Greetings and salutations dear readers!
This weekend was another win for Jeskai on the SCG Open Series, this time a horse of a different color in the hands of Ivan Jen.
Creatures (16)
- 4 Akroan Crusader
- 4 Favored Hoplite
- 2 Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
- 2 Seeker of the Way
- 4 Monastery Swiftspear
Lands (18)
Spells (26)
- 4 Springleaf Drum
- 4 Gods Willing
- 4 Dragon Mantle
- 4 Retraction Helix
- 2 Jeskai Charm
- 4 Defiant Strike
- 4 Jeskai Ascendancy
Sideboard
One thing that was incredibly evident as the tournament progressed was that Ivan was winning the event. At no point after watching his heroic-based take on
Jeskai Ascendency did I think it was remotely possible for him to lose.
In a nutshell, Ivan is the first person to bring a gun to a knife fight in this format.
So far building decks has played out almost like it was supposed to. Sidisi is great in Reanimator, Mantis Rider is great in aggro, Siege Rhino is great in
midrange, and Butcher of the Horde is great with tokens. Surprise!
Ivan has done something that walked off the beaten path, and that’s essentially blowing things wide open with his take on Jeskai Ascendency.
The combo of Retraction Helix and Springleaf Drum isn’t a new one. In fact, almost a month ago Saito posted a list from a Japanese tournament piloted by
someone named Austin Hatfield that utilized Ascendency, Helix, Drum, and a bevy of other token producers. The sheer brute power it put out was ridiculous.
Some friends of mine and I tested it out, and it was clear this deck was outrageous and able to win from almost any position. Let’s take a look at it:
Creatures (9)
Lands (23)
Spells (29)
One thing that these decks share in common is the thread of Retraction Helix and Springleaf Drum. If you’re not familiar here’s how it works:
1- Have a Springleaf Drum in play.
2- Have a Jeskai Ascendency in play.
3- Cast Retraction Helix on a creature you control. You can now bounce your Springleaf Drum a million times by replaying it, tapping a creature, and
bouncing it and now make your creatures a million/million, eventually attacking and killing your opponent. This also lets you go infinite in all senses of
the word.
Ivan’s deck is the epitome of greed, as it runs eighteen land and relies on sheer strength to win a game, but it’s clear that his build didn’t have that
problem over the weekend as he steamrolled people and made his opponents look silly. While watching one of Ivan’s games with my bae Brennan over Skype, he
commented that the match was over. I started laughing. Ivan had a few lands, a Jeskai Ascendancy, and no creatures in play and was looking across the board
at Hornet Queens in hand and Doomwake Giants.
Clearly he was dead.
Clearly, right?
Clearly I am an idiot for laughing at that.
Ivan untapped and proceeded to “go off” with Jeskai Ascendancy and a combination of very good/lucky draws and very tight play. This was
when I knew that he couldn’t lose the rest of the weekend.
So why was everyone so surprised to see the kinds of plays Ivan was making? Patrick Sullivan even remarked that he took the established Jeskai deck and was
doing very different things with it, but Austin had done them a month prior to great enough success that the Twitterverse was posting quite a bit about
him.
While this is the most robust and interesting I think a format has been in years, one of the biggest motivators in shaping a format is the desire for
innovation. Austin brought Retraction Helix + Ascendancy + Springleaf Drum to everyone’s attention, but no one had really taken advantage of it until Ivan
did. When he did, everyone took notice.
This leads me to believe that Austin’s token deck might be the perfect place to start when addressing what a potent version going forward could be. It’s
obvious some cards in his deck were the product of a new format and some cards either seem out of place or entirely superfluous. Dakra Mystic is cute, but
without the combo it feels weak and unneeded. So we can improve it…I think.
Creatures (7)
Lands (22)
Spells (31)
- 4 Raise the Alarm
- 4 Springleaf Drum
- 3 Lightning Strike
- 3 Retraction Helix
- 1 Dictate of Heliod
- 4 Stoke the Flames
- 4 Jeskai Charm
- 4 Hordeling Outburst
- 4 Jeskai Ascendancy
Sideboard
When testing with this deck, it shows the same kind of ability to win out of nowhere that Ivan’s list does but in a different capacity.
As a Rabblemaster deck, the inclusion of Retraction Helix isn’t just a combo piece. The simple one-blue instant leads to some pretty ridiculous blowouts
when you can bounce a potential blocker and take your team to the house. Hordeling Outburst and Goblin Rabblemaster work very well together, going from one
to four extra goblin attackers that all pump your Rabblemaster.
Jeskai Ascendancy, as is usually the case, is the reason to play this deck for the most part. Turning all of your spells into Glorious Anthem can make
blocking very non-profitable for your opponent, and the ability to churn out an obscene amount of creatures makes a flurry of burn lethal when you combine
them with your tokens and +1/+1’s from the Ascendancy. Raise the Alarm at the end of your opponent’s turn can be lethal.
The downside of this deck can be addressed by the sideboard. Doomwake Giant will be out in full force along with Drown in Sorrow. Admittedly they are the
hardest cards for this deck to deal with, but Negate and Disdainful Stroke are fine answers to them. Glare of Heresy is for Siege Rhino and Wingmate Roc,
but it also exiles Banishing Light, which is 99% of the time going to target your Ascendancy.
One extremely important thing to note is that, while G/B Constellation has been putting out great numbers recently, Jeskai decks are still beating them
with superior tempo and burn. When they falter, they get crushed, but when they resolve one of their bigger spells, it’s quite hard to come back from it
with this type of deck. The rest of the field though, is quite beatable as you not only have a combo that can kill from out of nowhere, but a few tokens, a
couple burn spells, and some Jeskai pumps later, your opponent is d-e-a-d. There aren’t many decks that can make that boast.
So if you’re battling this weekend, I’d be adding this deck to the gauntlet and testing the potency of it. I think you’ll be just as surprised as I was at
the sheer power level.
Bonus Section: FNM Hero Part 1
This week was the start of FNM Hero with Boss Sligh and daaaaaaaaamn was this deck a lot cooler than I thought it would be. For starters here is what I
learned about it:
1- Rounds take twelve minutes to play. This is important because getting Chipotle is my top priority.
2- Killing people on turn 4 is common.
3- This deck makes people rage.
4- Having eighteen matching Mountains is sweet.
5- Beating Drown in Sorrow is possible. Beating two of them is not.
6- The field is hostile to this deck on accident.
Creatures (23)
- 3 Frenzied Goblin
- 4 Foundry Street Denizen
- 4 Akroan Crusader
- 4 Firedrinker Satyr
- 4 Goblin Rabblemaster
- 4 Monastery Swiftspear
Lands (18)
- 18 Mountain
Spells (19)
The only real change was cutting 4 Goblin Rabblemaster for 4 Hordeling Outburst.
Seeing as Friday was Halloween I decided to battle on Wednesday night. 2 Drop, my LGS has adopted SCG’s Game Night. This brought out nearly thirty players(!) on a freaking Wednesday. The program is such a success, and it really made the newer players feel like they were
battling in something more important than an FNM while still having the casual feel that you love from those local tournaments.
I was able to cobble together a 3-1-1 record for the Swiss.
My wins were against Temur Monster decks twice as well as G/B Constellation. My loss came from a Sultai Control deck. I drew after that and happily walked
into the first Top 8 of FNM Hero!
The wins felt like landslides, and I was able to obtain victory very quickly. This deck can do some fairly ridiculous things in quick fashion. Hammerhand
is a frighteningly strong enchantment that does a ton of work, especially when combined with something like a Frenzied Goblin, who with haste can keep
their team from blocking. I was beyond impressed with it. Dragon Mantle with Monastery Swiftspear on turn 2 is three damage, and when combined with the
inability to block can take out huge chunks of your opponent’s life.
Horedeling Outburst was a delight to play with, although I can see exactly why you’d rather be playing Goblin Rabblemaster, as he can help you rebuild from
a Drown in Sorrow a little better. My losses usually had my opponents at around 1-3 life before they stabilized, where a Rabblemaster would have almost
certainly won the game for me. Outburst was very strong when it was good, however. Three creatures for three mana is a bargain in this deck. It almost
makes me want to play Trumpet Blast…
The losses, however, showcased the most glaring issue we’re going to have going forward.
Game 1 against Sultai, I was able to win very quickly, but in games 2 and 3, I was dispatched by a combination of Drown in Sorrow and Bile Blight. It
didn’t help that both games I drew seven lands in our eighteen land deck, but that’s Magic sometimes, and I wasn’t able to close things out quickly enough.
A similar situation happened in the Top 8 against U/B Control. Traditionally, this isn’t a terrible matchup, but the pilot (my good buddy Paul) dismantled
me with the optimal draw from his deck two games straight and sent me packing. Again, the weaknesses of my deck showed up in spades.
Going forward, we’re going to have to address the severe problem of rolling over to Drown and Blight. Anyone have any suggestions?
I was able to parlay my winnings into sleeves, so now our deck has a pair of pretty purple Dragon Shields, so I’m hoping they’ll last for a bit and make
sure we don’t have to use any more credit in the near future for supplies.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go watch my Steelers continue to abuse the Ravens.
Payback is a harsh mistress. You birds will suffer at the hands of Big Ben.
This week, I get to play a ton of Magic, so be sure to check me out on Twitch streaming as I’ll be running some sweet Standard brews through the paces. Get
your Salty icons ready, kids. I’m sure I’m going to be in rare form.