Wouldst thou like to see the world?
Art: Jeska, Thrice Reborn
by Yongjae Choi
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commanders Are:
Jeska and Ishai are sweet partners that work very will with each other, Jeska is a great way to end the game and Ishai is a creature that can get big really quickly. Aside from this our deck focuses primarily on setting up various breach or hullbreaker horror lines. We are a bit different than the average CEDH deck since if all of our combos get stopped we can always win through the combat step with Jeska and Ishai! This deck is very well positioned against a bunch of the big strategies in CEDH and is overall just a great deck that is a ton of fun to play!
The Deck:
Jeska / Ishai Spellpile!
Why Jeska, Thrice Reborn and Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker?
Jeska and Ishai both have important roles in the deck, Jeska is primary in our beatdown plan since with 6 counters on Ishai and Jeska on the field we can do 21 commander damage to one of our opponents. Jeska also is a great crowd control creature that allows us to take care of our opponents smaller threats like those pesky Dockside Extortionist
! Ishai has a smaller role in the deck but being able to get +1/+1 for each spell an opponents cast can get out of hand very quickly!
Deck Overview:
Creatures:
The Deck Overview section features highlighted cards from the deck. For full descriptions of the combos check out the main win conditions section.
We are a spellpile deck so we are pretty low on creatures but the ones we have are pretty impactful! Ishai and Jeska are very high value permanents so we always want to protect them! Some of our best creatures to protect Ishai and Jeska are Siren Stormtamer
, Esior, Wardwing Familiar
and Gold-Forged Thopteryx
are all of these creatures are just forms of extra protection for our really important creatures!
Serra Ascendant
is a great card for us to gain some life against more aggressive strategies like Winota! Esper Sentinel
is an all-star in CEDH and has been for a long time, Sentinel is great at really any stage of the game and more cards never hurt! Drannith Magistrate
and Archivist of Oghma
are both “stax” pieces for our deck that can prevent our opponents commanders from being cast and give us more cards from them searching!
Grand Abolisher
is a great in really any CEDH that plays white since we can prevent our opponents from interacting with us during our turn! Ranger-Captain of Eos
is a great creature tutor that lets us grab one of our smaller creatures and can be sacc-ed to prevent our opponents from casting noncreature spells, this can be very helpful if you know an opponent is about to go off!
Planeswalkers:
Narset, Parter of Veils
is a super sweet planeswalker that not only hurts our opponents on their turn, but when can cast cards like Windfall
or Wheel of Fortune
we can prevent our opponents from drawing anything but one card! Narsets ability is also helpful since we can grab a noncreature spell with it which allows us to filter through our deck to find one of our combos quicker!
Instants:
We are a blue deck in the CEDH format so of course we have counterspells. Some of our best counterspells are format staples like Swan Song
, Mental Misstep
, Force of Will
and Miscast
. While we have a bunch of other counterspells in the deck these 4 are some of the best. One notable omission to the deck is Pact of Negation
in testing I found pact just didn’t really work in the deck and we had no problem winning counterwars without pact!
Another notable instant in the deck is March of Otherworldly Light
which is a great card for CEDH that is not played a ton! While we typically don’t exile a ton of white cards it can be a great mana dump that allows us to easily remove one of our opponents permanents. Another card that does not see a lot of play in CEDH but functions well in this deck is Boros Charm
while we typically don’t use the direct damage being able to protect our permanents our give a creature double strike is a nice piece of protection / utility.
Sorceries:
Our sorceries where a lot of our board wipes reside, Brotherhood's End
is a great card especially against creature heavy strategies like Winota, Joiner of Forces
which is very prevalent in the CEDH meta right now!
Our sorceries where a lot of our board wipes reside, Brotherhood's End is a great card especially against creature heavy strategies like Winota, Joiner of Forces which is very prevalent in the CEDH meta right now!
One of our other impactful sorceries is Sevinne's Reclamation
which is a great card which can be a great part of our Intuition
combo lines and is a great way to get back Underworld Breach
and begin the combo. Some of our impactful wheels are Windfall, Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister
.
Artifacts:
Our artifact package is pretty much focused on nothing but mana with some of our best rocks being Old MTG and CEDH classics like Mana Crypt
, Mana Vault
and Mox Diamond
. All of our important artifacts let us cheat things out and cast our cards really early. The newest and one of the most impactful cards in our deck is The One Ring
which can draw a ton of cards which can be great to find our combo pieces.
Enchantments:
Our enchantment package has a lot of familiar CEDH staples like Smothering Tithe
, Mystic Remora
and Rhystic Study
all of these cards are pretty much auto-includes if you are playing white or blue in CEDH.
One of our enchantments that is pretty unique is Combat Research
which is a great way to draw cards and give a little extra protection to Ishai. Combat Research is definitely an interesting choice for the deck but in testing I found it to be really good and a great way to keep Ishai on the field.
Land Base:
We have a very typical CEDH land base, utilizing some of the best lands in the game! We of course have the original duals like Tundra
, Plateau
and Volcanic Island
. Another core of CEDH is our fetchlands like Scalding Tarn
, Polluted Delta
and Wooded Foothills
. Both of these sets of land make our deck really fast and strong.
In addition to some of our strongest lands we have some other lands that produce a ton of mana and are also really strong like City of Traitors
and Ancient Tomb
both of which have drawbacks but since they let us cast cards early are very beneficial to our gameplan!
We also have some interesting lands that we play mostly for their effects like Homeward Path
and Urza's Saga
. Homeward Path is great for any theft shenanigans that may be afoot and if not in a meta where effects like that are heavy can be taken out. Urza’s Saga is a great way for us to tutor up a cheap rock!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Very easy to end games through non-combo wins
- Ton of interaction both removal and on the stack
- Well positioned against some of the most popular CEDH decks
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- So many spells deck is much slower against stax style decks
- 29 lands can leave us low on mana if we have trouble sticking our rocks or non-land mana sources
- Beatdown gameplan can go away quickly if both commanders are killed regularly
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Our main win cons are combos, while are combos are not all game-ending a bunch of them are. If our combos get stopped we have the backup option of casting Ishai and Jeska and 21-ing someone which is very easy to do! This can also be the main gameplan depending on your starting hand, if you start with any rock + Jeweled Lotus
it can be a game where you can turn 1 cast Ishai and set up for a win very easily, all you need is 6 counters + Jeska and that is game over if you can connect!
Below are some of our combos explained!
Underworld Breach + Wheel of Fortune + Jeska's Will
Result: Infinite looting for all players. Infinite draw triggers for all players. Near-infinite storm count. Near-infinite magecraft triggers.
Requires: Underworld Breach on the battlefield. All other cards in your graveyard. You have at least six additional cards in your graveyard, plus an additional six cards between your hand and/or graveyard. An opponent has at least six cards in hand. 2R available.
Steps: Cast Jeska’s Will from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling three other cards from your graveyard, adding at least six R Cast Wheel of Fortune from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling three other cards from your graveyard, causing each player to discard their hand and draw seven cards Repeat
Underworld Breach + Wheel of Fortune + Lion's Eye Diamond
Result: Infinite looting. Infinite draw triggers. Infinite looting for opponents. Near-infinite storm count.
Requires: Wheel of Fortune in your graveyard. All permanents on the battlefield. You have at least six other cards in hand and/or graveyard.
Steps: Activate Lion’s Eye Diamond by discarding your hand and sacrificing it, adding RRR Cast Wheel of Fortune from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling 3 cards from your graveyard Resolve Wheel of Fortune, causing each player to discard their hand and draw seven cards Cast Lion’s Eye Diamond from your graveyard for its escape cost by exiling 3 cards from your graveyard Repeat
Underworld Breach + Brain Freeze
+ Lion's Eye Diamond
Result: Infinite self-mill. Near-infinite colored mana. Near-infinite storm count. Near-infinite magecraft triggers. Near-infinite mill.
Requires: Brain Freeze in your graveyard. All permanents on the battlefield. You have at least six other cards in hand and/or graveyard.
Steps: Activate Lion’s Eye Diamond by discarding your hand and sacrificing it, adding UUU Cast Lion’s Eye Diamond from your graveyard for its escape cost by exiling three cards besides Brain Freeze from your graveyard Cast Brain Freeze from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 1U and exiling three cards from your graveyard Brain Freeze’s storm ability triggers, creating at least one copy of Brain Freeze targeting yourself, and any remaining copies targeting an opponent Resolve each Brain Freeze, causing yourself to mill six cards and, if applicable, an opponent to mill three cards for each Brain Freeze remaining Repeat
Underworld Breach + Smothering Tithe + Windfall
Result: Infinite looting for all players. Infinite draw triggers for all players. Infinite self-discard triggers for all players. Near-infinite Treasure tokens. Near-infinite colored mana.
Requires: Windfall in your graveyard. All permanents on the battlefield. A player has at least three cards in hand. There are at least three additional cards in your graveyard. At least one opponent is unable to pay for Smothering Tithe’s trigger. 2U available.
Steps: Cast Windfall from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2U and exiling three cards from your graveyard, causing each player to discard at least three cards and draw at least three cards Smothering Tithe triggers for each card drawn by your opponents, creating that many Treasure tokens Activate three of the Treasure tokens by tapping and sacrificing them, adding 2U Repeat
Underworld Breach + Smothering Tithe + Wheel of Fortune
Result: Infinite looting for all players. Infinite draw triggers for all players. Infinite self-discard triggers for all players. Near-infinite Treasure tokens. Near-infinite colored mana.
Requires: Wheel of Fortune in your graveyard. All permanents on the battlefield. At least one opponent is unable to pay for Smothering Tithe’s trigger. You have at least three other cards in your graveyard, plus an additional three cards between your graveyard and/or hand. 2R available.
Steps: Cast Wheel of Fortune from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling three cards from your graveyard, causing each player to discard their hand and draw seven cards Smothering Tithe triggers for each card drawn by your opponents, creating that many Treasure tokens Activate three of the Treasure tokens by tapping and sacrificing them, adding 2R Repeat
Result: Infinite creature tokens with haste. Infinite ETB. Infinite magecraft triggers.
Requires: Both cards in hand. At least one creature on the battlefield. 2RRR available.
Steps: Cast Twinflame by paying 1R Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage by paying 1RR Dualcaster Mage enters the battlefield, copying Twinflame Resolve the Twinflame copy, creating a token copy of Dualcaster Mage Repeat from step 3
Swans of Bryn Argoll
+ Chain of Plasma
Result: Infinite card draw. Near-infinite looting. Near-infinite self-mill.
Requires: Swans of Bryn Argoll on the battlefield. 1R available, Chains of Plasma in hand.
Steps: Cast Chains of Plasma targeting the Swans The damage is prevented, and instead you draw 3 cards Discard a card to copy Chains of Plasma Repeat
Hullbreaker Horror
+ Sol Ring
+ Mana Crypt
Result: Infinite colorless mana. Infinite storm count.
Requires: Mana Crypt in hand. All other permanents on the battlefield.
Steps: Activate Sol Ring by tapping it, adding CC Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0 Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Sol Ring from the battlefield to your hand Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC Cast Sol Ring by paying 1 Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand Repeat
Hullbreaker Horror + Mana Vault + Mana Crypt
Result: Infinite colorless mana. Infinite storm count.
Requires: Mana Crypt in hand. All other permanents on the battlefield.
Steps: Activate Mana Vault by tapping it, adding CCC Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0 Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Vault from the battlefield to your hand Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC Cast Mana Vault by paying 1 Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand Repeat
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I think that Jeska and Ishai are a super fun and well positioned CEDH deck, it is a flexible deck that allows you to approach the game from a ton of different attitudes and adapt to what your opponents are doing and the combos you can assemble as quickly as possible! Being able to change your gameplan and adapt is one of the best parts of the deck! I think this deck can hold its own at any CEDH table or tournament!
Thanks for reading to the end!