Creature (4)
Planeswalker (4)
Land (27)
- 1x Battlefield Forge
- 3x Flooded Strand
- 3x Island
- 3x Mountain
- 3x Mystic Monastery
- 3x Plains
- 2x Shivan Reef
- 3x Temple of Enlightenment
- 3x Temple of Epiphany
- 3x Temple of Triumph
Enchantment (4)
Instant (17)
- 2x Aetherspouts
- 2x Dig Through Time
- 4x Dissolve
- 3x Jeskai Charm
- 2x Last Breath
- 2x Magma Jet
- 2x Steam Augury
Sorcery (4)
Sideboard
Creature (5)
Instant (6)
Sorcery (4)
Kesrio syt bantis zobrie issa se ossngnoti ledys - For the night is dark and full of terrors ... but the fire burns them all away!
The lord of light has sent his emissary, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, who along with the master of conjuring Narset, Enlightened Master, and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, disciple of fire and dragons, are here the cleanse the world of the cold and darkness. Rare appearances of Keranos, God of Storms, thought to be the right hand of R'hllor, have also been spotted. The end is near!
Introduction
Welcome to Jeskai Control, the precursor of Esper Control dominance, foreshadowed by slight appearance of UWR control decks even prior to Tarkir rotation.
While the power level of control has seriously decreased with the rotation of UW Ravnica staples, I feel with the latest released cards and the slight slow-down of the format, it might actually fight a fighting chance.
So if you are interested in giving light, fire and control a shot, then this deck is for you!
Win-Conditions
To get the general idea of a deck I always find it important to start with the win-conditions. We can then get to the support cards that support the overall strategy.
Since we are playing control, we want big powerful win-conditions.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion sticks around, and it has acted as a good win conditions over the past season in old Esper Control. There's no reason why she won't stay just as powerful. She can protect herself with the tiny soldiers enough to pump them up and then overwhelm her opponents.
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker is quite insane in a control build. While his defense mechanism does not go hand in hand with the his win mechanic (turning into a dragon), a 4/4 indestructible, hasty, flier is nothing to scoof at. If he ends up pumped up by Elspeth he will be quite scary. I wouldn't hurry turning him into a dragon if I can't protect him though, because power creature exilation is around... and it's a threat!
Since we are playing red, we shouldn't underestimate the power of burn. Keranos, God of Storms powerful, especially if we can protect him. Burning your opponent slowly with his pseudo-lightning bolt is great.
Jeskai Charm
can also deal 4 damage in the fact which will sometimes deliver those few points of damage that get us to victory.
Sideboard cards
Pearl Lake Ancient
and Resolute Archangel will seal the deal against the right decks. The ancient is especially useful in mirror control, but some decks might have quite some trouble removing him. The Archangel on the other hand resets our life count and gives us plenty of time to dig for other answers, while also capable of delivering damage himself.
Wrath Effects
Bye-bye Supreme Verdict, you will be missed. However sweepers are of high importance in control decks since they can keep the board clean and do it efficiently. There are three aspects to consider about sweepers, and diversity is also important, reason why I picked almost anything Jeskai has to offer:
End Hostilities is a poor man's Day of Judgment. However, with the format slowing down we will have to see how bad a 5 mana sweeper is. The good part? It removes pretty much anything that can be removed. Bad part? It is rather slow!
AEtherspouts
is an interesting Terminus-like sweeper. It comes up at 5, and it makes our opponents think twice before attacking us full-in. Sure, they get to replay their creatures, but with the amount of counters and responses in our hands the gain of tempo ought to do the trick. The fact that it's also an instant is a great bonus. I might also be happy to play it as an Azorius Charm, should there be no other solution at hand.
Anger of the Gods is the real gift in Jeskai. It comes down early (turn 3), and keeps aggro at bay. It deals with Athreos, it deals with Bloodsoaked Champion and with Boros Charm rotating out it ought to really make us successful against eager aggro decks. Sure, they can leave mana open for tricks or play stuff like Abzan Ascendancy, Hall of Heroes or Obelisk of Urd, but on the other hand, that just gives us more time to gain more mana and stabilize... I'm really happy to sideboard 2 more and hope for the best.
Other control and removal
We need more to be able to resist an environment full of demons, rhinos, hydras and other crazy threats. In such an environment I am more than excited to trade cards 1-for-1 as follows...
Banishing Light is universal removal, and primary replacement for Detention Sphere. With Pack Rat rotating, it ought to do the trick for us. Enchantment removal is omnipresent so I am not relying that much on it alone.
Dissolve is one great counter that sticks around, and 4 copies are more than welcome to stay in our deck. Depending on the decks in your meta sometimes Dissipate might be better, but in an unknown environment I prefer the scry for now.
Jeskai Charm
is nothing to scoff at. Besides the burn effect, it can act as an Azorius Charm. As a bonus? Its last effect not only gives lifelink to Elspeth tokens but can also pump them.
Magma Jet is another favorite card of mine. And it's not really about the 2 damage (which in some games it can be relevant). It's the scry 2 that comes up on an already flexible card that can really help setup your library and stabilize your draws.
Last Breath
is an experiment for now. Depending on the meta it might prove useful or quite poor to keep in the deck. Esper Control decks employed it quite often, it's a nice 2 mana removal... remains to be seen how bad the 4 lifegain will be as well (remember, we also have a portion of burn, so there needs to be a trade-off).
Card-Draw
I've left card draw last... and that is because of the huge drawback in Sphinx's Revelation rotating. Revelation was the card that made UW/x control work. Scalable card draw is simply insane and gives an unrecoverable advantage most of the times... plus gaining life was just the icing on the cake. We still have some poor man's alternatives in the sector that might, or might not work.
Keranos, God of Storms can draw cards, and he can do it well. Turn late-game lands into extra cards is great, and if he sticks around he will draw a lot of cards. Can we rely on him as a card-draw engine though? No, I don't think we can!
Dig Through Time
is the supposedly star of the show. Drawing 2 cards, digging 7 is neat... the spell-cost... I'm skeptical. I'm not a fan of Delve (but then again, I wasn't around when it was last printed). We need to find a way to make it work though. If only there was a card-draw engine that also fueled Dig... Oh I know, what about
Steam Augury. Yes, I know people complain about it a lot because your opponent gets the saying in what you get to keep. I'll be honest, I'm not happy about it either, I'd be more satisfied with Fact or Fiction. But then again, we have to work with what we have for now, and hope that the next sets bring better card draw. Augury is still side-by-side with
Chandra, Pyromaster
, and I am still not completely sure which of them I want in my deck. Opinions?
Narset, Enlightened Master was left last. Why? Because I expect her to be greater than most people give her credit. She is not a spectacular creature, and I don't rely on her as a wincon. She is also based on luck, and the fact that she can lose us Keranos is not that great either. I cannot help but feel tempted however to see how she works in allowing us to play planeswalkers, summon creatures and maybe even get a
Dig Through Time
for free. I don't expect her to last a lot on the board though, even with her almighty hexproof.
Ideas, suggestions and improvements are more than welcome.
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| Top Ranked |
|
| Date added | 10 years |
| Last updated | 10 years |
| Legality | This deck is not Standard legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 8 - 1 Mythic Rares 25 - 3 Rares 12 - 9 Uncommons 6 - 2 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 4.09 |
| Tokens | Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Emblem Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, Soldier 1/1 W |
| Folders | Post Rotation idea, Control, Decks to make |
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