Here's a non-Thopter (even though they're awesome) Jeskai deck focused on flying creatures, cheap kill spells, and prowess.

Creatures: 21

Mage-Ring Bully x4
Jhessian Thief x3
Stalwart Aven x3
Thunderclap Wyvern x3
Ring Warden Owl x2
Soul Blade Djinn x2
Abbot of Kerral Keep x2
Avaricious Dragon x1
Chandra x1

Instants/Sorceries: 15

Fiery Impulse x4
Twin Bolt x4
Reprisal x3
Exquisite Firecraft x2
Angelic Edict x2

Lands: 24

So I was looking at my Izzet "draw go" style deck that planned to win via counterspells, burn, and mill, and I realized that I could do absolutely nothing about a Gaea's revenge hitting the table.

White theoretically offers a ton of options. Celestial flare does not target, Tragic Arrogance can kill Gaea's revenge by going after another creature, etc. I would probably skip Hixus unless aggro runs rampant. The question is really whether it is worth the manabase sacrifice.

Here is the theory deck.

4 x fiery impulse

4 x celestial flare
4 x twin bolt
4 x telling time
2 x disperse

2 x calculated dismissal
2 x sphinx's tutelage
1 x solemn offering

4 x bone to ash
4 x countermand
3 x inspiration

2 x tragic arrogance
24 x lands


I think celestial flare should synergize nicely with the burn spells - burn the weenies, then force them to sac anything too big for burn. And with more board removal options tapping out for tragic arrogance should not be such a big deal if they land a fatty the next turn. Thoughts?

My current deck:

2x Displacement Wave
3x Telling Time
4x Calculated Dismissal
4x Fiery Impulse
2x Twin Bolt
3x Ravaging Blaze
1x Bone to Ash
2x Talent of the Telepath
2x Reprisal
2x Tragic Arrogance

25/25 spells

1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1x Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
3x Sigiled Starfish
1x Disciple of the Ring
2x Knight of the White Orchid
1x Archangel of Tithes
2x Hixus, Prison Warden

11/11 creatures

3x Azorius Guildgate
3x Izzet Guildgate
2x Boros Guildgate
2x Sulfur Falls
2x Glacial Fortress
2x Clifftop Retreat
4x Island
3x Plains
3x Mountain

24/24 lands


It's basically purely support and built for 2HG play.

For those on the fence about Thopter Spy Network I use it in my UR ROFLThopter and it is fantastic. I'm thinking of splashing (more like dabbing) in white for the Thunderclap Wyvern to pump my Thopters. I definitely see the benefit of being able to drop it into play when staring down something like a Gaea's Revenge. With Chief of the Foundry on the board it would only take 2 Thopters to kill it as opposed to 3. I don't know what I would replace it with. Maybe something like:
Creatures:
4 x Perilous Myr
3 x Chief of the Foundry
3 x Thopter Engineer
3 x Whirler Rogue
2 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar

Spells:
4 x Fiery Impulse
4 x Titan's Strength

3xDisperse 3x Thunderclap Wyvern
3 x Ravaging Blaze
3 x Twin Bolt
2 x Exquisite Firecraft

Enchantments
2 x Thopter Spy Network

Lands:
Enough of 'em


The reason why I chose to take out Disperse is because I use it as a late game spell (I can't tell you how many times I dodged a huge Chorus of Might by flinging the target back into their hand, or an enchantment target). I could see the Wyvern giving enough of a combat edge to stop big stampy from ruining your day, though I'll have to test it to make sure it plays as intended. I think the biggest threat to Thopter is UB control with board sweepers like Languish and Displacement Wave. It's a tough call with the white splash though because the deck already is fairly tuned against aggro and control (at least in the iOS meta). The core of this deck is:

4 x Perilous Myr
3 x Chief of the Foundry
3 x Thopter Engineer
3 x Whirler Rogue
2 x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 x Thopter Spy Network

I suppose you could just build off of that if you wanted a base to splash other colors.

I also like the idea of using Flameshadow Conjuring since the deck is full of cheap creatures, and a copied Chief of the Foundry, or better yet Thunderclap Wyvern would add an awesome combat trick on top of Titan's Strength. Possibly drop 2x Twin Bolt for the Flameshadow, though it does hurt our mana curve and competes with other essential 4cc drops in Whirler Rogue and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Thoughts?

I worked up a sample manabase for your Jeskai Control list, Henwen.

Putting priority on what mana you need is actually pretty difficult with that list...

You need 16 white at the very least to have double white on turn 5 for Tragic Arrogance since it's your primary comeback mechanic if you happen to get behind early. You also want the ability to actually cast celestial flare at some point. White has to be top priority here, and we'll still be sacrificing the ability to cast Flare on 2 every game.

You want blue on turn 2 every game since you'll need to use telling time to find more land/fix mana fairly often with only 24 lands in the deck. You also want double blue at some point so you can start using your counters. I'd say this is priority #2 out of your three colours.

That leaves red as your least important colour... except the majority of your early removal is red. If you don't find red by turn 2-3 you might fall so far behind that only a tragic arrogance could catch you up, and that's a 2 of. Using telling time to search for red so you can spend turn three casting Fiery Impulse sounds so terrible to me that I'd want to run at least 12 red sources.

With those guidelines in mind, I came up with the following:

2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Sulfur Falls
2 x Clifftop Retreat
4 x Azorious Guildgate
1 x Boros Guildgate
4 x Evolving Wilds
3 x Plains
3 x Island
3 x Mountain


It totals 16 White, 15 Blue, 12 Red. You won't always have double blue on 4 for a counterspell, but you should have it early on quite frequently. There's a good chance you want to be playing something like Telling Time and a red burn spell on 4 anyway, so 15 blue should be OK. 12 Red should be more than enough, allowing you to get your red early and use your evolving wilds to find your other colours instead. The real sacrifice this version makes is that you often can't consider Celetial Flare as a 2 drop.

If it turns out in practice that you need to be able to play Flare or your counterspells earlier than I expect, you'll need to adjust the manabase. Going down to 11 Red should be doable, and you can always add more guildgates. The problem with more guildgates is that if you don't have enough basics then your check lands will end up as taplands early on, and you would actually end up with more lost tempo than holding onto a Flare would cost.





You could probably use a one of displacement wave in the deck as another way to catch back up and deal with tokens.

How does Hixus work because I cast him for the first time yesterday on the oppo's end step and it didnt exile the creatures that did damage that turn. Does it need to be on the battlefield before the damage is applied? Maybe I needed to cast before the end step starts to trigger?

great job, Spence.

Hixus has to be on the battlefield when the damage is dealt so you need to cast him after attackers have been declared but before the combat damage is applied.

Thanks Spencer. That looks like a solid start for a manabase. It is tricky, only a few white cards but they have intensive color requirements. Red is very important early but becomes less important as time goes on.

The deck I posted was pure theory, it is just intended to be a shell that can be improved upon after actual playtime. At this point I am not sure whether I want to fork out actual $ on the game, and it will probably take me a long time to grind the necessary cards, so it may be a long time before I come up with a polished list.

I splashed a bit of white into my ROFLCOPTER deck so I can play Thunderclap Wyverns and so far it is working pretty well. With the 3 Chiefs I now have 6 lord cards for my thopters that when launched with red card that gives you a haste token copy is +2/+2 for them all.

So I finally built the deck, but I am having some serious problems. The main problem is a lack of flexible answers. Enchantments are SERIOUS in this meta, but I think any more than 2 solemn offerings are a bad idea.

On the plus side, games seem much faster than they did in 2015. Calculated dismissal does lose value eventually, but it has value for most of the game. It loses potency around the same time as when you can cast tutelage with mana open, i.e. it helps you stabilize, even if it won't lock down the game as effectively as most counterspells.

Spencer's mana setup was pretty good but I wanted more blue so I am going -1 boros guildgate +1 izzet +1 island, the important thing isn't to kill all the early creatures but to start countering all the larger threats ASAP.

At this point I am not ready to post an updated decklist, but I am testing 3 calculated dismissal because countermand is too slow to hit early enchantments.

I still have 2-3 packs left to grind (depending on whether tech support helps me with a pack that vanished), but once I finish I will do more serious testing. Based on my early results, I feel like creatureless may be less effective than I thought.

Here is my Jeskai Control decklist, I'll be writing more about it in the upcoming Duels Diaries week 6 (viewtopic.php?f=38&t=11105#p340598) Props to original creator, HenWen. This deck has a lot of changes after a lot of testing.

1 x Molten Vortex
4 x Fiery Impulse
4 x Alchemist's Vial
3 x Celestial Flare
3 x Telling Time
4 x Twin Bolt
1 x Sphinx's Tutelage
4 x Artificer's Epiphany
2 x Solemn Offering
1 x Suppression Bonds
4 x Countermand
2 x Tragic Arrogance
1 x Angelic Edict
4 x Plains
3 x Island
3 x Mountain
2 x Sulfur Falls
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Clifftop Retreat
3 x Azorius Guildgate
3 x Boros Guildgate
3 x Izzet Guildgate
1 x Evolving Wilds

Hello there, i've been sneaking around a few times since i restarted playin MtG with DotP '15. I was bored at work today and theorycrafted a bit...and now here i come to share my poor deck design skills and have fun while you point me out the flaws in it
The base idea was to make a swarm deck based on tokens. I tested it a bit online but at my rank result are irrelevant (atm 5-0 including a couple of RQ).

4 x Perilous Myr
3 x Infectious Bloodlust

3 x Chief of the Foundry
2 x Heliod's Pilgrim
2 x Auramancer
(^^this one is most likely going to be out soon maybe to become Reclusive Artificer)
3 x Ghirapur Gearcrafter
3 x Thopter Engineer
3 x Claustrophobia

3 x Whirler Rogue
3 x Thunderclap Wyvern
2 x Thopter Spy Network
3 x Suppression Bonds
2 x Valor in Akros

2 x Sigil of the Empty Throne

2 x Clifftop Retreat
2 x Glacial Fortress
2 x Sulfur Falls
2 x Evolving Wilds
1 x Azorius Guildgate
1 x Foundry of the Consuls
(may go up to 2 in place of the gate)
5 x Island
4 x Plains
3 x Mountain

Could be wrong, but i only see 58 cards.

Counting 58.

I'm guessing those lasts two cards are
2 Clifftop Retreat

Hi everyone, new member here, and a french casual johnny player that like to experiment. So on to my new jeskai control deck, oriented in stealing creature after controlling board. After some tries, it's really weak to fast aggro (if they can create several thopter tokens) and to removal if you don't keep your key counterspell. Here for the list

Spells: 29

4 Fiery Impulse
3 Celestial Flare
3 Reprisal
3 Telling Time
4 Disperse
1 Ravaging Blaze
2 Displacement Wave
2 Hydrolash
4 Calculated Dismissal
2 Solemn Offering
1 Tragic Arrogance

Creatures: 7

1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Disciple of the Ring
2 Willbreaker
2 Kytheon's Irregulars
1 Archangel of Tithes

Landbase: 24

6 Island
5 Plains
3 Mountain
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Glacial Fortress
4 Azorius Guildgate
2 Evolving Wilds


This deck was build around Discilple of the ring. The spells are here to fuel them, feel free to use them as much as possible without wasting them until you take control of the board to finish either with her, of the with card you'll steal with Willbreaker + engage/disengage from kytheon and ring. Pretty fun to play, not as much for your opponent. Feel free to test it and send me back your feeling on it

I like this deck-idea a lot, especially with Valor in Akros. This combo can kill your opponents in one single turn. its a bit slow until you get out the cards you need like the thopter spynetwork etc. i made some changes though. Also there are a bit too many 4-drops in this deck.

4 Perilous Myr
4 Artificer's Epiphany
3 Thopter Engineer
3 Chief of the Foundry
1 Flameshadow Conjuring
2 Thopter Spy Network
3 Thunderclap Wyvern
2 Valor in Akros
4 Twin Bolt
3 Esperzoa
1 Soulblade Djinn
2 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
4 Alchemist's Vial

2 Clifftop Retreat
2 Foundry of the Consuls
2 Glacial Fortress
4 Izzet Guildgate
2 Sulfur Falls
5 Mountain
7 Island

Cards i think to put in:
Disperse
Fiery Impulse
Reclusive Artificer
Runed Servitor
Telling Time
Valor in Akros
Whirler Rogue

I like the Alchemist's Vial and Esperzoa combination too much, so i put it back in. It can provide you the carddraw you need, while you have a 4/3 body out to block or attack. After playing with a similar deck i think i want to put in at least 2 Whirler Rogue and maybe some Runed Servitor. I am not so sure about Thunderclap Wyvern because in this deck its only a weaker and expensive version of Chief of the Foundry and you can get in difficulties to have the white mana.

I think you should choose Valor in Akros or Thunderclap Wyvern and I think Valor is a bit better if you also have Flame Shadow because you can generate a lot of creatures in one turn. Whirrler Rouge should be in the list though.

I wonder if a RW version of this would be viable that focuses on buffed hasted copters.

I very like the buffing thopters version. But without the 2x Soulblade Djin adding 1x Valor in Akros and 1x Artificer's Epiphany.