Are you looking for ways to make your new Jeskai precon even better and more fun? This Jeskai Striker Upgrade Guide can help you with that. It’s going to be a bit different from our usual upgrade articles, though.
Instead of doing a massive upgrade, we’ll focus on 10 card swaps. This way you aren’t completely rebuilding the deck, but you’re still improving the general gameplay. My goal was to recommend cards that enable awesome plays and work on-theme. (I’ll avoid generic powerful cards, like Cyclonic Rift, as you probably aren’t looking for those.)
Before we get to the recommendations, let’s quickly take a look at the deck.
Jeskai Striker Game Plan
As you can see the deck cares about noncreature spells, particularly the ones that target permanents or players. You want to combine those with cheap spells, so you can easily cast two spells in a turn and trigger Narset’s flurry effect.
The deck already contains quite a reasonable amount of cantrips and other cheap cards, so we want to add some more powerful spells to copy, as well as some cards that are simply strong in this prowess-like play style.
Narset, Enlightened Exile
We had one Narset, yes. But what about the second Narset? This card is more than just a perfect flavor fit, though. It actually plays really well in this shell.
First, it gives you creatures prowess, which is obviously good in a deck full of noncreature spells. Plus, there are some token makers in the deck, such as Monastery Mentor and Young Pyromancer.
But Narset’s second ability is even stronger. When it attacks, you get to cast a noncreature spell from your graveyard for free. While you are limited with Narset’s power, it shouldn’t be too hard to increase it due to prowess. Thus you could easily cast spells that cost five or even more mana.
Replaces: Guttersnipe
An argument can be made for Guttersnipe to remain in the deck. However, this can be said about any card in the Jeskai Striker precon, but some cards gotta go.
While Guttersnipe does work with noncreature spells, you won’t be winning games by just dealing a bunch of damage with it. In order to accomplish that, you’d need a bunch of similar effects. Since that isn’t the case, Guttersnipe just doesn’t cut it.
Narset, Enlightened Master
We had two, yes. But what about… okay, you get the joke. Here’s the original Narset, that also fits very well into this precon.
All you need to do is attack with it, then you can cast all noncreature spells from the top four cards of your library for free! Now that’s insanely powerful, especially since hexproof makes it really hard for your opponents to deal with Narset.
Replaces: Mangara, the Diplomat
Mangara is a cool card, but doesn’t really contribute to the deck’s plan. In most scenarios, you’ll be much happier with Narset.
Elsha of the Infinite
Would you look at that? This is the same character as the secondary commander of the Jeskai Striker precon. Once again, this inclusion isn’t just because flavor reasons, but because Elsha also fits well mechanically.
It allows you to cast noncreature spells from the top of your library, and you can do so as though they had flash. Now, this card is somewhat less powerful than the previous two, but it’s a welcome addition, unless your playgroup is more competitive.
Replaces: Manaform Hellkite
Hellkite is certainly a fair card, and I wouldn’t fault anyone for wanting to keep it. However, I don’t like that it only counts the mana spent on spells, so it won’t work with Narset’s flurry effect and other free ways to cast spells. Still, if you want to keep the dragon, feel free to remove something else.
Bria, Riptide Rogue
This otter was a part of the Bloomburrow Starter Kit, but is actually quite a solid Commander card in the right deck. It’s similar to aforementioned Narset, Enlightened Exile, as it grants your creatures prowess.
Instead of replaying spells from your graveyard, you can make your creatures unblockable. That’s a pretty useful ability in general, plus it will help both Enlightened Narsets to safely get their attack triggers.
Replaces: Shiny Impetus
Yes, you can get a copy of this aura from Narset’s flurry trigger, but that’s about it for the synergies with this deck. The card isn’t a particularly great fit, so you should probably get rid of it.
Soulfire Grand Master
here is another Jeskai card from the original Tarkir block. For the most part, giving your instants and sorceries lifelink won’t matter, but that last effect can be really powerful, once you’re returning a key spell to your hand.
Grand Master is probably at its best when paired with extra turn spells. But more about those in a second.
Replaces: Think Twice
Perfectly fine card draw spell, but just too little impact overall. Would prefer something that targets instead, so you can copy it with your commander.
Karn’s Temporal Sundering
Perhaps the strongest cards to copy with Narset are extra turn spells that target. Temporal Sundering is particularly useful. The legendary clause shouldn’t be too hard to achieve, as you’ll want to cast it with Narset in play anyways.
You won’t just take an extra turn, but you’ll also return a nonland permanent to its owner’s hand. With Narset in play, you’ll do it twice.
The only downside is that it exiles itself, so no shenanigans with Soulfire Grand Master or cards that can get spells back from the graveyard. If that’s a problem, or if you just want to focus more on the extra turn synergies, consider adding some of these:
Replaces: Baral’s Expertise
Both cards kinda play similarly, and among the two the extra turn seems stronger. Still, Expertise can be a really powerful option too.
Turnabout
This is another excellent spell to copy. In the late game this can net you tons of mana, especially if you can manage to get that flurry trigger. If you’re a beginner, here’s a quick explanation on how it works.
Let’s say, the game has gone on for a while, and you have 10 lands plus Shiko and Narset, Unified in play.
- Cast one of your one mana spells.
- Tap all of your lands and have 9 mana in mana pool.
- Spend four mana to cast Turnabout. (Five mana remains.) Commander’s flurry ability triggers, and a copy of Turnabout goes on the stack.
- When the copy resolves, you untap all of your lands. You tap them and get to 15 mana.
- The actual Turnabout resolves, leaving you with 15 mana and 10 untapped lands.
In this scenario you went from 10 mana to 25. In a deck with so much card advantage it shouldn’t be too big of a problem to spend it for a really explosive turn. You could also use it to tap down opponent’s board to enable an alpha strike. Versatility is always nice.
Another somewhat similar card would be Treachery, which is a part of the Reserved List, and thus fairly pricey. However, if you can get one, you should likely add it to this deck too.
Replaces: Mana Geyser
The card is a bit conditional, plus it can’t be copied with Narset. Turnabout seems like a better option.
Jeska’s Will
At the beginning, I said no staples, but this one plays so well that it merits an inclusion. With Shiko and Narset in play, you’ll be able to get two copies of it for some insane value. Getting 6 cards and mana to play them, is just an absurdly good deal.
Replaces: Deep Analysis
If you don’t have the budget for Jeska’s Will, feel free to keep Analysis instead, it’s an okay card, and will still do the job fine. However, it’s not on par with the red rare.
Thousand-Year Storm
I always like having cards that mimic my commander’s effect for the times when I’m unable to cast it for whatever reason. This enchantment does the job just fine, and can be an even better than your commander in some scenarios.
Imagine going something like Consider into Opt into Big Score with Storm in play. It’s going to be extremely fun. At least for you, if not for your opponents.
Replaces: Curse of the Swine
This curse is just too clunky of a board wipe for me to be excited about it. Plus, the deck already plays some better cards that do similar thing, but better.
Quantum Misalignment
There was some talk about looking for effects similar to the commander’s. But what about simply controlling more copies of your commander? You can do so with some help of this fun sorcery. Since it targets, you can really unify Shiko and Narset by having three copies of them at the same time.
Alternative option would be Irenicus Vile Duplication. It costs a mana less, and isn’t a part of Universes Beyond, if that isn’t your jam. However, it loses rebound so there’s some downside to it. Use whichever fits your play style best.
Replaces: Rite of Replication
Both cards serve the same role as being clone effects. However, Rite doesn’t get around the legendary rule, so Misalignment or Duplication are preferred.
Recap
So to quickly recap, here are the 10 cards to replace in Jeskai Striker precon.
Cards to add:
If you’d like to keep any of the cards we recommended to cut, feel free to remove something else. Just don’t go about removing any lands. I’d rather add some than remove them, as not having enough lands in Commander really sucks.
Speaking of lands, let’s do a really quick mana base check.
Mana Base
For a precon, the mana base is really solid. It’s got most of the good budget lands for this color combo. Upgrading thus isn’t extremely important, but you can certainly improve it. If you want to do so, just add some of the potentially untapped lands in Jeskai colors.
Conclusion
That’s all for Jeskai Striker upgrade. I hope you liked the new format, and as always please let me know which great cards I’ve missed in the comments below. There are just so many Magic cards, that there’s always something being overlooked. If you don’t already own a deck, you can purchase one on Amazon.
Until next time, have fun, and win many games with your upgraded Jeskai Striker precon.