Overview
Jeskai Control is a modern archetype as old as the format itself. It aims to stop the opponent from executing their plan with a suite of counterspells and removal, prolonging the game until it can overwhelm the opponent either by going bigger or through card advantage. Next to a solid core of efficient cards, Jeskai Control leaves a lot of room for customisation, mostly in the way and at what time in the game the deck aims to win; because of this, a plethora of subtypes of the deck has developed, that will all be touched upon in this primer. Which version you end up choosing depends on your metagame and personal preferences.
Why Jeskai?
Out of all the different color combinations to choose from when playing control in Modern, why choose Jeskai? The main advantage of Jeskai lies in its versatility and ability to switch gears in the middle of an ongoing game. This is primarily because of jeskai's powerful burn suite of Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix and Electrolyze. Although removal spells like Path to Exile, Fatal Push and Terminate are less conditional removal than burn, choosing the desired amount to run can be difficult due to how wide the Modern metagame tends to be; with a removal suite wide enough to battle Modern aggro decks, you will be left with a large amount of dead draws in creaturelight matchups, and might even find yourself with too few cards to side in postboard. Jeskai on the other hand can turn those dead removal spells into a clock, and suddenly change from a controlling position into the aggressor; "end of turn, bolt snap bolt" followed by an attack puts your opponent 8 life points lower seemingly out of nowhere.
Core of the Deck
As jeskai is mostly a "goodstuff" archetype, relying more on individual card strength than synergistic interactions, there is a lot of variation in decklist depending on metagame and personal preference. A major factor in this lies in how the list intends to finish the game and on what turn it intends to do so. Nevertheless, there is still a core of cards you will see in almost every list:
Snapcaster Mage
Having access to this card is basically the main reason to play blue in Modern. Snapcaster is an immensely mana efficient card advantage machine, most of the time flashing back the best spell in your graveyard to counter or kill one of your opponent's spells, and leaving a 2/1 body behind that either trades with a block or removal spell or comes in for a bunch of damage. Snapcaster is arguably at his best in the Jeskai shell, as the access to both card draw and burn makes you able to play the card as aggressively as you want; hold onto it until you need your best graveyard spell, flash back an Opt or Serum Visions to apply some pressure without losing a card, or go pedal to the metal with an "end of turn, bolt snap bolt". Snapcaster is our best card in virtually any matchup and I am hard pressed to think of a reason to not play the full playset.
Path to Exile
One of the most efficient removal spells in Modern. Although the downside is not free, especially early in the game, Path to Exile stops virtually any creature and also stops recursion and death triggers, of which there are many in Modern. You play the full playset
Lightning Bolt
Access to bolt is one of the things that gives Jeskai its extreme versatility, being both an excellent removal spell as a way to close out the game. The full playset is almost always played
Lightning Helix
The lifegain on this card is incredibly relevant and can help stabilize against aggro decks; especially against Burn, this card is a 2 for 1 most of the time. Next to that it is bolt number 5+, and you want some amount in any type of jeskai list, mostly dependant on how reliant you are on burn to the face.
Electrolyze
Although expensive for a removal spell, Electrolyze gives excellent value and is a 2 for 1 or even a 3 for 1 against Modern's swarm decks, like affinity and Collected Company-based decks. In grindy games like the mirror, Electrolyze can be used to deal direct damage without losing a card, making it an excellent card to "test the waters" and provoke a response with. Amount plays varies from 0 to 4, mostly limited by the card's high casting cost and, again, dependant on how reliant you are on burning out your opponent.
Logic Knot
As WotC refuses to give us Counterspell in Modern, Logic Knot is probably the next best thing. Its power over Mana Leak is that it stays relevant even late in the game, when you might have to counter for x=4 or higher. The card is more color intensive than Mana Leak and makes you more sensitive to gravehate however, so it is not all upside. Generally, 2 or 3 are played, although some pilots prefer Mana leak and/or Remand over it.
Spell Snare
Two is a very important number in Modern, and although Spell Snare is a very conditional counterspell it is also very efficient with a wide application. The number you want is very meta dependant; most of the time, lists run two.
Cryptic Command
Cryptic Command is never dead in your hand, it's like a Swiss army knife. Although it is incredibly powerful and often a 2 for 1, 1UUU is expensive and clunky to cast, especially in counter wars. The amount you want to run varies from 0 to 4 depending on your manabase, manacurve and how long you want the game to go.
Spell Queller
Spell Queller is one of the newer additions to Jeskai's arsenal, and it fits Jeskai's gameplan perfectly. As long as Queller does not die, it is essentially a 2 for 1; its 2/3 body blocks surprisingly well against several decks, and it can apply pressure against combo and ramp decks whilst also disrupting their setup. Because of this, Queller is a key card in improving some matchups that were very troublesome for Jeskai prior to Queller's release. The card does require some finesse however; exiling a powerful spell under it also means giving your opponent the opportunity to recast it at instant speed by killing queller.
Serum Visions
With Ponder and Preordain banned, SV is the most powerful cantrip in Modern. Scry 2 is excellent in any phase of the game, helping with hitting landdrops, finding answers, planning turns and out-topdecking in the lategame. If you play it, you generally play the full playset...
Opt
...unless you play Opt. A brand new addition to Modern, and a big deal for such a simple looking spell. Although obviously weaker than Serum Visions in raw power, Opt's instant speed puts real pressure on your opponent to play into your countermagic, because if they don't use their mana, you can Opt and/or Snap Opt end of turn to gain tempo and free pressure. The jury is still very much out on whether Serum Visions or Opt is better, and it comes very much down to your preference and deck design. Most lists run either 4 of Opt or 4 of SV, but a mix is not wrong and you might want more than 4 cantrips.
Celestial Colonnade
Although most Jeskai lists have comparable landbases that speak for themselves, Celestial Colonnade deserves some special mention. It is one of the best manlands in Modern, and gives us access to a very powerful endgame virtually for free. Flying and 4/4 makes it excellent both at blocking and closing out the game quickly in combination with burn spells. Each list wants 2 to 4, depending on how fast your deck is (entering the battlefield can be a liability for faster versions).
Matchups
Although there are many subtypes of Jeskai Control, they all have a similar gameplan and thus also have similar good and bad matchups. The largest differences in matchup you will see in Jeskai subtypes will depend on the speed of the deck; the faster a subtype is, the better its combo matchup, but the worse its lategame power. In this guide I try to go over common matchups for Jeskai Control lists in general, and I will make notes on how some subtypes will be better or worse at that specific matchup.
Tier 1 (as of 17-12-2017)
Affinity
Affinity is a good matchup for all popular versions of Jeskai. We have boatloads of removal to break up their synergies, and once you stabilize from their explosive opening, they have very few cards that can get them back into the game. The matchup revolves almost entirely around two of their cards; Etched Champion, which is very hard to deal with once it resolves, and Cranial Plating which turns every single creature into a must-kill threat. If you can stop them from using these cards, it should be smooth sailing. Just know where to point your removal; taking some chip damage is fine, and often you want to use your removal in their end step, to assure they do not play something scarier.
Postboard we should still be favourable; they can't board that many non-artifact cards, and their best addition will be extra Etched Champions. Sometimes they will have one or two Spell Pierce or Blood Moon to watch out for. We get to board in Stony Silence, wrath effects and Ceremoneous Rejection, all cards that are bombs against them. In addition, Izzet Staticaster and Pia and Kiran Nalaar are also creatures that are very strong against Affinity, and Spreading Seas can stop their manlands. Your gameplan becomes even more focussed on stopping their explosive opener, and to stop Etched Champion from ruining your day. Your manacurve should be lowered, as should your counterspell count; you do want to keep some in as a way to deal with Etched Champion. Spell Snare also stops most of their payoff spells. Spell Queller can get awkward when you have to wrath the board but is a decent blocker, Vendilion Clique is mediocre as it can't attack into all of their flying 1/1s. You can go very low on wincons here, as they have very few ways to come back on a stabilized board.
Burn
Burn is generally a favourable matchup for Jeskai; we have countermagic, tons of removal and mainboard lifegain. However, there is a huge gap between playing against a good burn player versus a bad one; as burn is a fairly straightforward deck, it is often picked up by newer players. But, as burn is an archetype as old as the format itself, it also has plenty of wintered veterans who know how to play around our disruption.
The burn matchup has a very clear early and lategame. The first turns are very straightforward, where burn tries to go under us. This is fairly easy to stop, as long as you keep a cheap hand with answers to their creatures. If your hand cannot answer their turn 1 and 2 plays, it is most likely a mulligan. Be wary of Path to Exiling their creatures early, as ramping them is very dangerous. The second phase of the matchup, is where good burn players will shine over bad ones. Once we have stabilised, good burn players will start stockpiling their hand. They can then abuse the fact that their average cmc is much lower than ours, fire off several spells in our endstep, and then untap with more. If you took too much damage in the early game, it is easy to suddenly lose here. The best way to deal with this is to establish a clock as soon as possible and not give them the time to recharge their hand; because of this I would argue the faster versions of Jeskai are better at this matchup. Finally, against monored versions you have to play around Blood Moon postboard.
Our best card against them is Lightning Helix; the lifegain essentially makes the card a 2 for 1 against a deck that tries to not trade their cards. It is important to make sure your lifegain goes through; play around Skull Crack, Atarka's Command and the rare Flames of the Bloodhand. If your opponent taps out, it is often a good play to just Snap + Helix their face if they have no creatures. Other than Lightning Helix, the matchup revolves around mana efficiency; you want to cut down on expensive spells postboard. Electrolyze is the first to go as it is too expensive as removal. Cryptic Command is decent but often too pricey. Vendilion Clique does not do that much as most of their cards to the same thing. Lategame bombs like planeswalkers or Thundermaw Hellkite can also be cut down on; as long as you leave a concise plan to actually end the game. Cheap counterspells and removal come in; Dispel and Negate are excellent, as are Celestial Purge and Abrade. Timely Reinforcements is essentially a 3 for 1, but can be rough to resolve without getting Skullcracked.
(Grixis) Death Shadow
Death Shadow lists play similar for us regardless of what colors they run; just take note of what lands they fetch. Blue versions are the most powerful against us and also the most popular, so I will focus on those.
Death Shadow matchups are very skill-intensive for both players; many games revolve around a single wrong line. There is also some luck involved; we have all the tools needed to beat them, but they play a lot of discard and the games end quickly, giving very few shots at a good topdeck. The big gamebreaker is often whether you can deal with Stubborn Denial; with a one mana Negate backing up their fast clock, you often have to just assume your first removal spell will be countered. “Doubling” your mana by interacting in their end step, then untapping and interacting again is a crucial tool here. Another important factor is when to burn their face; fire too early and you will just pump their Death Shadows, fire too late and you will be short on mana. Both players have to think several turns ahead here.
Postboard should be better for us; they do not bring in many cards, some extra Stubborn Denials, Surgical Extraction, and some Lilianas (either cmc3 version). An important question is how much burn you want to keep in. You want to draw enough to threathen ending the game, but too much will get stuck in your hand with no targets. Electrolyze is the first to go (unless they run Lingering Souls). Helix and Bolt are a mixed bag; bolt is more mana efficient, but helix's lifegain can mess up their combat math. Another interesting card is Spell Queller; it is a counterspell they cannot counter, and a 2 for 1 if it doesn't die. It is however also expensive for this matchup, and it dying can be very dangerous; we also bring in Supreme Verdict which can get awkward. Death Shadow decks should not have too much removal postboard, however. Basically, all the common up- and downsides of Spell Queller count double in this matchup. Countermagic can be iffy, as it lets them set the time for when you want to cast it. Cryptic Command should come out entirely, cmc2 counterspells can be cut down on but some should stay in. Spell Snare has very few targets but deals with Snapcaster Mage, so leaving one in can be good.
Cards that come in are Supreme Verdict for being an uncounterable answer and Dispel for helping with counter wars. Timely Reinforcements can be good even for just the tokens to chumpblock with, Pia and Kiran Nalaar for the same reason. Celestial Purge is probably the best card in the Modern cardpool against them. Gravehate can be difficult to evaluate in this matchup; of course it is better against any list with Tarmogoyf, but Death Shadow can fill up their graveyard really fast making Relic of Progenitus kind of irrelevant at stopping Delve creatures, and often hurting us more. Surgical Extraction can be a “counterspell” against Snapcaster Mage and Kolaghan's Command, or sometimes serve as a check against Stubborn Denial to force through a Path to Exile. Surgical Extracting just to get a card out of their deck is sketchy as it is card disadvantage.
Gx Tron
Gx tron is arguably the worst matchup you will commonly face with Jeskai. This deck is built to assemble tron (i.e. have Urza’s Tower, Mine and Power Plant on the battlefield) as soon as possible, and then starts casting huge bomb spells that often mean game end on resolution: Wurmcoil Engine is generally their weakest bomb as we can Path to Exile it, but even a single hit off the monster can make it difficult to close out the game if your list relies on burn. Karn Liberated and Ugin the Spirit Dragon are basically must-counters; Karn can eat away at our hand and lands and Ugin threatens a swift game ending ultimate. Their biggest bomb is Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as it exiles two of our lands even when countered. The (currently) most common version, GB tron, also bring discard, making the matchup even more difficult.
The number one requirement in beating Gx tron is a fast clock; the faster your Jeskai build, the better your odds are of beating it. Especially Geist lists have a good shot. Second most important is knowing what to counter; early game it might be correct to counter spells that search for tron pieces like Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map and Ancient Stirrings. Bouncing lands with Cryptic Command before they reach tron is also basically a timewalk versus them. However, once they are one turn away from tron you should start being wary of what they could potentially cast off it even if they will only have tron complete for one untap step.
Land disruption is of course a strong sideboard plan versus them, as long as it is backed up by a decent clock: if you Crumble to Dust a tron piece but then do not apply pressure, Tron is perfectly capable of hitting their land drops and starting to cast Karns the normal way. Stony Silence is also very powerful by turning off their cantrips and Expedition Map. Postboard you should side out the slower grindy elements of your deck like Search for Azcanta and focus on closing the game asap. You will also end up taking out some of your removal in which case there appears to be two camps of Jeskai players: some leave in all burn spells but take out all Path to Exiles hoping their opponent can never resolve a Wurmcoil Engine or Thragtusk (which they side in), others leave in the Path to Exiles but take out some burn to not be forced to counter these threats but instead lose some game finishing power.
Eldrazitron
Eldrazitron is less focussed on assembling tron than Gx tron is, but instead runs a more midrange curve of Eldrazi creatures. The scariest thing they have is an early Chalice of the Void for x=1 which can be difficult to stop and is virtually lights out. How difficult this matchup is is often disputed; from my own experience, Eldrazitron is incredibly swingy, sometimes chaining Thought Knot Seers and Reality Smashers starting turn 3, sometimes doing stone nothing until a lousy turn 4 Walking Ballista for 2. Regardless of how good or bad the matchup is, your gameplan is the same; out-tempo them with Path to Exile, burn and flyers. The middle ground of Jeskai speeds is actually the best here, as Geist versions can’t get in on the ground. Longrange versions don’t have inevitability, especially postboard, where Etron will focus more on the “real” tron threats like Karn Liberated and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. Spell Queller is an amazing card in this matchup as it can counter even if they have Cavern of Souls, and they run very little removal.
Postboard you bring in any spell that can kill their Eldrazi. Artifact hate also helps, both in the form of removal to kill Chalice of the Void as Stony Silence to turn off Expedition Map, Mind Stone and Walking Ballista; just don’t overload on it. Landhate can work but is generally very slow; Etron will not care at all if you Crumple to Dust them off tron. Spreading Seas does work wonders as they run a lot of utility lands. You can shave off some countermagic and burn, as although they are not dead in the matchup, they are less effective. Spell Snare has very few targets, but on the draw can be your only hope versus a Chalice on 1.
UR Storm
UR Storm is a tricky matchup. It takes very little for them to be able to go off, and although not too much pressure is needed to take them out, when to deploy that pressure is difficult: tapping out for a turn 3 Geist of Saint Traft might just have them untap for lethal. Calculating risks is very important; sometimes you need to be patient, sometimes it is best to just go for it and hope you get to untap. Be very wary of Remand, which they can cast for one mana if they have one of their reducer creatures. Kill the reducers on sight, never let them untap with one, and keep in the back of your mind what could happen if they respond to your removal with instants.
Learning Gifts Ungiven piles is very important; sometimes you have to guess the contents of their hand, but often there is a straight up correct and incorrect pile to give. A big chunk of storm win percentage comes from people not knowing how2Gifts: if you play versus storm often, I recommend you really learn the deck as if you were playing it yourself, and check out the storm primer which is very well written.
Postboard you want to cheapen your deck’s average cmc so they can’t go under you; Cryptic Command is very awkward as they have Remand and Dispel, Electrolyze is hard to cast as they can Gifts in response. You want any cheap sort of countermagic and ways to kill reducers; Path to Exile can be shaved a couple of copies as ramping them is bad, but sometimes a necessity. Some storm pilots try to go off early with Empty the Warrens, so bring in some way to deal with this; Izzet Staticaster and Engineered Explosives are great, but Supreme Verdict can be too expensive. Gravehate slows them down significantly, but do not expect them to just roll over to a Relic of Progenitus. In total, this matchup should be decent as long as you know their deck just as well as they do.
Jeskai Harbinger
Originally by Bearscape (NOTE: As of 2/21/17, staff have temporarily taken over this thread until further notice.) This is for all WRU control discussions
Jeskai Harbinger is the #1 control deck in the Modern format. Its gameplan is to answer every threat the opponent throws at you with countermagic and removal. Being in Jeskai gives access to the best removal spells in the Modern format, together with Snapcaster Mage to use them all twice. Next to that, Nahiri, the Harbinger is an excellent finisher for a control deck, with all three of her abilities being very relevant whilst greatly taxing the opponent's resources when trying to deal with her without dedicated hatecards. Finally, Being in Jeskai gives a large amount of powerful sideboard options, which is very important in Modern.
History
Jeskai control is an archetype almost as old as the format of Modern itself. It was popularized by Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, who back then splashed black for Terminate, Esper Charm and Mystical Teachings. The gameplan back then was similar to what it is now; deal with every threat the opponent played until the game could be closed out through card advantage from Esper Charm and Sphinx's Revelation and a gigantic White Sun's Zenith
Over time, the deck changed. The black splash disappeared for a more stable mababase, and the deck's strategy solidified into winning with huge heaps of card advantage through Sphinx's Revelation, followed up with Celestial Colonnade beatdown and a flurry of burn spells. Shaun McLaren won Pro Tour Born of the Gods with this strategy;
After this however, Jeskai Control slowly fell out of favour; modern sped up significantly with the addition of cards like Eidolon of the Great Revel, Monastery Swiftspear, and Become Immense. Blisteringly fast aggro decks forced Jeskai Control out of the format by proving that a Sphinx's Revelation for x=4 simply wasn't fast enough anymore. On top of that, the infamous "Splinter Twin" deck generally did the same Jeskai Control tried to do but better, being able to seal or steal games away with the interaction of namesake card Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch.
Through all this, Jeskai Control continued to be a Tier 2 deck mostly because of its die-hard fanbase, who insisted on wanting to play blue-based control in Modern. When Splinter Twin was banned on January 18th 2016, the air seemed clear for a new control deck to arise in modern, but this air was quickly clouded by the storm of "Eldrazi Winter", warping the format beyond recognition. When the storm cleared with the April 4th 2016 banlist update, Ancestral Vision and Thopter Foundry got unbanned to fuel a new Modern control deck, but even that did not seem to find much foothold.
Whilst originally not getting too much attention due to the recent unbannings overshadowing her, Jeff Hoogland sparked people's attention by streaming Jeskai Control with Nahiri as the wincon. When Peter Ingram then won Starcitygames Indianapolis with the deck, the spark ignited; "Jeskai Harbinger" was the real deal.
Jeskai Harbinger aims to win by clearing up the board, then ultimate its namesake card Nahiri, the Harbinger. Other than that, Jeskai Harbinger still has the backup plan of ye olden days, out-valueing the opponent until the game can be closed out with Celestial Colonnade, Snapcaster Mage and burn spells.
Nahiri, the Harbinger: Every mode on Nahiri is relevant to our gameplan: You play all four copies, as multiple consecutive Nahiris are incredibly backbreaking on the opponent's resources, and excess copies can be "rummaged" away.
Nahiri's +2 allows us to "rummage" away cards we don't need and redraw them (the ability being named after Rummaging Goblin). Not only does this increase the card quality of our hand, being a +2 ability instead of a +1 makes her tick up to 6 loyalty before our opponent is able to interact. Gaining 2 loyalty every turn puts a lot of pressure on our opponent's resources whilst at the same time shaping our hand to deal with their threats and quickly building towards her ultimate. Generally, you will be discarding lands to try and turn them into relevant spells, but Nahiri can also rummage away lategame copies of Mana Leak and Remand, which whilst very powerful earlygame, can quickly become dead draws in conjunction with Path to Exile. A final big advantage of Nahiri's +2 is that it lets you see more cards in your deck; because of this, many Jeskai Harbinger pilots like to mainboard some singleton "silver bullet" cards that would normally be in the sideboard. A mainboard Timely Reinforcements can be backbreaking against a Burn deck, and if you draw it in a matchup where you don't want it, you can just rummage it away!
Nahiri's -2 ability is often seen as the worst of the three, but is still very relevant; Nahiri can come down on a board with only one tapped creature and immediately exile it away. Or, if the opponent has only one creature that has 3 or less power, we can play Nahiri, use her +2 ability, and if our opponent then attacks her we can use her -2 ability to exile the creature and stil have Nahiri survive with one loyalty left. Whilst the "tapped artifact" option does not come up often, the "enchantment" option can be very useful; enchantments do not have to be tapped, so Nahiri's -2 can be used to deal with cards like Blood Moon, Rest in Peace and Eidolon of the Great Revel. The fact that Nahiri exiles cards instead of destroying them also is very relevant to deal with graveyard recursion and "on death" triggers like Kitchen Finks. Be wary that the loyalty costing two loyalty is very taxing however, setting down the time before she can ultimate by two turns. It also leaves Nahiri vulnerable to burn spells and creatures with Haste, so use it wisely.
Nahiri's -8, or "ultimate" ability, is what we use to close the game out with. Because of her high starting loyalty and +2 ability, we are able to use the ability as early as two turns after she enters the battlefield, often too fast for our opponent to favourably deal with Nahiri. The card we look for, of course, is Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: Although we do not get the extra turn since Nahiri puts Emrakul into play instead of casting her, Emrakul is nearly immune to removal, deals a whopping 15 points of damage, and destroys six permanents on the opponent's side even when blocked. This is not strictly game over, but is very difficult to come back from. The 15 point lifeswing tends to put the opponent so low on life that a single burn spell or Celestial Colonnade hit, and Annihilator 6 cleans up whatever was left of the opponent's boardstate; due to how Jeskai Harbinger is tuned to keep the board clean, Emrakul's Annihilator 6 trigger tends to mostly hit lands, making Mana Leak and Remand backbreaking. The power of Nahiri really lies in this ability; whereas other Planeswalkers tend to vary wildly in how strong they are against different decks, not a single deck is ok with sacrificing 6 permanents. Theoretically, you can even beat infinite lifegain combos this way; keep hitting the board with Annihilator 6 triggers every 4 turns until the opponent decks out, whilst Emrakul shuffles our graveyard back into the library so we do not deck ourselves. Play exactly one.
Issues and Alternative Wincons
Although Nahiri is a powerful and consistent wincon, it is not without its downsides, the primary one being drawing Emrakul; it is almost impossible to hardcast Emrakul, as her 15 mana cost means you would have to have every single mana-producing land in the deck in play! Considering this would take a very long time to achieve, and that the deck tends to start rummaging away excess lands with Nahiri after the sixth landdrop (earlier or later depending on the matchup), drawing Emrakul is essentially a complete blank, as if you skipped that draw. Even worse than that, Emrakul has to be in our library to be able to be summoned by Nahiri's ultimate, which means that you have to discard her in some way to get her back in the deck. This resets our graveyard, which greatly weakens Snapcaster Mage and shuffles used fetchlands back into the deck. It can also happen that you draw Emrakul on the turn you wanted to use Nahiri's ultimate: this means you have to take a turn off to rummage Emrakul back in the deck again. Although this situation is very unlikely, it can randomly lose you the game. The final issue of drawing Emrakul is that our opponent gets an opportunity to exile it; Emrakul hits the graveyard before triggering her effect to be shuffled back into the deck, our opponent can abuse this with gravehate like Relic of Progenitus, Scavenging Ooze and Rest in Peace. Because of this, some Jeskai Control players opt to play other wincons, either on their own or as an addition to Nahiri. These strategies are viable, although it has to be said that Nahiri is definitely the best performing wincon in the Jeskai Control shell.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Restoration Angel: these two cards together can deal infinite damage together; tap Kiki-Jiki to copy restoration angel. The resulting copy angel then targets Kiki-Jiki with its enter the battlefield effect to untap it. Repeat this process an arbitrary amount of times to create a large amount of restoration angels with haste, and attack for the win. This strategy works well together with Nahiri, where you can use Nahiri's ultimate to search for the missing half of the combo. Because of this, decks that run this strategy tend to cut Emrakul. The downsides of this strategy are that, even though Nahiri can search for a piece, you still need both sides of the combo to win. The combo is also weak to creature removal, and although drawing Kiki-Jiki is by far not as bad as drawing Emrakul, it is still a somewhat useless and fragile card on its own.
"The old way" + Planeswalkers: instead of the Nahiri combo, this strategy adds more burn spells, more card advantage and a suit of powerful planeswalkers like Ajani Vengeant, Gideon Jura, and Elspeth, Sun's Champion to their deck. These decks plan to win "the old way" of grinding the opponent out and winning with Celestial Colonnade beats, burn, and value-creating Planeswalkers. An advantage to this is that a broader suit of wincons is harder to sideboard against, and there is no chance of drawing Emrakul. However, this strategy suffers from the large pool of viable decks in modern making it very hard to find a suit of Planeswalkers that together cover all decks, and that it takes a very long time to close out a game.
Stock List
There tends to be quite a lot of variation between Jeskai Nahiri decklists, as the deck aims to react to an expected field and thus should be changing constantly. Nevertheless, there are some recurring elements you will see in many decklists;
This example list leaves 3 "flex slots" that can be filled with silver bullet cards against the expected meta, or to run more removal, countermagic or card advantage;
Jeskai Harbinger plans to keep the boardstate as clear as possible. Being in White and Red gives some of the most powerful options in the format to do this; generally, most list play around 12 mainboard removal spells.
Lightning Bolt: This card defines Modern. Creatures are judged on whether they "pass the bolt test", and for good reason; 3 damage for one mana is incredibly efficient. Next to being a removal spell, it can also target your opponent directly to close out the game after an Emrakul hit or Celestial Colonnade beatdown. You play all four.
Path to Exile: The end-all removal spell in Modern. Deals with anything that has more than three toughness, stops on-death triggers, graveyard recursion, and gets around protection from Red which sometimes comes up in Modern. It is however, not free; being forced to use a Path to Exile early in the game can be dangerous as it ramps your opponent, making them able to play around Mana Leak. Nevertheless, you play four.
Lightning Helix: Lightning Bolt is such a powerful card that you want more than four. Lightning Helix is the next best thing, costing one mana more to gain 3 life. This lifegain is often very relevant in many matchups, especially in multiples, as it can help stabilize to get through the first few turns against an aggressive deck. The amount of helixes you play varies somewhat depending on how aggressive the metagame is; generaly, you run one to three.
Electrolyze: A great way to gain some card advantage; living the dream is killing two 1 toughness creatures with this for a nice clean 3 for 1. However, Electrolyze is definitely the most meta-dependant removal spell in Jeskai Harbinger; in a meta with many 3 toughness creatures, Electrolyze is rather underwhelming. 3 mana is also a lot for a removal spell in Modern, and Electrolyze can be too slow in very fast metagames. Run zero to two.
Counter Suite
Blue gives access to countermagic, giving Jeskai a clear advantage over other color combinations when building to win with Nahiri, the Harbinger. Countermagic serves as a solid catch-all answer that also stops "enter the battlefield" effects, which are very common in Modern. The average decklist plays around 7 counterspells, less or more depending on the metagame and the pilot's preferences.
Mana Leak: The best catch-all counterspell in Modern, tied with Remand. An issue the old versions of Jeskai control had with Mana Leak was its poor interaction with Path to Exile, quickly turning Mana Leak into a dead draw later in the game. Nahiri fixes this issue somewhat, by making us able to rummage late Mana Leaks into more live spells. Mana Leak and Remand serve the same function of delaying early action of the opponent until we can make it into the lategame, with the difference that Mana Leak actually stops the spell instead of delaying it. This has its ups and downsides, so Mana Leak is generally ran in combination with Remand in a mix to the pilot's liking. Run 2 to 4.
Remand: Sometimes jokingly called "the good Time Walk", giving a good idea of how strong the effect is. Remand's cantrip effect helps us hit our landdrops and find permanent answers whilst delaying our opponent's plays, essentially Time Walking them. Unlike Mana Leak, it is never truly a dead draw, as at least it can cycle itself away in the lategame. However, Remand is very inefficient against decks that play a flurry of cheap spells, and Remanding a one mana spell on turn two does very little. On the other hand, it is very powerful in counterwars (see "Technical Play" section below). Run 2 to 4 in a mix with Mana Leak; generally, most Jeskai Harbinger decks run 4 to 6 cmc2 counterspells total mainboard.
Cryptic Command: This Swiss army knife of a counterspell does basically everything a control deck could want. But even though this versatility makes it a very powerful spell, costing UUU greatly taxes your manabase, and four mana is a lot. Because of these factors, many Jeskai Harbinger lists have opted out of playing Cryptic Command entirely. Play 0 to 2.
Izzet Charm: Not a very commonly used spell, but it serves a mention for Jeskai Harbinger as it fits the deck very well. All options are valuable, being a removal spell, counterspell, and a way to loot away Emrakul at instant speed. Keep in mind however, that the "draw two, discard two" option is card disadvantage. Play 0 or 1.
Logic Knot: can be used as a singleton over one Mana Leak, and doesn't go dead as often lategame. Has the hidden upside of exiling away fetches so an Emrakul discard doesn't shuffle them back in the deck. However, it is an awful draw right after Emrakul shuffles away the graveyard, makes the deck more susceptible to gravehate, and can sometimes be awkward when you have to choose whether you have to exile away potential Snapcaster Mage targets to counter a spell.
Creatures
Jeskai Harbinger generally does not run many creatures. The advantage of this, is that it makes the opponent's removal spells dead draws. However, we do tend to play a few powerful utility creatures that help the gameplan.
Snapcaster Mage: The reason to play blue in Modern. Being able to re-use any card in your graveyard at your leisure and getting a 2/1 creature on top of that is incredible value. Not only does Snapcaster Mage help you have the answers to whatever your opponent plays, he can also be a wincon by flashing back burn spells and attacking; if your opponent uses a removal spell or trades a creature with Snapcaster Mage, you just got a nice 2 for 1 as well. You absolutely run all four.
Vendilion Clique: Mostly useful against other blue decks; Flash it in during your opponent's turn, then clear the way to untap and cast Nahiri, the Harbinger. Also works great against combo decks, working as hand disruption and a clock at the same time. Many lists run Vendilion Clique, sometimes mainboard, sometimes sideboard. Run 0 to 2.
Card (Quality) Advantage
The danger of running a control strategy is that a single unanswered threat can cost you the game. To aid this strategy, we use card advantage (simply having more cards) and card quality advantage; use spells to manipulate our upcoming draw steps so it is on average better than our opponent's drawstep. The downside of these kinds of spells is that their payoff is delayed instead of immediate, making us fall behind on the board. Because of this, we have a limited amount of slots to dedicate to card (quality) advantage; the average list runs about six, and the slower the metagame, the more you can afford to play.
Serum Visions: Its superior brothers Ponder and Preordain are banned, and for good reason; Serum Visions is a very powerful card. It helps us hit our landdrops, improves our opening hands, digs for answers, finds Nahiri... generally, the later in the game you can play this card, the stronger it gets. This card is generally played as a 3-of or 4-of, but there are also lists that run zero.
Ancestral Vision: This card was deemed so powerful that it was banned from the Modern format for almost five years. A turn one Ancestral Vision is backbreaking for any deck, and in many cases getting to resolve it means winning the game. However, drawing Ancestral Vision later in the game makes it much worse, and the four turn wait for the payoff can be dangerous when there are decks that can kill you in less than that. Generally you will see around three copies in every Jeskai Control deck, although some pilots prefer to keep the card in the sideboard.
Anticipate: Lets you see just as many cards as Serum Visions, but at instant speed. In exchange you only get to keep one however, and it costs more to cast. Some pilots prefer this card over Serum Visions
Sphinx's Revelation: Expensive but powerful, can be used as a one-of to gain a big advantage in grindy matchups.
Think Twice: has some nice synergy with Nahiri's discard to gain a little card advantage, and helps against Liliana of the Veil. However, it is a very slow card that is arguably overshadowed by Ancestral Vision nowadays, so it doesn't see much play anymore.
Landbase
Jeskai Harbinger has a very greedy manabase, ideally wanting access to all three of its colors on turn two for Lightning Helix and Remand/Mana Leak. Luckily, running Serum Visions mediates this issue a bit. Generally, Jeskai Harbinger runs 23 lands with one colorless utility land; if you want to run a second utility land it is adviseable to run it as the 24th land.
Celestial Colonnade: One of the best manlands in Modern. Serves as an alternative wincon to Nahiri by quickly beating down opponents. However, coming into play tapped can be an issue, especially for lists that want to suspend Ancestral Vision on turn one, so generally 2 or 3 copies are played. A mention can be made of Wandering Fumarole if your deck is in dire need of more Red mana, but it is not recommended as Wandering Fumarole is just much, much worse than Celestial Colonnade.
Fetchlands: Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, and Arid Mesa. Fetchlands are incredibly good for fixing your mana, for the cost of a little bit of life. Blue fetches are the best for Jeskai Harbinger as it helps with turn one Serum Visions or Ancestral Vision. You run 8 or 9 fetches total.
Shocklands: Steam Vents, Hallowed Fountain, and Sacred Foundry. Can be searched up by fetchlands which makes them very powerful. You want at least one of each, and about four or five are ran in total.
Fastlands: Spirebluff canal, Seachrome Coast, and Stone Quarry: Modern is a fast format where every point of life counts, and the fastlands are a great way to save life early in the game by not having to fetch untapped shocklands. With the addition of Kaladesh, we finally got the enemy-color fastlands, and especially Spirebluff Canal is very useful for us as it allows for early on countermagic, vision spells and lightning bolts without having to take damage. In total you have about three slots for fastlands; Spirebluff Canals is the best one, but Seachrome Coast is also useful to get to the required amount of white mana in your build. Stone Quarry isn't that useful as early blue mana is the most important.
Checklands: Sulfur Falls, Glacial Fortress, and Clifftop Retreat. Cannot be fetched but help fix mana without costing life and coming into play untapped in conjunction with shocklands. With the addition of fastlands these have become worse as they do not synergise well with eachother, but these are still viable.
Filterlands: Cascade Bluffs, Mystic Gate, and Rugged Prairie. Can help with casting spells like Vendilion Clique, Anger of the Gods and Lightning Helix. If you find your deck having issues with casting mana-intensive spells, a singleton of one of these could help. It is not advised to run more than one however, as on their own, filterlands can not produce colored mana, and they can force you into having to tap your mana in an inefficient way.
Land disruption: Tectonic Edge and Ghost Quarter. Can deal with enemy "spell-lands" (i.e. lands that have an ability other than adding mana). Ghost Quarter sets you back a landdrop compared to your opponent, but Tectonic Edge cannot be used if your opponent has less than four lands, which can be an issue against decks like Affinity and Infect. As said above, you have room for about one or two colorless lands total; more than that taxes the manabase too much.
Basics: Island, Mountain and Plains. Running a few basics saves you some life when using fetchlands, and are used to play around Blood Moon. You need at least one of each and have room for four total.
Sideboard Options
Being in Jeskai gives us a very wide array of powerful sideboard options. Proper sideboarding is of huge importance in Modern, so make sure you make all 15 slots count. As said earlier, because of Nahiri, the Harbinger's rummage ability, we see a lot of cards from our deck, and therefore it is not uncommon to play a few of these "silver bullet" sideboard cards mainboard instead
WWhiteW
Blessed Alliance: Although the "untap two creatures" option isn't that good, the other two modes on this spell are phenomenal against a multitude of decks, and the option to use both options for 4 mana is icing on the cake.
Stony Silence: Brutal against Affinity, Tron and Lantern Control. Also stops most mana accelerants of Ad Nauseam.
Rest in Peace: for when you REALLY need to keep those graveyards clean. They do also turn off your Snapcaster Mages and make you unable to discard Emrakul, so the cost of siding them in is pretty high; it is only worth it against the very dedicated graveyard decks like dredge, living end, and maybe abzan company. Do not bring these in against Jund for example.
Kor Firewalker: Great against aggressive burn decks, although double white can make it awkward to cast when you do not want to fetch for untapped shocklands. Is also surprisingly powerful against control decks; both Jeskai and Grixis control can't get it off the table without trading unfavourably.
Timely Reinforcements: The premium anti-aggro card in Modern, many lists even mainboard a copy. 6 life and 3 Soldiers is backbreaking for any aggro deck. Just make sure you meet the requirements to get both the tokens and the life, or the card is mediocre; smart aggro players can intentionally fetch for untapped shocklands to keep their life total lower than yours for a long time. Also good against Jund, which has trouble with dealing with multiple token creatures. This card is often played as a one-of in the mainboard.
Wrath of God: unconditional mass removal. Comes in against any creature swarm deck. Also strong against Jund as it can create card advantage, and sometimes wrathing to deal with a single Tarmogoyf is worth it. The no regeneration clause is sometimes relevant versus Thrun, the Last Troll and Ezuri, Renegade Leader.
Leyline of Sanctity: Backbreaking against burn decks and decks that use a lot of targeted discard. Keep in mind it also protects Nahiri from burn; to bolt a planeswalker, the caster has to first target the planeswalker's owner and then redirect the damage. Therefore, if you have Hexproof, your opponent can't fire burn off to Nahiri either.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: Massive haymaker against grindy decks that locks up the game in two turns. Can also function as an additional wrath against the decks that play a ton of big creatures.
UBlueU
Ancestral Vision: Premium card advantage in modern. Most lists mainboard at least a couple, and you can put the rest of the playset in the sideboard for grindy matchups.
Negate: Also very good in counterwars but weak to Spell Snare, with the trade-off of being very strong against Tron's planeswalkers and artifacts. Can also initiate the counterwar for Ancestral Vision, which Dispel can't.
Spreading Seas: Deals with manlands and spell-lands in an extremely efficient way. Can come in against Infect, Affinity, Jund and Tron amongst others.
Vendilion Clique: A discard effect in blue is very unique. Very strong against combo and control decks, very rarely bad, so often even mainboarded.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir: The haymaker versus control decks; resolve it in their end step, untap with countermagic up, and he is almost impossible to remove. Powerful, but also very narrow.
RRedR
Vandalblast: Being both a spotremoval and massremoval spell, this is a multifunctional sideboard option for metas with a lot of Affinity whilst also not having to spend four mana on Shatterstorm just to destroy a Grafdigger's Cage
Sudden Shock: a narrow removal spell that deals with a large amount of annoying decks in Modern. Can kill creatures against infect, affinity and Chord of Calling decks without giving them the time to pull any shenanigans.
Crumble to Dust: brutal against Tron and Scapeshift. Can be used against grindy decks to win the land-race, but the Surgical Extraction-esque effect is mostly irrelevant there, making it a 4-mana Stone Rain and thus very mana-inefficient.
WURMulticolorWUR
Lightning Helix: Already mainboarded, but additional copies can be put in the sideboard for aggro match-ups. The instant speed is very relevant to play around Atarka's Command.
Wear // Tear: Disenchant 2.0. Incredibly efficient, and sometimes can get a nice 2 for 1.
Geist of Saint Traft: One of the best cards to race combo decks with as it is difficult to remove. Also very good in the mirror.
Counterflux: very strong in counterwars and against combo decks, but less versatile than Dispel and Negate. Can also function as an extra catch-all counterspell versus Tron's haymakers.
Supreme Verdict: uncounterable mass-removal which is better than Wrath of God against blue-based aggro decks, most notably Merfolk. Doesn't stop regenerate however, so which wrath is better depends on the meta.
CColorlessC
Engineered Explosives: Build-your-own-wrath that you can put into play and then sandbag to use at instant speed. Also deals with tokens very efficiently and can serve as counter-hate against Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage in a pinch.
Relic of Progenitus: can keep the graveyard clean without affecting your own too much. As long as you leave a mana open, you can stop any graveyard shenanigans dead at instant speed. And if you don't need it for an untap cycle, you can target yourself to clean cards out of your graveyard that you don't want to shuffle back in again would you discard Emrakul.
Spellskite: Very strong against Bogles and Infect, but be aware that these decks are prebuilt to deal with Spellskite. Also decent against burn if you can pay mana instead of life to redirect spells to it.
Batterskull: Haymaker against grindy decks and aggro decks alike. Did fall slightly out of favour with the printing of Kolaghan's Command, however.
Surgical Extraction: Not technically colorless, but also useful in decks without the black splash; can interact with the graveyard at instant speed even when tapped out, which can stop the Kitchen Finks combo when the coast seems clear for your opponent. Getting to exile the right card can make the match unwinnable for some combo decks. Also very strong against Dredge if you are able to hit recursion cards with it of which multiple copies are in the graveyard.
Coming Up: More Match-up Guide, and Technical Play tips
Match-ups
Dredge
Dredge is a poor matchup for us. Especially game 1, our wincons are just too slow. Nahiri, the Harbinger can basically never get to 8 as she has to be spent as a removal spell most of the time, and Conflagrate can be used to prevent her from getting to 8 loyalty. Our best chance of winning game 1 is with Snapcaster Mage and burn spells; Lightning Bolt is a very poor removal spell here, only buying a little bit of time, and is thus better spent going to their face. Path to Exile is of course excellent, but be wary of when you cast it as it will also reanimate all their Bloodghasts if they can get a basic; be especially wary of Insolent Neonate as it can dredge for them at instant speed. Countermagic is actually very strong in this matchup as countering their self-discard spells slows them down significantly. An exception is Remand on their Cathartic Reunion, as letting them discard twice is actually very bad. Remanding a flashbacked Faithless Looting or Conflagrate is very good on the other hand.
Postboard is where the real matchup begins. Depending on the meta, you want 2-4 graveyard hate cards to aggressively mulligan to, starting with some number of Rest In Peace. RIP might worsen our Snapcasters, but it completely kills their deck; as long as RIP is on the battlefield, they have no realistic way of winning. Additional to RIP, Ravenous Trap and Surgical Extraction can be used as gravehate that is live before RIP even hits the battlefield, but you should always start with some number of RIPs. Anger of the Gods can be both mainboarded and sideboarded and kills all of their creatures for good; smart Dredge players will play around this by not overextending, so know when you have to pull the trigger. Negate can come in as extra countermagic, and is generally better than Remand. You should side out some number of Ancestral Vision as the card is very slow here, but some number can stay in as extra draws means extra odds of hitting sideboard cards. Some number of burn spells can come out; they can go to the face, but are otherwise fairly mediocre. Vendilion Clique is a tad awkward as targeting them is very poor, but can redraw you a card and provide a clock. Some pilots take out Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as Nahiri will rarely get to 8 Loyalty. That being said, one Emrakul hit will still most likely kill them, so you have to decide whether you'd rather have a dud draw in your deck or lose a potential wincon.
The dredge player will side in ways to deal with our gravehate; Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay are their best cards. They also play Nature's Claim to kill RIP and Collective Brutality, which can't take RIP from our hand but can take other disruption, kills Snapcaster and helps them discard. You thus have to time your relevant cards against them expertly; do I have to cast Anger now? What are the odds of them casting a discard spell next turn? Can I wait to cast RIP with countermagic backup? Generally, you will win either with beats and burn once they are locked down or by disrupting them until they mill themselves.
Bant Eldrazi
Bant Eldrazi is a poor matchup for us. They run several large threats that do not die to Lightning Bolt and a full playset of Cavern of Souls. We have plenty of tools to deal with them (Path to Exile, Snapcaster Mage, and Nahiri, the Harbinger) but we have to be a little lucky in drawing them. Use Nahiri as a removal spell, counter Ancient Stirrings aggressively, and spend your Path to Exiles very wisely; some lists run Matter Reshaper which they can cast on turn 2, and it can be tempting to Path these. However, this ramps them into Reality Smasher and Drowner of Hope, and it can often be a good idea to just get hit a few times before exiling Matter Reshaper with Nahiri (do not bolt it) and saving the Paths for Thought-Knot Seer. A lot of the matchup hedges on resolving Ancestral Vision to draw into the answers we need.
Postboard we prepare for a grindy matchup. Most counterspells come out, especially Spell Snare, but as they will not always have Cavern of Souls and as countering one of their creatures is devastating, some can stay in. Some burn can come out, but not all as we want to kill Noble Hierarch and Eldrazi Displacer. Anger of the Gods might not kill their big threats, but it does kill their three-drops Reality Smasher and Eldrazi Skyspawner. Trading Anger for one of these one-for one is oftentimes worth it, and it also cleans up tokens and manadorks. Unconditional wraths are even better, as anything that can kill their big bombs is valuable. Engineered Explosives might not kill their bombs but can wipe tokens and hedge against cards like Pithing Needle and Grafdigger's Cage which they often bring in. Blessed Alliance is excellent against Reality Smasher but poor versus Thought-Knot Seer and Drowner of Hope. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is an extra wrath, and can quickly overwhelm them with tokens. Vendilion Clique is excellent as it takes away a threat and they will often have no removal left in the deck postboard. Izzet Staticaster is decent as it kills manadorks, tokens, and makes Thought-Knot Seer vulnerable to bolt without 2 for 1-ing yourself. Finally, be wary of them bringing in Negate.
Be very aware of how they tap mana involving Cavern of Souls; they do not have to announce that they make colored mana to make a creature uncounterable, but sometimes they will have no other colorless source and have to tap cavern for colorless, making the spell counterable.
You can Remand uncounterable spells. The spell will still resolve, but you can cycle Remand this way if it is dead in your hand.
Reality Smasher's targeting trigger is their responsibility. In competitive REL, if you target Reality Smasher and they do not announce the trigger, they missed it and you do not have to discard. If they claim your spell gets countered because you "forgot" to discard and they didn't announce the trigger, they are in the wrong.
Affinity
This match-up comes down to stopping their explosive start and then trying to stabilize and beating their topdecks. How the game plays out depends greatly on the opponent's opening hand; if they have a "swarm hand" consisting of Signal Pest or Steel Overseer and a bunch of cheap creatures, the onslaught is fairly easily stopped, but their most dangerous cards are Etched Champion and Cranial Plating, both of which are difficult to remove. Path to Exile is really good here, as they run at most one basic land to fetch; after that Path to Exile is just unconditional exile (but be wary of pathing away a Vault Skirge just for them to play a giant Master of Etherium). When dealing with Arcbound Ravager, be aware that they can sac artifacts to make it survive a Lightning Bolt. You can also use this to your advantage, making them go all-in on the ravager or a manland to which you respond by Path to Exiling it; good Affinity players will be aware of this however.
Postboard, Affinity will try to sandbag some creatures to keep a constant stream of threats going over the course of several turns, instead of going all-in and running into a mass removal spell. They tend to sideboard fairly lightly, but will bring in more Etched Champions, Thoughtseize, countermagic and sometimes Grafdigger's Cage. Some lists even run Blood Moon, which they can cast on turn 2, so be very wary of that. Our sideboard plan against them is to bring in artifact hate, mass removal spells and Stony Silence, whilst boarding out most countermagic and possibly some number of card advantage spells. Keep in mind that Spell Snare is still a powerful counterspell against them as it hits a lot of valuable targets against them, so it is a valid strategy to keep them in. Spreading Seas is also a good card against them as it deals with their manlands which otherwise dodge mass removal spells, and Sudden Shock stops Arcbound Ravager shenanigans.
Jund
Jund is all about grinding out card advantage. Their most dangerous cards are Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek and Liliana of the Veil; especially Liliana is very difficult to deal with, and once resolved often costs multiple cards to take down. Luckily however, they run a ton of removal spells mainboard, and thus have a ton of dead draws against us preboard. Our best cards against them are our card (quality) advantage spells; Ancestral Vision, Serum Visions, Nahiri, the Harbinger and Snapcaster Mage, helping us to win the topdeck wars by drawing more and better than them. Path to Exile is a valuable resource, as they run several creatures that can survive Lightning Bolt, and have Raging Ravine to gain advantage from the extra lands we give them, so use it with deliberation. Be wary of Maelstrom Pulse, as it is their best way of killing Nahiri.
Postboard they will bring in more discard spells, their own card advantage with Painful Truths and Kolaghan's Command, and creatures that are tough to deal with like Kitchen Finks and Fulminator Mage, taking out a lot of the useless removal. Our sideboard plan is to improve our topdecks; we bring in haymakers like Elspeth, Sun's Champion, unconditional wrath effects like Wrath of God that help deal with 4+ toughness creatures, and extra card advantage like more copies of Ancestral Vision. Celestial Purge is also a strong card as it deals with Liliana of the Veil amongst others. Timely Reinforcements is also strong as Jund has trouble with dealing with the tokens, and it can give enough time to topdeck into the answer you need. Blessed Alliance is another way to kill bolt-proof creatures. Postboard you want to cut some number of burn spells but not all, as you want a way to deal with Dark Confidant and ungrown Scavenging Ooze without having to spend a Path to Exile. The two-mana counterspells Mana Leak and Remand are poor topdecks lategame but some number is required to deal with threats like Fulminator Mage. Remand only delaying the threat is troublesome against Jund as a turn 4 Kitchen Finks is just as strong as a turn 3 one, but it does cycle away itself lategame, whilst Mana Leak can stop dangerous early spells permanently at the cost of going completely dead lategame. Which to board out is really up to the pilot. Spell Snare stays good all game, is hard to play around and stops the few copies of Terminate they leave in once the game comes down to Celestial Colonnade beats.
Infect
Because we run a large amount of removal, this matchup is generally favourable. That being said, Infect also has draws where they just "have it" and there is not much you can do. Always try to kill their creatures either during your turn or during their end step; if you try to kill them before or during combat, they might just blow you out with a pump or protection spell and deal a huge amount of damage if not downright kill you. If they spend a pumpspell to save their creature from your Lightning Bolt, that's often fine; you win the 1 for 1 game in the long run. Good infect players will play it super safe, and will use cards like Noble Hierarch and Pendelhaven to pump their creatures without having to use spells, so be very wary of combat tricks and make all your spells count. Their most powerful card against us is Inkmoth Nexus, as we cannot kill it during our own turn. It is often correct to let an Inkmoth Nexus just hit you unpumped, and try killing it in their end step.
After sideboarding, they focus more on the long game, adding extra Spellskites and countermagic like Dispel to protect their creatures. We try and make our mana curve lower as the best way to beat Infect is by being able to play multiple spells a turn; you can take out some if not all your Nahiri, the Harbinger and [cardEmrakul, the Aeons Torn[/card] as tapping out for Nahiri is very dangerous. Cheaper wincons like Geist of Saint Traft are therefore very good here. Remand does not do much against their cheap spells, and Anger of the Gods is also poor as they can easily spend a pumpspell to nullify it. Spell Snare is an odd card in this matchup; it does not have many targets, but the ones that it does have (Blighted Agent, Spellskite and Apostle's Blessing) are all very good. Lightning Helix is alright; although the life gain tends to not matter, it is still a killspell you can use. If you have a lot of better cards to bring in however, it isn't incorrect to cut them. Strong cards in this matchup are unconditional wraths, especially Supreme Verdict and Engineered Explosives. Blessed Alliance can play around protection spells, and can be cast in the end of combat step to play around countermagic + pump. Wear // Tear is very good as it hits Spellskite, Inkmoth Nexus, and Wild Defiance. Vendilion Clique is an absolute All-Star in this matchup as the hand information/disruption is very relevant and they can either force a trade or provide a clock.
Abzan Company
This is a very skill-intensive matchup. Abzan Company runs a huge amount of creatures, many of which gain them card advantage; Kitchen Finks, Voice of Resurgence, Eternal Witness and Fulminator Mage are all very powerful against us. On top of that they have Collected Company and Chord of Calling, which can make them assemble one of their combos at instant speed in response to your removal. You have to keep these spells in mind at every single moment to win the match, especially Chord of Calling. For example, if you try to flashback a spell with Snapcaster Mage or discard your Emrakul, they could Chord for Scavenging Ooze and eat it away from right under your nose. Also know where to point your removal; many of their combo ingredient creatures really aren't that threathening on their own, and a Lightning Bolt might be better spent on a Scavenging Ooze than a Viscera Seer... until they Collected Company on endstep and just rip the combo. Path to Exile is also a tough card to use, as they have a ton of important targets for it, but can also utilize the extra mana very well due to Chord of Calling. You should generally always bolt early Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarchs, until a certain tipping point where extra mana does no longer help them that much; this very much depends on the boardstate (Scavenging Ooze, Gavony Township) and what your hand looks like (Mana Leak, amount of removal spells). Every removal spell counts, and it is really a matter of practicing this matchup. Card advantage is a requirement to keep up with their value creatures, so Ancestral Vision and Nahiri, the Harbinger play a big role in this matchup. They can win with beatdown, especially when they have Gavony Township, but generally you will be defeated by one of their combos, which you all need to remember:
Archangel + Finks + Seer gives infinite life and infinite +1/+1 counters on everything but the Finks that is being sacrificed
Postboard, they will bring more annoying value creatures like Voice of Resurgence and Fulminator Mage, together with Thoughtseize and Spellskite to protect their combo, but generally their gameplan stays the same. Compared to them, we bring in more powerful sideboard cards, and the postboard matchup is therefore better than the preboard one. We take out Remand and Spell Snare, as there aren't many good targets for it; Because Chord of Calling is expensive to cast, Mana Leak tends to stay live for a long time in the match, but it can be correct to shave some copies if you have better cards to bring in. Far and wide out best card against them is Anger of the Gods, often wiping their board entirely and denying any on-death triggers (just be wary of Chord of Calling for Burrenton Forge-Tender). Other wrath effects like Supreme Verdict are just as well powerful but do not deal with death triggers. Dispel is also amazing as countering a Chord of Calling can be an absolute blowout. Rest in Peace might shut off our Snapcaster Mages but it shuts off their combos and turns most of their creatures into draft chaff; very much worth it. Timely Reinforcements slows the beatdown plan, but as said the combo is much more threathening.
There is an argument to be made to not concede to their infinite life combos; generally, they can use Viscera Seer's Scry ability to find a kill combo the turn right after, but it gives you a short window of time to stop it from happening. Once their follow-up kill combo is stopped, you can repeatedly wipe their board with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Annihilator triggers by ultimating Nahiri over and over again. If you can keep this up long enough, they will eventually deck whilst Emrakul keeps shuffling our graveyard back into our library. This takes a very long time however, and in a competitive setting (don't be the person who does this at FNM) you have to keep in mind that you are likely to go to time, or at least won't have enough time to finish the next game. If you are already up a game, or if a forced draw will benefit you, you can use this. Be aware that Abzan Company is probably the deck best suited to come back from an Annihilator 6 trigger; they put a lot of permanents into play, and it takes five turns to re-charge the ultimate if you keep using the same Nahiri (tick up to 10, ultimate, tick up to 10 from 2 again). You might just lose in the middle of trying to deck your opponent, and now you're a game down, on to the next game with very little time on the clock. Decking your opponent is a possible strategy, but it is often more risky than just conceding.
Burn
The addition of Nahiri, the Harbinger greatly improved our match-up against burn; she can exile Eidolon of the Great Revel without taking damage even when Eidolon is untapped, and can force the opponent to devote some points of damage to her or get Emrakul'd. A big factor in the match-up is knowing how to sequence your lands, taking as little damage as possible from them whilst still interacting optimally. The recent addition of Spirebluff Canal is valuable because of this. Another important factor is to make sure your lifegain spells actually work; Burn mainboards 4 Atarka's Command and skilled burn pilots will try to catch your lifegain spells. They have some number of Searing Blaze preboard, which do not have any targets until you play a Snapcaster Mage. Once they do get a chance to sear your snapcaster, know that killing the snapcaster in response does not in fact save you life; Searing Blaze targets both the creature and the player.
Postboard we get to bring in a lot of good cards. Extra lifegain spells are of course very welcome, and all copies of Dispel and Negate come in. Celestial Purge is also an extra removal spell. Cards that come out are Remand and some of the more clunky cards like Electrolyze and Vendilion Clique. An argument can be made to bring in Wear // Tear as it kills Eidolon of the Great Revel, and some Burn lists run a few copies of Grafdigger's Cage. The burn sideboard plan against us varies a lot between lists; whilst universally all Searing Blazes come out, some players bring in Skullcrack to better deny lifegain, some players bring in more creatures like Grim Lavamancer and Kor Firewalker, of which the latter is actually very tough to remove for our deck. Finally, be very wary of Deflecting Palm; it doesn't target, so once you swing in with Emrakul, they can respond with it to the Annihilator trigger and deal 15 damage to you which will very likely be lethal.
Gx Tron
Tron is a poor match-up for us. We give them plenty of time to assemble tron, and once they have it we basically have to counter every single threat they cast or lose. And even that is not enough, as World Breaker and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger have on-cast triggers that happen even if the creature is countered. Luckily, the banning of Eye of Ugin worsened the deck's inevitability engine considerably, and Nahiri, the Harbinger gives us a much better clock and a way to give them their just deserts for all those uncounterable Emrakul, the Aeons Torn losses back in the day. The plan game 1 is to try and keep them off tron long enough to kill them with Nahiri; not an easy task, especially since it can be difficult to safely get Nahiri into play. Any burn spell you draw can go directly to their face, and trying to race them with Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique is an option; just be wary of Wurmcoil Engine.
Postboard, most Jeskai lists tend to have a ton of cards to bring in, the biggest one being Crumble to Dust; hitting a tronland with this is very close to game over; be very wary of Warping Wail however. Stony Silence can make it very difficult for them to assemble tron as it turns off Expedition Map, Chromatic Star and Chromatic Sphere. It also turns off Oblivion Stone, their best way to deal with Nahiri. All countermagic tends to be good, as it helps both with stopping them from assembling tron and from resolving a threat. Spell Snare does not have too many targets, but the few it has are very relevant; Sylvan Scrying and Warping Wail, making us able to cast Crumble to Dust on turn 5 with little worry. Without Eye of Ugin, Tron can find itself without threats once they have all 3 lands in play, and a well-timed Vendilion Clique can greatly disrupt them. Postboard, tron tends to side out removal against us for more threats, one of which tends to be Thragtusk, making the burn plan unfavourable, so some burn spells can come out.
Jeskai Nahiri
The Jeskai Nahiri mirror is a game of chicken; the first few turns of the match will be spent casting Serum Visions to find the cards we need and keep hitting land drops. Then, players start using burn and Snapcaster Mage to force a reaction out of the opponent; counterspells are crucial in this match-up, and spending them on Snapcaster beatdown can be dangerous. Both players try to force something in the opponent's end step to be able to untap and try to resolve Nahiri, the Harbinger from a favourable position. If a player tries to resolve Nahiri and fails, he or she is in big trouble, as now the opponent will most likely resolve their Nahiri instead; very often the player who first gets to resolve Nahiri wins. The mirror is all about resource managing; you need burn to pressure the opponent into wasting counterspells, to kill opposing Snapcaster Mages, and to kill or at least slow down opposing Nahiris. Vendilion Clique is amazing in this match-up; it can be cast on the opponent's end step, take a counterspell one way or the other, show the opponent's hand if they resolve, and then untap into casting Nahiri when the coast is clear. And on top of that they provide a clock to pressure the opponent or kill Nahiri. Ancestral Vision is also brutal as it pulls you way ahead, and if your opponent devotes countermagic to it it opens the way to resolve Nahiri in the same turn.
Postboard both players double down on the Nahiri plan; cards that help resolve or stop a Nahiri come in, everything that does something else goes out. All countermagic is good, additional copies of Vendilion Clique, and also copies of Celestial Purge, which can stop a resolved Nahiri for only 2 mana. Geist of Saint Traftis an extra wincon that is hard to deal with once resolved. As for what to cut, some if not all Path to Exiles come out as there is no real target beyond Celestial Colonnade. Some burn can come out; Lightning Helix and Lightning Bolt both have their pros and cons, as helix's lifegain does matter but bolt is cheaper; how many burn spells to cut and in what mixture is up to the pilot's preference.
Merfolk
Merfolk is different from most aggro-based matchup in that it is much more grindy. Although they are less explosive than affinity or zoo, they can keep going much longer with Spreading Seas and Silvergill Adept drawing cards, and having powerful lategame threats in Master of Waves and Kira, Great Glass Spinner. They run a large amount of creatures, about 28 creatures plus Mutavault, which greatly taxes our removal. Because of this, our best mainboard card is definitely Snapcaster Mage as they don't run many removal spells and snapcaster mage will often get the full two for one removal spell + trade value; just threathening you have this play can force them to hold back on their attacks. Knowing where to point your removal spells is very important; try to save your Path to Exile for Master of Waves, keep your fetching in mind as they can try to manascrew you with Spreading Seas. Learn how Aether Vial works and interacts with their cards; I'd recommend reading through the Merfolk Primer for this. Ber very wary of Vial on 2 when going for the Emrakul Wincon, as they can bounce Emrakul in response with Harbinger of the Tides; this only prevents the damage however, and you still get the annihilator trigger.
Postboard we improve a lot as we can take a lot of counterspells out; apart from Spell Snare, Cavern of Souls + Aether Vial makes countermagic not really worth keeping in. Do NOT take out Ancestral Vision: the vast majority of merfolk matchups will be very grindy and long, and drawing more removal spells is exactly what you want. All Wrath effects come in, especially Supreme Verdict. When playing counterable wraths, be wary of Cursecatcher being vialed in at instant speed to counter it. Do not go too deep on beating Aether Vial as we already want to take out most countermagic, they will not often try to flood the board, and the instant speed doesn't add that much. It can be ok to bring in Stony Silence as they also often play Relic of Progenitus, but you're better off focussing on killing creatures. Timely Reinforcements is very good, as it forces them to play multiple lords; you can kill an islandwalk lord in response to an attack to blow them out by suddenly being able to block. Vendilion Clique can snag creatures out of their hand in response to an Aether Vial tap, but their deck is very redundant, making the discard effect mediocre, and generally you should have better cards. Izzet Staticaster can kill Silvergill Adept, Cursecatcher and Master of Waves tokens, whilst also being able to break Kira glass spinner's shield, and thus is very good.
Jeskai Harbinger is the #1 control deck in the Modern format. Its gameplan is to answer every threat the opponent throws at you with countermagic and removal. Being in Jeskai gives access to the best removal spells in the Modern format, together with Snapcaster Mage to use them all twice. Next to that, Nahiri, the Harbinger is an excellent finisher for a control deck, with all three of her abilities being very relevant whilst greatly taxing the opponent's resources when trying to deal with her without dedicated hatecards. Finally, Being in Jeskai gives a large amount of powerful sideboard options, which is very important in Modern.
History
Jeskai control is an archetype almost as old as the format of Modern itself. It was popularized by Guillaume Wafo-Tapa, who back then splashed black for Terminate, Esper Charm and Mystical Teachings. The gameplan back then was similar to what it is now; deal with every threat the opponent played until the game could be closed out through card advantage from Esper Charm and Sphinx's Revelation and a gigantic White Sun's Zenith
Over time, the deck changed. The black splash disappeared for a more stable mababase, and the deck's strategy solidified into winning with huge heaps of card advantage through Sphinx's Revelation, followed up with Celestial Colonnade beatdown and a flurry of burn spells. Shaun McLaren won Pro Tour Born of the Gods with this strategy;
After this however, Jeskai Control slowly fell out of favour; modern sped up significantly with the addition of cards like Eidolon of the Great Revel, Monastery Swiftspear, and Become Immense. Blisteringly fast aggro decks forced Jeskai Control out of the format by proving that a Sphinx's Revelation for x=4 simply wasn't fast enough anymore. On top of that, the infamous "Splinter Twin" deck generally did the same Jeskai Control tried to do but better, being able to seal or steal games away with the interaction of namesake card Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch.
Through all this, Jeskai Control continued to be a Tier 2 deck mostly because of its die-hard fanbase, who insisted on wanting to play blue-based control in Modern. When Splinter Twin was banned on January 18th 2016, the air seemed clear for a new control deck to arise in modern, but this air was quickly clouded by the storm of "Eldrazi Winter", warping the format beyond recognition. When the storm cleared with the April 4th 2016 banlist update, Ancestral Vision and Thopter Foundry got unbanned to fuel a new Modern control deck, but even that did not seem to find much foothold.
Whilst originally not getting too much attention due to the recent unbannings overshadowing her, Jeff Hoogland sparked people's attention by streaming Jeskai Control with Nahiri as the wincon. When Peter Ingram then won Starcitygames Indianapolis with the deck, the spark ignited; "Jeskai Harbinger" was the real deal.
Jeskai Harbinger aims to win by clearing up the board, then ultimate its namesake card Nahiri, the Harbinger. Other than that, Jeskai Harbinger still has the backup plan of ye olden days, out-valueing the opponent until the game can be closed out with Celestial Colonnade, Snapcaster Mage and burn spells.
Nahiri, the Harbinger: Every mode on Nahiri is relevant to our gameplan: You play all four copies, as multiple consecutive Nahiris are incredibly backbreaking on the opponent's resources, and excess copies can be "rummaged" away.
Nahiri's +2 allows us to "rummage" away cards we don't need and redraw them (the ability being named after Rummaging Goblin). Not only does this increase the card quality of our hand, being a +2 ability instead of a +1 makes her tick up to 6 loyalty before our opponent is able to interact. Gaining 2 loyalty every turn puts a lot of pressure on our opponent's resources whilst at the same time shaping our hand to deal with their threats and quickly building towards her ultimate. Generally, you will be discarding lands to try and turn them into relevant spells, but Nahiri can also rummage away lategame copies of Mana Leak and Remand, which whilst very powerful earlygame, can quickly become dead draws in conjunction with Path to Exile. A final big advantage of Nahiri's +2 is that it lets you see more cards in your deck; because of this, many Jeskai Harbinger pilots like to mainboard some singleton "silver bullet" cards that would normally be in the sideboard. A mainboard Timely Reinforcements can be backbreaking against a Burn deck, and if you draw it in a matchup where you don't want it, you can just rummage it away!
Nahiri's -2 ability is often seen as the worst of the three, but is still very relevant; Nahiri can come down on a board with only one tapped creature and immediately exile it away. Or, if the opponent has only one creature that has 3 or less power, we can play Nahiri, use her +2 ability, and if our opponent then attacks her we can use her -2 ability to exile the creature and stil have Nahiri survive with one loyalty left. Whilst the "tapped artifact" option does not come up often, the "enchantment" option can be very useful; enchantments do not have to be tapped, so Nahiri's -2 can be used to deal with cards like Blood Moon, Rest in Peace and Eidolon of the Great Revel. The fact that Nahiri exiles cards instead of destroying them also is very relevant to deal with graveyard recursion and "on death" triggers like Kitchen Finks. Be wary that the loyalty costing two loyalty is very taxing however, setting down the time before she can ultimate by two turns. It also leaves Nahiri vulnerable to burn spells and creatures with Haste, so use it wisely.
Nahiri's -8, or "ultimate" ability, is what we use to close the game out with. Because of her high starting loyalty and +2 ability, we are able to use the ability as early as two turns after she enters the battlefield, often too fast for our opponent to favourably deal with Nahiri. The card we look for, of course, is Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: Although we do not get the extra turn since Nahiri puts Emrakul into play instead of casting her, Emrakul is nearly immune to removal, deals a whopping 15 points of damage, and destroys six permanents on the opponent's side even when blocked. This is not strictly game over, but is very difficult to come back from. The 15 point lifeswing tends to put the opponent so low on life that a single burn spell or Celestial Colonnade hit, and Annihilator 6 cleans up whatever was left of the opponent's boardstate; due to how Jeskai Harbinger is tuned to keep the board clean, Emrakul's Annihilator 6 trigger tends to mostly hit lands, making Mana Leak and Remand backbreaking. The power of Nahiri really lies in this ability; whereas other Planeswalkers tend to vary wildly in how strong they are against different decks, not a single deck is ok with sacrificing 6 permanents. Theoretically, you can even beat infinite lifegain combos this way; keep hitting the board with Annihilator 6 triggers every 4 turns until the opponent decks out, whilst Emrakul shuffles our graveyard back into the library so we do not deck ourselves. Play exactly one.
Issues and Alternative Wincons
Although Nahiri is a powerful and consistent wincon, it is not without its downsides, the primary one being drawing Emrakul; it is almost impossible to hardcast Emrakul, as her 15 mana cost means you would have to have every single mana-producing land in the deck in play! Considering this would take a very long time to achieve, and that the deck tends to start rummaging away excess lands with Nahiri after the sixth landdrop (earlier or later depending on the matchup), drawing Emrakul is essentially a complete blank, as if you skipped that draw. Even worse than that, Emrakul has to be in our library to be able to be summoned by Nahiri's ultimate, which means that you have to discard her in some way to get her back in the deck. This resets our graveyard, which greatly weakens Snapcaster Mage and shuffles used fetchlands back into the deck. It can also happen that you draw Emrakul on the turn you wanted to use Nahiri's ultimate: this means you have to take a turn off to rummage Emrakul back in the deck again. Although this situation is very unlikely, it can randomly lose you the game. The final issue of drawing Emrakul is that our opponent gets an opportunity to exile it; Emrakul hits the graveyard before triggering her effect to be shuffled back into the deck, our opponent can abuse this with gravehate like Relic of Progenitus, Scavenging Ooze and Rest in Peace. Because of this, some Jeskai Control players opt to play other wincons, either on their own or as an addition to Nahiri. These strategies are viable, although it has to be said that Nahiri is definitely the best performing wincon in the Jeskai Control shell.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Restoration Angel: these two cards together can deal infinite damage together; tap Kiki-Jiki to copy restoration angel. The resulting copy angel then targets Kiki-Jiki with its enter the battlefield effect to untap it. Repeat this process an arbitrary amount of times to create a large amount of restoration angels with haste, and attack for the win. This strategy works well together with Nahiri, where you can use Nahiri's ultimate to search for the missing half of the combo. Because of this, decks that run this strategy tend to cut Emrakul. The downsides of this strategy are that, even though Nahiri can search for a piece, you still need both sides of the combo to win. The combo is also weak to creature removal, and although drawing Kiki-Jiki is by far not as bad as drawing Emrakul, it is still a somewhat useless and fragile card on its own.
"The old way" + Planeswalkers: instead of the Nahiri combo, this strategy adds more burn spells, more card advantage and a suit of powerful planeswalkers like Ajani Vengeant, Gideon Jura, and Elspeth, Sun's Champion to their deck. These decks plan to win "the old way" of grinding the opponent out and winning with Celestial Colonnade beats, burn, and value-creating Planeswalkers. An advantage to this is that a broader suit of wincons is harder to sideboard against, and there is no chance of drawing Emrakul. However, this strategy suffers from the large pool of viable decks in modern making it very hard to find a suit of Planeswalkers that together cover all decks, and that it takes a very long time to close out a game.
Stock List
There tends to be quite a lot of variation between Jeskai Nahiri decklists, as the deck aims to react to an expected field and thus should be changing constantly. Nevertheless, there are some recurring elements you will see in many decklists;
This example list leaves 3 "flex slots" that can be filled with silver bullet cards against the expected meta, or to run more removal, countermagic or card advantage;
Jeskai Harbinger plans to keep the boardstate as clear as possible. Being in White and Red gives some of the most powerful options in the format to do this; generally, most list play around 12 mainboard removal spells.
Lightning Bolt: This card defines Modern. Creatures are judged on whether they "pass the bolt test", and for good reason; 3 damage for one mana is incredibly efficient. Next to being a removal spell, it can also target your opponent directly to close out the game after an Emrakul hit or Celestial Colonnade beatdown. You play all four.
Path to Exile: The end-all removal spell in Modern. Deals with anything that has more than three toughness, stops on-death triggers, graveyard recursion, and gets around protection from Red which sometimes comes up in Modern. It is however, not free; being forced to use a Path to Exile early in the game can be dangerous as it ramps your opponent, making them able to play around Mana Leak. Nevertheless, you play four.
Lightning Helix: Lightning Bolt is such a powerful card that you want more than four. Lightning Helix is the next best thing, costing one mana more to gain 3 life. This lifegain is often very relevant in many matchups, especially in multiples, as it can help stabilize to get through the first few turns against an aggressive deck. The amount of helixes you play varies somewhat depending on how aggressive the metagame is; generaly, you run one to three.
Electrolyze: A great way to gain some card advantage; living the dream is killing two 1 toughness creatures with this for a nice clean 3 for 1. However, Electrolyze is definitely the most meta-dependant removal spell in Jeskai Harbinger; in a meta with many 3 toughness creatures, Electrolyze is rather underwhelming. 3 mana is also a lot for a removal spell in Modern, and Electrolyze can be too slow in very fast metagames. Run zero to two.
Counter Suite
Blue gives access to countermagic, giving Jeskai a clear advantage over other color combinations when building to win with Nahiri, the Harbinger. Countermagic serves as a solid catch-all answer that also stops "enter the battlefield" effects, which are very common in Modern. The average decklist plays around 7 counterspells, less or more depending on the metagame and the pilot's preferences.
Mana Leak: The best catch-all counterspell in Modern, tied with Remand. An issue the old versions of Jeskai control had with Mana Leak was its poor interaction with Path to Exile, quickly turning Mana Leak into a dead draw later in the game. Nahiri fixes this issue somewhat, by making us able to rummage late Mana Leaks into more live spells. Mana Leak and Remand serve the same function of delaying early action of the opponent until we can make it into the lategame, with the difference that Mana Leak actually stops the spell instead of delaying it. This has its ups and downsides, so Mana Leak is generally ran in combination with Remand in a mix to the pilot's liking. Run 2 to 4.
Remand: Sometimes jokingly called "the good Time Walk", giving a good idea of how strong the effect is. Remand's cantrip effect helps us hit our landdrops and find permanent answers whilst delaying our opponent's plays, essentially Time Walking them. Unlike Mana Leak, it is never truly a dead draw, as at least it can cycle itself away in the lategame. However, Remand is very inefficient against decks that play a flurry of cheap spells, and Remanding a one mana spell on turn two does very little. On the other hand, it is very powerful in counterwars (see "Technical Play" section below). Run 2 to 4 in a mix with Mana Leak; generally, most Jeskai Harbinger decks run 4 to 6 cmc2 counterspells total mainboard.
Cryptic Command: This Swiss army knife of a counterspell does basically everything a control deck could want. But even though this versatility makes it a very powerful spell, costing UUU greatly taxes your manabase, and four mana is a lot. Because of these factors, many Jeskai Harbinger lists have opted out of playing Cryptic Command entirely. Play 0 to 2.
Izzet Charm: Not a very commonly used spell, but it serves a mention for Jeskai Harbinger as it fits the deck very well. All options are valuable, being a removal spell, counterspell, and a way to loot away Emrakul at instant speed. Keep in mind however, that the "draw two, discard two" option is card disadvantage. Play 0 or 1.
Logic Knot: can be used as a singleton over one Mana Leak, and doesn't go dead as often lategame. Has the hidden upside of exiling away fetches so an Emrakul discard doesn't shuffle them back in the deck. However, it is an awful draw right after Emrakul shuffles away the graveyard, makes the deck more susceptible to gravehate, and can sometimes be awkward when you have to choose whether you have to exile away potential Snapcaster Mage targets to counter a spell.
Creatures
Jeskai Harbinger generally does not run many creatures. The advantage of this, is that it makes the opponent's removal spells dead draws. However, we do tend to play a few powerful utility creatures that help the gameplan.
Snapcaster Mage: The reason to play blue in Modern. Being able to re-use any card in your graveyard at your leisure and getting a 2/1 creature on top of that is incredible value. Not only does Snapcaster Mage help you have the answers to whatever your opponent plays, he can also be a wincon by flashing back burn spells and attacking; if your opponent uses a removal spell or trades a creature with Snapcaster Mage, you just got a nice 2 for 1 as well. You absolutely run all four.
Vendilion Clique: Mostly useful against other blue decks; Flash it in during your opponent's turn, then clear the way to untap and cast Nahiri, the Harbinger. Also works great against combo decks, working as hand disruption and a clock at the same time. Many lists run Vendilion Clique, sometimes mainboard, sometimes sideboard. Run 0 to 2.
Card (Quality) Advantage
The danger of running a control strategy is that a single unanswered threat can cost you the game. To aid this strategy, we use card advantage (simply having more cards) and card quality advantage; use spells to manipulate our upcoming draw steps so it is on average better than our opponent's drawstep. The downside of these kinds of spells is that their payoff is delayed instead of immediate, making us fall behind on the board. Because of this, we have a limited amount of slots to dedicate to card (quality) advantage; the average list runs about six, and the slower the metagame, the more you can afford to play.
Serum Visions: Its superior brothers Ponder and Preordain are banned, and for good reason; Serum Visions is a very powerful card. It helps us hit our landdrops, improves our opening hands, digs for answers, finds Nahiri... generally, the later in the game you can play this card, the stronger it gets. This card is generally played as a 3-of or 4-of, but there are also lists that run zero.
Ancestral Vision: This card was deemed so powerful that it was banned from the Modern format for almost five years. A turn one Ancestral Vision is backbreaking for any deck, and in many cases getting to resolve it means winning the game. However, drawing Ancestral Vision later in the game makes it much worse, and the four turn wait for the payoff can be dangerous when there are decks that can kill you in less than that. Generally you will see around three copies in every Jeskai Control deck, although some pilots prefer to keep the card in the sideboard.
Anticipate: Lets you see just as many cards as Serum Visions, but at instant speed. In exchange you only get to keep one however, and it costs more to cast. Some pilots prefer this card over Serum Visions
Sphinx's Revelation: Expensive but powerful, can be used as a one-of to gain a big advantage in grindy matchups.
Think Twice: has some nice synergy with Nahiri's discard to gain a little card advantage, and helps against Liliana of the Veil. However, it is a very slow card that is arguably overshadowed by Ancestral Vision nowadays, so it doesn't see much play anymore.
Landbase
Jeskai Harbinger has a very greedy manabase, ideally wanting access to all three of its colors on turn two for Lightning Helix and Remand/Mana Leak. Luckily, running Serum Visions mediates this issue a bit. Generally, Jeskai Harbinger runs 23 lands with one colorless utility land; if you want to run a second utility land it is adviseable to run it as the 24th land.
Celestial Colonnade: One of the best manlands in Modern. Serves as an alternative wincon to Nahiri by quickly beating down opponents. However, coming into play tapped can be an issue, especially for lists that want to suspend Ancestral Vision on turn one, so generally 2 or 3 copies are played. A mention can be made of Wandering Fumarole if your deck is in dire need of more Red mana, but it is not recommended as Wandering Fumarole is just much, much worse than Celestial Colonnade.
Fetchlands: Scalding Tarn, Flooded Strand, and Arid Mesa. Fetchlands are incredibly good for fixing your mana, for the cost of a little bit of life. Blue fetches are the best for Jeskai Harbinger as it helps with turn one Serum Visions or Ancestral Vision. You run 8 or 9 fetches total.
Shocklands: Steam Vents, Hallowed Fountain, and Sacred Foundry. Can be searched up by fetchlands which makes them very powerful. You want at least one of each, and about four or five are ran in total.
Fastlands: Spirebluff canal, Seachrome Coast, and Stone Quarry: Modern is a fast format where every point of life counts, and the fastlands are a great way to save life early in the game by not having to fetch untapped shocklands. With the addition of Kaladesh, we finally got the enemy-color fastlands, and especially Spirebluff Canal is very useful for us as it allows for early on countermagic, vision spells and lightning bolts without having to take damage. In total you have about three slots for fastlands; Spirebluff Canals is the best one, but Seachrome Coast is also useful to get to the required amount of white mana in your build. Stone Quarry isn't that useful as early blue mana is the most important.
Checklands: Sulfur Falls, Glacial Fortress, and Clifftop Retreat. Cannot be fetched but help fix mana without costing life and coming into play untapped in conjunction with shocklands. With the addition of fastlands these have become worse as they do not synergise well with eachother, but these are still viable.
Filterlands: Cascade Bluffs, Mystic Gate, and Rugged Prairie. Can help with casting spells like Vendilion Clique, Anger of the Gods and Lightning Helix. If you find your deck having issues with casting mana-intensive spells, a singleton of one of these could help. It is not advised to run more than one however, as on their own, filterlands can not produce colored mana, and they can force you into having to tap your mana in an inefficient way.
Land disruption: Tectonic Edge and Ghost Quarter. Can deal with enemy "spell-lands" (i.e. lands that have an ability other than adding mana). Ghost Quarter sets you back a landdrop compared to your opponent, but Tectonic Edge cannot be used if your opponent has less than four lands, which can be an issue against decks like Affinity and Infect. As said above, you have room for about one or two colorless lands total; more than that taxes the manabase too much.
Basics: Island, Mountain and Plains. Running a few basics saves you some life when using fetchlands, and are used to play around Blood Moon. You need at least one of each and have room for four total.
Sideboard Options
Being in Jeskai gives us a very wide array of powerful sideboard options. Proper sideboarding is of huge importance in Modern, so make sure you make all 15 slots count. As said earlier, because of Nahiri, the Harbinger's rummage ability, we see a lot of cards from our deck, and therefore it is not uncommon to play a few of these "silver bullet" sideboard cards mainboard instead
WWhiteW
Blessed Alliance: Although the "untap two creatures" option isn't that good, the other two modes on this spell are phenomenal against a multitude of decks, and the option to use both options for 4 mana is icing on the cake.
Stony Silence: Brutal against Affinity, Tron and Lantern Control. Also stops most mana accelerants of Ad Nauseam.
Rest in Peace: for when you REALLY need to keep those graveyards clean. They do also turn off your Snapcaster Mages and make you unable to discard Emrakul, so the cost of siding them in is pretty high; it is only worth it against the very dedicated graveyard decks like dredge, living end, and maybe abzan company. Do not bring these in against Jund for example.
Kor Firewalker: Great against aggressive burn decks, although double white can make it awkward to cast when you do not want to fetch for untapped shocklands. Is also surprisingly powerful against control decks; both Jeskai and Grixis control can't get it off the table without trading unfavourably.
Timely Reinforcements: The premium anti-aggro card in Modern, many lists even mainboard a copy. 6 life and 3 Soldiers is backbreaking for any aggro deck. Just make sure you meet the requirements to get both the tokens and the life, or the card is mediocre; smart aggro players can intentionally fetch for untapped shocklands to keep their life total lower than yours for a long time. Also good against Jund, which has trouble with dealing with multiple token creatures. This card is often played as a one-of in the mainboard.
Wrath of God: unconditional mass removal. Comes in against any creature swarm deck. Also strong against Jund as it can create card advantage, and sometimes wrathing to deal with a single Tarmogoyf is worth it. The no regeneration clause is sometimes relevant versus Thrun, the Last Troll and Ezuri, Renegade Leader.
Leyline of Sanctity: Backbreaking against burn decks and decks that use a lot of targeted discard. Keep in mind it also protects Nahiri from burn; to bolt a planeswalker, the caster has to first target the planeswalker's owner and then redirect the damage. Therefore, if you have Hexproof, your opponent can't fire burn off to Nahiri either.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion: Massive haymaker against grindy decks that locks up the game in two turns. Can also function as an additional wrath against the decks that play a ton of big creatures.
UBlueU
Ancestral Vision: Premium card advantage in modern. Most lists mainboard at least a couple, and you can put the rest of the playset in the sideboard for grindy matchups.
Negate: Also very good in counterwars but weak to Spell Snare, with the trade-off of being very strong against Tron's planeswalkers and artifacts. Can also initiate the counterwar for Ancestral Vision, which Dispel can't.
Spreading Seas: Deals with manlands and spell-lands in an extremely efficient way. Can come in against Infect, Affinity, Jund and Tron amongst others.
Vendilion Clique: A discard effect in blue is very unique. Very strong against combo and control decks, very rarely bad, so often even mainboarded.
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir: The haymaker versus control decks; resolve it in their end step, untap with countermagic up, and he is almost impossible to remove. Powerful, but also very narrow.
RRedR
Vandalblast: Being both a spotremoval and massremoval spell, this is a multifunctional sideboard option for metas with a lot of Affinity whilst also not having to spend four mana on Shatterstorm just to destroy a Grafdigger's Cage
Sudden Shock: a narrow removal spell that deals with a large amount of annoying decks in Modern. Can kill creatures against infect, affinity and Chord of Calling decks without giving them the time to pull any shenanigans.
Crumble to Dust: brutal against Tron and Scapeshift. Can be used against grindy decks to win the land-race, but the Surgical Extraction-esque effect is mostly irrelevant there, making it a 4-mana Stone Rain and thus very mana-inefficient.
WURMulticolorWUR
Lightning Helix: Already mainboarded, but additional copies can be put in the sideboard for aggro match-ups. The instant speed is very relevant to play around Atarka's Command.
Wear // Tear: Disenchant 2.0. Incredibly efficient, and sometimes can get a nice 2 for 1.
Geist of Saint Traft: One of the best cards to race combo decks with as it is difficult to remove. Also very good in the mirror.
Counterflux: very strong in counterwars and against combo decks, but less versatile than Dispel and Negate. Can also function as an extra catch-all counterspell versus Tron's haymakers.
Supreme Verdict: uncounterable mass-removal which is better than Wrath of God against blue-based aggro decks, most notably Merfolk. Doesn't stop regenerate however, so which wrath is better depends on the meta.
CColorlessC
Engineered Explosives: Build-your-own-wrath that you can put into play and then sandbag to use at instant speed. Also deals with tokens very efficiently and can serve as counter-hate against Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage in a pinch.
Relic of Progenitus: can keep the graveyard clean without affecting your own too much. As long as you leave a mana open, you can stop any graveyard shenanigans dead at instant speed. And if you don't need it for an untap cycle, you can target yourself to clean cards out of your graveyard that you don't want to shuffle back in again would you discard Emrakul.
Spellskite: Very strong against Bogles and Infect, but be aware that these decks are prebuilt to deal with Spellskite. Also decent against burn if you can pay mana instead of life to redirect spells to it.
Batterskull: Haymaker against grindy decks and aggro decks alike. Did fall slightly out of favour with the printing of Kolaghan's Command, however.
Surgical Extraction: Not technically colorless, but also useful in decks without the black splash; can interact with the graveyard at instant speed even when tapped out, which can stop the Kitchen Finks combo when the coast seems clear for your opponent. Getting to exile the right card can make the match unwinnable for some combo decks. Also very strong against Dredge if you are able to hit recursion cards with it of which multiple copies are in the graveyard.
Coming Up: More Match-up Guide, and Technical Play tips
Dredge is a poor matchup for us. Especially game 1, our wincons are just too slow. Nahiri, the Harbinger can basically never get to 8 as she has to be spent as a removal spell most of the time, and Conflagrate can be used to prevent her from getting to 8 loyalty. Our best chance of winning game 1 is with Snapcaster Mage and burn spells; Lightning Bolt is a very poor removal spell here, only buying a little bit of time, and is thus better spent going to their face. Path to Exile is of course excellent, but be wary of when you cast it as it will also reanimate all their Bloodghasts if they can get a basic; be especially wary of Insolent Neonate as it can dredge for them at instant speed. Countermagic is actually very strong in this matchup as countering their self-discard spells slows them down significantly. An exception is Remand on their Cathartic Reunion, as letting them discard twice is actually very bad. Remanding a flashbacked Faithless Looting or Conflagrate is very good on the other hand.
Postboard is where the real matchup begins. Depending on the meta, you want 2-4 graveyard hate cards to aggressively mulligan to, starting with some number of Rest In Peace. RIP might worsen our Snapcasters, but it completely kills their deck; as long as RIP is on the battlefield, they have no realistic way of winning. Additional to RIP, Ravenous Trap and Surgical Extraction can be used as gravehate that is live before RIP even hits the battlefield, but you should always start with some number of RIPs. Anger of the Gods can be both mainboarded and sideboarded and kills all of their creatures for good; smart Dredge players will play around this by not overextending, so know when you have to pull the trigger. Negate can come in as extra countermagic, and is generally better than Remand. You should side out some number of Ancestral Vision as the card is very slow here, but some number can stay in as extra draws means extra odds of hitting sideboard cards. Some number of burn spells can come out; they can go to the face, but are otherwise fairly mediocre. Vendilion Clique is a tad awkward as targeting them is very poor, but can redraw you a card and provide a clock. Some pilots take out Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as Nahiri will rarely get to 8 Loyalty. That being said, one Emrakul hit will still most likely kill them, so you have to decide whether you'd rather have a dud draw in your deck or lose a potential wincon.
The dredge player will side in ways to deal with our gravehate; Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay are their best cards. They also play Nature's Claim to kill RIP and Collective Brutality, which can't take RIP from our hand but can take other disruption, kills Snapcaster and helps them discard. You thus have to time your relevant cards against them expertly; do I have to cast Anger now? What are the odds of them casting a discard spell next turn? Can I wait to cast RIP with countermagic backup? Generally, you will win either with beats and burn once they are locked down or by disrupting them until they mill themselves.
Bant Eldrazi
Bant Eldrazi is a poor matchup for us. They run several large threats that do not die to Lightning Bolt and a full playset of Cavern of Souls. We have plenty of tools to deal with them (Path to Exile, Snapcaster Mage, and Nahiri, the Harbinger) but we have to be a little lucky in drawing them. Use Nahiri as a removal spell, counter Ancient Stirrings aggressively, and spend your Path to Exiles very wisely; some lists run Matter Reshaper which they can cast on turn 2, and it can be tempting to Path these. However, this ramps them into Reality Smasher and Drowner of Hope, and it can often be a good idea to just get hit a few times before exiling Matter Reshaper with Nahiri (do not bolt it) and saving the Paths for Thought-Knot Seer. A lot of the matchup hedges on resolving Ancestral Vision to draw into the answers we need.
Postboard we prepare for a grindy matchup. Most counterspells come out, especially Spell Snare, but as they will not always have Cavern of Souls and as countering one of their creatures is devastating, some can stay in. Some burn can come out, but not all as we want to kill Noble Hierarch and Eldrazi Displacer. Anger of the Gods might not kill their big threats, but it does kill their three-drops Reality Smasher and Eldrazi Skyspawner. Trading Anger for one of these one-for one is oftentimes worth it, and it also cleans up tokens and manadorks. Unconditional wraths are even better, as anything that can kill their big bombs is valuable. Engineered Explosives might not kill their bombs but can wipe tokens and hedge against cards like Pithing Needle and Grafdigger's Cage which they often bring in. Blessed Alliance is excellent against Reality Smasher but poor versus Thought-Knot Seer and Drowner of Hope. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is an extra wrath, and can quickly overwhelm them with tokens. Vendilion Clique is excellent as it takes away a threat and they will often have no removal left in the deck postboard. Izzet Staticaster is decent as it kills manadorks, tokens, and makes Thought-Knot Seer vulnerable to bolt without 2 for 1-ing yourself. Finally, be wary of them bringing in Negate.
Be very aware of how they tap mana involving Cavern of Souls; they do not have to announce that they make colored mana to make a creature uncounterable, but sometimes they will have no other colorless source and have to tap cavern for colorless, making the spell counterable.
You can Remand uncounterable spells. The spell will still resolve, but you can cycle Remand this way if it is dead in your hand.
Reality Smasher's targeting trigger is their responsibility. In competitive REL, if you target Reality Smasher and they do not announce the trigger, they missed it and you do not have to discard. If they claim your spell gets countered because you "forgot" to discard and they didn't announce the trigger, they are in the wrong.
Affinity
This match-up comes down to stopping their explosive start and then trying to stabilize and beating their topdecks. How the game plays out depends greatly on the opponent's opening hand; if they have a "swarm hand" consisting of Signal Pest or Steel Overseer and a bunch of cheap creatures, the onslaught is fairly easily stopped, but their most dangerous cards are Etched Champion and Cranial Plating, both of which are difficult to remove. Path to Exile is really good here, as they run at most one basic land to fetch; after that Path to Exile is just unconditional exile (but be wary of pathing away a Vault Skirge just for them to play a giant Master of Etherium). When dealing with Arcbound Ravager, be aware that they can sac artifacts to make it survive a Lightning Bolt. You can also use this to your advantage, making them go all-in on the ravager or a manland to which you respond by Path to Exiling it; good Affinity players will be aware of this however.
Postboard, Affinity will try to sandbag some creatures to keep a constant stream of threats going over the course of several turns, instead of going all-in and running into a mass removal spell. They tend to sideboard fairly lightly, but will bring in more Etched Champions, Thoughtseize, countermagic and sometimes Grafdigger's Cage. Some lists even run Blood Moon, which they can cast on turn 2, so be very wary of that. Our sideboard plan against them is to bring in artifact hate, mass removal spells and Stony Silence, whilst boarding out most countermagic and possibly some number of card advantage spells. Keep in mind that Spell Snare is still a powerful counterspell against them as it hits a lot of valuable targets against them, so it is a valid strategy to keep them in. Spreading Seas is also a good card against them as it deals with their manlands which otherwise dodge mass removal spells, and Sudden Shock stops Arcbound Ravager shenanigans.
Jund
Jund is all about grinding out card advantage. Their most dangerous cards are Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek and Liliana of the Veil; especially Liliana is very difficult to deal with, and once resolved often costs multiple cards to take down. Luckily however, they run a ton of removal spells mainboard, and thus have a ton of dead draws against us preboard. Our best cards against them are our card (quality) advantage spells; Ancestral Vision, Serum Visions, Nahiri, the Harbinger and Snapcaster Mage, helping us to win the topdeck wars by drawing more and better than them. Path to Exile is a valuable resource, as they run several creatures that can survive Lightning Bolt, and have Raging Ravine to gain advantage from the extra lands we give them, so use it with deliberation. Be wary of Maelstrom Pulse, as it is their best way of killing Nahiri.
Postboard they will bring in more discard spells, their own card advantage with Painful Truths and Kolaghan's Command, and creatures that are tough to deal with like Kitchen Finks and Fulminator Mage, taking out a lot of the useless removal. Our sideboard plan is to improve our topdecks; we bring in haymakers like Elspeth, Sun's Champion, unconditional wrath effects like Wrath of God that help deal with 4+ toughness creatures, and extra card advantage like more copies of Ancestral Vision. Celestial Purge is also a strong card as it deals with Liliana of the Veil amongst others. Timely Reinforcements is also strong as Jund has trouble with dealing with the tokens, and it can give enough time to topdeck into the answer you need. Blessed Alliance is another way to kill bolt-proof creatures. Postboard you want to cut some number of burn spells but not all, as you want a way to deal with Dark Confidant and ungrown Scavenging Ooze without having to spend a Path to Exile. The two-mana counterspells Mana Leak and Remand are poor topdecks lategame but some number is required to deal with threats like Fulminator Mage. Remand only delaying the threat is troublesome against Jund as a turn 4 Kitchen Finks is just as strong as a turn 3 one, but it does cycle away itself lategame, whilst Mana Leak can stop dangerous early spells permanently at the cost of going completely dead lategame. Which to board out is really up to the pilot. Spell Snare stays good all game, is hard to play around and stops the few copies of Terminate they leave in once the game comes down to Celestial Colonnade beats.
Infect
Because we run a large amount of removal, this matchup is generally favourable. That being said, Infect also has draws where they just "have it" and there is not much you can do. Always try to kill their creatures either during your turn or during their end step; if you try to kill them before or during combat, they might just blow you out with a pump or protection spell and deal a huge amount of damage if not downright kill you. If they spend a pumpspell to save their creature from your Lightning Bolt, that's often fine; you win the 1 for 1 game in the long run. Good infect players will play it super safe, and will use cards like Noble Hierarch and Pendelhaven to pump their creatures without having to use spells, so be very wary of combat tricks and make all your spells count. Their most powerful card against us is Inkmoth Nexus, as we cannot kill it during our own turn. It is often correct to let an Inkmoth Nexus just hit you unpumped, and try killing it in their end step.
After sideboarding, they focus more on the long game, adding extra Spellskites and countermagic like Dispel to protect their creatures. We try and make our mana curve lower as the best way to beat Infect is by being able to play multiple spells a turn; you can take out some if not all your Nahiri, the Harbinger and [cardEmrakul, the Aeons Torn[/card] as tapping out for Nahiri is very dangerous. Cheaper wincons like Geist of Saint Traft are therefore very good here. Remand does not do much against their cheap spells, and Anger of the Gods is also poor as they can easily spend a pumpspell to nullify it. Spell Snare is an odd card in this matchup; it does not have many targets, but the ones that it does have (Blighted Agent, Spellskite and Apostle's Blessing) are all very good. Lightning Helix is alright; although the life gain tends to not matter, it is still a killspell you can use. If you have a lot of better cards to bring in however, it isn't incorrect to cut them. Strong cards in this matchup are unconditional wraths, especially Supreme Verdict and Engineered Explosives. Blessed Alliance can play around protection spells, and can be cast in the end of combat step to play around countermagic + pump. Wear // Tear is very good as it hits Spellskite, Inkmoth Nexus, and Wild Defiance. Vendilion Clique is an absolute All-Star in this matchup as the hand information/disruption is very relevant and they can either force a trade or provide a clock.
Abzan Company
This is a very skill-intensive matchup. Abzan Company runs a huge amount of creatures, many of which gain them card advantage; Kitchen Finks, Voice of Resurgence, Eternal Witness and Fulminator Mage are all very powerful against us. On top of that they have Collected Company and Chord of Calling, which can make them assemble one of their combos at instant speed in response to your removal. You have to keep these spells in mind at every single moment to win the match, especially Chord of Calling. For example, if you try to flashback a spell with Snapcaster Mage or discard your Emrakul, they could Chord for Scavenging Ooze and eat it away from right under your nose. Also know where to point your removal; many of their combo ingredient creatures really aren't that threathening on their own, and a Lightning Bolt might be better spent on a Scavenging Ooze than a Viscera Seer... until they Collected Company on endstep and just rip the combo. Path to Exile is also a tough card to use, as they have a ton of important targets for it, but can also utilize the extra mana very well due to Chord of Calling. You should generally always bolt early Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarchs, until a certain tipping point where extra mana does no longer help them that much; this very much depends on the boardstate (Scavenging Ooze, Gavony Township) and what your hand looks like (Mana Leak, amount of removal spells). Every removal spell counts, and it is really a matter of practicing this matchup. Card advantage is a requirement to keep up with their value creatures, so Ancestral Vision and Nahiri, the Harbinger play a big role in this matchup. They can win with beatdown, especially when they have Gavony Township, but generally you will be defeated by one of their combos, which you all need to remember:
Archangel + Finks + Seer gives infinite life and infinite +1/+1 counters on everything but the Finks that is being sacrificed
Postboard, they will bring more annoying value creatures like Voice of Resurgence and Fulminator Mage, together with Thoughtseize and Spellskite to protect their combo, but generally their gameplan stays the same. Compared to them, we bring in more powerful sideboard cards, and the postboard matchup is therefore better than the preboard one. We take out Remand and Spell Snare, as there aren't many good targets for it; Because Chord of Calling is expensive to cast, Mana Leak tends to stay live for a long time in the match, but it can be correct to shave some copies if you have better cards to bring in. Far and wide out best card against them is Anger of the Gods, often wiping their board entirely and denying any on-death triggers (just be wary of Chord of Calling for Burrenton Forge-Tender). Other wrath effects like Supreme Verdict are just as well powerful but do not deal with death triggers. Dispel is also amazing as countering a Chord of Calling can be an absolute blowout. Rest in Peace might shut off our Snapcaster Mages but it shuts off their combos and turns most of their creatures into draft chaff; very much worth it. Timely Reinforcements slows the beatdown plan, but as said the combo is much more threathening.
There is an argument to be made to not concede to their infinite life combos; generally, they can use Viscera Seer's Scry ability to find a kill combo the turn right after, but it gives you a short window of time to stop it from happening. Once their follow-up kill combo is stopped, you can repeatedly wipe their board with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Annihilator triggers by ultimating Nahiri over and over again. If you can keep this up long enough, they will eventually deck whilst Emrakul keeps shuffling our graveyard back into our library. This takes a very long time however, and in a competitive setting (don't be the person who does this at FNM) you have to keep in mind that you are likely to go to time, or at least won't have enough time to finish the next game. If you are already up a game, or if a forced draw will benefit you, you can use this. Be aware that Abzan Company is probably the deck best suited to come back from an Annihilator 6 trigger; they put a lot of permanents into play, and it takes five turns to re-charge the ultimate if you keep using the same Nahiri (tick up to 10, ultimate, tick up to 10 from 2 again). You might just lose in the middle of trying to deck your opponent, and now you're a game down, on to the next game with very little time on the clock. Decking your opponent is a possible strategy, but it is often more risky than just conceding.
Burn
The addition of Nahiri, the Harbinger greatly improved our match-up against burn; she can exile Eidolon of the Great Revel without taking damage even when Eidolon is untapped, and can force the opponent to devote some points of damage to her or get Emrakul'd. A big factor in the match-up is knowing how to sequence your lands, taking as little damage as possible from them whilst still interacting optimally. The recent addition of Spirebluff Canal is valuable because of this. Another important factor is to make sure your lifegain spells actually work; Burn mainboards 4 Atarka's Command and skilled burn pilots will try to catch your lifegain spells. They have some number of Searing Blaze preboard, which do not have any targets until you play a Snapcaster Mage. Once they do get a chance to sear your snapcaster, know that killing the snapcaster in response does not in fact save you life; Searing Blaze targets both the creature and the player.
Postboard we get to bring in a lot of good cards. Extra lifegain spells are of course very welcome, and all copies of Dispel and Negate come in. Celestial Purge is also an extra removal spell. Cards that come out are Remand and some of the more clunky cards like Electrolyze and Vendilion Clique. An argument can be made to bring in Wear // Tear as it kills Eidolon of the Great Revel, and some Burn lists run a few copies of Grafdigger's Cage. The burn sideboard plan against us varies a lot between lists; whilst universally all Searing Blazes come out, some players bring in Skullcrack to better deny lifegain, some players bring in more creatures like Grim Lavamancer and Kor Firewalker, of which the latter is actually very tough to remove for our deck. Finally, be very wary of Deflecting Palm; it doesn't target, so once you swing in with Emrakul, they can respond with it to the Annihilator trigger and deal 15 damage to you which will very likely be lethal.
Gx Tron
Tron is a poor match-up for us. We give them plenty of time to assemble tron, and once they have it we basically have to counter every single threat they cast or lose. And even that is not enough, as World Breaker and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger have on-cast triggers that happen even if the creature is countered. Luckily, the banning of Eye of Ugin worsened the deck's inevitability engine considerably, and Nahiri, the Harbinger gives us a much better clock and a way to give them their just deserts for all those uncounterable Emrakul, the Aeons Torn losses back in the day. The plan game 1 is to try and keep them off tron long enough to kill them with Nahiri; not an easy task, especially since it can be difficult to safely get Nahiri into play. Any burn spell you draw can go directly to their face, and trying to race them with Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique is an option; just be wary of Wurmcoil Engine.
Postboard, most Jeskai lists tend to have a ton of cards to bring in, the biggest one being Crumble to Dust; hitting a tronland with this is very close to game over; be very wary of Warping Wail however. Stony Silence can make it very difficult for them to assemble tron as it turns off Expedition Map, Chromatic Star and Chromatic Sphere. It also turns off Oblivion Stone, their best way to deal with Nahiri. All countermagic tends to be good, as it helps both with stopping them from assembling tron and from resolving a threat. Spell Snare does not have too many targets, but the few it has are very relevant; Sylvan Scrying and Warping Wail, making us able to cast Crumble to Dust on turn 5 with little worry. Without Eye of Ugin, Tron can find itself without threats once they have all 3 lands in play, and a well-timed Vendilion Clique can greatly disrupt them. Postboard, tron tends to side out removal against us for more threats, one of which tends to be Thragtusk, making the burn plan unfavourable, so some burn spells can come out.
Jeskai Nahiri
The Jeskai Nahiri mirror is a game of chicken; the first few turns of the match will be spent casting Serum Visions to find the cards we need and keep hitting land drops. Then, players start using burn and Snapcaster Mage to force a reaction out of the opponent; counterspells are crucial in this match-up, and spending them on Snapcaster beatdown can be dangerous. Both players try to force something in the opponent's end step to be able to untap and try to resolve Nahiri, the Harbinger from a favourable position. If a player tries to resolve Nahiri and fails, he or she is in big trouble, as now the opponent will most likely resolve their Nahiri instead; very often the player who first gets to resolve Nahiri wins. The mirror is all about resource managing; you need burn to pressure the opponent into wasting counterspells, to kill opposing Snapcaster Mages, and to kill or at least slow down opposing Nahiris. Vendilion Clique is amazing in this match-up; it can be cast on the opponent's end step, take a counterspell one way or the other, show the opponent's hand if they resolve, and then untap into casting Nahiri when the coast is clear. And on top of that they provide a clock to pressure the opponent or kill Nahiri. Ancestral Vision is also brutal as it pulls you way ahead, and if your opponent devotes countermagic to it it opens the way to resolve Nahiri in the same turn.
Postboard both players double down on the Nahiri plan; cards that help resolve or stop a Nahiri come in, everything that does something else goes out. All countermagic is good, additional copies of Vendilion Clique, and also copies of Celestial Purge, which can stop a resolved Nahiri for only 2 mana. Geist of Saint Traftis an extra wincon that is hard to deal with once resolved. As for what to cut, some if not all Path to Exiles come out as there is no real target beyond Celestial Colonnade. Some burn can come out; Lightning Helix and Lightning Bolt both have their pros and cons, as helix's lifegain does matter but bolt is cheaper; how many burn spells to cut and in what mixture is up to the pilot's preference.
Merfolk
Merfolk is different from most aggro-based matchup in that it is much more grindy. Although they are less explosive than affinity or zoo, they can keep going much longer with Spreading Seas and Silvergill Adept drawing cards, and having powerful lategame threats in Master of Waves and Kira, Great Glass Spinner. They run a large amount of creatures, about 28 creatures plus Mutavault, which greatly taxes our removal. Because of this, our best mainboard card is definitely Snapcaster Mage as they don't run many removal spells and snapcaster mage will often get the full two for one removal spell + trade value; just threathening you have this play can force them to hold back on their attacks. Knowing where to point your removal spells is very important; try to save your Path to Exile for Master of Waves, keep your fetching in mind as they can try to manascrew you with Spreading Seas. Learn how Aether Vial works and interacts with their cards; I'd recommend reading through the Merfolk Primer for this. Ber very wary of Vial on 2 when going for the Emrakul Wincon, as they can bounce Emrakul in response with Harbinger of the Tides; this only prevents the damage however, and you still get the annihilator trigger.
Postboard we improve a lot as we can take a lot of counterspells out; apart from Spell Snare, Cavern of Souls + Aether Vial makes countermagic not really worth keeping in. Do NOT take out Ancestral Vision: the vast majority of merfolk matchups will be very grindy and long, and drawing more removal spells is exactly what you want. All Wrath effects come in, especially Supreme Verdict. When playing counterable wraths, be wary of Cursecatcher being vialed in at instant speed to counter it. Do not go too deep on beating Aether Vial as we already want to take out most countermagic, they will not often try to flood the board, and the instant speed doesn't add that much. It can be ok to bring in Stony Silence as they also often play Relic of Progenitus, but you're better off focussing on killing creatures. Timely Reinforcements is very good, as it forces them to play multiple lords; you can kill an islandwalk lord in response to an attack to blow them out by suddenly being able to block. Vendilion Clique can snag creatures out of their hand in response to an Aether Vial tap, but their deck is very redundant, making the discard effect mediocre, and generally you should have better cards. Izzet Staticaster can kill Silvergill Adept, Cursecatcher and Master of Waves tokens, whilst also being able to break Kira glass spinner's shield, and thus is very good.
You should be sure to add in somewhere that this thread is intended to focus on the Nahiri wincon lists, and anyone desiring to discuss other versions of the deck, should use the other primer (of which you've already graciously linked.)
You should be sure to add in somewhere that this thread is intended to focus on the Nahiri wincon lists, and anyone desiring to discuss other versions of the deck, should use the other primer (of which you've already graciously linked.)
Also, great job on the primer!
I assumed that the title being "Jeskai Harbinger" would suffice
looks good!
Might be too early but i´d like a "stock list" somewhere in the primer.
When I sold of my merfolk and was browsing around for a control deck to pick up it was really helpfull to have a stock / example list right inside the primer, would have to be kept updated though.
Something along the lines of Jim Davis / Peter Ingrams latest builds would be my suggestion but as I said above, the deck might be in flux too much for now.
Stock list is a good idea, I'll add one and would like you guys' feedback on it
Maybe this has been brought up in the other thread, but what do people think about one Logic Knot replacing a Mana Leak? It's a lot better than Leak late game and about as good early game, and has the added benefit of letting you delve away cards you don't want to shuffle back in with Emrakul.
Hey guys, I've managed to finish 6-2 at my WMCQ this weekend, which didn't grant me any prizes but was a respectable record nonetheless. My list was splashing black for Lingering Souls MD and Slaughter Games in SB, and I'll likely post it tomorrow after I get some sleep.
Cheers,
TFSS
Can you post your list? I've been considering splashing for Souls.
Hey guys, I've managed to finish 6-2 at my WMCQ this weekend, which didn't grant me any prizes but was a respectable record nonetheless. My list was splashing black for Lingering Souls MD and Slaughter Games in SB, and I'll likely post it tomorrow after I get some sleep.
Cheers,
TFSS
Can you post your list? I've been considering splashing for Souls.
Ari Lax did a video series on the black splash, adding Souls to the main deck and Slaughter Games + Crackling Doom in the side.
Alright, to start this off, I want it to be clear. The Tier One, decks that have results, is NAHIRI lists. I'm aware that people wanted a split in threads, but the mods talked it over and were against it. The truth is, this deck didn't get results prior to the cards printing, and when it did it spiked and remained.
So if you wish to post a list here that is SANS Nahiri, that is fine, posters will respect it, and while maybe mentioning that you should include the walker for XYZ, they can still critique it civilized. If posters still prefer to make a separate thread, this is also perfectly fine, but it must be in deck creation because the amount of non-Nahiri lists in the meta game is .01%
Again, to be clear. IF you start a Nahiri flame war here, you will be infracted. The card exists in this archtype, and the archtype is in tier one status.
Alright, to start this off, I want it to be clear. The Tier One, decks that have results, is NAHIRI lists. I'm aware that people wanted a split in threads, but the mods talked it over and were against it. The truth is, this deck didn't get results prior to the cards printing, and when it did it spiked and remained.
So if you wish to post a list here that is SANS Nahiri, that is fine, posters will respect it, and while maybe mentioning that you should include the walker for XYZ, they can still critique it civilized. If posters still prefer to make a separate thread, this is also perfectly fine, but it must be in deck creation because the amount of non-Nahiri lists in the meta game is .01%
Again, to be clear. IF you start a Nahiri flame war here, you will be infracted. The card exists in this archtype, and the archtype is in tier one status.
So can we just re-open the old thread and leave it in Deck Creation (or Tier 2, which is where it was prior)?
Will we be talking about sideboards and metas in the primer? Like good match-ups, bad match-ups, general themes when playing certain decks, etc? I know sideboards should be separate and flexible, but for new players, it might be worth suggesting a few semi-staples to get them going.
Reprints the one card that people point to when saying that art objectifies women.
Well done Wizards.
Liliana does not objectify women in any way at all. We have gotten to a point in our society that every single picture of a women must be objectifying a women in some negative way......blah blah blah.. That is not the case. (((Sarcasm)))Picture of a girl drinking a milk shake, must be sex related and putting women down, picture of girl sitting on a beach, picture of a girl driving a car, picture of a girl on the moon at a new space station.)))
You have a picture of an attractive strong power women who girls dress up as for anime conventions. What more do you want? The picture is fine, happy to see a reprint. Sick of of seeing people claim that everything in existence must be putting women down. Then all I have to do is replace the word "women" with anything else to get the same mentality; fish, cats, arabs, blacks, jews, men, environment, whites, chinese, old people, etc. It doesn't matter what word I put in. Stop sucking life out of everything man. That artwork of her is awesome. Stop putting stuff down man. Just stop. If the picture was really as negative as you claim she would totally nude, in a kitchen, making sandwiches and giving blow jobs. Her abilities would be horrible as well. +1 do nothing -2 do nothing -6 do nothing. Instead liliana of the veil is an amazing planeswalker comparable to jace, the mind sculpter with great art to appreciate.
My suggestion listen to some comedy radio for a while, pandora is free, youtube is free there is something out there for you. ***** go make fun of somebody. The whole world is so serious and campaigning for some cause, or someones rights, everything is a hate crime, racist, sexist. blah blah blah.
"O no mcdonalds must be slandering a hate crime against skinny people every time they make a big mac." hahaha jeeze You're just someone perpetuating another groups negative perspective that they've made you believe is correct. Look at the picture for a hour and tell me what's wrong with it? I don't see anything.
I have heard vague rumors of a moustache-dispensing vending machine in a distant laundromat, across the street from a tattoo parlor. However, this information is shaky, and time is of the essence.
I thought we voted on this being called Jeskai Nahiri?
In addition the stock list should include Ancestral Visions, at least for now. I also recommend using Jim Davis's list if others agree.
I am also available to help with ideas on this if anyone wants to run ideas off me. I am a long-time Jeskai player and have all versions of the deck (Nahiri version almost all foil) = p
I keep up with the metagame and value the use of deep statistics over single deck results.
No on both accounts. Non Nahiri lists make up for less than 1% of the meta game, thus they don't qualify for Tier 2. The thread was also too old to be salvaged.
Since we have a fresh new start with a new Tier one deck I think this is a great time to emphasize that this is for competitive lists and card choices. I'm really hopeful that this won't degenerate into people going back to trying to tell everyone how good the old pet cards are.
For example cards like Think Twice. There is no incentive for a Nahiri deck to play a card like this. Or I expect old Gideon and Keranos to pop up from suggestions, but I suggest we try and keep to competitive cards whenever possible.
Will we be talking about sideboards and metas in the primer? Like good match-ups, bad match-ups, general themes when playing certain decks, etc? I know sideboards should be separate and flexible, but for new players, it might be worth suggesting a few semi-staples to get them going.
I would also be open to helping players with sideboard theory.
Cards worth mentioning somewhere in the primer: Logic Knot, Think Twice, Jace, Archtect of Thought.
Apart from that, good job.
No, on all of those. None of those have ever showed up in a Jeskai Nahiri list. Those are sub-par cards from a bygone era.
While i do agree on TT, I think logic knot as an alternative to a 3rd mana leak is viable and there is at least a discussion about JAOT if thopter gains more meta share as a SB card. I think that staying competitive is the goal. it is the experimentation that allows the community to discover the correct and potential 1-ofs in the MB and SB.
The push for competitive known lists cannot be at the expense of innovation and improving the decklist
Overview
Jeskai Control is a modern archetype as old as the format itself. It aims to stop the opponent from executing their plan with a suite of counterspells and removal, prolonging the game until it can overwhelm the opponent either by going bigger or through card advantage. Next to a solid core of efficient cards, Jeskai Control leaves a lot of room for customisation, mostly in the way and at what time in the game the deck aims to win; because of this, a plethora of subtypes of the deck has developed, that will all be touched upon in this primer. Which version you end up choosing depends on your metagame and personal preferences.
Why Jeskai?
Out of all the different color combinations to choose from when playing control in Modern, why choose Jeskai? The main advantage of Jeskai lies in its versatility and ability to switch gears in the middle of an ongoing game. This is primarily because of jeskai's powerful burn suite of Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix and Electrolyze. Although removal spells like Path to Exile, Fatal Push and Terminate are less conditional removal than burn, choosing the desired amount to run can be difficult due to how wide the Modern metagame tends to be; with a removal suite wide enough to battle Modern aggro decks, you will be left with a large amount of dead draws in creaturelight matchups, and might even find yourself with too few cards to side in postboard. Jeskai on the other hand can turn those dead removal spells into a clock, and suddenly change from a controlling position into the aggressor; "end of turn, bolt snap bolt" followed by an attack puts your opponent 8 life points lower seemingly out of nowhere.
Core of the Deck
As jeskai is mostly a "goodstuff" archetype, relying more on individual card strength than synergistic interactions, there is a lot of variation in decklist depending on metagame and personal preference. A major factor in this lies in how the list intends to finish the game and on what turn it intends to do so. Nevertheless, there is still a core of cards you will see in almost every list:
Having access to this card is basically the main reason to play blue in Modern. Snapcaster is an immensely mana efficient card advantage machine, most of the time flashing back the best spell in your graveyard to counter or kill one of your opponent's spells, and leaving a 2/1 body behind that either trades with a block or removal spell or comes in for a bunch of damage. Snapcaster is arguably at his best in the Jeskai shell, as the access to both card draw and burn makes you able to play the card as aggressively as you want; hold onto it until you need your best graveyard spell, flash back an Opt or Serum Visions to apply some pressure without losing a card, or go pedal to the metal with an "end of turn, bolt snap bolt". Snapcaster is our best card in virtually any matchup and I am hard pressed to think of a reason to not play the full playset.
Path to Exile
One of the most efficient removal spells in Modern. Although the downside is not free, especially early in the game, Path to Exile stops virtually any creature and also stops recursion and death triggers, of which there are many in Modern. You play the full playset
Lightning Bolt
Access to bolt is one of the things that gives Jeskai its extreme versatility, being both an excellent removal spell as a way to close out the game. The full playset is almost always played
Lightning Helix
The lifegain on this card is incredibly relevant and can help stabilize against aggro decks; especially against Burn, this card is a 2 for 1 most of the time. Next to that it is bolt number 5+, and you want some amount in any type of jeskai list, mostly dependant on how reliant you are on burn to the face.
Electrolyze
Although expensive for a removal spell, Electrolyze gives excellent value and is a 2 for 1 or even a 3 for 1 against Modern's swarm decks, like affinity and Collected Company-based decks. In grindy games like the mirror, Electrolyze can be used to deal direct damage without losing a card, making it an excellent card to "test the waters" and provoke a response with. Amount plays varies from 0 to 4, mostly limited by the card's high casting cost and, again, dependant on how reliant you are on burning out your opponent.
Logic Knot
As WotC refuses to give us Counterspell in Modern, Logic Knot is probably the next best thing. Its power over Mana Leak is that it stays relevant even late in the game, when you might have to counter for x=4 or higher. The card is more color intensive than Mana Leak and makes you more sensitive to gravehate however, so it is not all upside. Generally, 2 or 3 are played, although some pilots prefer Mana leak and/or Remand over it.
Spell Snare
Two is a very important number in Modern, and although Spell Snare is a very conditional counterspell it is also very efficient with a wide application. The number you want is very meta dependant; most of the time, lists run two.
Cryptic Command
Cryptic Command is never dead in your hand, it's like a Swiss army knife. Although it is incredibly powerful and often a 2 for 1, 1UUU is expensive and clunky to cast, especially in counter wars. The amount you want to run varies from 0 to 4 depending on your manabase, manacurve and how long you want the game to go.
Spell Queller
Spell Queller is one of the newer additions to Jeskai's arsenal, and it fits Jeskai's gameplan perfectly. As long as Queller does not die, it is essentially a 2 for 1; its 2/3 body blocks surprisingly well against several decks, and it can apply pressure against combo and ramp decks whilst also disrupting their setup. Because of this, Queller is a key card in improving some matchups that were very troublesome for Jeskai prior to Queller's release. The card does require some finesse however; exiling a powerful spell under it also means giving your opponent the opportunity to recast it at instant speed by killing queller.
Serum Visions
With Ponder and Preordain banned, SV is the most powerful cantrip in Modern. Scry 2 is excellent in any phase of the game, helping with hitting landdrops, finding answers, planning turns and out-topdecking in the lategame. If you play it, you generally play the full playset...
Opt
...unless you play Opt. A brand new addition to Modern, and a big deal for such a simple looking spell. Although obviously weaker than Serum Visions in raw power, Opt's instant speed puts real pressure on your opponent to play into your countermagic, because if they don't use their mana, you can Opt and/or Snap Opt end of turn to gain tempo and free pressure. The jury is still very much out on whether Serum Visions or Opt is better, and it comes very much down to your preference and deck design. Most lists run either 4 of Opt or 4 of SV, but a mix is not wrong and you might want more than 4 cantrips.
Celestial Colonnade
Although most Jeskai lists have comparable landbases that speak for themselves, Celestial Colonnade deserves some special mention. It is one of the best manlands in Modern, and gives us access to a very powerful endgame virtually for free. Flying and 4/4 makes it excellent both at blocking and closing out the game quickly in combination with burn spells. Each list wants 2 to 4, depending on how fast your deck is (entering the battlefield can be a liability for faster versions).
Matchups
Although there are many subtypes of Jeskai Control, they all have a similar gameplan and thus also have similar good and bad matchups. The largest differences in matchup you will see in Jeskai subtypes will depend on the speed of the deck; the faster a subtype is, the better its combo matchup, but the worse its lategame power. In this guide I try to go over common matchups for Jeskai Control lists in general, and I will make notes on how some subtypes will be better or worse at that specific matchup.
Tier 1 (as of 17-12-2017)
Affinity
Affinity is a good matchup for all popular versions of Jeskai. We have boatloads of removal to break up their synergies, and once you stabilize from their explosive opening, they have very few cards that can get them back into the game. The matchup revolves almost entirely around two of their cards; Etched Champion, which is very hard to deal with once it resolves, and Cranial Plating which turns every single creature into a must-kill threat. If you can stop them from using these cards, it should be smooth sailing. Just know where to point your removal; taking some chip damage is fine, and often you want to use your removal in their end step, to assure they do not play something scarier.
Postboard we should still be favourable; they can't board that many non-artifact cards, and their best addition will be extra Etched Champions. Sometimes they will have one or two Spell Pierce or Blood Moon to watch out for. We get to board in Stony Silence, wrath effects and Ceremoneous Rejection, all cards that are bombs against them. In addition, Izzet Staticaster and Pia and Kiran Nalaar are also creatures that are very strong against Affinity, and Spreading Seas can stop their manlands. Your gameplan becomes even more focussed on stopping their explosive opener, and to stop Etched Champion from ruining your day. Your manacurve should be lowered, as should your counterspell count; you do want to keep some in as a way to deal with Etched Champion. Spell Snare also stops most of their payoff spells. Spell Queller can get awkward when you have to wrath the board but is a decent blocker, Vendilion Clique is mediocre as it can't attack into all of their flying 1/1s. You can go very low on wincons here, as they have very few ways to come back on a stabilized board.
Burn
Burn is generally a favourable matchup for Jeskai; we have countermagic, tons of removal and mainboard lifegain. However, there is a huge gap between playing against a good burn player versus a bad one; as burn is a fairly straightforward deck, it is often picked up by newer players. But, as burn is an archetype as old as the format itself, it also has plenty of wintered veterans who know how to play around our disruption.
The burn matchup has a very clear early and lategame. The first turns are very straightforward, where burn tries to go under us. This is fairly easy to stop, as long as you keep a cheap hand with answers to their creatures. If your hand cannot answer their turn 1 and 2 plays, it is most likely a mulligan. Be wary of Path to Exiling their creatures early, as ramping them is very dangerous. The second phase of the matchup, is where good burn players will shine over bad ones. Once we have stabilised, good burn players will start stockpiling their hand. They can then abuse the fact that their average cmc is much lower than ours, fire off several spells in our endstep, and then untap with more. If you took too much damage in the early game, it is easy to suddenly lose here. The best way to deal with this is to establish a clock as soon as possible and not give them the time to recharge their hand; because of this I would argue the faster versions of Jeskai are better at this matchup. Finally, against monored versions you have to play around Blood Moon postboard.
Our best card against them is Lightning Helix; the lifegain essentially makes the card a 2 for 1 against a deck that tries to not trade their cards. It is important to make sure your lifegain goes through; play around Skull Crack, Atarka's Command and the rare Flames of the Bloodhand. If your opponent taps out, it is often a good play to just Snap + Helix their face if they have no creatures. Other than Lightning Helix, the matchup revolves around mana efficiency; you want to cut down on expensive spells postboard. Electrolyze is the first to go as it is too expensive as removal. Cryptic Command is decent but often too pricey. Vendilion Clique does not do that much as most of their cards to the same thing. Lategame bombs like planeswalkers or Thundermaw Hellkite can also be cut down on; as long as you leave a concise plan to actually end the game. Cheap counterspells and removal come in; Dispel and Negate are excellent, as are Celestial Purge and Abrade. Timely Reinforcements is essentially a 3 for 1, but can be rough to resolve without getting Skullcracked.
(Grixis) Death Shadow
Death Shadow lists play similar for us regardless of what colors they run; just take note of what lands they fetch. Blue versions are the most powerful against us and also the most popular, so I will focus on those.
Death Shadow matchups are very skill-intensive for both players; many games revolve around a single wrong line. There is also some luck involved; we have all the tools needed to beat them, but they play a lot of discard and the games end quickly, giving very few shots at a good topdeck. The big gamebreaker is often whether you can deal with Stubborn Denial; with a one mana Negate backing up their fast clock, you often have to just assume your first removal spell will be countered. “Doubling” your mana by interacting in their end step, then untapping and interacting again is a crucial tool here. Another important factor is when to burn their face; fire too early and you will just pump their Death Shadows, fire too late and you will be short on mana. Both players have to think several turns ahead here.
Postboard should be better for us; they do not bring in many cards, some extra Stubborn Denials, Surgical Extraction, and some Lilianas (either cmc3 version). An important question is how much burn you want to keep in. You want to draw enough to threathen ending the game, but too much will get stuck in your hand with no targets. Electrolyze is the first to go (unless they run Lingering Souls). Helix and Bolt are a mixed bag; bolt is more mana efficient, but helix's lifegain can mess up their combat math. Another interesting card is Spell Queller; it is a counterspell they cannot counter, and a 2 for 1 if it doesn't die. It is however also expensive for this matchup, and it dying can be very dangerous; we also bring in Supreme Verdict which can get awkward. Death Shadow decks should not have too much removal postboard, however. Basically, all the common up- and downsides of Spell Queller count double in this matchup. Countermagic can be iffy, as it lets them set the time for when you want to cast it. Cryptic Command should come out entirely, cmc2 counterspells can be cut down on but some should stay in. Spell Snare has very few targets but deals with Snapcaster Mage, so leaving one in can be good.
Cards that come in are Supreme Verdict for being an uncounterable answer and Dispel for helping with counter wars. Timely Reinforcements can be good even for just the tokens to chumpblock with, Pia and Kiran Nalaar for the same reason. Celestial Purge is probably the best card in the Modern cardpool against them. Gravehate can be difficult to evaluate in this matchup; of course it is better against any list with Tarmogoyf, but Death Shadow can fill up their graveyard really fast making Relic of Progenitus kind of irrelevant at stopping Delve creatures, and often hurting us more. Surgical Extraction can be a “counterspell” against Snapcaster Mage and Kolaghan's Command, or sometimes serve as a check against Stubborn Denial to force through a Path to Exile. Surgical Extracting just to get a card out of their deck is sketchy as it is card disadvantage.
Gx Tron
Gx tron is arguably the worst matchup you will commonly face with Jeskai. This deck is built to assemble tron (i.e. have Urza’s Tower, Mine and Power Plant on the battlefield) as soon as possible, and then starts casting huge bomb spells that often mean game end on resolution: Wurmcoil Engine is generally their weakest bomb as we can Path to Exile it, but even a single hit off the monster can make it difficult to close out the game if your list relies on burn. Karn Liberated and Ugin the Spirit Dragon are basically must-counters; Karn can eat away at our hand and lands and Ugin threatens a swift game ending ultimate. Their biggest bomb is Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger as it exiles two of our lands even when countered. The (currently) most common version, GB tron, also bring discard, making the matchup even more difficult.
The number one requirement in beating Gx tron is a fast clock; the faster your Jeskai build, the better your odds are of beating it. Especially Geist lists have a good shot. Second most important is knowing what to counter; early game it might be correct to counter spells that search for tron pieces like Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map and Ancient Stirrings. Bouncing lands with Cryptic Command before they reach tron is also basically a timewalk versus them. However, once they are one turn away from tron you should start being wary of what they could potentially cast off it even if they will only have tron complete for one untap step.
Land disruption is of course a strong sideboard plan versus them, as long as it is backed up by a decent clock: if you Crumble to Dust a tron piece but then do not apply pressure, Tron is perfectly capable of hitting their land drops and starting to cast Karns the normal way. Stony Silence is also very powerful by turning off their cantrips and Expedition Map. Postboard you should side out the slower grindy elements of your deck like Search for Azcanta and focus on closing the game asap. You will also end up taking out some of your removal in which case there appears to be two camps of Jeskai players: some leave in all burn spells but take out all Path to Exiles hoping their opponent can never resolve a Wurmcoil Engine or Thragtusk (which they side in), others leave in the Path to Exiles but take out some burn to not be forced to counter these threats but instead lose some game finishing power.
Eldrazitron
Eldrazitron is less focussed on assembling tron than Gx tron is, but instead runs a more midrange curve of Eldrazi creatures. The scariest thing they have is an early Chalice of the Void for x=1 which can be difficult to stop and is virtually lights out. How difficult this matchup is is often disputed; from my own experience, Eldrazitron is incredibly swingy, sometimes chaining Thought Knot Seers and Reality Smashers starting turn 3, sometimes doing stone nothing until a lousy turn 4 Walking Ballista for 2. Regardless of how good or bad the matchup is, your gameplan is the same; out-tempo them with Path to Exile, burn and flyers. The middle ground of Jeskai speeds is actually the best here, as Geist versions can’t get in on the ground. Longrange versions don’t have inevitability, especially postboard, where Etron will focus more on the “real” tron threats like Karn Liberated and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. Spell Queller is an amazing card in this matchup as it can counter even if they have Cavern of Souls, and they run very little removal.
Postboard you bring in any spell that can kill their Eldrazi. Artifact hate also helps, both in the form of removal to kill Chalice of the Void as Stony Silence to turn off Expedition Map, Mind Stone and Walking Ballista; just don’t overload on it. Landhate can work but is generally very slow; Etron will not care at all if you Crumple to Dust them off tron. Spreading Seas does work wonders as they run a lot of utility lands. You can shave off some countermagic and burn, as although they are not dead in the matchup, they are less effective. Spell Snare has very few targets, but on the draw can be your only hope versus a Chalice on 1.
UR Storm
UR Storm is a tricky matchup. It takes very little for them to be able to go off, and although not too much pressure is needed to take them out, when to deploy that pressure is difficult: tapping out for a turn 3 Geist of Saint Traft might just have them untap for lethal. Calculating risks is very important; sometimes you need to be patient, sometimes it is best to just go for it and hope you get to untap. Be very wary of Remand, which they can cast for one mana if they have one of their reducer creatures. Kill the reducers on sight, never let them untap with one, and keep in the back of your mind what could happen if they respond to your removal with instants.
Learning Gifts Ungiven piles is very important; sometimes you have to guess the contents of their hand, but often there is a straight up correct and incorrect pile to give. A big chunk of storm win percentage comes from people not knowing how2Gifts: if you play versus storm often, I recommend you really learn the deck as if you were playing it yourself, and check out the storm primer which is very well written.
Postboard you want to cheapen your deck’s average cmc so they can’t go under you; Cryptic Command is very awkward as they have Remand and Dispel, Electrolyze is hard to cast as they can Gifts in response. You want any cheap sort of countermagic and ways to kill reducers; Path to Exile can be shaved a couple of copies as ramping them is bad, but sometimes a necessity. Some storm pilots try to go off early with Empty the Warrens, so bring in some way to deal with this; Izzet Staticaster and Engineered Explosives are great, but Supreme Verdict can be too expensive. Gravehate slows them down significantly, but do not expect them to just roll over to a Relic of Progenitus. In total, this matchup should be decent as long as you know their deck just as well as they do.
Originally by Bearscape
(NOTE: As of 2/21/17, staff have temporarily taken over this thread until further notice.) This is for all WRU control discussions
[credits to epetov for the banner!]
Old primer
Why play Jeskai Harbinger?
History
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells (30)
1 Consume the Meek
4 Cryptic Command
1 Dismember
4 Electrolyze
4 Esper Charm
3 Izzet Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mystical Teachings
4 Remand
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Terminate
1 White Sun's Zenith
4 Arid Mesa
1 Blood Crypt
2 Celestial Colonnade
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Mystic Gate
1 Plains
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Watery Grave
1 Celestial Purge
2 Counterflux
1 Extirpate
1 Smelt
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Thoughtseize
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Vendilion Clique
Over time, the deck changed. The black splash disappeared for a more stable mababase, and the deck's strategy solidified into winning with huge heaps of card advantage through Sphinx's Revelation, followed up with Celestial Colonnade beatdown and a flurry of burn spells. Shaun McLaren won Pro Tour Born of the Gods with this strategy;
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
Spells (27)
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Mana Leak
3 Path to Exile
2 Remand
1 Spell Snare
2 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Ajani Vengeant
Lands (26)
3 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Celestial Purge
1 Counterflux
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Logic Knot
2 Porphyry Nodes
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stony Silence
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Wear // Tear
After this however, Jeskai Control slowly fell out of favour; modern sped up significantly with the addition of cards like Eidolon of the Great Revel, Monastery Swiftspear, and Become Immense. Blisteringly fast aggro decks forced Jeskai Control out of the format by proving that a Sphinx's Revelation for x=4 simply wasn't fast enough anymore. On top of that, the infamous "Splinter Twin" deck generally did the same Jeskai Control tried to do but better, being able to seal or steal games away with the interaction of namesake card Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch.
Through all this, Jeskai Control continued to be a Tier 2 deck mostly because of its die-hard fanbase, who insisted on wanting to play blue-based control in Modern. When Splinter Twin was banned on January 18th 2016, the air seemed clear for a new control deck to arise in modern, but this air was quickly clouded by the storm of "Eldrazi Winter", warping the format beyond recognition. When the storm cleared with the April 4th 2016 banlist update, Ancestral Vision and Thopter Foundry got unbanned to fuel a new Modern control deck, but even that did not seem to find much foothold.
Enter Nahiri, the Harbinger
Whilst originally not getting too much attention due to the recent unbannings overshadowing her, Jeff Hoogland sparked people's attention by streaming Jeskai Control with Nahiri as the wincon. When Peter Ingram then won Starcitygames Indianapolis with the deck, the spark ignited; "Jeskai Harbinger" was the real deal.
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalkers (4)
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Spells (26)
2 Cryptic Command
2 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
2 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
3 Remand
2 Spell Snare
4 Serum Visions
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Desolate Lighthouse
3 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Stony Silence
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Wear
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Ancestral Vision
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Crumble to Dust
1 Timely Reinforcements
Wincon
Nahiri, the Harbinger: Every mode on Nahiri is relevant to our gameplan: You play all four copies, as multiple consecutive Nahiris are incredibly backbreaking on the opponent's resources, and excess copies can be "rummaged" away.
Issues and Alternative Wincons
Although Nahiri is a powerful and consistent wincon, it is not without its downsides, the primary one being drawing Emrakul; it is almost impossible to hardcast Emrakul, as her 15 mana cost means you would have to have every single mana-producing land in the deck in play! Considering this would take a very long time to achieve, and that the deck tends to start rummaging away excess lands with Nahiri after the sixth landdrop (earlier or later depending on the matchup), drawing Emrakul is essentially a complete blank, as if you skipped that draw. Even worse than that, Emrakul has to be in our library to be able to be summoned by Nahiri's ultimate, which means that you have to discard her in some way to get her back in the deck. This resets our graveyard, which greatly weakens Snapcaster Mage and shuffles used fetchlands back into the deck. It can also happen that you draw Emrakul on the turn you wanted to use Nahiri's ultimate: this means you have to take a turn off to rummage Emrakul back in the deck again. Although this situation is very unlikely, it can randomly lose you the game. The final issue of drawing Emrakul is that our opponent gets an opportunity to exile it; Emrakul hits the graveyard before triggering her effect to be shuffled back into the deck, our opponent can abuse this with gravehate like Relic of Progenitus, Scavenging Ooze and Rest in Peace. Because of this, some Jeskai Control players opt to play other wincons, either on their own or as an addition to Nahiri. These strategies are viable, although it has to be said that Nahiri is definitely the best performing wincon in the Jeskai Control shell.
Stock List
4 Snapcaster Mage
Wincon (5)
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Removal (11)
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
Countermagic (7)
3 Mana Leak
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Serum Visions
Lands (23)
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
2 Arid Mesa
1 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Spirebluff Canals
1 Ghost Quarter
Removal Suite
Jeskai Harbinger plans to keep the boardstate as clear as possible. Being in White and Red gives some of the most powerful options in the format to do this; generally, most list play around 12 mainboard removal spells.
Counter Suite
Blue gives access to countermagic, giving Jeskai a clear advantage over other color combinations when building to win with Nahiri, the Harbinger. Countermagic serves as a solid catch-all answer that also stops "enter the battlefield" effects, which are very common in Modern. The average decklist plays around 7 counterspells, less or more depending on the metagame and the pilot's preferences.
Creatures
Jeskai Harbinger generally does not run many creatures. The advantage of this, is that it makes the opponent's removal spells dead draws. However, we do tend to play a few powerful utility creatures that help the gameplan.
Card (Quality) Advantage
The danger of running a control strategy is that a single unanswered threat can cost you the game. To aid this strategy, we use card advantage (simply having more cards) and card quality advantage; use spells to manipulate our upcoming draw steps so it is on average better than our opponent's drawstep. The downside of these kinds of spells is that their payoff is delayed instead of immediate, making us fall behind on the board. Because of this, we have a limited amount of slots to dedicate to card (quality) advantage; the average list runs about six, and the slower the metagame, the more you can afford to play.
Landbase
Jeskai Harbinger has a very greedy manabase, ideally wanting access to all three of its colors on turn two for Lightning Helix and Remand/Mana Leak. Luckily, running Serum Visions mediates this issue a bit. Generally, Jeskai Harbinger runs 23 lands with one colorless utility land; if you want to run a second utility land it is adviseable to run it as the 24th land.
Sideboard Options
WWhiteW
UBlueU
RRedR
WURMulticolorWUR
CColorlessC
Coming Up: More Match-up Guide, and Technical Play tips
Match-ups
Dredge
Dredge is a poor matchup for us. Especially game 1, our wincons are just too slow. Nahiri, the Harbinger can basically never get to 8 as she has to be spent as a removal spell most of the time, and Conflagrate can be used to prevent her from getting to 8 loyalty. Our best chance of winning game 1 is with Snapcaster Mage and burn spells; Lightning Bolt is a very poor removal spell here, only buying a little bit of time, and is thus better spent going to their face. Path to Exile is of course excellent, but be wary of when you cast it as it will also reanimate all their Bloodghasts if they can get a basic; be especially wary of Insolent Neonate as it can dredge for them at instant speed. Countermagic is actually very strong in this matchup as countering their self-discard spells slows them down significantly. An exception is Remand on their Cathartic Reunion, as letting them discard twice is actually very bad. Remanding a flashbacked Faithless Looting or Conflagrate is very good on the other hand.
Postboard is where the real matchup begins. Depending on the meta, you want 2-4 graveyard hate cards to aggressively mulligan to, starting with some number of Rest In Peace. RIP might worsen our Snapcasters, but it completely kills their deck; as long as RIP is on the battlefield, they have no realistic way of winning. Additional to RIP, Ravenous Trap and Surgical Extraction can be used as gravehate that is live before RIP even hits the battlefield, but you should always start with some number of RIPs. Anger of the Gods can be both mainboarded and sideboarded and kills all of their creatures for good; smart Dredge players will play around this by not overextending, so know when you have to pull the trigger. Negate can come in as extra countermagic, and is generally better than Remand. You should side out some number of Ancestral Vision as the card is very slow here, but some number can stay in as extra draws means extra odds of hitting sideboard cards. Some number of burn spells can come out; they can go to the face, but are otherwise fairly mediocre. Vendilion Clique is a tad awkward as targeting them is very poor, but can redraw you a card and provide a clock. Some pilots take out Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as Nahiri will rarely get to 8 Loyalty. That being said, one Emrakul hit will still most likely kill them, so you have to decide whether you'd rather have a dud draw in your deck or lose a potential wincon.
The dredge player will side in ways to deal with our gravehate; Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay are their best cards. They also play Nature's Claim to kill RIP and Collective Brutality, which can't take RIP from our hand but can take other disruption, kills Snapcaster and helps them discard. You thus have to time your relevant cards against them expertly; do I have to cast Anger now? What are the odds of them casting a discard spell next turn? Can I wait to cast RIP with countermagic backup? Generally, you will win either with beats and burn once they are locked down or by disrupting them until they mill themselves.
Postboard we prepare for a grindy matchup. Most counterspells come out, especially Spell Snare, but as they will not always have Cavern of Souls and as countering one of their creatures is devastating, some can stay in. Some burn can come out, but not all as we want to kill Noble Hierarch and Eldrazi Displacer. Anger of the Gods might not kill their big threats, but it does kill their three-drops Reality Smasher and Eldrazi Skyspawner. Trading Anger for one of these one-for one is oftentimes worth it, and it also cleans up tokens and manadorks. Unconditional wraths are even better, as anything that can kill their big bombs is valuable. Engineered Explosives might not kill their bombs but can wipe tokens and hedge against cards like Pithing Needle and Grafdigger's Cage which they often bring in. Blessed Alliance is excellent against Reality Smasher but poor versus Thought-Knot Seer and Drowner of Hope. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is an extra wrath, and can quickly overwhelm them with tokens. Vendilion Clique is excellent as it takes away a threat and they will often have no removal left in the deck postboard. Izzet Staticaster is decent as it kills manadorks, tokens, and makes Thought-Knot Seer vulnerable to bolt without 2 for 1-ing yourself. Finally, be wary of them bringing in Negate.
Some tips:
This match-up comes down to stopping their explosive start and then trying to stabilize and beating their topdecks. How the game plays out depends greatly on the opponent's opening hand; if they have a "swarm hand" consisting of Signal Pest or Steel Overseer and a bunch of cheap creatures, the onslaught is fairly easily stopped, but their most dangerous cards are Etched Champion and Cranial Plating, both of which are difficult to remove. Path to Exile is really good here, as they run at most one basic land to fetch; after that Path to Exile is just unconditional exile (but be wary of pathing away a Vault Skirge just for them to play a giant Master of Etherium). When dealing with Arcbound Ravager, be aware that they can sac artifacts to make it survive a Lightning Bolt. You can also use this to your advantage, making them go all-in on the ravager or a manland to which you respond by Path to Exiling it; good Affinity players will be aware of this however.
Postboard, Affinity will try to sandbag some creatures to keep a constant stream of threats going over the course of several turns, instead of going all-in and running into a mass removal spell. They tend to sideboard fairly lightly, but will bring in more Etched Champions, Thoughtseize, countermagic and sometimes Grafdigger's Cage. Some lists even run Blood Moon, which they can cast on turn 2, so be very wary of that. Our sideboard plan against them is to bring in artifact hate, mass removal spells and Stony Silence, whilst boarding out most countermagic and possibly some number of card advantage spells. Keep in mind that Spell Snare is still a powerful counterspell against them as it hits a lot of valuable targets against them, so it is a valid strategy to keep them in. Spreading Seas is also a good card against them as it deals with their manlands which otherwise dodge mass removal spells, and Sudden Shock stops Arcbound Ravager shenanigans.
Postboard they will bring in more discard spells, their own card advantage with Painful Truths and Kolaghan's Command, and creatures that are tough to deal with like Kitchen Finks and Fulminator Mage, taking out a lot of the useless removal. Our sideboard plan is to improve our topdecks; we bring in haymakers like Elspeth, Sun's Champion, unconditional wrath effects like Wrath of God that help deal with 4+ toughness creatures, and extra card advantage like more copies of Ancestral Vision. Celestial Purge is also a strong card as it deals with Liliana of the Veil amongst others. Timely Reinforcements is also strong as Jund has trouble with dealing with the tokens, and it can give enough time to topdeck into the answer you need. Blessed Alliance is another way to kill bolt-proof creatures. Postboard you want to cut some number of burn spells but not all, as you want a way to deal with Dark Confidant and ungrown Scavenging Ooze without having to spend a Path to Exile. The two-mana counterspells Mana Leak and Remand are poor topdecks lategame but some number is required to deal with threats like Fulminator Mage. Remand only delaying the threat is troublesome against Jund as a turn 4 Kitchen Finks is just as strong as a turn 3 one, but it does cycle away itself lategame, whilst Mana Leak can stop dangerous early spells permanently at the cost of going completely dead lategame. Which to board out is really up to the pilot. Spell Snare stays good all game, is hard to play around and stops the few copies of Terminate they leave in once the game comes down to Celestial Colonnade beats.
After sideboarding, they focus more on the long game, adding extra Spellskites and countermagic like Dispel to protect their creatures. We try and make our mana curve lower as the best way to beat Infect is by being able to play multiple spells a turn; you can take out some if not all your Nahiri, the Harbinger and [cardEmrakul, the Aeons Torn[/card] as tapping out for Nahiri is very dangerous. Cheaper wincons like Geist of Saint Traft are therefore very good here. Remand does not do much against their cheap spells, and Anger of the Gods is also poor as they can easily spend a pumpspell to nullify it. Spell Snare is an odd card in this matchup; it does not have many targets, but the ones that it does have (Blighted Agent, Spellskite and Apostle's Blessing) are all very good. Lightning Helix is alright; although the life gain tends to not matter, it is still a killspell you can use. If you have a lot of better cards to bring in however, it isn't incorrect to cut them. Strong cards in this matchup are unconditional wraths, especially Supreme Verdict and Engineered Explosives. Blessed Alliance can play around protection spells, and can be cast in the end of combat step to play around countermagic + pump. Wear // Tear is very good as it hits Spellskite, Inkmoth Nexus, and Wild Defiance. Vendilion Clique is an absolute All-Star in this matchup as the hand information/disruption is very relevant and they can either force a trade or provide a clock.
There is an argument to be made to not concede to their infinite life combos; generally, they can use Viscera Seer's Scry ability to find a kill combo the turn right after, but it gives you a short window of time to stop it from happening. Once their follow-up kill combo is stopped, you can repeatedly wipe their board with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Annihilator triggers by ultimating Nahiri over and over again. If you can keep this up long enough, they will eventually deck whilst Emrakul keeps shuffling our graveyard back into our library. This takes a very long time however, and in a competitive setting (don't be the person who does this at FNM) you have to keep in mind that you are likely to go to time, or at least won't have enough time to finish the next game. If you are already up a game, or if a forced draw will benefit you, you can use this. Be aware that Abzan Company is probably the deck best suited to come back from an Annihilator 6 trigger; they put a lot of permanents into play, and it takes five turns to re-charge the ultimate if you keep using the same Nahiri (tick up to 10, ultimate, tick up to 10 from 2 again). You might just lose in the middle of trying to deck your opponent, and now you're a game down, on to the next game with very little time on the clock. Decking your opponent is a possible strategy, but it is often more risky than just conceding.
The addition of Nahiri, the Harbinger greatly improved our match-up against burn; she can exile Eidolon of the Great Revel without taking damage even when Eidolon is untapped, and can force the opponent to devote some points of damage to her or get Emrakul'd. A big factor in the match-up is knowing how to sequence your lands, taking as little damage as possible from them whilst still interacting optimally. The recent addition of Spirebluff Canal is valuable because of this. Another important factor is to make sure your lifegain spells actually work; Burn mainboards 4 Atarka's Command and skilled burn pilots will try to catch your lifegain spells. They have some number of Searing Blaze preboard, which do not have any targets until you play a Snapcaster Mage. Once they do get a chance to sear your snapcaster, know that killing the snapcaster in response does not in fact save you life; Searing Blaze targets both the creature and the player.
Postboard we get to bring in a lot of good cards. Extra lifegain spells are of course very welcome, and all copies of Dispel and Negate come in. Celestial Purge is also an extra removal spell. Cards that come out are Remand and some of the more clunky cards like Electrolyze and Vendilion Clique. An argument can be made to bring in Wear // Tear as it kills Eidolon of the Great Revel, and some Burn lists run a few copies of Grafdigger's Cage. The burn sideboard plan against us varies a lot between lists; whilst universally all Searing Blazes come out, some players bring in Skullcrack to better deny lifegain, some players bring in more creatures like Grim Lavamancer and Kor Firewalker, of which the latter is actually very tough to remove for our deck. Finally, be very wary of Deflecting Palm; it doesn't target, so once you swing in with Emrakul, they can respond with it to the Annihilator trigger and deal 15 damage to you which will very likely be lethal.
Tron is a poor match-up for us. We give them plenty of time to assemble tron, and once they have it we basically have to counter every single threat they cast or lose. And even that is not enough, as World Breaker and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger have on-cast triggers that happen even if the creature is countered. Luckily, the banning of Eye of Ugin worsened the deck's inevitability engine considerably, and Nahiri, the Harbinger gives us a much better clock and a way to give them their just deserts for all those uncounterable Emrakul, the Aeons Torn losses back in the day. The plan game 1 is to try and keep them off tron long enough to kill them with Nahiri; not an easy task, especially since it can be difficult to safely get Nahiri into play. Any burn spell you draw can go directly to their face, and trying to race them with Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique is an option; just be wary of Wurmcoil Engine.
Postboard, most Jeskai lists tend to have a ton of cards to bring in, the biggest one being Crumble to Dust; hitting a tronland with this is very close to game over; be very wary of Warping Wail however. Stony Silence can make it very difficult for them to assemble tron as it turns off Expedition Map, Chromatic Star and Chromatic Sphere. It also turns off Oblivion Stone, their best way to deal with Nahiri. All countermagic tends to be good, as it helps both with stopping them from assembling tron and from resolving a threat. Spell Snare does not have too many targets, but the few it has are very relevant; Sylvan Scrying and Warping Wail, making us able to cast Crumble to Dust on turn 5 with little worry. Without Eye of Ugin, Tron can find itself without threats once they have all 3 lands in play, and a well-timed Vendilion Clique can greatly disrupt them. Postboard, tron tends to side out removal against us for more threats, one of which tends to be Thragtusk, making the burn plan unfavourable, so some burn spells can come out.
The Jeskai Nahiri mirror is a game of chicken; the first few turns of the match will be spent casting Serum Visions to find the cards we need and keep hitting land drops. Then, players start using burn and Snapcaster Mage to force a reaction out of the opponent; counterspells are crucial in this match-up, and spending them on Snapcaster beatdown can be dangerous. Both players try to force something in the opponent's end step to be able to untap and try to resolve Nahiri, the Harbinger from a favourable position. If a player tries to resolve Nahiri and fails, he or she is in big trouble, as now the opponent will most likely resolve their Nahiri instead; very often the player who first gets to resolve Nahiri wins. The mirror is all about resource managing; you need burn to pressure the opponent into wasting counterspells, to kill opposing Snapcaster Mages, and to kill or at least slow down opposing Nahiris. Vendilion Clique is amazing in this match-up; it can be cast on the opponent's end step, take a counterspell one way or the other, show the opponent's hand if they resolve, and then untap into casting Nahiri when the coast is clear. And on top of that they provide a clock to pressure the opponent or kill Nahiri. Ancestral Vision is also brutal as it pulls you way ahead, and if your opponent devotes countermagic to it it opens the way to resolve Nahiri in the same turn.
Postboard both players double down on the Nahiri plan; cards that help resolve or stop a Nahiri come in, everything that does something else goes out. All countermagic is good, additional copies of Vendilion Clique, and also copies of Celestial Purge, which can stop a resolved Nahiri for only 2 mana. Geist of Saint Traftis an extra wincon that is hard to deal with once resolved. As for what to cut, some if not all Path to Exiles come out as there is no real target beyond Celestial Colonnade. Some burn can come out; Lightning Helix and Lightning Bolt both have their pros and cons, as helix's lifegain does matter but bolt is cheaper; how many burn spells to cut and in what mixture is up to the pilot's preference.
Merfolk is different from most aggro-based matchup in that it is much more grindy. Although they are less explosive than affinity or zoo, they can keep going much longer with Spreading Seas and Silvergill Adept drawing cards, and having powerful lategame threats in Master of Waves and Kira, Great Glass Spinner. They run a large amount of creatures, about 28 creatures plus Mutavault, which greatly taxes our removal. Because of this, our best mainboard card is definitely Snapcaster Mage as they don't run many removal spells and snapcaster mage will often get the full two for one removal spell + trade value; just threathening you have this play can force them to hold back on their attacks. Knowing where to point your removal spells is very important; try to save your Path to Exile for Master of Waves, keep your fetching in mind as they can try to manascrew you with Spreading Seas. Learn how Aether Vial works and interacts with their cards; I'd recommend reading through the Merfolk Primer for this. Ber very wary of Vial on 2 when going for the Emrakul Wincon, as they can bounce Emrakul in response with Harbinger of the Tides; this only prevents the damage however, and you still get the annihilator trigger.
Postboard we improve a lot as we can take a lot of counterspells out; apart from Spell Snare, Cavern of Souls + Aether Vial makes countermagic not really worth keeping in. Do NOT take out Ancestral Vision: the vast majority of merfolk matchups will be very grindy and long, and drawing more removal spells is exactly what you want. All Wrath effects come in, especially Supreme Verdict. When playing counterable wraths, be wary of Cursecatcher being vialed in at instant speed to counter it. Do not go too deep on beating Aether Vial as we already want to take out most countermagic, they will not often try to flood the board, and the instant speed doesn't add that much. It can be ok to bring in Stony Silence as they also often play Relic of Progenitus, but you're better off focussing on killing creatures. Timely Reinforcements is very good, as it forces them to play multiple lords; you can kill an islandwalk lord in response to an attack to blow them out by suddenly being able to block. Vendilion Clique can snag creatures out of their hand in response to an Aether Vial tap, but their deck is very redundant, making the discard effect mediocre, and generally you should have better cards. Izzet Staticaster can kill Silvergill Adept, Cursecatcher and Master of Waves tokens, whilst also being able to break Kira glass spinner's shield, and thus is very good.
More coming soon!
[credits to epetov for the banner!]
Old primer
Why play Jeskai Harbinger?
History
4 Snapcaster Mage
Spells (30)
1 Consume the Meek
4 Cryptic Command
1 Dismember
4 Electrolyze
4 Esper Charm
3 Izzet Charm
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Mystical Teachings
4 Remand
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Terminate
1 White Sun's Zenith
4 Arid Mesa
1 Blood Crypt
2 Celestial Colonnade
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Island
1 Mystic Gate
1 Plains
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Watery Grave
1 Celestial Purge
2 Counterflux
1 Extirpate
1 Smelt
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Tectonic Edge
4 Thoughtseize
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Vendilion Clique
Over time, the deck changed. The black splash disappeared for a more stable mababase, and the deck's strategy solidified into winning with huge heaps of card advantage through Sphinx's Revelation, followed up with Celestial Colonnade beatdown and a flurry of burn spells. Shaun McLaren won Pro Tour Born of the Gods with this strategy;
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
Spells (27)
1 Anger of the Gods
3 Cryptic Command
3 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Mana Leak
3 Path to Exile
2 Remand
1 Spell Snare
2 Sphinx's Revelation
2 Ajani Vengeant
Lands (26)
3 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Celestial Purge
1 Counterflux
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Logic Knot
2 Porphyry Nodes
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Stony Silence
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Wear // Tear
After this however, Jeskai Control slowly fell out of favour; modern sped up significantly with the addition of cards like Eidolon of the Great Revel, Monastery Swiftspear, and Become Immense. Blisteringly fast aggro decks forced Jeskai Control out of the format by proving that a Sphinx's Revelation for x=4 simply wasn't fast enough anymore. On top of that, the infamous "Splinter Twin" deck generally did the same Jeskai Control tried to do but better, being able to seal or steal games away with the interaction of namesake card Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch.
Through all this, Jeskai Control continued to be a Tier 2 deck mostly because of its die-hard fanbase, who insisted on wanting to play blue-based control in Modern. When Splinter Twin was banned on January 18th 2016, the air seemed clear for a new control deck to arise in modern, but this air was quickly clouded by the storm of "Eldrazi Winter", warping the format beyond recognition. When the storm cleared with the April 4th 2016 banlist update, Ancestral Vision and Thopter Foundry got unbanned to fuel a new Modern control deck, but even that did not seem to find much foothold.
Enter Nahiri, the Harbinger
Whilst originally not getting too much attention due to the recent unbannings overshadowing her, Jeff Hoogland sparked people's attention by streaming Jeskai Control with Nahiri as the wincon. When Peter Ingram then won Starcitygames Indianapolis with the deck, the spark ignited; "Jeskai Harbinger" was the real deal.
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Vendilion Clique
Planeswalkers (4)
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Spells (26)
2 Cryptic Command
2 Electrolyze
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
2 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
3 Remand
2 Spell Snare
4 Serum Visions
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
1 Desolate Lighthouse
3 Flooded Strand
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Stony Silence
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Wear
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Ancestral Vision
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Crumble to Dust
1 Timely Reinforcements
Wincon
Nahiri, the Harbinger: Every mode on Nahiri is relevant to our gameplan: You play all four copies, as multiple consecutive Nahiris are incredibly backbreaking on the opponent's resources, and excess copies can be "rummaged" away.
Issues and Alternative Wincons
Although Nahiri is a powerful and consistent wincon, it is not without its downsides, the primary one being drawing Emrakul; it is almost impossible to hardcast Emrakul, as her 15 mana cost means you would have to have every single mana-producing land in the deck in play! Considering this would take a very long time to achieve, and that the deck tends to start rummaging away excess lands with Nahiri after the sixth landdrop (earlier or later depending on the matchup), drawing Emrakul is essentially a complete blank, as if you skipped that draw. Even worse than that, Emrakul has to be in our library to be able to be summoned by Nahiri's ultimate, which means that you have to discard her in some way to get her back in the deck. This resets our graveyard, which greatly weakens Snapcaster Mage and shuffles used fetchlands back into the deck. It can also happen that you draw Emrakul on the turn you wanted to use Nahiri's ultimate: this means you have to take a turn off to rummage Emrakul back in the deck again. Although this situation is very unlikely, it can randomly lose you the game. The final issue of drawing Emrakul is that our opponent gets an opportunity to exile it; Emrakul hits the graveyard before triggering her effect to be shuffled back into the deck, our opponent can abuse this with gravehate like Relic of Progenitus, Scavenging Ooze and Rest in Peace. Because of this, some Jeskai Control players opt to play other wincons, either on their own or as an addition to Nahiri. These strategies are viable, although it has to be said that Nahiri is definitely the best performing wincon in the Jeskai Control shell.
Stock List
4 Snapcaster Mage
Wincon (5)
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Removal (11)
4 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lightning Helix
Countermagic (7)
3 Mana Leak
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
3 Ancestral Vision
4 Serum Visions
Lands (23)
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
3 Celestial Colonnade
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
2 Arid Mesa
1 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Spirebluff Canals
1 Ghost Quarter
Removal Suite
Jeskai Harbinger plans to keep the boardstate as clear as possible. Being in White and Red gives some of the most powerful options in the format to do this; generally, most list play around 12 mainboard removal spells.
Counter Suite
Blue gives access to countermagic, giving Jeskai a clear advantage over other color combinations when building to win with Nahiri, the Harbinger. Countermagic serves as a solid catch-all answer that also stops "enter the battlefield" effects, which are very common in Modern. The average decklist plays around 7 counterspells, less or more depending on the metagame and the pilot's preferences.
Creatures
Jeskai Harbinger generally does not run many creatures. The advantage of this, is that it makes the opponent's removal spells dead draws. However, we do tend to play a few powerful utility creatures that help the gameplan.
Card (Quality) Advantage
The danger of running a control strategy is that a single unanswered threat can cost you the game. To aid this strategy, we use card advantage (simply having more cards) and card quality advantage; use spells to manipulate our upcoming draw steps so it is on average better than our opponent's drawstep. The downside of these kinds of spells is that their payoff is delayed instead of immediate, making us fall behind on the board. Because of this, we have a limited amount of slots to dedicate to card (quality) advantage; the average list runs about six, and the slower the metagame, the more you can afford to play.
Landbase
Jeskai Harbinger has a very greedy manabase, ideally wanting access to all three of its colors on turn two for Lightning Helix and Remand/Mana Leak. Luckily, running Serum Visions mediates this issue a bit. Generally, Jeskai Harbinger runs 23 lands with one colorless utility land; if you want to run a second utility land it is adviseable to run it as the 24th land.
Sideboard Options
WWhiteW
UBlueU
RRedR
WURMulticolorWUR
CColorlessC
Coming Up: More Match-up Guide, and Technical Play tips
Dredge
Dredge is a poor matchup for us. Especially game 1, our wincons are just too slow. Nahiri, the Harbinger can basically never get to 8 as she has to be spent as a removal spell most of the time, and Conflagrate can be used to prevent her from getting to 8 loyalty. Our best chance of winning game 1 is with Snapcaster Mage and burn spells; Lightning Bolt is a very poor removal spell here, only buying a little bit of time, and is thus better spent going to their face. Path to Exile is of course excellent, but be wary of when you cast it as it will also reanimate all their Bloodghasts if they can get a basic; be especially wary of Insolent Neonate as it can dredge for them at instant speed. Countermagic is actually very strong in this matchup as countering their self-discard spells slows them down significantly. An exception is Remand on their Cathartic Reunion, as letting them discard twice is actually very bad. Remanding a flashbacked Faithless Looting or Conflagrate is very good on the other hand.
Postboard is where the real matchup begins. Depending on the meta, you want 2-4 graveyard hate cards to aggressively mulligan to, starting with some number of Rest In Peace. RIP might worsen our Snapcasters, but it completely kills their deck; as long as RIP is on the battlefield, they have no realistic way of winning. Additional to RIP, Ravenous Trap and Surgical Extraction can be used as gravehate that is live before RIP even hits the battlefield, but you should always start with some number of RIPs. Anger of the Gods can be both mainboarded and sideboarded and kills all of their creatures for good; smart Dredge players will play around this by not overextending, so know when you have to pull the trigger. Negate can come in as extra countermagic, and is generally better than Remand. You should side out some number of Ancestral Vision as the card is very slow here, but some number can stay in as extra draws means extra odds of hitting sideboard cards. Some number of burn spells can come out; they can go to the face, but are otherwise fairly mediocre. Vendilion Clique is a tad awkward as targeting them is very poor, but can redraw you a card and provide a clock. Some pilots take out Emrakul, the Aeons Torn as Nahiri will rarely get to 8 Loyalty. That being said, one Emrakul hit will still most likely kill them, so you have to decide whether you'd rather have a dud draw in your deck or lose a potential wincon.
The dredge player will side in ways to deal with our gravehate; Thoughtseize and Abrupt Decay are their best cards. They also play Nature's Claim to kill RIP and Collective Brutality, which can't take RIP from our hand but can take other disruption, kills Snapcaster and helps them discard. You thus have to time your relevant cards against them expertly; do I have to cast Anger now? What are the odds of them casting a discard spell next turn? Can I wait to cast RIP with countermagic backup? Generally, you will win either with beats and burn once they are locked down or by disrupting them until they mill themselves.
Postboard we prepare for a grindy matchup. Most counterspells come out, especially Spell Snare, but as they will not always have Cavern of Souls and as countering one of their creatures is devastating, some can stay in. Some burn can come out, but not all as we want to kill Noble Hierarch and Eldrazi Displacer. Anger of the Gods might not kill their big threats, but it does kill their three-drops Reality Smasher and Eldrazi Skyspawner. Trading Anger for one of these one-for one is oftentimes worth it, and it also cleans up tokens and manadorks. Unconditional wraths are even better, as anything that can kill their big bombs is valuable. Engineered Explosives might not kill their bombs but can wipe tokens and hedge against cards like Pithing Needle and Grafdigger's Cage which they often bring in. Blessed Alliance is excellent against Reality Smasher but poor versus Thought-Knot Seer and Drowner of Hope. Elspeth, Sun's Champion is an extra wrath, and can quickly overwhelm them with tokens. Vendilion Clique is excellent as it takes away a threat and they will often have no removal left in the deck postboard. Izzet Staticaster is decent as it kills manadorks, tokens, and makes Thought-Knot Seer vulnerable to bolt without 2 for 1-ing yourself. Finally, be wary of them bringing in Negate.
Some tips:
This match-up comes down to stopping their explosive start and then trying to stabilize and beating their topdecks. How the game plays out depends greatly on the opponent's opening hand; if they have a "swarm hand" consisting of Signal Pest or Steel Overseer and a bunch of cheap creatures, the onslaught is fairly easily stopped, but their most dangerous cards are Etched Champion and Cranial Plating, both of which are difficult to remove. Path to Exile is really good here, as they run at most one basic land to fetch; after that Path to Exile is just unconditional exile (but be wary of pathing away a Vault Skirge just for them to play a giant Master of Etherium). When dealing with Arcbound Ravager, be aware that they can sac artifacts to make it survive a Lightning Bolt. You can also use this to your advantage, making them go all-in on the ravager or a manland to which you respond by Path to Exiling it; good Affinity players will be aware of this however.
Postboard, Affinity will try to sandbag some creatures to keep a constant stream of threats going over the course of several turns, instead of going all-in and running into a mass removal spell. They tend to sideboard fairly lightly, but will bring in more Etched Champions, Thoughtseize, countermagic and sometimes Grafdigger's Cage. Some lists even run Blood Moon, which they can cast on turn 2, so be very wary of that. Our sideboard plan against them is to bring in artifact hate, mass removal spells and Stony Silence, whilst boarding out most countermagic and possibly some number of card advantage spells. Keep in mind that Spell Snare is still a powerful counterspell against them as it hits a lot of valuable targets against them, so it is a valid strategy to keep them in. Spreading Seas is also a good card against them as it deals with their manlands which otherwise dodge mass removal spells, and Sudden Shock stops Arcbound Ravager shenanigans.
Postboard they will bring in more discard spells, their own card advantage with Painful Truths and Kolaghan's Command, and creatures that are tough to deal with like Kitchen Finks and Fulminator Mage, taking out a lot of the useless removal. Our sideboard plan is to improve our topdecks; we bring in haymakers like Elspeth, Sun's Champion, unconditional wrath effects like Wrath of God that help deal with 4+ toughness creatures, and extra card advantage like more copies of Ancestral Vision. Celestial Purge is also a strong card as it deals with Liliana of the Veil amongst others. Timely Reinforcements is also strong as Jund has trouble with dealing with the tokens, and it can give enough time to topdeck into the answer you need. Blessed Alliance is another way to kill bolt-proof creatures. Postboard you want to cut some number of burn spells but not all, as you want a way to deal with Dark Confidant and ungrown Scavenging Ooze without having to spend a Path to Exile. The two-mana counterspells Mana Leak and Remand are poor topdecks lategame but some number is required to deal with threats like Fulminator Mage. Remand only delaying the threat is troublesome against Jund as a turn 4 Kitchen Finks is just as strong as a turn 3 one, but it does cycle away itself lategame, whilst Mana Leak can stop dangerous early spells permanently at the cost of going completely dead lategame. Which to board out is really up to the pilot. Spell Snare stays good all game, is hard to play around and stops the few copies of Terminate they leave in once the game comes down to Celestial Colonnade beats.
After sideboarding, they focus more on the long game, adding extra Spellskites and countermagic like Dispel to protect their creatures. We try and make our mana curve lower as the best way to beat Infect is by being able to play multiple spells a turn; you can take out some if not all your Nahiri, the Harbinger and [cardEmrakul, the Aeons Torn[/card] as tapping out for Nahiri is very dangerous. Cheaper wincons like Geist of Saint Traft are therefore very good here. Remand does not do much against their cheap spells, and Anger of the Gods is also poor as they can easily spend a pumpspell to nullify it. Spell Snare is an odd card in this matchup; it does not have many targets, but the ones that it does have (Blighted Agent, Spellskite and Apostle's Blessing) are all very good. Lightning Helix is alright; although the life gain tends to not matter, it is still a killspell you can use. If you have a lot of better cards to bring in however, it isn't incorrect to cut them. Strong cards in this matchup are unconditional wraths, especially Supreme Verdict and Engineered Explosives. Blessed Alliance can play around protection spells, and can be cast in the end of combat step to play around countermagic + pump. Wear // Tear is very good as it hits Spellskite, Inkmoth Nexus, and Wild Defiance. Vendilion Clique is an absolute All-Star in this matchup as the hand information/disruption is very relevant and they can either force a trade or provide a clock.
There is an argument to be made to not concede to their infinite life combos; generally, they can use Viscera Seer's Scry ability to find a kill combo the turn right after, but it gives you a short window of time to stop it from happening. Once their follow-up kill combo is stopped, you can repeatedly wipe their board with Emrakul, the Aeons Torn Annihilator triggers by ultimating Nahiri over and over again. If you can keep this up long enough, they will eventually deck whilst Emrakul keeps shuffling our graveyard back into our library. This takes a very long time however, and in a competitive setting (don't be the person who does this at FNM) you have to keep in mind that you are likely to go to time, or at least won't have enough time to finish the next game. If you are already up a game, or if a forced draw will benefit you, you can use this. Be aware that Abzan Company is probably the deck best suited to come back from an Annihilator 6 trigger; they put a lot of permanents into play, and it takes five turns to re-charge the ultimate if you keep using the same Nahiri (tick up to 10, ultimate, tick up to 10 from 2 again). You might just lose in the middle of trying to deck your opponent, and now you're a game down, on to the next game with very little time on the clock. Decking your opponent is a possible strategy, but it is often more risky than just conceding.
The addition of Nahiri, the Harbinger greatly improved our match-up against burn; she can exile Eidolon of the Great Revel without taking damage even when Eidolon is untapped, and can force the opponent to devote some points of damage to her or get Emrakul'd. A big factor in the match-up is knowing how to sequence your lands, taking as little damage as possible from them whilst still interacting optimally. The recent addition of Spirebluff Canal is valuable because of this. Another important factor is to make sure your lifegain spells actually work; Burn mainboards 4 Atarka's Command and skilled burn pilots will try to catch your lifegain spells. They have some number of Searing Blaze preboard, which do not have any targets until you play a Snapcaster Mage. Once they do get a chance to sear your snapcaster, know that killing the snapcaster in response does not in fact save you life; Searing Blaze targets both the creature and the player.
Postboard we get to bring in a lot of good cards. Extra lifegain spells are of course very welcome, and all copies of Dispel and Negate come in. Celestial Purge is also an extra removal spell. Cards that come out are Remand and some of the more clunky cards like Electrolyze and Vendilion Clique. An argument can be made to bring in Wear // Tear as it kills Eidolon of the Great Revel, and some Burn lists run a few copies of Grafdigger's Cage. The burn sideboard plan against us varies a lot between lists; whilst universally all Searing Blazes come out, some players bring in Skullcrack to better deny lifegain, some players bring in more creatures like Grim Lavamancer and Kor Firewalker, of which the latter is actually very tough to remove for our deck. Finally, be very wary of Deflecting Palm; it doesn't target, so once you swing in with Emrakul, they can respond with it to the Annihilator trigger and deal 15 damage to you which will very likely be lethal.
Tron is a poor match-up for us. We give them plenty of time to assemble tron, and once they have it we basically have to counter every single threat they cast or lose. And even that is not enough, as World Breaker and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger have on-cast triggers that happen even if the creature is countered. Luckily, the banning of Eye of Ugin worsened the deck's inevitability engine considerably, and Nahiri, the Harbinger gives us a much better clock and a way to give them their just deserts for all those uncounterable Emrakul, the Aeons Torn losses back in the day. The plan game 1 is to try and keep them off tron long enough to kill them with Nahiri; not an easy task, especially since it can be difficult to safely get Nahiri into play. Any burn spell you draw can go directly to their face, and trying to race them with Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique is an option; just be wary of Wurmcoil Engine.
Postboard, most Jeskai lists tend to have a ton of cards to bring in, the biggest one being Crumble to Dust; hitting a tronland with this is very close to game over; be very wary of Warping Wail however. Stony Silence can make it very difficult for them to assemble tron as it turns off Expedition Map, Chromatic Star and Chromatic Sphere. It also turns off Oblivion Stone, their best way to deal with Nahiri. All countermagic tends to be good, as it helps both with stopping them from assembling tron and from resolving a threat. Spell Snare does not have too many targets, but the few it has are very relevant; Sylvan Scrying and Warping Wail, making us able to cast Crumble to Dust on turn 5 with little worry. Without Eye of Ugin, Tron can find itself without threats once they have all 3 lands in play, and a well-timed Vendilion Clique can greatly disrupt them. Postboard, tron tends to side out removal against us for more threats, one of which tends to be Thragtusk, making the burn plan unfavourable, so some burn spells can come out.
The Jeskai Nahiri mirror is a game of chicken; the first few turns of the match will be spent casting Serum Visions to find the cards we need and keep hitting land drops. Then, players start using burn and Snapcaster Mage to force a reaction out of the opponent; counterspells are crucial in this match-up, and spending them on Snapcaster beatdown can be dangerous. Both players try to force something in the opponent's end step to be able to untap and try to resolve Nahiri, the Harbinger from a favourable position. If a player tries to resolve Nahiri and fails, he or she is in big trouble, as now the opponent will most likely resolve their Nahiri instead; very often the player who first gets to resolve Nahiri wins. The mirror is all about resource managing; you need burn to pressure the opponent into wasting counterspells, to kill opposing Snapcaster Mages, and to kill or at least slow down opposing Nahiris. Vendilion Clique is amazing in this match-up; it can be cast on the opponent's end step, take a counterspell one way or the other, show the opponent's hand if they resolve, and then untap into casting Nahiri when the coast is clear. And on top of that they provide a clock to pressure the opponent or kill Nahiri. Ancestral Vision is also brutal as it pulls you way ahead, and if your opponent devotes countermagic to it it opens the way to resolve Nahiri in the same turn.
Postboard both players double down on the Nahiri plan; cards that help resolve or stop a Nahiri come in, everything that does something else goes out. All countermagic is good, additional copies of Vendilion Clique, and also copies of Celestial Purge, which can stop a resolved Nahiri for only 2 mana. Geist of Saint Traftis an extra wincon that is hard to deal with once resolved. As for what to cut, some if not all Path to Exiles come out as there is no real target beyond Celestial Colonnade. Some burn can come out; Lightning Helix and Lightning Bolt both have their pros and cons, as helix's lifegain does matter but bolt is cheaper; how many burn spells to cut and in what mixture is up to the pilot's preference.
Merfolk is different from most aggro-based matchup in that it is much more grindy. Although they are less explosive than affinity or zoo, they can keep going much longer with Spreading Seas and Silvergill Adept drawing cards, and having powerful lategame threats in Master of Waves and Kira, Great Glass Spinner. They run a large amount of creatures, about 28 creatures plus Mutavault, which greatly taxes our removal. Because of this, our best mainboard card is definitely Snapcaster Mage as they don't run many removal spells and snapcaster mage will often get the full two for one removal spell + trade value; just threathening you have this play can force them to hold back on their attacks. Knowing where to point your removal spells is very important; try to save your Path to Exile for Master of Waves, keep your fetching in mind as they can try to manascrew you with Spreading Seas. Learn how Aether Vial works and interacts with their cards; I'd recommend reading through the Merfolk Primer for this. Ber very wary of Vial on 2 when going for the Emrakul Wincon, as they can bounce Emrakul in response with Harbinger of the Tides; this only prevents the damage however, and you still get the annihilator trigger.
Postboard we improve a lot as we can take a lot of counterspells out; apart from Spell Snare, Cavern of Souls + Aether Vial makes countermagic not really worth keeping in. Do NOT take out Ancestral Vision: the vast majority of merfolk matchups will be very grindy and long, and drawing more removal spells is exactly what you want. All Wrath effects come in, especially Supreme Verdict. When playing counterable wraths, be wary of Cursecatcher being vialed in at instant speed to counter it. Do not go too deep on beating Aether Vial as we already want to take out most countermagic, they will not often try to flood the board, and the instant speed doesn't add that much. It can be ok to bring in Stony Silence as they also often play Relic of Progenitus, but you're better off focussing on killing creatures. Timely Reinforcements is very good, as it forces them to play multiple lords; you can kill an islandwalk lord in response to an attack to blow them out by suddenly being able to block. Vendilion Clique can snag creatures out of their hand in response to an Aether Vial tap, but their deck is very redundant, making the discard effect mediocre, and generally you should have better cards. Izzet Staticaster can kill Silvergill Adept, Cursecatcher and Master of Waves tokens, whilst also being able to break Kira glass spinner's shield, and thus is very good.
More coming soon!
Also, great job on the primer!
I assumed that the title being "Jeskai Harbinger" would suffice
Thanks! I was looking for that
Stock list is a good idea, I'll add one and would like you guys' feedback on it
EDIT: added a stock list
Can you post your list? I've been considering splashing for Souls.
Ari Lax did a video series on the black splash, adding Souls to the main deck and Slaughter Games + Crackling Doom in the side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCYXCfTFtWc
So if you wish to post a list here that is SANS Nahiri, that is fine, posters will respect it, and while maybe mentioning that you should include the walker for XYZ, they can still critique it civilized. If posters still prefer to make a separate thread, this is also perfectly fine, but it must be in deck creation because the amount of non-Nahiri lists in the meta game is .01%
Again, to be clear. IF you start a Nahiri flame war here, you will be infracted. The card exists in this archtype, and the archtype is in tier one status.
So can we just re-open the old thread and leave it in Deck Creation (or Tier 2, which is where it was prior)?
In addition the stock list should include Ancestral Visions, at least for now. I also recommend using Jim Davis's list if others agree.
I am also available to help with ideas on this if anyone wants to run ideas off me. I am a long-time Jeskai player and have all versions of the deck (Nahiri version almost all foil) = p
I keep up with the metagame and value the use of deep statistics over single deck results.
Looking good Bearscape, thanks for the hard work.
No, on all of those. None of those have ever showed up in a Jeskai Nahiri list. Those are sub-par cards from a bygone era.
For example cards like Think Twice. There is no incentive for a Nahiri deck to play a card like this. Or I expect old Gideon and Keranos to pop up from suggestions, but I suggest we try and keep to competitive cards whenever possible.
I would also be open to helping players with sideboard theory.
While i do agree on TT, I think logic knot as an alternative to a 3rd mana leak is viable and there is at least a discussion about JAOT if thopter gains more meta share as a SB card. I think that staying competitive is the goal. it is the experimentation that allows the community to discover the correct and potential 1-ofs in the MB and SB.
The push for competitive known lists cannot be at the expense of innovation and improving the decklist
Edit: Jace did actually show up in 1st place deck in the SB as a 1-of (http://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-jeskai-control-26020#paper); cards like this should be in the primer as SB options. But that is my two cents