~If one cannot understand the world within himself, how can he understand the reality that lies before him?~
Jeskai has always come across as interesting to me. The whole Monk Monastery thing seems pretty cool, then you add in flames and stuff and it gets even cooler. Focusing around Soulfire Grand Master's buyback and lifelink potential combined with multiple token spells, Jeskai Aggro aims to burn down your opponent while sustaining its own life and board state. Everything in the deck helps to achieve that end, giving the deck a great degree of consistency that it can carry on into the late game if needs be with its creatures. Feedback would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first attempt at an aggro deck of any kind. Don't forget to +1 if you enjoyed the deck, and remember, suggestions are always appreciated!
Creatures
Soulfire Grand Master: I adore this card completely, from the art, to the effects, to even the name. While this card is on the board, every single one of our burn spells become drain spells. Offering lifelink to herself and our non-creature spells, she rounds out the package by providing us with what is essentially a buyback option for our cards, essentially providing us a method to Dualcast in terms of Final Fantasy. She is definitely the Red Mage of our deck, which is awesome.
Seeker of the Way
: Seeing as aggro has about zero methods of blocking flyers, Seeker provides us even more lifelike to help survive in the race for victory. Save your
Raise the Alarm
s and burn spells to give this creature a huge buff when your opponent thinks a harmless 2 damage is coming in. This card is a very efficient use of 2 mana, and puts in a lot of work by being a beater and utility creature.
~~~
Other Spells
Jeskai Ascendancy: Every token deck's dream card. Jeskai Ascendancy essentially gives all of our creatures vigilance and a stacking +1/+1 buff, while providing us with draw power to get rid of excess lands in return for other spells from the deck. This card is worth it in almost any deck that can run it.
Jeskai Charm
: Multipurpose removal and burn gives this card a perfect place in our deck. Its last option combos especially well with Jeskai Ascendancy, giving all our creatures +2/+2, untapping them, and giving them lifelink. Imagine dropping that combo after an end of turn Secure the Wastes. It's deadly.
Secure the Wastes: Speak of the devil. This card is essentially our mid-late game mana sink, if the game goes on to that point. Cast this on your opponent's end of turn, and you'll untap with a literal army at your disposal. An excellent way to close out the game, and is effective for creating any amount of tokens at instant speed.
Raise the Alarm
: Instant speed token generation. For 2 mana, you can basically flash in 2 blockers to protect against your opponent's creatures, or use it during an attack to buff your
Seeker of the Way
.
Dragon Fodder
: These tokens aren't goblins. They're our deck's Elvish Mystics, ramping us for our
Stoke the Flames
. Plus, they can do that while they chump block for us, so we don't lose a thing!
Wild Slash
: One of the relatively few viable 1-drops in standard right now. For a single red mana, it burns for the same damage as Magma Jet, and makes Shu Yun's double strike easier to trigger. A highly efficient spell, especially at instant speed.
Stoke the Flames
: This card better be good with a price higher than most rares today. Luckily, it is, with convoke alleviating the larger mana cost of the card. Combined with
Dragon Fodder
, that's 4 damage for 2 mana. It's a great spell overall, although unfortunately it's cycling out soon.
Anticipate: One downside of aggro overall is their tendency to run out of juice fast. Anticipate helps us alleviate that issue somewhat by providing us with an extra card on the play, and helps us dig through our deck to find the stuff we actually need.
Treasure Cruise: Awesome in a deck with so many instants and sorceries. Often times, we'll be able to cost this for the minimum 1 blue mana, giving us straight card advantage at essentially no cost, and pumping up our
Seeker of the Way
in the process.
~~~
Other Options
Hordeling Outburst: A little too costly for my taste, at a cost of 3 CMC with double red for 3 tokens.
Dragon Fodder
would be much more efficient for the short term benefits tokens tend to provide, but this option does exist.
Lightning Strike: Simple and effective. 3 points to the face, done and done.
Magma Jet: Double scry would absolutely be beneficial to our deck, considering that we're aggro and need some control of our draws sometimes. It's a decent burn spell to boot, but you'll mainly be popping this to dig through your deck.
Dig Through Time: Speaking of digging through your deck, this card does that VERY well. With the amount of non-creature spells in the deck, the delve cost is not at all hard to hit, and you'll often be casting this card for its minimum double blue mana. I wouldn't recommend a playset, but 2 copies seems to work just fine.
Goblin Rabblemaster: For this thing's price, I wouldn't be caught dead with it in my deck. It's a heck of a lot better than Monastery Mentor, which we'll get to in a moment, but as the deck stands right now, Rabblemaster wouldn't contribute too much overall. Adding in Stokes and Dragon's Fodder will increase this card's value immensely.
Monastery Mentor: I'd be more likely to invest in this than the Rabblemaster, as it will be in standard for more than 2 more months. It's definitely still a good card, Rabblemaster just tends to work better. However, the Mentor does have its merits over Rabblemaster. This card adds toughness on every cast, so it's less vulnerable to burn than Rabblemaster, and dodges Drown in Sorrow. The tokens it creates also aren't forced to attack, so you do have the ability to use them for defensive purposes.
Roast
: This card was easily good enough to maindeck, but I'm too lazy to grab copies of them. See that card effect? You're reading it wrong. It says "Destroy target Siege Rhino," not "Burn for 5." This card is good at killing other things, but the Rhino will give you an insane amount of trouble if you can't answer it well. A hilarious way to deal with said Rhino currently is to block it with a
Seeker of the Way
, then pop a couple burn spells onto the opponent and suddenly we're dealing with a 5/5 with lifelink. As funny as that is to do,
Roast
is much more efficient and will serve you better if you can find room for it.
Artful Maneuver
/Center Soul: Add these two in side-by-side. If you choose to go with this option, the deck will start to be more focused on its Prowess aspect, which you can take advantage of with multiple other creatures. These cards have awesome interactions with all of your Prowess creatures, with their Rebound helping immensely.
Jeskai Elder
: Provides card draw for a creature that your opponent often won't find worth blocking. Prowess doesn't hurt at all either.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker: This card puts in a lot of work. You'll almost never use his ultimate, as his +1 is much too valuable, but an indestructible 4/4 Dragon with a built-in
Stoke the Flames
sounds like a pretty good idea to me.
Mantis Rider: A HIGHLY efficient card. For only 3 mana, it comes out swinging with flying and vigilance. A Lightning Bolt every turn that can block sounds like a good idea to me.
Monastery Swiftspear: In Jeskai Tokens, this card isn't great, but in Tempo, this card is awesome. It's definitely worth the $10 for a playset, and early game it can trade with opposing 2/1 1-drops in your favor just from dropping a burn spell like
Wild Slash
for 1 mana.
Myth Realized: It's worth playtesting, definitely. By the time you hit the late game, this thing will be absolutely huge. If you can get this hulk through at that piint, you're almost guaranteed the win.
Swan Song: A 2/2 is MUCH easier to deal with than losing a board full of tokens. This is very helpful for dealing with cards like Drown in Sorrow or End Hostilities.
Valorous Stance: Often times the destruction effect will come in handy. The indestructibility should really be saved for the few non-token creatures you have in the deck.
Disdainful Stroke: Most threats to your deck can be hit by this card. The mana cost is relatively cheap as well, so this card works very well.
Banishing Light: All-purpose removal. Burn can't serve all our needs all the time, so extra removal can be helpful.
A Sideboard: I'm currently working on one myself, but the importance of one in this particular deck cannot be understated. If you remember the old Jeskai Tempo from when Khans was first released, the sideboard of that deck was meant to adapt the deck to basically every situation. You can do the same here, by focusing into your control aspect with cards like End Hostilities, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and other such cards.
Any Lands from before Khans: I'm not willing to invest much into these, as they're cycling out very soon. However, if you have them, feel free to add them in. Also Flooded Strand is cool if you have some spare change.
As my first aggro deck, this probably has more than a few issues with its system. Feedback would be greatly appreciated, as I'm trying to become more knowledgable about deckbuilding in areas outside of control.
