I've been trying to build a Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain deck but almost always, the version I come up with is of the storm variety (Ornithopter and similar + Retract. I have been playing with those versions of the deck but I found the linear gameplay very boring. The deck is just trying to combo off from turn 1 with no regards to what other people are doing, with the exception of counterspells.
Now, what I want to do is to make the deck more fun and interactive. I still want a failsafe combo utilizing Paradox Engine and some other things but it's not going to be the main focus of the deck. I am leaning towards a superfriends type of deck with some counters support (so they can get to their ultimate faster).
Here are the cards I kinda want to include...
Counters support: The Chain Veil - I don't have this one and it's very expensive and hard to acquire where I am right now Clockspinning - helps walkers get to their ultimates and acts as a paradox engine enabler Deepglow Skate - doubles counters Contagion Clasp/Viral Drake - proliferate helps Inexorable Tide - helps with counters
However, I don't want it all to be planeswalkers and counters support. I'm thinking of throwing in artifacts/historic tribal as a subtheme. With this, maybe it's good to include a lot of mana rocks and then put in Wildfire and its ilk.
These are the things I want the deck to do:
1. Have planeswalkers
2. Protect planeswalkers
3. Help planeswalkers get to their ultimates faster
4. Repeatedly get rid of creatures (because they want to hurt our planeswalkers)
5. Have some sort of pillowfort/stax element (maybe more pillowfort since stax is usually frowned upon)
6. Have artifacts/historic tribal as a subtheme (maybe some recursion too)
I don't play in a very competitive group and everyone wants the games to be as fun as it can be, though not exactly of the battlecruiser variety.
A couple of my Izzet decks might give you some ideas, as they have planeswalker sub-themes, complete with protection and support for faster ultimate's.
Check out the Saheeli, the Gifted and Will & Rowan Kenrith decks, the links are in my signature.
I recently built a Jhoira deck, and what I found right away is that the more things you try to do with it, the more likely you aren't going to do any of them very well. The historic aspect is a bit of a trap, in that you can get a benefit for casting artifacts and sagas and planeswalkers and legendary spells, but that gives you so many options to choose from that it doesn't really help you focus your deck. You talk about wanting to go the planeswalker route but also the Paradox Engine route, but what you will find is that a lot of the things that really go well with Paradox Engine don't do squat for planeswalkers, other than a) The Chain Veil, obviously, and b) non-land mana sources help you keep casting planeswalkers.
Wow, not being able to edit our posts right now really sucks. I hit enter by accident and now I can't go in and fix the post above. What the hell is wrong with the board and when is it going to be fixed?
Anyhow, to continue what I was going to write, the deeper you go with the artifacts/historic theme, the farther you are likely to get from your planeswalker focus, and likely the worse you will find yourself doing in terms of protecting your planeswalkers, boosting their loyalty and so forth. Mostly stick with things that go great with your deck's main theme. There are plenty of artifacts that go well with Planeswalkers, even if you are mostly just focusing on casting them via rocks and getting the benefits of a few artifacts such as The Chain Veil, Contagion Clasp and maybe Isochron Scepter.
Artificer's Assistant helps you get to the cards you want, and Jhoira's Familiar makes your planeswalkers and many of the support cards cheaper to cast.
If you find yourself going heavy on artifacts, Sai, Master Thopterist can help you protect your walkers by providing thopter blockers, but you are probably better off focusing a planeswalker deck on removing opponent's creatures than on producing a lot of your own.
Definitely use Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery, like Ertai noted above.
Also, don't forget cheap draw spells. The temptation is to just go with the potentially ridiculous amount of draw provided by Jhoira, but a) competent players will do everything they can to keep her off the board, and b) as always, small amounts of extra card draw add up to a huge advantage over the course of the game. Plus, the benefits of cheap spells + rocks + Paradox Engine are a big part of what makes Paradox Engine so broken.
I've been trying to build a Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain deck but almost always, the version I come up with is of the storm variety (Ornithopter and similar + Retract. I have been playing with those versions of the deck but I found the linear gameplay very boring. The deck is just trying to combo off from turn 1 with no regards to what other people are doing, with the exception of counterspells.
Now, what I want to do is to make the deck more fun and interactive. I still want a failsafe combo utilizing Paradox Engine and some other things but it's not going to be the main focus of the deck. I am leaning towards a superfriends type of deck with some counters support (so they can get to their ultimate faster).
Here are the cards I kinda want to include...
Counters support:
The Chain Veil - I don't have this one and it's very expensive and hard to acquire where I am right now
Clockspinning - helps walkers get to their ultimates and acts as a paradox engine enabler
Deepglow Skate - doubles counters
Contagion Clasp/Viral Drake - proliferate helps
Inexorable Tide - helps with counters
However, I don't want it all to be planeswalkers and counters support. I'm thinking of throwing in artifacts/historic tribal as a subtheme. With this, maybe it's good to include a lot of mana rocks and then put in Wildfire and its ilk.
These are the things I want the deck to do:
1. Have planeswalkers
2. Protect planeswalkers
3. Help planeswalkers get to their ultimates faster
4. Repeatedly get rid of creatures (because they want to hurt our planeswalkers)
5. Have some sort of pillowfort/stax element (maybe more pillowfort since stax is usually frowned upon)
6. Have artifacts/historic tribal as a subtheme (maybe some recursion too)
I don't play in a very competitive group and everyone wants the games to be as fun as it can be, though not exactly of the battlecruiser variety.
Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.
RBW Mardu Reveler
Commander:
UW Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper - One-Punch Griffin || UR Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - Historic Tribal Superfriends
GR Omnath, Locus of Rage - Turbo Lands Spellslinger || WURBG Scion of the Ur-Dragon - Living Death Reanimator
BGonti, Lord of Luxury - Gonti's Midnight Party
Under Construction:
WGU Rubinia Soulsinger - Enchantress || RBGU Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Cascading Artifacts
RU Jhoira of the Ghitu - Dragonstorm Eldrazi || RU Mizzix of the Izmagnus - Spellslinger
WURBG The Ur-Dragon - Cloning for the Win || WGU Roon of the Hidden Realm - Creature Toolbox
RBGU Vial Smasher the Fierce Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix - Lots'a Combos || BW Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - Reanimator Combo
WBGU Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Modified Precon
BUR Nekusar, the Mindrazer || U Arcanis the Omnipotent - Artifact "Storm"
If you want to go full in on clockspinning you could run Memory Crystal. If you do, Fanning the Flames becomes an affordable repeatable boardwipe.
Also, you want Vedalken Orrery and Leyline of Anticipation to flash PW’s in eot and then have mana to protect them.
More staxy cards are Smoke and Mudslide.
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Check out the Saheeli, the Gifted and Will & Rowan Kenrith decks, the links are in my signature.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Oh this is nice. I may have to work on getting some snow basics. Smoke and Mudslide seem decent in dealing with creatures.
RBW Mardu Reveler
Commander:
UW Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper - One-Punch Griffin || UR Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - Historic Tribal Superfriends
GR Omnath, Locus of Rage - Turbo Lands Spellslinger || WURBG Scion of the Ur-Dragon - Living Death Reanimator
BGonti, Lord of Luxury - Gonti's Midnight Party
Under Construction:
WGU Rubinia Soulsinger - Enchantress || RBGU Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Cascading Artifacts
RU Jhoira of the Ghitu - Dragonstorm Eldrazi || RU Mizzix of the Izmagnus - Spellslinger
WURBG The Ur-Dragon - Cloning for the Win || WGU Roon of the Hidden Realm - Creature Toolbox
RBGU Vial Smasher the Fierce Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix - Lots'a Combos || BW Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - Reanimator Combo
WBGU Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Modified Precon
BUR Nekusar, the Mindrazer || U Arcanis the Omnipotent - Artifact "Storm"
Oh this is nice. I may have to work on getting some snow basics. Smoke and Mudslide seem decent in dealing with creatures.
RBW Mardu Reveler
Commander:
UW Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper - One-Punch Griffin || UR Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - Historic Tribal Superfriends
GR Omnath, Locus of Rage - Turbo Lands Spellslinger || WURBG Scion of the Ur-Dragon - Living Death Reanimator
BGonti, Lord of Luxury - Gonti's Midnight Party
Under Construction:
WGU Rubinia Soulsinger - Enchantress || RBGU Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder - Cascading Artifacts
RU Jhoira of the Ghitu - Dragonstorm Eldrazi || RU Mizzix of the Izmagnus - Spellslinger
WURBG The Ur-Dragon - Cloning for the Win || WGU Roon of the Hidden Realm - Creature Toolbox
RBGU Vial Smasher the Fierce Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix - Lots'a Combos || BW Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim - Reanimator Combo
WBGU Atraxa, Praetors' Voice - Modified Precon
BUR Nekusar, the Mindrazer || U Arcanis the Omnipotent - Artifact "Storm"
Anyhow, to continue what I was going to write, the deeper you go with the artifacts/historic theme, the farther you are likely to get from your planeswalker focus, and likely the worse you will find yourself doing in terms of protecting your planeswalkers, boosting their loyalty and so forth. Mostly stick with things that go great with your deck's main theme. There are plenty of artifacts that go well with Planeswalkers, even if you are mostly just focusing on casting them via rocks and getting the benefits of a few artifacts such as The Chain Veil, Contagion Clasp and maybe Isochron Scepter.
Artificer's Assistant helps you get to the cards you want, and Jhoira's Familiar makes your planeswalkers and many of the support cards cheaper to cast.
If you find yourself going heavy on artifacts, Sai, Master Thopterist can help you protect your walkers by providing thopter blockers, but you are probably better off focusing a planeswalker deck on removing opponent's creatures than on producing a lot of your own.
Definitely use Leyline of Anticipation and Vedalken Orrery, like Ertai noted above.
Also, don't forget cheap draw spells. The temptation is to just go with the potentially ridiculous amount of draw provided by Jhoira, but a) competent players will do everything they can to keep her off the board, and b) as always, small amounts of extra card draw add up to a huge advantage over the course of the game. Plus, the benefits of cheap spells + rocks + Paradox Engine are a big part of what makes Paradox Engine so broken.