EDH - Jaya Ballard, Task Mage (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

EDH - Jaya Ballard, Task Mage

Commander / EDH Artifact Burn Control Mono-Red Multiplayer Stax

SnowCoveredPlainswalker

Artifact (27)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Chandra Ablaze

Creature (14)

Land (35)

Enchantment (6)

Commander (1)

Sorcery (12)

Instant (4)

Sideboard

Sorcery (8)

Hello everybody and welcome to my Jaya Ballard, Task Mage commander deck, this was my latest toy after my previous baby, Baron Sengir, was stolen. Mono red has been my favorite way to play commander ever since Daretti came out back in 2014 and I've missed it ever since the aforementioned deck was scrapped due to meta complaints. However I decided to pick the color back up and be as rude as humanly possible with it, so I present to you, my Jaya Ballard control deck!

Show

Card Selection

Lands

Strip Mine and Wasteland: There are problem lands in the format such as Gaea's Cradle and Cabal Coffers, we need a way to deal with them all quickly and efficiently.

Myriad Landscape: We need all the ramp we can get, Myriad Landscape seems good to assist with this.

Inventors' Fair: Playing mono red, we always seem to end up being an artifact deck, having the ability to tutor for one seems good.

Drownyard Temple: A land that can come back from Ruination or Armageddon as well as being discarded to Jaya Ballard, seems strong to me.

Mountain: We're in mono red, so mountains seem good in this list XD.

Creatures

Squee, Goblin Nabob, Firewing Phoenix , Magma Phoenix , Skarrgan Firebird and Shard Phoenix : These are all creatures we can discard to Jaya and continually return to our hand for further discard. Also, having constant access to fliers that we can return can help if we are forced into an aggro position.

Anger: A haste enabler and a perfect card to pitch to Jaya Ballard.

Burnished Hart: One of the better ramp artifacts for us, the Hart is pure value in that it ramps us 2 red mana, with the potential of netting us more with Goblin Welder.

Solemn Simulacrum: Similar to Burnished Hart, the Sad Robot is mana ramp as well as card draw and also great to recur with the Welder.

Combustible Gearhulk: We tend to have a very hard time drawing efficiently in red, 9 times out of 10 the opponent tends to let us draw 3 off the Gearhulk, fearing the high CMC of an artifact deck, making him pure value.

Goblin Welder: Being in red and artifacts, the Welder is a staple, allowing us to bring back dead artifacts or disrupt our opponents artifacts. It's a must.

Scuttlemutt: Jaya likes to blow up blue things, Scuttlemutt can make them blue for her to destroy, or simply act as a mana dork, hard to say no to.

Dualcaster Mage : AKA Reverberate on a stick, the Dualcaster is a fun and powerful effect to copy any spell on the stack.

Magus of the Wheel: AKA Wheel of Fortune on a stick, this is just another way for us to reload our hand so that we don't run out of gas, like red tends to do.

Magus of the Moon: AKA Blood Moon on a stick, there are ALOT of multicolor decks in the format, most run very very few basics, making them suffer for it seems to be a good strategy in my opinion :)

Artifacts

Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Might and Gauntlet of Power: As a mono red deck, we need as much ramp as we can possibly get, running all 3 cards helps ensure that at least one of them sticks on the board.

Sol Ring: Do I have to explain Sol Ring to anyone? Drop it turn 1 to cast Jaya on turn 2.

Gilded Lotus: One of the best rocks in the format, allowing us to add three red to our pool can put us significantly ahead of the game.

Coldsteel Heart and Fire Diamond : Both serve the same purpose, come in tapped for two mana and produce one red mana.

Commander's Sphere and Heart of Ramos : Both are similar rocks, both come in for three mana and produce red and both can sacrifice for an effect, the Sphere can draw us a card and the Heart can provide an extra red.

Ruby Medallion : A great pseudo mana rock, making our red spells cost us one less mana is a sweet effect to have.

Wayfarer's Bauble : Another way to ramp us not just one mana, but an entire land. I'm personally a big fan of the Bauble.

Sensei's Divining Top: An issue mono red can sometimes face is getting flooded with lands or other cards that don't do anything, the Top can help us set up our draws and make sure we don't get blown out by bad beats.

Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots: Both artifacts serve the same purpose, put them down and equip them to Jaya to ensure that she doesn't get hit with spot removal.

Darksteel Plate and Magebane Armor: Once again, both artifacts serve the exact same purpose, allowing Jaya to live through her own Inferno effect.

Sword of Fire and Ice: The Swords of Protection and Value are all amazing in aggressive builds, but here we only run the sword for it's protection from red, to save Jaya from her own Inferno effect, though it can help make her a decent swinger as well.

Basilisk Collar and Loxodon Warhammer: Both of these equipment give Jaya lifelink to allow us to live longer through her Inferno s. The Warhammer also allows Jaya to swing in for 5 damage with trample while the Collar allows her abilities to kill any creature in play, thanks to Deathtouch.

Illusionist's Bracers : We have a few activated abilities in this deck, most importantly, Jaya's abilities, being able to active them not only once but twice? Seems extremely powerful to me!

Thousand-Year Elixir: Once again, we have a few activated abilities in the deck and the Elixir allows us to use them right away, as well as effective doubling one creatures ability but allowing it to untap and do it all over again.

Akroma's Memorial: Similar to the Plate and Armor listed above, Memorial allows Jaya as well as our other creatures to live through Jaya's ultimate effect.

Distorting Lens : Very similar to the Scuttlemutt, the Lens turns permanents blue for Jaya to send them straight to the graveyard.

Omen Machine: This card is nasty, red has a very hard time drawing cards, so if we can't draw, then nobody can. It does cause a few nonbos but, it's not too much of an issue. This card can hose draw decks to the point of forcing them to scoop.

Torpor Orb: A bit of a nonbo with our Simulacrum and Gearhulk, but ultimately worth it. The Orb HOSES Simic and Golagari decks, as both tend to use alot of ETB triggers. One of my best hate cards.

Grafdigger's Cage: Similar to the Torpor Orb, the Cage can hose certain decks, specifically, Golgari, Abzan and Izzet as they all like to interact with their graveyards through Reanimation, Flashback or Unearth type effects. Very powerful in this deck.

Ensnaring Bridge: One of this decks easiest ways to die, is to aggro players, whether it be an army of small creatures or 3-4 giant ones, we don't block very efficiently, however we also rarely have many cards in hand, usually only 1-2, so the Bridge can help stop incoming attacks.

Sorceries

Molten Disaster: One of the two X cost burn spells in this deck, it's run solely for the fact that it can be cast without fear of being countered.

Blasphemous Act: Our true board wipe, the Act is extremely strong for us, usually being cast for one red, it comes down and kills everything on the board.

Vandalblast and Shattering Spree: Artifacts are generally problematic in this format, so having multiple ways to kill several of them at once is a must.

From the Ashes and Ruination : Non-basic lands are everywhere in this format, so being able to wipe them off the board is very advantageous for us.

Gamble: Being in mono red, we are sorely lacking on tutors, but at least we can Gamble away our future.

Burning Wish : Once again, in mono red, tutors are a rarity for us, however my group as well as many others, allow for a Wish Board of up to 10 cards (See sideboard), the Wish let's us grab a sorcery we need at the time we need it, valuable for mono red.

Tormenting Voice and Cathartic Reunion: Two of the better draw spells for us to use, while they don't provide true card advantage, they can help dump dead cards to find live ones.

Wheel of Fortune and Reforge the Soul : Both of these Wheel effects are mandatory to ensure that we don't run out of gas and roll over dead.

Instants

Comet Storm: The other X cost burn spell I run. The only reason this one made the cut is how it can be kicked, allowing it to hit multiple targets.

Chaos Warp: Removal is rare in red, especially ways to deal with enchantments, which makes Chaos Warp a must include in any mono red deck.

Reverberate and Reiterate: Fork type effects are powerful in red, allowing us to copy either our own or our opponents spells. These spells basically allow us to run whatever effects our opponents are running.

Enchantments

Blood Moon: One of the most oppressive cards in the deck, non-basic lands are all but omnipresent in Commander, so having ways to shut them down is vital to the deck's success.

Stranglehold: Tutors and extra turns are run in most decks that can run them, the prior being present in nearly every single deck in the format, having a way to hardcore shut them down is very powerful. In addition, it kills fetch lands and Cultivate type cards as well.

Vicious Shadows: Another very oppressive card that loves to kill blue players and Simic players, Vicious Shadows is deadly in combination with Jaya.

Repercussion: As if Jaya's ultimate wasn't scary enough, now everyone will take not only the 6 damage she would normally deal, but now 6 damage multiplied by the amount of creatures they control.

Gratuitous Violence: The only double damage effect I run, there's simply too many other aggressive decks in the format to want Furnace of Rath or other cards that will also help my opponents as well.

War's Toll: I found this card thanks to some folks on the EDH Facebook page, it's extremely strong, while your opponent can still tap their other lands in response, they have to use all their mana during the phase they were tapped in, or they lose it. This card can SERIOUSLY hurt combo and control players alike.

Planeswalkers

Chandra Ablaze: Chandra is a tricky one, we mostly run her for the -2 to reload our hands, however her +1 also serves as great spot removal and her -7 can end up being a blowout in certain cases.

Wish Board

Fiery Confluence: One the better spells to grab with the Wish, artifacts can be deadly, so having access to a spell to deal with them at all times is a big help.

Wild Guess: Red has a hard time drawing cards, this does some of the best work we can hope for in that area.

Insurrection: When up against decks that like to spawn huge armies like Kemba, Kha Regent, Ghoulcaller Gisa or Rhys the Redeemed, this card can often end us the game.

Molten Rain: There's alot of problem lands in EDH and, sometimes we don't have our Strip Mine or Wasteland to help us deal with it, having a spell the wish can grab that deals with it, helps a great deal.

Trash for Treasure: We run ALOT of artifacts and often times, they get blown up, this spell can help us get one back, if we need it.

Burn from Within : Avacyn, Angel of Hope got you down? Well this burn spell is an excellent way to deal with indestructibility.

Mana Geyser : This can be great to help us generate alot of mana to go off and end the game, but too situational to be used in the Main Board, excellent fit for the Wish Board.

Chain Reaction: Red doesn't get many board wipes, so having access to one when we need it can help a great deal.

Playing the Deck

Mulligans

So generally we need a hand with at least 3 lands in it, or at least 2 land and 2 castable mana rocks. Other than that, we don't need to mulligan too often, so long as we get Jaya out on turn 3, we're good.

Early Game

The early game generally starts with us ramping as much as possible and casting Jaya as early as we can, while using her ability to dust off small utility creatures. Plain and simple, but effective.

Mid Game

The mid game gets a bit more complex as we attempt to set up our control pieces. Depending on the decks we're facing, we may need to cast artifacts like Torpor Orb or Grafdigger's Cage in order to keep our opponents from spiraling out of control. If the board develops too quickly for us to compete, then Jaya's Inferno effect becomes our best friend to level the playing field, at least as far as creature's go, and hopefully, we'll have ramped enough early game to get her back out.

Late Game

The late game is fairly simple, keep our opponent off their strategy with our various oppressive permanents and then continually burn them out with Jaya, keeping her alive with cards like Magebane Armor and Darksteel Plate as well as keeping us alive by equipping her with either Loxodon Warhammer or Basilisk Collar. Getting an Omen Machine lock can also ensure that nobody comes back and steals the game from us, all we need is Omen Machine, Squee, Goblin Nabob or a similar Phoenix and Wheel of Fortune or another Wheel effect to make everyone drop their hands, and lose their resources to fight back.

Combos

From the Ashes + Stranglehold : This essentially makes From the Ashes into a second Ruination .

Suggestions

Updates Add

Image View Timeline

Card Odds v1 Draw hand

Add to folder Copy

Download / Export / Embed Code

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Comment:

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Date added	8 years
Last updated	7 years
Key combos	From the Ashes + Stranglehold
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 5 Rares 13 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 2 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.26
Votes
Ignored suggestions
Shared with
Views

Magic the Gathering, FNM is TM and copyright Wizards of the Coast, Inc, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All rights reserved. This site is unaffiliated. Articles and comments are user-submitted and do not represent official endorsements of this site.