dknight27

Doesn't look like a bad build for "as is" cards. Without fetch lands, I would consider taking it down to 23 lands, as 25 is gunna choke you out pretty quickly.

Are you looking to add to this?

I'm not a big fan of painful truths in here. Turn 3 you want to drop a walker (either naturally or boosted by birds), and this deck is going to bleed life to its lands and has limited interaction so is very vulnerable to fast critters, so in my opinion the advantage painful truths gives in here isn't really worth the blood.

I would swap out both truths for some 1 drop tactical cards like serum visions, sleight of hand, opt (sleight of hand is my choice here, but that's me).

I'm also not a fan of 2 copies of mana leak, as only 2 copies means you are unlikely to have one available turn 2, and it loses effectiveness the later in the game you draw it. Plus, you need a strong turn 2 response to slow down opponent's tempo grab (which this deck needs to survive as it needs to produce 4 mana to really get moving). I would suggest upping it to 4 remands (a turn 2 remand against opponent's grab at tempo would be DEVASTATING in this build if you can follow it up with a turn 3 walker), and maybe some more interaction.

This looks pretty solid to me. The only real problem I see is that 17 lands means you will eat more mulligans (especially if you're on the play) and will have problems fielding the right colors early, which leads to eating more mulligans.

I know springleaf drum helps to fix this, "sort of" bringing your land total to 22, but its conditional (need a critter (only 8 zero drops)) and need a land to activate it, so you can't spam it in turn 1 and use it to play another 1 drop easily because this requires 4 cards in the opening hand, 2 spots of which are limited (4 drums, 8 zero drop critters). That critter is also EXTREMELY vulnerable to opponent's turn 1 lightning bolt and fatal push, which neuters drum for another turn, eating your tempo into oblivion.

That's just too high of a chance for tempo and mulligan problems for me, even if this deck is sick fast when it hits. Other than that, this looks excellent. Nice job

What are we looking at here? What are you trying to build?

Even with 24 lands, this deck seems a bit too top heavy on the curve.

Ya, its a shame that colonnade costs an arm and a leg. I honestly don't think its worth anywhere near that much cash. It's certainly a good card, but not worth 60 bucks. And, another unfortunate thing for jeskai, the red/white and blue/red man lands aren't very good,

I think the way it looks now should be just fine

Hi there friend. I love the bones you have going on here. I see a couple questions in the curve and land choices.

25 lands on such a tiny curve with only 2 man lands and no tactical lands seems very high. You can play all but 3 cards in the build including snapping back (soooooo many 1 drop goodies). Yes with 25 lands you will get to drop your gearhulk faster, but there are only 3 copies and it would be much more beneficial to have to wait a few more turns to drop the nuke-hulk and have instants to throw at opponent during those turns.

Your other option is to swap in more man lands or tactical lands, that way they keep the speed up but also net you either control or a win condition to boot. More colonnades, field of ruin, ghost quartet, etc.


I'm also surprised to not see a couple of the control instant staples in here, namely remand (#1 tempo eater in modern), negate (cheap and deadly hard no), and electrolyze (all purpose +1 and wonderful flashback target).

I would personally drop serum visions as it eats your chance to respond turn 1 (bolt/path the turn 1 drop opponent wants, or drop an ops when opponent passes). Swap them out for 4 remands, chop out 2 lands for 2 electrolyzes, and give yourself the time and targets your flash dudes need to dominate.

Just my thoughts. I've built and played quite a few of these types of builds, and I've had more success when I ran about 23 lands with a healthy chunk of man lands and tactical, and enough remands and electrolyzes to build time/eat tempo.

Just a concept I'm kicking around. It's so damn hard to run a creature based deck in modern as there are so many good removal options that shut them down that don't eat tempo. So, at least in my mind, one way to get around this is to run creatures that benefit you even if they run into normal removal.

Now, not much helps you against path to exile, but the rest of the staple removal options: terminate, fatal push, lightning bolt, damnation, wrath, etc, all lose effectiveness against a build that either doesn't respond to normal removal or recovers so quickly that it doesn't matter. Thus, a teamsters (union) theme.

Emissary grabs a land, so accelerates and retains advantage
finks is the anti-removal king
rogue refiner replaces itself when it hits
thragtusk replaces itself at death
vizier swarms like crazy in this build

All the other critters are either hexproof or shut down opponent's tempo

Some 1 drop tactical control to speed things up and the regular splash of path to exile.


The whole thing is simple, and most likely can't keep up with the heavy hitters in modern, but its a fun idea

Hi friend. I know this is an old one, but I see a couple tweaks that could help this build out.

The curve is a little skewed toward 2 drops, meaning this deck will have a rough time reacting in the early few turns cause you will be choked up turn 1 and 3. Also, I don't see any tactics cards, like brainstorm, which not only fits perfectly in this build, but with fetch lands basically guarantees that this deck will hit hard and fast at every stage. Its not a bad fit to isochron if need be, and helps even out the curve so you have something to do turn 1 and 3 in reaction or proactively.

21 lands with 6 fetches is good for this build, but honestly I would think about running a couple man lands as alt win conditions that wont be dead draws after turn 4.

Running 15 creatures in this build seems a bit high to me too. A burn spell on isochron is win condition enough to go a bit sparse on the field win conditions, especially since isochron is a dead draw without an instant in hand. Ergo, cut a few critters, up the instant count, isochron becomes more effective and the deck gains more control.

A couple of the creature choices don't make much sense to me either. Hypersonic dragon doesn't seem to give you any advantage in here, and is pretty expensive. Soulfire gransmaster is expensive to run at high capacity (need 4 extra mana to get its great effects), and realistically the lifelink won't give you that much advantage compared to a cheaper control outlet (electralize for example).

Remand would also go a long way as it triggers all your guys, buys you tempo, and retains card advantage. Play it turn 2, you gain advantage. Play it at any other time, you retain advantage. Put it on isochron and watch opponent cry as you eat his tempo and refill your hand.


Just my thoughts. Like I said, I know this one is a bit old, but I love the build idea and I want to see more of them.

fair enough. keep up the work, its super helpful for new players, helps you work things out as well, and in general helps the mtg community

35 cents on trollandtoad preordered for dominaria, 50 cents for ixalan, so it should be affordable (I presume).

I'm surprised to see no 1 drop tactical cards in here. Opt goes for 35 cents nowadays

I love the idea going on here. Honestly, my favorite type of build in magic. Control the field and tempo, establish a win condition, resolve the win condition. Its pure, fun, and there are tons of color combos that can do it.

I do see some potential problems in this build, nothing major.

The main problem I see is that there is an imbalance between control cards vs win conditions. lingering souls, luminarch ascension, and myth realized are pure win conditions, meaning they don't really help you gain control until they are firmly established with field position intact. Gearhulk, Gideon, and celestial are combo win conditions that either accelerate or act as control mechanics too. Which means you have 13 win conditions in here (not counting the flashbacked souls), so the math is on you drawing 1 in the opening which should be a dead card that hurts both your development and ability to respond to control mechanics. This is also compounded because you have some good tactical outlet here (opt, spreading seas, azcanta), all of which rotates through cards at a pretty quick rate, cutting down on the slots you actually need to keep available for win conditions.

I'm also seeing the potential for a couple counter swap outs to hit harder and faster on the control end. Remand and Negate should be considered, as remand buys you time and adds tactical control to keep moving through the deck and negate will put a hard stop to everything but creatures (which you have 9 removal outlets to stop). I would consider swapping out spreading seas for remand as its a turn 2 commitment to drop seas and rely on opponent being mana-screwed, whereas remand is reactive and is basically guaranteed to buy you tempo turn 2 and 3.

Fortunately, these two problems fix each other. Drop out a couple win conditions for control elements and you have a quick and sleek control machine.

I suggest losing lingering souls altogether in here. I know it combos wonderfully with supreme verdict, can act as a blocker or a win condition, and gives you 2 waves to tactically get done what you need to get done, but I don't think it fits this build. Souls hits max effect in decks that spam it to the grave like gifts, and you basically don't ever want to drop it turn 3 on games when you're going second, and rarely want to drop it turn 3 when you're on the play as you need to be able to react to opponent having 3 open lands.

I think the gearhulk, 2 colonnades, 4 myth realized, and 2 gideons is more than enough to get the job done in a timely manner. That's 9/60 win conditions with a healthy dose of tactical cards to move through the deck, and 5 of the 9 win conditions double as control elements or acceleration. That's pure synergy right there. Personally, I'm ok with running 3 gearhulks and a couple man lands in a control deck as basically the only win conditions as long as there are good tactical outlets, but that's me. I accept that most people aren't willing to keep it that low. That should give you the room to swap in more counters to keep control until you field your win condition.

Just my thoughts, not trying to tear this build down or anything like that. As I mentioned above, this stuff is my favorite, and I think you are onto something good here. I hadn't considered myth as a potential powerhouse win condition yet.

If you think im wrong about this, by all means tell me. I know im advocating for a card that costs a quarter

I'll definitely think about the storage matrix, oath options. I tossed around some of those ideas, and ill revisit them for sure.

As for emissary, I know its not a popular opinion, but I think it is one of the best "non good" cards in modern, as its interactions with popular decktypes work out very very well. If you're playing against burn, its a turn 2 stall tactic that accelerates when opponent is forced to waste material on it. If you're against control, its a turn 2 clock that accelerates when opponent wastes material on it. Aggro, same deal. Only real problem it has is against combo decks, as most don't run critterrage to murder you, but at least it is a turn 2 clock.

I like this over sakura basically because sakura is useless beyond his chumpblock capacity and the intentional land fetch. a 1/1 isn't a clock, can't hold down against early critters, and it an absolute dead draw out of the middlegame. Emissary is a shitty clock, but still a clock, has the potential to hold down against 2/2's and 3/2's (goblin guide, kitchen finks, etc), and is far less of a dead draw. Yes, its land fetch is conditional, but im not running it specifically for land fetch in here. 22 lands, 4 tactical searches, 4 caryatids means lands shouldn't be a problem in a 3 color deck with 8 fetch lands. Instead, im running it as a turn 2 blocker and/or clock starter that forces opponent to accelerate you and lose material in the process.

Just my thoughts. I've had great success utilizing this idea

I sincerely love this build, and the generations of deck just like it that are now possible that Jace has been unleashed. Nice work.

I really like the builds just like that that are now possible in modern thanks to the Jace-rush. 4 drop control component that doubles as a win condition, a control deck's dream.
I'm not sure 24 lands with no man lands or other mechanic lands is the way to go though, especially since you are basically guaranteed to get a turn 1 discard or tactical outlet (serum visions). I would advise dropping the land count to 23 or 22 and swapping in 2 man lands, creeping tar pit, as alternate win conditions that double as land drops early to get you to the land curve you want. I would also like to see 3 copies or the full set of search for azcanta, as it generates crazy advantage in builds like this and even though its legendary you almost never run into a problem with redundancies as it transforms so you can run the second copy when you draw it, and when you activate the transformed copy the math is on you preventing yourself from ever drawing the other copies.
Just my thoughts

This and burn are pretty much my least favorite decktype. I considered calling it meat grinder

Howdy friend. I like the framework you have going here. Quick question before I give any more feedback. What's the budget on this?

Yep, I tend to agree. He punishes control builds like no other