So...this Figure of Destiny version of Jeskai that's been running around. Has anyone else been playing it? I've been on it for the past week or so, after it got posted in one of the recent 5-0 dumps. It also finished in the top 8 of GP Hong Kong today. I think it actually could be quite good.
It's not hard at all really. And you just have to be judicious with activating it. You shouldn't be planning on playing it on turn 1 and having it go all the way. Sometimes you play it on turn 1 and they kill it, sometimes it lives and becomes a 4/4 and puts them into burn range. You're playing a bunch of other threats as well, so you don't have to rely on Figure.
This deck (another link) is really interesting and really weird.
Interesting because it's very similar and yet very different from my deck. It also runs 2 Gideons, creatures are the same but the Delvers have been switched for Figures of Destiny, Opts instead of SVs because there are no Delvers to flip, almost same mix of burn and disruption, but Search, Electrolyze and Boros Charm are Spell Quellers instead. Even 11 SB cards are identical to mine.
Weird because I don't understand how this deck can good enough to reach 3rd place among 908 players. Spell Queller must be much better than I believe it to be. This deck doesn't even run that much protection to keep the Quellers in play. Figure just doesn't look like a very good card to me on paper. 2 mana for 2/2 bear, 5 mana in total for a 4/4 without abilities, another 6 mana for a 8/8 flyer that can be chump blocked and even dies to fatal push?
But somehow Shota Takao ended up there in the Top8.
Maybe the fact that he has 19 threats (not counting manlands) makes the deck more potent than my version?
Very interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing!
I completely agree StevomatUWR. I just can't see how this deck has performed so well. I will have to test it out and see what is strong and what is not. I have played figure of destiny in the past, but that was like 3+ years ago.
Also I didn't answer your question from earlier. I prefer Forked Bolt over all of the options.
The most important part of the deck is knowing when to pump your Figures. You aren't playing like an all out aggro deck, so sometimes it's just a 1/1. But it's won me a lot of games as a 4/4 as well, because you're able to back it up with cheap disruption, and even if it dies, you have plenty of other threats.
Wow. A Browbeat x2 at instant speed. That's a fun card- Risk Factor. Not sure how powerful because it's a situational card, but it's a really cool card. I bet Dzung is happy to see this one!
I like the new card, but it's competing with Electrolyze which gives two damage and 1 card for sure. The upside of the new card is higher, but I think it's downside is worse. It really just depends on what style deck you are playing. In a more aggro-control style deck, I think electorlyze is better. In a more aggro/prowess style deck Risk Factor is likely a better option.
Electrolyze
-Can hit creatures
-2 Damage
-1 Card
-UR cost
Risk Factor
-Can't hit creatures
-4 damage to face
-3 cards possible
-only R cost.
-can be "flashed" back.
Basically one has more utility and the other has more power. I think if Risk Factor fits into your strategy it will likely be the better option due to it's increase in power level and because it can be jump started.
Overview- This matchup is super weird in my opinion. I have beaten it very easily and have lost to it horribly. Bascially they have four cards we really care about- Drogskol Captian, Phantasmal Image, Mausoleum Wanderer, and some lists have Geist of Saint Traft. The worst is when they land a drogskol captain and then phantasmal image giving all of the creatures hexproof. That is tough to come back from. The mausoleum wanderer can cause headaches with early removal so I try to get rid of those too.
With all of that said, they are weak to burn in general so we can take an aggro or tempo role comfortably in game one if our hand dictates that. I make sure to always bolt drogskol captains as soon as I can (they can still be targeted because they say all "other" spirits have hexproof). I have noticed in my playtesting and playing that Echoing Truth has been very good against them because they run a bunch of four of's and often have multiple copies of creatures.
The matchup itself often becomes a back and forth grindy matchup. I have noticed that a lot of games end with me burning them out. They really depend on getting an overwhelming board state and flying over opponents. If you can keep the lords off the field we normally have enough power level to beat them. I would say overall it's a 55/45 matchup in our favor (like a lot of matchups).
Whatever happened to Saheeli versions of the deck or did that take some different direction? Been away for a few years...
I used to play a copy of Saheeli in my mainboard, but I don't think a lot of people adopted that. She is great with snapcaster mage and bedlam reveler because her -2 becomes really good. There was a jeskai saheeli combo deck (which I think is what you are referencing) and I really don't know where that deck went. It seemed like a slightly worse version of twin and would definitely be good in the current meta.
I'm looking forward to GRN prerelease, what about y'all? I'm curious about Ionize taking the place of Logic Knot. I wish the damage was 3 instead of 2 but I think it still has potential. Also this is a little off thread topic, but has anyone built a jeskai commander deck? Specifically something in the theme of the jeskai way with Narset, Enlightened Master at the helm? I wanna brew something up and was wondering if anyone had messed around with such a deck?
As far game reports, I've really only had casual games with my jeskai deck lately but I'm hoping to face a few competitive decks at my FNM this Friday - I essentially have 3 LGS's. One is a small one that opened 6 months ago where we all know the owner well and have lots of fun hanging out and playing casually even when events don't fire (or even when they do it's a variety of decks, some competitive, some not so much). One is another smaller-ish LGS that opened last winter that has a bigger player base with a much more consistently competitive meta. And the third is a larger store where events can get pretty big and their singles collection is massive, but it's farther away. Depending on where I play when I'm able to make modern FNM, my reports will be more or less interesting. Either way I'm just hoping to get more practice in!
I think they definitely could have had Ionize deal 3 damage. I do think even at 2 mana it's a playable card. In a jeskai counter/burn deck I think it is a solid one of as a catch all. I am interested to see how it goes for you and for everyone else. I will likely try a copy in my Spell Queller slot if Jund starts to pick up a ton.
I have a similar situation to yours. There are several LGS that I go to. One closer, but smaller and one much further away, but much more busy. I highly recommend finding a play group to test with. It sounds like you have a pretty tight group of friends and regulars already so you have probably already done that. I'm lucky that my brother also plays so we can test frequently as well.
On the EDH topic, I haven't made a jeskai deck in a long time. I made an old Ruhan of the Fomori deck a few years back when he was basicaly the only option for jeskai. I have thought about making a Narset Enlightened or Jodah, Archmage Eternal deck, but I don't play EDH really at all so haven't made one yet. I think I would like to make a jeskai wizards deck. Tempo is tough to play in EDH so I would have to delve into more control oriented deck based on casting a ton of spells. I'm sure there are a bunch of options online, but I haven't looked.
I play a jeskai deck, and wounder if you guys can take a look. Give som advise or tips.
It's hard to play Spell Pierces on our FNM. So that's what i have leak instead.
My SB usually contains the following:
Cheap disruption like 1 Ceremonious Rejection, 1 Dispel, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Disdainful Stroke & 1 Vendilion Clique to become a more controlling deck.
A package against artifact decks: 2 Stony Silence, 1 Wear // Tear (I also board C. Rejection against them and I also board in Stony Silences against Tron and Ad Nauseum).
Then 1 Celestial Purge against red and black creatures and Planeswalkers and against Blood Moon,
1 Damping Sphere also against Tron and against Storm decks,
2 Rest in Peace against Dredge, Mardu Pyro, Bridgevine, Storm, Living End, Hardened Scales and Abzan decks Souls & Goyfs (I usually board out 1 Snapcaster),
1 Sulfur Elemental/1 Izzet Staticaster and 1 Anger of the Gods against decks that go wide.
Sulfur is awesome againt Lingering Souls and good against Control Decks but Staticaster also gets Pyromancer tokens. At the moment I am using Sulfur because UW Control is so popular.
1 Deflecting Palm as a pet card against anything that uses creatures with 4 or more power.
@MrWickard
I think your deck looks fine except for one thing: 2 Field of Ruin. With Stronghold that means 3 colorless mana sources and you only run 21 lands. Since you want to cast Helixes and Mantis Riders you absolutely need to change these lands imho. I'd add two fastlands instead of them.
Hi Mr.Wickard. Welcome to the forum topic and the boards. I think your deck looks great. I wonder if you would be better off with a spell snare instead of 3 mana leak, but that is just a personal choice and you mentioned that mana leak is good in your meta. I do agree with Stevomat that 3 colorless sources is tough in a three color deck. I had to cut Slayer's Stronghold (a card a love and think is very under rated) because I only play 19-20 lands in my decks. Other than that I think the deck looks great.
You don't need Field of Ruins against Scapeshift, either version. Or tron for that matter. You're fast and disruptive enough, that it doesn't matter. As for choices, I'm usually playing Blood Moons, or you can try Alpine Moon.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
Interesting because it's very similar and yet very different from my deck. It also runs 2 Gideons, creatures are the same but the Delvers have been switched for Figures of Destiny, Opts instead of SVs because there are no Delvers to flip, almost same mix of burn and disruption, but Search, Electrolyze and Boros Charm are Spell Quellers instead. Even 11 SB cards are identical to mine.
Weird because I don't understand how this deck can good enough to reach 3rd place among 908 players. Spell Queller must be much better than I believe it to be. This deck doesn't even run that much protection to keep the Quellers in play. Figure just doesn't look like a very good card to me on paper. 2 mana for 2/2 bear, 5 mana in total for a 4/4 without abilities, another 6 mana for a 8/8 flyer that can be chump blocked and even dies to fatal push?
But somehow Shota Takao ended up there in the Top8.
Maybe the fact that he has 19 threats (not counting manlands) makes the deck more potent than my version?
Very interesting indeed. Thanks for sharing!
Also I didn't answer your question from earlier. I prefer Forked Bolt over all of the options.
UW Control
UWR Geist
UWR Control
Electrolyze
-Can hit creatures
-2 Damage
-1 Card
-UR cost
Risk Factor
-Can't hit creatures
-4 damage to face
-3 cards possible
-only R cost.
-can be "flashed" back.
Basically one has more utility and the other has more power. I think if Risk Factor fits into your strategy it will likely be the better option due to it's increase in power level and because it can be jump started.
This weeks matchup is - Bant Spirits
Overview- This matchup is super weird in my opinion. I have beaten it very easily and have lost to it horribly. Bascially they have four cards we really care about- Drogskol Captian, Phantasmal Image, Mausoleum Wanderer, and some lists have Geist of Saint Traft. The worst is when they land a drogskol captain and then phantasmal image giving all of the creatures hexproof. That is tough to come back from. The mausoleum wanderer can cause headaches with early removal so I try to get rid of those too.
With all of that said, they are weak to burn in general so we can take an aggro or tempo role comfortably in game one if our hand dictates that. I make sure to always bolt drogskol captains as soon as I can (they can still be targeted because they say all "other" spirits have hexproof). I have noticed in my playtesting and playing that Echoing Truth has been very good against them because they run a bunch of four of's and often have multiple copies of creatures.
The matchup itself often becomes a back and forth grindy matchup. I have noticed that a lot of games end with me burning them out. They really depend on getting an overwhelming board state and flying over opponents. If you can keep the lords off the field we normally have enough power level to beat them. I would say overall it's a 55/45 matchup in our favor (like a lot of matchups).
Sideboard-
I typically side in Engineered Explosives, Abrade, and Dispel I believe. Other good options are Detention Sphere, Settle the Wreckage, Grim Lavamancer, or even Surgical Exraction if you have a bunch of cards that aren't good in your main deck. For the more aggro burn lists Deflecting Palm can also be decent.
The post board matchup is much of the same. I don't think the matchup gets any better or worse. Let me know what I missed.
I used to play a copy of Saheeli in my mainboard, but I don't think a lot of people adopted that. She is great with snapcaster mage and bedlam reveler because her -2 becomes really good. There was a jeskai saheeli combo deck (which I think is what you are referencing) and I really don't know where that deck went. It seemed like a slightly worse version of twin and would definitely be good in the current meta.
I'm looking forward to GRN prerelease, what about y'all? I'm curious about Ionize taking the place of Logic Knot. I wish the damage was 3 instead of 2 but I think it still has potential. Also this is a little off thread topic, but has anyone built a jeskai commander deck? Specifically something in the theme of the jeskai way with Narset, Enlightened Master at the helm? I wanna brew something up and was wondering if anyone had messed around with such a deck?
As far game reports, I've really only had casual games with my jeskai deck lately but I'm hoping to face a few competitive decks at my FNM this Friday - I essentially have 3 LGS's. One is a small one that opened 6 months ago where we all know the owner well and have lots of fun hanging out and playing casually even when events don't fire (or even when they do it's a variety of decks, some competitive, some not so much). One is another smaller-ish LGS that opened last winter that has a bigger player base with a much more consistently competitive meta. And the third is a larger store where events can get pretty big and their singles collection is massive, but it's farther away. Depending on where I play when I'm able to make modern FNM, my reports will be more or less interesting. Either way I'm just hoping to get more practice in!
I have a similar situation to yours. There are several LGS that I go to. One closer, but smaller and one much further away, but much more busy. I highly recommend finding a play group to test with. It sounds like you have a pretty tight group of friends and regulars already so you have probably already done that. I'm lucky that my brother also plays so we can test frequently as well.
On the EDH topic, I haven't made a jeskai deck in a long time. I made an old Ruhan of the Fomori deck a few years back when he was basicaly the only option for jeskai. I have thought about making a Narset Enlightened or Jodah, Archmage Eternal deck, but I don't play EDH really at all so haven't made one yet. I think I would like to make a jeskai wizards deck. Tempo is tough to play in EDH so I would have to delve into more control oriented deck based on casting a ton of spells. I'm sure there are a bunch of options online, but I haven't looked.
I play a jeskai deck, and wounder if you guys can take a look. Give som advise or tips.
It's hard to play Spell Pierces on our FNM. So that's what i have leak instead.
https://www.svenskamagic.com/lekladan/index.php?ID=226121
to my deck
After GP Hong Kong I started testing with Figure of Destiny on MTGO and I am really positively surprised! So much that I ordered two copies
21 lands, 16 threats, 22 instants/sorceries (12x burn/removal + 10x disruption/filtering), 1 enchantment
The deck runs really smooth now with this mix!
Welcome to the Jeskai Tempo forum
My SB usually contains the following:
Cheap disruption like 1 Ceremonious Rejection, 1 Dispel, 1 Spell Snare, 1 Disdainful Stroke & 1 Vendilion Clique to become a more controlling deck.
A package against artifact decks: 2 Stony Silence, 1 Wear // Tear (I also board C. Rejection against them and I also board in Stony Silences against Tron and Ad Nauseum).
Then 1 Celestial Purge against red and black creatures and Planeswalkers and against Blood Moon,
1 Damping Sphere also against Tron and against Storm decks,
2 Rest in Peace against Dredge, Mardu Pyro, Bridgevine, Storm, Living End, Hardened Scales and Abzan decks Souls & Goyfs (I usually board out 1 Snapcaster),
1 Sulfur Elemental/1 Izzet Staticaster and 1 Anger of the Gods against decks that go wide.
Sulfur is awesome againt Lingering Souls and good against Control Decks but Staticaster also gets Pyromancer tokens. At the moment I am using Sulfur because UW Control is so popular.
1 Deflecting Palm as a pet card against anything that uses creatures with 4 or more power.
I think your deck looks fine except for one thing: 2 Field of Ruin. With Stronghold that means 3 colorless mana sources and you only run 21 lands. Since you want to cast Helixes and Mantis Riders you absolutely need to change these lands imho. I'd add two fastlands instead of them.
And field of ruin cuz i need to destroy for scapeshift and other decks. But do you guys it is better with 2 more fastland?
thanks for all help
my sideboard is already hard to change
and one deck i have problem with is mardu. I can't understand. Is my deck to bad for that matchup?
Your SB looks pretty good against them, that's why I am asking. Maybe you're switching out the wrong cards...
And thanks for the help and advise
Should I play more glacial fortress and one of the w/r don't know the name of that land.
Or fast land?