Yeah, as I said, the only decks that stand a chance are fast aggro with a subpar hand. The addition of banefire even helps there as is gives us another early removal spell.

Playtested more today, against green ramp, 5 color mythics, white aggro & b/g spider spawning. White aggro got me to 5 life, but I stabilized without a worry at any point, just countered spells that would kill me before I got to planar cleansing. I won all of the games with a bqnefire for 23 except spider spawning, he decked himself of course. This deck is a monster, I am currently 11-0 and I never panicked that I could lose. I just hope to never face the mirror.

There are a few inherit weaknesses I see, all of them involve mill strategies. A turn 1 tome scour or pyxis could potentially lose us the game if they manage to hit both elixirs. This is narrow, but just an observation. Kozilek may find a slot in here for me, as it answers mill outright. It also serves as that obvious big dumb wincon that hakeem wanted, and it draws us cards! Regardless, I will maintain that pyxis is the scariest card against this deck if we have to cleanse, or if they decide to never pop it. I know mill and pyxis are far from tier 1, but it doesn't mean I won't see one. I don't know what I would remove for kozilek, probably the banefire. Time to test!

I honestly don't think I would include Kozilek in here.

If you play Kozilek, you have to protect him. A lot of times my opponent has 4-5 cards in hand that they never play.. which I assume is their removal package. If you play Kozi.. now you have to spend more counterspells keeping him on the board, instead of using them on your opponents creatures/big burn spells/etc.

That trolling control deck has an inherent flaw that doesn't seem to be being discussed. You end up playing the AI for longer than you do an actual opponent. Seems to me like you are trolling yourself as much as the other player.

If I wanted to play against the AI that much I would just go to single player.

Hakeem928 likes this.

I actually beat this the first time I saw it, but I'd probably concede if I ever saw it again. Ain't nobody got time fo dat

I kept discarding Kozilek to hand size to keep from milling out, and did my damage by cycling resounding thunder and a few turns from an improbably-resolved obelisk. 90 minutes.

This would be a reason to splash black for suffer the past. It adds inevitability that they will run out of deck, regardless of kozilek or elixir, gives a life cushion to protect from banefire and cycled resounding thunder, and can outright win a game with the drain. I am going to test this and replace some gates with crumbling necropolis and arcane sanctum.

First post here! Although some people here may remember me from back when the WoTC boards were crap, but before they became COMPLETE CRAP. Haha.

Jeskai Tokens list I have been mucking with in between playing my usual decks (Abzan Seance and Grixis Control usually).

Been working out rather well so far.

[1v1] "Jeskai Tokens"
A deck for Jeskai 2015
60 Cards. 36 nonlands (16 creatures, 20 spells). 24 Lands (6 4 5; 9 other).
Open this deck in MisterP's deck planner. (Learn more)
Creature
-- 2x Goblin Bushwhacker
-- 2x Attended Knight
-- 1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
-- 2x Goblin Rabblemaster
-- 2x Mentor of the Meek
-- 1x Ogre Battledriver
-- 3x Phantom General
-- 2x Talrand, Sky Summoner
-- 1x Baneslayer Angel
Spell
-- 4x Shock
-- 4x Krenko's Command
-- 4x Raise the Alarm
-- 4x Think Twice
-- 2x Trumpet Blast
-- 2x Angelic Edict
Land
-- 4x Azorius Guildgate
-- 2x Boros Guildgate
-- 3x Izzet Guildgate
-- 4x Island
-- 6x Mountain
-- 5x Plains


Rabblemaster, Brimaz, and Talrand are all cards that, if they stick and aren't removed immediately, usually just take over games by generating stupid amounts of value even without considering any of the rest of what I am about to say.

Rabblemaster happens to work well with Krenko's Command, as the power buff Rabblemaster gets when he attacks is based on the number of attacking Goblins. Rabblemaster not only triggers Mentor of the Meek himself, but each turn before combat he triggers him again when he spawns his Goblin tokens, giving you a repeatable source of card draw if both stick. Ogre Battledriver not only allows Rabblemaster to attack the turn it is played, but also gives it, and the new token a respectable power boost for the turn. Kicked Goblin Bushwacker can do sort of the same, but sadly, the token doesn't get the power boost because it spawns after the first main phase but before combat (and Bushwacker doesn't have Flash). Phantom General buffs the tokens he makes into 2/2's. Trumpet Blast makes that alpha strike when you finally attack with Rabblemaster even more deadly and unpredictable.

Brimaz may not trigger Mentor of the Meek himself, but his tokens do, giving repeatable card draw every time Brimaz attacks or blocks when you have Mentor of the Meek on the table. Phantom General buffs his tokens to 2/2's as well. In the same manner as Rabblemaster, Brimaz has a lot of surprise alpha strike potential when combined with Ogre Battledriver, Kicked Goblin Bushwacker, and Trumpet Blast.

Talrand gets value off of a good portion of the stuff in the deck. Our main token producers (Krenko's Command, Raise the Alarm) both trigger Talrand, making them 2 mana for 4 power worth of creatures split over 3 cards (one of which has evasion). Each token created by Talrand has the potential to trigger Mentor of the Meek on top of triggering him himself. Phantom General buffs Taldrand's tokens into 3/3 fliers. Ogre Battlemaster on the table or a Goblin Bushwacker in the hand and able to be kicked both allow Talrand's tokens to attack the turn they come into play, along with a nice power boost for that alpha strike. Think Twice also triggers Talrand when we cast it, and gives us two tokens out of the deal (because of Flashback). Our Removal triggers him as well, making them so they are not just 1:1 trades. Even our pseudo Overrun alpha strike tool (Trumpet Blast) triggers Talrand giving us another blocker back if the alpha strike does not go as planned.

Attended Knight works similarly. 3 power and toughness spread over 2 bodies isn't a bad deal for 3 mana, especially when 2 power of that is First Strike. The card works well with Mentor of the Meek (2 triggers). The token gets buffed by Phantom General. The two bodies also mesh well with Ogre Battledriver, Kicked Goblin Bushwacker, and Trumpet Blast, adding to that alpha strike value.

Baneslayer is a recent addition to the deck. The deck originally ran Triplicate Spirits, but Baneslayer is just so good it is hard to justify not including it (even if it doesn't completely mesh with the rest of the theme behind the deck). It is yet another card that usually takes over games if it sticks due to the sheer amount of value is provides. The main reasons for inclusion though is that is provides a fat body with lifelink, which helps to keep at parity with some of the faster Aggro decks in the format. It also gives the deck another out in those situations when it has stalled out before securing the win as a result of an opponent playing superior creatures (being a token deck and all, looking at you Rune-Scarred Demon!).

Shock and Angelic Edict make up the decks removal suite. Shock answering most of the early game threats opponents may play, and providing some reach as well. Angelic Edict is another recent addition to the deck. Originally the spots taken by Edict were Reprisal, since I much prefer the lower cost and instant speed. Sadly, I found Reprisal to often be a dead card/draw in a lot of different matchups, and this deck just does not have enough redundancy in removal to work around this (like a Control deck would). So I decided to go with Angelic Edict. It is a little on the expensive side, and sorcery speed isn't the greatest, but it hits just about every relevant creature, exiles (which is a bonus), and isn't a completely dead card in the rare scenario where you go up against a creature-less deck which usually play heavily off of enchantments to win (although this is still moot against my creature-less Jeskai Control deck that just stalls games and burns you out with stupid high X spells like Banefire). Both Shock and Edict have the bonus of triggering Talrand for us as well.

Think Twice gives us a way to dig into our deck that is more reliable than Mentor of the Meek. The spell not only gives us card advantage and helps to refill our hand, but also helps a lot with mana fixing, making land drops on time, digging for removal, and overall thinning our deck. The spell also works well with Talrand (giving us 2 tokens), and even has pretty good synergy with Raise the Alarm (with 2-3 mana up you get the choice of dropping two 1/1 tokens during an attack as a combat trick to surprise trade, or dropping them EoT for a surprise attack after untap, or drawing a card EoT, depending on what the situation warrants).

Raise the Alarm and Krenko's Command are our bread and butter. Dumping huge amounts of tokens onto the board (either drawing cards with Mentor, or making even more tokens with Talrand) and attacking in for a huge alpha strike in conjunction with Trumpet Blast, Ogre Battledriver, Kicked Goblin Bushwacker, Phantom General, and Goblin Rabblemaster (potentially on the same turn you put the tokens onto the table).

Trumpet Blast is our pseudo Overrun alpha strike tool. Also has the added bonus of triggering Talrand and in a pinch can be used as a combat trick if you can bluff attacks well enough.

The deck is outright explosive. I have had games turn around stupidly fast. Nothing but a Talrand on the table and 6 mana. Opponent thinks they are safe. Untap cast 2x some combination of Raise the Alarm/Krenko's Command, then a Kicked Bushwacker, attack in for 16-19 damage (depending on if you attack with Talrand or not). Same sort of explosive situations happen when Ogre Battlemaster is on the table, or just out of nowhere with a Goblin Bushwacker in hand and able to be kicked (especially if you already have a Rabblemaster in play). Not to mention all the times when you can't haste your way to victory and just have to attack with a ton of tokens and cast Trumpet Blast for the blowout.

I should probably note as well that I have been considering messing around with adding Chasm Skulker to the deck somehow, but have been seriously debating it simply for the sake of not pushing the deck any further into Blue than it already is.

To be honest, I also have a Boros Token deck that is almost identical to this, and can be just as explosive. I personally like the Jeskai build more myself though. The Boros version tends to be slightly faster and obviously has a more consistent mana base. That said, losing out on Blue means losing out on Talrand and Think Twice, which, at least in my opinion, are key pieces to winning games where you stall out early for whatever reason.

I like the look of it but I will post some comments.

How often do you need Angelic Edict? If your goal is to go wide and buff your creatures then spending five mana at sorcery speed and not advancing your board just seems bad. If you think you need more removal in your deck then perhaps Vapor Snag is the way to go. I think four copies of Shock is good enough, though, because you should be able to overrun the midrange decks or win a stalled board with Bushwhackers and Trumpet Blasts.

Speaking of Bushwhacker, I think he's much better for your deck than Ogre Battledriver because of the surprise element. I would run three and cut the Driver.

I also think with your spell-density that you should run Guttersnipe in this list. He triggers Mentor and gives you some extra reach whenever you cast a token generation spell. I think it's potentially better than Attended Knight here but I could be wrong. I think the reach would be worth testing him out, though.

Think Twice doesn't really belong in this list, I think you should play the full set of Triplicate Spirits in those slots because the card is busted. I understand wanting to build in card draw but you win by playing to the board and you don't need to draw cards if your opponent is dead.

Stormbreath Dragon should be at the top of the curve in an aggressive deck like this, as well. If your deck wants to win by attacking, you should be playing this guy.

I would try:

-4 Think Twice
-2 Attended Knight
-1 Ogre Battledriver
-2 Angelic Edict

+1 Goblin Bushwhacker
+3 Guttersnipe
+1 Stormbreath Dragon
+4 Triplicate Spirits

I did have one guy who sat through the whole match except the last turn where he was milled out.. but yeah, that's otherwise true.

You make a fair point about Angelic Edict. As I said before, the deck originally ran Reprisal in its place, for exactly that reason, 5 mana to not advance your own board position is not really what this sort of deck is looking for, especially at sorcery speed. That said, the card was mostly included as the deck really needs an out to certain cards that are relatively common within the meta. Baneslayer and Pelakka Wurm for example which, if your opponent successfully casts, often just outright stymie your beatdown plan. Like I said, was originally using Reprisal for this purpose, but often found it sitting dead in my hand in a lot of matchups. If I played outside of just random online matches than this would be the case for SB material, but I don't often play actual correctly set up games to get the chance to do that sort of thing (mostly because I don't really know anyone else who plays the game to have REAL matches against). Angelic Edict was a compromise in a removal method that could effectively hit those big stalling bombs, but still be relevant in the aggro matchups. Exiling isn't totally irrelevant either, as well as being Enchantment removal. You are probably right that there are some better options for this, but it will take some thinking on my part. Considered Arrest at one point, but that has even less synergy with what the deck is doing (no Talrand triggers) and is ineffective against certain creatures that get their value simply be sitting on the board.

To be honest I am not really a fan of the Guttersnipe plan. It could work for the extra reach, but I honestly am not that huge a fan of a card outside of decks build around it to abuse it. This is probably something I will skip. Not really my cup of tea.

The Dragon may be a worthwhile addition, since it does exactly what the deck is trying to accomplish (big chunks of damage out of nowhere). Something to consider surely.

I honestly really like the 1 of Battledriver, as it has proven useful in a ton of situations already. Bushwacker is certainly more efficient both in initial mana cost, speed, and in use. That said, Battledriver provides a continuous effect, which is nice, and with a large number of other decently costed bombs (Rabblemaster, Brimaz, Talrand) by the time he hits the table most opponents have expended most of their removal just making sure they don't get overwhelmed and thus tends to stick pretty often. Usually if you untap with him, you are garunteed to lay down a beating the following turn. More fragile than Bushwacker to be sure, but also a bit more explosive.

I have experimented in the past with Triplicate Spirits to great effect. Something I may mess around with again in the near future (so much synergy with the deck), double white is a bit of a turn-off though, although it certainly works.

As for Think Twice, I disagree. Outside of Talrand, it is IMO the main reason to run Blue in the deck, outside of maybe Chasm Skulker. Mentor of the Meek is a great draw engine, when it works, but it is also extremely fragile. Relying on having a creature on the table, more in hand, and open mana to draw cards isn't the model of consistency, especially when said creature is a 2/2, costs 3 mana, and can only be played as a 2 of.

Think Twice gives you a more reliable way of drawing cards.

I will grant you that Think Twice is a little more durdle than what a deck like this normally wants to be doing (advancing the board). The spell does serve a multitude of purposes though. First off it helps us with fixing and hitting those early land drops, which makes a difference when you are playing a deck that includes multiple cards with double Red, Blue, and White in their casting cost. It digs through our deck in those situations when you just HAVE to find an answer or you just outright lose (shock opponents Talrand or get buried, Edict their Baneslayer or get stalled, etc). It also helps to keep our hand stocked to deal with removal, most particularly sweepers and other mass removal, which the deck folds hard to (although they are admittedly limited in this meta). It gives card advantage too, which is nice, since the deck is full of other cards that give CA via creating multiple tokens.

There are also a few other smaller interactions it is nice with as well, as I mentioned earlier with it triggering Talrand twice, and being a nice EoT tool alongside Raise the Alarm. Almost pointless to mention, but it is relevant in the matchup against Mill as well (since it still gains value even if milled).

If I had to cut anything, it would be the Angelic Edict, and even I would likely replace it with some other form of removal, preferably one equally broad in targets but a little faster/easier on the mana.

After that the next card on the list would probably be the Attended Knights, which I have considered replacing with the aforementioned Chasm Skulkers (may test this later). Knights are better in the scope of the deck as a whole (since they provide 2 bodies as soon as played), but Chasm Skulker is more powerful card in a vacuum, especially if backed with Think Twice and Mentor of the Meek. This would mean pushing the deck deeper into Blue which I am not 100% sure about.

Convoke lets you tap creatures for colored mana, so double-white shouldn't be an issue to cast Triplicate Spirits. If you only have one white source you can just tap a white creature.

If you want more card draw, then you should be using Military Intelligence over Think Twice because it's continuous advantage for no additional mana investment. I don't think you should dilute your deck's power by durdling with Think Twice; the occasional drake token isn't worth having turns where you're not advancing your board. Attended Knight would go up in value in a Military Intelligence deck so keep that in mind.

If you add Chasm Skulker then I would strongly look at Blasting Station. I've been using it in a Boros token brew and it gives token decks a ton of reach to finish opponent's who stabilize the board. Having a way to crack open your Skulker for the tokens would be good, as well.

Derped on the Convoke thing. Yeah, Triplicate Spirits may need to work its way back into the 60.

As for Military Intelligence vs Think Twice, I still believe that Think Twice is the superior option.

Military Intelligence and Bident are nice cards and they certainly work with the focus of the deck, since you will often have multiple tokens out to take advantage of them.

The problem is that they suffer from much of the same issues as Mentor of the Meek.

While it is true that they have a continual effect, allowing for a greater return on card investment.

The effect is much more fragile than I personally like, and often forces bad plays simply for the sake of serving its purpose. Not to mention it has the same effect on board presence (read:none) and is just as bad in terms of tempo if not worse than Think Twice. Think Twice draws you 1-2 cards the turn you cast it. Military Intelligence/Bident can do the same, but force you into attacking to do so, which can potentially mean throwing away creatures on attacking into unfavorable blocks or choosing to save your creatures by not attacking but thus not draw any cards.

They are both also inferior options to Think Twice in terms of digging for answers/threats as well. Think Twice can dig for answers without needing to attack into potentially unfavorable situations. Think Twice can dig for threats when you stall out games without needing to already have a board presence and/or cards in your hand (Intelligence/Bident/Mentor).

It also is superior in function for mana fixing and hitting those early land drops, since it doesn't require you to already have a board presence set up to do so.

I mention again all of the other little interactions as well that can often end up leading to value that Think Twice gives. Talrand triggers, added value in the mill matchup, Think Twice + Raise the Alarm giving EoT options.

Derpy card draw may not seem to have a place in a deck like this, but it works better than you may expect if it is cheap and effective. There is a reason so many decks in standard are running Treasure Cruise at the moment (hell, even RDW is running it, but how can you argue when it is essentially an Ancestral Recall for )

I'm not saying Think Twice is terrible or anything, I'm sure the deck works just fine and there are going to be times with Talrand in play that you're glad to have a way to trigger him multiple times with a single card. I just think that it dilutes your threat density and you need to be spending your mana on threats every turn rather than on digging for them.

I personally think you don't need any more sources of card draw other than Mentor. There are other ways you can build sources of card advantage into your deck that work better with your main gameplan if you feel like running out of cards is an issue. Something like Squadron Hawk draws you three cards and is great in a deck that wants to be attacking.

I still stand by my original recommendations with the caveat that I'm speculating on Guttersnipe and don't know if he would be any good. Triplicate Spirits is busted, though, you have to get that in here.

As I said, I really think that the deck needs Think Twice to operate in the manner in which it does.

Part of the reason why I like this deck in favor of the Boros version I have (which is almost identical) is because the deck transitions well.

The deck can certainly play the traditional Aggro role of slamming creatures on the table every turn and attacking to put your opponent on a short clock, and this in fact how it wins a good portion of games.

What makes the deck really work though, at least in my opinion (and why I think it is superior to the Boros version) is that is can transition itself into a sort of pseudo combo deck, without the need to do any SBing, depending on the matchup.

While yes, more often than not the gameplan is to dump as many tokens onto the board as possible, the existence of Bushwacker, Battledriver, Rabblemaster, Trumpetblast, and to a lesser extent Raise the Alarm allow the deck to slow role games if the need arises.

Advancing your board position every turn is less important when the deck has the potential to go from an empty board to attacking in for 10+ in the span of a single turn. Something which is honestly not all that uncommon in my experiences with the deck.

In certain matchups, those early turns certainly ARE best spent dropping as many threats as possible during those early turns to leverage the clock.

There are just as many matchups though where you are just better spent using those first couple of turns to set yourself up for a potential late game plan. Think Twice helps with this, making sure you hit land drops, mana fix, dig for removal, or otherwise dig for your "combo" pieces.

Developing a board presence early is much less of a concern when you can do things like cast 1-2 Raise the Alarm on your opponents EoT, untap, play Krenko's Command/Attended Knight and a Kicked Bushwacker and attack in for a stupid amount of damage that your opponent didn't know was coming and even then can often do little to prevent (since the game is rather limited on multi-target removal, especially at instant speed). Almost everything in the deck serves this plan well. Talrand, Ogre Battldriver, Brimaz, Rabblemaster. All of these cards lead to these sorts of explosive scenarios where you have few or no cards on the table and just explode out of nowhere.

The deck can really go from a completely (or relatively) empty board to killing you out of nowhere, which is part of the appeal of the deck.

It can play the Aggro beatdown role when it needs to, but can also slow roll in certain matchups until it collects all of the pieces it needs to just win the game on the spot. Think Twice tends to help with this route.

This happened to me, over the weekend. I was playing on my iPad, and not really paying full attention, as the partner and I were watching "Misfits" on the television (that's right, magic nerds, be envious of my imaginary relationship).

Anyway, long story short, they recycled their graveyard thrice by discarding Kozilek due to hand size, and suffer the pasted me twice, before I finally won. For the win, I had to wait until I was certain they drew Kozilek into their hand, with only 6 cards remaining in their library, then hit them with 3 Inspirations on my turn, leading to the victory on their turn.

Honestly, this is the perfect deck to use when you're not really paying attention, since you can half ass it and still pull out a 4 hour win, ie my aforementioned duel.

But seriously though, I always feel a part of myself die, whenever I play this deck.

Here's how I would update the Archaeomancer/Cloudshift combo post-expansion:



Going into Jeskai lets us run all four of the sweepers to buy time until we set up, and Archaeomancer lets us use them multiple times if necessary. The main wincon for these decks has always been either Talrand or Sphinx-Bone Wand but I've only chosen to go with one of each because I'm using Charmbreaker Devils as a third wincon. Blinking Archaeomancer multiple times pumps him up really fast for a one-shot kill if you can keep the board clean or if you attack and they choose not to block. The best part about Charmbreaker, though, is that he's a CA engine when you don't have your combo. He's also very easy to protect with Cloudshift and counterspells.

Most of the rest of the deck is intact, but I've chosen to add Traumatic Visions to the list because it's a great mana fixer for a three-color deck, is recoverable through Archaeomancer or Charmbreaker after you cycle it, and doubles the number of hard counterspells in the list. I've also added a singleton Banefire as some scaling removal and a trump card in the control mirror.

Thoughts?

In game two I attacked my opponent with a Charmbreaker Devils into his two 0/4 Walls and he declined to block. Four Cloudshifted Archaeomancers later and he was staring at lethal and unable to react because he was tapped out. I think the Devils are a cool piece of technology, the deck seems good so far.

The deck is really strong, a lot stronger than the Esper variant that I tried. I think I need to build in just a little more draw power, though, because relying on Think Twice and Wall of Omens hasn't quite been enough.

Traumatic Visions has been great, but I think I'm satisfied with three copies. The same goes for Voyage's End. Banefire has been good but not really necessary because the deck has reach with the Wand and another good anti-control card in Kozilek. I also think I can get away with three copies of Archaeomancer if I increase the draw power, so I'm going to try:

-1 Banefire
-1 Archaeomancer

+2 Inspiration

I also thought about using Quicken or Time Warp in these slots, but I'm going to start with Inspiration for now. Cutting Archaeomancer could be wrong, but I have had instances where I'd draw three of them and not want to cast them in order to to hold open countermagic. We'll see how it goes.

I feel(know) this deck can be made meaner. I want to do what I do to almost all of the decks I try, cut the land to 20 and throw an Armillary Sphere or two in to landgrab quickly, stripping out land asap and/or Ingots.

Also going to put in a Stormbreath because.. Just because. Nah, because he is probably the best creature, pound for pound, as protection from white puts him in the top five of creatures easily IMHO. Also adding Kozilek as most have thought he is useful in here.

Traumatic visions as well as Solemn offering will be making an appearance. going to work on this today.