Dies to Removal

If mardu is in the competitive section shouldn't this one be also?

I like it the way it is right now with the different threads. You have to navigate less!

Time to use these newfound powers of mine.

What are people's thoughts on Magma Spray vs Anger of the Gods for Boss Sligh?

edit: What about Scouring Sands? I feel the problem is the swarm of 1/1s. Scouring Sands might be really really good.

also new CFB video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9acJT1vMLo

Scouring Sands is this format's Electrickery (I miss that card). The only problem against Boss Sligh lists is them running Hammerhand and Swiftspear being x/2. It does trade well with Hordeling Outburst.

What are people's thoughts on Magma Spray vs Anger of the Gods for Boss Sligh?

edit: What about Scouring Sands? I feel the problem is the swarm of 1/1s. Scouring Sands might be really really good.

also new CFB video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9acJT1vMLo

I like Magma Spray more because it's instant speed and doesn't hit your own creatures, but if you really want to crush mono-red, you can also run Circle of Flame. It plays well against the "go wide" strategy that Boss Sligh currently favours.

Thoughts on Matej Zatlkaj's list from GP Stockholm?

[deck=MATEJ ZATLKAJ – JESKAI, GRAND PRIX STOCKHOLM 2014]
Creatures:
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Mantis Rider
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Goblin Rabblemaster

Instants
3 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Jeskai Charm
3 Stoke the Flames
1 Gods Willing
1 Dig Through Time

Walkers:
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Enchantments:
1 Banishing Light

Land:
2 Island
2 Mountain
2 Plains
3 Shivan Reef
1 Temple of Epiphany
3 Flooded Strand
4 Mystic Monastery
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Battlefield Forge

Sideboard:
1 Gods Willing
3 Suspension Field
3 Magma Spray
2 Negate
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Arc Lightning
1 Keranos, God of Storms
[/deck]

I'm not a fan of the 15 3-drops, but I love everything else. Erase should probably be in the sideboard as well.

I love the list, I would -3 brimaz -1 rabblemaster for +2 hushwing +2 hordeling outburst. Strasky posted a primer on reddit (him and zatlkaj ran the same list)

http://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments ... ai_primer/

Matej was probably hedging on Jeskai being the most popular deck in the field which explains the 3 Brimaz. I've harped on him multiple times since I started running this deck and my mirror matches have basically come down to who is running Brimaz vs who isn't (hint: the deck running Brimaz almost always wins). I think his deck is a bit creature dense but it is very proactive which is a good place to be in right now.

I still like the Nullify lists though.

I want to add Nullify to my list as well, possibly replacing the Negate and one other card. It does feel rather well positioned now that 3 mana creatures like Anafenza and Knuckleblade are seeing increased play. Trying to work the mana to allow double costed spells of each color in succession is going to be the hard part, I think.

I think you have to choose two colors that you can run double costs of (ie pick two: UU, RR, or WW). I don't think it is a good idea to try to run WW, RR, and UU.

what double color costed white spells are people running? Elspeth and Roc? The only double colored spells I have are RR or UU.

EDIT: Oh, right. Brimaz. Not a huge fan of him here, tbh.

Brimaz is a boss against the Abzan decks as well. The T4 is a big deal against all the Bile Blights and Drown they can bring in. It's also huge against aggro where it combos nicely with Anger. I have been running 2 in the main for two weeks now and I'm very happy with them, I have also moved away from the Nullify and Hushwing build and chosen to just present more threts, trade and use my Disdainful Strokes and Suspension Fields against the big threats and just race/trade with the rest.
As a result of this I'm running more creatures.

Right now it's:
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Mantis Rider
3 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Brimaz is a boss against the Abzan decks as well. The T4 is a big deal against all the Bile Blights and Drown they can bring in. It's also huge against aggro where it combos nicely with Anger. I have been running 2 in the main for two weeks now and I'm very happy with them, I have also moved away from the Nullify and Hushwing build and chosen to just present more threts, trade and use my Disdainful Strokes and Suspension Fields against the big threats and just race/trade with the rest.
As a result of this I'm running more creatures.

Right now it's:
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Mantis Rider
3 Ashcloud Phoenix
2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
2 Stormbreath Dragon

Makes sense. I think it's probably a play style thing more than anything else. Brimaz definitely has synergies here but I've just found him unnecessary slow and clunky so far.

I like your creature base. You could probably go down to 18 by cutting a Phoenix.

Matej was probably hedging on Jeskai being the most popular deck in the field which explains the 3 Brimaz. I've harped on him multiple times since I started running this deck and my mirror matches have basically come down to who is running Brimaz vs who isn't (hint: the deck running Brimaz almost always wins). I think his deck is a bit creature dense but it is very proactive which is a good place to be in right now.

I still like the Nullify lists though.

i gotta say this hasn't been my experience. Haven't had issues against Brimaz yet. I do love putting him on top of libraries though. I can answer him well enough, he slows down and taps out my opponent, and he doesn't have flying or reach. In my experience the first Jeskai player to land a sphinx is the one who wins.

I've been liking Hushwing Gryff more and more in the mirror and against control. Obviously it is an all star vs Abzan and devotion. I feel that being able to cast a creature on their turn (even if it is a mediocre creature) is such huge game.

Also, does anyone know what is effective vs Mardu midrange? It's a matchup I have yet to crack.

I finally have pretty much all the cards I need for Jeskai, and I want to make the swap over from RW burn. However, I really like how aggressive RW is and I would like to be on an aggressive build of Jeskai.

From what I've read, "aggressive" Jeskai lists usually run a high number of creatures, maybe God's Willing, and few to none DTT. The problem is I don't really want to run a bunch of creatures and I like DTT. Part of the reason I want to play Jeskai over RW is because of all of the powerful spells the Jeskai deck gets to run (including DTT).

I also want to try out Nullify. Quite a few players here seem to like it and it's a very different kind of card than I usually get to play in Standard nowadays.

The question is, can I build an aggressive Jeskai deck that doesn't run a ton of creatures and runs shweet spells instead? I don't even want to board into a control deck if I can help it (don't have the cards and I like/am better at being aggressive).

Let me know if I'm just asking for the impossible and playing DTT, Nullify, and fewer creatures necessitates a more controlling list.

Also, does anyone know what is effective vs Mardu midrange? It's a matchup I have yet to crack.

Find a card what can beat Hordeling Outburst and you shouldn't have much problems. This can be from Arc Lightning to Anger of the Gods.

My secret weapons against Mardu are just Sarkhan, Stormbreath, and Ashcloud with Circle of Flame or Anger to clear up the ground.

is Anger & Circle of Flame worth it when their only targets are Rabblemaster & Hordeling Outburst? Seems like you can get f'd and draw Anger when you need to deal with their Butcher or Dragon.

A few decks play Seeker and Bloodsoaked Champion as well. I base exactly what I bring on on what I saw the previous game.

Butcher and Dragon can be dealt with Stoke, and I hate seeing that from the other side of the table.

I just it's just how the matchup is then? If you have the Anger for the Rabble/Outburst or the Stoke for Butcher/Dragon, you win. Otherwise you lose? Maybe I've just been unlucky, but my answers always seem mismatched. (When they are matched though, it feels great.)

Maybe I should up the number of Banishing Lights I'm running post board (only have 1 side right now) and cut some Suspension Fields.

Nullify guys. Nullify.

Hordeling Outburst still presents a problem, but Mantis Rider makes this less of an issue, and if those kind of decks are really big you can just run Scouring Sands or Arc Lightning (the latter is more expensive but also more flexible).

9th place IQ yesterday (lost round 1 ) with outburst in my jeskai deck...wuhhhhhh

@Valdarith, I'm running 3 Nullify main. As I was thinking it over, I think nothing is wrong with my build, I just need more experience to know when to hold up certain counterspells & just get a better feel for the matchup in general. I was siding out a single Nullify, but I think I was all 3 because it also hits Chained to the Rocks.

9th place IQ yesterday (lost round 1 ) with outburst in my jeskai deck...wuhhhhhh

I like that it works so well with Seeker and Jeskai Charm.

Honestly Brimaz, Ashcloud and Stormbreath are the best against Abzan and Mardu. More importantly though, Abzan is losing popularity, GR Bees and GB Devotion are both actual bad matches and it's not great against Ascendancy (The Heroic version) either. Jeskai w/ a controlling board or quad Ashcloud I think is close to 50/50 anyway. This deck may end up better positioned simply by being able to better adapt to how the meta develops and being able to run countermagic vs. the Big Green decks.

Folks, let me know what you think of this. I may just be wrong.

I'm not running Nullify in my list. 0 in the 75. Instead, I'm running 2 Negate and 3 Disdainful Stroke in the MAIN. No countermagic in the board.

My reasons are as follows:
1. Nullify's double blue can certainly be built around but it has a ripple effect on the rest of the deck that I haven't been comfortable with
2. Anything that Nullify can hit but Stroke can't can easily be handled by our burn, with the exception of Hexproof things, which basically means Sylvan Caryatid. And as the CMCs go higher, Stroke gains so much in utility. For this reason I think Stroke is much more flexible than Nullify.
3. I like the 2 Negates as protection. Hits Downfall very well.

I run 2 Stroke, 1 Negate, 1 Mindswipe main with the ability to go to 3 Stroke and Negate post board. I have held off Nullify because I run Brimaz, Anger, Phoenix, and Stormbreath making the mana base way too unstable if I add a third double color. I do run one Clever Impersonator in the sideboard but I don't need that out until much later usually. Nullify certainly is powerful but I don't think you can run UU into WW into RR consistently enough. If I had to run Nullify for some reason, I would likely cut the two Brimaz that I have and reset my mana based on that.

How are the mainboard Negate? I want to go back to running Brimaz main, but I think you can't run Nullify & Brimaz in the same list.

I'm so torn. Nullify & Brimaz are soo good. Maybe I should go back to the drawing board and cut RR spells?

I like having one around as a "just in case" kind of card. Nearly every deck has something we want to counter. I woulnd't add any more, though.

So this is what I just drafted up:

[deck]Red Lite Jeskai[/deck]

Basically I cut Stoke the Flames for Banishing Light & +1 Magma Jet, cut Stormbreath for Prognostic Sphinx, and cut Ashcloud Phoenix for 2 maindeck Hushwing Gryff. Thoughts? I'm seeing a weakness to Stormbreath. The obvious answer is Stoke the Flames, but we're only running 12 red sources.

Stoke is such a house for us that I think we need it. You can convoke one of the red from the Riders if you really need to. I would cut the Evolving Wilds for 1 Triumph and 1 Epiphany to help.

Forgot to add that -2 Evolving Wilds, -1 Mountain for some R/U or R/W scrylands is probably correct, but I ain't gonna dish out ~13 tix for a UR scryland. But overall, the amount of red sources stay the same. I was thinking cutting a Banishing Light for a singleton Stoke...maybe even push it with both, but I definitely don't want to go over 2.

edit: Was also thinking a God's Willing or two could fit in.

Am I crazy for thinking Stymied Hopes?

yes.

Just play a streamlined version of your preferred deck (with conscious meta game decisions), practice, and draw well...thats how you win.

God damn I am on a tear with this deck. 4 straight FNMs and Game Day without dropping a match.

What is your list?