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Main » Articles » The King is Back, Baby!

The King is Back, Baby!

Ali Aintrazi
Posted on February 3, 2017
 Reddit

Can you believe it? We are back to Control being one of, if not, the best decks in the format. I’m not sure how many players love it this way but I know I sure do. Especially since the deck is very skill intensive, most notably in the mirror matches. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure what I was going to play in Richmond but I knew I wanted to play a Saheeli Rai deck. I was either going to be on four color Saheeli, Crush of Tentacles Saheeli, or Control Saheeli. I tested each version and just really liked the control plan since you can set the pace of the game with your spells and the threat of the combo. The four color Saheeli list I got from Eli Kassis and I ended up testing and giving the deck to Jeffrey Ashkin who ended up getting second place in the whole event with the exact list. Today I’d like to talk about those two decks and what I plan to test in the future of the Jeskai Saheeli deck.

First up, let’s look at the four color list.

Four-Color Saheeli ? Aether Revolt Standard | Jeffrey Ashkin, 2nd Place SCG Open Richmond

Why is this deck good?

Panharmonicon
This deck was very good in testing, I was very close to playing it. The reason this deck is so good is because it attacks from so many different angles. You can swarm the board with creatures that easily replace themselves. Even if your opponent somehow manages to wipe the board with something like you Fumigate you might have a Planeswalker or even a Panharmonicon after the dust settles. When that’s the case a board wipe isn’t that big of a deal. Sometimes your opponents can’t even risk casting Fumigate if you have an active Saheeli or if you just have 6 mana and two cards in hand since you threaten the combo. This is a conundrum for your opponent and while they think about what they should do, you continue to express your battlefield dominance with all these creatures, Planeswalkers, and Panharmonicon.

More power in Saheeli andFelidar Guardian.

This four color Saheeli deck abuses Saheeli and Felidar Guardian much more easily than the Jeskai counterparts. Not only can you blink your value creatures with Felidar Guardian but you can also blink your Oath of Nissa, Oath of Jace, or even your Prophetic Prisms. This means that Felidar Guardian will almost always draw you a card or do more. The same is true for Saheeli since she will also have plenty more targets to clone with her minus ability outside of Felidar Guardian. Not only can she clone you Rogue Refiner and Cloudblazers for value but she can also clone a Prophetic Prism, Implement of Combustion, or even a Panharmonicon for some crazy shenanigans.

Panharmonicon Secrets!

Some of you might know these while others may not but here are some little things you can do when playing this single copy of Panharmonicon in your four color Saheeli list.

  • Having Panharmonicon out and a single Felidar Guardian will allow you to get infininte colored mana if you play a second Felidar Guardian. What you do is blink the other Felidar Guardian and a land that can come back into play untapped. Once the new Felidar Guardian comes onto the battlefield you’ll do the same thing. Blink the other Guardian and a land that will enter the battlefield untapped. Throw in a Prophetic Prism, Rogue Refiner, or a Cloudblazer and now you can draw as many cards as your heart desires.

  • This one isn’t too crazy but if you have a Saheeli and a Panharmonicon in play while holding a Cloudblazer or Rogue Refiner, you might want to clone your Panharmonicon instead of your creature. This is true if you are trying to play around a removal spell from your opponent. This way if your opponent does have a Grasp of Darkness or Harnessed Lightning you’ll still get to draw the max value of cards without having to risk your creature getting destroyed by a removal spell and missing out on your Saheeli minus ability.

I highly recommend this deck if you like playing creatures, drawing cards, Planeswalkers, or combing your opponent’s out. This deck is fun to play and it’s extremely powerful. I also find it favored against the Jeskai Saheeli lists if you play it right, again just because you attack from so many different angles at once while can break up their combo with a single Implement of Combustion and a Red source.

Next up I want to talk about the deck I decided to play at the Open in Richmond. This decklist was given to me by Commander enthusiast and Cube extraordinary, Justin Parnell. His original list had Disallow where I switched those out for Void Shatters. This was a mistake, Disallow is just better in this current environment. However, I did also add an Oath of Jace and that was correct, I think all these Jeskai Saheeli lists should play at least a single Oath of Jace to give your Felidar Guardian more value. It’s also just a 3 mana Brainstorm in Standard. Allowing you to pitch your dead cards, hit land drops, or dig deeper into your combo. All right, without further ado let’s look at the list I played.

Jeskai Saheeli ? Aether Revolt Standard | Ali Aintrazi, 27th Place SCG Open Richmond

As soon as I started playing the deck I fell in love. It’s been a long time since I really enjoyed a deck that was also very good or Tier 1. Jeskai Saheeli is both. If the game goes very long and you lose it’s usually because you messed up somewhere along the way. This is great news because it means that if you master this deck your win percentage will go way up. You have so many options while playing this deck and so many different paths you can go down and at least one will usually win you the game. The key is to find that route and that’s what makes playing this deck so rewarding. That and in the mirror matches the better control player usually wins except for the game ending on turn three through six because of the combo that you couldn’t stop. Another hard one to win through is the turn three Saheeli. In the control mirror the person that can play Saheeli on turn three and then untap with her becomes such a huge favorite in that game.

Tips for the Deck

  • Be patient, you don’t need to go for the combo as fast as possible. The threat of the combo is usually good enough. By having one combo piece on the battlefield this will tie up your opponent’s mana every turn or they risk losing to it.

  • You win many more games with the threat of the combo then you do the actual combo. The threat of the combo will buy you so much time and then you’ll start cloning your Torrential Gearhulks in the late game and just bury your opponent’s in card advantage and in damage. Two 5/6s coming at you in the red zone is pretty darn scary and ends the game very fast? Who’d a thunk? And this usually happens because you threatened the combo the whole game.

  • So, when do you go for the combo? I went for it when I had plenty of back up countermagic or when I knew I was going to lose the game if I didn’t combo. This usually involved my opponent having a board state that I couldn’t overcome or even in the mirror match when I knew my opponent was slowly taking control of the game, you just feel that icy grip. So, I would try to have at least one counterspell before going for it but I would go for it 100% of the time in these scenarios.

Things I Would Do Different Going Forward.

Spell Queller was overall bad. I wish I didn’t play it, it was a 2/3 flash flier most of the time. On the other hand, Elder Deep-Fiend was amazing and did so much work. This could’ve been in part due people not really seeing this flashy Eldrazi come down and tap them out so I could combo safely the following turn. It was even good to just tap down all the creatures and then swing for ten damage with Saheeli or fourteen damage with Saheeli and a Fumarole. Chandra in the board was just bad, you never want her so I would cut her. I mentioned before that I would cut Void Shatters for Disallow moving forward and I’d also switch up the mana base a little bit. So what would a deck list look like knowing everything I know now?

Well, I’m glad you asked.

Jeskai Shaeeli ? Aether Revolt Standard | Ali Aintrazi

  • Sorceries (0)

Elder Deep-Fiend
This is where I would start with my Jeskai Saheeli list. I really liked Elder Deep-Fiend and what it allowed you to do or to set up. Being able to just Gearhulk at end of turn and attacking for five is great because they will usually just go down to fifteen. You then can Deep-Fiend tapping whatever creatures or mana you need to and cloning the Gear Hulk with Saheeli to push in fifteen points of damage.

I also did not like how if your opponent resolved a Saheeli on turn three and you couldn’t do anything, you were basically out of the game. So, I’ve added Eldrazi Skypawner over Spell Queller since Eldrazi Skpawner is good to emerge from and it also pressures Saheeli or your opponent very well. It’s also a much better clone target for your Saheeli than Spell Queller was. The extra mana from the Scion could also come in handy in a pinch.

I want to try a more aggressive Saheeli list too with four Torrential Gearhulks and two to four Flame Lash. Flame Lash not only disrupts the combo and kills annoying planeswalkers like Gideon but it can also just kill your opponent, especially if you are casting it again with Torrential Gearhulk. I think there is a very good Jeskai Control/Burn deck that doesn’t play the combo but instead plays like a counter burn strategy and tempos the game out with counterspells, creatures, and of course, burn spells.

I don’t want to brew too much yet since we have the Pro Tour coming up this weekend. I’ll be sure to start brewing immediately after that.

As always thanks for reading, enjoy watching the Pro Tour or good luck if you’re playing!

Until next time,

Ali Aintrazi

@Alieldrazi on Twitter

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TAGS articles, standard, strategy, metagame, constructed, ali aintrazi, decklist, jeskai saheeli, copycat combo

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