When planeswalkers come to blows, the results can be explosive. When THREE all meet in battle, the entire multiverse feels the effects....
Be it fate or manipulation or a simple misunderstanding that has brought them together, three powerful planeswalkers find themselves on the plane of Zendikar with dueling purposes. The pyromancer Chandra Nalaar seeks an ancient power deep in the caverns of the plane. The mindmage Jace Beleran seeks Chandra, wondering about the magic she seeks and how the fiery mage may put it to use. And the dragon-worshipping warrior Sarkhan Vol seeks the approval of his powerful master, prepared to show no mercy to any who stand in his way... including Chandra when they meet deep inside the caverns of the plane. When Jace joins the escalating conflict, an ancient power will indeed be unleashed on Zendikar, and the multiverse will be forever changed.
Who will emerge victorious in this fateful duel, the alliance of Jace's ingenuity and Chandra's fury, or the raw draconic power of Sarkhan? The multiverse awaits an answer....
Having a lot of fun with my ever-growing list of Duel Decks. (Click the "Duel Deck" tag under my profile to see the rest. So far I have Elspeth vs. Xenagos, Strength vs. Numbers, Karn vs. Tezzeret, and most recently Humans vs. Vampires.)
*** (The opposing deck is here: http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/decks/dd-sarkhan-vs-jace-chandra) ***
Just like Wizards' Duel Decks, my Duel Decks are centered around a mythic and features primarily Modern-legal cards with some older ones mixed in (which, if printed, would get the new, current border and in some cases updated art as well). It also sticks to just a handful of rares and tends to go with a lot of one-ofs among other cards, with a small handful of key cards that may get multiple copies (and even then, usually only two). Also, unlike Event Decks and other feature decks from Wizards, Duel Decks lack sideboards. I tried very hard to keep with all those restrictions here... believe me, if this were your more typical constructed deck, it would look a lot different!
Well okay, in fairness, this one looks a bit different in one major respect: it has TWO mythic rares, and they're both planeswalkers: Jace and Chandra. Ironically, these two faced off against each other in Wizards' first ever planeswalker vs. planeswalker Duel Deck. Now, they become allies thanks to Jace joining in with his old foe to defeat the power-mad (or perhaps just plain mad) Sarkhan Vol in the well-known battle on Zendikar that at least indirectly set the Eldrazi free on the plane and perhaps the entire multiverse. It was too good a duel to ignore, and too hard to pick between Jace and Chandra, so I went for the full-out tag team approach. I chose the Firebrand version of Chandra because neither I nor Wizards have used her in a Duel Deck yet and her abilities have the rare potential to take down Sarkhan's powerful dragon minions, and I chose the Architect of Thought version of Jace--albeit reluctantly since it's already been used very recently in the Jace vs. Vraska Duel Deck--because The Mind Sculptor would be insane and the other two versions really don't fit. The abilities of Architect of Thought are nigh perfect for battling powerful creatures on the opposing side.
Anyway, the rares I went with, like many of the cards in the deck, are good representations of Jace's magic style, Chandra's fiery approach, or a mix of the two. The "mixey" ones are Djinn Illuminatus, Prophetic Bolt, Spellbound Dragon, and Day of the Dragons (for the latter two, just imagine Jace seizing control of Sarkhan's dragons), Chandra's Phoenix and Fated Conflagration are very Chandra-centric, and Draining Whelk is very much like Jace, with illusions and countering being his forte.
Jace and Chandra actually pair nicely together. The creatures here make for some formidable defense and even counterattacking right into the maw of the dragons. Chandra's burn and Jace's countermagic and tricks are excellent at stalling the dragon threat or even stopping them dead in their tracks. While one or two dragons can likely break through and wreak havoc, I'm almost worried this deck is TOO good at slowing Sarkhan's bruisers down. What do YOU think of the balance?
I appreciate any feedback you can provide here, good or bad. Anything I can improve? Any gaping holes that you see? Useful comments will get you +1 rep points and a virtual slap on the back. :-P Thanks for reading...hope you like it!