It just isn't good enough against the field. Keranos is a late game inevitability card that allows you to eventually win the game through card advantage/damage that is hard to remove. It excels against decks like jund that are trying to create top deck wars, but those aren't as much of the field as decks like Humans/Affinity (where it is too slow) and Tron (who ignore it or have Karn).
Search for Azcanta actually fills a somewhat similar niche. Late game it gives you inevitability that decks like jund cannot beat, but it's also not a dead card for the early game where it allows you to scry each turn.
Hey Guys, I have just completed Jeskai Control and Tempo and I must admit as a newer player to Blue control, I am not doing so hot. I played control at 3 casual tournaments and tempo at one and I lost miserably. I am used to tron, eldrazi stompy, modern DnT and burn and know those playstyles well. I have played jund, abzan, lantern control, living end, affinity, counters company and bogles in the past for long periods of time. All this is to say that I am very familiar with modern but playing Jeskai Control is proving challenging for me. I'm playing a fairly standard list, the only spice being a Chandra, Torch of Defiance. I would love any generic pointers at all. I feel like I have not made much improvement across the four tournaments and was on the verge of going back to my favorite deck (Tron) but nobody likes a quitter, so I figured I would hop on here and hopefully get some advice. Thanks in advance!!
Chandra works to cross purposes with the Control Build. There are few times we want to cast on our own turn, if things are going well and we are not closing out the game, the majority of them are Serum, Search, and our Walker of Choice. Her 'card advantage' as such is artificial to us.
Perhaps post your list and we can look at that, but in the most general sense.
1. Dont put yourself in a position to just die. There are many modern decks that if they resolve X, you are effectively dead.
2. Prioritize Search for Azcanta, Land Drops, and having Counters in hand to answer anything the opponent does. At that point you can work towards your win condition.
Outside of that, the number of variables are too high to offer general advise I feel. If you are not playing Teferi, Nahiri, Gideon 4 or 3, or Jace though, I'd question your starting point, or list.
Hey Guys, I have just completed Jeskai Control and Tempo and I must admit as a newer player to Blue control, I am not doing so hot. I played control at 3 casual tournaments and tempo at one and I lost miserably. I am used to tron, eldrazi stompy, modern DnT and burn and know those playstyles well. I have played jund, abzan, lantern control, living end, affinity, counters company and bogles in the past for long periods of time. All this is to say that I am very familiar with modern but playing Jeskai Control is proving challenging for me. I'm playing a fairly standard list, the only spice being a Chandra, Torch of Defiance. I would love any generic pointers at all. I feel like I have not made much improvement across the four tournaments and was on the verge of going back to my favorite deck (Tron) but nobody likes a quitter, so I figured I would hop on here and hopefully get some advice. Thanks in advance!!
hmm well its difficult to give generic advice without more information. i wont try to sell you on the idea that control decks are inherently harder to play or do well with, because i dont think its entirely true. however every deck has a learning curve, and reactive decks in particular require experience on how to handle all the absurd stuff people can present in this format.
jeskai control, and other control decks, are about playing from behind. so its about identifying what threats you need to answer right away, what answer cards are more appropriate to use (ie. removal or counterspells), and when you can turn the corner along with the consequences if you are wrong.
dont get caught up in every sideboard card that could be good, focus on the ones that will definitely be good. you are likely not mulliganning aggressively as you should, and get in the habit of thinking along the lines of "if i make this play what happens if my opponent follows up with X? and am in in a position where i can afford to play around it?".
for example with search for azcanta. unless something indicates that tapping out would let the opponent get extremely far ahead (or win outright) its usually correct to get azcanta down in the early turns. tappout cards (including serum visions) are investments.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Drop 1 or 2 Colonnade. Most people run 3, and convert one of those into another Sulfur Falls or Glacial Fortress. I would drop the 2nd plains for the same, but if you face a lot of land destruction or moons, I can see that (If moons, I'd swap that Basic Mountain though).
Is your meta abnormally fast to drive your counts of Bolt/Helix/Leak/Cryptic?
Drop 1 or 2 Colonnade. Most people run 3, and convert one of those into another Sulfur Falls or Glacial Fortress. I would drop the 2nd plains for the same, but if you face a lot of land destruction or moons, I can see that (If moons, I'd swap that Basic Mountain though).
Is your meta abnormally fast to drive your counts of Bolt/Helix/Leak/Cryptic?
As of late it is only fast decks, but I was thinking about dropping a colonnade. I also like the burn aspect and i don't feel like counters are as good with all the humans in my meta. i feel like other than the colonnade the lands haven't been the issue but I'm will to try dropping a basic. There are a lot of blood moons in my meta too, and a lot of things that cost 2 white in the deck. I suppose I could drop a mountain, would that make sense?
well the basic mountain is less needed in the face of blood moon, but you lose some percentage against burn/fast aggro because you have to fetch/shock more often for a turn 1 bolt. playing the full set of helix mitigates that somewhat.
i think there is room for improvement if you tuned your list. chandra is decent, but probably not optimal. id also personally be playing secure the wastes over sphinxs rev. overall i dont think you would have a vastly different experience with the deck, at least not at the level i think you are expecting. though i do think its more beneficial to start from an established or proven list so you have a baseline before making changes for your local meta.
one sideboard card that i would recommend though is elspeth, suns champion. the card comes in for so many matchups that its just shy of being main deck material (some people actually do play it MD). against any deck that is remotely fair it will pull its weight.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Talking about advice for specific MUs, how do you approach the Mardu MU right now? Their combination of Discard, Blood Moon, Souls and Reveler is really annoying. I think I have to be the aggressor and burn them out before they get their reveler chains going but I am curious what your plans are.
I have been running main-deck EE and Detention Sphere, and boy has that won me a lot of g1's that I would have lost otherwise, Mardu included. The cards are fine against humans, which helps.
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Modern Decks
------------ URW Jeskai Control GUWRB Amulet Titan GR Ponza
i would put the matchup slightly in mardus favor. they just have the perfect storm of crap we dont wanna see. boatloads of discard, blood moon, threats that invalidate spot removal, and plenty of card advantage of their own. all of TheAller's advice is spot on, but the matchup is difficult to navigate to say the least.
certain card choices in the main and side can make a good difference though. mardu lacks closing speed so the games are drawn out unless you get punked out by blood moon or molten rains. having 1 versus 2 electrolyzes for instance. answer cards like celestial purge are at a premium as well as 1/1 token hosers like izzet staticaster or jace architect of thought. having access to bombs like elspeth or baneslayer angel is obviously great.
grave hate is a sore spot. a card like rest in peace absolutely neuters their decks power. not being able to run it even though its in our colors is a feelbad.
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i would put the matchup slightly in mardus favor. they just have the perfect storm of crap we dont wanna see. boatloads of discard, blood moon, threats that invalidate spot removal, and plenty of card advantage of their own. all of TheAller's advice is spot on, but the matchup is difficult to navigate to say the least.
certain card choices in the main and side can make a good difference though. mardu lacks closing speed so the games are drawn out unless you get punked out by blood moon or molten rains. having 1 versus 2 electrolyzes for instance. answer cards like celestial purge are at a premium as well as 1/1 token hosers like izzet staticaster or jace architect of thought. having access to bombs like elspeth or baneslayer angel is obviously great.
grave hate is a sore spot. a card like rest in peace absolutely neuters their decks power. not being able to run it even though its in our colors is a feelbad.
I know Jeskai has snaps and search, but how bad does RIP really hurt us compared to Mardu, dredge, KCI, etc?
there is also logic knot. jeskai can still function with it on the table, however we have just enough graveyard interactions in the deck where its likely the superior option to look for other avenues to deal with the sort of decks you mentioned. for instance artifact removal/countermagic for kci, creature exile effects like anger of the gods or celestial purge for dredge, and better tools to grind against mardu.
so you still CAN run rest in peace if you really want to hose certain matchups, because there are some cases where if you were to quantify what we lose by nuking our own GY it would still be a net benefit since the opponent loses far more. its just fallen off as a mainstay of jeskai sideboards because there are too few of those cases in an open field.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
Has anyone ever tried running faithless looting in place of serum visions? I'm just wondering because most people seem to be on the logic knot x 3 and the quicker you flip search, the better for you. I definitely feel like a lot of the time I keep hands with one land and serum visions or two lands without access to all colors and hope to get there with serum visions and it rarely pans out (I may just not have played enough matches but I have had to mull in almost every match I have played and so am more likely to keep the aforementioned type of hands). The filter effect of faithless could let you pitch unwanted cards to power all your graveyard shenanigans and can be flashed back.
i feel like there is more aversion to play the card than there should be. hand filtering, even at the initial cost of card disadvantage, is extremely powerful in a format where your deck contains cards that are exceptional for a matchup and other cards change in value at various points in the game.
that being said one of the biggest reasons not to run faithless looting in jeskai is that we are a deck that wants/needs to keep developing its mana throughout the game. even if cards like countermagic are seemingly dead when you are behind, being able to stockpile resources in your hand is essentially how we apply pressure to most opponents. we want to get to the point where we have dealt with everything meaningful, but the chances of the opponent clawing back into the game gets smaller and smaller.
i did entertain the idea for a bit, but ultimately let it go without committing to testing it myself. i also looked for other flashback cards that we might look to for extra value, and the only ones were think twice and desperate ravings. both of which arent that great.
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i feel like there is more aversion to play the card than there should be. hand filtering, even at the initial cost of card disadvantage, is extremely powerful in a format where your deck contains cards that are exceptional for a matchup and other cards change in value at various points in the game.
that being said one of the biggest reasons not to run faithless looting in jeskai is that we are a deck that wants/needs to keep developing its mana throughout the game. even if cards like countermagic are seemingly dead when you are behind, being able to stockpile resources in your hand is essentially how we apply pressure to most opponents. we want to get to the point where we have dealt with everything meaningful, but the chances of the opponent clawing back into the game gets smaller and smaller.
i did entertain the idea for a bit, but ultimately let it go without committing to testing it myself. i also looked for other flashback cards that we might look to for extra value, and the only ones were think twice and desperate ravings. both of which arent that great.
Thanks, I like all this banter, I feel like I am learning a lot
looting/hand filtering is a form or selection (see brainstorm). also i think people over emphasize faithless looting being card disadvantage. even without the value of discarding specific cards, filtering your hand and converting less useful resources to more useful ones equates to some fraction of a card, or in other words virtual card advantage. playing the front and back side of looting should come out to the card replacing itself. if you have value cards to discard such as souls or bloodghast the cards per mana ratio is incredibly efficient.
deck manipulation in the form of scry improving your drawsteps also equates to virtual CA, but im confident in saying that for the decks that can leverage it faithless looting is a better cantrip than serum visions/opt. for the reasons i stated above though jeskai cant make good use of it; the primary one being that we want to be continually making land drops.
@TheAller - speaking of opt. i saw you were running it in your queller list. i understand playing it because its instant speed, but what do you think of the power level of the card? was it merely serviceable under the pretext of 'beggers cant be choosers', or do you think the card is underestimated?
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Loving the discussion on Opt vs Serum Visions. I agree that it's not clear cut, and my experience has dictated that the two cards serve slightly different roles.
I heard/read somewhere that Serum Visions is an investment, which sums it up very well IMO. It can be a pain to find the time to cast it in the early-midgame, but it allows us to keep a wider range of hands, as well as digging us into answers and action in future turns.
The best way I can describe Opt is as a card that smoothes out our draws. It helps us fill the gaps in our curve and make land drops. The immediate gratification it provides shouldn't be understated in a deck that is often looking for either lands or spells; the random draw off Visions with the promise of better future draws isn't always enough, especially when it can affect our curve negatively.
My main issue with Jeskai Control in it's current state is the lack of velocity. Coming from 8-cantrip, 4x Remand UR Moon decks, I notice I'm missing more land drops than I would expect for playing 24. I'm not hitting my colours as consistently as I like. And sometimes I feel like I'm forced into trading 1-for-1 all the time without having a good way to pull ahead.
I love Logic Knot, but I also love Search for Azcanta. I think we can all agree Azcanta (and more recently, Teferi) has done a lot to revitalize the archetype. Unfortunately, I often find myself with a Search in play that I can't flip because of having to cast one or more Logic Knots. So where am I going with this?
What about Remand?
Hold on, I know what the popular opinion is. Remand is bad when the format is so fast, and besides, we want REAL answers. And we don't have any real way to take advantage of the tempo gained.
Or do we?
Fundamentally, we want every game to go long. We can almost never kill our opponents quickly, even in a goldfish scenario. The vast majority of games we lose, we're either run out fast and brutally by the opponent, or we trade one-to-one until our opponent topdecks better (less common, but it still happens). Meanwhile, most of our powerful cards can't be deployed until much later in the game.
So how does Remand help alleviate these issues?
For starters, Logic Knot is not great at preventing us from getting run over in the early game. UU is also a somewhat punishing requirement to have early and often, especially when our life total is under pressure. Logic Knot is best in the early game when the opponent is curving out. So is Remand.
But that's not a real argument for Remand. The actual reason I'm drawn to Remand is because I think it does three very important things at the same time:
1. It disrupts our opponent's curve. Most threats are a lot less scary when they're played off-curve.
2. It smoothes out our draws and helps us hit land drops. I know I'm much happier with an opening hand of 2 lands and a Remand than 2 lands and a Logic Knot.
3. It bridges us to the midgame, where our more powerful spells come online. Opponent wants to dump a bunch of creatures into play after being Bolted and Remanded for the first few turns? Great, you played into my Wrath! Oh, you have Liliana of the Veil? Well, I have Cryptic Command. We often are just one turn behind in the games we lose, and Remand can make all the difference.
Bonus Round:
It doesn't mess with our Search flipping. Which is really big game! This deck can reliability flip a T2 Search on T4/T5.
Not sure I'll convince anyone, but Remand has impressed me so much in UR (even ignoring the synergy with Blood Moon) that I'd regret not exploring its applications in Jeskai.
i think remand is fine to run as a 1 or 2-of at most. its a house in blue mirrors. you said it yourself though the strength of the card is its tempo. in other words there has to be some sort of pressure that we are applying. this can be in the form of playing to a specific card(s) or attacking the opponents life total. this is why you see UR with blood moon, combos, and or more creature threats like young pyro or titi.
it isnt a good replacement for logic knot though because the cards are doing very different things. a clean answer card is just more valuable on a fundamental level for a deck that is trying to trade resources (answer all the things), arrest control of a game, and hold it indefinitely. remand may help get you to a point where you can leverage more power cards up the curve such as cryptic command; however that means you are leaning more on those cards to do their job when you need them. in that sense remand is actually making cryptic command worse.
for example say you have 4x Remand 4x Cryptic as your counter suite. you can remand something then cryptic it on the way back down, but what happens when you cryptic bounce something? remand it on the way back down to dig for another card in your dwindling pool of answers? that may work for a time, but the chances of something eventually getting through just goes up.
to put it more simply the longer you want/expect the game to go the more the volume of 'real' answers matters. cards like blood moon, or just outright killing your opponent, can deal with an unlimited number of things. jeskai doesnt have that luxury, and since we typically play a longer game than UR we need more real answers.
also jeskai's mana sucks. it just does. we are a full on 3 color deck with some pretty ridiculous colored requirements going up the curve. the power and options this affords is supposed to offset this, but mana has always been a weakness for us; hence why attacking it is so effective of a counter strategy. 24 lands is the bare minimum to hit your 4th land on curve, and this says nothing for getting the actual colors you need to cast all your spells.
all of this is sort of the collective theory that jeskai players accept since it aligns with our experiences. however it isnt gospel. if you want to try out a remand or more heavy cantrip build because you think it will make the deck better then there isnt any harm in experimenting.
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It just isn't good enough against the field. Keranos is a late game inevitability card that allows you to eventually win the game through card advantage/damage that is hard to remove. It excels against decks like jund that are trying to create top deck wars, but those aren't as much of the field as decks like Humans/Affinity (where it is too slow) and Tron (who ignore it or have Karn).
Search for Azcanta actually fills a somewhat similar niche. Late game it gives you inevitability that decks like jund cannot beat, but it's also not a dead card for the early game where it allows you to scry each turn.
If you're playing Blue Moon it's fine. If you have access to white, Teferi is better.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
Perhaps post your list and we can look at that, but in the most general sense.
1. Dont put yourself in a position to just die. There are many modern decks that if they resolve X, you are effectively dead.
2. Prioritize Search for Azcanta, Land Drops, and having Counters in hand to answer anything the opponent does. At that point you can work towards your win condition.
Outside of that, the number of variables are too high to offer general advise I feel. If you are not playing Teferi, Nahiri, Gideon 4 or 3, or Jace though, I'd question your starting point, or list.
Spirits
hmm well its difficult to give generic advice without more information. i wont try to sell you on the idea that control decks are inherently harder to play or do well with, because i dont think its entirely true. however every deck has a learning curve, and reactive decks in particular require experience on how to handle all the absurd stuff people can present in this format.
jeskai control, and other control decks, are about playing from behind. so its about identifying what threats you need to answer right away, what answer cards are more appropriate to use (ie. removal or counterspells), and when you can turn the corner along with the consequences if you are wrong.
dont get caught up in every sideboard card that could be good, focus on the ones that will definitely be good. you are likely not mulliganning aggressively as you should, and get in the habit of thinking along the lines of "if i make this play what happens if my opponent follows up with X? and am in in a position where i can afford to play around it?".
for example with search for azcanta. unless something indicates that tapping out would let the opponent get extremely far ahead (or win outright) its usually correct to get azcanta down in the early turns. tappout cards (including serum visions) are investments.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Spells (27):
3 Cryptic Command
2 Electrolyze
2 Supreme Verdict
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
2 Logic Knot
1 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
1 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Serum Visions
Creatures (4):
4 Snapcaster Mage
Planeswalkers (3):
2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
Enchantments (2):
2 Search for Azcanta
Lands (24):
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Island
2 Plains
1 Mountain
Sideboard (15):
1 Celestial Purge
2 Damping Sphere
2 Dispel
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Stony Silence
1 Negate
1 Disdainful Stroke
1 Settle the Wreckage
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Wear // Tear
1 Ceremonius Rejection
Drop 1 or 2 Colonnade. Most people run 3, and convert one of those into another Sulfur Falls or Glacial Fortress. I would drop the 2nd plains for the same, but if you face a lot of land destruction or moons, I can see that (If moons, I'd swap that Basic Mountain though).
Is your meta abnormally fast to drive your counts of Bolt/Helix/Leak/Cryptic?
Spirits
As of late it is only fast decks, but I was thinking about dropping a colonnade. I also like the burn aspect and i don't feel like counters are as good with all the humans in my meta. i feel like other than the colonnade the lands haven't been the issue but I'm will to try dropping a basic. There are a lot of blood moons in my meta too, and a lot of things that cost 2 white in the deck. I suppose I could drop a mountain, would that make sense?
i think there is room for improvement if you tuned your list. chandra is decent, but probably not optimal. id also personally be playing secure the wastes over sphinxs rev. overall i dont think you would have a vastly different experience with the deck, at least not at the level i think you are expecting. though i do think its more beneficial to start from an established or proven list so you have a baseline before making changes for your local meta.
one sideboard card that i would recommend though is elspeth, suns champion. the card comes in for so many matchups that its just shy of being main deck material (some people actually do play it MD). against any deck that is remotely fair it will pull its weight.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)I have been running main-deck EE and Detention Sphere, and boy has that won me a lot of g1's that I would have lost otherwise, Mardu included. The cards are fine against humans, which helps.
------------
URW Jeskai Control
GUWRB Amulet Titan
GR Ponza
certain card choices in the main and side can make a good difference though. mardu lacks closing speed so the games are drawn out unless you get punked out by blood moon or molten rains. having 1 versus 2 electrolyzes for instance. answer cards like celestial purge are at a premium as well as 1/1 token hosers like izzet staticaster or jace architect of thought. having access to bombs like elspeth or baneslayer angel is obviously great.
grave hate is a sore spot. a card like rest in peace absolutely neuters their decks power. not being able to run it even though its in our colors is a feelbad.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)I know Jeskai has snaps and search, but how bad does RIP really hurt us compared to Mardu, dredge, KCI, etc?
so you still CAN run rest in peace if you really want to hose certain matchups, because there are some cases where if you were to quantify what we lose by nuking our own GY it would still be a net benefit since the opponent loses far more. its just fallen off as a mainstay of jeskai sideboards because there are too few of those cases in an open field.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)that being said one of the biggest reasons not to run faithless looting in jeskai is that we are a deck that wants/needs to keep developing its mana throughout the game. even if cards like countermagic are seemingly dead when you are behind, being able to stockpile resources in your hand is essentially how we apply pressure to most opponents. we want to get to the point where we have dealt with everything meaningful, but the chances of the opponent clawing back into the game gets smaller and smaller.
i did entertain the idea for a bit, but ultimately let it go without committing to testing it myself. i also looked for other flashback cards that we might look to for extra value, and the only ones were think twice and desperate ravings. both of which arent that great.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Thanks, I like all this banter, I feel like I am learning a lot
deck manipulation in the form of scry improving your drawsteps also equates to virtual CA, but im confident in saying that for the decks that can leverage it faithless looting is a better cantrip than serum visions/opt. for the reasons i stated above though jeskai cant make good use of it; the primary one being that we want to be continually making land drops.
@TheAller - speaking of opt. i saw you were running it in your queller list. i understand playing it because its instant speed, but what do you think of the power level of the card? was it merely serviceable under the pretext of 'beggers cant be choosers', or do you think the card is underestimated?
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)I heard/read somewhere that Serum Visions is an investment, which sums it up very well IMO. It can be a pain to find the time to cast it in the early-midgame, but it allows us to keep a wider range of hands, as well as digging us into answers and action in future turns.
The best way I can describe Opt is as a card that smoothes out our draws. It helps us fill the gaps in our curve and make land drops. The immediate gratification it provides shouldn't be understated in a deck that is often looking for either lands or spells; the random draw off Visions with the promise of better future draws isn't always enough, especially when it can affect our curve negatively.
My main issue with Jeskai Control in it's current state is the lack of velocity. Coming from 8-cantrip, 4x Remand UR Moon decks, I notice I'm missing more land drops than I would expect for playing 24. I'm not hitting my colours as consistently as I like. And sometimes I feel like I'm forced into trading 1-for-1 all the time without having a good way to pull ahead.
I love Logic Knot, but I also love Search for Azcanta. I think we can all agree Azcanta (and more recently, Teferi) has done a lot to revitalize the archetype. Unfortunately, I often find myself with a Search in play that I can't flip because of having to cast one or more Logic Knots. So where am I going with this?
What about Remand?
Hold on, I know what the popular opinion is. Remand is bad when the format is so fast, and besides, we want REAL answers. And we don't have any real way to take advantage of the tempo gained.
Or do we?
Fundamentally, we want every game to go long. We can almost never kill our opponents quickly, even in a goldfish scenario. The vast majority of games we lose, we're either run out fast and brutally by the opponent, or we trade one-to-one until our opponent topdecks better (less common, but it still happens). Meanwhile, most of our powerful cards can't be deployed until much later in the game.
So how does Remand help alleviate these issues?
For starters, Logic Knot is not great at preventing us from getting run over in the early game. UU is also a somewhat punishing requirement to have early and often, especially when our life total is under pressure. Logic Knot is best in the early game when the opponent is curving out. So is Remand.
But that's not a real argument for Remand. The actual reason I'm drawn to Remand is because I think it does three very important things at the same time:
1. It disrupts our opponent's curve. Most threats are a lot less scary when they're played off-curve.
2. It smoothes out our draws and helps us hit land drops. I know I'm much happier with an opening hand of 2 lands and a Remand than 2 lands and a Logic Knot.
3. It bridges us to the midgame, where our more powerful spells come online. Opponent wants to dump a bunch of creatures into play after being Bolted and Remanded for the first few turns? Great, you played into my Wrath! Oh, you have Liliana of the Veil? Well, I have Cryptic Command. We often are just one turn behind in the games we lose, and Remand can make all the difference.
Bonus Round:
It doesn't mess with our Search flipping. Which is really big game! This deck can reliability flip a T2 Search on T4/T5.
Not sure I'll convince anyone, but Remand has impressed me so much in UR (even ignoring the synergy with Blood Moon) that I'd regret not exploring its applications in Jeskai.
it isnt a good replacement for logic knot though because the cards are doing very different things. a clean answer card is just more valuable on a fundamental level for a deck that is trying to trade resources (answer all the things), arrest control of a game, and hold it indefinitely. remand may help get you to a point where you can leverage more power cards up the curve such as cryptic command; however that means you are leaning more on those cards to do their job when you need them. in that sense remand is actually making cryptic command worse.
for example say you have 4x Remand 4x Cryptic as your counter suite. you can remand something then cryptic it on the way back down, but what happens when you cryptic bounce something? remand it on the way back down to dig for another card in your dwindling pool of answers? that may work for a time, but the chances of something eventually getting through just goes up.
to put it more simply the longer you want/expect the game to go the more the volume of 'real' answers matters. cards like blood moon, or just outright killing your opponent, can deal with an unlimited number of things. jeskai doesnt have that luxury, and since we typically play a longer game than UR we need more real answers.
also jeskai's mana sucks. it just does. we are a full on 3 color deck with some pretty ridiculous colored requirements going up the curve. the power and options this affords is supposed to offset this, but mana has always been a weakness for us; hence why attacking it is so effective of a counter strategy. 24 lands is the bare minimum to hit your 4th land on curve, and this says nothing for getting the actual colors you need to cast all your spells.
all of this is sort of the collective theory that jeskai players accept since it aligns with our experiences. however it isnt gospel. if you want to try out a remand or more heavy cantrip build because you think it will make the deck better then there isnt any harm in experimenting.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)