Standard Brew: Jeskai Feather
I admit, I am a standard hipster. When decks become popular I don't want to play them. I like finding powerful interactions between decks that most people haven't thought of, and pitting them against the popular decks. More importantly, I get incredible joy from "breaking" formats. The CHANCE of finding the best deck for a current metagame is an exhilarating high, that I will make short term -EV concessions to try and find.
This is a deck I've been on a savage tear with online (#32 mythic as of writing this) and won a 27 person live tournament with:
Jeskai Feather
https://www.streamdecker.com/deck/Tw1Sc1R1P
It is essentialy Boros feather, splashing for deputy of detention, spliced with some minor wizard synergy.
This post is a quick breakdown of how I arrived at the idea and how the parts function to make Jeskai a better choice than Boros in certain metagames.
Note: by the time you read this the metagame may have already shifted to make this less good. It is a metagame call when scapeshift is a common deck.
Deputy of Detention:
Deputy is the main reason to consider playing Jeskai over Boros and is the reason I considered Jeskai in the first place. Scapeshift was dominating the meta immediatly after LSV won GP denver..
The magic think tanks were speculating hard to dethrone scapeshift from the top of the heep.
I wanted to beat scapeshift, but I didn't want to sacrifice my game against the rest of the field to do so. The only thing that went over the top of it was Nexus of Fate (which I refuse to play) , and to go under it, you needed a fast clock, preferably fliers and probably some answers to the zombie horde.
The best answers to scapeshift? Sweepers, Legion's End, Blood Sun and Deputy of Detention.
Sweepers were only good in reactive strategies, which scapeshift would eventually win against organically by playing lands. Blood sun is only good in the sideboard as it's bad against too many decks. Deputy of detention and Legion's end were the best answers in a proactive strategy.
Thinking about feather, I realized it may be one of the best deputy of detention decks because of it's multiple ways to protect it (God's willing). Boros feather also lacked the ability to deal with permanents that didn't die to shock or reckless rage... However, it didn't have the space to play purely reactive spells like Ixalan's binding, due to to it being so synergy driven.
Deputy being a creature further strained opponents removal away from it's must kill creatures and was a viable target for reckless rage.
Deputy single handedly makes scapeshift a much better matchup than boros feather would otherwise have. Was splashing blue for just deputy worth it??
Lightning Stormkin:
One of my first thoughts when thinking about the holes in scapeshift was to play UR wizards, as they have a lot of fliers that can get over the zombies and 1/1 chump blockers... and hasty wizards can snipe off a Teferi that bounced a creature. I built various versions, but they all failed. Stormkin always seemed like a strong card without a home. When thinking about it in the context of boros feather, I wasn't in love with it, as a vanilla fast clock isn't that important, and it suicides to cast reckless rage. But maybe it's rate alone is worth justifying a slot over adanto vanguard? A card I never really liked in feather , and liked even less with the rise of legion's end to combat zombies...
Then I noticed deputy of detention is a wizard... and so is stormkin AND so is dreadhorde arcanist. What if....
Adeliz the Cinderwind
Yep that's right. Adeliz is a fantastic magic card with a lot of 1 mana spells that cantrip. 2/2 Flying haste prowess for 3 is still a solid magic card in this deck ignoring wizard synergy.
I used to play Adeliz as a singleton even in UR Phoenix back when planeswalkers were all the rage and hasted threats were at a premium. The card is very close to being good enough by itself with a lot of spells.. 13 wizards is more than enough to turn it from playable to great.
Adeliz gives the deck an alternative legit threat when you don't draw feather. It's not as powerful as feather in the deck, but it combined with dreadhorde arcanist or a bunch of defiant strikes and another wizard is a hell of a threat no matter the board state. Adeliz means the deck doesn't have to mulligan as aggressively to find feather.
Dovins Veto & Aether Gust
These are the other two sideboard cards that further improve the scapeshift and fog matchups... and aether gust is an awsome sideboard card against any deck playing green. Big green toughness is an issue that aether gust fixes.
Aether gust is at it's best in an agressive deck due it being a temporary answer that generates tempo, and thats what feather is!
Conclusion
Is this better than WR feather? It depends. It's much better against scapeshift and fog. It's slightly better against anything else playing breeding pool. Jeskai has a faster clock, more access to fliers and has more answers to big green creatures.
It's slightly worse against agressive decks like vampires and mono red. Deputy slightly improves the deck in some corner case scenarios. But deputy is only decent in those matchups, and a less consistent/ more painful mana base is not worth it.
It's slightly worse against control decks as vanguard is a missed resiliant threat to wraths, and deputy doesn't do much. Mulliganing a few more hands due to mana base issues also reduces a couple win % points.
Regardless, I plan to play it until I stop seeing so much breeding pools and agressive decks... If breeding pools die down and agro picks up, I'll probably switch to esper or grixis to combat the vampire menace.
This is a deck I've been on a savage tear with online (#32 mythic as of writing this) and won a 27 person live tournament with:
Jeskai Feather
https://www.streamdecker.com/deck/Tw1Sc1R1P
It is essentialy Boros feather, splashing for deputy of detention, spliced with some minor wizard synergy.
This post is a quick breakdown of how I arrived at the idea and how the parts function to make Jeskai a better choice than Boros in certain metagames.
Note: by the time you read this the metagame may have already shifted to make this less good. It is a metagame call when scapeshift is a common deck.
Deputy of Detention:
Deputy is the main reason to consider playing Jeskai over Boros and is the reason I considered Jeskai in the first place. Scapeshift was dominating the meta immediatly after LSV won GP denver..
The magic think tanks were speculating hard to dethrone scapeshift from the top of the heep.
I wanted to beat scapeshift, but I didn't want to sacrifice my game against the rest of the field to do so. The only thing that went over the top of it was Nexus of Fate (which I refuse to play) , and to go under it, you needed a fast clock, preferably fliers and probably some answers to the zombie horde.
The best answers to scapeshift? Sweepers, Legion's End, Blood Sun and Deputy of Detention.
Sweepers were only good in reactive strategies, which scapeshift would eventually win against organically by playing lands. Blood sun is only good in the sideboard as it's bad against too many decks. Deputy of detention and Legion's end were the best answers in a proactive strategy.
Thinking about feather, I realized it may be one of the best deputy of detention decks because of it's multiple ways to protect it (God's willing). Boros feather also lacked the ability to deal with permanents that didn't die to shock or reckless rage... However, it didn't have the space to play purely reactive spells like Ixalan's binding, due to to it being so synergy driven.
Deputy being a creature further strained opponents removal away from it's must kill creatures and was a viable target for reckless rage.
Deputy single handedly makes scapeshift a much better matchup than boros feather would otherwise have. Was splashing blue for just deputy worth it??
Lightning Stormkin:
One of my first thoughts when thinking about the holes in scapeshift was to play UR wizards, as they have a lot of fliers that can get over the zombies and 1/1 chump blockers... and hasty wizards can snipe off a Teferi that bounced a creature. I built various versions, but they all failed. Stormkin always seemed like a strong card without a home. When thinking about it in the context of boros feather, I wasn't in love with it, as a vanilla fast clock isn't that important, and it suicides to cast reckless rage. But maybe it's rate alone is worth justifying a slot over adanto vanguard? A card I never really liked in feather , and liked even less with the rise of legion's end to combat zombies...
Then I noticed deputy of detention is a wizard... and so is stormkin AND so is dreadhorde arcanist. What if....
Adeliz the Cinderwind
Yep that's right. Adeliz is a fantastic magic card with a lot of 1 mana spells that cantrip. 2/2 Flying haste prowess for 3 is still a solid magic card in this deck ignoring wizard synergy.
I used to play Adeliz as a singleton even in UR Phoenix back when planeswalkers were all the rage and hasted threats were at a premium. The card is very close to being good enough by itself with a lot of spells.. 13 wizards is more than enough to turn it from playable to great.
Adeliz gives the deck an alternative legit threat when you don't draw feather. It's not as powerful as feather in the deck, but it combined with dreadhorde arcanist or a bunch of defiant strikes and another wizard is a hell of a threat no matter the board state. Adeliz means the deck doesn't have to mulligan as aggressively to find feather.
Dovins Veto & Aether Gust
These are the other two sideboard cards that further improve the scapeshift and fog matchups... and aether gust is an awsome sideboard card against any deck playing green. Big green toughness is an issue that aether gust fixes.
Aether gust is at it's best in an agressive deck due it being a temporary answer that generates tempo, and thats what feather is!
Conclusion
Is this better than WR feather? It depends. It's much better against scapeshift and fog. It's slightly better against anything else playing breeding pool. Jeskai has a faster clock, more access to fliers and has more answers to big green creatures.
It's slightly worse against agressive decks like vampires and mono red. Deputy slightly improves the deck in some corner case scenarios. But deputy is only decent in those matchups, and a less consistent/ more painful mana base is not worth it.
It's slightly worse against control decks as vanguard is a missed resiliant threat to wraths, and deputy doesn't do much. Mulliganing a few more hands due to mana base issues also reduces a couple win % points.
Regardless, I plan to play it until I stop seeing so much breeding pools and agressive decks... If breeding pools die down and agro picks up, I'll probably switch to esper or grixis to combat the vampire menace.
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