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Deck Overview- Modern Jeskai Control

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Once upon a time, Shaun McClaren won a Pro Tour with a Jeskai Control deck. After that, the deck slowly disappeared from the format at large, with much blame for its disappearance based on Splinter Twin being a better strategy to employ in a Steam Vents deck. With Twin banned now, some players are picking up Jeskai Control once again. With some metagame choices to combat the Eldrazi menace, of course.

Jeskai Control by KZRDS

Creatures

2 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Vendilion Clique

Spells

1 Anger of the Gods
3 Cryptic Command
2 Electrolyze
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Lightning Helix
3 Mana Leak
4 Path to Exile
2 Remand
2 Spell Snare
1 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Spreading Seas

Lands

3 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Polluted Delta
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Steam Vents
1 Sulfur Falls
3 Tectonic Edge

Sideboard

1 Anger of the Gods
2 Lightning Helix
1 Dispel
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Gideon Jura
2 Negate
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
1 Spell Pierce
2 Stony Silence
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Timely Reinforcements

Snapcaster Mage and Lightning Bolt are, unsurprisingly, still great. While the Eldrazi deck is explosive, many hands can be one-for-oned in the early game, and then shut down if your late game is strong enough. Path to Exile deals with any threat, and I can't express how happy I am to see so many Cryptic Command's in a 5-0 League deck.

There was an error retrieving a chart for Cryptic Command

The maindeck isn't completely dedicated to beating Eldrazi, but the sideboard contributes a lot of help in that matchup. Supreme Verdict and the pair of heavy-hitting planeswalkers in Elspeth, Sun' Champion and Gideon Jury give this deck some serious punch in long games.

Traditionally, decks like this have played Wall of Omens in the two slot, in part due to its interaction with Restoration Angel. It turns out that Wall is quite poor against Eldrazi with the ease at which the deck generates four power creatures, whereas Spreading Seas is extremely well-positioned currently. Turning off Eye of Ugin is only scratching the surface of the card's power level. It also turns off creature lands from Affinity and Infect while being about as good against Jund as it has ever been.

There was an error retrieving a chart for Spreading Seas

Personally I'm in the "join 'em" camp when it comes to Eldrazi (tournament report coming tomorrow!), but if I were invested in "beating them" this is the deck that I've seen that shows the most promise. There are other archetypes like Living End and Lantern Control that can compete, but none are quite as good at just playing Magic nor appear to have as strong matchups against the format at large as this deck.

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