MTG Salvation

So I finally got to a point to where I can attend LGS tourneys regularly, and I was wondering what matchups Jeskai has over UW Miracles. I'm generally more comfortable with Jeskai, but my LGS meta is mostly Aggro and Control with a splash of Midrange, so I wasn't sure if using Miracles would yield me slightly better matchups over Jeskai. Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask, but I felt more comfortable asking Control players directly than asking the What to Play threas

Hey @Albegas I don't usually post on this forum but I have been a Jeskai player for a very long time and also play UW miracles/Taking Turns as well..
I think if your local store has more creature based decks like: Elves, Humans, Hollow One, etc.. then you would probably have better luck with Miracles since 4x Terminus as well as access to Detention Sphere/and Supreme Verdict helps in those matchups..

It really depends on what specific decks you see.. Hope this helps

I'm playing UW to see what the fuss was about, but you don't have the slots in UWR. It's not just the Terminus, you are looking at Snaps, Serum/Opt, while fighting over the primary goal, burning them out.

UW is very strong though.

You absolutely can play jeskai miracles, but you can't play terminus in jeskai, if that makes sense.
If your playing 4 sweepers, then you are less reliant on spot removal.
On top of that, you have to cut something to add 2 sweepers, more cantrips, jaces, etc, and the bolts are probably what goes.
UWR needs a critical mass of burn to win the game, which means as you cut some, it becomes better to keep cutting, to a certain degree.
What that also means is that you're red for a smaller number of cards (helix, maybe lyze, maybe loothouse, sideboard stuff, etc)

Probably looking something like that. You have abrade, wear//tear, staticaster, alpine moon, anger of the gods, a third color for EE, etc, out of the board.

Alternatively, this:

Basically blue moon splashing terminus/helix/teferi. Technically jeskai. Maybe good. Maybe not.

Looks fun though!

Does any else feel settle the wrackage is underwhelming? I dont think ive ever had an oppinent attack all into it its seen by a mile away especially when you dont tap them down pre combat at 4 mana

Quote from ccc1522 »

Does any else feel settle the wrackage is underwhelming? I dont think ive ever had an oppinent attack all into it its seen by a mile away especially when you dont tap them down pre combat at 4 mana

Yes. A friend of mine scried one to the bottom against Humans at a PPTQ yesterday. He just didn't need or want it.

EDIT: I've been less in love with the card myself considering the matches I've run into lately. Even when I do want a wrath-type effect, I often wish I just had another Wrath of God or Supreme Verdict.

I think this a little nutty (essentially replacing Teferi with Arcane Encyclopedia), but I'm definitely interested in what you get from testing. I've been wanting to try UWx Miracles for a little while now. The lists I've tried definitely feel a little rough from just running through hands in solitaire mode. For instance, I'm not sure if Electrolyze works for my proposed Jeskai Miracles list at all just because of mana cost. It would be great against aggro, but, if Electrolyze is doing work, then Terminus feels a little underwhelming and vice-versa.

This is definitely a good time for Surgical Extraction. It is also a good way to somewhat overlap the tron and gravehate as sideboard space is tighter than ever. I'm trying out 25 lands with 3 field of ruin (cutting a colonnade) which is sketchy on the manabase, but has helped me steal some matches from tron

I'm pretty sure I'm entirely off Electrolyze, it seems too slow against most aggro decks right now. I only really miss it versus mardu pyromancer

Hello all! I put together jeskai a few months ago and i really enjoy the deck. However, im trying to tweak the sideboard to fit my meta the best I can. My mets usually includes a fair amount of burn, storm, affinity, jeskai, E-tron and G-tron , titan/scapeshift, KCI, humans, and hollow one. Luckily, in my meta dredge baically doesnt exist. I feel like the sideboard is strong, but I wanted more opinions (constructive criticism is great). I considered a stony silence but i feel like stroke and surgical hit KCI decently and I never feel like i need the help against affinity. Also, would it be worth playing a 3rd field of ruin over the glacial fortress?

Thanks in advance!

Edit: worth noting im trying out the opts. Need more testing before i decide bewteen opt snd serum visions.

I've never liked settle the wreckage, it's got a lot more downsides than just your opponent being able to play around it. Giving your opponent control over the timing of your wrath is very dangerous.

Quote from darkvoidman »

what do you think about settle guys?In my expierience its very good.Even if your oponnent knows about it they attack with 1 to 2 creatures at max instead of the hole team and that gives you time.Moreover with settle main you can win grave oriented decks even game 1.

I still like the card in general but I don't like it for the decks I'm seeing currently.

@Torbsen: Lists online and people in my meta have been picking it up. its nice to be able to leave up interaction and then opt end step.I still need to jam more games with it.

So I've been playing Wizards brews for the past couple of months (Since Dominaria) but I'm back to Jeskai for the second half of the PPTQ season.

The rise of hyper-aggro graveyard decks has led the meta to favour Exile or Tuck style removal, hence the prominence of UW lately over Jeskai.

Before I started my brewing season there was discussion around bolt-less Jeskai. I think the idea had merit still, and if it does, now is the meta to try it in. This is my attempt at combining Jeskai dominance over critter and burn style life-matters decks with a UW approach to dealing with problematic or recursive permanents post resolution.

The MD electrolyzes were the ones I was looking at cutting for Anger in the main. But lyze has been great so far.

Most UW Miracles decks have dropped spreading seas altogether. If that's happening and both decks now have similarly abysmal Tron MU's in game 1, I would rather be on Jeskai colours against the rest of the non-Blood moon field.

Jeskai Control (U/W/R): Jeskai Control - Build (C) - Miracles




Shared via TopDecked MTG https://www.topdecked.me/decks/0ff923d0-a2c7-43d9-9f61-e719097e41da

A a post-note; Electrolyze is another way to trigger a miracle during your opponents turn. This was relevant numerous times in my 3 testing sessions this week!

More edits; deck format

Some reasoning behind my choices;

One-for one removal combined with Snapcaster is no longer reliable enough to grind through the contemporary creature-aggro decks. Humans post board is full of 2-for ones ranging from Bugler to Sin Collector, and Hollow One and Bridgevine laugh at snap-bolt by virtue of speed and recursion. Even if you can grind your way to a clear board, the damage is already done and the opponent is often a single hasty Vengevine, Mantis Rider or Bloodghast, or top-decked bolt or Brutality away from a stolen victory. We need to clear the board permanently earlier than ever, and need to be able to survive more damage.

The days where Jeskai can ignore the graveyard are gone, my friends!

The specific choices over my 75 that deal with this are;

Main-deck
---------
Dropping Lightning Bolt MD
Retaining 3x Helix MD
Retaining 2x Electrolyze MD

1x Timely Reinforcements MD

Helps shut the door on Burn, which is very popular during PPTQ season here, and lets you survive those extra turns against the Hollow One or Bridgevine nuts so I can find my Miracle / Detention Spheres / Anger of the Gods.

2x Detention Sphere MD

I think we all understand the value of Exiling multiple Bloodghasts or Hollow Ones, or an army if Bridge from Below zombies. The Azprious version of Maelstrom Pulse has never been better positioned.

3x Opt / 3x Serum Visions MD

Help me dig to a terminus.

3x Terminus MD

Is better than Verdict by a margin in the current Meta.

2x Jace / 1x Teferi MD

The split is weighted towards Jace for the Miracle interaction. Fewer bolt effects also slightly weaken Teferi's +1.

3x Snapcaster Mage

Only 3 due to the removal of Bolts.

Sideboard
---------
2x Surgical SB

Graveyard decks are often too fast for RiP, and we run Snapcasters to make them even better.

1x Anger SB

Doesn't hurt my Yard and cleans up a lot of what could have gone wrong in the first two turns - very good against Bridgevine, good against Hollow One, Humans. I can see this being RiP, but Anger is very good right now. RiP does nothing against Huimans or Affinity, for example, and it's debatable whether RiP is actually better than Anger against some of the more Broken Bridgevine draws.

2x Stony Silence SB
2x Abrade SB

To shut the door on Vial decks or Affinity decks, while splashing onto KCI / Hollow One / Lantern etc.

Jeskai's ability to at any point go "jk I'm the aggro now lol" with bolts to the face is the main power of the deck over other control colors. If you go as far as to cut all bolts, there is little to no reason to not just play UW. I also agree with theAller that the bridgevine MU isn't even that bad; seeing bridgevine's insane openers had me scared but after that first push the deck doesn't do much anymore.

Wondered about people's thoughts of isochron scepter? Too slow?

super fun card to play at local stores but often times not worth it. can win you a game or 2 when people dont expect it but its often just a 2 for 1 for your opp. counter or destroy isochron feels bad. often times just better to have more spells

its cute tech that would probably win you a few games based on surprise factor alone. as a finisher it can get out of hand pretty quickly, but i dont believe its better than any of the more main stream things going on. the floor on the card is just too low.

i should be back on jeskai within the next week or so. ive been on UW, and its been treating me well, but honestly ive stayed on it mostly because im too lazy to re-sleeve my deck.

ive also had thoughts about trying to incorporate terminus into jeskai somehow, but the chain of various card choices means there just isnt space for it. if you are playing red you want to have bolts and helixes. if you are playing bolts and helixes you want more snaps. that right there is enough to shut out any number of jaces and terminus without cutting into basically everything else that this deck has been propped up on.

maybe cut searches (i know blasphemous)[2], shave a bolt[1], a teferi[1], verdicts [2], and a cryptic [1]. there we got 7 slots for 3 jaces and 4 terminus...

...yeah it doesnt seem promising.

If I'm honest I really just do not like terminus at all; obviously it's our best shot versus grave decks but the timing factor is awful, and you are required to play jtms in aggro matchups. It makes you much worse versus humans, and at the end of the day this is still modern, where people will ne playing merfolk or eldrazi taxes or elves or whatever other deck out of the plethora lf wide creature decks where Id much rathey have spot removal and reliable cmc4 wraths than setting up a terminus.

I've also been thoroughly unimpressed versus bridgevine whenever they don't have their godhand, and as discussed before I think Surgical Extraction is a much better way to combat gravedecks and also keeping a shot in hell versus tron. Honestly, I think the stock jeskai teferi list needs very little changes to still be strong against the field.

My own "change of pace" project has been a jeskai tempo build based on Jeff Hoogland's UR tempo list. It's clearly not control in the classical sense, but I could post it if people are interested