Pioneer - Jeskai Control

18 36 6
4 23 8 25
Control Combo

Building off the recent 5-0 lists that have been having success on MTGO and in the PTQs, this is the build of Jeskai Control that I have been having a fair deal of success with at my LGS. Why Jeskai over straight Azorius? The main reason I am doing so is to have access to Possibility Storm out of the sideboard with Fae of Wishes for the lock with Teferi, Time Raveler. If you're able to control the board well it is quite easy to reach the point where you can +1 your little Teferi and use that to cast Granted on your opponent's end step and immediately untap to play Possibility Storm and lock your opponent. In my testing this has been a very effective win condition; I probably win more games with the lock at this point than I do with big Teferi or Castle Ardenvale. This lock is also much easier to establish than Narset and Geier Reach Sanitarium.

While the mana base is obviously somewhat more difficult to work with playing a third color, the addition of Fabled Passage and Mystic Monastery do make it much easier to find the mana you need to cast your spells. Control can absolutely afford to have lands enter the battlefield tapped in the first few turns, so playing Monastery or Fabled Passage turn 1 is not nearly as crippling as it would be for other decks. This gives Jeskai a significant advantage over Esper which does not currently have a tap tri-land available for them. 

Magma Spray is one of the few main deck red cards that we run at the moment, but it is a very important card to be playing. Being able to immediately kill a mana dork in many games slows down your opponent significantly, and having the ability to exile a Scrapheap Scrounger or an Arclight Phoenix can help buy you time against those decks. This is the same reason Anger of the Gods is in the deck, though the mana is somewhat more difficult to achieve for playing Anger and as such I only run 1 copy. Other than Magma Spray and Anger, our deck is basically entirely Azorius and runs all the expected Azorius Control cards. Lava Coil is a card that I have considered for the main deck and depending on the meta it could certainly be a strong addition. It is perhaps better than Azorius Charm but having the option to cycle Azorius Charm means it is less of a dead card in the control matchups.

The sideboard has been changing a lot and I am still unsure as to what the best configuration for the board is now that Field of the Dead has been banned and we no longer need to worry about it. The major cards that we could wish for are Alpine Moon, Pithing Needle, Wear // Tear, Supreme Verdict, Rest in Peace, Possibility Storm and Chandra, Awakened Inferno. From there, the remaining cards are mostly ones that we will actually bring in. Lyra and Authority of the Consuls are great against aggro, and also they will be brought in against decks with cards like Glorybringer especially. Dovin's Veto and Mystical Dispute will be brought in against control and Nexus Reclamation, and Dispute is also a card we will bring in against Oko decks most definitely. I am not sure if we have enough in the sideboard against Arclight Phoenix, and so I will certainly be experimenting with cards for that matchup going forward. Damping Sphere was a card that I had in the board for a while and I think it may still be a solid addition against Arclight Phoenix and the Lotus Field decks, as well as Green Ramp, so it may return at some point to the sideboard.

Comments

Login to comment

0 comments

Atramhasis
Last Updated: 11 Mar 2020
Created: 03 Dec 2019
848 167 0

Mainboard - 60 cards (24 distinct)

Creature (4)
$0.300.02
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (23)
$0.16€0.040.03
$0.25€0.090.03
$0.60€0.310.03
$0.33€0.260.03
$3.84€2.180.03
$0.60€0.470.25
$0.25€0.160.03
$2.75€2.910.26
$0.23€0.150.03
Land (25)
$8.97€9.460.40
$0.65€0.140.03
$0.33€0.160.03
$0.45€0.180.03
$0.38€0.150.03
$18.00€13.190.35
$13.69€11.541.52
$1.96€1.670.02
$6.50€4.260.17
$0.60€0.970.03
$1.42€0.930.02
Planeswalker (8)
$1.00€0.730.03
$19.17€22.400.10
$8.00€8.115.24

Sideboard - 15 cards (9 distinct)

$1.98€1.320.02
$0.48€0.430.05
$0.40€0.410.03
$2.75€2.910.26
$3.84€2.180.03
$1.49€1.480.35
$0.65€0.490.63
$3.32€2.850.33
$2.57€1.680.02

Add deck to your favorites

Please log in to be able to store your favorite decks for easy access under My Decks in the main menu.

Enter The Battlefield Prepared

With the MTGA Assistant deck tracker MTGA Assistant
Main/Sideboard Rarity Count
8 14 31 3 0
0 8 4 3 0