Tag: jeskai

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Bruce Gray - November 18, 2014

New Casual MTG Brews for you

Flying Crane Technique - Casual MTG brews

New Casual MTG Brews for you

By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters

Folks, I have to admit, it has been a long time since I sat down and set about to brewing up some new decks.  With the excitement that Khans has provided I have been engrossed watching the new top tier Standard decks take shape and getting primed for the draft format.  This means I have not spent nearly enough time brewing my own wonky concoctions for fun…but that has finally changed.  I sat down and put together some new decks that I want to share with you for your next casual game.  Will these EVER win you anything at a Constructed event? Not a chance.  But around a kitchen table they are loads of fun and well worth the time to put them together.

The impetus this time was that my friends and I had our casual night a couple of weeks ago and we agreed to play Hobo.  For those who are new here on Three Kings Loot, Hobo is basically the name my friends and I gave to playing decks with no rares or mythics…just commons and uncommons.  This is often called Peasant, but we thought the name was lame and preferred the name Hobo.  This particular time the extra restriction we set was that all the cards needed to be from Khans or M15 in an effort to force us to play new cards.

Most people brewed heavily with Khans because many of the cards are just more powerful than what we find in M15.  However, I decided to go the other route for one of the two decks I put together.  I figured that many of the M15 uncommons would be unplayed, giving me the chance to surprise my opponents and come at them with a bit of a curve ball.  The first card I wanted to brew with was Brood Keeper.  I really feel like the potential upside of this card has largely gone unexplored and I wanted to do something with it.  Well, the deck was a mess and I affectionately called it “4 colour mess”…and it was terrible.  I’m not even going to bother to post the list because I took it apart so quickly, but it did lead me to attempt number 2 on the Brood Keeper deck. Here is what I’ve got.

 

R/W Brood Keeper – Casual MTG / Standard on a budget

 

The plan behind the deck is dead simple.  Cast a Brood keeper and then hit it with an aura or two in order to produce the Dragon token it makes.  The token (a 2/2 flying dragon with Firebreathing) is a real card…Furnace Whelp was an uncommon in M13.  Dragon Whelp has been a thing since the beginning of Magic…and Brood Keeper just produces them as value.  Wow.  That’s mildly insane. Everything else in the deck is designed to help you get there.  Heliod’s Pilgrim allows you to fetch up an aura if you don’t have one in hand.  Sightless Brawler can be used to Bestow it on the Brood keeper or play it as a dude. Bladetusk Boar and Eagle of the Watch give you suitable targets to cast auras on if you don’t have a Brood Keeper and both come with a form of evasion.  The auras are cheap and many cantrip for more cards or have some other upside to them being in the deck.  It isn’t a fancy deck, but the curve is low, Brood Keeper is most certainly a thing, and it feels like a much more reliable build than a 4 colour mess.

 

Sultai Casual MTG deck

The other deck I ran was an unadulterated Sultai deck.  I feel like the Delve mechanic has been breaking formats since Khans hit the shelves and I wanted in on the plan.  The deck wants to dump a ton of cards in the graveyard and then do broken things with the extra resources.  At Hobo night the deck fared quite well because it just could make more use of its resources than many of the other decks.  I mean, Treasure Cruise for 1 blue mana (+ a bunch of cards in the exile pile) is pretty solid card advantage and leaves you wide open to cast any spells you picked up when you drew off the top. It proved to be a very potent combination and left many opponents unable to handle the relatively potent spells that I could follow up with.  Here’s the deck list.

 

Sultai delving convocation – Casual  MTG / Standard on a budget

 

Essentially I’m not paying the full casting cost for all my most powerful spells on account of the Delve mechanic or the Convoke mechanic.  Satyr Wayfinder and Sultai Soothsayer dump cards in my yard that I will then turn around and Delve to cast something else…and then in the next breath tap them to pay the Convoke cost of the Feral Incarnation I want to play.  It really was kind of disgusting and a couple of opponents just looked on, in bewilderment, as I paid the Convoke cost of Feral Invocation and then in the next turn played Overwhelm meaning that things got crazy fast. It was a fun build and one well worth keeping together and fixing up to make it more…I’m not sure…spicy?!. Ok, more spicy.

 

Jeskai Casual MTG deck

The last deck I have for you is an update of an R/W heroic deck that I was running several months ago and I wrote about here on Three Kings Loot.  I like the deck, but with Standard rotating I wanted to freshen the deck up somewhat.  My build around piece was Preeminent Captain and the ability to play soldiers without paying their mana cost.  The deck is full of soldiers and combat tricks to protect the creatures or to trigger Heroic and get in there for big damage. Here’s what I’ve got.

 

Jeskai Heroic Captain – Casual MTG / Standard on a budget

 

The game plan is to play my Preeminent Captains, protect them with a Gods Willing or Feat of Resistance and attack to drop another soldier card from my hand for free.  Since I can play the creatures for free I can use my mana to play the tricks in my hand to make combat miserable.  The addition of the Refuge lands from Khans has been a neat twist and really enabled the playing of Ajani’s Pridemate, which is a terrific card.  Play it for free and have it pile on counters each time you gain a life is a nice boost.  Dragon-Style Twins and Fabled Hero are just the sort of hammer you really need should things start to get out of control and can seal up a win in short order if you can fire off a few tricks.  Along that same vein, Flying Crane Technique really serves the same role to just snatch a win out of nowhere by making your team Double Strikers with Flying.  Oh, and the Ainok Bond-kin is a terrifying little creature because this deck can pile up +1/+1 counters very quickly…making the Bon-kin super useful to give my team First Strike and just make combat totally miserable.  Will this deck wow the world at the neck Standard event? No.  But it is a lot of fun, particularly if you can get the Captain on-line to play creatures for free. And it isn’t even that expensive to build! Nice value!

Well, there we have it, three new brews to share with you guys.  These may not be Standard worthy, but they have given me plenty of enjoyment around a Kitchen table and letting me to do some pretty silly things. The best part, many of the decks I have here are relatively kind to your wallet, which is always a secondary consideration when playing Magic.  No one likes to be broke, so why not try to keep the costs of playing this hobby down a bit.

 

So, until next time, keep it fun, keep it safe…keep it casual.

 
 
By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters
@bgray8791 on Twitter

 

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Eric Jeffrey Seltzer - September 29, 2014

Jeskai Tempo by Kevin Jones (1st at SCG Edison Standard Open on Sep 27...

Champion’s Deck

Mantis Rider - Jeskai Tempo

Jeskai Tempo by Kevin Jones

1st at SCG Edison Standard Open on Sep 27th 2014

As we bid a fond farewell to RTR/THS Standard and all its mono-colored shenanigans we see how quickly everything becomes new again with both decks sitting at the final table in the wedge colors. There was also in the final a Mardu Midrange deck which in and of itself is a beautiful work of art which simply did not draw well against an amazing draw of the Jeskai tempo deck. But for us today we are interested in this Red, White and Blue beast of a list which was able to battle through 13 rounds and stake its flag first at the summit of this opening weekend.

 

This deck is built around taking advantage of burn to take incremental advantage and close out games quickly and efficiently. To work towards that goal we find a trio of creatures that while not monsters are able to go long and chip away quickly at the opponents life total to make it easy to top deck a burn spell for the win. The first creature drops down turn two with a trio of Seeker of the Way which combo well with the burn through its Prowess to not only get pumped up but also gain lifelink to ensure survival against other Aggro decks. Next we find one of the defining cards of Aggro for the current meta with Goblin Rabblemaster which on an unchecked board will be able to quickly overwhelm the opponent with a horde of goblins beating face. Then we get to a new tool for these colors with Mantis Rider which as a tri-colored creature sports a very strong package as a three drop with Haste to beat face immediately upon arrival, Flying to leap over the walls of Courser of Kruphix, and even Vigilance which allows you to bring the assault with impunity. Supporting the troops there is a duo of Red planeswalkers starting with the all new powerhouse Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker which is basically taking the role of Stormbreath Dragon as another aggressive flyer for the deck but also doubles as decent removal taking out a slew of four toughness creatures. There is also a misers Chandra, Pyromaster which is able to grind precious life points while either blasting potential chumps or immobilizing big blockers, and could also add to the decks drawing power. Speaking of draw there are two cards with which to gain additional resources with Dig Through Time able to go deep to find you two spells which will hopefully finish your opponent  and Steam Augury that does rely upon the choice of your opponent but can easily be a bomb spell depending on what else you flip up with it. Magma Jet is also a pseudo-draw with its Scry 2 not only are you flinging fire but also setting up potential or even pushing useless cards to the bottom in advance of a Dig Through Time. Then we get to the package of straight-up burn spells with sets of Lightning Strike and Stoke the Flames to either flambe some pesky creature or just fling straight to the dome of your opponent to close out a quick victory. You also have the option to barbeque opponents with your Jeskai Charm, but also bounce giant creatures away or pump your team while gaining some incidental life points. Finally we wrap up with catchall answer Banishing Light which is the decks main answer to planeswalkers, enchantments, or artifacts but will also deal with problematic creatures as well.
Man oh man am I ever in love with Jeskai Tempo. It just looks so aggro just like my cup of tea, but still able to overcome traditional issues like draw and removal for bombs. Now I will admit that watching the deck win there was a definite element of variance which handed Jeskai an easier road to walk towards victory, but he took it all the way from beginning to end so there must be value in it. I would be very happy to sleeve up a deck like this and run with it, but with so many new styles and the Pro Tour coming up I’m going to happily observe for now. If you do decide to pick this up though I imagine you’ll have a blast burning up the competition.
Eric J Seltzer
@ejseltzer on Twitter
Email: ejseltzer@hotmail.com