Hey hey,
Was super cool to see your decklist. I've have a Jabari deck myself, and have been tinkering with it quite a bit lately.
Here are some of my thought about your decklist based on my experience, in case they are useful:
1. In total you have 37 lands, which might be a biiit to high, specially cuz you want to be sending
knights to the graveyard consistently for Jabari to
reanimate. I'm in 35 and have found it to be the sweet spot (:
2. Also, the survey lands have proven super useful for me to get
knights in the graveyard. Not necessarily the dual tapped ones from Murders at Karlov Manor, but there are two untapped colorless ones that work great (
Conduit Pylons and
Gallifrey Council Chamber).
3. You might be a biiiit short on
knights, I think I counted 27 total. I would suggest getting at least 30 of them, so you can consistently be throwing them onto the graveyard. When I had a lower density count I was often whiffing and having nothing to
reanimate with Jabari.
4. On the same note, perhaps you have a couple too many renaimation spells? Given the density of
knights, I'm not sure you'd really make the best out of them, specially since you already have consistent, repeatable reanimation in the command zone with Jabari.
5. Related to point 4, have you
consider ways to give Double Strike to Jabari (beyond
Silverblade Paladin; eg:
Duelist's Heritage, etc.)? That'll make him trigger twice, reanimating two
knights, while at the same time having a more offensive presence. For me that's worked better than adding reanimation spells.
6. I do agree with you that you are short on draw/card advantage. I also only had 3 spells for that initially cuz I was overreliant on Jabari's loot effect, but truly it wasn't enough to keep up, and the only games where I had enough gas was when I was able to draw
Kindred Discovery. I'd suggest adding at least 2~3 more card advantage spells.
7. For Board Wipes, I know you mentioned wanting to stay away from
Kindred Dominance, but I'd strongly suggest that one along with Raise the Paliside (instead of
Cyclonic Rift and
Farewell; which are less 'on theme' and salt inducing). Both of them are extremely strong, and act both as wraths and finishers, as they can clear the board for your army of
knights to freely swing and win the game.
8. This one might be personal preference, but I'd perhaps suggest for your Ramp to swap
Ornithopter of Paradise and
Chromatic Lantern for two of the two-color signets. The first has summoning sicknes and is pray to easy removal, while adding no extra synergies as a flying creature, and the second provides a color-fixing you probably don't need cuz your mana-base is already great, and is a 3 CMC mana rock; and I'd prioritize 2 CMC mana rocks to hit on turn two, so you can cast Jabari on turn 3 (one turn earlier in the curve) and start reanimating sooner.
9. Fully agree with you regarding not playing
Vanquisher's Banner, Herald of the Horn or other typal cards that provide rewards for casting. Reason being: you shouldn't be casting
knights too often, but instead reanimating them (your mana should be used mostly for other stuff), and thus you wouldn't
reap the reward casts too often.
10.
Elenda and Azor have been a FANTASTIC reanimation target that's won me several games, specially if I can
reanimate them early. I know it might seem clunky, but they are really great for both draw, tokens or otherwise sheer flying damage.
Those were a bunch of points, but I hope they are helpful for you in some way. I've really enjoyed playing Jabari so far, it's a great mid-range deck with good power, but without becoming overwhelming. Hope you have fun as well! (:
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