Jeskai (deck 3b in series) (Frontier)

Continuing the 3 color classic good stuff midrange series. I'm building decks in each color in the typical good stuff fashion. This is the third color pairing in the series. For Jeskai the challenge is not having it become a pure control deck. (I called this one 3b because it became a tempo deck rather than a midrange good stuff build.)

(1) For Jeskai good stuff I'm looking at starting by including the best threat at 3, 4, and 5cmc.

(a) Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. 4 copies. Very flexible card to either stall or for being aggressive. A serious threat if the opponent does not have an answer ready.

(b) Glorybringer. 4 copies. Great attacker that doubles as removal. Great finisher and never a bad top deck.

(c) Mantis Rider. 4 copies. Hard to cast, but totally worth it. Great offense and defense.

This sets up an amazing turn sequence of Mantis Rider into Gideon (make token, then attack) into Gloybringer, which likely means you are winning that game.

(2) Now that the midgame ideal curve is set up I feel I need to address the 2cmc creature slot. Since the midgame is so aggressive i am going to stick with that moving forward.

(a) Honored Crop Captain. 4 copies. Dropping this on turn two makes every other turn a little nastier. A 3 power for 2cmc is strong in an aggressive deck, but fueling the rest of the curve with one extra power is explosive.

(b) Selfless Spirit. 2 copies. Protect the bombs that come afterwards.

(3) Time to look at some one drops. An aggressive deck needs to start right from turn 1.

(a) Kytheon, Hero of Akros. 1 copy. Decent chance it will flip.

(b) Legion's Landing. 4 copies. A 1/1 lifelinker is nothing special, but getting a creature and some bonus ramp to cut a land is a strength. Better than a generic 2/1 creature.

(4) Going to look at some utility cards next, before filling out the curve.

(a) Chart a Course. 2 copies. Card draw, check. Keeping two for 2cmc is value.

(b) Stoke the Flames. 2 copies. Can essentially be free burn or removal.

(c) Valorous Stance. 1 copy. Protection and decent removal.

(d) Declaration in Stone. 1 copy. Exile and possible 2 for 1.

(e) Abrade. 2 copies. Creature and artifact removal.

(5) 5 main deck slots remaining. Looking at splitting them between two and three cmc creatures.

(a) Earthshaker Khenra. 3 copies. The deck does not have any recursion so its nice to have something that can be played out of the graveyard. I considered Harsh Mentor, however HM is not as good late game.

(b) Reflector Mage. 2 copies. One of the best creatures in the format. I'd actually like for this to be a full 4, but i think it throws off the curve to have 8 3cmc creatures.

(6) The mana base is far from perfect for this one. It is much easier if your two dominant colors are allied when making a mana base for frontier.

(a) Fetch lands- not as great as usual, but grab all three colors.
Windswept Heath. 4 copies. Most important since it can get you white untapped turn one.
Polluted Delta. 4 copies. Gets you all three colors, but only blue untapped.

(b) Battle lands
Prairie Stream. 3 copies.
Smoldering Marsh. 1 copy.
Cinder Glade. 1 copy.

(c) Basics
Moutain. 2 copies.
Plains. 2 copies.
Island. 1 copy.

(d) Deserts
Ramunap Ruins. 2 copy. Bonus game ender.
Shefet Dunes. 2 copy. Free anthem late.

(e) Last two lands.
Needle Spires. 2 copies. Extra attacker

(7) The last step is to build a sideboard. The main concern is to take care of the major threats in the format: Saheeli-Cat combo, Aetherworks Marvel, graveyard manipulation, planeswalkers, Scarab God/Hazoret, Collected Company, Emrakul, and Aggro as a whole.

(a) Disdainful Stroke. 4 sideboard. Answers just about every major threat in the format. We are an aggressive deck, so we are not going to play a reactive card in the main but after sideboarding DS is our best option.

(b) Sorcerous Spyglass. 2 sideboard. Shuts off so many of the threats in the format, especially the biggest ones. Lets us have a free peek to see what is going on as well, even if just to see what our own path is.

(c) Authority of the Consuls. 2 sideboard. Turns off cat-combo and makes life much harder on aggro. We are already swinging bigger than aggro, gaining a life and having their creatures enter tapped wrecks haste creatures and crewing vehicles.

(d) Reflector Mage. 2 sideboard. Instead of playing a board wipe in the side, I'll play the extra two RM. He is enough of a tempo swing against aggro that they are not beating us afterwards.

(e) Spell pierce. 2 sideboard. Double purpose card: protects us from mass removal and also slows down decks wanting to play important combo/tempo pieces (CoCo, Marvel, Refurbish,...)

(f) Tormod's Crypt. 2 sideboard. I like being able to hold down graveyards against reanimator and delve. I'm going Crypt, over the other options, because I do not want casting it to interfere with curving out as well as possible.

(g) Cast Out. 1 sideboard. Panic button at instant speed.

Final Thoughts
(A) I'm a bit biased towards this type of deck. It started as a good stuff deck, but changed course into a tempo deck pretty quickly. I'm a tempo player myself, so it feels like I cheated with this one.