fetches on 4 basics?

Mana could probably use some help, but it's only lost me 1 game so far out of 15. Had a Rider and a Cruise in my hand, and no blue until like turn 8. And on the basics, I haven't drawn more than 4 fetches yet, but I'm sure it's not a very good feeling.

Mana Confluence
Nomad Outpost

Ideally, I'd like 14 white sources, 12 blue, and 10 black. I'm going to try 3 Confluence, and cut some Fetches, and see where that gets me.

[deck]
4 Mystic Monastery
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Polluted Delta
3 Battlefield Forge
2 Mountain
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Mana Confluence
1 Temple of Deceit
[/deck]

This hits my 14-12-10 goal, gonna see how it runs now.

Jesus that looks greedy.

As to the Blue comment about wanting Nullify and such, I'm thinking the same thing.

Scewing blue makes us better vs. Mirror and junk but I think worse vs. Devotion/control

not sure though

Played some more today with a suboptimal version of my deck(2 temples over flooded strands, missing sideboard cards) to a 3-1 finish at our last testing tourney.

Lost to the GP Orlando winner playing Sidisi Whip(terrible matchup if you don't have anger in you board) but went 3-0 in Jeskai mirrors.

In the mirror, Brimaz is gas, and countermagic is amazing.

Sarkhan is the only thing that's hard to kill when it resolves so falling behind in the mirror isn't the biggest problem so long as you aren't overly constrained on mana. It is a pretty tough matchup to play though as there's a lot of stuff you have to think about like getting blown out by charm and getting your dig countered or playing a threat into removal mana and getting out-tempo'd when they play there threat. This is actually why Brimaz is so good. You can tap out for him on 3 and not worried about him dying at the end of your turn.

Seeker of the way is one of the better cards if you care about the mirror a lot, play 4. The only way to get ahead early is to play one on turn 2. Otherwise, you're in the waiting game.

Rabblemaster is pretty phenomenal if you can untap with a token in play. I definitely won several games on the backs of either rabble+charm or just with a bunch of leftover tokens. In boarded games though, I found myself boarding them out(which could be wrong) because brimaz is so good and I didn't want to be glutted at three, especially when I skip my 3 mana play over half the time anyways.

Dig through time: make sure that shit resolves yo. If your opponent is tapped out, I'm usually fine with tapping out for it on my mainphase to ensure it resolves because it's just that powerful. It matters a lot how your cards match up.

Ration your lightning strikes. It's your most efficient removal spell. Related; be VERY wary of going on the burn plan early in the game. that's one of the easier ways to lose because seekers and charms fuck up the whole plan and leave you down a ton of virtual cards.

Jeskai charms bounce mode should be used more in general. I actually lost a game by bouncing something when I would have drawn lethal burn, but my life total was enough in question that I don't feel bad about it. Every other time, if you're ahead, it further cements your advantage. Just remember your stromkirk noble(or foundry street denizen) getting A Charmed and you'll understand what you must do.

Sarkhan: probably bad on the draw. The fucking man on the play. As I said earlier, the burn plan is risky and as such, you can actually be fine taking a couple hits from something that slips through. Sarkhan tends to clean up whatever that something is and gains you a chunk of life along the way OR just continues on and kills them.

Lastly, you almost always want to leave 2 mana up on turn 2, even if it jacks up your curve a little since even without the burn in hand, you can often get your opponent to skip there turn, especially if there only drop was a rabblemaster. Tempo is pretty important.

LSV Playing an Updated Jeskai Deck. I'll probably edit this post with the list later...or someone who watches the video can do it, whichever comes first.

http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/c ... kai-skies/

LSV Playing an Updated Jeskai Deck. I'll probably edit this post with the list later...or someone who watches the video can do it, whichever comes first.

http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/c ... kai-skies/

[deck=LSV's Jeskai Skies]
Land (24)
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Mana Confluence
1 Mountain
4 Mystic Monastery
2 Plains
4 Shivan Reef
2 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Temple of Epiphany

Planeswalkers (2)
2 Sarkhan, the Draonspeaker



Creatures (14)
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Hushwing Gryff
4 Mantis Rider
2 Ashcloud Phoenix

Instants + Sorceries (20)
3 Nullify
4 Lightning Strike
3 Magma Jet
4 Jeskai Charm
3 Stoke the Flames
3 Dig Through Time

Sideboard (15)
1 Reprisal
4 Supression Field
1 Banishing Light
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
1 Nullify
2 Magma Spray
[/deck]

CFBP's Jeskai;
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... kai-tempo/

They make some good points, including; the presence of Disdainful Stroke, the absence of Chandra, Pyromaster and Magma Jet, and Temples vs. Mystic Monastery.

Their sideboard plan involves siding out Seeker of the Way a lot, which I guess is weaker without Jet.

I had given a little thought to Temples vs. Monastery before, but the scrylands really are better if you make the mana work. I mined a load of manabase data from the 21+ points PTKTK Jeskai lists, and decks play between 10 and 8 EBT lands.

On an unrelated note, how many Islands/Plains are we comfortable playing with X amount of Flooded Strand? I feel like it should be 3 I/P with 2FS, but most lists seem to do 3I/P with 3FS.

Ugh man so torn between the Sperling list and Strasky list....

so much pressure to make the right choice with the Open in two days...

There's definitely an argument that they're both viable choices.

Rabblemaster + Dig Through Time builds are likely better against control and more individually powerful overall. Strasky/Fliers builds are well-positioned against the metagame of Rhinos and big butts.

I personally lean towards raw power over contextual power with my decks, particularly at big events with varied metagames.

The LSV list is pretty sweet.

Sperlings list sucks.
Waantanabes list is pretty good if you expect the mirror.
Rabblemaster sucks.

CFBP's Jeskai;
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... kai-tempo/

They make some good points, including; the presence of Disdainful Stroke, the absence of Chandra, Pyromaster and Magma Jet, and Temples vs. Mystic Monastery.

Their sideboard plan involves siding out Seeker of the Way a lot, which I guess is weaker without Jet.

I had given a little thought to Temples vs. Monastery before, but the scrylands really are better if you make the mana work. I mined a load of manabase data from the 21+ points PTKTK Jeskai lists, and decks play between 10 and 8 EBT lands.

On an unrelated note, how many Islands/Plains are we comfortable playing with X amount of Flooded Strand? I feel like it should be 3 I/P with 2FS, but most lists seem to do 3I/P with 3FS.

I'm comfortable with 1:1 ratio on lands and fetches; 2 Islands, 2 Plains, and 4 Strands.

Thinking of cutting 1 Banishing Light(or 1 Dragon) and also cut 1 Phoenix for 2 Dig through Time.

In Staskys list that is.

Purp, I really wish you'd stop saying that. You sound obtuse.

M8, did you just call my boy fat?

I used to be in the rabblemaster sucks camp.

Card wins too many games by itself and is way to broken with jeskai charm. No other card does what rabbles does.

Yeah it's quite good. I'm not going to argue which is better between him and Gryff in this deck, but Rabblemaster is probably tied for the best three drop in Standard right now. It certainly does not suck.

The only time rabblemaster is good in this meta is when on t3 you have both rabblemaster and mantis rider in your hand, and your opponent has open mana. You cast rabblemaster to eat a removal spell so the actual 3 drop that is tied for the best can be played.

Ok I think we are going a little overboard on the whole rabble sucks thing.

ITS A META CALL.

I am going to be running Gryff tomorrow at the SCG Open because my area has a hard-on for green.

I also went ahead and looked at SCG States for every State touching mine and also mine(Massachusetts).

The top 8's were 75% Junk decks/Devotion and very few Jeskia. There was at most 1 or 2 in top8 and some with 0.


Thus, I am going in hedging vs green decks and if I happen to run into mirror, so be it. I can lean on my burn experience from last season and I find myself strong in the mirror.

So do you guys agree with sangbagging creatures in the mirror if they have open mana?

Most definitely

I suppose if you feel that you don't have efficient answers to the threats they're going to play you should just play your dudes so you don't get buried in tempo.

3-1 again tonight. Just can't beat multiple Siege Rhino. I am considering moving to Clever Impersonator to give me a hand in that fight. Copying a Rhino or Sorin seems like a pretty big boost against them.

My default is sandbagging creatures. I just don't cast them into open mana. Then my opponent does something, I cast a rabblemaster and kill them with either that or the goblin token.

So how necessary are flooded strands? I picked up most of the mana base yesterday, and I have most of the cards... Only 1 strand and 1 dig though. Can I make a workable deck outa that? Trying to play jeskai at my game day today...

You can make a workable mana base without fetches. They do help quite a bit when filling your graveyard for Dig though.

Hi guys,

I'm new to the site, but have played magic for awhile now. Last night I took my Jeskai deck to the top8 standard league tournament at my local shop, it's basically the players with the best results from the last 6 months of FNM getting to battle it out over a few boxes. I did fairly well coming in second, losing to big Abzan after missing my third and fourth land drop for to long in game 3, we played 3 rounds of swiss and a cut to top4. I got a box of Khans but sadly missed out on the trophy.

Anyway, I decided to pre-board my deck against midrange and being on the draw(I was 6th in the standing and any opponent I played that was higher seeded would get to go first). I did this because I feel like Jeskai on the play is probably favored against most decks in the current meta, but going second was always a big issue for me in testing the deck.

Here is the deck I played, I see some decks with Nullify in the main over Disdainful Stroke. I chose to do it this way since I really never felt that any of the 1-3 drops was a problem, my issue was always the 4+ drop creatures, plainswalkers and card advantage spells like Dig from the control decks and opposing Jeskai decks. It's also easier on the mana costing 1U instead of UU.

There are some things I'd change in the SB, like adding a second Erase, but most of that is meta dependent.

Any thoughts, tips or questions on the deck in general?

[deck]
Land (24)

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

Instant (20)

3x Dig Through Time
3x Disdainful Stroke
4x Jeskai Charm
4x Lightning Strike
2x Magma Jet
4x Stoke the Flames

Creature (14)

4x Goblin Rabblemaster
2x Hushwing Gryff
4x Mantis Rider
4x Seeker of the Way

Enchantment (2)

2x Banishing Light

Sideboard (15)

3x Anger of the Gods
1x Disdainful Stroke
1x Erase
2x Magma Spray
2x Negate
1x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker
2x Stormbreath Dragon
3x Suspension Field
[/deck]

Well my first foray into jeskai in todays tournament was abysmal. What the hell constitutes a good opening hand? Constantly found myself mana screwed and having a hand full of stuff I didnt need or couldnt use at the time... This was probably my worst showing in any event I've played in so far, maybe bad luck finally caught up to me? I dunno. It felt pretty awful though, I think Im gonna keep trying to make straight boros work.