I use Jaya a bit differently. My group tends to keep one another in check pretty well. Combo kills aren't the regular but they do come up. My stax pieces and copy spells (normally targeting counterspells: eventually they may be swapped for Pyroblast effects, etcl) are able to keep the board fair to some degree.
Though combo exists, my meta is also quite healthy with a variety of decks. For example, the Momir Vig combo player mains a competitive-as-possible Mayeal stompy list.
Sounds like that requires fewer tweaks than some metas and I could see her doing alright there. Jaya's problem in particular is that she exacerbates mono-R's weakness in EDH, card advantage. If you're playing in a meta that's going to vastly outstrip you in that sense or where decks have critical turns before you can get an engine set up, it can be rough.
My meta has shifted pretty casual over the years, so Jaya has remained a pretty good fit. We're still playing with powerful cards (fetch/dual manabases are the norm, for example), but there's virtually no combo, few tutors including virtually no unrestricted tutors, and a lot of the eye roll inducing staples have fallen out of favor. I'll be the first to admit it's a weird meta, though. Not a whole lot of places where Underground Sea is common and Demonic Tutor is verboten.
For EDHrec I filter out the non-competitive cards. This is my favorite way to use the site. I agree that the normal page doesn't always have the best info and that I normally use it as a base. Fortnately, my years playing Mono-red I already have a firm base.
Thanks for the info, Weebo.
That's definitely how I like EDHREC. Filtering by duals or very strategy-specific cards can actually get you some decent results. I think it's a nice tool for someone who has 0 information about the format and it's helpful once you have a nice base to build on with a weird spot in between where you can end up putting too much faith in the results and get some terrible advice.
I'm always happy to type way too much about whatever topic.
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Has metalworker ever been in the 99? This deck has more artifacts than my Memnarch list and the extra mana seems like it could be useful. Maybe not so much though if you're discarding to Jaya all the time.
Speaking of discard, when did Squee get the axe? I noticed he's mentioned in the primer, but I didn't see the post that lead up to you cutting him.
Picked Metalworker up when it was unbanned and tried it for a couple games, though I don't think it ever made it into a thread update (a couple of the changelog entries encompass a long enough time period that cards came in and out without ever being recorded). It's great for explosive early plays where most of the rest of the deck isn't. The big problem with it was that there were only a couple ways to reload with useful cards instead of a handful of basics and the highest impact big mana play in the deck prior to Kozilek/Ugin was Jaya's ability, which kills Metalworker. It might be better with Kozi and a couple other huge colorless plays now and could be worth revisiting. I'd have to look into how reliably I could turn the mana into lasting board or card advantage.
My guess is that I would want a general shift towards a more explosive game plan with more fast mana to include it. The other big differences would be a philosophical shift away from Jaya's role as endgame control and threat through inferno to a supporting role with the first two abilities, adding some kind of combo finish, trimming the mana curve down, and much heavier stax elements. In addition to requiring a lot of retooling for a deck I generally like as is, that also puts the deck into an awkward spot in terms of where it sits competitively and is a poor fit for my current group. I realize that all seems drastic for a single card. I just really dislike having single cards that significantly alter a deck's game plan when you see them early and low impact at other points in the game, especially for a deck geared for late game play.
Squee actually fell out pretty early because he's really only good at being discarded. He's not particularly notable as an equipment carrier or a chump blocker and there's no sacrificing for profit going on here. To be included, he'd have to take the place of something useful in more scenarios that can also be discarded when needed. I discard pretty aggressively when playing this because there's not really any one essential card for the deck. If I'm not able to use a card almost immediately, I'm OK tossing it. There's a fair amount of digging power to get to the stuff I do need at the time and there's a fair amount of recursion if it turns out I need something I discarded down the line. Including cards strictly for their discard potential is a trap.
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Abrade is playable for the format, though I'm not sure how I feel about it in this deck in particular.
Neheb, the Eternal is a ton of potential mana and is right on the border of surviving an inferno without any help. I'll probably try him out here (in addition to running him in numerous more aggressive red lists).
Crook of Condemnation is generally worse than existing GY hate options but I think is the first colorless repeatable targeted option, which is notable.
Mirage Mirror looks like a ton of fun and potentially very powerful. Doubles up on mana doublers, snags off colored effects from other people, and has a lot of built-in resistance to removal. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.
Sunset Pyramid comes back to the discussion of what kind of card advantage mono-R needs at this point. It's inexpensive enough to be worthwhile and not useless once you run it dry. I'm still undecided here.
Desert of the Fervent is another cycling option if you were looking for that and plays nicely with...
Scavenger Grounds, the first piece of GY hate we've seen on a colorless land. This one is almost certainly worth playing and is a big addition to the format as a whole.
Hostile Desert is passable as mono-R playable manlands go, but too small an effect for me to spend one of the very limited utility land slots on.
There's still a lot of set left to go and I've already got twocards that are definitely getting tested at the least, with another one or two worthy of consideration. This is potentially a very high impact set for this deck.
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Have you ever had Koth of the Hammer in your 99? If you have control of the board he ultimates fairly quick and if not, he can provide a significant mana boost late game.
Sea Gaate Wreckage is another card I may try. With all the discarding it's pretty easy to go hellbent. And unlock Geier Reach Sanitarium, it actually nets you a card.
Have you ever had Koth of the Hammer in your 99? If you have control of the board he ultimates fairly quick and if not, he can provide a significant mana boost late game.
When I last tried Koth, I never really liked his first two abilities. He seems too low impact if he doesn't survive around the table. I like to evaluate walkers without their ultimate because that reflects typical use. The walkers I run can typically be treated as modal spells with potential to do more and Koth isn't very impressive by that standard.
Sea Gaate Wreckage is another card I may try. With all the discarding it's pretty easy to go hellbent. And unlock Geier Reach Sanitarium, it actually nets you a card.
It's definitely solid if you find yourself hellbent on a regular basis. A lot of my card choices are made to avoid that scenario, so it's taking an increasingly valuable utility land slot for a relatively uncommon situation.
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Heartless Hidetsugu won me a game tonight in combination with Glacial Chasm. I originally slotted him in on a whim, but I've come to greatly enjoy having him in the deck. I typically use him as a back-up Jaya. He doesn't clear the battlefield of creatures, but he generally reduces life totals faster and he doesn't cost 7 mana plus a card to use. Everyone on the table freaks out when he hits the table, so he often doesn't live long, but he always has the potential to make a big impact (especially if you have a haste enabler in play). Plus, if you're not going to win anyway, he helps shorten the game so you can play again sooner.
If you're running a budget deck with some of the cards I've listed, I'd definitely give him a second look. Even if you're running a higher end deck, he might be a fun addition for something different.
EDIT: Pyrohemia also fills a similar roll and is another card I would highly recommend.
I'm torn on that one. One of the strengths of Kite is "endless" discard fodder for Jaya late in the game. The fact that it's a forced flip at the point where I'm likely able to activate Inferno hurts it a lot for me. I don't think I want two of that effect but it's possible it could replace Armillary Sphere, at least for a test.
The spoiler currently causing me some mental distress is Conqueror's Galleon/Conqueror's Foothold. The land side does everything I want in a card for this deck but there's realistically no way I can reliably crew 4 with only 7 cards in the deck that hit that threshold on their own, 1 one them conditional. It doesn't help that Hoarding Dragon is one of the weakest slots in the list as it stands and a potential cut for anything new, either. I'm procrastinating a little bit and it's been requested, so I'm going to finish out my HOU review. The first part, written during spoilers, is here. I'm just going to run through the stuff I didn't hit on there. Red Hazoret's Undying Fury - Fun card, but most of my high impact stuff is greater than CMC 5, manabase has some high impact stuff in it, and the no untap clause for lands hurts it a lot. Not the deck for it. Hour of Devastation - Potentially worth playing in walker- or indestructible-heavy metas to help with the stuff Jaya misses. Less valuable for Jaya decks in general because it has basically the same effect as the general otherwise. Not particularly tempting, but a good card to keep in mind for some metas. Imminent Doom - I like it a lot in theory. It's going to be best in decks with lots of inexpensive spells (getting the first trigger or two is tough for some EDH decks) and flexible CMCs. Too much reworking or curve for too little reward here, and probably too much work for too little payoff in EDH in general most of the time. Wildfire Eternal - I'm not instant and sorcery heavy enough to make this worth it, and I don't think I pressure life totals enough early to make the afflict trigger an effective deterrent to blocking. Another fun card for a different deck.
Artifacts/Lands
Artifacts were all covered earlier. Nothing else was spoiled that I think is a serious consideration. Endless Sands - There are some cute plays where you can use this to double up an ETB or save a creature from Inferno. There are already enough great options for nonbasic lands, particularly colorless ones, that this is a tough sell unless you include a desert package. Ramunap Ruins - Not a terrible card for some lategame reach. This is one of a couple payoff cards for the aforementioned desert package, along with Scavenger Grounds. I'd probably still skip it unless you're running several other deserts alongside but that's more on the strength of other available nonbasics.
Overall, Mirage Mirror and Scavenger Grounds remain the best cards to come out of this set for Jaya, particularly Scavenger Grounds. I still haven't even tested those at this point thanks to a mix of other new decks, limited play time, and not having easy cuts in the 99.
I'm torn on that one. One of the strengths of Kite is "endless" discard fodder for Jaya late in the game. The fact that it's a forced flip at the point where I'm likely able to activate Inferno hurts it a lot for me. I don't think I want two of that effect but it's possible it could replace Armillary Sphere, at least for a test.
This along with the fact that Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is such a key part of my decks strategy, I think being able to use Journeyer's Kite as many times as I want beats out the potential power of a Maze of Ith effect
Edit: Also I don't know if you were planning on doing a C17 review, but how do you feel about Hammer of Nazahn? It works well with Godo, Bandit Warlord and the other equipment you are running. And while it isn't indestructible itself, it provides another way for Jaya or any other key creatures to survive an inferno. The other nice thing about it is we can go turn three Jaya turn four Hammer to insta equip and make Jaya indestructible
Just over 1/3rd of the set is spoiled so far and I'm already hyped for 4 cards in the set. Jaya is super hard to make cuts in already. Going to be really hard to try out everything I want.
Also I don't know if you were planning on doing a C17 review, but how do you feel about Hammer of Nazahn? It works well with Godo, Bandit Warlord and the other equipment you are running. And while it isn't indestructible itself, it provides another way for Jaya or any other key creatures to survive an inferno. The other nice thing about it is we can go turn three Jaya turn four Hammer to insta equip and make Jaya indestructible
Sure, should be super quick.
Red Bloodsworn Steward - Haste is good, general buff is too small for Jaya to survive Inferno, creature dies to almost everything and costs more than Jaya. Not the best haste source for a controlling Jaya list. Curse of Opulence - Small incentive to attack someone else and you get something from it, despite being unlikely to trigger it often yourself. It's not enough incentive to reliably deter attacks and no self triggers mean it's still not good enough. Disrupt Decorum - Fun fact: the flavor text on this was written by a local judge. Decent as a pseudo-fog effect but controlling decks can't take full advantage of tapping down non-vigilant blockers. I'd rather have a wrath effect most of the time, and there's at least Chain Reaction at the same cost that I'm not already running. Izzet Chemister - Fun card. I'm light enough on instants and sorceries that this is unlikely to cast more than 1-2, which makes it a third choice behind Past in Flames and Recoup. Body is too fragile to try and use it as a larger value engine.
Other four red cards - Really don't fit the deck at all.
Artifacts/Land Bloodforged Battle-Axe - Fun card, but much better in a more aggressive deck or one that can take advantage of the artifact tokens. This one doesn't have enough evasion or defense to stack these particularly well. Hammer of Nazahn - Probably the best card in the set for this deck. I value this lower than Darksteel Plate for sure, given that the indestructibility is the important part. I'd also put this below Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of War and Peace because my primary use for this kind of equipment is protecting Jaya from herself. The other upsides on those are worth the extra 1 mana to play and equip in my eyes. That said, it's definitely a defensible choice if you want to dodge opponents' removal better and it's significantly cheaper ($$$) than either Sword. I have no plans for it here but it can certainly have a place in the deck.
Three tribal artifacts - No thanks. Path of Ancestry - Passable for the scry 1 on casting Jaya and taps for red, plus occasional other scry 1. It's not good enough to replace a mountain for me and I like my existing utility land configuration right now, so I'm skipping this. Not a terrible choice for anyone running more humans or who just wants a little more filtering.
As expected from the tribal set, I'm not getting a ton here. There are some cards that could definitely fit the deck. My problem is that each of those cards has to come with an associated cut and that's difficult after years of tuning and tweaking.
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I think Thaumatic Compass/Spires of Orazca are a little meta dependent as well. If you have heavy aggro (my group has a few comp. aggro lists) then it might earn a spot. I know I am interested in it. I already play Maze of Ith in my list and in my play group its one of the most underrated cards. But if we are looking for "infinite" ammo perhaps Journeyer's Kite is better?
Sphere has been a surprisingly solid card. Early game it ensures you hit all your land drops without hurting your progression too much, late game it's an inexpensive way to get Jaya fuel and Valakut triggers or it serves as Welder fuel. Outside of scenarios where I'm digging for a way to win or survive in a turn or so I'm never sad to see it. Kite and Compass are better for the very long term, but Sphere has enough advantages that it's not an obvious cut.
Hoarding Dragon is probably my next cut. No real way to reliably tutor early and red has gotten much better access to raw card advantage since it was printed. Compass is a possibility, I'm just not sure that I want more basic tutoring over something with broader utility in that slot. Other options are Scavenger Grounds, Mirage Mirror, Sunbird's Invocation if I want something cute and probably an easy cut for the next card, another mana rock with late game upside like Unstable Obelisk, or another X burn spell like Devil's Play or Rolling Thunder. Leaning towards Scavenger Grounds right now to get another land and more GY hate, because I'm definitely light on that.
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I personally think Journeyer's Kite is too mana intensive. Analyzing it solely for card advantage, it's 5 mana just to break even with a land card the turn you drop it. That means 8 mana = +1 CA, 11 mana = +2 CA, 14 mana = +3 CA, 17 mana = +4 CA, 20 mana = +5 CA. In other words, if you manage use it every turn for 6 turns (counting the turn you dropped it), it costs 4 mana per card. Compare that to the phoenixes (i.e., Firewing Phoenix, Shard Phoenix, Skarrgan Firebird). Each of these costs 3-4 mana for +1 CA to get back after discarding it with Jaya and it gives you that value the first time without having to commit a ton of mana. Plus, the phoenixes have the added utility of being a flying blockers or a Loxodon Warhammer wielding threats. Just about every card draw engine worth considering in this deck is going to do better than Journeyer's Kite, e.g., Mind's Eye, Staff of Nin, Endbringer, and Outpost Siege. Not only do these require less mana investment, some of them have further utility stapled on.
Now, I understand that Journeyer's Kite also helps you hit land drops, so the mana investment I listed above could be offset by how many times it makes you hit a land drop you would have missed. But straight up card draw also helps you hit land drops, albeit less consistently, AND allows you to draw more gas. If my goal is hitting land drops, I'm going to go for cards that boost me incrementally early game for less mana; cards like Armillary Sphere, Wild-Field Scarecrow, or Burnished Hart. Armillary Sphere costs 4 mana for +1 CA and ensures I hit an extra land drop. Compare that to 8 mana from Journeyer's Kite, which means you have to commit at least 11 mana before Journeyer's Kite can be construed as outperforming Armillary Sphere and it's pals.
In my opinion, Journeyer's Kite is in an awkward spot. It's mana intensive to the point that it's bad card draw and it's bad ramp. It's only good if you need a card to fill both of those rolls. Does that happen? Yes, it does. Does that happen enough that I'll put a card that needs 15 mana invested before it outperforms the other cards I could put in? Probably not.
It's true that Kite isn't good from a mana efficiency standpoint. It's solid from a grindy card advantage standpoint. One of the things that I'm doing in this deck is running a ton of must-kill artifact targets, which tends to tax opposing artifact removal pretty hard. Having a relatively unassuming card that picks up an additional card a turn is solid. I'm not a big fan of it in the early game when I'd rather be developing my board, though I'm obviously still going to make use of it when I'm otherwise not hitting land drops and don't have better plays. It does great things in the late game. It's reliable Valakut triggers, reliable Jaya fuel, and continued land drops to build towards an inevitable kill through an X spell or other large threat. It's helpful for mana efficiency in the very late game, where you may end up with 3 free mana after doing whatever else you wanted to do or need something to spend mana on if you kept Jaya up without activating for a turn cycle.
Armillary Sphere is one of my favorite early cards and is rarely dead, but it's not good for grindy advantage. This deck wants both grindy card advantage engines (Thawing Glaciers, Staff of Nin, Coercive Portal, etc) and burst card advantage (Wheels, Sphere, Commune With Lava). Mono-R has gotten a lot of good card advantage in recent history, but it still takes some work to keep up with other colors. Compared to the other grindy advantage engines you mentioned, I also run Mind's Eye and Staff of Nin, don't feel that I have enough colorless production to reliably activate Endbringer more than once a turn cycle (may still be worthwhile, especially with the other abilities), and don't like that Outpost Siege can't fuel Jaya.
Burnished Hart is kind of awkward early game. It's not a guarantee that it's not going to eat removal before you can crack it if you don't play it as a 6-drop, especially because it comes down around the same time that wraths come online. It also eats two turns early and you generally don't want to play it out without planning on cracking it quickly. Kite can come down on T2 and sit, because artifacts are a little less likely to end up as collateral damage than creatures. Wild-Field Scarecrow is somewhere between the two and serves as a decent blocker and I do like the card. I haven't made the jump to it yet because it's not quite as effective as Sphere early and a touch more than I want to spend dropping and cracking in a turn late.
I don't think Kite is an auto-include or even a long term safe slot, but it does fill several roles in the deck and does so at a cost that works well with other things I want to be doing. It's been working well enough that I'm happy to keep running it for the time being.
On a different card advantage note, Vance's Blasting Cannons/Spitfire Bastion looks like a solid new option for Jaya and mono-R in general. Flipping into a bolt land makes up for the downsides of the front side. I'll have to pay attention to how often I'll be able to flip that and when the next time I play.
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As you stated, mono-Red has been picking up a lot of decent card advantage lately. Because of that, I think Journeyer's Kite has been surpassed by other cards. (Also, I don't own Valakut, so I'd rather just draw a card than search out a land.)
I tried Burnished Hart out a while back and eventually cut it. I agree that the 6 mana makes it too clunky. As for Wild-Field Scarecrow, I never managed to find a slot for it. My meta isn't super aggressive, so I haven't needed the early blocker.
Both Endbringer and Outpost Siege have been very good to me, but I don't have some of the more expensive cards (e.g., Mind's Eye). Oddly enough, I'm actually more excited about Vance's Blasting Cannons being a pseudo Outpost Siege than I am about the land side. Not being able to play exiled lands is a pretty big negative though.
Seeing as you're excited about red psuedo card advantage, I'm curious as to why you don't run Chandra, Pyromaster or, once she comes down from her insane price, Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
EDIT: And on that note, why in the world are you running Chandra Ablaze? What you said about it in your primer addresses it as a 6 mana wheel with benefits, and I find that to be pretty terrible. I mean I'd pretty much rather run Wheel of Fate, and that says a lot. This chick is probably even worse than Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded.
EDIT: And on that note, why in the world are you running Chandra Ablaze? What you said about it in your primer addresses it as a 6 mana wheel with benefits, and I find that to be pretty terrible. I mean I'd pretty much rather run Wheel of Fate, and that says a lot. This chick is probably even worse than Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded.
It's also removal that slots easily in alongside Jaya. And if she sticks around for a few turns, you get a free Mizzix's Mastery without the exile drawback.
Seeing as you're excited about red psuedo card advantage, I'm curious as to why you don't run Chandra, Pyromaster or, once she comes down from her insane price, Chandra, Torch of Defiance.
EDIT: And on that note, why in the world are you running Chandra Ablaze? What you said about it in your primer addresses it as a 6 mana wheel with benefits, and I find that to be pretty terrible. I mean I'd pretty much rather run Wheel of Fate, and that says a lot. This chick is probably even worse than Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded.
Cards in hand are significantly more valuable to a Jaya deck than cards in exile because the general turns them into modal spells. The only red "draw" spell I'm running is Commune with Lava, and that's because the upside of digging X cards and potentially having two turns to play them outweighs the downsides. Pyromaster mostly feels like a more vulnerable Outpost Siege when you're not taking advantage of her +1 (which also means you're never seeing the -7), which isn't where I want to be - I'm not even running Siege at this point. ToD has never been particularly tempting because of the utility in the manabase. That makes her first +1 less attractive though it's obviously still good. Her second +1 is solid but I'd prefer my mana to be a little lower profile than building towards a PW ult. The -3 is good, but not worth playing the card for. Ult is good, but evaluating walkers on their ult never ends well. She doesn't quite fit with what the rest of the deck is trying to do and I'm not going to jam in a card just because it's powerful on its own. That said, there's a pretty good chance that I'm wrong on her. I'm still not convinced enough to drop the money on her and find out, at least not yet.
Ablaze comes down and screws with your opponents while drawing some cards, then sometimes sticks around to do it again the following turn. Wheels are almost as useful as disruption as they are card draw and forcing your opponents to 3 cards each is solid. Her +1 isn't great thanks to the discard cost, but it's at least some extra utility on the card. She's certainly not the best card in the deck, but she's respectable. Definitely better than Tibalt or Wheel of Fate. Wheel of Fate is garbage if you're not cheating it into play somehow. Giving your opponents 4 turns of warning that a wheel is coming means they all have ample time to empty out their hands before the reload. It almost completely removes the disruption aspect.
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Forum downtime and RL obligations ate this post yesterday, so I'm trying again today. A Brief Set Review of Ixalan Red
Angrath's Marauders - Asymmetrical damage doublers are very, very powerful, especially in a deck that relies heavily on burn as creature control and a win con. That's probably why the effect was stuck on a relatively fragile, 7 CMC body. This dies so quickly that I wouldn't expect it to live long enough to have much impact. Inferno (over)killing it doesn't do much to add to it. I'd rather have one of the symmetrical Furnaces at a lower CMC to be able to drop it and continue playing in a turn.
Brazen Buccaneers - Bringing this up to mention explore as a mechanic. Potential card advantage in red is nice. The benefit if you miss is insignificant here and the body isn't all that impressive to begin with. Future explore may have some potential.
Burning Sun's Avatar - If you're already running Inferno Titan and want a second similar effect, this is where you're looking. Titan is significantly better in most cases and I'm not currently running that, so this isn't all that tempting (even though it's a dinosaur).
Captain Lannery Storm - Aggressive creature that helps pay for itself and ramps you over time. It really needs to be in a more aggressive shell to shine - here it's just going to die to some controlling element and there's not significant evasion to get it into the red zone reliably.
Captivating Crew - I like the effect a lot and I like that it's a decent lategame mana sink. I don't like that it dies to a strong breeze. There's definitely room for a more sacrifice-focused controlling mono-R deck somewhere and this fits there. I'm not sure I want to try it here.
Fire Shrine Keeper - I always appreciate early drops with late utility. The utility this provides late is a little too redundant for Jaya and the early use fits better into a more aggressive list so I'm not planning on trying this despite that appreciation.
Makeshift Munitions - This is another one for the more sac-focused deck. Adding an artifact sac outlet to Goblin Bombardment plays nicely with the artifact threaten effects we've seen more of over the last couple blocks and gives an actual improvement for the increased activation cost. Here, it provides a little late game reach but not enough to make the deck.
Rampaging Ferocidon - I have a couple big lifegain cards that are usually high impact. I don't really want to stop those. This also dies quickly and I'm not aggressive enough to take advantage of the menace, which all adds up to not fitting here. Certainly an EDH playable card.
Raptor Hatchling, Sun-Crowned Hunters - While I don't think either of these have a place, enrage as a mechanic has some promising design space for Jaya. Acting as a rattlesnake and giving some additional advantage to an inferno or as an engine by repeatedly incinerating could be worthwhile. Watch out for future dinosaurs that could fit.
Rowdy Crew - The random discard hurts here. The body is effectively worthless to this deck and the filtering isn't reliable. If you're looking for this effect, go to Goblin Lore first.
Star of Extinction - I have a friend running Gishath, Sun's Avatar and I'd really like to hit a board full of dinos for the flavor win, but I don't think this really improves on what I'm already doing otherwise.
Sunbird's Invocation - I like the card a lot and it plays nicely with tapout control strategies. I'm not sure my curve is top heavy enough to get good results from this and 6 CMC cards that do nothing on their own are always a toss up. I'll probably try this out elsewhere first and move it into Jaya or not based on that experience.
Tilonalli's Skinshifter - Another card that needs a more aggressive, creature heavy deck. The number of nonlegendary creatures likely to be attacking in my list is tiny.
Trove of Temptation - Tying into the low creature count, I don't really want to provide incentives to attack me. The upside here is not worth the forced attacks.
Vance's Blasting Cannons/Spitfire Bastion - This is great. I'm still neutral on heavy inclusion of red impulse draw when other options are available, especially when you can't play lands off them, but flipping into repeatable burn on a land is nice. I like this a lot in theory despite not being sure how easy this will be to flip. The strength of the backside as inevitability helps balance the downside of the front. I'm planning on trying this one out (and want to get an alter of one of the checklist cards if it sticks - I'm open to ideas on that).
Artifact/Land
Conqueror's Galleon/Conqueror's Foothold - I'd play the backside land in a heartbeat. I'm not even remotely confident in my ability to flip it thanks to crew 4. Seeing as the front side is basically worthless, ease of transforming is the sole factor in whether this is playable here. As much as I want it to work, my gut feeling is that it's not going to work out. I'll keep an eye on how reliably I'd be able to crew it and I'd love to hear from anyone else who tries it out.
Dowsing Dagger/Lost Vale - I think this one is more workable. The land side is strong and the plants don't mean much here so it again comes down to how easily it flips. It has some potential and plays on curve with Jaya in a way similar to Sword of the Animist, which I've had a fair amount of success with.
Primal Amulet/Primal Wellspring - Not really instant/sorcery heavy enough to take good advantage of this or flip it reliably. Good card that's generally worse than a mana rock here.
Sorcerous Spyglass - I'm not huge on Needle effects in EDH. While this is arguably the best one for the format so far I'm not willing to spend a slot on it.
Treasure Map/Treasure Cove - Filtering into ramp/card advantage is nice enough. I'd consider this over some of the other scry options. It's still low on my list of potential adds without additional treasure support.
Vanquisher's Banner - Decent with a goblin package, poor otherwise. I don't have a goblin package so I'm passing.
Field of Ruin - Respectable as cheap ($) nonbasic hate and an instant speed Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle trigger. Lands have been one of the tightest spots in my deck for a while and I'm happy with Strip Mine/Wasteland which makes this a tough sell.
The best things to come out of this set are pretty clearly the flip lands, and a big part of evaluating those is seeing how difficult they are to flip. I'll be trying Blasting Cannons for sure, I think over Hoarding Dragon. The others I'll probably hold out on until I have a better idea of how reliably I'll be able to get to the land side. Of the non-flip options, Sunbird's Invocation is my favorite. I'm not sure where to try and find a place for that seeing as I'd still like to fit some things from the last set or two in. I'm considering upping the curve slightly and pulling Skred so I can use different mountain art. I was going to go for a straight swap to Lightning Bolt but that may give me a good test slot for a little while.
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[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
Two of these Goblins are able to help deal with problematic Artifacts. The Tinkerer may not seem as good as a Viashino Heretic but I like that with the package I am able to reliably search for him. I have also been in the process of lowering my curve and it has been testing quite well.
Goblins are solid utility for mono-R, especially if you go heavy enough to take advantage of some of the tribal elements. There are about half a dozen beyond what you've already listed that can give you a lot of options - check out the Norin primer for a control-ish mono-R list making good use of a goblin package. I've stayed away from them thus far because of Jaya's enthusiasm for wiping the board and a general not wanting goblin tribal elements in the deck feeling.
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My meta has shifted pretty casual over the years, so Jaya has remained a pretty good fit. We're still playing with powerful cards (fetch/dual manabases are the norm, for example), but there's virtually no combo, few tutors including virtually no unrestricted tutors, and a lot of the eye roll inducing staples have fallen out of favor. I'll be the first to admit it's a weird meta, though. Not a whole lot of places where Underground Sea is common and Demonic Tutor is verboten.
That's definitely how I like EDHREC. Filtering by duals or very strategy-specific cards can actually get you some decent results. I think it's a nice tool for someone who has 0 information about the format and it's helpful once you have a nice base to build on with a weird spot in between where you can end up putting too much faith in the results and get some terrible advice.
I'm always happy to type way too much about whatever topic.
Speaking of discard, when did Squee get the axe? I noticed he's mentioned in the primer, but I didn't see the post that lead up to you cutting him.
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
My guess is that I would want a general shift towards a more explosive game plan with more fast mana to include it. The other big differences would be a philosophical shift away from Jaya's role as endgame control and threat through inferno to a supporting role with the first two abilities, adding some kind of combo finish, trimming the mana curve down, and much heavier stax elements. In addition to requiring a lot of retooling for a deck I generally like as is, that also puts the deck into an awkward spot in terms of where it sits competitively and is a poor fit for my current group. I realize that all seems drastic for a single card. I just really dislike having single cards that significantly alter a deck's game plan when you see them early and low impact at other points in the game, especially for a deck geared for late game play.
Squee actually fell out pretty early because he's really only good at being discarded. He's not particularly notable as an equipment carrier or a chump blocker and there's no sacrificing for profit going on here. To be included, he'd have to take the place of something useful in more scenarios that can also be discarded when needed. I discard pretty aggressively when playing this because there's not really any one essential card for the deck. If I'm not able to use a card almost immediately, I'm OK tossing it. There's a fair amount of digging power to get to the stuff I do need at the time and there's a fair amount of recursion if it turns out I need something I discarded down the line. Including cards strictly for their discard potential is a trap.
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
BLiliana, Heretical HealerB| |GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
GWBDoom Plane EnchantressBWG
It's definitely solid if you find yourself hellbent on a regular basis. A lot of my card choices are made to avoid that scenario, so it's taking an increasingly valuable utility land slot for a relatively uncommon situation.
I don't play with the goal of doubling damage to insta-kill the table, but I do have Gratuitous Violence in the deck. He also works well with many of the cards I use to synergize with Jaya: Glacial Chasm, Loxodon Warhammer, and Sun Droplet
If you're running a budget deck with some of the cards I've listed, I'd definitely give him a second look. Even if you're running a higher end deck, he might be a fun addition for something different.
EDIT: Pyrohemia also fills a similar roll and is another card I would highly recommend.
Budget Modern: GStompyG | R8-WhackR
The spoiler currently causing me some mental distress is Conqueror's Galleon/Conqueror's Foothold. The land side does everything I want in a card for this deck but there's realistically no way I can reliably crew 4 with only 7 cards in the deck that hit that threshold on their own, 1 one them conditional. It doesn't help that Hoarding Dragon is one of the weakest slots in the list as it stands and a potential cut for anything new, either.
I'm procrastinating a little bit and it's been requested, so I'm going to finish out my HOU review. The first part, written during spoilers, is here. I'm just going to run through the stuff I didn't hit on there.
Red
Hazoret's Undying Fury - Fun card, but most of my high impact stuff is greater than CMC 5, manabase has some high impact stuff in it, and the no untap clause for lands hurts it a lot. Not the deck for it.
Hour of Devastation - Potentially worth playing in walker- or indestructible-heavy metas to help with the stuff Jaya misses. Less valuable for Jaya decks in general because it has basically the same effect as the general otherwise. Not particularly tempting, but a good card to keep in mind for some metas.
Imminent Doom - I like it a lot in theory. It's going to be best in decks with lots of inexpensive spells (getting the first trigger or two is tough for some EDH decks) and flexible CMCs. Too much reworking or curve for too little reward here, and probably too much work for too little payoff in EDH in general most of the time.
Wildfire Eternal - I'm not instant and sorcery heavy enough to make this worth it, and I don't think I pressure life totals enough early to make the afflict trigger an effective deterrent to blocking. Another fun card for a different deck.
Artifacts/Lands
Artifacts were all covered earlier. Nothing else was spoiled that I think is a serious consideration.
Endless Sands - There are some cute plays where you can use this to double up an ETB or save a creature from Inferno. There are already enough great options for nonbasic lands, particularly colorless ones, that this is a tough sell unless you include a desert package.
Ramunap Ruins - Not a terrible card for some lategame reach. This is one of a couple payoff cards for the aforementioned desert package, along with Scavenger Grounds. I'd probably still skip it unless you're running several other deserts alongside but that's more on the strength of other available nonbasics.
Overall, Mirage Mirror and Scavenger Grounds remain the best cards to come out of this set for Jaya, particularly Scavenger Grounds. I still haven't even tested those at this point thanks to a mix of other new decks, limited play time, and not having easy cuts in the 99.
This along with the fact that Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is such a key part of my decks strategy, I think being able to use Journeyer's Kite as many times as I want beats out the potential power of a Maze of Ith effect
Edit: Also I don't know if you were planning on doing a C17 review, but how do you feel about Hammer of Nazahn? It works well with Godo, Bandit Warlord and the other equipment you are running. And while it isn't indestructible itself, it provides another way for Jaya or any other key creatures to survive an inferno. The other nice thing about it is we can go turn three Jaya turn four Hammer to insta equip and make Jaya indestructible
Red
Bloodsworn Steward - Haste is good, general buff is too small for Jaya to survive Inferno, creature dies to almost everything and costs more than Jaya. Not the best haste source for a controlling Jaya list.
Curse of Opulence - Small incentive to attack someone else and you get something from it, despite being unlikely to trigger it often yourself. It's not enough incentive to reliably deter attacks and no self triggers mean it's still not good enough.
Disrupt Decorum - Fun fact: the flavor text on this was written by a local judge. Decent as a pseudo-fog effect but controlling decks can't take full advantage of tapping down non-vigilant blockers. I'd rather have a wrath effect most of the time, and there's at least Chain Reaction at the same cost that I'm not already running.
Izzet Chemister - Fun card. I'm light enough on instants and sorceries that this is unlikely to cast more than 1-2, which makes it a third choice behind Past in Flames and Recoup. Body is too fragile to try and use it as a larger value engine.
Other four red cards - Really don't fit the deck at all.
Artifacts/Land
Bloodforged Battle-Axe - Fun card, but much better in a more aggressive deck or one that can take advantage of the artifact tokens. This one doesn't have enough evasion or defense to stack these particularly well.
Hammer of Nazahn - Probably the best card in the set for this deck. I value this lower than Darksteel Plate for sure, given that the indestructibility is the important part. I'd also put this below Sword of Fire and Ice and Sword of War and Peace because my primary use for this kind of equipment is protecting Jaya from herself. The other upsides on those are worth the extra 1 mana to play and equip in my eyes. That said, it's definitely a defensible choice if you want to dodge opponents' removal better and it's significantly cheaper ($$$) than either Sword. I have no plans for it here but it can certainly have a place in the deck.
Three tribal artifacts - No thanks.
Path of Ancestry - Passable for the scry 1 on casting Jaya and taps for red, plus occasional other scry 1. It's not good enough to replace a mountain for me and I like my existing utility land configuration right now, so I'm skipping this. Not a terrible choice for anyone running more humans or who just wants a little more filtering.
As expected from the tribal set, I'm not getting a ton here. There are some cards that could definitely fit the deck. My problem is that each of those cards has to come with an associated cut and that's difficult after years of tuning and tweaking.
@Weebo
I definitely like it over Armillary Sphere.
Hoarding Dragon is probably my next cut. No real way to reliably tutor early and red has gotten much better access to raw card advantage since it was printed. Compass is a possibility, I'm just not sure that I want more basic tutoring over something with broader utility in that slot. Other options are Scavenger Grounds, Mirage Mirror, Sunbird's Invocation if I want something cute and probably an easy cut for the next card, another mana rock with late game upside like Unstable Obelisk, or another X burn spell like Devil's Play or Rolling Thunder. Leaning towards Scavenger Grounds right now to get another land and more GY hate, because I'm definitely light on that.
Now, I understand that Journeyer's Kite also helps you hit land drops, so the mana investment I listed above could be offset by how many times it makes you hit a land drop you would have missed. But straight up card draw also helps you hit land drops, albeit less consistently, AND allows you to draw more gas. If my goal is hitting land drops, I'm going to go for cards that boost me incrementally early game for less mana; cards like Armillary Sphere, Wild-Field Scarecrow, or Burnished Hart. Armillary Sphere costs 4 mana for +1 CA and ensures I hit an extra land drop. Compare that to 8 mana from Journeyer's Kite, which means you have to commit at least 11 mana before Journeyer's Kite can be construed as outperforming Armillary Sphere and it's pals.
In my opinion, Journeyer's Kite is in an awkward spot. It's mana intensive to the point that it's bad card draw and it's bad ramp. It's only good if you need a card to fill both of those rolls. Does that happen? Yes, it does. Does that happen enough that I'll put a card that needs 15 mana invested before it outperforms the other cards I could put in? Probably not.
Budget Modern: GStompyG | R8-WhackR
Budget Modern: GStompyG | R8-WhackR
Armillary Sphere is one of my favorite early cards and is rarely dead, but it's not good for grindy advantage. This deck wants both grindy card advantage engines (Thawing Glaciers, Staff of Nin, Coercive Portal, etc) and burst card advantage (Wheels, Sphere, Commune With Lava). Mono-R has gotten a lot of good card advantage in recent history, but it still takes some work to keep up with other colors. Compared to the other grindy advantage engines you mentioned, I also run Mind's Eye and Staff of Nin, don't feel that I have enough colorless production to reliably activate Endbringer more than once a turn cycle (may still be worthwhile, especially with the other abilities), and don't like that Outpost Siege can't fuel Jaya.
Burnished Hart is kind of awkward early game. It's not a guarantee that it's not going to eat removal before you can crack it if you don't play it as a 6-drop, especially because it comes down around the same time that wraths come online. It also eats two turns early and you generally don't want to play it out without planning on cracking it quickly. Kite can come down on T2 and sit, because artifacts are a little less likely to end up as collateral damage than creatures. Wild-Field Scarecrow is somewhere between the two and serves as a decent blocker and I do like the card. I haven't made the jump to it yet because it's not quite as effective as Sphere early and a touch more than I want to spend dropping and cracking in a turn late.
I don't think Kite is an auto-include or even a long term safe slot, but it does fill several roles in the deck and does so at a cost that works well with other things I want to be doing. It's been working well enough that I'm happy to keep running it for the time being.
On a different card advantage note, Vance's Blasting Cannons/Spitfire Bastion looks like a solid new option for Jaya and mono-R in general. Flipping into a bolt land makes up for the downsides of the front side. I'll have to pay attention to how often I'll be able to flip that and when the next time I play.
I tried Burnished Hart out a while back and eventually cut it. I agree that the 6 mana makes it too clunky. As for Wild-Field Scarecrow, I never managed to find a slot for it. My meta isn't super aggressive, so I haven't needed the early blocker.
Both Endbringer and Outpost Siege have been very good to me, but I don't have some of the more expensive cards (e.g., Mind's Eye). Oddly enough, I'm actually more excited about Vance's Blasting Cannons being a pseudo Outpost Siege than I am about the land side. Not being able to play exiled lands is a pretty big negative though.
Budget Modern: GStompyG | R8-WhackR
EDIT: And on that note, why in the world are you running Chandra Ablaze? What you said about it in your primer addresses it as a 6 mana wheel with benefits, and I find that to be pretty terrible. I mean I'd pretty much rather run Wheel of Fate, and that says a lot. This chick is probably even worse than Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded.
It's also removal that slots easily in alongside Jaya. And if she sticks around for a few turns, you get a free Mizzix's Mastery without the exile drawback.
Ablaze comes down and screws with your opponents while drawing some cards, then sometimes sticks around to do it again the following turn. Wheels are almost as useful as disruption as they are card draw and forcing your opponents to 3 cards each is solid. Her +1 isn't great thanks to the discard cost, but it's at least some extra utility on the card. She's certainly not the best card in the deck, but she's respectable. Definitely better than Tibalt or Wheel of Fate. Wheel of Fate is garbage if you're not cheating it into play somehow. Giving your opponents 4 turns of warning that a wheel is coming means they all have ample time to empty out their hands before the reload. It almost completely removes the disruption aspect.
A Brief Set Review of Ixalan
Red
Artifact/Land
Two of these Goblins are able to help deal with problematic Artifacts. The Tinkerer may not seem as good as a Viashino Heretic but I like that with the package I am able to reliably search for him. I have also been in the process of lowering my curve and it has been testing quite well.
Here is the current decklist:
1x Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Land (38)
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Arid Mesa
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Buried Ruin
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
1x Glacial Chasm
1x Great Furnace
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Kher Keep
1x Maze of Ith
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Scalding Tarn
19x Snow-Covered Mountain
1x Strip Mine
1x Thawing Glaciers
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1x Vesuva
1x Wasteland
1x Wooded Foothills
Enchantment (9)
1x Blood Moon
1x Braid of Fire
1x Gratuitous Violence
1x Outpost Siege
1x Price of Glory
1x Pyrohemia
1x Repercussion
1x Smoke
1x Stranglehold
1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
1x Koth of the Hammer
Artifact (18)
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Batterskull
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Darksteel Plate
1x Distorting Lens
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Expedition Map
1x Gauntlet of Might
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Meekstone
1x Mind Stone
1x Mind's Eye
1x Portcullis
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of War and Peace
Sorcery (11)
1x Blasphemous Act
1x Cathartic Reunion
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Insurrection
1x Ruination
1x Shattering Spree
1x Tormenting Voice
1x Vandalblast
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Wild Guess
1x Anger
1x Dualcaster Mage
1x Goblin Matron
1x Goblin Recruiter
1x Goblin Tinkerer
1x Goblin Welder
1x Godo, Bandit Warlord
1x Imperial Recruiter
1x Magus of the Moon
1x Scuttlemutt
1x Silent Arbiter
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Steel Hellkite
Instant (8)
1x Chaos Warp
1x Comet Storm
1x Fork
1x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
1x Reiterate
1x Reverberate
1x Skred
Anybody having success with this sort of package? I am loving it at the moment.