It has been a while since I’ve written about Modern, but I’m here today with a fresh take on Jeskai Blink. I’ve been playing a good amount of Modern and made some changes worth discussing.
The Modern format is fairly diverse at the moment with a healthy amount of metagame churn. It’s a good time to play a deck that plays to your strengths and mine happens to be getting value.
Jeskai Blink can establish a semi-fast clock against linear decks or control the battlefield with the traditional suite of removal and counters in fair matchups.
Quantum Riddler is the primary threat. A 4/6 lines up well against the format and is actually more powerful now that the metagame is more varied. When the cat was first out of the bag on Quantum Riddler there was plenty of targeted interaction for a 4/6 flier with a mana value of five.
Quantum Riddler can be cheated onto the battlefield permanently by warping and blinking with Phelia or countering the delayed trigger with Consign to Memory.
Phelia is a dog with plenty of tricks in Jeskai Blink. It can clear the way for Ragavan to connect in aggressive draws. Consign to Memory can counter Phelia’s delayed trigger for opposing permanents to return to the battlefield. Nice work, pup!
My three drops of choice are two Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and three Teferi, Time Raveler. Phelia is able to blink these threats for profit as resetting the abilities on these powerful three drops makes for a nasty curve.
Fable looks unimpressive on the surface, but can ramp into discarding Phlage and immediately escape on the fourth turn. If you don’t need to break a fetchland the opponent doesn’t even get priority to exile Phlage before you pay escape costs. If you play against a deck with Fable and Phlage, think about what happens if the 6/6 is discarded before letting the ability resolve.
Teferi’s static ability prevents cascade and counters from being effective, but is also a blue and white card to pitch to Solitude and Force of Negation. I’ve bounced threats to clear the way for Ragavan and picked up my own Solitude as well.
Ragavan can lead to some powerful starts, but can also fall short on the draw and against decks with gummy threats. I board our Ragavan pretty aggressively in exchange for targeted removal, but it is a solid game one card.
Phlage is the reason to be Jeskai. It’s still one of the most powerful and recursive threats in the format. Four Consign to Memory provide plenty of opportunity to cast Phlage and counter the sacrifice trigger. I can even hard cast Phlage from hand with Arena of Glory’s haste and then use Consign for a big threat out of nowhere.
Solitude ensures you don’t fall too far behind, especially on the draw. I’m not playing Ephemerate because it doesn’t do much in Jeskai Blink without a specific combo in hand. Consign and Phelia are more powerful and versatile cards for this effect. I spent months with Ephemerate in my deck and hating it. One day I woke up and realized I could cut it from the deck and it was great.
No More Lies has been impressive and isn’t as popular in stock builds of Jeskai Blink. I like that I can pitch No More Lies to Solitude or exile an opposing Phlage. Turn two is typically spent playing a land and passing the turn already because Phelia has flash so it’s an organic card in the deck.
Galvanic Discharge gets the nod over Lightning Bolt because of Wrath of the Skies. I want two Wraths in the maindeck because Affinity, Prowess, and Boros can be tricky game one matchups without them. I’ve also found Wrath of the Skies to be passable in a variety of non-swarm matchups as well.
There are three Force of Negations in the seventy-five because Modern is a wide open format with plenty of decks packing game-ending spells. I don’t like to play decks that are significantly unfavored against linear decks because people want to do powerful things.
I went with a single Prismatic Ending over March of Otherworldly Light because there are already two maindeck Wrath of the Skies to kill Urza’s Saga. Ending is the more mana efficient spell and I do want to make some efficiency considerations for my four surveil land deck.
Overall, this is a twenty-four land deck because it’s reasonable to hard cast Quantum Riddler and Solitude when the game goes long. There are plenty of mana sinks in escaping Phlage and two Fables to further help prevent flooding.
Two Arena of Glory not only help with Phlage, but two red mana can haste Ragavan and Phelia on the same turn. There are plenty of opportunities to cast two creatures due to the mana costs in the deck.
I chose three Scalding Tarn and eight white fetch lands because Plains is the most important basic land for Phlage, Wrath of the Skies, Blood Moon, and Harbinger of the Seas. I don’t fetch Island often because it doesn’t escape Phlage and Mountain is less useful because of the two Arenas.
Plains pairs best with Thundering Falls as you can cast No More Lies which is why it’s the duplicate surveil land choice. I’ve been very pleased with the second Thundering Falls in my manabase. This is the fourth surveil land alongside eleven fetchlands for plenty of library manipulation.
Since this is a Phlage/Solitude deck it has a naturally positive matchup against creature decks. Jeskai Midrange decks often need more help against spell-based decks.
The second and third Force of Negation do a lot of work in making sure you don’t die to Past in Flames, Goblin Charbelcher, Scapeshift, and others.
Ashiok, Dream Render can help against NeoBrand, but will more often shore up a tough matchup in Amulet Titan. The onus is on Jeskai to transform into a highly disruptive deck for the Amulet matchup because generically strong spells aren’t enough. Ashiok always exiles the opponent’s graveyard, but can target yourself to find Phlage.
Obsidian Charmaw is the other side of the big mana hate. I will board in the two Charmaw against Amulet Titan as they have plenty of utility lands that make colorless mana, but it’s mainly for Eldrazi decks. It plays very well with the four Phelia and can create a fast lockout of land denial.
Mystical Dispute helps against the mirror, Simic Birthing Ritual, and others. Since I have two No More Lies in the maindeck I don’t bring them in against non blue decks. They have been pulling their weight, but I don’t want a third copy because then I have to start trimming No More Lies after sideboard to make room.
Celestial Purge and Aether Gust are zone defense options. I don’t want more than two of these types of cards because they’re similar to No More Lies. Spell Snare is effectively the same slot with a cheaper mana value.
Soul-Guide Lantern and Ghost Vacuum are the two graveyard hate spells of choice. I bring in Soul-Guide more often because it can cycle so it’s far less committal. Unless I’m facing a Dredge deck I don’t consider Ashiok to be graveyard hate due to the high mana value.
I don’t want to board in more than a Soul-Guide Lantern against Boros Energy to fight Phlage because there are already two No More Lies, Celestial Purge, and Aether Gust. Ghost Vacuum gets swept up by Wrath of the Skies. Ghost Vacuum is for Esper Goryo’s and other graveyard-centric decks.
The third Wrath of the Skies does heavy lifting against Affinity, Boros Energy, and Prowess. When you want three it will be the strongest card in your deck. I don’t like High Noon against Prowess because I’m leaning on Wrath of the Skies.
Modern is in a healthy state with plenty of viable decks. I’m always happy that a Jeskai Midrange deck is competitive as I’ve been playing them for over twenty years at this point. Give this version of Jeskai Blink a try; I’ve been having a lot of fun and success.
