The State of Modern: Jeskai Nahiri, by Ben Meine
There is a lot going on for one of the better breakout decks of 2016 in today’s Modern format. Players everywhere have figured out that Jeskai has a lot going for it against Death’s Shad- I mean, Modern.
The deck has a lot to offer. 
Resiliency in Snapcaster Mage, hard removal in Path to Exile, and, in my case, a quick, powerful combo finish in Nahiri, the Harbinger alongside her pitbull, Emrakul the Aeons Torn.
When I say “my case,” I’m referring to the fact that the majority of players have dismissed Nahiri for being too clunky. Today’s Jeskai Control decks have adapted cards like Spell Queller and Logic Knot to give the deck more and more permission to combat the combo side of the format, while still having the same removal suite that fights Death’s Shadow so well. That’s not what today is about, though. For some reason, I have an affinity for playing decks with win conditions, which this deck has. A good one at that.
The gameplan is simple. Play control until you feel like you won’t die, play a Nahiri, and the rest is history. The removal is so efficient that you can often cast two to four removal spells before turn four to get the board to at most one creature, which won’t be able fulfill Sorin’s wish to take down the lithomancer. Most likely, if you can untap with Nahiri and you aren’t riding the needle in your hand you are very well positioned for that particular game, just because it is so difficult to deal with a planeswalker with such high loyalty.
The Deck
Jeskai Nahiri, by Ben Meine
Naturally, I make weird choices.
One decision that may seem out of place is the choice to register the card Lightning Bolt and not have the number four accompany it. There are way too many decks that are prevalent in Modern that Lightning Bolt does little to nothing against.
- The mirror (Control or Nahiri)
- Death’s Shadow
- Eldrazi Tron
- Tron
- Living End
- Abzan
- Dredge
To me, this is enough to shave the Bolt down to a cool three. I started by cutting a Lightning Helix because I thought cutting Bolts was blasphemy, but the incidental life gain that comes with Helix is very relevant.
More planeswalkers. Games frequently come down to a cat fight where the last scratch wins. Scratches in this analogy are just straight bombs, no matter how much they cost. This often happens against Death’s Shadow and Eldrazi Tron. Playing a midrange shell, primarily focusing on planeswalkers, instead of a straight control shell helps tremendously against a format full of resiliency and raw power like the one we have right now.
The Untouchables
4 Snapcaster Mage
This card is great, always will be, good in every matchup, etc., etc., etc.
4 Path to Exile
This card is the best removal spell in Modern. That may seem like a lazy statement, but it used to be close between Lightning Bolt and Path. With the recent metagame shift to Death’s Shadow, Control, Dredge, and so on, the effectiveness of Path has spiked.
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
As I was explaining in the deck-by-deck matchup breakdowns, Nahiri is frequently the best line to victory. Present your combo and protect it with every ounce of Sorin hatred you have.
The Flex Spots
The Counterspells
- Mana Leak: Higher numbers when hyper-combo is at large.
- Cryptic Command: Higher numbers when midrange is at large.
- Remand: Generally one less than the number of Mana Leak in your deck.
- Logic Knot: One copy can be reasonable when combo is at large, and you would rather have one more two-mana counterspell that is good in the late game.
- Spell Snare: Higher numbers when Tarmogoyf and Cranial Plating are relevant.
The Removal
- Lightning Bolt: Higher number when aggro is at large.
- Lightning Helix: Higher number when aggro is at large.
- Electrolyze: Higher number when Affinity is at large.
- Engineered Explosives: Present in the deck for Death’s Shadow and Affinity. Otherwise, it is in the sideboard as permanent-based hate.
- Supreme Verdict: Higher number when Aggro and Midrange are at large.
- Anger of the Gods: Higher number when Dredge and Affinity are prevalent.
Miscellaneous Cards
- Elspeth, Sun’s Champion: Adds resiliency and plays great against Death’s Shadow and Eldrazi.
- Sphinx’s Revelation: When black is at large.
- Serum Visions: Unfortunately, this card is a necessary evil to make sure you hit your land drops. It’s not in the “Untouchables” section because I’m still frequently changing the numbers on it on account of the fact that it’s just not that great a card.
The Mana Base
4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Celestial Colonnade
3 Island
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
2 Sulfur Falls
1 Arid Mesa
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Desolate Lighthouse
1 Plains
1 Mountain
Five shocks, five basics, eight fetches. These numbers are pretty solid and have come to play well consistently when it comes to fetchable lands. You are more likely to want to fetch out a basic Plains than a Mountain against a Blood Moon, and we play more copies of Path to Exile than Lightning Bolt, so that’s why there are four Flooded Strand and three Scalding Tarn.
3 Celestial Colonnade
Slowly am I getting closer to removing Colonnade from my friends list. Or at least playing with the number of them. Fatal Push is always rotting in their hand, and Colonnade is a perfect target.
Sometimes I wish one was a Glacial Fortress, but that card has a target on its back in the Magic community’s societal norm guidebook. In any non-Fatal Push matchup, however, Colonnade is a house-and-a-half in closing the game without a Nahiri, especially because you can attack with it and still use it to cast a Path to Exile on your opponent’s turn.
2 Sulfur Falls
Boring, old news. Could be a 1-1 split between this and Glacial Fortress, but please refer to the previous statement about Glacial Fortress.
1 Desolate Lighthouse
Looting effects are great in combo decks, and this deck frequently plays like one. Sometimes I cut it if I feel like playing three Cryptic Command and three Lightning Helix in a build, but otherwise having it is a very low opportunity cost.
Sideboarding
3 Ceremonious Rejection
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Negate
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Celestial Purge
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Rest in Peace
1 Dispel
1 Vendilion Clique
When sideboarding, you need to take into account how you plan on winning the game. Is it going to be with Nahiri, or playing more of a control game? For example, I have three copies of Ceremonious Rejection for the Eldrazi matchup, because I know I can play a Nahiri on turn five and be able to hold up either Path to Exile to answer an Eldrazi made uncounterable via Cavern of Souls, or a Rejection to counter a Karn or All is Dust, just tying up all of the loose ends for a small cost. The higher number means that I want to see that card very consistently.
With the one and two-ofs, those usually come in when I want to gear towards more of a control role, giving me a few more tools against a wide variety decks.
Cards with self-explanatory uses that are not played in my list but can be considered:
Stony Silence
Counterflux
Izzet Staticaster
Wear // Tear
Spreading Seas
Good Matchups
Affinity & Burn
The removal suite and incidental life gain work wonders in this matchup. Both of these decks can still have draws that no deck can beat, but from average draw to average draw, our deck is poised well. Just make sure you don’t keep a hand full of counterspells on the draw hoping it will get there.
Grixis Death’s Shadow
Path to Exile and Nahiri are the cards that rule this matchup. Kolaghan’s Command plays well around normal removal that sends creatures to the grave, but having up to twelve hard exile effects are the difference here. Essentially, it’s like playing against a Legacy Delver deck, where once the threats are gone, the control deck takes the advantage.
G/B/x
Nahiri, the Harbinger takes this match home. There are a very small number of cards that can deal with the planeswalker outright. Resources trade very evenly, so you do have to be conscientious of your opponent’s possible top decks, but if you have Nahiri close to anywhere in this mix you should be well ahead. Beware Liliana of the Veil, as she is highly effective here. However, a Liliana ultimate is much easier to beat for us than a Nahiri ultimate for them. When they go “lands vs. Nahiri,” the choice you might be thinking is almost always the right choice if the Nahiri is in ultimate range.
Storm
This matchup was a little bit harder when the deck played Pyromancer’s Ascension, as we have little maindeck removal for that card. Now that Storm players have transitioned to Baral, Chief of Compliance, our removal isn’t nearly as dead. A mixture of counterspells, timely removal, and card advantage takes this match to the bank. Do not forget to do Storm math with them while they’re trying to go off. In addition to being the responsible line of action to protect yourself from cheating, it also pushes them to play around Mana Leak if you are able to bluff it.
Living End
This one probably should be in the “close matchup” category. Unless you draw your Supreme Verdict, game one is very hard to win. If you can find any copies of Mana Leak or Remand to stem the bleeding until you can find a copy of Elspeth, Sun’s Champion and cast her, then you might be able to squeeze out a win. Primarily, we capitalize on the sideboard like most decks do when it comes to playing against graveyard strategies.
Rest in Peace and two Negate, while only being three extra cards, make all the difference. If you can give respect to the oh-so-rare Ricochet Trap, you should be good to go.
Close Matchups
Counters Company
The key to this matchup is to keep the board as clear as possible without tapping out in the face of an opposing Collected Company. Use your life total as a resource when the opponent starts chip-shotting you. Always leave up at least two mana when considering when to kill a creature in the mid-game to urge your opponent into playing around a Remand, Mana Leak, Negate, or Logic Knot. This deck has plenty of good draws in the late game in Eternal Witness, Collected Company, and Kitchen Finks, so it’s in your best interest to land a Nahiri as early as possible and leverage that to help you end the game quickly. There are plenty of late game cards in the deck to facilitate a long game, however, so don’t mulligan aggressively for a Nahiri.
Death and Taxes
Aether Vial is very hard to beat when backed up by powerful creatures. Aether Vial produces so much mana by effectively casting uncounterable creatures. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben strains the cheap spells, Leonin Arbiter strains the fetches, Voice of Resurgence is a pest, and Loxodon Smiter is uncounterable. However, the matchup is much more favorable when an Aether Vial is not in play, just because the removal lines up nicely. Lightning Bolt is not dead in this matchup as it is against many decks in Modern, so that’s dece.
Jeskai Control
Save your counterspells, resolve a Nahiri.
Just kidding, there’s a little more. One thing to note is that once you have two mana open, the opponent will have to respect the same plethora of two-mana counterspells that I referred to in the Counters Company section. Also, the traditional Jeskai decks are more creature heavy, so be wary of cards like Spell Queller, Restoration Angel, and Geist of Saint Traft that may be ready to ambush the Harbinger. The mother of all Elspeths in the maindeck has something to say to the Jeskai Opponents you may face as well.
Bad Matchups
Tron
This deck isn’t popular right now, but is sure as hell is hard to beat. The threats are large, the opponent has four times as much mana as you do, and sometimes there’s even an Ulamog paired up with a Cavern of Souls in the mix. The best way to win here is to stock up on early Mana Leaks, Remands, and Negates post-board and resolve a Nahiri as early as you can to race them to the finish line.
Eldrazi Tron
Not as hard to beat as Tron, as the threats are just creatures and a small number of Karn Liberated, but there are many more copies of Cavern of Souls to make your countermagic very weak. Nobody likes a turn-three Thought-Knot Seer, let alone a control deck. If you want to win, you’re going to need as many copies of Path to Exile as you can find.
Scapeshift
The fact that lands entering the battlefield is the way the Scapeshift deck tries to kill you makes this a particularly difficult matchup. Counter the spells, play the Harbinger. Super weird how that’s often the gameplan.
This essentially is a poor matchup for the same reason as Tron. Mana advantage is a crucial part of dictating how a game plays out. The cards you can and cannot play around are dictated by however much mana you have to cast the spells you have at the ready. For this reason, Scapeshift has an advantage by being able to accelerate their mana development much faster.
Sometimes, this can mean they could have fewer quality spells to play, because they may have used some of their spells to accelerate mana, as opposed to cast threats like Primeval Titan or Scapeshift. This is where a Cryptic Command has to be ready for battle. Often, a large counterfight can happen here if you are playing against the Temur or Four-Color Variants of the deck, where Dispels and Negates are fantastic. Otherwise, if you’re playing against the G/R variant, your counterspells are almost always golden. The only thing you can’t counter is Valakut. Kappa.
Gameplay
I’ve mentioned a lot of gameplay tactics already, but let me give a few quick tips to playing a combo-control deck.
- Use your life total as a resource. Taking some damage from an attack is worth it if it means being able to kill a bigger threat during the second main phase. This is especially relevant when it comes to timing a Nahiri to ensure its survival.
- Know your counterspells. Certain counterspells are better in certain situations. Perfect example: You may feel the urge to Remand an escalated Collective Brutality from the G/B Tron deck, since they would have to discard again to get the value, but the Mana Leak you also have access to may not be able to do anything against the Karn that’s in their hand.
- Cryptic Command bounces Snapcaster — when it makes sense. Remember that most decks have removal spells. Against you, they are rotting. If you are going to try and play cute and bounce your Snapcaster with a Cryptic Command, please make sure they are tapped out or incapable of casting a removal spell.
- Aggressively use counterspells early if it means for a clear path for Nahiri on turn four.
Wrap Up
If you know me personally, you know that 2017 has been a quiet year for me, Magic-wise. New job, lots of commentating, lots of other factors. I picked up this deck and genuinely enjoy every game I play.
Wait, you didn’t think I meant because I love blue cards, right? Nah, it’s just good. Winning is sweet.
This deck feels powerful — at a Wonder Woman level — in the current metagame. The removal feels good, the threats are powerful, and the non-Serum Visions card quality is very high.
Modern has been waiting for a control deck for a while. While this may not necessarily be a wholesome control deck with five combo-related cards, I think that’s close enough for me and anybody who likes to win. This deck is perfect for you if you like casting Snapcaster Mage and attacking with flying, untargetable bowls of spaghetti that cause your opponents to sacrifice six permanents, lose fifteen life and generally hate you.
Ben Meine is the reigning Nerd Rage Gaming Championship Series Champion. Follow him on Twitter @UrzasMeine.
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