If you would like to see this deck in action, be sure to check out my stream twitch.tv/tuesdaytastic at 6 PM MST on August 10th.
In case you can’t tell, one of my favorite cards ever printed is Spell Queller. The reason I love Spell Queller so much is because it is the quintessential tempo card. It stops your opponent from doing relevant things, while also putting down a threat that they now have to deal with. This card defined my playstyle when I first started playing Magic, and still represents what kind of decks I like to play to this day. Typically, the only lists I would put Spell Queller in would be spirit tribal decks, as those decks are the ones most well equipped to protect Spell Queller with the help of Rattlechains and Drogskol Captain.
But after playing with these decks for a long time, I started expanding my deck building consideration to the wider card pool in Modern. Spell Queller is a fine Magic card on its own, and pairing it with other powerful Magic cards could lead to a great deal of success. It wasn’t long until I realized that the tempo that Spell Queller generates is amazing if it could be paired with other powerful tempo cards. It then hit me; Delver of Secrets is one of the best tempo cards ever printed, why not pair it alongside Spell Queller for the ultimate tempo deck.
I set to work, designing a deck that would just speak to who I am. Cards such as Lightning Bolt and Remand were quick additions that proved to be invaluable. Mana Leak, Path to Exile, Lightning Helix, pretty soon the deck was just building itself. All of these powerful Modern staples put together in a deck designed to control the game just long enough to allow for victory. This deck is tempo to me in a way that previous tempo decks simply could not be.
Back in the day, Jeskai Tempo used to be one of the top decks in the format, but it soon got usurped by what we now know as Jeskai Control. Jeskai Tempo didn’t really play like a tempo deck, at least to me. It played a lot of powerful control cards, and also happened to have a fast clock, but some of the cards could only do one half of the Aggro-Control equation. If you drew Geist of Saint Traft when you needed a counterspell you would be in loads of trouble. This version of Jeskai Tempo seeks to cut as many cards that only fit one style of play, and also does it’s best to lower the curve of the deck to the point where we only need to play 19 lands. Jeskai Tempo played 22 lands back in the day, with some of them being tap lands such as Celestial Colonnade. Where they play Snapcaster Mage we play Young Pyromancer. We aren’t looking to build a deck with a good control gameplan. It just simply needs to be good enough to buy us the time we need to secure the victory.
If you are looking for a more aggressive version of Jeskai Control, that lives and breathes tempo, look no further. Jeskai Queller is a fast, exciting deck, with the potential to kill your opponent in a blazingly fast manner while also holding up mana during all of your opponent’s turns. This deck is a great starting point if you are interested in building Jeskai Control as the main shell of the deck is present in this build, even though both decks have a different playstyle. If you would like to see this deck in action, be sure to check out my stream twitch.tv/tuesdaytastic at 6 PM MST on August 10th. Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great week and an amazing Tuesday!
Link to Decklist
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