Ok, the deal with the token package was lack of cards so I added two funny packages to it. One was tokens + a bit of sac for bonus, as they seemed to work great at dealing a bit of dmg to make the game easier. They also saved jaya from a lot of edict effects vs thrax. And the other wass lux cannon proliferate and all. These two packages worked a bit together with the card throne of geth, which also worked with the salvation package. Essentially it was 3 artifact packages that worked together. I ended up cutting the lux package but keeping the other two.
I would be ok with cutting it, if i find cards to replace it with (itd give me lots of slots). The low number of creatures and wipes made me rely on them for defence quite a bit. Ive only drawn repercussion once, and while i did have tokens on the field, i had little and the jaya inferno killed the remaining player while only dealing around 30 damage to me.
I threw a note on the cycling lands into the primer. I agree that they're worthwhile if you're not running a snow manabase, but I'd stick to the higher basic density to feed those effects if you are.
I don't think there's a problem with the token cards here, especially if Repercussion is all you're worrying about. There are likely going to be more games where you don't see that than games you do, sadly. Running a little heavier on creatures isn't a bad call. The somewhat odd choice I would make if I went heavier on creatures would be Akroma's Memorial. It's a lot cheaper after its recent core set appearance. Giving the squad haste and pro-red is absolutely terrifying with Jaya, and solid when she's not down. It's done well for me so far.
On Squee: I like him a lot and he's certainly worthwhile, but my deck isn't well-equipped to use him right now. Unless you have a few ways to use him for value, he ends up being cuter than good a lot of the time. I didn't find myself wanting him in hand enough, sadly. He's still very solid, he's just not what my deck wants at the moment.
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Sooo... we've got all of Dragon's Maze spoiled, and Staff of Domination is unbanned.
What are everyone's thoughts on this? I personally always liked Staff as a toolbox, and we do have an infinite mana engine in Basalt Monolith/Rings of Brighthearth if people are interested in going that way (I'm not, btw)
I would normally go through and list off all the cards that I'm planning on testing from the new set, but there aren't any. The only mono-R card there that I would really consider in EDH is Pyrewild Shaman, and that's not really a good fit for this deck.
Staff of Domination is more interesting, but I'm still not planning on doing much of anything with it here. Most of the abilities aren't all that helpful to my deck in particular, given that I've already got pretty solid creature control and the incremental life gain doesn't do all that much when you're not using life as a resource. The tempting ones would be (maybe) the untap and the card draw. The untap isn't great - there are only a couple of creatures that tap in here, and a reasonable chunk of the time I'm tapping Jaya, she's killing herself. The card draw is mostly just expensive. Even with all the mana doublers here, 8 mana for the first card and 5 for subsequent ones is very painful. There are several artifacts I would run before that. Not a bad card, but it's not a good fit in my deck.
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Made a huge update to this deck. Unloaded my trade binder and got a bunch of goodies for Jaya. I Just moved back home and the meta is very blue here. Anyone have any any suggestions to help me out? Also any other critique is welcome.
That's a pretty good looking list, in my opinion. Nothing looks out of place to me. Have you tried running a phoenix or two? There are some solid options, and they're somewhat tougher for blue players to deal with outside of cards like Dissipate. I could see Kuldotha Phoenix giving a blue heavy meta fits in a deck as artifact heavy as that. I'll admit that they're kind of pet cards, but recurring evasive beaters are rarely a bad call.
Have you gotten a chance to play with it yet?
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Yes, been playing the last couple of days with it and trying to adjust in this new meta. In school there were maybe one or two people who had blue in their deck now literally everyone where I am playing now has blue as the backbone of their deck. What do you guys think about Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast. what about Banefire and the other one whos name slips my mind right now. The one where you can kick it to give it split second. Other than the mass amount of blue the deck runs awesome. I can totally tell the difference now that I have a Crucible and real fetches.
Molten Disaster is the one you have in mind. No shame in REB/Pyroblast in a blue heavy meta, either. I've considered it before, but blue isn't a constant enough presence in my games and Jaya draws enough hate already.
I'm glad to hear that Crucible has been pulling its weight!
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I've been wanting to build a Jaya EDH for a while, and am just now throwing one together. I was wondering about your thoughts on the Kaldra package. Sword of kaldra in particular seems good of you run into a lot of indestructible things in your meta. I haven't tested it yet though, and I'd have to pull it out of my Sisay deck since I only have one. Turns that second ability into something nice and turns any other creature in your deck into a real threat. Also exile all creatures seems good, and even better of you have Akroma's memorial in play.
I've been wanting to build a Jaya EDH for a while, and am just now throwing one together. I was wondering about your thoughts on the Kaldra package. Sword of kaldra in particular seems good of you run into a lot of indestructible things in your meta. I haven't tested it yet though, and I'd have to pull it out of my Sisay deck since I only have one. Turns that second ability into something nice and turns any other creature in your deck into a real threat. Also exile all creatures seems good, and even better of you have Akroma's memorial in play.
Sorry I missed this when you posted it. The Kaldra pieces aren't bad, but you have to recognize you will rarely, if ever, be assembling voltron and making an avatar. None of the pieces are bad on their own, but they're a little expensive. I'd be happier running them in something white, where you have tutoring and cost cheating available to you.
M14 spoilers are well underway at this point, and there are a couple worth mentioning. I'm expecting Chandra, Pyromaster to be the closest thing mono-R gets to Phyrexian Arena for a while to come, and I'll definitely be picking her up to try out. I'm not anticipating using much beyond her 0 ability, but it's something red control needs pretty badly. When that happens, I may consider additional filtering (Crystal Ball) to take better advantage of it.
Ring of Three Wishes is a little too expensive for me. When I have that much mana, Planar Portal seems like the better call. That said, it's unlikely your opponents will let you tutor multiple times anyways, so it may be a nonissue. The fact that I don't really want either one pretty much seals the deal for me.
Strionic Resonator is something of a hot topic right now, and for good reason. There are only a handful of triggered abilities in my list (mostly activated stuff), but it should definitely be something to keep in mind for anyone who wants to go farther down that path.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for more goodies (obviously), but this deck has fairly specific wants and they're not in line with red's gameplan most of the time. I'm not overly optimistic, but I can hope.
I've also made a couple minor changes to the deck. The most notable of these is trying out Caverns of Despair. I don't really want creatures attacking, and this slows that down quite a bit. The biggest issue is that it's best against a strategy I can already deal with fairly well, swarms. I have a Crawlspace in the mail to double up on/trade in if I find I like the effect, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for good things.
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Time for the official "what goodies do I get this quarter" post!
Academy Raiders - Looting when it connects isn't bad, but this is not a creature deck and it would be unlikely to stick around long enough to matter. There are definitely decks that want this guy, just not this one.
Awaken the Ancient - Pretty much the same problem as the Raider. 7/7s are nice, but it has nothing to support it here and would probably just get a mountain killed.
Chandra, Pyromancer - I talked about her in the last post. She's not broken good, but her 0 ability is more than serviceable and I'm happy to give her a shot. Better with some filtering and topdeck manipulation, which might finally give Crystal Ball the push it needs.
Ring of Three Wishes - Like I said in the last post, I don't feel that the lack of tutors has been a serious issue here. I should probably try it to confirm, but I don't really care for it.
Strionic Resonator - Again, covered in the last post. There just aren't enough triggered abilities to use this. All the times it would be good are pretty rare scenarios.
Encroaching Wastes - Another Wasteland variant. There are a ton of these around, and most of them are better than this one. Not a terrible budget option.
Not a ton of options this time around. Chandra is good enough, but she's probably the only card I'll be adding. I also updated the primer to reflect a couple little changes. I'm trying out Koth of the Hammer again, and I'm giving Caverns of Despair a shot.
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It seems like Crawlspace would be a better option than Caverns of Despair. The 'space affects only you, making swarm strategies unviable against you alone, whereas the Caverns will lock down and frustrate the whole table. They both have political applications, I will admit. Some people might be glad for the global restriction of the Caverns, but I'd still choose Crawlspace.
Second, Crawlspace can be dug up with Goblin Welder in a pinch. Which reminds me, why not use Great Furnace as Welder fuel?
It seems like Crawlspace would be a better option than Caverns of Despair. The 'space affects only you, making swarm strategies unviable against you alone, whereas the Caverns will lock down and frustrate the whole table. They both have political applications, I will admit. Some people might be glad for the global restriction of the Caverns, but I'd still choose Crawlspace.
Second, Crawlspace can be dug up with Goblin Welder in a pinch. Which reminds me, why not use Great Furnace as Welder fuel?
Caverns over Crawlspace is mostly a matter of style. I have both kicking around and Crawlspace is probably the better choice, but Caverns has that whole Legends thing going for it. I don't think it makes a huge difference in the long run, even if Crawlspace will eventually win any slot for that role.
No Furnace because I have a bunch of stuff that interacts with mountains. Furnace is collateral damage in a few sweepers and I don't put any effort into tutoring up Welder, either. It's a cute interaction, but Furnace is worse than a mountain in a lot more games than it's better.
Hey, Weebo. I've been a longtime follower of this primer and have had a preliminary Jaya list put together for quite a while, just didn't want to spend the couple hundred that it would take to finish her since I have 3 completed decks at the moment. I was hoping you could give me some feedback on cuts, etc.
I have any card I was considering as a possibility on the maybeboard and, with the size of it, it's gotten to be a bit difficult to prioritize which cards are important. It doesn't have to be a complete or in depth rundown by any means, simply what cards I have in my mainboard that are less of a priority than specific cards from my maybeboard.
Thank you in advance for the advice. I really enjoy reading through the updates you have on here.
(obviously, the expensive maybeboard cards would be in the main deck if I could afford to drop 300 dollars on 2 cards, so just ignore those. They'll find a spot if and when I get them.)
Hey, Weebo. I've been a longtime follower of this primer and have had a preliminary Jaya list put together for quite a while, just didn't want to spend the couple hundred that it would take to finish her since I have 3 completed decks at the moment. I was hoping you could give me some feedback on cuts, etc.
I have any card I was considering as a possibility on the maybeboard and, with the size of it, it's gotten to be a bit difficult to prioritize which cards are important. It doesn't have to be a complete or in depth rundown by any means, simply what cards I have in my mainboard that are less of a priority than specific cards from my maybeboard.
Thank you in advance for the advice. I really enjoy reading through the updates you have on here.
(obviously, the expensive maybeboard cards would be in the main deck if I could afford to drop 300 dollars on 2 cards, so just ignore those. They'll find a spot if and when I get them.)
That is a delicious Jaya brew you have. Very similar to my own, although I do have a few questions/comments regarding your card choices:
Alpha Brawl - how has this been for you? It looks good on the surface as a "board wipe" of sorts, but 8 mana puts it behind All Is Dust (which you're already running) and arguably even Mogg Infestation (which I had reasonable success with and is a fiendish trick with Repercussion).
Braid of Fire - Seems good in theory, but I've never been able to get it to do anything meaningful. For the initial cost I'd rather just play a mana rock.
That is a delicious Jaya brew you have. Very similar to my own, although I do have a few questions/comments regarding your card choices:
Alpha Brawl - how has this been for you? It looks good on the surface as a "board wipe" of sorts, but 8 mana puts it behind All Is Dust (which you're already running) and arguably even Mogg Infestation (which I had reasonable success with and is a fiendish trick with Repercussion).
Braid of Fire - Seems good in theory, but I've never been able to get it to do anything meaningful. For the initial cost I'd rather just play a mana rock.
And you'll want to find room for Past in Flames, for sure - that card is bonkers.
Alpha Brawl is on the chopping block for sure. It is a nice card, but not essential for the strategy which makes it expendable. It is also expensive, as you said.
Shield of Kaldra is a byproduct of trying to keep Jaya alive all the time, but prot red is strictly better (especially for the doubler that deals to players for all damage taken by their creatures). I'd like to keep it, ideally, but Fire and Ice would be a strict upgrade.
Braid of Fire is something I haven't really played extensively. I think you may be right, though, as I'd often want to be able to play my turn before being forced to turn Jaya sideways and incinerating the world. Probably a good place to cut as well.
Wake of Destruction is just such an awesome card. If you aren't playing land destruction in Mono Red control, you're doing it wrong. I'd actually consider adding more LD in the deck since I do have Crucible in the list.
Land destruction is a tricky balancing act, though. Too much and you'll be set upon from the off. While I agree with you that it's necessary if playing mono-red (it's one of the few strengths we have), I prefer the use of what I call "surgical" LD spells. Ruination is number one on my list for this reason - it's a wonderful tool against 90% of the field. Wake of Destruction is a sweet spell, too, but it's more likely to lose friends. I think it has to do with the notion that folks who play mono-color decks think you have it out for them personally because of how narrow Wake can be.
Anyways, I figure it's a good time for me to post my list again, as it's undergone a few changes since I last posted it several pages ago.
@Archangel: Looks pretty solid in general. I'd prioritize Expedition Map, Reforge the Soul, Thespian's Stage (awesome with Valakut, obviously, provided you have some extra mana. It's a mountain til you have five others, then it doubles up on Valakut), Tormod's Crypt (if your meta is anything like mine/has players like me, GY hate is essential. I'd still like to find the space for another piece), and Trading Post.
Cuts really seem to be whatever you dislike. I think Alpha Brawl is pretty pricey when you already have a fair amount of burn in the deck, and you could possibly afford to lose one of your spot removals. I always found Scourge of Kher Ridges to not be quite defensive enough, but he's definitely a house if he sticks. My tendency is towards lower curved decks, so I'm also a little biased against 8-drops.
@WyvernSlayer: Looks spicy. How have all the walkers and X-cost burn spells been treating you?
@MLD: It's definitely a powerful inclusion. I just don't like playing it against a lot of people, especially newer players, and Jaya is the deck that comes out in those situations most often. The fact that she's solid without being broken makes her a pretty good introductory deck, and I was never casting those when I had them in hand. Better to cut them for something I want to play in that case.
@Braid of Fire: I've had quite a bit of success with it. There's quite a bit of worthwhile upkeep stuff (Kumano, Master Yamabushi, Journeyer's Kite, phoenix, etc) and Jaya is always a possibility. If it doesn't work out for you, it's certainly an easy cut - there's nothing riding on it in this deck.
I'm still keeping this up, albeit a little slowly at times. I just started back to school for my masters, so that and other non-MtG obligations necessarily eat up more of my time than a forum. I do keep an eye on all the new stuff as well as my various threads, so anyone who appreciates the updates can look forward to getting them on a regular basis.
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@WyvernSlayer: Looks spicy. How have all the walkers and X-cost burn spells been treating you?
The X-spells are over-performers, if you can believe it. Far too often I'm in a situation where I have the board locked up, but there are other circumstances that are preventing me from winning the game (e.g., having the lowest life total while doing the Jaya Inferno dance). Having a small spattering of Fireballs is what lets me come out on top. Past in Flames helps here; I can pitch the X-spells early (or cast them to remove small threats) and re-load for lethal in the late game.
Believe it or not, I think the least impressive walker right now is Chandra, Pyromaster. Might just be "new walker syndrome," though. Everyone sees the new Chandra and goes out of their way to kill it. You play the original one and she just gets ignored. I have killed people with the -8 ability, with AND without Repercussion.
Lately, I've felt that, with the deck's slant toward just finishing things with a fat burn spell, I should find room for Mana Geyser again.
Burnished Hart seems like it would be a good addition to this deck.
The biggest issue with it that I continue to see is that its a lot of mana to drop + pop it in one shot and you do leave yourself open if you try splitting it between turns.
That said, I really want to find some room to play with him somewhere as I think he is really cool.
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I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I've been reading this thread for many months. Thanks for making this primer.
I've played EDH with Jaya at the helm for about a year and a half now and I want to put my list online to have a historical record of it and also talk about some of the card choices.
I notice a lot of the other Jaya players have been cutting mana artifacts and bigger spells in favor of having a more streamlined deck, but my deck is more of a 'big red' style build and includes 10 mana rocks + 3 gauntlet effects. I've always liked having as much mana as possible because it;
1.) Let's you cast Jaya and use her Inferno often. (Even without equipment protecting her.)
2.) Let's you resurrect your phoenix's often.
3.) Plays into the hands of the high cost bombs, like Scourge of Kher Ridges and Planar Portal.
I'd also like to give some praise out to the humble Viashino Heretic. I think every red deck should run him. If I get him out early game he will often be 5+ Shatters in a 4-man pod. Even later in the game he can be a huge threat by threatening large amounts of damage to anyone foolish enough to play high cost artifacts.
Another all-star card that I haven't been seeing in other Jaya lists in Winding Canyons. Haste is great in this deck, playing well with the general at the helm and most of my creatures and Winding Canyons is basically as good as it gets. It can also enable super secret surprise tactics, like recurring a phoenix to hand and flashing it in before blocks.
Hellkite Tyrant has been an okay card for me. I've never won a game by having 20+ artifacts, but I have had some impressive steals with him. Resolving him will always make somebody nervous. He strikes me as a good counter to Darksteel Forge decks like Sharrum and Arcum Dagson.
The biggest difference between my deck and others in this thread is the omission of Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. In my local meta, I started off a craze to play mono-colored EDH decks. There are only 3 players who even have ABU dual lands. Most of the multi-color decks that I'd play against would have budget manabases that were more likely to have common lands like the RTR gates. I was not having any success with blood moon in that meta. The multi-color decks in my meta still tend to include a good potion of basic land so blood moon, more often then not, became Jaya fodder. The decks that do get shut out by it in my meta aren't necessarily strong threatening decks. Even then blood moon felt anti-fun to me because I'd just be holding back the 5-color player who made a deck with 1 of every charm and split card while the more threatening players were not phased by the blood moon.
I used to have Goblin Welder and Trading Post in this deck, but removed due to testing. I never found the recursion from welder to be all that useful. This deck has some strong artifacts, but I wouldn't put any of them in the "you must have this in play at all times" tier. while I love Trading Post in my Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed Stax EDH deck, this deck doesn't have synergy with T-Post. Jaya is already great at handling small creatures with her Inferno and I even hard Shard Phoenix and Scourge of Kher Ridges for double duty against weenies and token strategies; which are somewhat common in my meta. The goats will either get wrathed by one of your own answers to weenies or they'll just exist as chump blockers for truly huge creatures that re out of Jaya's Inferno range. Normally these Voltron monsters take the form of Omnath, Urril, or Kresh; they are going to have trample anyway. As for the 4 life from T-post; it's a fair amount of life to gain, but you're eating cards in your hand that would otherwise be more useful as Jaya activations. At one point I had an Expedition Map in the main, but I don't remember why I took it out, maybe it should go back in.
1. Faithless Looting - Wild Guess is just a better card even without it having flash back. I'd absolutely love this card if my deck had threshold, madness, or more graveyard interaction; but in there absence it's just some filtering and since the deck is non-combo it not desperate for that.
3. Insurrection - It's won me some games, but I find that board states don't often develop enough for it to became an instant win. At best you kill 1 or 2 players with it and then your remaining opponent/opponents gets there creatures back and end you with them.
How has Chandra, Pyromaster been performing? I've been trying to get my hands on one since M14 game out, but haven't gotten one yet. My initial impression of her was that the card was bad and she was not the red planeswalker we deserve, but I do want to see how she plays in Jaya EDH considering how rare draw effects are in red.
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I would be ok with cutting it, if i find cards to replace it with (itd give me lots of slots). The low number of creatures and wipes made me rely on them for defence quite a bit. Ive only drawn repercussion once, and while i did have tokens on the field, i had little and the jaya inferno killed the remaining player while only dealing around 30 damage to me.
I don't think there's a problem with the token cards here, especially if Repercussion is all you're worrying about. There are likely going to be more games where you don't see that than games you do, sadly. Running a little heavier on creatures isn't a bad call. The somewhat odd choice I would make if I went heavier on creatures would be Akroma's Memorial. It's a lot cheaper after its recent core set appearance. Giving the squad haste and pro-red is absolutely terrifying with Jaya, and solid when she's not down. It's done well for me so far.
On Squee: I like him a lot and he's certainly worthwhile, but my deck isn't well-equipped to use him right now. Unless you have a few ways to use him for value, he ends up being cuter than good a lot of the time. I didn't find myself wanting him in hand enough, sadly. He's still very solid, he's just not what my deck wants at the moment.
What are everyone's thoughts on this? I personally always liked Staff as a toolbox, and we do have an infinite mana engine in Basalt Monolith/Rings of Brighthearth if people are interested in going that way (I'm not, btw)
Staff of Domination is more interesting, but I'm still not planning on doing much of anything with it here. Most of the abilities aren't all that helpful to my deck in particular, given that I've already got pretty solid creature control and the incremental life gain doesn't do all that much when you're not using life as a resource. The tempting ones would be (maybe) the untap and the card draw. The untap isn't great - there are only a couple of creatures that tap in here, and a reasonable chunk of the time I'm tapping Jaya, she's killing herself. The card draw is mostly just expensive. Even with all the mana doublers here, 8 mana for the first card and 5 for subsequent ones is very painful. There are several artifacts I would run before that. Not a bad card, but it's not a good fit in my deck.
1 Goblin Recruiter
1 Goblin Matron
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Rummaging Goblin
1 Goblin Welder
1 Mad Prophet
1 Duplicant
1 Anger
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
1 Myr Battlesphere
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Mana Vault
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Mind Stone
1 Sol Ring
1 Fire Diamond
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Coalition Relic
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Caged Sun
1 Trading Post
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Sculpting Steel
1 Codex Shredder
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Sunstone
1 Mind's Eye
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Skullclamp
1 Repercussion
1 Vicious Shadows
1 Stranglehold
1 Glacial Crevasses
1 Chaos Warp
1 Skred
1 Reiterate
1 Gamble
1 Wild Guess
1 Past in Flames
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Vandalblast
1 Shattering Spree
1 Aftershock
1 All is Dust
1 Ruination
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Insurrection
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Arid Mesa
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Temple of the False God
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Mouth of Ronom
1 Terrain Generator
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Kher Keep
1 Buried Ruin
1 Dust Bowl
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
23 Snow-Covered Mountain
Have you gotten a chance to play with it yet?
I'm glad to hear that Crucible has been pulling its weight!
Sorry I missed this when you posted it. The Kaldra pieces aren't bad, but you have to recognize you will rarely, if ever, be assembling voltron and making an avatar. None of the pieces are bad on their own, but they're a little expensive. I'd be happier running them in something white, where you have tutoring and cost cheating available to you.
M14 spoilers are well underway at this point, and there are a couple worth mentioning. I'm expecting Chandra, Pyromaster to be the closest thing mono-R gets to Phyrexian Arena for a while to come, and I'll definitely be picking her up to try out. I'm not anticipating using much beyond her 0 ability, but it's something red control needs pretty badly. When that happens, I may consider additional filtering (Crystal Ball) to take better advantage of it.
Ring of Three Wishes is a little too expensive for me. When I have that much mana, Planar Portal seems like the better call. That said, it's unlikely your opponents will let you tutor multiple times anyways, so it may be a nonissue. The fact that I don't really want either one pretty much seals the deal for me.
Strionic Resonator is something of a hot topic right now, and for good reason. There are only a handful of triggered abilities in my list (mostly activated stuff), but it should definitely be something to keep in mind for anyone who wants to go farther down that path.
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for more goodies (obviously), but this deck has fairly specific wants and they're not in line with red's gameplan most of the time. I'm not overly optimistic, but I can hope.
I've also made a couple minor changes to the deck. The most notable of these is trying out Caverns of Despair. I don't really want creatures attacking, and this slows that down quite a bit. The biggest issue is that it's best against a strategy I can already deal with fairly well, swarms. I have a Crawlspace in the mail to double up on/trade in if I find I like the effect, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for good things.
Academy Raiders - Looting when it connects isn't bad, but this is not a creature deck and it would be unlikely to stick around long enough to matter. There are definitely decks that want this guy, just not this one.
Awaken the Ancient - Pretty much the same problem as the Raider. 7/7s are nice, but it has nothing to support it here and would probably just get a mountain killed.
Burning Earth - Worse than Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon/Manabarbs for what it does. Hating on multicolored decks is fun, but there are more effective ways to do that too.
Chandra, Pyromancer - I talked about her in the last post. She's not broken good, but her 0 ability is more than serviceable and I'm happy to give her a shot. Better with some filtering and topdeck manipulation, which might finally give Crystal Ball the push it needs.
Ring of Three Wishes - Like I said in the last post, I don't feel that the lack of tutors has been a serious issue here. I should probably try it to confirm, but I don't really care for it.
Strionic Resonator - Again, covered in the last post. There just aren't enough triggered abilities to use this. All the times it would be good are pretty rare scenarios.
Encroaching Wastes - Another Wasteland variant. There are a ton of these around, and most of them are better than this one. Not a terrible budget option.
Not a ton of options this time around. Chandra is good enough, but she's probably the only card I'll be adding. I also updated the primer to reflect a couple little changes. I'm trying out Koth of the Hammer again, and I'm giving Caverns of Despair a shot.
Second, Crawlspace can be dug up with Goblin Welder in a pinch. Which reminds me, why not use Great Furnace as Welder fuel?
Neheb
Marath
Yidris
Sharuum
Yidris
Caverns over Crawlspace is mostly a matter of style. I have both kicking around and Crawlspace is probably the better choice, but Caverns has that whole Legends thing going for it. I don't think it makes a huge difference in the long run, even if Crawlspace will eventually win any slot for that role.
No Furnace because I have a bunch of stuff that interacts with mountains. Furnace is collateral damage in a few sweepers and I don't put any effort into tutoring up Welder, either. It's a cute interaction, but Furnace is worse than a mountain in a lot more games than it's better.
Smoke is fun. I know I've considered it before, but I think I just never have it on hand. I should grab one of those.
I have any card I was considering as a possibility on the maybeboard and, with the size of it, it's gotten to be a bit difficult to prioritize which cards are important. It doesn't have to be a complete or in depth rundown by any means, simply what cards I have in my mainboard that are less of a priority than specific cards from my maybeboard.
Here's the link: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jaya-ballard-planeswalker/
Thank you in advance for the advice. I really enjoy reading through the updates you have on here.
(obviously, the expensive maybeboard cards would be in the main deck if I could afford to drop 300 dollars on 2 cards, so just ignore those. They'll find a spot if and when I get them.)
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
It's still being updated too!
Edit* Is it possible for this deck to work on 1v1? If not, how do I tweak it a bit for 1v1?
Standard
UR Control
Modern
Merfolk
Burn
Avacyn did nothing wrong!
Purify Innistrad!
#Purge
That is a delicious Jaya brew you have. Very similar to my own, although I do have a few questions/comments regarding your card choices:
Alpha Brawl - how has this been for you? It looks good on the surface as a "board wipe" of sorts, but 8 mana puts it behind All Is Dust (which you're already running) and arguably even Mogg Infestation (which I had reasonable success with and is a fiendish trick with Repercussion).
Shield of Kaldra - Seems pretty clunky, but you do have Sword of Fire and Ice in your maybeboard, so I assume this card is set to be improved upon.
Braid of Fire - Seems good in theory, but I've never been able to get it to do anything meaningful. For the initial cost I'd rather just play a mana rock.
Wake of Destruction - I love you.
And you'll want to find room for Past in Flames, for sure - that card is bonkers.
Alpha Brawl is on the chopping block for sure. It is a nice card, but not essential for the strategy which makes it expendable. It is also expensive, as you said.
Shield of Kaldra is a byproduct of trying to keep Jaya alive all the time, but prot red is strictly better (especially for the doubler that deals to players for all damage taken by their creatures). I'd like to keep it, ideally, but Fire and Ice would be a strict upgrade.
Braid of Fire is something I haven't really played extensively. I think you may be right, though, as I'd often want to be able to play my turn before being forced to turn Jaya sideways and incinerating the world. Probably a good place to cut as well.
Wake of Destruction is just such an awesome card. If you aren't playing land destruction in Mono Red control, you're doing it wrong. I'd actually consider adding more LD in the deck since I do have Crucible in the list.
EDH:
G[cEDH] Selvala, Heart of the StormG
URW[cEDH] Narset, the Last AirmericanURW
GWUSt. Jenara, the ArchangelGWU
UBGrimgrin, Chaos MarineUB
GOmnath, Mana BaronG
URWNarset, Justice League AmericaURW
GWUBAtraxa, Countess of CountersGWUB
GWUEstrid, Enbantress PrimeGWU
Anyways, I figure it's a good time for me to post my list again, as it's undergone a few changes since I last posted it several pages ago.
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Creatures (12)
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Goblin Welder
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Firewing Phoenix
1 Anger
1 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
1 Magma Phoenix
1 Hoarding Dragon
1 Skarrgan Firebird
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Steel Hellkite
Artifacts (23)
1 Sol Ring
1 Expedition Map
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mind Stone
1 Fire Diamond
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Distorting Lens
1 Journeyer's Kite
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Pristine Talisman
1 Mana Vault
1 Trading Post
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Mind's Eye
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Staff of Nin
1 Caged Sun
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Chandra Ablaze
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Karn Liberated
Sorceries (11)
1 Shattering Spree
1 Faithless Looting
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Past in Flames
1 Ruination
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Reforge the Soul
1 All Is Dust
1 Devil's Play
1 Banefire
1 Gamble
Instants (7)
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Reverberate
1 Reiterate
1 Chaos Warp
1 Word of Seizing
1 Fault Line
1 Comet Storm
Enchantments (3)
1 Repercussion
1 Stranglehold
1 Blood Moon
1 Maze of Ith
1 Mystifying Maze
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Vesuva
1 Shivan Gorge
1 Temple of the False God
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Forgotten Cave
1 Buried Ruin
1 High Market
1 Kher Keep
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
25 Mountain
NOTE: This is all off the top of my head. Once I get home from work I'll update this and finish whatever point I was trying to make.
Cuts really seem to be whatever you dislike. I think Alpha Brawl is pretty pricey when you already have a fair amount of burn in the deck, and you could possibly afford to lose one of your spot removals. I always found Scourge of Kher Ridges to not be quite defensive enough, but he's definitely a house if he sticks. My tendency is towards lower curved decks, so I'm also a little biased against 8-drops.
@WyvernSlayer: Looks spicy. How have all the walkers and X-cost burn spells been treating you?
@MLD: It's definitely a powerful inclusion. I just don't like playing it against a lot of people, especially newer players, and Jaya is the deck that comes out in those situations most often. The fact that she's solid without being broken makes her a pretty good introductory deck, and I was never casting those when I had them in hand. Better to cut them for something I want to play in that case.
@Braid of Fire: I've had quite a bit of success with it. There's quite a bit of worthwhile upkeep stuff (Kumano, Master Yamabushi, Journeyer's Kite, phoenix, etc) and Jaya is always a possibility. If it doesn't work out for you, it's certainly an easy cut - there's nothing riding on it in this deck.
I'm still keeping this up, albeit a little slowly at times. I just started back to school for my masters, so that and other non-MtG obligations necessarily eat up more of my time than a forum. I do keep an eye on all the new stuff as well as my various threads, so anyone who appreciates the updates can look forward to getting them on a regular basis.
The X-spells are over-performers, if you can believe it. Far too often I'm in a situation where I have the board locked up, but there are other circumstances that are preventing me from winning the game (e.g., having the lowest life total while doing the Jaya Inferno dance). Having a small spattering of Fireballs is what lets me come out on top. Past in Flames helps here; I can pitch the X-spells early (or cast them to remove small threats) and re-load for lethal in the late game.
Believe it or not, I think the least impressive walker right now is Chandra, Pyromaster. Might just be "new walker syndrome," though. Everyone sees the new Chandra and goes out of their way to kill it. You play the original one and she just gets ignored. I have killed people with the -8 ability, with AND without Repercussion.
Lately, I've felt that, with the deck's slant toward just finishing things with a fat burn spell, I should find room for Mana Geyser again.
The biggest issue with it that I continue to see is that its a lot of mana to drop + pop it in one shot and you do leave yourself open if you try splitting it between turns.
That said, I really want to find some room to play with him somewhere as I think he is really cool.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
I've been reading this thread for many months. Thanks for making this primer.
I've played EDH with Jaya at the helm for about a year and a half now and I want to put my list online to have a historical record of it and also talk about some of the card choices.
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Hellkite Tyrant
1 Viashino Heratic
1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Charmbreaker Devils
1 Anger
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Mad Prophet
1 Skarrgan Firebird
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Firewing Phoenix
1 Shard Phoenix
1 Magma Phoenix
Planeswalkers
1 Karn Liberated
1 Chandra Ablaze
Enchantments
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Gratuitous Violence
1 Repercussion
1 Stranglehold
Instants
1 Skred
1 Chaos Warp
1 Comet Storm
Sorceries
1 Faithless Looting
1 Insurrection
1 Vandalblast
1 Wild Guess
1 Aftershock
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Gamble
1 Reforge the Soul
1 All is Dust
1 Past in Flames
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Batterskull
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Caged Sun
1 Gauntlet of Might
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Fire Diamond
1 Journeyer's Kite
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Sol Ring
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Mind Stone
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Darksteel Plate
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Staff of Nin
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Mind's Eye
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Codex Shredder
1 Planar Portal
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Vesuva
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland
1 Terrain Generator
1 Winding Canyons
1 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
1 Temple of the False God
1 Scrying Sheets
1 Mouth of Ranom
1 Buried Ruin
23 Snow-Covered Mountain
This list is still pre-Theros. Like Büge, I am looking forward to including Burnished Hart and also Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx in future versions.
I notice a lot of the other Jaya players have been cutting mana artifacts and bigger spells in favor of having a more streamlined deck, but my deck is more of a 'big red' style build and includes 10 mana rocks + 3 gauntlet effects. I've always liked having as much mana as possible because it;
1.) Let's you cast Jaya and use her Inferno often. (Even without equipment protecting her.)
2.) Let's you resurrect your phoenix's often.
3.) Plays into the hands of the high cost bombs, like Scourge of Kher Ridges and Planar Portal.
I'd also like to give some praise out to the humble Viashino Heretic. I think every red deck should run him. If I get him out early game he will often be 5+ Shatters in a 4-man pod. Even later in the game he can be a huge threat by threatening large amounts of damage to anyone foolish enough to play high cost artifacts.
Another all-star card that I haven't been seeing in other Jaya lists in Winding Canyons. Haste is great in this deck, playing well with the general at the helm and most of my creatures and Winding Canyons is basically as good as it gets. It can also enable super secret surprise tactics, like recurring a phoenix to hand and flashing it in before blocks.
Hellkite Tyrant has been an okay card for me. I've never won a game by having 20+ artifacts, but I have had some impressive steals with him. Resolving him will always make somebody nervous. He strikes me as a good counter to Darksteel Forge decks like Sharrum and Arcum Dagson.
The biggest difference between my deck and others in this thread is the omission of Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon. In my local meta, I started off a craze to play mono-colored EDH decks. There are only 3 players who even have ABU dual lands. Most of the multi-color decks that I'd play against would have budget manabases that were more likely to have common lands like the RTR gates. I was not having any success with blood moon in that meta. The multi-color decks in my meta still tend to include a good potion of basic land so blood moon, more often then not, became Jaya fodder. The decks that do get shut out by it in my meta aren't necessarily strong threatening decks. Even then blood moon felt anti-fun to me because I'd just be holding back the 5-color player who made a deck with 1 of every charm and split card while the more threatening players were not phased by the blood moon.
I used to have Goblin Welder and Trading Post in this deck, but removed due to testing. I never found the recursion from welder to be all that useful. This deck has some strong artifacts, but I wouldn't put any of them in the "you must have this in play at all times" tier. while I love Trading Post in my Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed Stax EDH deck, this deck doesn't have synergy with T-Post. Jaya is already great at handling small creatures with her Inferno and I even hard Shard Phoenix and Scourge of Kher Ridges for double duty against weenies and token strategies; which are somewhat common in my meta. The goats will either get wrathed by one of your own answers to weenies or they'll just exist as chump blockers for truly huge creatures that re out of Jaya's Inferno range. Normally these Voltron monsters take the form of Omnath, Urril, or Kresh; they are going to have trample anyway. As for the 4 life from T-post; it's a fair amount of life to gain, but you're eating cards in your hand that would otherwise be more useful as Jaya activations. At one point I had an Expedition Map in the main, but I don't remember why I took it out, maybe it should go back in.
The cards I've been most dissatisfied with currently are Faithless Looting, Furnace of Rath, and Insurrection. They're all on the chopping block.
1. Faithless Looting - Wild Guess is just a better card even without it having flash back. I'd absolutely love this card if my deck had threshold, madness, or more graveyard interaction; but in there absence it's just some filtering and since the deck is non-combo it not desperate for that.
2. Furnace of Rath - I love Gratuitous Violence but Furnace of Rath is a double edged sword. Furnace puts a huge bull's eye on your head.
3. Insurrection - It's won me some games, but I find that board states don't often develop enough for it to became an instant win. At best you kill 1 or 2 players with it and then your remaining opponent/opponents gets there creatures back and end you with them.
How has Chandra, Pyromaster been performing? I've been trying to get my hands on one since M14 game out, but haven't gotten one yet. My initial impression of her was that the card was bad and she was not the red planeswalker we deserve, but I do want to see how she plays in Jaya EDH considering how rare draw effects are in red.