Match Ups

Let’s start with our match ups:

Using easy words, the more creatures (preferably small) they have, the better for us!

Card Choices

On my Twitter a lot of people asked about the reason for some unusual cards, so I guess it would be a good idea to give you an explanation:

1x 《Sphinx of Foresight》

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《Sphinx of Foresight》 – This is probably the most interesting one, my signature card for this event. I can tell you one thing. It wasn’t just “for fun” addition. I truly believe Sphinx deserves a slot in the deck. Why? Early game plan is all about finding lands, and Fires. With the enchantment our deck functions on another level, and we REALLY want to find it. Scry 3 let us dig deep into a library, and helps to find it. Also, makes keeps easier, as we can keep any good two lander without being too much afraid of being mana screwed.

On the other hand, when we have Fires, all we need is to survive that one, crucial, turn four. Since we get 5th land we get a huge power spike, but before that happens our only good defensive spell to combine with Fires is 《Deafening Clarion》. Sphinx is a great way to build a board presence, while waiting for another turn. 4 toughness blocker is really hard to deal with nowadays, and it’s usually the best we can do after playing our theme card on turn 4 against everyone who tries to attack us. Trust me, Sphinx does a great job!

4x 《Fae of Wishes》

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For some reason not every Jeskai Fires version plays the Faerie. I think that’s a mistake. To understand why Fae is so important, we need to get deeper into the concept of Jeskai. Our deck is mostly separated into three categories. Defensive spells, like 《Deafening Clarion》 or 《Prison Realm》, combo pieces, like 《Fires of Invention》 or 《Drawn from Dreams》, and threats like 《Cavalier of Flame》. We really struggle if we miss any of those. If we don’t draw a defensive spell, we might die before we take advantage of powerful five drops. If we don’t find Fires, casting Cavaliers in a fair way might be too slow, and if we end up without drawing threats, we might simply die to planeswalkers with hand full of mass removal.

Fae counts as all three! It’s a 1/4 two mana blocker with flying, which is amazing versus aggro or an Elk army (defensive spell), finds a Chandra from the sideboard, when we’re missing Fires (combo piece), and is a great threat with the enchantment (takes off-color one-ofs from sideboard). That’s consistency worth a lot, and I honestly can’t believe how people can play 《Bonecrusher Giant》 in that slot. Trust me, let the Fae a chance, and you will never come back to Giant!

2x 《Kenrith, the Returned King》

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People usually play between 0 and 1. For me Kenrith is usually better than any of Cavaliers. The biggest downside of the King is being a good target for maindeck 《Noxious Grasp》, on the other hand, if you look closer, decks with Grasp are in the most part either Sultai Food, or GB Adventures. Both are great match ups for us, and dropping a small % here isn’t a big deal. In return, we get insane mana sink with many powerful options. Remember, with Fires you cast Kenrith for free, and get advantage of his abilities immediately.

Usually it works as 5th and 6th 《Cavalier of Flame》, with a cheaper haste ability (it’s even sometime better, because of trample). Versus aggro 10 life per turn is close to unbeatable, and during boards stalls it lets us draw more cards for virtually free, as we don’t need mana to cast our spells anyway. I would probably play three if Kenrith wasn’t legendary, but even with that drawback I can’t imagine playing less than two.

Sideboard: 2x 《Brazen Borrower》

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This is something interesting, because it works completely different, than any fundamentals of magic. Usually from sideboard cards you expect to be narrow and very powerful in a given match up. It’s a nice luxury to have, with 15 card sideboard. Jeskai has only 8 slots in sb, as 7 cards are in “never touch” category. With many “possibly dead cards” in the maindeck (mostly 《Aether Gust》, 《Deafening Clarion》 and 《Time Wipe》) we need some generic cards in sb to replace them when needed.

《Sorcerous Spyglass》 doesn’t work everywhere, but is very good against Simic Food, so I decided to keep two for that match up. That leaves us with 6 slots, for something generic, to fill our maindeck holes. Against UW Control, we need 8 cards, Spyglass is bad, so we have to make sure we don’t lose any other slot for card that can’t be boarded vs them. Against Temur Reclamation we need 8 cards (Gust is OK, but 《Prison Realm》 doesn’t do much), so similarly to UW, we would like all 6 to be boardable. Versus RB Aggro we have to cut 2x Gust. If you add all of this together, conclusion is easy. We should have 2 cards, that we can bring in against UW Control, Temur Reclamation, and RB aggro… It’s not an easy task, looking how different those decks are, so it has to be something VERY generic, and also relatively cheap. Yes! 《Brazen Borrower》! I’m glad you’re here!

Sideboard for 《Fae of Wishes》

Let’s start with the rule number one. Never touch those cards between games!

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This is the toolbox you want to have always available for 《Fae of Wishes》. 《Chandra, Awakened Inferno》 is your only threat you can find if you don’t have Fires, so even against UW Control you want to have her available to wish for. Same with 《Time Wipe》 against aggro, it’s better to have 2+1, than 3+0, because that way you have 6 virtual 《Time Wipe》s, instead of three.

The Real Sideboard

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1 《Disenchant》

I think this is also worth an explanation. As I said before, we really need generic cards in sideboard to bring it. 《Disenchant》 is quite weird, as it tends to be good against decks, where mass removal is bad (UW Control, Temur Reclamation, Mirror). It’s another cheap interaction, which I like. That’s the reason why I like it over more expensive 《True Love’s Kiss》, which is a better card if we want to search for it with Fae with Fires on board, but worse in the actual deck. If you have Fires, it’s usually better to find 《Casualties of War》 anyway.

Sultai Food

Against Sultai Food

Out

In

I don’t like 3rd Dispute here, because of cards like 《Vraska, Golgari Queen》, 《Liliana, Dreadhorde General》 etc. Remember that with Fires on the battlefield, our counterspells are almost useless (technically you can cast them in your turn, but let’s be honest, it almost never happens), so putting every single copy in your deck is a real cost, and gives you a chance to draw a dead card later in the game. Be careful with that!

Simic Food

Against Simic Food

Out

In

Here Dispute is better, as they have cards like 《Brazen Borrower》, or 《Aether Gust》 instead of 《Noxious Grasp》. On the other hand, our Gust gets worse, with more blue spells instead of Vraskas. Without acces to Grasp on the opponent’s side, I’m happy to keep both Kenriths. Also, with 4x 《Brazen Borrower》 Fae gets better than Sphinx, as 1/4 cheap body with flying is more relevant this time.

Sultai Sacrifice

Against Sultai Sacrifice

Out

In

Spyglass is mostly for Oko, I don’t think Oven is a good enough card against us, to bring Spyglass, but obviously you should name it, if they have one mana artifact, and didn’t draw Oko.

Non-Green Cat/Oven Combo

Against Non-Green Cat/Oven Combo

Out

In

As I said above, without Oko I don’t like bringing Spyglass. Since our Gust are useless here, it’s time to bring our joker card.

GB / GW Adventures

No sideboard.

Temur Reclamation

Against Temur Reclamation

Out

In

We don’t have enough cards in sb to bring in, so we have to choose one necessary evil. I think Clarion is the best out of the worst, as it’s our insurance from random 《Legion Warboss》 or 《Bonecrusher Giant》 aggro plan. Sometimes lifelink option might be relevant to escape from one-shot range with 《Expansion/Explosion》, which might give us one important turn to finish opponent. I expect opponents to board out 《Niv-Mizzet, Parun》 even if they have one, so 《Prison Realm》 is close to useless.

UW Control

Against UW Control

Out

In

And again, we’re missing two cards. On the other hand, that’s what we signed up for while registering powerful 《Fae of Wishes》, and I’m still convinced it’s worth it. Out of all bad cards I like 《Aether Gust》 the most, as it can return Chandra stolen by 《Agent of Treachery》 or 《Mass Manipulation》, or deny opponent’s counterspell and put Fires back on the top of our library, instead graveyard.

Nice trick worth to know against Agent/Manipulation is 《Prison Realm》 and 《Teferi, Time Raveler》. You can exile whatever they stole first, and then bounce the 《Prison Realm》 with Teferi. You get your permanent back, ready to use, draw a card thanks to planeswalker’s ability, and stay with removal spell in your hand. Pure profit!

Mirror

Against Mirror

Out

In

Mass removal is just bad. 《Time Wipe》 never works as you might want it to. If your opponent has Fires, and enough creatures to be worth Time Wiping, they usually have advantage big enough, to destroy you anyway. It’s better to focus more on early game and countering Fires, than trying to solve it by overcosted mass removal.