The Jeskai Dilemma Part 2: Tournament Day

After a few more seconds, Adrian finally untapped on his turn and drew. He played his second land and passed. Turn 3, Chris draws. Not a land. Unfazed, he shoves Soulfire into combat, nugs Adrian for 2 damage, and summons Jace. Without hesitation, Adrian ends Jace’s short life with a Wild Slash.

Hello everybody and welcome to Part Deux! Guess what. It's tournament day! Since I have terrible memory, I won’t go into too much details with my matches. Will only mention the interesting tidbits that I do remember, though. I did have the strangest match-ups all day, ranging from Mono-Red decks to Elf decks in Top 8 contention. 

Round 1 – 2-1 vs Javier Cedeño with Mono-Red

In this match, I barely saw any trace of Soulfire Grand Master, which is arguably (and obviously) the best card in the match-up. Despite putting up a good fight, I lost Game 1 rather quickly. Game 2 came down to me playing Dig Through Time on Cedeño’s end step, and picking up two Wild Slash for his Monastery Swiftspear and what I believe was a Zurgo Bellstriker. I had the option of getting an Elspeth or a Negate, but either one wouldn’t have really dealt with what was on board effectively, or would put me in a situation where Exquisite Firecraft was game over (I think I was either at 3, 4, or 5 lives—not sure). Thus I took the Wild Slash to clean the board, and was rewarded with a Soulfire Grand Master on my draw step. Played it, Wild Slashed both his creatures, gaining 4 lives in the process, and scooped when his draw step wasn’t as kind.

Game 3 was pretty much about me playing Rabblemaster into a Jeskai Charm for a 12-point life swing. I won shortly thereafter.

Round 2 – 2-1 vs Yadid Colón also on Mono-Red

At this point I was wondering why on Earth hadn’t I put the second Arashin Cleric over the second Rending Volley, regardless, the decisions were locked in, had to work with what I had.

This match went almost the same as the previous one. Lost Game 1, while Game 2 and 3 were somewhat similar (from memory) which was me playing Rabblemaster into Jeskai Charm for another 12-18 point life swing, winning the game a few turns later.

Round 3 – 2-1 vs José A. Arroyo with Bw Warriors.

Although Bw Warrios is a lot easier to play against than Mono-Red, all games were way too close for my liking. Unlike the Red decks, I did win Game 1, and I was going to win Game 2 as well, yet my clever plans were foiled by my own stupidity.

You see, I had an active Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy with three cards in my graveyard, a Flooded Strand in my hand and an Anger of the Gods with the mana available to play it. My plan, then, is to fetch for a land, loot with Jace to flip it, and subsequently play the Anger, wiping my opponent’s entire board. With a clean board, a flipped Jace, and quite a stacked hand, I would have no trouble winning. Instead, I looted first, smacked my forehead before discarding, and proceeded to lose my Jace to my own Anger (both, metaphorically and literally). Nice going, Chris, you beautiful idiot. The mistake extended the match to three games, which I nearly lost. 

Luckily, in sideboarding, I decided to leave a 1-of Stormbreath Dragon. I figured that after the coast was clear, I might need it to close out the game very quickly—I was right.

In Game 3, I was getting slammed by a couple of overzealous Warriors, backed by a ticking Sorin, Solemn Visitor, putting him up to 29 lives. By then I have a Mastery of the Unseen which I had not had time to use, topdecked the Stormbreath and killed the Sorin. I take another hit, and on my turn I Anger of the Gods followed by an Arashin Cleric. I drop him to 25 lives. He passes back, I remember having to do something with my mana that didn’t let me monstrous the Stormbreath. I think it was a removal spell, so I can attack with the Dragon and the Cleric to put him at 20. He draws… Nothing. At the end of his turn, I manifest with Master of the Unseen. Time is called on my turn… the time to press on!

I monstrous Stormbreath Dragon dealing one damage from the card in Arroyo’s hand, and swing with everybody to put him at 9. Arroyo draws… Another nothing? Ships the turn back, I attack and he extends his hand!

Round 4 – 0-2 vs Adam Azulay with Hangarback Abzan

Not much to say here, I mulled to 5 on Game 1, managed to grind the game to turn a-million, but double Sorin, Solemn Visitor was too much for me to overcome. Game 2, was similar to the first; Sorin being excessively problematic.

Round 5 – 2-1 vs Victor Rosario Lamourt with Elves.

Like I said, my matches were weird, if not interesting. I won Game 1 and lost Game 2. Elves showcased how powerful they can be on that second game. Getting me with multiple Shaman of the Packs and me forgetting that Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen had Reach. That slight oversight cost me the game, or at least I could have made it a lot harder for Rosario. Game 3 was a tricky. I remember making a slight misplay, though, fortunately, it went unpunished and I proceeded to win the match.

Round 6 – ID with Steven Vega for Top 8!

Adrian’s third turn was to play a Hangarback Walker and he was done. Chris stares at his Anger of the Gods stuck in his hand, “One more land. That’s all I need and my entire hand gets turned on.” In spite of the small crowd and the spotlight being on these two players, Chris remained calm. This wasn’t the time to be nervous. It was time to overcome the stage fright. Grow accustomed to being here. He spent nearly half an hour sitting under the starry sky, taking in the sweet, night air, before heading into the last leg of his tournament. Now, his determination steadied his hand.

Quarterfinals – 2-1 vs Julio Tirado and his Gr Devotion with See the Unwritten

Tirado and I go quite a ways back. The first time I met him, he was building a UWR Tempo deck with Geist of Saint Thraft for Modern, nearly two years ago. From there, he has matured as a player constantly facing each other at Top 8s. Aside from becoming a talented player, he has also done well innovating with Tier 1 decks, and this time was no different, piloting a ‘retro’ version of Gr Devotion, sporting See the Unwritten, to the Top 8. Honestly, this was the scariest and toughest match I had to play all day.

Game 1 went as this match tends to go: Devotion plays some mana acceleration, Jeskai plays a Soulfire or a Jace, or both, and starts to generate some adavantage. Tirado ramped into a Polukranos that met with a Valorous Stance. Then played another into my Disdainful Stroke. He pauses and stares at the Disdainful Stroke, “You have THAT main decked? Geeze…”

I play a Mantis Rider, flip my Jace, and he Sees the Unwritten into Dragonlord Atarka. He kills the Rider and deals two to my Jace. Jace -3 and I ‘flashback’ Valorous Stance to remove the Atarka. Soulfire Grand Master joins the fray and (maybe?) a second Jace. I recall getting another attack in, putting him in Burn range, probably at 9 lives. He Sees the Unwritten again for another Atarka wiping my field. On his end step, I Dig Through Time with two mana up so I can Lightning Strike him. From the Dig, I pick up a Jeskai Charm and something else; subsequently Lightning Strike'd him and untapped into my draw step. As luck would have it, I topdeck a Stoke the Flames that combined with the Charm for lethal.

The second game felt more like a joke than anything else:

Me: Turn 2 Soulfire Grand Master.
Tirado: Turn 3 Polukranos.
Me: Turn 3 Mantis Rider.

Tirado: Turn 4 monstrous Polukranos, kill Soulfire, swing for 7. 
Me: Turn 4 a second Rider. 

Tirado: Tturn 5 See the Unwritten into double Gaea’s Revenge. 

Me: Turn 5 I don’t remember.

Tirado: Turn 6, play the third Gaea’s Revenge, in response, I concede.
Don’t let anyone tell you that three Gaea’s Revenges are beatable. It’s not. I tried. 

Seeing how powerfully written See the Unwritten is, I decided to revisit my sideboard and bring in the Negate. In this case, it would be acting as the fourth Disdainful Stroke. What could go wrong?

We shuffle up for Game 3. Can’t remember if I mulled, just that I kept a hand with Mantis Rider and a Negate. I think I killed a turn 1 Elvish Mystic from Tirado, then played the Mantis Rider. Valorous Stance’d something? And then played a second Rider with Negate back. Consequently, Tirado tanked on his main phase and asks, “Do you have a counterpsell?”

“I dunno, show me what you got.”

He obliges by playing See the Unwritten, I Negate, and he concedes.

Semifinals – 2-1 vs Juan Ramírez sporting RG Dragons.

Juan Ramírez I’ve known for a long time and is someone who loves this game. Whether he does well or not, he just enjoys the game for what it is. That said, this guy wrecked the swiss rounds going 2-0 nearly every round. Had a 70% win percentage by the end of the swiss. Needless to say, I was intimidated by his deck. This time around, I don’t have much of a play by play. I know there were a lot of Goblin Rabblemasters on both sides of the table. Strokes were aimed at Dragons. One Tragic Arrogance left him with just a goblin token in another game, and God knows what else. Fortunately, through the chaos I emerged victorious.

... Next came the Finals.

Chris drew for his fourth turn. Missed another land drop. Still composed, Chris passed the turn without a play. Adrian lays another land and his own Soulfire. Chris draws and plays Glare of Heresy on the Grand Master.

“I’m pretty sure that was a mistake,” Chris thought. Adrian untaps and retaliates with a Mantis Rider, “Yup, that was a mistake.” 

Chris was falling behind. He can’t keep up. Adrian has a grip full of cards, that even if Chris manages to get the third land, the Anger of the Gods would not be enough to stem the bleeding from Adrian’s creatures. Especially now that Adrian’s Hangarback was well above Anger’s range. Chris’s surroundings became bleak from the dawning realization that his tournament was drawing to a close.

There was nothing else to be done.

Adrian Marquéz became the WMCQ champion and the fourth member of the Puerto Rican team. This year, the team looks great and seems to be poised to make waves at the World Cup. Obviously, I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to take it home, but there is always next year. That said, I have to give my thanks to my teammates: Edgar Rosario, Omar Marrero, Alexander Santana, Michael Velázquez, and Gilbert Otero. Thanks for all my opponents for being awesome people and good sports. Special thanks to Julio Tirado for the kind words, Josue M. Arroyo for running a smooth tournament and also kind words, Carlos Colón for forcing me to play with Goblin Rabblemasters, and Eduardo Feyjoo for suggesting that 1-of Disdainful Stroke. Finally, I want to thank everyone else who supported me throughout my 9-round journey.

I’m getting better every step of the way to the point that I can almost touch that Pro Tour dream with my hands. Just a bit more. This ain’t over yet!

Yours truly,

Chris

The Jeskai Dilemma, Part 1: Finding The Deck

All eyes were on the remaining two players of around 40. The store fell silent. The air grew colder. Chris laid out his seven card hand in front of him. His opponent did the same. They both picked them up and scrutinized them quitely. Chris’s hand was Goblin Rabblemaster, Soulfire Grand Master, Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, Anger of the Gods, Disdainful Stroke, Flooded Strand, and Mystic Monastery. ‘Only two lands?’ he thought, ‘I’m down a game… Can I even keep this?’

Right after the Modern World Magic Cup Qualifier three weeks ago, I decided that it was time to stop fooling around and get ready for the final Standard WMCQ. Despite the format being so wide open, few decks offered what I was looking for—a deck with an aggressive curve that can switch gears mid-game in order to grind opponents. A couple of months ago, I had that in Abzan Aggro. I played a list that had main deck Courser of Kruphix(es) so that I could grind easier game one (if it came to that) or board Elspeth, Sun’s Champion and become a Control deck post-board. It worked beautifully and got me a 2^nd place finish at that tournament (a States Championship, I believe). What turned me off was that Dromoka’s Command was so prevalent, that mirror matches would consist of people 2-for-1’ing me out of the tournament. I could then play the more traditional and current Abzan builds, however my teammates were already locked into that, so acquiring the cards for my build would prove quite an ordeal.

I had to keep exploring.

Already having set my criteria for the perfect Standard deck meant Devotion decks and both, RB and GR Dragons, were out of the question. Fringe strategies like Rally the Ancestors and Ug Devotion were not even a consideration and Control decks felt way too reactive for such an open Metagame where the amount of questions slightly outnumbered the answers you had available. Not to mention the strongest Control option, Esper Dragons, did not have a great manabase to begin with. Losing to not drawing double Black for Hero’s Downfall, or double Blue for Silumgar’s Scorn, or the White for Dragonlord Ojutai was not something I was willing to slug through round after round. I even went back to my old love, SidisiWhip, which I discarded almost immediately for being terrible against everything except hyper-aggressive decks.

Once again… aggressive, burny, disruptive, and grindy. What deck could possibly fit that description?

A little before Magic Origins was released, I played with a curious Jeskai build that Josh Utter-Leyton played at the Finals of the Super Standard League. The deck was quite fun to play, though not very powerful.

Jeskai Flyers – Josh Utter-Leyton SSL Finals

Creatures – 18

3 Ashcloud Phoenix
3 Frost Walker
4 Mantis Rider
4 Stratus Dancer
4 Flamewake Phoenix

Spells – 18

1 Disdainful Stroke

2 Crater’s Claws
2 Wild Slash
3 Valorous Stance
3 Lightning Strike
3 Dig Through Time
4 Jeskai Charm

Lands – 24

1 Plains

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

Sideboard –

1 Dig Through Time

2 Wild Slash
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 End Hostilities
2 Mastery of the Unseen
2 Soulfire Grand Master
2 Roast
2 Rending Volley

Like I said, not very impressive, yet it was the kind of deck I enjoyed playing. Thus, naturally, I picked up Jeskai again, though this time with the dragon package. I figured Lightning Strike and Soulfire Grand Master were great together, maybe Draconic Roar would be insane. Here’s how it looked:

Jeskai Dragons (Test Subject)
Creatures – 18

3 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

3 Stormbreath Dragon

4 Soulfire Grand Master

4 Thunderbreak Regent

4 Mantis Rider

Spells – 17

1 Wild Slash

1 Roast

2 Magma Spray

2 Dig Through Time

2 Jeskai Charm

2 Ojutai’s Command

3 Draconic Roar

4 Valorous Stance

Lands – 25

1 Mountain

2 Plains

2 Island

3 Battlefield Forge

3 Shivan Reef

3 Temple of Triumph

3 Temple of Epiphany

4 Flooded Strand
4 Mystic Monastery

After hours of grueling testing sessions, I came out completely unsatisfied with the dragons. Don’t get me wrong, Thunderbreak Regent is an above average card that makes life hard for your opponents, but it just wasn’t pulling its weight. If opponents managed to stymie your initial ‘offensive’ of Soulfires and Jaces (or ignored it, like Devotion tended to do), tapping out on turn 4 for Regent quickly got outclassed by Dragonlord Atarkas or walked right into Languish/Elspeth. Furthermore, I topped my curve at five with three Stormbreath Dragons that were also having trouble keeping the deck’s aggressiveness on full-throttle. The deck simply felt way too clunky and had problems pushing enough damage, therefore making a Burn finish unrealistic. Other than the dragons, I loved everything else about the deck.

I was getting closer and closer.

‘He’ll likely have a Wild Slash for my Jace,’ Chris’s mental struggle continued, ‘which I’ll need to draw into more lands. Then again, maybe Soulfire could be bait. I get two draw steps. I get to shuffle if nothing else. There’s a clear plan.’

‘I’ll keep,’ Chris finally said out loud.

Standard had plenty of creatures that could replace the dragons. My two testing groups suggested all of them. We considered Monastery Mentors, Stratus Dancers, Keranos, God of Storms, and even Goblin Rabblemaster, to which I objected time and time again. I actually tried the Mentor. The impact Mentor had was so negligible. I mean, it generates no value the turn it comes into play unless you can follow it with another spell. On curve, it is a Gray Ogre; later in the game, however, you had a beast capable of dominating a game. Unfortunately, against Languish and Control decks in general, it wasn’t good enough. Suffice to say, the Mentor was more of an unqualified substitute teacher that needed firing.

During my last testing session with Jeskai Dragons, I played against the RG version of the Dragon decks and got smashed most of the games. My frustration with the deck is beginning to show. The deck needed to be nimble, like a guerrilla. They strike from unexpected directions, are fast and tactical. That’s what I envisioned. My testing partner then got an inspiration. He laid the deck on the table and started to make changes. Regents became three Rabblemasters and a Stoke the Flames, the third Stormbreath became the second Stoke the Flames, the Magma Sprays were replaced by Wild Slashes #2 and #3. Upped the Jace count to 4 and followed that up with another round of testing games. The match up felt awkwardly… favorable. Much more than with the Dragons!

We are nearly there.

He played his Mystic Monastery and shipped the turn. His opponent, Adrian Marquéz, played an untapped land and passed back. Chris drew for his turn—no land. Flooded Strand came onto the battlefield, fetched for an Island into Soulfire, and passed the turn. Adrian went into a think tank at the end of Chris’s turn, “He must have the Wild Slash. I’m screwed.”

The last pieces of the puzzle came together with the sideboard and when I cut the third Wild Slash for a lone Disdainful Stroke in the main deck. I despised having to jump through hoops to kill opposing Stormbreath Dragons, or having to find ways to close out games once my opponents had an active Outpost Siege, or needing to specifically draw Valorous Stances to kill Dragonlord Atarka, not being able to efficiently deal with Elspeths, or tempo out Abzan or Control by countering their Digs, Languishes and/or Crux of Fates. This short list should be enough to convince anyone of how necessary that Disdainful Stroke was. Furthermore, it was an easy card to sideboard out against decks that aimed to play at a lower curve such as Mono Red decks.

The sideboard was easier as I had the help of a teammate who played the deck almost tirelessly on XMage. As a starting point, we picked up a sideboard configuration from a Jeskai that reached the finals of a (by then) recent Star City Games Open. My teammate provided quite a lot of feedback on the configuration, we made some tweaks and then, the night before I sat down for another revision. It took me a couple of hours, but by midnight, this was the final product:

Jeskai Aggro (The Final Form)

Creatures – 17

2 Stormbreath Dragon

3 Goblin Rabblemaster

4 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
4 Soulfire Grand Master
4 Mantis Rider

Spells – 18

1 Disdainful Stroke

2 Stoke the Flames
2 Jeskai Charm
2 Ojutai’s Command
2 Wild Slash
2 Dig Through Time
3 Lightning Strike
4 Valorous Stance

Lands – 25

1 Mountain

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

Sideboard –

1 Negate

1 Arashin Cleric
1 Revoke Existence
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Elspeth’s Sun Champion
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Mastery of the Unseen
2 Tragic Arrogance
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Rending Volley

This is pretty much what I had been envisioning since the first Standard WMCQ back in August… I think we got there.

To be continued…