Jhoira is a well-known and feared commander (for good reasons). UR wizard trickery has been one of my favorite archetypes to play ever since I first started playing Magic. The Mind vs. Might duel deck was one of the first set of decks that I owned, so Jhoira has been a personal favorite since the beginning. I didn't realize that she was as hated/loved as she was until I started researching about the deck. I say all of this because this deck was not born out of a desire to screw other over players, but out of a love for Jhoira as a card and insane UR spell bombs. I mean, who doesn't love a deck that can pull extra turns out its butt, create an army of dragons, storm off with a 150+ damage, and draw half your deck in a game...
A Brief Word in Defense of Jhoira
Jhoira regularly comes up on "Top 10 Hated Commanders" threads or articles, and the amount of lash back against her initially made me very hesitant to build this deck. Most of the hate comes from the fact that most Jhoira decks run Mass Land Destruction (MLD), and mine is no exception. MLD is frowned upon in many circles for understandable reasons. The sheer explosiveness of the deck and the way it can play around the board wipes tends to earn a reputation as a "degenerate" deck--or other such derogatory terms--that is unfun to play against. However, there is one key piece of context: ALL DECKS HAVE DEGENERATE STRATEGIES. In my meta alone, there are Najeela decks that go infinite turn 4/5, Arcum Stax deck that lock everyone out the game turn 5/6, Nekusar Wheel + Infect that is disgustingly efficient, Krav and Regena infinite lifedrain decks, and the list goes on... All decks are powerful in their own right, Jhoira is not anything extra scary when compared to the vast array of all the commanders out there.
That being said, she has a reputation. Just be aware of the stigma attached to this commander when you build her.
Deck Tech
NOTE: This is not meant to be a comprehensive Jhoira deck tech, but rather an explanation of what this deck is trying to accomplish. Links to comprehensive deck techs will be listed below.
Jhoira basically gives you the ability to Suspend spells for 2, and then you get them four turns later for free.
we are trying to abuse this ability to cheat out massive spells and creatures turns before we could hardcast them normally. A couple things to note about the Suspend mechanic:
- Jhoira's activated ability is not affected by summoning sickness (meaning you can use it on the same turn that you cast her, provided you have the mana).
- When the last counter is removed you "cast" the spell, so any other feature that trigger when you cast a spell go off. If for some reason you can't cast the spell (I'm looking at you, Teferi...) then card remains exiled. Additionally, you cast the spell regardless of normal restrictions. This means creatures, enchantments, and sorceries are cast at instant speed once that last counter is removed.
- Creatures that come out of suspend have haste (come on, you have already waited several turns, no need to wait any longer!)
- If you have two or more spells coming off of Suspend at the same time, you can choose in which order they resolve. This means you can have your Obliterate resolve before your Utvara Hellkite enters the battlefield.
If you want details on the suspend mechanic, there are plenty of threads and videos out here that can go in depth, these are just the critical pieces worth noting or that that I have built around. This deck has two main strategies: 1) MLD + Beater, or 2) Storming Off
1) MLD + Beater
This is the "classic" Jhoria strategy: suspend a monster and a boardwipe, and then have the table sent back to the stone age while you have a massive creature punching your opponents in the face. We can safely tuck our creatures away in exile, blow up all the lands, and then we can dominate the board while everyone is struggling to rebuild. Omniscience on the battlefield means we don't need lands, and Crucible, It That Betrayss and Etali help us rebuild faster than our opponents. A few things to note about wiping:
- Your enchantments and planeswalkers will survive the wipe. Propaganda + MLD = no one can attack you. Omnscience + wipe = you don't need lands to cast spells (they are still helpful for recasting you commander or flashback spells). Chandra + wipe = free mana every turn. Enchantments like Rhystic Study and Metallurgic Summonings generate extra value which is critical if the table is mana starved.
- Do not board wipe if you are in control of the table. If you have the biggest dragons, DON'T WIPE. Seems obvious, but sometimes the temptations is very strong. Occasionally I will Obliterate, but only if I know that can rapidly rebuild and there are problematic creatures/lands/artifacts on the battlefield.
- MLD is not the only way, sometimes a one-sided board wipe serves just as well. A Rift on the endstep leading up to your turn paired with a few creatures coming out of Suspend can mean we can straight up one-shot opponents. Additionally, Volcanic Vision only affects creatures our opponents control which can leave the battlefield wide open (this spell pairs really with the high CMC of our spells).
- The MLD spells work best if they are a surprise--e.g. avoid casting them from suspend if possible. Once your opponents see the land wipe coming, they will avoid playing into it. This buys you time (which, at times, is reason enough to suspend Obliterate) and intensifies the pressure to kill you off thus preventing your spell from resolving. Cycling Decree on an endstep is way more devastating since they won't have lands stockpiled in their hand. Just be mindful of your surroundings when wiping lands so that you maximize your opponent's pain while minimizing the impact on your board state.
List of Beaters:
- Charmbreaker Devils (Provided that you cast 2+ spells when you swing)
- Etali, Primal Storm (Generates extra value if you have blown up all the lands, extra fun with Mystical and Personal tutors putting a bomb like Overflowing Insight or Time Stretch on top of your library)
- It That Betrays (By swinging at whoever hit their land drops, the Annihilator will keep opponents effectively locked out of the game and accelerates your own rebuilding)
- Metallurgic Summonings (not a beater in of itself, but paired with some of the massive spells in this deck, it can get out of hand real fast when you are getting "free" 7/7 or 10/10 with your "free" suspended spells).
- Niv-Mizzet, Parun
- Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre (Annihilator keeps opponents locked out of the game, and the ETB gets rid of that pesky enchantment that survived the wipe).
- Utvara Hellkite (More turns = more dragons)
List of Wipes:
- Blasphemous Act
- Cyclonic Rift
- Decree of Annihilation (This one is tricky to use since it gets rid of graveyards--we have a fair amount of spell recursion--and our hands, but if done right, this can really set opponents backs. Also, if you cycle it, it can be an instant speed MLD that cannot be countered--you cannot counter the cycle ability since you're not technically "casting" the spell--which can get the drop on your opponents who didn't see it coming from Suspend).
- Obliterate
- Volcanic Vision
2) Storming Off
This is the backbone of this deck. As soon as I pulled a Thousand-Year Storm, I knew what this deck was going to be about: generating extra value from the suspended spells. Since when that last counter is removed on our upkeep--after our untap step--we have all our mana open. Here's how this goes: Suspended spell goes onto the stack, we can respond by casting spells to make additional copies of the spell. The end result if instead of just spending ten to get two extra turns off of Time Stretch, we instead spend eight to get 3-4 copies of of the spell and end up with 6-8 extra turns. We use the copy spells to generate extra value from our Suspended bomb spells.
Bombs
- Time Stretch (objectively the best target for these copy shenanigans)
- Time Warp
- Searing Wind (If you get enough copies, you can one-shot a player/the entire table. My personal best with this card was to get deal 150 damage)
Copy Spells
- Fury Storm
- Narset's Reversal (Not only can this be used to steal opponent's spells, but you can copy you own spell and then return it to your hand. This basically allows for your Bomb to go back to your hand instead of the graveyard, cast the same copy spell twice, or steal an opponent's spell. This is a very flexible card).
- Omniscience (While it's not technically a copy effect, this remove the mana restrictions on casting you copies).
- Primal Amulet (Can't be directly used on the suspended Spell, but while it's transformed, it can give you and extra copy spell for free).
- Ral, Storm Conduit (Since his loyalty ability can't be activate on your upkeep--the phase that you are storming off in unless you pull the card out of Suspend during a main phase with Timebug or Rift Elemental--he is here to generate extra value off of spells, during your main phase, filter your deck, and his infinite copy combo fit right in with the rest of the deck).
- Reverberate
- Reiterate
- Swarm Intelligence
- Thousand-Year Storm (Each additional copy you cast increases the storm count giving you more copy spells... This card wins games).
Set Up
Storming off requires your pieces to be assembled and to have the right cards in the right order. We run card draw and looting to dig for those pieces/answers. Tutors find our pieces as well. The set up is why run Enter the Infinite and we need to pause for a moment and talk about this card. Since we draw our ENTIRE LIBRARY, we basically get to craft the perfect hand we need to close out the game but if we screw up, we deck ourselves and loose. I tried Laboratory Maniac, but he's a dead card until we cast Enter and there were better cards for his slot. I basically use Enter like one would use a Doomsday to make a game-winning pile but we get to keep our library. If you don't have these cards out or Suspended, you need to save the following:
- Omniscience
- Mystical Tutor
- Fury Charm/Suspend accelerators
- Draw spell
- Ulamog
- Whatever you need to survive the next turn...
We basically want to suspend Omniscience--this is the primary target for the spell--and pass. Our end goal is to resolve Omnscience, cast Enter, and then play all our storm pieces and go off. Dump Ulamog on an endstep to shuffle your graveyard back into your library to keep you from decking yourself (this works better if you pull Enter down on an opponent's endstep so that its "no hand limit" expires on your turn and you have to discard down to hand size, this only works if Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel aren't around). Dumping Ulamog allows us to loop turns and not deck ourselves on our the draw step. Once Omniscience is resolved, tutor up that Enter and win.
Wincon 2a) Death By Cards
If Enter resolves with Niv-Mizzet, you can usually kill one, if not two opponents with the draw triggers.
Wincon 2b) Ral, Storm Conduit
Ral's passive ability allows to ping anytime we cast or copy a spell. If any spell hits the stack, we can copy it and then, maintaining priority, we cast a second copy spell to copy our first copy spell. This creates an infinite loop of the copy spells copying each other, pinging a player each time.
Utility and Support
Protection/Policing
As soon as you suspend a bomb, any player worth their salt will target you. You have to be prepared to become the Archenemy and survive the four turns until you get your spells. Don't be afraid to take a beating, you just need to survive to the mid to late game. Play it smart, counter threats, redirect attacks, chump block, slow down the oncoming attacks, spend your life wisely, and you'll make it.
- AEtherize
- Blast Zone
- Board Wipes (see above for the list)
- Chaos Warp
- Chandra, Torch of Defiance's (Her -3 ability is spot removal)
- Counter spells: Counterflux, Counterspell, Negate, Red Elemental Blast, and Desertion
- Izzet Charm (the two damage will kill quite a few problematic creatures)
- Mercurial Chemister (His R and tap ability)
- Maze of Ith
- Polymorphist's Jest (Gets rid of problematic abilities for a turn, and it allows your two toughness wizards to block and kill off much larger creatures)
- Propaganda
- Reality Shift
- Venser, Shaper Savant (paired with Riptide Laboratory means that you have reusable bouncer to deal with spells AND permanents)
- Young Pyromancer (Dropping him early allows you to generate an army of 1/1 elemental chump blockers)
Digging/Filtering
You need to sift through your deck to find those answers and threats ASAP. Jhoira's low CMC means she can come down early, and the sooner you get your bombs suspended, the better.
- Chandra, Torch of Defiance (Her +1 ability where you can exile the top card of your library and cast it)
- Cycle lands (Running all six on-color cycle lands)
- Desolate Lighthouse
- Faithless Looting
- Izzet Charm
- Mana Rocks (Commander's Sphere, Hedron archive, and Izzet Clustone all can be sacrificed to draw cards)
- Mercurial Chemister (His U and tap ability)
- Mystical Tutor
- Niv-Mizzet, Parun
- Enter the Infinite
- Personal Tutor (Can snag most of your bomb spells)
- Ral, Storm Conduit (His +2 ability can Scry, his -2 can copy a cantrip)
- Rhystic Study
- Search for Azcanta
- Spellseeker (Tutors up Rift or both tutors, pairs really well with Riptide Laboratory)
- Treasure Cruise
Acceleration
While Jhoira's ability is the optimal choice for our spells, the deck can function without casting her. There is a solid mana rock support and spell cost reduction to get those high CMCs down to a manageable cost. On top of that, there are few ways to get those Suspended spells down quickly by fiddling with the time counters. Additionally, extra turn serve as acceleration as well since they give you another land drop, main phase, and--most importantly--another upkeep to pull off time counters.
- Baral, Chief of Compliance
- Fury Charm (Great for removing the last two counters off a spell at instant speed and dropping the suspended card out of the blue)
- Jhoira's Timebug
- Paradox Haze (the additional upkeep means you pull off counters twice as fast)
- Primal Amulet
- Rift Elemental
Spell Recursion
Reduce, reuse, and recycle is name of the game. There are few ways grab those useful spells which can be used to snag those early-game removal cards or pull those bombs back to your hand. The ability to reuse spells extends and strengthens your late-game presence as it allows to build card advantage since you can tap into you graveyard as a resource.
- Achaeomancer (pairs really well with Riptide Laboratory)
- Faithless Looting (You can flashback to grab those cards you tutored up the Mystical Tutor or dump all those lands you've drawn)
- Charmbreaker Devils (Fun fact: with Paradox Haze out, their ability triggers twice each turn)
- Chemister's Insight
- Metallurgic Summonings
- Mystic Retrieval
- Narset's Reversal (As Time Stretch--or any other bomb--comes down from suspend, copy it so you still get the effect, but the card is your hand rather than you graveyard which allows you to recast/suspend it once more)
- Volcanic Vision (Great for grabbing those high CMC spells like Blasphemous Act, Treasure Cruise, or Time Stretch)
Closing Thoughts
That is the long and short of it. It's an awesome deck that wins in awesome ways. Down below there links to the Jhoira Deck Techs that I found super helpful for planning this deck. It's fine-tuned or anything, and there are cards out there that are objectively better/more powerful/faster, but this is about as much as I can afford and about as competitive as my meta. I have slowly traded and bought upgrades, and will continue to do so. The Maybe Board are the cards that I am currently looking at adding as soon as my budget allows.
- [CEDH Version:] (https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/216538-jhoira-of-the-ghitu-comprehensive-guide)
- Jhoira Overview:
