Dies to Removal

24 Land

bruh

How is it good? How is it better than a stormbreath or sarkhan

I didn't say it was good, I was just curious why you thought it was bad against Abzan and green decks. I'm not a fan of the card personally, but being able to tap down fatties or having first strike seems decent against both Abzan and green decks, and blanking removal is going to be huge with Ultimate Price around. My concern with the card is the mana cost. It's a challenge to get value out of Monestary Mentor and it's only 3 cmc, it's going to be even worse for Exemplars. I'd sooner just fly over them with Ashcloud if I'm hellbent on playing a 4 drop.

I'm willing to be wrong though.

How so?

Thoughts on Matej Zatlkaj's list from GP Stockholm?

[deck=MATEJ ZATLKAJ – JESKAI, GRAND PRIX STOCKHOLM 2014]
Creatures:
4 Seeker of the Way
4 Mantis Rider
2 Ashcloud Phoenix
3 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4 Goblin Rabblemaster

Instants
3 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Jeskai Charm
3 Stoke the Flames
1 Gods Willing
1 Dig Through Time

Walkers:
2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Enchantments:
1 Banishing Light

Land:
2 Island
2 Mountain
2 Plains
3 Shivan Reef
1 Temple of Epiphany
3 Flooded Strand
4 Mystic Monastery
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Battlefield Forge

Sideboard:
1 Gods Willing
3 Suspension Field
3 Magma Spray
2 Negate
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Arc Lightning
1 Keranos, God of Storms
[/deck]

I'm not a fan of the 15 3-drops, but I love everything else. Erase should probably be in the sideboard as well.

I've been running the "jeskies" version with Hushwings/Ashcloud and I've been considering moving my Prognostic Sphinx's to the main. I board them in so much, I might as well be playing them in G1. If I do that I feel like I'd have to go to 25 land, because I want 2x Sarkhan as well.

Question: should we be sideboarding out Magma Jets? I've always felt that they were needed to setup draws and dig for relevant spells, but I notice people side them out. Stoke the Flames is usually the first card I side out if I'm bringing in removal or counters.

This is what I've been playing with:

~~deck~~

I've played around with both Rabble and Brimaz versions and so far I've preferred Brimaz, but I could see running either until the meta shapes up. Jace has been a nice 4 drop but I still need to play more games with it. The ultimate in theory should be back breaking, but I haven't been able to tick him up that high because of how useful the bounce is. As far as the mana base goes, I'm no expert but it seems fluid to me. Any advice on the mana would be appreciated.

How much have you been testing this list? When I was trying Jace (I think he is awesome), I couldn't reliably get UU on turn 4 while simultaneously running Brimaz & Stoke. Like it happened over 50%, but it wasn't as consistent as it should be. I think you need to choose between Brimaz or Jace...I don't think the mana base can support both. Well I guess technically it could with the full 4 tri lands & maybe some mana confluence, but I think it's important to keep the number of scrylands high with this deck.

I haven't had issues casting Brimaz or Jace with my setup, but I have had a couple instances where I was short a red for Stoke. I don't want to overload on tapped lands so I'll probably just cut Jace and up the red source count.

*edit - Ended up with a list very close to what Valdrith has, so I'm gunna give that list a go. Cut the Steam Augury's for Chandra, and replaced Jace with Sarkhan.

I went with 4 because I want one in my opener and the first one played usually draws out removal. I have no problem dialing it down to 3 if it proves to be an issue though.

This is what I've been playing with:

[deck]

Creatures:
4x Brimaz, King of Oreskos
4x Mantis Rider
4x Seeker of the Way

Instants:
2x Dig Through Time
4x Jeskai Charm
4x Lightning Strike
4x Magma Jet
2x Steam Augury
4x Stoke the Flames

Plainswalkers:
2x Jace, the Living Guildpact

Enchantments:
2x Banishing Light

Land:
4x Battlefield Forge
4x Flooded Strand
2x Island
2x Mystic Monastery
2x Plains
4x Shivan Reef
3x Temple of Enlightenment
3x Temple of Triumph

Sideboard:
3x Arc Lightning
2x Banishing Light
1x Deicide
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Keranos, God of Storms
4x Magma Spray
2x Negate
[/deck]

I've played around with both Rabble and Brimaz versions and so far I've preferred Brimaz, but I could see running either until the meta shapes up. Jace has been a nice 4 drop but I still need to play more games with it. The ultimate in theory should be back breaking, but I haven't been able to tick him up that high because of how useful the bounce is. As far as the mana base goes, I'm no expert but it seems fluid to me. Any advice on the mana would be appreciated.