Jaya Ballard

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Jaya Ballard

Legendary Planeswalker — Jaya

+1: Gain . Spend this mana only to cast instant or sorcery spells.

+1: Discard up to three cards, then draw that many cards.

-8: You get an emblem with "You may cast instant and sorcery cards from your graveyard. If a card cast this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead."

treeforcorvus on Melek, Spellcaster Extraordinaire

8 months ago

Really cool concept! I have a few ideas.

Blitz of the Thunder-Raptor helps deal with planeswalkers, and might perform better than Chaos Warp. Run Brittle Blast over Thunderous Wrath.

Not sure about Dismiss into Dream. How many single-target spells or effects are you running? I count 6.

Mana Drain over Dissipate: Having resources for damage later is almost always going to serve you more. Plus, it's a great target for Isochron Scepter.

Speaking of walkers, definitely replace Cloud Key with Rowan, Scholar of Sparks  Flip. It's straight up better. Strongly consider Ral, Storm Conduit, if only that it ramps up damage with your commander out. Consider Koth, Fire of Resistance as a decent land-fixer (which means you'll draw less lands and have more mana), and Jaya Ballard for simple acceleration.

If your pool is competitive, you could run Back to Basics or at least Blood Moon. This will slow down many decks and give you more time. Adding fetches in your colors (should be 5) means that you can take out 2 islands and 3 mountains and still hit your curve.

Not sure about Breaking Point and Curse of the Swine. Instead, consider Puppet's Verdict and either Winter's Chill or Cyclonic Rift.

Reins of Power and Insurrection could replace Chain Reaction and Incite Rebellion, allowing you to use those resources against opponents and kill them, which would have the added benefit of removing their creatures.

I know you don't want to run any creatures, but Stuffy Doll is a decent deterrent and is too funny not to leave out.

Sleepysherlock on Spell-Slinging Mardu Copies

1 year ago

Lot of my suggestions are leaning into tokens because Blood Avatar clearly wants that, and if i can find a spell that makes tokens than Extus will be happy too. Thats my idea.

Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, Blood for Bones, Rakdos Charm, Fiery Confluence, Crackle with Power, Storm King's Thunder, Bonus Round, Sram's Expertise, Electrodominance, Jaya Ballard, Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Assemble the Legion, Secure the Wastes, Call the Coppercoats, Fury Storm, Ashnod's Altar, Prosperous Partnership, Divine Visitation

Let's take a short break here, because you need better creatures. Creatures that have VALUE as you recast them over and over, maybe even discard outlets. I hate to say it (and i'm not going to list them) but Aristocrat creatures are ideal here because they are cheap, and gain life which can then be used to cast wild stuff like Bolas's Citadel.

Dragonmaster Outcast, Viscera Seer, Cathar Commando, Leonin Relic-Warder, Mondrak, Glory Dominus, Lagomos, Hand of Hatred, Pitiless Plunderer, Mahadi, Emporium Master, Woe Strider, Ophiomancer, Mayhem Devil, Children of Korlis, Insolent Neonate, Elenda, the Dusk Rose, Sengir Autocrat, Syr Konrad, the Grim, Sun Titan

Also if this just ins't the direction you wanna go thats ight

mada-mada on Bombardier Gold

1 year ago

Also, if you need mana, another Jaya could be your friend - Jaya Ballard

KBK7101 on I'm looking to build a …

1 year ago

Thoughts on just running Garruk Relentless  Flip as the commander as a Rule 0 thing? I doubt the deck would end up being anything terribly competitive (not a knock on your deckbuilding skills but just more because of the narrow theme), so why not just have some fun with it and make it a Rule 0 deck? If not, or if people give your grief over it, Carth the Lion is probably the best choice.

I'd say Garruk, Apex Predator but that one seems like it might be a bit too strong to have in the command zone with his emblem ability and all.

I've been debating doing the same thing with Ajani, probably with Ajani, Mentor of Heroes or Ajani, the Greathearted. Possibly another one with Jaya Ballard (RIP).

TypicalTimmy on Why did Oathbreaker die?

2 years ago

Caerwyn, funny that you use the phrase "by storm" because both decks I played last night had Storm in them lol

Jaya Ballard went somewhat infinite with Runaway Steam-Kin and a graveyard fully loaded with 1mv and 2mv burn spells. Cast a Past in Flames into Pyretic Ritual into a Seething Song and dump the mana into Lightning Bolt, Shock and other similar spells. Then finish with Grapeshot. Dealt like 39 damage in one turn haha.

TypicalTimmy on Why did Oathbreaker die?

2 years ago

I did, and still do when I have the chance. I have several Oathbreaker decks IRL and a few online.

  • Consistency: Because each deck is only 60 cards, and you have 2 removed for the Commander and Signature Spell, each library is only 58 cards. It makes for extremely fast-paced games because there is a lot less "clutter" to get through. As a consequence, it is also far more honed. It's very easy to make a cEDH-style Oathbreaker deck with minimal effort

  • Flexibility: There are hundreds of Planeswalkers. 257 at the time of this post, excluding the four (Wanderer, Tezzeret, Tamiyo and Kaito) from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. With the addition of Signature Spells, there are thousands of deck possibilities and directions to go.

  • Far more emphasis on the Commander: Signature Spells can't be cast unless your chosen Planeswalker Commander is in play, which makes the game feel far more dynamic and interactive.

  • Fun, casual format: Because Oathbreaker doesn't have a competitive meta (Despite easily making cOB decks), it feels a lot less hostile. What I mean is, I have had far more negative experience playing EDH than I have had playing Oathbreaker. People feel more relaxed and casual and joyous when playing it, and I think it is because the Competitive feel isn't there as strongly.

But there are cons, which I suspect is part of the reason why it died.

  • Some colored combinations are not possible as not all colored combinations are printed in Planeswalkers.

  • While all Planeswalkers are usable, some are more valued than others. As a result, when choosing Jace or Liliana or Chandra, you'd be at a huge disadvantage choosing some over others.

  • Not all styles of play are available: Because your deck is largely tied to your Planeswalker, some deck archetypes aren't viable. (But others open up or become more viable as a result).

I just sort of feel like most people focus on the negatives over the positives. It's a supremely fun format and very budget friendly. Everyone I play the format with seems to absolutely enjoy it, even if they have reservations at first.


The whole reason I bring up this thread is because I just got back from playing several games between Jaya Ballard with Collective Defiance and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Brain Freeze. Those decks bounced off each other in hilarious and spectacular manners, being burn and mill alike.

Polaris on How MDFC instant and sorceryies …

2 years ago

Unfortunately, no. When not in play, an MDFC only has the characteristics of its front face, so it's not an "instant and sorcery card," unless you're considering something like Spikefield Hazard  Flip.

An ability that says "you may cast instant and sorcery spells from your graveyard," like Jaya Ballard, is different (Jaya's ultimate would let you cast Echoing Equation from the grave).

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