I never got around to a set review for M21 or Jump Start (I'll blame quarantine for not actually playing in months), so now seems like as good a time as any. Starting with JMP because there's a lot less to cover.
Jump Start
Red
- Immolating Gyre - Fun card without enough instant/sorcery support in my list. I'd be looking for a minimum of 4 damage out of this, ideally more like 5-6, every time it was cast to compete against other similar options (e.g. Mizzium Mortars). With 18 instants/sorceries in the list, that only happens on curve around 20% of the time. As the list is now, this is almost as much as a Jaya activation for about half the damage in a lot of cases, and it's about equally reliable because I already use the GY enough to draw some incidental hate.
- Lightning Phoenix - The recursion trigger is easy to hit here, but the body is too low impact to matter. A two power flier that can't block isn't doing any of the things that this deck wants to be doing. There are other phoenix that are a better fit and I'm not currently running any of those either, so this is very low on the list.
- Living Lightning - I could see this finding a home. Easily accessible recursion is still not particularly common in mono-R and the mana cost can be split up across a couple turns, unlike something like Past in Flames or Underworld Breach. Four mana is a little more than I want to pay for the effect and I still haven't really gotten a chance to play with Breach or Chandra, Acolyte of Flame which both fill a similar role. I'll keep it in mind, but have no immediate plans for it.
- Spiteful Prankster - I like that this triggers off of every creature death, not just your own. Not a big fan of the fact that it only hits players and walkers. Two toughness with no built in resilience makes it a lot less appealing because most of the times you're the one triggering it, it's dying with the rest of the board. While I'm sure I'll find slots for this somewhere they're not going to be in this list.
Red
- Brash Taunter - This one I love. Stuffy Doll is a great force multiplier, solid wall for anything without evasion, and occasionally a way to give someone else some evasion. Taunter does all of this equally well and has the potential to be a lot more damaging. It's also nice that it can self trigger for much higher damage than Stuffy. Large creatures are something that Jaya has traditionally had some trouble with and Taunter makes them a liability. I also appreciate that it doesn't need to be reset to stay effective if the original target is knocked out.
- Chandra, Heart of Fire - Notable for being a source of card advantage while ticking up. Unfortunately, the first activation is the most likely to hurt you and that's the only guaranteed one. It's also coming in at 5 CMC, which makes it tougher to make use of the first +1 on the turn it comes down. I'd put this behind a couple other Chandras and Ugin, the Ineffable as a card advantage walker. There are also a number of other recent prints to help generate card advantage. Not a terrible card, but probably not a first choice.
- Chandra's Incinerator - There are a few ways to bring this in at a discount already. The problem is that the best way to take advantage of the trigger, Jaya's inferno, will also kill it and a pretty good number of the creatures on the board. This feels like it could be a solid threat in a more burn focused list. I'm guessing it will be solidly average in here.
- Double Vision - I like it a lot in theory. It plays as well with the cheap rummaging effects that are currently in the list at the same price as Alhammarret's Archive, which was briefly here for that reason. Copying things like burn spells is much higher impact than lifegain as a secondary effect. It does have the same problem as a lot of other artifacts/enchantments that I've considered (and run) over the years - it does nothing on its own. Like with Immolating Gyre I'm only likely to see ~3 instants/sorceries by the time this comes down, and this requires that they be played afterwards. It's effectively more of a 7-8 drop and I don't think that the power level is high enough in this list to be worth it.
- Fiery Emancipation - In contrast to Double Vision, this is a do nothing enchantment that I'm completely behind. In the lightly magical Christmas land scenario of curving this into a Jaya inferno, you can knock off half of every opponents' starting life. While it does nothing on its own, it's a game ending threat with a number of other cards in the list. Like I posted a while back, it also plays nicely with the Gauntlet effects - if they both stick (unlikely), there's potential for immediate use of the triple damage. More often, one is going to be cover for the other because opponents are likely running the same removal for each. I do feel that it's less win-more here than it is in other formats. The direct damage that I frequently try and close out the game with is scaled up a little, but definitely less than the life totals and number of opponents.
- Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge - It comes with all the usual disclaimers about dying to Jaya, but it at least is likely to return the mana you spent on it. It does also serve as a decent defensive creature when it can't attack. It's not likely to be the thing that keeps you alive, but it's big enough to discourage chip damage. I still don't think this is quite the deck this card wants around it.
- Transmogrify - Yet another option for the polymorph list. Red is getting plenty of these and Jaya as a general is reasonably well suited to take advantage, because you're already likely to be playing creature light if the gameplan is to nuke the board. I've been staying away from it mostly for the reason that it's hard to balance for the power level that I'm targetting. Because the cheating part of it can be made to be pretty consistent, the power level part of it is coming from what gets cheated in and I really don't want to deal with trying to find the right balance there.
- Chandra, Flame's Catalyst - I like this more than I should. I'm a fan of burn in this format, so ticking up to bolt all opponents is appealing. The other abilities are also solid. At the end of the day it's paying 6 for something difficult to protect and not high enough impact, so not worth it. I'm still a little tempted. This lives in a similar space to Chandra, Awakened Inferno, another card I would really like to make work someday.
- Chromatic Orrery - Fun card, but pretty medium here. If you're going to run a big mana rock, you're much better off with something like Thran Dynamo or Gilded Lotus that comes down earlier. They're reasonable substitutes for Gauntlets if you don't have those. The non-mana producing parts of this card are just not helpful for this deck. An artifact heavy mono-R list doesn't need much fixing, and 5 mana for a card is poor even by mono-R standards.
- Mazemind Tome - This isn't a bad one, honestly. Worse than Endless Atlas, but I'd probably put it second if I was making a list of this effect. It's cost effective and I don't usually expect this kind of card to survive past 2-3 draws, whether that's because someone wants to attack the card advantage engine or because it gets swept. Removing itself after 4 draws is a form of protection, too. It's harder to justify a removal spell when it's going to take care of itself in a couple turns, especially if you've already gotten some value from it. Scrying is very rarely going to be the right call because of the limited activations and the lifegain is unlikely to matter all that often, but adding some additional abilities to the card certainly doesn't hurt it.
Presented without notes because the discussion is already out there, but feel free to ask why I'm highlighting anything in particular. I'm mostly focusing on the more costly (money) stuff here and didn't see anything of note in JMP on a quick skim through the spoiler.
- Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
- Karn Liberated
- Blood Moon
- Imperial Recruiter
- Basilisk Collar
- Endless Atlas (first foil printing)
- Ensnaring Bridge
- Expedition Map
- Sword of Fire and Ice
- Sword of War and Peace
- Thespian's Stage