Turn 4 Kicked Josu Vess

Standard* Jimmy_Chinchila

SCORE: 42 | 19 COMMENTS | 10400 VIEWS | IN 12 FOLDERS


Top 10! —May 3, 2018

Thanks everyone for checking out the deck and helping get it into the Top 10!

JANKYARD_DOG says... #1

I feel you either need to side or main +2 Heroic Intervention because you're relying on your ramp so much and land destruction is a thing as well. Intervention covers all permanents fortunately. Love the build though, +1.

April 19, 2018 6:30 p.m.

This looks great,love the flavour. It's simple and yet effective, a solid +1 from me. I have a Reanimator/ Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar Ramp hybrid of sorts that features Josu Vess, Lich Knight as a potential late game threat. Feel free to check it out.

April 19, 2018 11:54 p.m.

Mj3913 thank you! Good point, change made.

Angrath_the_flame_chained thank you so much! Seems pretty busted, hopefully were on to something here!

April 20, 2018 11:44 a.m.

I like this deck a lot, this is the first time I have seen it and it looks competitive. Even though the chances of you kicking a turn 4 Josu are slim it looks like it will be able to survive a while using your mana ramp along with black control

April 21, 2018 8:21 p.m.

Entomo says... #5

The odds actually aren't that bad, its only 2 of the same card and then 2 differnt cards plus 4 lands to combo on T4. I play infect in pauper and we can win on T2 with glistener elf +2 ground swells and a mutagenic growth and 2 land drops, so pretty much the same amount of cards -2 lands, but you get to draw 2 times more cause your going for it T4 here, I like it.
Though it seems like theres some odd stuff in here that has nothing to do with ramping or comboing. how about 2xMastermind's Acquisition as a way to get your payoff, or tutor some problem solver. Would be easy on the mana, and you could cast masterminds on T3 to find a second Elfhame Druid so you can try to combo on T5 with 2 elfhams and a llanowar.
I don't know if you want growing rites, it's pretty hard to flip in this deck until you cast Josu Vess, Lich Knight and then it doesn't matter any more.
-2 growing rites
-2 heroic intervention
-3 adventurous impulse
The heroic intervention is NOT needed imo. If you land the combo on T4 theres very few cards that can clean it all up, and intervention doesn't even protect from many of the sweepers in the format, like Golden Demise. additionally, 10 mana is already a lot, getting up to 12 mana to combo and hold up intervention mana will probably take 2 more turns. If you don't wait and just go for it you can basically have your opponent dead if you get to untap. In that sense Duress from the sideboard should work a lot better than maindecking intervention.
Adventurous Impulse I'm not sure about, but it seems like you don't really need it, it forces you to play more creatures than I think you actually need. Maybe just play 2 copies, unless you wanted to try and get risky with it and push your land count down towards 20 and play 4 copies, which might work nice sense your unkicked cmcs are pretty low.
-2 steel leaf
+1 allosuarus
The Steel Leaf Champion seems off game plan, while the Territorial Allosaurus is exactly on game plan and probably what you want to be doing if your not casting a kicked Josu that turn. Untamed Kavu is a card I like the look of, and you can cast him on T3 as a 5/5 trample vigilence. Thats not bad at all, but kicked josu is a lot better. I think this kavu doesn't help that much, even though im sure hes a great threat that can steal games. You might consider replacing him with a non creature spell instead and focusing more on Josu consistency. I get your trying to take as much advantage of Elfhame Druid as you can, but I think the kavu is worth letting go of or maybe moving to the sideboard for certain matches.
+2 mastermind's

April 25, 2018 11:41 a.m.

You have a good point Entemo and was just pointing out that you definetly will not be getting what you want on turn four every time. Also I saw the infect deck you talked about, that is a great deck you can make for pretty cheap

April 25, 2018 4:09 p.m.

Entomo says... #7

Nice, I love infect in pauper, if you like that combo I can do one better T1 forest - glistener elf T2 mountain-groundswell-assault strobe (it's 1 less card).
I'm messing with a sultai version of your deck, swapping llanowars for more potent Weaver of Currents. I need the last 8 cards to make it hum tho idk what to put, maybe some kind of filtering, or even Search for Azcanta  Flip / Arguel's Blood Fast  Flip. Take a look please


Josu Combo

Standard* Entomo

1 VIEW


April 25, 2018 4:31 p.m.

SliverKing90 says... #8

that combo requires you to draw 4 lands (the 4 normal land drops each turn) plus 5 spells. so 9 cards by turn 4. if you're on the play, you'll have only seen 10 cards (7 opening plus 3 draws) by turn 4. so even if you get your crazy and highly unlikely combo, you'd only have 1 card in hand leftover.

April 28, 2018 2:30 p.m.

SliverKing90 it is certainly unlikely to hit the combo T4, but the idea is that its possible. Even if it doesnt pop until T5 or even T6, in some matchups, it is still pretty potent and is a rapid clock that requires one of but a few possible answers to not just lose once the Lich horde is in play.

I like that Adventurous Impulse can give us a T1 extra card, so we actually see 10 cards before opponent even gotten their turn, assuming on the play. With that play, the one described in the description, wed have seen 7 + 3 draws + 3 with Impulse which is over 20% of the deck. Aside from Josu, there are 4 copies of each of the required combo pieces.

We usually wont get the T4 combo, but things like Mastermind's Acquisition and second, third draws of Impulse can smooth out stutters. I think also that a lot of early game scenarios even without the combo can potentially win, stuff like Steel Leaf and Kavu and Rhonas, and other things like Fatal Pushing opponents early plays (Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Llanowar Elves, Drover of the Mighty, Bomat Courier) can buy an extra turn or 2 to pull off combo.

These janky combo decks are often fragile, but the fun is when it actually goes as planned, and hopefully the rest of the shell is strong enough to protect and/or replace the combo strategy.

Thanks for input, Im totally open to ideas for making it more consistent!

April 28, 2018 2:54 p.m.

ChuckYeagurr says... #10

For control you could try Prey Upon, yes at sorcery speed or Pounce at (2) and instant. Rhonas the Indomitable is great for fights, and they are both cheaper than the kicker cost on Territorial Allosaurus. You could drop Territorial Allosaurus and get some cheaper deathtouch creatures, but I would keep him and add some Tetzimoc, Primal Death, but this could hurt some of the other cards for the turn four combo.

Now as others have mentioned, Heroic Intervention could really save your bacon. I am going to be putting them in my modern Ally's deck.

Nice work

April 30, 2018 9:10 p.m.

multimedia says... #11

Hey Jimmy looks good. Have you consider Jund?

Splashing red for Samut, Voice of Dissent or Garna, the Bloodflame? These five drops give all your creatures haste. This lets you alpha strike with your team of 2/2 menace Zombies the same turn they're created, right after a kicked Josu. These creatures force your opponent to have a Settle or Fiery Cannonade or some other instant speed board wipe. This is protection from sorcery speed board wipes such as Fumigate.

Garna and Samut both have flash, this is powerful with Josu. Flash either of them in at the end step of your opponent's turn before you want to play kicked Josu on your turn. This forces your opponent to deal with two threats Garna or Samut at instant speed and kicked Josu at instant or sorcery speed. Dealing with one threat is much easier for your opponent than dealing with both.

Garna only has 3 toughness so she's vulnerable to a lot of instant removal, but her ability lets you play Josu as just a four drop, make your opponent deal with Josu then get him back when he dies with Garna putting him into your hand. Samut has haste and hits for 6 damage. She also has four toughness meaning less instant removal can outright kill her.

Splashing red will not be hard because of Grow from the Ashes, Rootbound Crag and Dragonskull Summit. Gift of Paradise is also a very good card for ramp strategies, it can make red mana and the 3 life is quite helpful to buy you time to ramp. I think red can be very beneficial to your strategy.

Good luck with your deck.


May 1, 2018 5:25 a.m.

multimedia Good stuff, thanks so much for feedback. I will definitely consider going Jund

May 1, 2018 11:30 a.m.

ChuckYeagurr good points, thank you!

May 2, 2018 10:30 a.m.

Entomo says... #14

Jund seems more fun than sultai.

May 2, 2018 11:53 a.m.