Sideboard


After much deliberation, this is the deck that I have settled on for the time being.There are certain cards that are in other Ensoul lists but are missing in mine, so I will explain my card choices. For the most part, a lot of cards present in other lists are missing from mine, because I think they are either too slow for an aggro deck such as this, they don't provide enough value for the deck, or they mainly look to generate a lot of value over time, which this deck doesn't last long enough for to reap the results.

In the MAINDECK:

Bomat Courier is a pretty good card, seeing that the aim is to empty your hand by T3/T4, having a T1 Bombad Courier stack cards under itself to help you refill your hand for the late game is incredibly useful. Plus having haste makes it one of the 8 cards you'd want to see in your opening hand anyway for aggressive starts.

Gingerbrute again fits with the aggressive theme of the deck, and it's activated ability more or less makes it an unblockable creature, when paired with All That Glitters and Ensoul Artifact. It also has a lesser ability of being a food artifact, making it useful(?) in certain situations where you'd need to stabilise your life total. Although those situations should be pretty rare. If you opponent isn't dead before your life total hits 0, you're doing something wrong.

Smuggler's Copter is in here as a 3-of, as opposed to a full playset because drawing multiples with no real way of crewing them will be a feelsbad. But neither could I have ignored it's amazing loot ability. It can also be made a creature with Ensoul Artifact, and a 5/5 flier that can loot upon attacking or blocking is a very scary threat. REST IN PIECES, LOOTER SCOOTER.

Stonecoil Serpent. Look, it doesn't die to Abrupt Decay or Assassin's Trophy, and with either of the 2 enchantments, it has the potential to be a big trample creature that can swing on T2. Having reach is also very useful, meaning the pressure is taken of the copters and thopters when it comes to blocking a Mantis Rider for example. Having it in a playset however isn't the wisest idea I feel, since they don't have any board state changing abilities, and you would never want to pour too much mana into one to make it bigger.

Hangarback Walker is an excellent engine when paired with a Steel Overseer, and when it dies, it makes tokens with evasion and also bumps up the +1/+1 count on All That Glitters. To get the best activation, sacrifice it to Shrapnel Blast, since a lot of my games, my opponents don't really care to touch the walker.

Steel Overseer not only pumps the team, but stacks counters on our Walking Ballista, amongst the host of artifact creatures this deck commands. Very useful creature, and quite usually the target for removal, keeping it off of our other creatures.

Ensoul Artifact and All That Glitters are the main pay-offs for the deck, and even without a Hangarback Walker, they still provide enough of a buff to be swinging for 10 by T3. I have also updated the list to include 2 copies of Ghostfire Blade. After a lot of thinking, it seems silly not to use a cheap equipment with a reduction in equip cost in a deck filled with artifact creatures. (It's OK, in the end whether or not it stays in the deck is kind of negligible). (After yet more thinking, the blade is actually Garbage Fire). All That Glitters is the biggest reason to splash white in this list, alongside Rest in Peace and I firmly believe is the reason to play the Jeskai version of Ensoul lists.

In the SIDEBOARD:

I chose to run 2 copies of Deafening Silence here for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, the enchantment most closely resembles Ethersworn Canonist which is run in certain affinity lists in modern. While Deafening Silence does not care about artifacts, it doesn't impede it either, since the majority is made up of creatures, which should hopefully leave certain decks such as combo and control struggling to maintain tempo. Also, being an enchantment means it benefits from being a little trickier to remove and interact with.

Rest in Peace takes precedence over Tormod's Crypt and Grafdigger's Cage because it's a very good enchantment that removes all cards in graveyards, rather than leaving any room for your opponents to respond to or still have cards in their graveyard to interact with. It straight up is a good counter against the likes of Izzet Phoenix.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch finds a home in the sideboard over the maindeck because while she's almost always guaranteed to be a 1 mana creature, and can generate lots of value if she manages to stay on the board, her mill ability can sometimes be a hindrance. Since the deck runs 8 enchantments which animate or buff artifacts, having them milled away by our own effect is bad, as there's no way to recur them.

Anyway, thank you so much for looking. Any criticisms and suggestions are most welcome. If the deck tickles your fancy, how about a cheeky upvote too?

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Updates Add

Added 2x Inspiring Vantage in Place of the Glacial Fortress since having a tapped land in your opening hand can be fairly detrimental.

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Casual

99% Competitive

Revision 3 See all

(3 years ago)

+1 Hushbringer side
+2 Mystical Dispute side
-1 Spell Pierce side
-1 The Royal Scions side
-1 Wear / Tear side
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #9 position overall 4 years ago
  • Achieved #1 position in Pioneer 4 years ago
Date added 4 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is not Pioneer legal.

Rarity (main - side)

1 - 0 Mythic Rares

28 - 9 Rares

26 - 6 Uncommons

4 - 0 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.18
Tokens Thopter 1/1 C
Folders Pioneer, jeskai, Favourites, pioneer decks 2
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