A Jeskai mid-range wizard deck, having many ways to go through and do lethal damage.It has a very good first game that can run as aggro but definitely needs changes after to run as a tempo/control deck.
The Deck
Starting from mana base, we run only 21 lands. These are more than enough as most of our spells cost 1-3 mana and we only have 4 spells going to 4 mana cmc.
Main piece in the deck is of course Adeliz, the Cinder Wind. Running 4 copies, the card will help us buff all other creatures and deal the lethal damage we need.
Following up, are the prowess creatures, Soul-Scar Mage and Spellweaver Eternal who pump with non-creature spell we cast and in combination with Adeliz, they pump twice.
Pumping doesn't stop here! Except Adeliz, we also have Naru Meha, Master Wizard. It is a very good combat trick as it has flash and can enter during opponent's combat or end step, gives +1/+1 to all wizards and if we have enough mana to cast first any of our damage spells, i.e Shock, with Naru entering the battlefield we can copy the spell for new targets.
Carrying on with pumping creatures, there are 3 copies of Radiant Destiny that gives +1/+1 to all named creature type (in this case, wizards) but also vigilance once we get the City's Blessing (which we easily get).
To make things aggro in game 1, there are 2 copies of Ghitu Lavarunner and 2 copies of Siren Stormtamer. Ghitu gets +1/+0 once we have 2 instants or sorceries in graveyard and haste which it makes the card a great early puncher. Stormtamer is a great 1-mana evasion creature, helping dealing early damage but also a great defending card against spells or abilities that target us or any important creature.
Finally, Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage is more like the end game card, as with its flash ability can enter the game during opponent's turn and then swing for the win on our turn. In addition, once Raff hits the battlefield, all historic spells have flash, which means we can play Adeliz during opponent's turn.
Our Spell arsenal consists mainly from damage spells and card draw as we need to have fuel to fire our attacks for either early damage or get rid opponent's threats.
Finally, the sideboard consists spells that will help make our game either control or tempo. With card:Dusk/Dawn and Sweltering Suns we can play against massive boards, while Cast Out will remove any permanent threat that hits the board and Disallow, Essence Scatterand Negate will help us control the game to our advantage.
Performance
As mentioned earlier, this deck has a very good game 1. If the right cards come out, we can finish the game as early as turn 4 (Soul-Scar Mage, Spellweaver Eternal and Adeliz followed by Warlord's Fury, Opt, Shock and/or Wizard's Lightning). If the game starts dragging, Radiant Destiny and Nahu Mera will provide the assistance we need to finish it.
This deck has been play tested in LGS and on X-Mage. On all games, I have never lost game 1. It fairs well against mirror matches, considering that most wizard decks tend to play Riddleform and it is easy for us to deal with it, either by waiting it to become a creature and hit it with damage spell or just counter it before it hits the battlefield or just start pumping our creatures by casting spells.
Green stompy decks are usually a bit difficult to deal with but if we have patience in the game and use Soul-Scar Mage with Gideon's Reproach and the other damage spells we have, we can start giving -1/-1 counters to their creatures.
Mono Red Aggro is moderate to deal with but considering that our game 1 is also aggro and we can put Sweltering Suns in game 2, we usually win the round.
Finally, the sideboard can deal with any token strategy that we can face at the moment.
In an average of 10 games, I only had 1 game that I got mana flooded (I literally drew 17 cards and 11 of them were lands) and no mana screwed.
Possible Changes
I am thinking to remove Negate and replace it with Wizard's Retort considering that we have wizards on the board and reducing the spell's cmc to the same as Negate but is giving us more versatility.
I am also thinking to replace Gideon's Reproach with
Nimble Obstructionist
to give more versatility either by countering ability and draw a card or as a combat trick flashing in opponent's turn or with Authority of the Consuls to delay the opponent's game, or with Seal Away to deal with green stompy decks.
Overall Impressions
This is a competitive FNM deck, fun to play and it costs approximately $130-$150 to build. It gets a bit out of the normal wizard tribal decks you will see around, it has a really good game 1 and it has a good adaptation to the opponent's game. I would recommend it to players who want to try something different than the norm in their LGS, and, to new players who would like to have fun without losing in the first 5 turns of the game.
