Jeskai on the Rocks

Turn 3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos or Turn 3 Siege Rhino has been troublesome for my Jeskai deck. Both those creatures almost always require you to spend two cards to deal with them. I replaced all four Magma Jets for Chained to the Rocks, and I couldn't be happier with the results. During various games versus Abzan and Mardu Midrange I realized, that I had to find an efficient way of dealing with these two plus Courser of Kruphix, Goblin Rabblemaster and Mantis Rider. I think I've found it. One of the hidden benefits, of playing the enchantment, is that you don't take too much damage from your lands. This is particularly important in the Jeskai mirror which is currently very popular.

Before you start swinging your purse at me claiming Nullify is 'THE' answer to the same threats plus it answers the enchantment too, take a moment and read on. I prefer Chained to the Rocks over Nullify because it's more intuitive when it comes to casting it. Have you ever been in a situation were you don't know if the correct play is to cast a creature or leave mana available for the counter you currently hold. This happens to me frequently; and sometimes the wrong decision costs me the game. I'm not well versed in the nuances of how to correctly play with counters so I stick with cards that I know I will make less mistakes with.

Jeskai can't play with Chained to the Rocks! The mana base is too unstable as it is! These are all statements I've heard people make in regards to playing with the sorcery speed Swords to Plowshares. And the manabase concern might have been exaggerated. I knew I had to tweak the manabase to accomodate the powerful enchantment. After some spreadsheet theory and a couple of 8-mans, I had a arrived at a land configuration I was happy with. I have 15 red sources, 16 white and 15 blue which are more than enough to cast my spells with consistency I can live with. Getting the second blue source for Dig Through Time is the only problem I've encountered during testing; I prioritize fetching for Islands if I already have a mountain to mitigate this issue. It might be correct to just eliminate Dig Through Time all together. Cards that I would replace them with are 2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos or 2 Gods Willing.

My current decklist:

I was skeptical about losing my ability to play with scry lands. I decided that I didn't want more than 8 come-into-play-tapped lands, this forced me to choose between Mystic Monastery or a couple of temples. Here's a look at how my other mana base looked like (I decided against this configuration mostly based on Unified Standard restrictions, I didn't want to use Mana Confluence).

Sideboard Guide:

Vs Jeskai Aggro

OUT

IN

Vs Abzan Midrange

OUT

IN

Vs UB Control

OUT

IN

Vs Monored Aggro

OUT

IN

Thanks for reading,

Ricky Cabrero

Twitter: @deadtwomtg

MTGO: Deadtwo