Two Gloomlake Verge.

Four Godless Shrine.

A Watery Grave.

... Not to mention three Starting Towns (four in some versions)!

That's kinda sorta a lot of Black mana for only four Black pips, total, in a seventy-five.

[Inevitable Defeat] [Inevitable Defeat] [Inevitable Defeat] [Inevitable Defeat]

That's okay. There are six:

If you've recently declared yourself numb to the sameness of Izzet Cauldron against Mono-Red in Standard, perhaps I can convince you that there is something a little different, something genuinely spicy, dare I say something inevitable that might tickle your fancy?

Four-Color Control | SPM Standard | JonnyB5ss8, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 9/20/2025

• Creatures (2)
• 2 Marang River Regent

• Instants (28)
• 1 Final Showdown
• 2 Mystical Teachings
• 2 Three Steps Ahead
• 3 Jeskai Revelation
• 4 Consult the Star Charts
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 Inevitable Defeat
• 4 Lightning Helix
• 4 No More Lies

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Day of Judgment
• 1 Stock Up
• 1 Ultima

• Lands (27)
• 1 Plains
• 1 Cori Mountain Monastery
• 1 Meticulous Archive
• 1 Mistrise Village
• 1 Watery Grave
• 2 Gloomlake Verge
• 2 Riverpyre Verge
• 3 Starting Town
• 3 Thundering Falls
• 4 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 4 Sacred Foundry

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 2 Fire Magic
• 1 Flashfreeze
• 2 High Noon
• 1 Kutzil's Flanker
• 1 Negate
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 2 Seam Rip
• 2 Voice of Victory

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This deck, which has largely been dubbed "Jeskai Black" by influencers and content creators has been quietly tearing up digital Standard for the past month or so, most notably in the digital hands of GERSCHI. I chose this particular build to feature because Jeskai Black is a tutor / card drawing deck and I find some of the little details here more illustrative. For example: GERSCHI tends to play more Day of Judgment than Ultima, and has been experimenting with Fire Magic in the main-deck Final Showdown spot.

Countless 5-0 Leagues or not; Challenge win or not... Who wants to discuss any of that?

Most middle-of-the-road, regular, red-blooded American Magic: The Gathering players would first consider straight Blue-White for their Control itch-scratching needs. Some of them might branch out into Jeskai because, hey! Shiko buying back Stock Up or Rediscover the Way is really powerful!

... Until you realize this Jeskai Black deck barely plays Stock Up and has cut out many of the cards that defined a "mere" Jeskai splash.

So, what's going on here? The short story is that the functionality of any deck is ultimately defined by what it can get out of its mana. Bending that mana base by trading Restless Anchorage and Fountainport for Gloomlake Verge and Starting Town to get access to even a single source of Black in a game is because Inevitable Defeat really is that good. The longer story is that this deck is only superficially similar to the other "Control" decks in the format. It reawakens an older model and rewards more strategic play.

This is a spells deck. This is an instants deck. With the exception of a Cori Mountain Monastery that isn't even present in many builds this deck gets almost no second looks at value. Once you cast a card, that's it. Sometimes you get a lot of value, or swing the momentum of the game... But you always have to make a decision (or three). Where many Jeskai Control decks played 0-1 Jeskai Revelation, this deck almost can't win without casting one; ergo runs 2-3. This is a deck not only with Mystical Teachings as part of its card drawing suite, has Mystical Teachings piggybacking off of those Black pips, but is comically liable to flash Mystical Teachings back to get Final Showdown mid-combat to kill a jump-kicking Ninjutsu Kaito... Because yeah, the games are supposed to go that long. That's actually the plan.

How does Jeskai Black put it all together?

1. This deck largely plays at instant speed. It might have Beza, the Bounding Spring in the sideboard, but it might also have some kind of weird Sphinx in the sideboard instead. It's not really tapping out for a powerful permanent to slow the opponent down in Game 1. Instead, it forces them to play into its mana. The land base will often give Jeskai Black the option of Lightning Helix or No More Lies; it can pick the one that creates the most headache for the opponent in the moment... Yet, can, of course, be wrong.
2. This deck wants to be the biggest. It not only plays Three Steps Ahead, it sometimes Mystical Teachings into Three Steps Ahead! It expects to bonk you with Monk tokens at some point in most games that it wins. Seemingly everything about this deck is about making the game go longer. Repeat after me: "Mystical Teachings for Mystical Teachings" ... Why else would you play two? That said, it isn't actually the biggest, but it can easily stop someone's three-toughness Kona or exorbitant enchantment with permission or point removal.
3. This deck rewards a completely different set of skills than you are very likely used to. If you compare it to Control decks of recent years... Decks with cards like Ezrim, Agency Chief + The Eternal Wanderer; or that killed the opponent with multiple Jace activations... There is nothing parallel present. Some of the cards are powerful, but they're mostly one shot. You don't get value turn after turn from a Planeswalker. You have to pick and choose where you're going to point your removal. Inevitable Defeat or other.

Inevitable Defeat is the feature. It's the steak. It's the what.

But the what isn't what we're interested in. You play this deck for the aroma, the umami, the sizzle; not the what but the so what.

Inevitable Defeat forces you to jump through a lot of hoops to play. What exactly makes it all worth it?

Ultima is still a non-negotiable.

Again, that's one of the reasons I chose to display the build I did. Part of playing a deck with so many colors is that you get a wider array of powerful cards to play. Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa once said that he liked mono-colored decks less than multicolored decks because they tended to have weaker, or at least less, coverage from their sideboards.

Hand in hand with that truth is that when you play more / different, even more flexible or powerful cards (like giving an Ultima slot to Final Showdown because you can find it with Mystical Teachings)... You lose space for the staples. By making room for Inevitable Defeat, Mystical Teachings (and some of the targets for Teachings), Jeskai Black therefore has no choice but to collapse functionality into fewer copies of the other cards.

But fear not! There are some historically problematic threats that you can just deal with now. This eases up some of the pressure on your finite number of Ultimas... And in other matchups makes having Get Lost in your starting sixty a bit less disadvantageous.

Inevitable Defeat blows up almost anything, and doesn't pull any punches. In that vein it makes mid-combat Enduring Curiosity quite a bit less scary and Enduring Innocence just another Gray Ogre. Lifelink? Whatever; we're a control deck! It doesn't even have a second toughness.

Inevitable Defeat probably wouldn't be good enough to splash for - let alone double splash for - all by its lonesome. But Inevitable Defeat exists in a Standard that already had Lightning Helix as a potential Control option. Taken together you have eight cards with the default setting of removing a threat while gaining three life.

As challenging as the mana base in Jeskai Black might look, that eight pack creates a very hostile environment for certain modes of deck construction. If the opponent is playing cards like Shock, Burst Lightning, or especially Boltwave... Any one-for-one that gains three life will feel very much like a self-contained two-for-one from the other side. It's going to be full-on depressing for many Red Decks, Drag at a minimum, for most other opponents with phasers set to beatdown.

Now if you hadn't read this article or watched any of the recent gameplay, you might look at a Jeskai Black list and assume that, presumably after he has gotten bored of drawing three cards a bunch of times, most of the damage a Jeskai Black mage inflicts in the average game will come at the hands (or beating wings) of the 1-2 Marang River Regents. Let's pretend for a moment that that's true...

A Marang River Regent has six power; meaning it needs more than three attacks to deal 20 damage. The structure of this deck - lots of Lightning Helixes, Inevitable Defeats, and even Jeskai Revelations - implies that you can proxy a Time Walk for purposes of winning the game. A single Inevitable Defeat means all of a sudden Marang River Regent only needs to do 17 instead of 20 with base-18 damage. Anyone who's ever been topdecked out of an important match knows how important cutting off a turn might be. This deck gets that "feature" essentially for free.

The last thing I wanted to mention about this deck is that it's remarkably difficult to exploit. Lots of the best cards in the format are some kind of creature removal. Well creature removal is at its nadir in this matchup! Jeskai Black gives the opponent a whole different way of losing to flood. But it's not just drawing too many Shoot the Sheriff while Jeskai Black actually improves its own fortunes with boundless card drawing: Think about how another Control deck might approach a quasi-mirror with this one.

They're drawing more and more Day of Judgment-types that maybe they'll pitch to hand size while you're drawing Lightning Helixes. If you ever find yourself with eight cards in grip, they'll help chip away at the opponent's life total so you don't have to do so much work on the last turn. Instead, your turns will just be a little bit better than theirs on average. More cheap interaction; less clunky do-nothings. And you plan to play lots and lots of turns.

Specialty hate cards are also no good! In other formats players brought in Rest in Peace or High Noon to prevent Shiko two-for-ones. This deck not only doesn't play Shiko, it actually just plays some of those hate cards in its own sideboard!

If there is anything that should give you pause about this deck, it's obviously the mana base. Yeah. Starting Town in a Control deck. But if you don't take too much damage from your mana, the deck is one of the best at holding the line in Standard. I'm just not sure how you're supposed to beat Cavern of Souls + Sunspine Lynx.

LOVE

MIKE