I think at this point my deck is going heavy enough on red walkers and cheap instants and sorceries that including Chandra, Acolyte of Flame is worth it to me, which then also incentivises adding Chandra, Awakened Inferno, and then because of wanting that I'm tempted to put in Sarkhan the Masterless and maybe some of the dragons that are big enough to survive Jaya's inferno, something I'm using less and less and moving more towards the Incinerate ability, paired up with Kumano, Master Yamabushi and Hazoret the Fervent to help keep the board clear and pressure opponents.
Tectonic Reformation is a card I'm very tempted by for many of the same reasons as Weebo and Shenanigans just seems like a really handy way to keep control of artifacts on the board which seems worth it to me. The Sword of Fire and Ice is out of my price range by a long shot, so Sword of Sinew and Steel being printed is great for me being able to get another pro-red sword. Though I do have an Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger I could trade in and maybe be able to afford fire and ice that way. I might also consider Sword of Truth and Justice just because of how walker heavy I am, but it's unlikely.
I don't know when I'll get the chance to play her again though because we've recently moved onto playing Oathbreaker more because we frequently don't have the time for the 2+ hour games that are Commander, so we get to play more and no one gets frustrated by the combo/control deck taking seven 10 minute turns in a row because as a group we collectively avoid infinite combos.
Modern Horizons has full art snow basics! This is great for those of us who want the snow lands but buying the older ones was too difficult. And also they look amazing.
I put a Jaya, Venerated Firemage into my Jaya deck after the prerelease (because a friend of mine got one and gave her to me) and I drew her in that game. I found her to be quite helpful in the deck with the various red damage sources I have such as Jaya, Hazoret, Kumano, my planeswalkers, and the phoenixes (I also keep going back and forth on Magmatic Force, its won me games and survives a Jaya inferno, but I'm just unsure). Used her and Magma Phoenix to kill an Ajani (the new one) on my turn right after it came down. I think I want to try and get my hands on a Karn's Bastion maybe finally take out the Arcane Lighthouse cause that never really seems to come up in my meta. I also want to include the new Chandra, Fire Artisan because I saw her used in a planeswalker deck against me and she most definitely does work. New Ugin is also on the consideration, I find myself moving a little bit more towards a heavier planeswalker build, Ugin is pretty good I'm just not sure if he's right for how my deck is going.
Just thought I'd add my thoughts on how new Jaya played and other things I'm considering for changes from this set.
I’m definitely looking forward to trying out Eletrodominance for the cast spell of cmc X or less shenanigans. I like Light up the Stage but I feel like I’ve managed to find a good spot of card draw for my deck and I’m not really interested in the impulse draw, especially since in all my time using it I’ve found I very rarely actually play the cards exiled and am sad to see them exiled because I would have liked to have drawn them.
Had another chance to play Jaya again today, didn't get to test out the Experimental Frenzy or the Eye of Ugin package (desolation twin, emrakul, kozilek, darksteel colossus, steel hellkite, and stuffy doll. I think I'm gonna add Void Winnower, Reality Smasher, and one of either Bosh, Iron Golem, Ancient Stone Idol, or Metalwork Colossus as well.)
Mostly cause I saw none of my card draw and only had a single mountain for the entire game. Lucky for me though I got Hazoret the Fervent in my opening hand and oh boy did she ever put in some work. I know Jaya usually the plan is to avoid having an empty hand and most of us put a lot of effort into keeping the hand stocked, but only playing a single red source and still being the deadliest threat at the table until Niv-Mizzet, Parun stabilised with a Torrential Gearhulk to block with. I'm half tempted to pick up an Invocation Hazoret and put a little more focus on being a fast aggressive list, instead of my current one that plays much slower into the massive beaters.
Finally had the chance to play Jaya again today, I have really missed playing her, had one of the longest and most fun games of commander I've had in a long time.
Thoughts from the game; I was trying a silly thing with running all the red walkers that make emblems and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker really surprised me with how much help he was, removed one opponent's Nissa, Voice of Zendikar by attacking and then later killed his Ravos, Soultender with the -3, almost had the emblem out but I drew Reforge the Soul that turn and went for the miracle instead. I think his emblem is a bad addition in Jaya since it leaves you with no cards in hand for other player's turns, but his +1 is nice to be able to swing with a 4/4 indestructible flier every turn. I'll probably cut him for the Experimental Frenzy in all honesty but it was definitely a surprise.
The number of times I got a draw effect it was usually a full wheel, or a copied big draw spell, and I didn't see Alhammarret's Archive or most of my small draw effects. So I'm still not sure whether I'm going to get the kind of value out of it I hope, or if it's going to fluctuate in performance. I may have to put a Reliquary Tower or Thought Vessel in here.
Over all. Very glad to be playing Jaya again, Alhammarret's Archive is probably going to be worth it (if I can draw it), and I'm looking forward to seeing what Experimental Frenzy is going to play like.
I haven't actually gotten to play Jaya since I started running Alhammarret's Archive so I'm gonna see how it plays out, I'll probably switch it for something like Staff of Nin if I find it's not performing how I'd like. As for the Ring of Valkas, I used to run a fair few more red creatures at 6 toughness, things like Combustible Gearhulk and Inferno Titan, so the ring with one turn would put them out of inferno range. I'm probably going to switch it for the boots soon, especially if I put the Meekstone in.
The three maybe cards are things I'm iffy about. My usual meta is one player that uses either an Abzan +1/+1 counters deck that runs about 10 enchantments, or a Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder deck with very little change from out of the box (I think it just added Maelstrom Wanderer), or a mono-white Soldier tribal deck. The other player runs either a Zur the Enchanter deck, or a Naban, Dean of Iteration wizard tribal.
So I think the Enchanter's Bane might be a good include as a way to deal with their enchantments flying around. I'm already running Torpor Orb to deal with the Naban deck sooo?
Meekstone is also to help against the Wizard deck and the Yidris/Abzan deck, since they are frequently getting to 3+ power and in the case of the wizard deck, tapping frequently. Scrap Mastery is a choice I'm not sure about because I'm the only player running mass artefiact destruction and I'm the only artefact player.
Also what's the opinion on the new Phoenix from the 2019 gift pack? Immortal Phoenix4RR for a flying 5/3 phoenix that when it dies returns to owner's hand.
Good point on the elixir, it's unnecessary with only Jaya Ballard, Task Mage and Heartless Hidetsugu. I find that Jaya doesn't tend to stick around very long and is pretty easy to see coming, having Mizzium Mortars as a alternative that they can't see coming makes for some pretty good blowouts, plus it combines so well with Repercussion.
Cloudstone curio is a try at magical Christmas land infinite mana with koth and tibalt, it won't happen but I'm going to give it a go. Browbeat is usually very helpful for me the times I get it no one wants to take five. I can agree with the staff, it is a little too low impact, better suited to a more subtle play style perhaps
I'll definitely look into giving that a shot, Radiate seems like it would fit pretty well anyway. Can't believe I forgot about Word of Seizing, one of my group plays an Azami, Lady of Scrolls deck that tries to win using Laboratory Maniac WoS would be a great answer to that.
I have to take Insurrection out of my deck because we have our own ban list that includes cards that become "I play this, I win" Cyclonic Rift was a card we banned.
This is the most ridiculous thing I've read on this forum in quite a while.
It's mostly just to avoid a frustrating one card game ender, so far those are the only two we've had to ban and it's only a casual group consisting of a couple friends.
I'm not sure that I'll ever get to do something quite so awesome as that but I'm definitely going to try for that. You my friend are a hero of mono-red
Does anybody think Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded would be worth running? I have to take Insurrection out of my deck because we have our own ban list that includes cards that become "I play this, I win" Cyclonic Rift was a card we banned. I though Tibalt would make for an amusing alternative.
Tectonic Reformation is a card I'm very tempted by for many of the same reasons as Weebo and Shenanigans just seems like a really handy way to keep control of artifacts on the board which seems worth it to me. The Sword of Fire and Ice is out of my price range by a long shot, so Sword of Sinew and Steel being printed is great for me being able to get another pro-red sword. Though I do have an Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger I could trade in and maybe be able to afford fire and ice that way. I might also consider Sword of Truth and Justice just because of how walker heavy I am, but it's unlikely.
I don't know when I'll get the chance to play her again though because we've recently moved onto playing Oathbreaker more because we frequently don't have the time for the 2+ hour games that are Commander, so we get to play more and no one gets frustrated by the combo/control deck taking seven 10 minute turns in a row because as a group we collectively avoid infinite combos.
Just thought I'd add my thoughts on how new Jaya played and other things I'm considering for changes from this set.
Mostly cause I saw none of my card draw and only had a single mountain for the entire game. Lucky for me though I got Hazoret the Fervent in my opening hand and oh boy did she ever put in some work. I know Jaya usually the plan is to avoid having an empty hand and most of us put a lot of effort into keeping the hand stocked, but only playing a single red source and still being the deadliest threat at the table until Niv-Mizzet, Parun stabilised with a Torrential Gearhulk to block with. I'm half tempted to pick up an Invocation Hazoret and put a little more focus on being a fast aggressive list, instead of my current one that plays much slower into the massive beaters.
Thoughts from the game; I was trying a silly thing with running all the red walkers that make emblems and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker really surprised me with how much help he was, removed one opponent's Nissa, Voice of Zendikar by attacking and then later killed his Ravos, Soultender with the -3, almost had the emblem out but I drew Reforge the Soul that turn and went for the miracle instead. I think his emblem is a bad addition in Jaya since it leaves you with no cards in hand for other player's turns, but his +1 is nice to be able to swing with a 4/4 indestructible flier every turn. I'll probably cut him for the Experimental Frenzy in all honesty but it was definitely a surprise.
The number of times I got a draw effect it was usually a full wheel, or a copied big draw spell, and I didn't see Alhammarret's Archive or most of my small draw effects. So I'm still not sure whether I'm going to get the kind of value out of it I hope, or if it's going to fluctuate in performance. I may have to put a Reliquary Tower or Thought Vessel in here.
Over all. Very glad to be playing Jaya again, Alhammarret's Archive is probably going to be worth it (if I can draw it), and I'm looking forward to seeing what Experimental Frenzy is going to play like.
1x Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Lands // 36
1x Arcane Lighthouse
1x Arid Mesa
1x Buried Ruin
1x Command Beacon
1x Darksteel Citadel
1x Flamekin Village
1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
1x Great Furnace
1x Inventors' Fair
1x Mirrorpool
20x Mountain
1x Myriad Landscape
1x Scavenger Grounds
1x Shivan Gorge
1x Terrain Generator
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
Creatures // 13
1x Anger
1x Darksteel Colossus
1x Firewing Phoenix
1x Goblin Welder
1x Hazoret the Fervent
1x Kozilek, the Great Distortion
1x Kumano, Master Yamabushi
1x Magma Phoenix
1x Magmatic Force
1x Obsidian Fireheart
1x Runehorn Hellkite
1x Steel Hellkite
1x Stuffy Doll
1x Chandra Ablaze
1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
1x Jaya Ballard
1x Koth of the Hammer
1x Rowan Kenrith
1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
Artifacts // 28
1x Alhammarret's Archive
1x Armillary Sphere
1x Basilisk Collar
1x Bonehoard
1x Caged Sun
1x Crawlspace
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Darksteel Plate
1x Endless Atlas
1x Expedition Map
1x Gauntlet of Power
1x Ghirapur Orrery
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Loxodon Warhammer
1x Mind Stone
1x Mirage Mirror
1x Nevinyrral's Disk
1x Pyromancer's Goggles
1x Ring of Valkas
1x Rings of Brighthearth
1x Ruby Medallion
1x Sculpting Steel
1x Sol Ring
1x Spine of Ish Sah
1x Thousand-Year Elixir
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Torpor Orb
1x Vedalken Orrery
1x Chaos Warp
1x Comet Storm
1x Reiterate
1x Reverberate
1x Urza's Rage
Sorceries // 9
1x Blasphemous Act
1x Fiery Confluence
1x Jaya's Immolating Inferno
1x Khorvath's Fury
1x Mizzium Mortars
1x Reforge the Soul
1x Tormenting Voice
1x Trash for Treasure
1x Vandalblast
Enchantments // 2
1x Gratuitous Violence
1x Repercussion
Maybe // 3
1x Enchanter's Bane
1x Meekstone
1x Scrap Mastery
The three maybe cards are things I'm iffy about. My usual meta is one player that uses either an Abzan +1/+1 counters deck that runs about 10 enchantments, or a Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder deck with very little change from out of the box (I think it just added Maelstrom Wanderer), or a mono-white Soldier tribal deck. The other player runs either a Zur the Enchanter deck, or a Naban, Dean of Iteration wizard tribal.
So I think the Enchanter's Bane might be a good include as a way to deal with their enchantments flying around. I'm already running Torpor Orb to deal with the Naban deck sooo?
Meekstone is also to help against the Wizard deck and the Yidris/Abzan deck, since they are frequently getting to 3+ power and in the case of the wizard deck, tapping frequently. Scrap Mastery is a choice I'm not sure about because I'm the only player running mass artefiact destruction and I'm the only artefact player.
Also what's the opinion on the new Phoenix from the 2019 gift pack? Immortal Phoenix 4RR for a flying 5/3 phoenix that when it dies returns to owner's hand.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jaya-ballard-firefighter/
I don't mind cutting Chandra Nalaar she's my favourite planeswalker and I run her more as homage to the gal that introduced me to magic.
It's mostly just to avoid a frustrating one card game ender, so far those are the only two we've had to ban and it's only a casual group consisting of a couple friends.