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…