Is Mantis Rider Still a good card?
Standard forum
Posted on April 22, 2015, 10:53 a.m. by Kralug
So, i have been playing abzan using my own deck for quite a long while now, and its done me well so far. But being the little dumbass i am, im starting to run tired of playing it. Lately, i have been looking into the Jeskai colors instead, and this is mostly due to Mantis Rider
Tl;Dr, When playing jeskai in the current Standard Meta, Is Jeskai tokens the only way to go, or does jeskai aggro ( Or Fireworks, as its called now ) still work as a viable option?
I'm running a more aggressive version of the standard Jeskai decklist, with a slightly heavier creature base (19). I try to round out my curve with 5-drops like Stormbreath Dragon and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. Tends to work pretty well. On the play, I would prefer to play Goblin Rabblemaster on turn 3, but a Mantis Rider can make a very explosive entrance so early. On the draw, I've found it to be a superior play over Goblin Rabblemaster depending on the board state. Overall, Mantis Rider seems to be a staple in any deck capable of running it.
Here's the deck that I'm running: Onslaught
April 22, 2015 11:05 a.m.
Thanks guys, Im amazed at how well i got responses in such a short amount of time. It was almost faster than the Flash himself.
I think im gonna invest in Jeskai Fireworks, then. or burn, whichever you want to call it. It just seems alot more fun then to play Jeskai tokens.
April 22, 2015 11:14 a.m.
JohnnyBaggins says... #5
Jeskai Burn has a lot of great match ups, but it feels like it matches up really bad against other decks. Against the RG Devotion/Dragons list, you sometimes know in Turn 4 it's over. Even if the games go to turn 10 or so, sometimes you just postpone the inevitable. I mean, after all, you're an aggro deck. Then again, you're capable at beating anyone without life gain, since your life gain can quickly get you out of reach. It's not rare that the combination of Soulfire Grand Master, targeted burn removal and attacks let a game stand at 40 to 10 life.
Ahw, anyways, go for it. Jeskai Burn is awesome, enjoy it while we have Temples and Pain Lands, I doubt the three colour decks will have a reasonable standing once these fixers rotate out.
April 22, 2015 11:25 a.m.
Every deck in standard right now should have an attrition plan with the exception of mono-red which is so fast it doesn't even need to plan a long game. Jeskai Burn is aggro, yes, but not aggro enough to not have an attrition plan. See, Sultai Reanimator has Whip of Erebos, blue control decks play Dig Through Time, Abzan plays Abzan Charm, Read the Bones and Courser of Kruphix, Jeskai tokens has Treasure Cruise and Jeskai Ascendancy, G/W has Mastery of the Unseen and Whisperwood Elemental, Pure green has Courser of Kruphix and Eidolon of Blossoms...
Jeskai Burn NEEDS Outpost Siege, a full playset of it, just like the ''2 week hype Boros Burn'' deck. If you feel there's nothing you can do by turn 4, that is because you have no plan of going past that if you get behind. Outpost Siege may seem non-intuitive to play on turn 4, but unless you think you can kill the opponent on turn 5 or 6 I would never hesitate taking the turn off to play it!
April 22, 2015 1:34 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #7
Mantis Rider is not very good right now and neither are tokens. If I were to go Jeskai it would be to run Dragonlord Ojutai alongside Thunderbreak Regent.
April 22, 2015 2:30 p.m.
Im in the low to the ground camp when it comes to Jeskai. But my Mentors are both a early and late game plan. I prefer having cheap efficient creatures that stay relevant in the later turns rather the having clunky cmc5-6 cards in my deck. The upside of running Mentors are that your Slashes an Strikes stay relevant while the game goes long allowing for a more focused deck.
April 23, 2015 5:53 a.m.
JohnnyBaggins says... #9
I would like to add one last time here: At PPTQ yesterday, Mantis Rider easily won me 30% of the matches I did win and severely contributed to winning a good part the rest. It's a bomb, well-positioned against the Esper-Control lists as well as against the RG Aggro lists and can also be the card that punches Abzan. I enjoyed it a lot.
JohnnyBaggins says... #2
I currently run Jeskai Burn with 15 creatures which are Soulfire Grand Master, Rabblemaster, Thunderbreak Regent and, obviously, Mantis Rider. Mantis Rider is MVP in around 60% of the games I win. I have done quite well on Game Day and will run it at PPTQ. I have, however, yet to test it against the new Dragons Control list. In any case, Mantis Rider is amazing against the somewhat slow Gruul Dragons lists and obviously good against control. I love Mantis Rider and would play it in every deck I can reiably cast it Turn 3 or 4. As reference, the deck I play: Discipline to Persevere, Insight to Discover
April 22, 2015 11 a.m.