Maybeboard


Welcome to my Jhoira (tamed and no MLD) primer! Have you ever heard of the fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"? The tale concerns a shepherd boy who repeatedly deceived the nearby villagers into thinking that a wolf is attacking his flock. When the wolf actually came and the boy calls for help, the villagers thinks that it is probably another false alarm and the sheeps are eaten by the wolf.

Wolf

Wolf came

This deck is a satirical take on the theme of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" by blatantly telling your opponents (the villagers) that the Eldrazis (Wolves) are coming. Everytime a suspend counter is taken off the Eldrazi is to represent the number of times Jhoira "cried wolf"...till the Eldrazis really come and spoil the fun for everyone.

The Eldrazis are coming...

...be very AFRAID!!!

Jhoira has one of the most unique abilities in Magic. It lets you suspend any nonland card for 4 time counters. Creatures that were casted off suspend also have haste and any ETB or cast triggers will work. Suspending an Eldrazi is very flavorful as the Eldrazis came from another dimension (cosmic space) and are being brought into this plane by bending the dimension of time.

The spirit of this deck:

  • This deck is primarily splashing unlike most other Izzet builds which is why we have such a red-light manabase.

  • Meant to play for late game inevitability. You do not have to freak out if you do not have the perfect hand to rush Jhoira out as you have enough resources to hard cast your creatures mid to late game.

  • Jhoira takes center stage early game and falls back to a supporting role mid to late game. Your goal is to use Jhoira early game to get your Eldrazi engine going and by mid game suspend stuff as strategically while hardcasting a fatty. This actually mitigates problems other built faces in having Jhoira die constantly and not having the resources to play the long game to survive.

  • Control and Beatdown is what the goal of the deck is. You control the flow of the game while you cheat and hardcast fatties out to smash face. YThis version of Jhoira is slightly more welcomed at parties.

  • I don't play MLD as a way to quickly end the game. My playgroup frowns on MLD so I run a more tamed boardwipe package.

Early Game

Your opening hand should include a mana rock and at least 2 lands. Mulligan aggressively if you need to. Jhoira plays an active role in this phase as you establish your board with mana rocks and supporting permanents.

Mid Game

At this point you should already have an Eldrazi in play and your opponents should be either scooping up or you are playing archenemy. You should have enough mana to hardcast an Eldrazi or should be able to finish up the game. If you have a slow start, Jhoira will be playing a more supporting role to suspend expensive spells as you hold mana up to respond to threats.

Late Game

At this point, you are either being ganged up by the table and is left with nothing but a sorry pathetic boardstate for your opponents to gloat at (seriously no matter how nice you try to play this deck you will get hated on)...or a commanding boardstate and the inevitability to power through hate and win at this point. Jhoira will be playing a supporting role at this point like in mid game.

Guidelines for casting Jhoira:

  • Do you have at least available after casting her? If not, hold on unless you wanna risk it.

  • Do you have something better to cast or needs mana up to possibly counter an infinite combo next turn? If not, go on and cast Jhoira.

  • Do you have any suspend targets in your hand? If not, do not draw attention and refrain from casting Jhoira.

Protection Show

Creature Control Show

Utility Show

Strengths

  • Naturally strong commander and can play archenemy fairly well in a casual to semi-competitive pod.

  • You have late game inevitability, especially in this build.

  • You are the king of beatdown strategies. No other creatures in the game are meaner and bigger than yours. You will take over the board real quick even with one well-timed Eldrazi.

  • You pack a modest amount of counterspells and disruption. Combo decks will have to think twice before they combo off.

  • Great against mill strategies and almost can't be killed by infinite mill combos due to some of your Eldrazis having graveyard shuffle effects.

  • Surprisingly disruptive against graveyard abuse and sacrifice strategies from mid to late game with It That Betrays, Reito Lantern, & Mind's Dilation.

Weaknesses

  • Natural archenemy that draws massive hate from everyone almost every game. Resources are against you most of the time and it is up to you to fend them off and convince everyone someone else is the bigger threat. Playing Jhoira later in the game may be more beneficial for you in some games if the pod is full of fast aggro commanders.

  • A well-timed unanswered spot removal can set you back and steal you the game.

  • Creature-steal spells can wreck you hard. A well-timed Sower of Temptation can turn your fatty against you. Use your counterspells and bounces sparingly. Watch out for Gilded Drake, Insurrection, Blatant Thievery, and Bribery. Any commanders with should be your number one target priority and it is better to leave mana and answers open instead of progressing the board if they are in the pod. Homeward Path is the best card to have in the pod with blue players. Watch out especially for commanders like Thada Adel, Acquisitor, Memnarch, Olivia Voldaren, and Marchesa, the Black Rose. The only one commander that is made to neuter the Eldrazis is Sigarda, Host of Herons, be sure to try to get Arcane Lighthouse out asap or knock her out before she can get out.

  • Aggressive nonbasic land hate can stifle our strategy early game. Cards like Back to Basics and Blood Moon early game can slow down our game plan a few turns back. You should be able to play through the nonbasic land hate mid to late game once you have your mana rocks out.

  • This deck can make opponents very salty as sacrificing their permanents is very disheartening. You may lose your friends if you play this deck often since this deck can have very broken and explosive starts and have a high win ratio.

I hope that you enjoyed my primer and please comment if you have any suggestions and upvote if you like it!

Suggestions

Updates Add

R.I.P. 8/20/16

While fun and exciting to pilot at first, having a commander that is very vulnerable to removal and easily hated out become old quick. Dismantled this for Animar who is more resilient.

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Revision 30 See all

(7 years ago)

Date added 8 years
Last updated 7 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

16 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

25 - 0 Uncommons

13 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 4.58
Tokens Boar 2/2 G, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Manifest 2/2 C
Folders Commander, My EDH Brews, Stuff to try, Sounds Fun - EDH, Commander, EDH Deck builds, Edh ideas, Deck ideas
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