Game Day is coming up... what to use?
Standard forum
Posted on Oct. 13, 2014, 5:27 p.m. by TheGamer
So, I have two decks:
1) Jeskai Tempo. A UWR Tempo deck that burns and attacks with creatures. Revised version of Jadine Klomparens list.
2) Jeskai Ascendancy. A crazy fun combo deck. Lee Shi Tian's list
So here's why I want to use one of these decks:
Jeskai Tempo: This is basically a UWR Tempo deck, and I love that in Standard. It's also very competitive. But as we saw at Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir, it gets wrecked by this Abzan Midrange deck floating around. And that's what run pro Tour KoT, and so we should be expecting more of it.
Jeskai Ascendancy: If you know me from the site, you know that I love comboing off. And now that there's a real combo deck in Standard that combos as early as turn 4, im very interested in playing it. Im also all about those fun, gimmicky, competitive builds.
Any thoughts on what to use? I'd love any feed back :)
It depends on your style obviously but for me I'm sleeving up Abzan Aggro with a few personal tweaks.
October 13, 2014 7:42 p.m.
Arorsthrar says... #4
I also disagree with the deck getting wrecked by Abzan Midrange. I feel like the deck could easily be altered to have a favorable matchup against Abzan Midrange by playing 4 Disdainful Stroke , some number of Reprisal , and Negate .
Statistically, you should go with Jeskai Tempo/Wins
October 13, 2014 9:03 p.m.
Thanks for the comments Arorsthrar, DrFunk27, and Nigeltastic!
Well everytime I saw Abzan vs Jeskai, Abzan just steamrolled over it. Maybe it's just me.
And I realize that I should be going Jeskai Tempo and was going to go Tempo from the start, and then I built ascendancy and so far its win to loss ratio is 7-0. And Jeskai's is 2-5.
October 13, 2014 9:08 p.m.
I've built a terrible* Abzan midrange deck and an obscene hyper budget RDW (no rares) that I'm considering. I'll probably be picking the red deck for Game Day, as I've consistently performed very well at these events with red decks.
October 13, 2014 9:55 p.m.
Dalektable says... #8
I'll be playing Jeskai Tempo, so clearly that is my vote.
October 13, 2014 10:03 p.m.
CaptainCaveman says... #9
Going to play Abzan aggro in all likelihood but may wind up playing GR Monsters /shrug
October 14, 2014 12:56 a.m.
Well my Mardu Aggro deck got wrecked by all the midrange decks I was up against in the last tourney I played, so I'm probably scrapping that: it's just too unreliable. I should probably build some iteration of red/green monsters, but I have few strong planeswalkers. Maybe I'll just say "whatever" to multicolor and just play green devotion to hydras.
October 14, 2014 10:51 a.m.
Thanks for all the comments! PreZchoICE1, cklise, Dalektable, CaptainCaveman, and Korombos!
I see Abzan Midrange is a popular deck people are bringing to the table, which motivates me to not want to use Jeskai Tempo. I just don't know guys... What to do? I think what I'm going to do is play Ascendancy at FNM this Friday, and then depending on the results and everything, I will decide on what to use at Game Day.
Kiora_Fan-01, TheAnnihilator, and TheHroth... My friends, I would love your opinion!
October 14, 2014 5:40 p.m.
I will be playing Jeskai Wins. I made the list even before the SCG Open where it took 1st and 6th, and I really love it.
It wins against Abzan, and it loses against Abzan. Siege Rhino is really tough to play against, so I have 3 Disdainful Stroke in my sideboard to deal with that, and it is amazing to have against a ton of other decks too, so its spot is set in concrete. Other than 2-1ing yourself with burn spells to kill it, there are not a lot of ways to deal with the Rhino, but Mantis Rider shines in this match, as nothing they have short of an Elspeth emblem can block it.
Against everything else, Jeskai has a good match game 1, tougher for sure game 2, but as shown by the PT, Jeskai and Abzan are both phenomenal decks. I'd build both if I had the cards, but pulling all the Mantis and no Rhino makes it hard to play Abzan XD
So thats what I'll be doing! =)
Good luck to everyone at Game Day. May Ari Lax's topdecks be ever in your favor.
October 14, 2014 5:51 p.m.
Edit: Changed my mind halfway through that last sentence.
"May you topdeck as well as Ari Lax!" sounds better.
October 14, 2014 5:52 p.m.
Thanks for the advice and your input TheHroth :) and if ari is playing Abzan, i hope he has bad topdecks
October 14, 2014 6:03 p.m.
LordOfDispair says... #15
I'm making a serious attempt to pull a 5 color midrange deck together with a friend, but it's gonna be hella expensive even without sarkhans (which the deck really wants). Hopefully I can make it happen.
October 14, 2014 6:12 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #16
Dude, the Johnny player in me (which doesn't surface very often due to my stronger inner Spike) really wants you to combo people out and just auto-win every round. If I owned that deck, I would play it every FNM, no joke. It's just so perfectly non-interactive, and doesn't even care what creatures your opponent has out as soon as you combo into an infinite/infinite with trample. The issue is that I haven't tested it enough to know how consistent it is. I feel like Tempo/Burn/Control/Whatever-You-Want-To-Call-It might be more competitive if the combo isn't reliable enough.
So, long answer short: if the combo is consistent enough to assemble, go Combo. If not, go Tempo.
October 14, 2014 6:16 p.m.
The problem with Jeskai Ascendancy combo is that is a 4 piece combo: mana dork, ascendancy, helix, and cornucopia.
That is really inconsistent. I'm honestly astonished that one of these decks made top 8 at the PT.
While a great deck, there are many weak points, the first of which I already mentionned: it needs 4 pieces to go off.
The second is that is dies very easily to discard effects. With Thoughtseize and Despise in standard, there are plenty if those around.
It also dies to removal fairly often. Unless you get a Caryatid. Even with a Caryatid though, Crackling Doom will ruin your day.
October 14, 2014 6:30 p.m.
I really agree with the comments earlier as a couple copies of Negate Disdainful Stroke and Reprisal (in love with the card) in the sideboard are fantastic choices, I really think Jeskai will do some work for you!
October 14, 2014 6:37 p.m.
CaptainCaveman says... #19
@TheHroth Abzan Charm gets rid of Mantis Rider just fine ...
Am going to play this deck : Abzan Aggro 2.0 in all likelihood , have play tested against Jeskai Tempo quite a bit with it since that deck seems to be prevalent in my meta and it works quite well
@TheGamer Jeskai Ascendancy is fun to play but like a few people already mentioned it is easily disrupted , you would be better off playing Jeskai Tempo imo
October 14, 2014 6:53 p.m.
Oh yeah. Abzan Charm is a thing.
Your deck looks great. Really like the sideboard Windstorm .
Good luck to you at Game Day!
October 14, 2014 7:26 p.m.
LordOfDispair: I actually placed second place at my FNM with a 5 color planeswalkers brew of mine. It was sweet!
TheAnnihilator: Yeah dude, you dunno how much I wanna use the Combo deck! But it literally dies to a single removal spell. And Jeskai seems a lot more reliable u know? It's just in testing I have literally had the worst imaginable luck with the deck.
TheHroth: definitely see your point, it dies to removal a lot and very easily. The thing I love about the deck though is the combo randomly appears and so the opponent could easily tap out no longer have removal mana up, and then I win.
CaptainCaveman: That's a really cool deck!
October 14, 2014 7:36 p.m.
I have been working and tweeking my own Jeskai Tempo deck and I feel like I have a really solid game against both Devotion decks and Abzan decks. I built the deck with being on the draw in mind. Just because I found that I was loosin alot in those games with the more traditional Jeskai decks.
October 15, 2014 6:40 a.m.
pauljames61491 says... #23
I currently have an Abzan Midrange, inspired much by the builds played at the Pro Tour. While I personally have my vendetta against net decking, I decided to instead do a semi-brew of things I saw in many of the decks among the Pro-Tour Abzan builds. It cost me a pretty penny, but I feel in the end it was worth it. I also have some budget builds inspired by Tolarian Community College, which I found extremely useful (He has a build for a $20 deck that actually DOES have some competitive value to it)
Nigeltastic says... #2
I don't know that getting wrecked by abzan midrange is accurate, it depends on the list and the draws. The combo deck is fun, but gets rocked really hard by any good removal or enchantment destruction.
October 13, 2014 5:52 p.m.