Jeskai Control

Recent decklists can be found here.

Playing Jeskai control on a budget in Legacy

You haven’t chosen an easy path, but a highly enjoyable one nontheless. Playing Control is never easy in any format. You have to adapt to whatever you’re facing, and make up a strategy with fitting tactics to reach for a win. Wins don’t come free. It’s very important to determine your role in every matchup so you can come up with a viable strategy to win the game.

Your obvious budget choices are in the land base. You will need fetch lands. Especially if you decide to go Jeskai colors in the main deck, you’re going to need both Flooded Strand as well as Scalding Tarn playsets. You could choose to start without the red splash. It’ll be a lot easier to fetch then. Playing red has its perks though, and the main reason you almost never see straight UW control is Pyroblast. Though this is a sideboard card because it’s not optimal in every matchup, Pyroblast (or Red Elemental Blast) is an amazing card in the Force of Will format. Many decks are blue and answering your opponent’s 2-for-1 with a one-mana spell is often backbreaking.

Besides the mana base, there are some “semi-expensive” cards that don’t cost hundreds of EUR/USD, but they still add up:

• Snapcaster Mage
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• Force of Negation
• Force of Will

Besides Force of Will, these cards are pretty much optional, depending on the variant of Jeskai Control you want to build. I’d highly recommend going through decklists, visiting the Discord and just finding out what version you want to build.

Acquiring Jeskai Control

If you want to buy into Jeskai Control, there’s a couple of cards you’re going to absolutely need in every version of the deck you’re ever going to build:

• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Ponder
• 4 Swords to Plowshares
• 4 Prismatic Ending
• 4 Flooded Strand

After obtaining this shell, there’s many paths to choose from. Like the deck list above, you can go for a combo-esque approach with Day’s Undoing. Alternatively, you can choose for a prison approach, with either a Counterbalance/Miracles build, or a nonbasic Land-hate package like Back to Basics or Blood Moon. The latter plays very well into your “disadvantage” of running only basics. Either way, you can pack a suite of planeswalkers to blank your opponent’s cards as much as you can.

Personally, I love the Miracles archetype. It’s rather easy to obtain on a budget, though I have to admit the deck becomes infinitely better with some dual lands. The version below is based on the “new” Miracles brainchild of ForceofPhil. I’ve enjoyed playing this deck a lot and I seriously recommend taking a look at it if you’re thinking of buying into some UWx control variant.

Upgrade paths

Choosing this deck is heaven in terms of upgrade possibilities. There’s many ways to expand your deck options, even when you want to stick to the control archetype. Since your core is UW, you’re able to expand to whatever splash you enjoy the most. While this page is about Jeskai, there’s many options to explore when it comes to UWx control.

Setting sail for Esper colors, you’ll get access to cards like Thoughtseize, Hymn to Tourach, Baleful Strix, Kaya, Orzhov Usurper and Plague Engineer. If you want to go all-out on the Miracles archetype, Aminatou the Fateshifter is an amazing pickup in the Esper Miracles archetype.

Bant Control is another route to take and it’s really great. A green splash allows you to play Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, Ice-Fang Coatl, Sylvan Library, Life from the Loam, Endurance, Carpet of Flowers and Veil of Summer. These are all excellent cards, and Bant Control is a serious archetype to consider.

Sticking to the Jeskai archetype, I’ll advise to get one or two Tundra first, then buy a Volcanic Island after. The red cards in this archetype really aren’t that expensive, so when you stick to Jeskai you’re going to want to save some money to get those sweet dual lands.

Additional Resources

• If you want to play control in Legacy, there’s no way you’re not going to follow Anuraag/AnziD. While you’re at it, go to his Twitch and hit that follow button. They’re also on Youtube and … well just open that Linktree and do your thing.
• Brian/BoshNRoll is an amazing content creator with a wide selection of decks on their Youtube, but when things count, they’re famous for “Island, Ponder, keep”.
• As mentioned earlier, Phil/ForceofPhil is a Miracles legend, co-host of the Eternal Durdles podcast and regular on the 90sMTG stream.
• There is a very active Discord.
• Niv/Trunks132 also plays a lot of control decks, sometimes Jeskai, sometimes Bant, sometimes 4C. but often control, and there’s a lot to learn from them.