Martial Prowess

Commander / EDH Magecraft Prowess RUW (Jeskai, America) Tokens

Hypersayia9001

Land (30)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hengegate Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 5x Island
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Needleverge Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 2x Plains
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 1x Riverglide Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Seachrome Coast
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Training Center

Artifact (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Conqueror's Flail
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Conviction
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Instant (20)

• 1x Azorius Charm
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Defiant Strike
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Expedite
• 1x Fervent Strike
• 1x Fists of Flame
• 1x Guided Strike
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Opt
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Samut's Sprint
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x View from Above
• 1x Wizard's Lightning

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Fiery Inscription
• 1x Jeskai Ascendancy
• 1x Metallurgic Summonings
• 1x Rising of the Day
• 1x Shark Typhoon
• 1x Sorcerer Class
• 1x Thousand-Year Storm
• 1x Whirlwind of Thought
• 1x Wild Research

Planeswalker (4)

• 1x Chandra, Hope's Beacon
• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
• 1x Rowan, Scholar of Sparks  ^Flip
• 1x Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Commander (1)

Creature (16)

• 1x Archmage Emeritus
• 1x Balmor, Battlemage Captain
• 1x Birgi, God of Storytelling  ^Flip
• 1x Bria, Riptide Rogue
• 1x Elsha of the Infinite
• 1x Feather, the Redeemed
• 1x Kykar, Wind's Fury
• 1x Leonin Lightscribe
• 1x Monastery Mentor
• 1x Storm-Kiln Artist
• 1x Third Path Iconoclast
• 1x Urabrask  ^Flip
• 1x Vadrik, Astral Archmage
• 1x Veyran, Voice of Duality
• 1x Young Pyromancer
• 1x Zada, Hedron Grinder

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Crash Through
• 1x Expressive Iteration
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Grapeshot
• 1x Haze of Rage
• 1x Slip Through Space
• 1x Solve the Equation
• 1x Teleportal

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Maybeboard

Creature (10)

• 1x Adeliz, the Cinder Wind
• 1x Baral and Kari Zev
• 1x Clever Lumimancer
• 1x Goblin Electromancer
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Harmonic Prodigy
• 1x Jhoira's Familiar
• 1x Monastery Swiftspear
• 1x Stormchaser Mage
• 1x Talrand, Sky Summoner

Artifact (1)

• 1x Chaos Wand

Instant (7)

• 1x Astral Steel
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Jeskai Charm
• 1x Lightning Strike
• 1x Martial Glory
• 1x Shock
• 1x Unbreakable Formation

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Monk Class
• 1x Smothering Tithe

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Maximize Velocity
• 1x Mind's Desire
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Relentless Assault
• 1x Renegade Tactics
• 1x Warlord's Fury

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

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Now that Bloomburrow has finally dropped and I got my glorious little prowess otter, I decided to clean up this description a tad.

So…

Martial Prowess!

The overall gameplan of this deck is a 2-step process:

1. Build the board: Get out a sizable amount of creatures, usually tokens.
2. Prowess for days: Get those small, weak little fellows to the point of being able to fight hordes of dragons and let them charge over the competition.

And luckily, in the grand scheme of things, both steps typically require doing the same thing. Casting as many noncreature spells as planewalkerly possible.

Creatures

This in mind, the creatures in this deck fall mostly under one of three categories.

Token Generation

Creatures in this category include Monastery Mentor, Third Path Iconoclast and Young Pyromancer, but there’s also a handful of noncreature cards with similar effects, such as Saheeli, Sublime Artificer and Shark Typhoon

These are here to give additional bodies as you throw around that glorious, glorious magic. The hypothetical minimum ideal being as many creatures as all your opponents control plus an additional one for each, but that’s probably not going to happen without an infinite.

Aside from Narset herself, these will probably be one of the first creatures you want to get out.

Prowess Effects

Bria, Riptide Rogue, Balmor, Battlemage Captain, Leonin Lightscribe, the point is a simple one. One prowess is good, more is better. Similar to the Token Generation above, we also have Jeskai Ascendancy as a noncreature attributor to this goal.

Because what’s better than everything you control getting +1/+1 when you cast a Lightning Bolt? Everything you control getting +5/+4 when you cast it, that’s what.

Extra Mana

All that spellslinging needs mana, and what better ways for this than things that give you mana for spellslinging? Storm-Kiln Artist is a classic in this regard, but we also have Birgi, God of Storytelling  , Urabrask   and Kykar, Wind's Fury for some extra spicy red.

As an aside, cost reduction is considered Extra Mana in this case, so we have Vadrik, Astral Archmage making all our things nice and cheap.

Not that any are particularly expensive, the highest mana value among the instants and sorceries here is technically Haze of Rage due to costing 4 with it’s buyback cost, but if your spells cost 2 and you have a Vadrick, that means you’re casting twice as much.

As with the other two categories, there are some noncreature cards with this goal in mind, Sorcerer Class and Chandra, Hope's Beacon from the outright mana side of the equation, Rowan, Scholar of Sparks   from the cost reduction side.

But what about the creatures who don’t fall under those categories? Show

Good question, my friend. All and all, there are five creatures in this deck that don’t do any of the previous categories but provide a strong benefit overall.

Archmage Emeritus and Elsha of the Infinite increase the card draw capability, one directly, one indirectly.

Feather, the Redeemed for the recursion of any spell that targets a creature you control. (Want to get spicy? Build up a crazy storm count, cast Grapeshot and target something you own with the original. You get the damage and Grapeshot comes back for your next turn.

Veyran, Voice of Duality doubles triggers. This includes Prowess and such. Very fun.

Zada, Hedron Grinder is for buff sharing. Think a big board of prowess powered creatures is scary? Cast Slip Through Space on Zada and suddenly you have a big board of prowess powered unblockable creatures. And she also pairs deliciously well with the magecraft creatures.

Noncreatures

Okay, now that we’ve addressed the creature side of the equation, what about the part that makes Prowess actually work? What about those glorious noncreature spells?

Cheap Buffs and Card Draw

Defiant Strike or Expedite or instance. Replaces themselves, buffs someone up (usually Narset) and triggers all that delicious Prowess. Now, despite the name, not everything under this category draws cards. Most do, but the important bit is that they’re cheap. Cheap spells means you can cast a lot of them in a turn, and if you need it explained to you why this is a good idea in a Prowess deck… More Prowess = Big pain.

Bonuses from Spellslinging

Things like Fiery Inscription, Whirlwind of Thought and Thousand-Year Storm. If you’re casting a bunch of spells, you’ll want a lot to be benefiting from it. This is when casting a spell, noncreature or otherwise, gives you a bonus outside of a Prowess effect or Token.

Mana

The classic staples of Sol Ring, Arcane Signet and the Talismans and Signets that encompasses the Jeskai colours. Basic, simple, but very practical.

Removal and Protection

Once again, we’re using the classics. Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares and Chaos Warp as your stables for removal, and Swiftfoot Boots for protection.

Outside of that, we got some… less traditional spells. Wizard's Lightning is essentially a second Lighting Bolt if you got a wizard out, which about 30% of the creatures in the deck are. So… More likely than not but not a guarantee. Still, 3 damage is 3 damage. Narset's Reversal is actually here more for copying a particularly useful spell of your own, but as a counter it’s not terrible. And you can do some interesting politics with it. And Grapeshot is… well, more of a combo finisher, but if you can build the storm count, it can be a very nice removal.

And Conqueror's Flail, a potential +3/+3 with a silence effect. I don’t think I need to explain why being able to go through your turn without worrying about enemy spells is a very good feeling.

Tutors

A basic sweep of Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor and Solve the Equation, as well as Gamble and Wild Research for a slightly more risky search.

Slightly because discarding what you’re searching for isn’t exactly a worry if you can just attack with Narset and cast it anyway.

Though as with any tutor, the question becomes “What to tutor for?”. Case-by-case, obviously, but some good ideas for that will be found in the combo section later.

Miscellaneous Bonuses

Much like the creature half of the equation (well, more like creature quarter, looking at the ratios), there are a few things that don’t quite fit.

Rising of the Day is a basic buffer for your legendaries and haste granter for your board, so all those tokens you generate can get right into the action.

Sensei's Divining Top is a great topdeck filter, as well as draw engine with Elsha of the Infinite. Explained more in the combo section.

Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, technically he counts as card draw but he ain’t cheap, mana-wise. And you’ll want him for an infinite draw combo. Of which this deck has 1 where that’s a primary, and a few where it’s a side effect.

Combos

Now, I know the word combo has some of you salivating at the bit… and others are a little bit annoyed. Grand scheme, while there are a few combos in this deck, when all is said and done they all revolve around 5 cards and they need a fair bit of setup. But, here are the combos that I am aware of in this deck:

Infinite Rage

Haze of Rage, as a mono red buyback card, has a few pieces that can allow it to go infinite. Assuming you have the mana to cast it with buyback at least once, it then requires either:

• All four of: Birgi, God of Storytelling  , Kykar, Wind's Fury, Urabrask   and Rowan, Scholar of Sparks  
• Any two of the mana generating creatures plus Veyran, Voice of Duality
• Any one of the mana generating creatures plus Vadrik, Astral Archmage
• Storm-Kiln Artist and a way to get a storm count of 4. (failing that, 10 mana)
• Sorcerer Class at at least level 2, Jeskai Ascendancy and 4 creatures
• Sorcerer Class at at least level 2, 4 permanents that generate tokens when sorceries are cast (or 2 and Veyran on the field) and Rising of the Day

Infinite Flight

View from Above, a cheap, easily recurrable blue flying granting instant that returns to hand when it resolves if you control a white permanent. Pretty easy to do.

Aside from the white permanent, to make it infinite, you need:

• Storm-Kiln Artist plus any one of the mana generating creatures or discounting permanents
• Sorcerer Class at at least level 2, Jeskai Ascendancy and 2 creatures
• Sorcerer Class at at least level 2, 2 permanents that generate tokens when instants are cast (or 1 and Veyran on the field) and Rising of the Day

Infinite Drama

An absolute classic of a combo. Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter . All you need on top of this is either 2 mana rocks or 2 of the mana generating creatures. Get more than that and you have mana profit to do with as you wish.

Infinite Reversal

This is a combo that requires a lot to set up. Narset's Reversal + Storm-Kiln Artist + Thousand-Year Storm + any other instant or sorcery.

So, how does it work?

1. While having Storm-Kiln Artist and Thousand-Year Storm on the field, cast any instant or sorcery. We’ll use Lightning Bolt for this example.
2. While Lightning Bolt is still on the stack, cast Narset’s Reversal. Thousand-Year Storm will make a copy of Narset’s Reversal.
3. Target the original copy of Narset’s Reversal with the new TYS copy, then target Lighting Bolt with the resulting copy.
4. The end result for the first loop is 5 treasures, allowing you to do it again, this time with extras of the original instant or sorcery.

You could so do a sort of self-reflective loop constantly targeting copies of Narset’s Reversal with new copies of Narset’s Reversal for infinite magecraft triggering, but unless you have a pay-off for it, it’s not particularly useful doing it like that.

Infinite Card Draw

A basic duo of Elsha of the Infinite + Sensei's Divining Top , Elsha lets you cast spells from the top of your library, Sensei’s allows you to draw a card in exchange for putting Sensei’s onto the top of your library.

From there, you just need Birgi, God of Storytelling   or Kykar, Wind's Fury to make it infinite.

The other combos shown can also grant infinite card draw as a side effect if you have Whirlwind of Thought or Archmage Emeritus on the field.

Neat Tricks

Okay, so some of you might be thinking “Eh, infinities are one thing, but surely there’s some other fun stuff this deck can pull off.” And, well, you’d be right. Good on yah.

The following is just a few little maneuvers I figured out as I’ve been going along. Some better than others, but I’m willing to bet they’re all quite interesting.

Feather and not the intended use

Feather, the Redeemed. A very useful angel. Never did learn what she needed redemption from, but that’s not important.

What is important is how you can get some very fun value out of her ability. Essentially with the multiple amount of token generating permanents in this deck. Let’s use Young Pyromancer as an example.

Assuming you already have one of the pyromancer’s elementals out, cast Path to Exile, targeting that elemental. You get a tapped land, the elemental gets replaced and Path to Exile returns to your hand on the next end step.

The next end step. That doesn’t strictly speaking mean your next end step. With a few spare bits of white mana, that means you can increase the number of lands you get per turn by as many players in the match. FUN. Just make sure to cast it before the end step.

Combine this with Thousand-Year Storm and another cheap single target spell and you can both get a land and remove something from the board on everyone’s turn… Though you’d probably need something like Storm-Kiln Artist to actually fuel that.

The Lightscribe and the Grinder

It should probably come as no surprise to anyone who's actually read the cards, but Leonin Lightscribe and Zada, Hedron Grinder go bonkers good together. Cast a spell that target’s Zada? Your whole board gets +X/+X, where X is the amount of creatures you have when the trigger resolves.

Which also means those two go great with the token generators. And also, Veyran, Voice of Duality, who doubles the amount of copies Zada makes and the buff that the Lightscribe grants per copy, going from +X/+X to +2(2X-1)/+2(2X-1), or a little under +4/+4 per creature. Think about how quickly that will get to a board of creatures that can one-shot someone solo.

Kykar, a bird wizard with spirit sorcerers

We all know Kykar, Wind's Fury is one hell of a spell-slinger value engine, but with the minor problem of only providing red mana.

But what if I were to tell you you could double that mana production and add blue mana to the mix? All you’d need is Sorcerer Class at level 2 and Rising of the Day. Tap the spirit for a mana then sac it for a red.

Imprint your thoughts

Isochron Scepter, a classic. Honestly, in this lineup, for the most part the most valuable option for the imprint is Dramatic Reversal, but there’s some value to be had with some of the other options.

But, that’s not why we’re here. No, we’re here because of a fun little trick with timings. If you have Isochron Scepter in hand, Dramatic Reversal on top of your library (Which you know through scry, mystical tutor or Elsha, the specifics there really don’t matter) and only 4 mana (2 of which are mana rocks), you might think you have to wait a turn to use the combo, but you’re not strictly speaking fully correct there.

If you have Whirlwind of Thought out, then you can just cast the Scepter there and then, trigger Whirlwind, then exile Dramatic Reversal as the imprint card as the Scepter resolves and thus enters.

Narset, the spellthief

This is a real simple thing, and one that anyone running this version of Narset should already know, but… the text does not specify your own graveyard.

Someone casts a tutor? Don’t mind if we do too. Someone casts a ramp? We like ramp. Someone goaded your board and you want to goad all their stuff in retaliation? Bing bang boom, get some!

Now, it’s not exactly a game plan. Any strategy that relies on opponents doing things well is one that… well… if they’re doing well, it’s probably also hurting you, but it pays to know what’s available to you. Don’t get tunnel visioned on your own graveyard.

Date added	1 year
Last updated	2 weeks
Key combos	Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter Elsha of the Infinite + Sensei's Divining Top Narset's Reversal + Storm-Kiln Artist + Thousand-Year Storm
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 27 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.49
Tokens	Construct X/X C, Elemental 1/1 R, Elemental 4/4 UR, Emblem Rowan, Scholar of Sparks, Monk 1/1 W, Servo 1/1 C, Shark X/X U, Soldier 1/1 C, Spirit 1/1 W, The Ring, The Ring Tempts You, Treasure
Folders	not clones, Looks fun, Ant's decks, untap decks to try, other decks for ideas