Hinata - X Target Spellslinger

[ISBPathfinder]

So, there are a lot of directions you can go with spellslinger in jeskai. I felt that I was pushed into a number of X target sort of spells pushing me up a little over my usual feel for jeskai spellslinger which makes me think that I won't be casting quite as many spells in a turn and having some more impactful spells instead. I opted to stray a bit from some of the usual spellslinger tactics feeling that they favored more of mass spell spam instead.

I ended up favoring Mavinda, Students' Advocate and Feather, the Redeemed a bit more in how I found myself building. Several of the big X target spells can still target one of my creatures potentially non fatally or targeting one of my less important creatures potentially with these. I felt like if I was going to run these two I had to sort of build for them as they are a bit unique. I felt that once I was looking at this direction Orvar, the All-Form made sense as well even though he has issues with a lot of legendary targets his value potential seemed very high. I considered delving into Zada, Hedron Grinder as well but I didn't feel that my deck really was geared to make use of him.

Notable Exclusions:

• The Locust God, Kykar, Wind's Fury, Murmuring Mystic, Talrand, Sky Summoner, Monastery Mentor - These cards favor cheap cantrip concepts that I felt I didn't really fit into. My draw isn't as high and I plan to cast bigger mana spells that don't spam trigger these effects the way they tend to want to happen.
• Jeskai Ascendancy - I think it fits a token go wide spellspam strategy more. I cut a lot of the token production and I didn't like where this stood after that.
• Torrential Gearhulk - There were some spells I liked the idea of recurring with this but he does poorly with the X mana stuff which is why I opted to cut him. He is amazing with Sublime Epiphany and Magma Opus but he had too many spells he didn't make sense for.
• Cyclonic Rift - Lots of my X mana spells function with similar roles. Its overload doesn't target either meaning I didn't actually get any benefit from my commander for casting it like that.

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

COMMANDER (1)

1 Hinata, Dawn-Crowned

CREATURES (15)

1 Weathered Wayfarer

1 Fog Bank

1 Mavinda, Students' Advocate

1 Feather, the Redeemed

1 Kefnet the Mindful

1 Spellseeker

1 Archmage Emeritus

1 Crackling Drake

1 Keeper of the Accord

1 Orvar, the All-Form

1 Solemn Simulacrum

1 Lier, Disciple of the Drowned

1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun

1 Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant

1 Velomachus Lorehold

ARTIFACT (6)

1 Expedition Map

1 Sol Ring

1 Soul-Guide Lantern

1 Arcane Signet

1 Aerial Surveyor

1 Archaeomancer's Map

ENCHANTMENT (2)

1 Rhystic Study

1 Shark Typhoon

INSTANT (23)

1 March of Swirling Mist

1 Tithe

1 Arcane Denial

1 Aurelia's Fury

1 Brought Back

1 Comet Storm

1 Disorder in the Court

1 Heliod's Intervention

1 Negate

1 Remand

1 Shelter

1 Cackling Counterpart

1 Chaos Warp

1 Commander's Insight

1 Drown in Dreams

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Generous Gift

1 Leadership Vacuum

1 Orim's Thunder

1 Topple the Statue

1 Expansion // Explosion

1 Sublime Epiphany

1 Magma Opus

SORCERY (15)

1 By Force

1 Preordain

1 Curse of the Swine

1 Ghired's Belligerence

1 Shatterskull Smashing

1 Distorting Wake

1 Jeska's Will

1 Sevinne's Reclamation

1 Deep Analysis

1 Inscription of Insight

1 Mass Manipulation

1 Time Warp

1 Karn's Temporal Sundering

1 Blatant Thievery

1 Soulfire Eruption

PLANESWALKER (0)

LAND (38)

1 Arid Mesa

1 Azorius Chancery

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 Boros Garrison

1 Command Tower

1 Flagstones of Trokair

1 Flooded Strand

1 Hallowed Fountain

2 Island

1 Izzet Boilerworks

1 Kor Haven

1 Lotus Field

1 Lotus Vale

1 Marsh Flats

1 Maze of Ith

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Mountain

5 Plains

1 Plateau

1 Polluted Delta

1 Raugrin Triome

1 Reliquary Tower

1 Sacred Foundry

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Scorched Ruins

1 Steam Vents

1 Strip Mine

1 Sulfur Falls

1 Thespians' Stage

1 Tundra

1 Volcanic Island

1 Windswept Heath

1 Wooded Foothills

Approximate Total Cost:

[Dunharrow]

I have played a bunch of brawl against Hitana and I hate it. It really messes with your opponents. On the surface it seems like a cool spellslinger but in reality it is has a lot of Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in it.
I think it will make you into archenemy.

[ISBPathfinder]

I have played a bunch of brawl against Hitana and I hate it. It really messes with your opponents. On the surface it seems like a cool spellslinger but in reality it is has a lot of Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in it.
I think it will make you into archenemy.

I for one tend to play a lot of archenemy regardless of what I play. I also enjoy playing with and against GAAIV so long as people don't see how many taxation effects they can stack into play.

That said, I think its resemblance to GAAIV is probably a lot more so in 1v1. There tends to be a heavier amount of 1 for 1 spot removal in heads up magic than you see in commander. Hinata doesn't tax playing most permenants / ramp effects so its mostly spot removal, counterspells, and auras that it does interact with which while dependant on the deck often that only makes up something like 10% of what opponents play rather than everything they try to do.

Random side note of things I am thinking about for this deck. Its possible I want to run additional ramp. I was thinking about maybe Dowsing Dagger given how good of a delivery system the commander is for it. I like how it comes with fast big ramp mostly paying for itself and becoming harder to target the turn after I play it vs something like Thran Dynamo which might get swept. I don't think I need a ton of big mana stuff but I think that Dowsing hits good on the curve and leaves not much to get swept later. I thought about some other equipment as well but I don't know how much I want to incentivize opponents to interact with my commander. It is possible that Sword of the Animist / Mask of Memory would be good adds I just feel like I am already leaning on the commander a good bit for a lot of my spells to throw another target on them for using equipment. The upside of Dowsing Dagger is how its sort of fast and the turn after its too late to really do anything to it. The commander's targeting tax might make it hard for opponents to interfere with it.

[Dunharrow]

@ISBPathfinder You may be right that there is less spot removal in multiplayer, but also there are 3 people who will be annoyed. Just an FYI in any case since most people focus on the cost reduction (the built around part) and may not be aware of the GAAIV effect.

Also, it affects things like Sign in Blood, Braingeyser, Reanimate.. victimize costs 5, Casualties of War is uncastable,

I like Dowsing Dagger. once you connect it is likely to stick around for the rest of the game.

[duducrash]

Lier, Disciple of the Drowned seems a bit weird with some counters and Jin-Gittaxias ! I really enjoy Fall of the Titans and Baral's Expertise . If you are getting too much removal going at you effects like Ajani's Presence might be good

[ISBPathfinder]

@ISBPathfinder You may be right that there is less spot removal in multiplayer, but also there are 3 people who will be annoyed. Just an FYI in any case since most people focus on the cost reduction (the built around part) and may not be aware of the GAAIV effect.

Also, it affects things like Sign in Blood, Braingeyser, Reanimate.. victimize costs 5, Casualties of War is uncastable,

I like Dowsing Dagger. once you connect it is likely to stick around for the rest of the game.

I am sure there will be some casualties in the taxation (pun intended) but I think there is a lot of things that it doesn't hit though too. I found myself running a lot of non traditional cards that I wouldn't normally run in this format in this list trying to make use of the commander's cost reduction. I talked to one of my buddies and my certainty of Crackle with Power for instance is lower than it was originally given how expensive it is to really cast for any real result. I was originally thinking it could be used to kill a bunch of things but if I want to hurt players in a real way its going to have to be cost for a LOT of mana still and anything less than 10 mana is probably less impressive than I was hoping for which likely means I am going to end up cutting that card.

(I will probably end up cutting Crackle with Power for Dowsing Dagger I just have to do that later as I have to run)

Lier, Disciple of the Drowned seems a bit weird with some counters and Jin-Gittaxias ! I really enjoy Fall of the Titans and Baral's Expertise . If you are getting too much removal going at you effects like Ajani's Presence might be good

Lier, Disciple of the Drowned also has some bad synergy with the counterspells I run but I want to see how she does. It is a bit of a bad interaction with Jin but I don't actually expect to play both of those cards out at the same time as I don't expect either of them to live long when played. I honestly don't know that I would even be playing Jin but I opened on in the pre release and I figure what the hell give it a shot since I already own one.

Fall of the Titans maybe the surge version seems ok but I also don't like limiting it to just two targets given that it also feels like it needs setup to cast on the surge part.

Baral's Expertise I had it in my list but I ended up cutting it in part because I felt like I didn't really have the consistent cheap spells to play for free off of it nor am I sure if tempo is the way I really want to go with the deck. I have a lot of interaction already and while I do think this card is good I like it more when I have more pressure myself if I am being honest. I like it when I have a deck that is somewhat proactive with heavy draw which this deck can still have decent draw but a lot of the good draw can't be cast off of this.

Ajani's Presence its probably better to run Eerie Interlude, Deflecting Swat, or Teferi's Protection still if you want to force more reactive options. I have a hard time running pure indestructible as a protection anymore though in part given how much spot removal I see and how much of that doesn't just destroy.

EDIT: as a follow-up on the defense tactics, I have a hard time loading up on tons of defensive plans when recasting your commander is always an option. I think that purely defensive cards need to be a lot broader in what they can do given that they can sort of be heavily reliant on responding to specific situations from your opponents. I do have a lot of reactive cards already I just think that reactive defenses vary in value more from meta to meta and deck to deck. I like to start out a little lighter on things that are purely protective of my own boardstate and adjust based on experience rather than starting high on it.

[RowanKeltizar]

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned is the definition of a busted commander. It's a bit weird because it makes bad cards good which I like, but at the same time, this can be a absolutely disgusting with already good cards.

I do worry about how dependant on your commander a deck like this can be. However, you probably have enough disruption to keep her on the table.

Dominate might be something to consider.
Volcanic Offering might be playable here too.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Reality Spasm seems like a slam dunk. With Hinata out, it's essentially Reset without a timing restriction

[ISBPathfinder]

Hinata, Dawn-Crowned is the definition of a busted commander. It's a bit weird because it makes bad cards good which I like, but at the same time, this can be a absolutely disgusting with already good cards.

I do worry about how dependant on your commander a deck like this can be. However, you probably have enough disruption to keep her on the table.

Dominate might be something to consider.
Volcanic Offering might be playable here too.

Commander Centric - I agree its a concern of mine. I do think that with a four mana commander though recasting a few times is reasonable. I also have several means to protect the commander for 1-2 mana and depending on how much of an issue I find it I can adjust from there. I like to start a little low on purely protective type cards though as they can get a bit jammed up in hand. I am hoping to some degree that the taxation on targeting, reasonable starting cost, and a dash of interaction can keep them where I need them to be though.

Reality Spasm seems like a slam dunk. With Hinata out, it's essentially Reset without a timing restriction

Reality Spasm - Hummm I didn't think about the untap function of it. I saw the tap part and sort of wandered off but it would have REALLY good interaction with Feather, the Redeemed though. Oh god..... you could tap everyone's permeants down on their upkeep if you had UU per player.......... yikes.

Side note, I have been mulling over potentially some tutors in the deck. It feels like Feather, the Redeemed, Mavinda, Students' Advocate, and Orvar, the All-Form are sort of the three creatures I really want to see most outside of my commander functioning. I could potentially run things like Search for Glory or Drift of Phantasms to tutor the first two or potentially some tribal tutors to get Orvar

[RowanKeltizar]

Oop, Dominate only has one target. Nvm still not good here lol

[ISBPathfinder]

Dominate might be something to consider.
Volcanic Offering might be playable here too.

Oop, Dominate only has one target. Nvm still not good here lol

Ops I totally didn't respond to your card suggestions. My bad I have been a bit out of it each time I am posting lately lol.

Dominate - As you said its still single target and I don't think the commander makes it viable enough even though its instant speed. Its possible I might want Tretchery given that it does get cost reduced and make net positive mana but I get a little grumpy when I see too much theft as well and I think I am already toing that line as is.
Volcanic Offering - I had it in my list for quite a while when I was deckbuilding. I ended up cutting it in part because I felt like it was ultimately still spot removal based but it also didn't fit my packages of self targeting or multi targeting. I went really deep into some of the Feather type concepts and I felt like I pushed to keep them viable and somewhat of the focus for me. I still think offering is solid but it probably fits better into a list where you don't have reason to push Tail Slash. In that sense, its probably the better card but I pushed so hard into making the few self targeting concepts work that I opted to run inferior cards to make them more incentivized.

[ISBPathfinder]

Ok so I got a few games in, man it was awkward in a lot of ways lol. I managed to slimly win a 1v1 game where I just amassed a few triggers on spellcast and then managed to cast my commander + an extra turn in the same turn which let me untap and just go to town with Niv-Mizzet, Parun + Archmage Emeritus which on its own is kind of a ridiculous setup. I did notice that the deck was a bit awkward that game though and my ability to defend seemed questionable and I also needed to assemble quite a bit of board to make a move. The second game was a 5 player FFA and I just floundered all game. I did almost start doing things on the last turn but a Sheoldred, Whispering One managed to live for like 3 turns in play which kind of punted me from the game.

Moving on from the two games I think I can safely say that my defenses are a little questionable. I also didn't read a few cards right that worked off of the mana I put into spells rather than the mana spent to cast them which makes them a lot worse so I am going to cut some of those. I am going to push forward with some ramp concepts as well as some defenses and see how the list goes after these adjustments. I am still a bit leery on my ability to actually close games out but need more testing with the basics for now.

DECK CHANGES:

CUTS:

• Smoldering Egg I realized that its trigger to put counters on went off of mana spent rather than cmc and I got a lot less interested in this card.
• Manaform Hellkite I realized that its trigger to put counters on went off of mana spent rather than cmc and I got a lot less interested in this card.
• Docent of Perfection I did end up playing it once or twice, as I expected the fact that I don't spam cheap spells made it feel not amazing.
• Hullbreaker Horror I am cutting this for similar reasons as I am cutting Docent of Perfection but also in part because its super expensive to cast and I was hoping to put up some more passive earlier defenses. Part of its inclusing was also in part because it wasn't legendary so I could clone it but I think thats just too cute to assume I can ever pull that off.
• Fall of the Hammer I think I was giving too much credit to a few cards in my deck like Feather, the Redeemed and Velomachus Lorehold. For now I am going to trim back my weird spot removal slot some and just see how things play out. Its possible I could run some better spot removal like Swords to Plowshares but I was trying to push for the on theme synergy first. I am not sure where I stand on spot removal but for now I wanted to scale back some of the stranger enable cards and see if the core concept is still viable.
• Soul's Fire same as above.
• Tail Slash same as above.
• Crackle with Power Its a finisher but I don't think it really is playable outside of trying to finish games. For now I am going to cut it but its possible if I can't close out games I could bring it back for now I just want to focus on the deck feeling viable first.
• Cleansing Wildfire I ended up cutting a bunch of the enabler lands for bounce and sac lands and didn't feel that these cards were still playable without the potential to ramp myself from them. They are still answers to problem lands but I liked them a lot more as potential ramp too.
• Geomancer's Gambit same as above.

ADDS:

• Weathered Wayfarer Wayfarer can set up some really sweet ramp going T2 Flagstones, T3 Lotus Field, T4 Thespians' Stage and copy Lotus Field. I made sure to include the whole package in these changes.
• Fog Bank I just wanted a bit more for passive defense and I seemed to value single threat defense more than swarm thanks in part to how my commander functions and a lot of the X spells scaling well for swarm.
• Keeper of the Accord really good when running less land concepts which I am adding. The token production also seems likely to happen if he lives.
• Aerial Surveyor it curves in under my commander and offers some ramp.
• Archaeomancer's Map adding the less lands concept and it seems useful.
• Maze of Ith I wanted more solutions to single large threats since a lot of my X mana things seem like they can handle swarm. There have been a few commanders of late that are hard to target but tend to lean more on protections rather than full on hexproof. Some of this is a bit of a meta choice but I also think that the X mana spells are better geared to deal with swarms than single target threats.
• Expedition Map just more consistency for the newly added lands.
• Brought Back I think this card works as a really nice land ramp with some of the sac based lands as well as also working with fetches. Beyond that it can be used to keep my board in play later in the game.
• Sevinne's Reclamation target ramp. Seems fine.
• Kefnet the Mindful a chunky blocker primarily but the mana dump for draw also can be useful given that I have added more ramp with these changes.

LANDS ADJUSTMENTS:

• Myriad Landscape → Lotus Field
• Emeria, the Sky Ruin → Lotus Vale
• Mystic Sanctuary → Scorched Ruins
• 1 Island → Boros Garrison
• 1 Mountain → Izzet Boilerworks
• Glacial Fortress → Azorius Chancery
• Cascading Cataracts → Reliquary Tower with all of the X mana draw spells I feel like no max hand size is a bit easier to justify here.
• Darksteel Citadel → Kor Haven
• 1 Mountain → 1 Plains
• 1 Island → 1 Plains
• Clifftop Retreat → Thespians' Stage thespian copies the 2-4 mana producing lands while skipping their ETB draw backs.

I won't comment on all of the land changes in part because they are kind of lumped in as moving to a less lands concept. I cut some lands like Emeria because its a lot harder to run while sacrificing lands and a lot of the new additions are not basics / plains. Its kind of weird that I was running Emeria without more dual land plains as it was but that was probably an oversight. Either way just pushing for more mana generation and I think the less lands concept is a fun one that I want to push a bit more.

I also pushed up my basic plains count a bit as several of the new less land concepts can only get basic plains. I tried to offset it a little by cutting some of the white based non fetchable duals.

[ISBPathfinder]

Alrighty, well this is a bit odd but I guess this is me saying that this deck is doing REALLY good. That said, I feel kind of like a bad person when I play this deck to the point that I am thinking about retiring this deck because well, this deck feels a little oppressive and I feel sort of bad when I play it. The less lands concept has been working REALLY good and I have probably played 3-4 games since my last deck updates and I think... I have won all of the games since then.

Its a bit of an odd thing but I think this deck is great, if I were to continue playing it I would probably cut some of the theft because while its fine and good, it apparently isn't cool to Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant copy Blatant Thievery stealing..... primarily lands (who knew lol).

So, I guess this is me saying this deck is great, it works well, and I think I am going to stop playing it. I just get this vibe while playing it that nobody is really enjoying what I am doing. I think it has a cool angle and running very unique cards but I also feel a bit scummy to the point that I am just going to bin it.

EDIT: some of this is also brought on as I plan to build another jeskai deck and an esper deck. I only have so many fetches / ABU duels and I have to pick what I want to assemble.