RECORD TRACKING (6/11) - DIAMOND

TOTAL (ALL)

16-4

LADDER BO1

7-2

LADDER BO3

6-1

ANTI-AGGRO META CONTROL

I had been playing around with decks trying to get Inspired Ultimatum working.  Generally it seems like you end up discarding it for a big Narset roundhouse kick -2, but it's also a great hand refiller and stablizer if you can stay alive for long enough to cast it.  I am doing pretty well with this deck working through Ladder in Diamond.  Started in BO1 to make sure the base plan works, and it seems to be working in the current mono-red and Rakdos sac meta.  Starting to work through B03 to establish a sideboard, but that's always morphing.

This is the only control Archetype I have been able to get going with besides Temur Rec.  I'm sitting at 44-22 with that deck (mostly last season).  I really wanted to make Esper control work, but I just can't figure out how to pilot that deck.  I did notice though that my win percentage with Esper control was 88 on the play and 33 on the draw.  Probably is better to play traditional with that deck, but if I can't win any game 1's against Aggro it's gonna be tough to get a good win percentage.  The sac decks also just seem to be able to work around counters too well.  I thought lifegain from Esper would be functional, but it's not quite getting there, so we are switching to Jeskai, where we can gain all the life!

This deck tuned to be able to survive through the aggro decks out there and seems to have just enough lifegain to keep an edge on the Jund and Rakdos Sac decks (Jund is tough, though; better after sideboard with Heliod's Intervention and Dream Trawler )

GAMEPLAN

You are looking to get the Teferi/Narset, Parter of Veils lockout on board, whether by casting or through ECD's.  Once you get these walkers on board (or before if you have an opportunity to put a 2/2 or 3/3 shark on-board), you can start going in on your opponent with Sharks, Bonecrusher Giants, or your Trawler, answer threats, and 

But why not just play Azorious control, you ask?  First of all, we need Deafening Clarion to be remotely successful against mono-red and rakdos sac.  Most decks will have ways to deal with our threats (especially after sideboarding).  That is fine, because now we have Narset of the Ancient Way in red.  She's going to be ticking up twice (don't be afraid to send her to the yard with her ult), then we're going to just ping our opponent to death.  This deck will build overwhelming advantage, but it does it very slowly! 

MAINDECK

(8) 2-drop instants here.  On the play I always veto a T2 Lucky Clover, Witch's Oven, or Cavalcade of Calamity.  These three give their respective decks a ton of tempo or put us on too tight of a clock.  Justice Strike is great for dealing with large late-game threats like Uro, Krasis, or Sharks.  The wall and lifegain from Birth help to stablize against mono-red, mono-black, and rakdos aggro.  

Curving out with the Bonecrusher Giant seems to be slowing down most of the aggro decks, giving us time to set up an instant speed Clarion with Teferi.  Alternatively, he can put some early pressure on control, forcing your opponent to waste some removal.  I find that somehow he's closing out more games than the sharks. 

Deafening Clarion seems to be poised to take on this meta.  My biggest gripe with the other control decks I tried was that the sweepers were too slow, and I didn't have a way to consistenly survive without a T3 sweeper, and this card is actually the reason I ended up in Jeskai.  There's too much stuff out there that gets over Flame Sweep and Cry of the Carnarium for you to run a full suite, plus Cry is very mana-specific.  Extinction Event is close, but but I just couldn't get the consistency I was getting with Clarion. There's also two Shatter the Sky in the sideboard for control matchups.  Maybe we'll get a nice new sweeper treat in M21?  For whatever reason, this card just seems to be working right now.

Teferi of course is super valuable board presence.  We don't get countered on our turn, and our opponents have to cast their combat tricks like Rimrock Knight at sorcery speed and can't take advantage of Embercleave's cost reduction.  Narset is our main source of card draw and shuts down all the card advantage the Sultai and Bant decks are getting from Hydroid Krasis and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath.

This is the heart and soul of the deck.  Mana fixing and lifegain or loot with removal?  Yes please.  The ultimate isn't hard to hit, especially if you bring this back with ECD.  Shark Typhoon gives us enough (-) targets to take out an x/6 which is enough most of the time.  She's enough of a threat to be a combat distraction as well, further preserving your life total.

No need to tell anyone how good this card is.  Now that Lurrus has been nerfed, most decks don't seem to be running him as a companion, and ECD is back on the menu!  Generally you don't want to have to dump this for a Narset (-), but having some higher mana cards makes her much more dangerous.  This deck has options, and that's why it works.

Typhoon is great.  Doesn't need to be a huge shark, and don't be afraid to use this as early removal if you have to take it in an opening hand.  I generally don't like these in opening hands, but being able to flash in an x/x has saved me more than a few times, and putting pressure on with an early flier can win games outright, or at least draw removal.  We're running 2 because it's really easy for opponent's to trash these guys once you've gone in for some damage.  I find that keeping these around 4/4 or 5/5 is best, sometimes your opponent's will ignore it if it's not 'The Meg' flying at them.  This deck has trouble finishing, so getting Dream Trawler out and protecting it is key.  Counter sweepers once it's on board (unless you have an ECD in hand and can bring it back).

I am fairly certain that just a 1-of is correct here.  Between Narset, Parter of Veils and Omen of the Sea we can dig through our deck pretty well, especially in the late game.  This card fills a role in that it keeps the deck going and is an insta-stablizer, but it's not taking over games the way you'd want a 7-mana card to.  5 damage to face is nice, but often this will be removal plus card advantage or hand refill with the upside of stablizing lifegain.  Generally I find myself casting this super late game (if at all).  It's almost always correct to discard this to Narset of the Ancient Way before you have 10+ lands on board so you can hold up counters or removal after casting.

MANA BASE

First of all, as mentioned previously, we're trying Interplanar Beacon here as a sub for Fabled Passage.  We have 10 Planeswalkers in here, representing 30 extra life if we somehow cast all 10 with all 3 beacon's on-board.  That will never happen, but the little 1 and 2 life here and there really help this deck pull away from aggro.  I have fiddled with a Yorion equivalent, but now that I've gone back to sixty card decks, searching for answers in an 80 card deck with Omen's feels super inconsistent now.  I think that Yori might still be correct, but right now we don't have an equivalent to Clarion, and adding 20 cards that aren't doing what clarion does on turn three isn't helping us.  Clarion makes this deck run, and we need to be able to find it when we need it (not to mention all our other answers).  Also, with Birth of Melitis being the only card that lets us (or forces us) to shuffle, we have a lot of control over where things are in the deck.  I've cast a birth knowing I can't grab a basic plains just to shuffle and possibly get a bottomed ECD or Shark Typhoon to the top.  WARNING - the autotapper sucks with Interplanar beacon.  Lost a game that I shouldn't have due to tapping wrong and not leaving blue mana up for neutralize.

Also, you'll see I am only running a single Triome and two temples.  We need to be untapped right now.  A late triome is sometimes a good cycle to hopefully grab a spell, but I'm debating switching this to another temple.  We do want to open with temples, but having a better chance at staying untapped is important.

Finally, there is no Castle Vantress in here.  I found that I don't want to be spending 5 mana to scry to with this deck ever. The Omen's are expendable as we don't have Yorion to blink them all.  At most you'll want one on board for Teferi to bounce in a pinch.  We do have two Castle Ardenvale which I always find myself using as a chump blocker.  Generally if I have both on board, I'm always pumping mana to Ardenvale over Vantress, and if I want to scry I can sac an omen.

SIDEBOARD

V1 - 6/11/2020

This is a work in progress as I have mostly tested this maindeck in B01.  Just brought in all the ususal suspects.  Soul Guide Lantern is great against graveyard recursion, Mystical Dispute works in control matchups, and Aether Gust for Stompy, Gruul, and MonoRed.  If you're playing a deck that you don't think is running sweepers, swap in a Dream Trawler for a Shark.  Still working on what to cut for these, though.  Even the Gruul stompy deck runs Embercleave now, so we need the Dovin's veto almost everywhere.  Heliod's can be a great late draw against Cat Ovens and Clovers (although if there are two clovers on the board, you're generally staring at 20 lands on your opponent's board).  Also great for knocking out some Wilderness Rec's, Cavalcade's (and bonus Anax for an extra mana) and the like at instant speed.  Temur Rec generally needs to hit you once early to refill their hand, if you can destroy their first wilderness rec then, go for it!  Might be better to run Revoke Existence for 1W, but I once took out 2 Oven's, a Trail of Crumbs, and a Bolas's Citadel with this and nothing feels better than wrecking that board.  Also, if anyone does get Yori going again, we can take out the omen's to dump some value.  Also nice not to have to ECD an ECD, but once again Revoke Existence might be a better play there.  Swap in Shatter's for two clarions against Gruul as Questing Beast and the that Trample s.o.b. are way out of range and can come down early.  Might want shatters instead of clarion for Temur Rec also as they can spit out some big ol' sharks and Uro, but Soul Guide, Teferi, and Justice strike should be our main answers there.

V2 - 6/12/20

Went 2-0 in B03 matches this morning (1 Ladder, 1 non-ladder), but sideboard is wonky.  (4) Dovin's Veto seems to do everything we need it do, so I'm exploring cutting all mystical dispute.  Dispute is great if you aren't playing white, but a veto almost always feels like the way to go as it invalidates a lot of use from opponent's dispute's.  So there's 3 more slots.  Additionally, the Tempo gain from Aether gust is great, but I think keeping 2 is enough for now.  The Gruul and Mono-red decks are so friggin fast that sometimes the gust still isn't enough to get ahead. Added two more Justice Strike for gruul matchup with  Questing Beast or Shifting Ceratops so you can deal with them at instant speed.  Aether Gust just means both these guys were waiting one more turn to wreck your day.  Swapped Dream Trawler to the mainboard for a Shark Typhoon as well.  I have been seen a few Esper control and Sultai midrange builds that love to grab this guy with thought erasure.  Always feels good to have a wincon in the yard for ECD.  Be wary of opening hands in round 2/3 as they'll generally board into Agonizing Remorse when they see you're playing ECD.  I've won quite a few close matchups with this deck, but keep in mind I am still in platinum, so misplays have had an effect (and I've managed to recover from a few of my own misplays).  Haven't faced Temur Rec in a B03 Match yet, so I havne't been able to explore how well The Wanderer works, but I presume it must work pretty well.  Current sideboard is

2x Soul-Guide Lantern

2xAether Gust

2xDovin's Veto

2xJustice Strike

2xShatter the Sky

1xThe Wanderer

1xShark Typhoon

1xHeliod's Intervention

Finally, I have 2xIonize in my last two slots.  Not sure if that's correct, but I felt like I needed some general counterspells in the deck.  Maybe Essence Scatter would be correct here, but I find that the 3 damage can allow us to pressure a bit more and capitalize more on the mana advantage we gain by countering a big spell.  Maybe Neutralize would be better also to be able to cycle for ECD or Shark when opponents land Teferi's?

Debating whether a Mythos of Illuna is worth running to copy Wilderness Rec and make big ol' sharks?  I am not seeing a ton of Temur Rec down in lowly Platinum, maybe a few more matches will help as I've only played about 20 so far.  I have to assume the metagame percentages online are correct. Welcome to any sideboard recommendations anyone has with Jeskai control decks in the current meta!  This is the part that takes a million matches!

MAYBEBOARD

Sideboard cards I'm debating based on meta

Could be a way to gain momentum on control mirrors.  Not as useful without a way to sac the token after attacking, but stealing two sharks

Uncounterable cards that draw and make hasty tokens at instant speed are good (less so if Teferi is on board, though).  I still feel like there's gotta be something in Red that can give us an edge over control mirrors

Uncounterable, takes out Teferi, could be the way to go against cntrl mirrors

MATCHUP NOTES

I am not a competitive player, but I do want to get better.  I'm going to record my matchup notes here; hopefully someone else finds this helpful.  Lots of this will just be jotting down random thoughts in my head post-match and doing a match review.

JESKAI CYCLING

GAME 1 - DRAW - LOSS - I managed to draw into enough clarions and justice strike's to clear the board, got Narset3  and Teferi on-board fairly early.  Maindeck cycling doesn't have much chance against with these two on-board as it can only cast main-phase flares.  I got too comfortable with 1 veto in hand and didn't realize he had enough lands on board to zenith flare twice.  Wasn't much I could do anyway without more maindeck counters.

GAME 2 - PLAY - WIN - (-3 ECD, -2 Shark, -2 Birth, -1 Bonecrusher, -1 Inspired Ultimatum // +2 Soul-guide, +2 Veto, +2 Aether Gust, +2 Neutralize, +1 Justice Strike) - Managed to get Teferi and Narset on-board and kept a soul-guide lantern on-board threatening to devalue zenith flares.   Managed to draw into a Teferi with Omens a lot; once Teferi and Narset3 are on-board this matchup is over.  May have been too timid about saccing soul-guide lantern early; lost a few walkers to Blitz of the Thunder Raptor.  Had to scry away a veto early for land drops, though so i was nervous about being able to have enough Counterspells for double flare after first game, recasting the walkers was enough.  Keep 1 ECD for Lurrus.

GAME 3 - DRAW - WIN - (No sideboard change).  This one was super tight.  I wasn't prepared for a Shredded Sails to take out a soul-guide lantern I dropped too early (I thought I could let it sit there and just sac it when they cast Blitz or Flare).  Got 2 Beacons down early and kept hitting more walkers and clarions off 3Narset.  +2 a turn can really help keep you alive as long as you're dealing with their threats as they come down.  Probably played a little too safe from a removal standpoint; should've done the math to find that taking 6 from Dranith Stinger isn't that bad if you have a Veto; save your Clarions to remove 2.  Eventually drew my 2nd Soul-guide with 2 Veto's showing and 1 Aether gust hidden in-hand, exiled half the opp's deck, All 3 walkers on board, and Trawler'ed to finish. Castle Ardenvale also saved my tush here against a big fox before I could get a 3Feri locked onto board.

MATCH REVIEW - Get 3Narset on field ASAP! They have to attack her in game 1 and she will protect your life total.  Use the - to draw cards, and give you time.  Hopefully you draw another and they don't play Fox T1.  T2 Birth is a good play if you can use it to protect 3Narset.  Justice Strike and 3Feri are key for de-valueing Flourishing Fox and likely worth taking a few damage to hold.  NEED lifegain here, need cheap spells for 4Narset to +1.  Probably + all planeswalkers is correct as Opponents don't like Teferi and Narset's + gaining life can pull you out of range.  As long as they are distracted from your life total and attacking your walkers, you're buying the time you need to pull away.  Game 1 is about lifegain only as we don't maindeck enough counters to deal with all 4 flares.  Final thought; not sure why I didn't board in the wanderer, zenith flare is exactly the same idea as explosion; probably would've been worth swapping a 4narset; that card underperformed.  Finally, interplanar beacon won game 3 for me; being able to gain 2 life every time I cast a walker was key.  Once you have enough lands to double Veto and put a 1/1 on with Ardenvale, scry them all to the bottom.  Also, just take 3 Justice strikes, 0 ECDs, and bring a few sharks.  This would've been much less hairy and much quicker if I could've dumped 6 mana into a 4/4 flyer on their endstep with Teferi on board instead of pinging with 1/1's till I drew Trawler.  The card replaces itself, it's literally no cost in the ideal situation in this matchup.

-Keep track of graveyard; it's better than having to wait until you counter a flare, because the 1st one is probably the only one that isn't lethal

-3Narset is key, cast on curv.  If they played fox T2 and it's small enough, don't - so they need to cycle without drawing to pump.  Otherwise, liberally draw and hope they attack her instead of life total.  Look for 3feri.  Bring all the counter's in sideboard, and BRING FRIGGIN WANDERER!  If you can keep wanderer on-board, zenith flare is useless, at the very least she may force them to burn a flare to remove her.

ESPER YORION

GAME 1 - Oath of Kaya is great against Bonecrusher Giant, Thought Erasure in a bad spot can ruin our day.  This deck is not tuned to beat control decks.  I think in the future I need to just remember that; look to get a shark out and start dinging their life total.  I ran out of Veto's quick and with no other counters, it was easy for them to keep their walkers out of range of bonecrusher giant.  I think if we see yorion we want to keep hands with the giant and play him on T3 over Teferi.  If we can get them to waste an ECD on a 3-mana creature we'll be in good shape for our planeswalker plan.  Oath sucks, but the AZ build seems to be more popular right now.  Clarions would help if they resolved Hero of Precinct 1 but this deck seemed 100% in on control.  Plan B will have to be to keep 4narset on the board long enough to ult in control mirrors.  Always pull the trigger at 6 loyalty unless you are sure you can keep her alive and ticked up, you still get the 2 damage ping even if your spells get countered.

GAME 2 - (Sideboard +2 Veto +2 Soul-Guide +2 Neutralize +2 Shatter +1 Shark, -3 Bonecrushers -2 Birth -4 Clarion)  Pressure with Shark, didn't let up.  Left a Teferi alone to tick up for a few points, Narset - to keep him from bouncing shark.  Ran out of ECD's, lost one to thought erasure.  Managed to hoard some counters and make a few 1/1's with Ardenvale while holding a Veto face-up.  Snagged 4Narset out the yard with ECD.  Kept her ticking and Ult'd at 6 for the last bit of damage; opponent may have been able to play around the veto as he certainly had card advantage, but I guess he never drew the thought erasure or Oath of Kaya

GAME 3 - (No sideboard change) Stared at eachother for 5 turns till I made a 3/3 shark, they Atris in response.  Got lucky and gave them a Tef and Island face up with thought erasure face down, I had veto for teferi, I always feel like it's a waste veto'ing erasure, but I feel like I have to if I have ECD in hand.  Let a few planeswalkers get countered and played omens around them while pressuring with the 3/3, at some point they won the ECD battle and we managed to clear out their graveyard with Soul-guide before they could bring anything back.  They got a Teferi on board and bounced the 3/3, I managed to make a 6/6 shark in response, went to face instead of Tef to get them down to 3 (maybe 2?).  Cast an omen and found a veto and Ultimatum, had 9 mana, but missing 3rd red source.  Fronted Veto, held for a turn.  Cracked the omen on upkeep, found the red source, drew, grabbed Ultimatum with Narset, and Ultimatumed for the Win.  Feels really good to win a tough game 3 with Inspired Ultimatum.

MATCH REVIEW - Grueling Control matchup.  Game 1 Opponent seemed to draw everything they needed, Game 2 I went all-in protecting a 3/3 shark that manged to close it out, Game 3 we just stared at eachother until I did the same.  Yorion is a weird deck where you know they have 4 ECD's, 4 Teferi's, and 4 Narsets, but they also have 40 cards sitting in their deck.  If they don't crack a fabled passage, then like us, their Narset is cycling through the deck pretty quick, but also like us, if you bottom an ECD early to grab a Dovin's Veto, they aren't seeing it for quite some time.  I get trapped into the fear that they have more counters and Shark Typhoons than I do, and there's the potential for hand hate just dumping my good cards.  Have to remember that the 80 card decks are also running 10 or so more lands, and you'll find yourself running into huge chunks and flooding occasionally.  Not sure if it's worth it, but disputing a T2 omen could be a way to get ahead of these decks.  There just seems to be so much mono-red in the meta that I don't want to maindeck that card, and I'd rather rely on the long-game strategy than roll the dice and hope they get scummed or flooded by countering their omen of the sea.  addendum - I dont' remember which match it happened in (maybe 2?) but I got Thought Collapse'd at some point and managed to recover.  Omen's really putting in work here.  I think I'm too timid to sac them when playing Yori decks as I just want to up the value of casting my Yorion, but sometimes scry 2 pre-draw is much more valuable.

SULTAI MIDRANGE

GAME 1 - DRAW - LOSS - Opponent recognized that 3Narset is the biggest threat to their deck and caught her with some early Thought Erasures.  Krasis pulled them ahead, they held their casualties until I had an ECD resolved, and eventually overpowered me.  Never drew my Veto's to counter casualties or Nissa until the game was over.  Opponent managed to overpower Dream Trawler with Polukranos's fight ability, I hadn't seen that before.  I used Bonecrusher Giant when the fight was on the stack to take him down to 4/4 which would have meant he's just dead to Trawler, but opponent just used ability again to get on top of the stack.  I hexproofed and discarded, and opponent did the same thing.

GAME 2 - PLAY - LOSS - (-4 Clarion, -2 Teferi, -2 Birth, - 3 Bonecrusher, +2 Shatter, +2 Dovin's, +1 Shark, +2 Neutralize, +2 Soul-guide, +2 Aether Gust).  Managed to get 3Narset on-board and got them down to 2 cards in hand.  They hit my Dovin's Veto with their thought erasure, then hit me with casualties next turn.  Krasis to restocked hand (one of those was a lucky draw), then I got Thought Distortioned for game over.  Opponent hit all the right cards with Erasure.  This deck doesn't draw well without Narset on-board, so we were not in a great position.  This is nearly unwinnable with main-deck, and still a tough matchup after sideboarding.  Tough to beat a resolved Thought Distortoin with a control deck.  Not sure what we should sideboard against this deck, probably 4 Dispute's would be good here to hit early discard and ramp spells for 1, but this deck didn't seem all that prevalent when we built ours.  Looks like the meta is going to be Bant Ramp, Temur Rec, Mono-red, and Jund sac mostly for now.  Really wishing that there was a way for Esper to get an edge on the sac and mono-red decks as Esper control could have an edge against Bant with Teferi, Veto, Heartless act, and access to Thought Distortion.