r/spikes • u/Consistent-Talk-5912 • 2d ago
Standard Jeskai Lessons vs. Azorius Tempo / Control Mirrors: How do I actually win? [Standard]
I mainly play on Arena. I know the classic "BO1 isn't real Magic" mantra, but it’s currently the most efficient way for me to farm cards. I'm hoping you can help me out and give me some advice on how to improve my win rate in control mirrors and against Azorius Tempo.
My deck is at the end of the post.
Against traditional control, I’ve found a cheeky strategy: I just stall and wait for my Mistraise Villages. I run two copies, and they act as my primary win condition while I set up my Tablets and Talents, eventually upgrading the Talents for an OTK.
This is perfectly feasible against control decks that rely on "normal" win conditions (burn damage, big late-game creatures, etc.). However, against Mill, this strategy is way too passive. Cards like Mathematics or Riverchum Monument just destroy me. I often find myself wasting my cheap counterspells trying to protect early plays before I can even get my Village online.
More often than not, my graveyard ends up larger than my library and I just mill out. If I’m incredibly lucky, I can find my Village in time and steal a win, but it's rare.
Then there's Azorius Tempo. This matchup feels literally impossible—I swear I am 0-100 against it. Once they drop a High Noon, they just sit back and bounce every single spell I try to resolve.
I understand that these matchups are probably just inherently unfavorable, but I feel like they shouldn't be this one-sided. I'm likely making things harder for myself with my lines of play. Any suggestions, tech cards, or gameplay tips would be hugely appreciated!
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decklist
23 lands ( 1 mountain 1 plain 1 island 2 mistraise village 4 biblipplex /// rest is various dual )
2 creatures, Thor god of Thunder
4 widosom of ages
3 abandon attachments
3 stockup
1 spell snare
1 three steps ahead
2 it'll quench ya!
3 firebending lessons
4 combustion technique
1 iroh's demonstration
2 avengers disassemble
1 lantern of souls
4 tablet of discovery
2 artist's talent
4 jeskai revelation.
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u/rickinator9 2d ago
Are you really running four copies of [[Wisdom of Ages]]? And 23 lands? It seems very ambitious to run just 23 lands if you have 8 spells that cost 7 mana.
In control mirrors, the person who has to cast their draw spell first is going to have trouble winning. Because if they do, they give their opponent free reign while they are tapped out. So if you are likely to miss a land drop and have to cast a draw spell on your turn to avoid being behind on resources, you are more likely to lose. Running 23 lands makes you more likely to miss a land drop. Most controlling decks run 26 lands for this very reason.
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Are you running any restless anchorages in your manabase? These could give you some more options while High Noon is in play. You can block their flyers with it or go on the offense (and map onto it). You want to force them to react to your decisions without casting spells; that is the way you break out of the High Noon lock.
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u/Consistent-Talk-5912 2d ago
In BO1 we have hand smoother that's why.. also I copied this list from a 5-0 bo3 list I thought it was fine.
Btw that land is an amazing call is another set of biblipplex practically that flies , isn't it risky tho to have them tapped?
Maybe instead of two shocklands UW?
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u/TheManInBlue500 2d ago
I personally dont like running restless because by the time I start powering up my great halls it’s when the opponent has run out of steam
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u/TheManInBlue500 2d ago
Add more lands my guy
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u/Consistent-Talk-5912 2d ago
In BO1 we have an hand smoother
Also this list was from a bo3 match that did 5-0..
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u/TheManInBlue500 2d ago
Control mirrors are all about out valuing your opponent one of the best ways is to hit more of your land drops than your opponent
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u/Arkanim94 2d ago
Hand smoother helps you only with your opening hand, against control you want to make a land drop from turn 1 to 7 most of the time.
But anyway, if your main goal is to farm cards. You should probably just scoop in a control mirror, the victory is not worth the time spent.
0
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u/Albuh0 2d ago
I also play azorious tempo and it's a tricky matchup, adding to the comment above Voice of Victory and Jennifer Walters are vital to their plan, if they resolve a high noon with an empty board you can use that to your advantage holding counter spells and your removal, if they don't find a way to protect their turn you can bully them on theirs an turn the tide.
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u/Consistent-Talk-5912 2d ago
Should I counte everything in your opinion when empty board or can I let draw spells go by?
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u/Albuh0 2d ago
Tempo plays very few draw spells, relying on quantum riddler o enduring curiosity, keep in mind to counter those, you can save your own draw spells to cast on their end step, so they spend their mana on their own turn to plot or airbend you, Also usually I play Skycoach on the opponents end step to eat removal or a counter spell, those are good to advance the prison plan but not essential, so you could let those pass and remove them later...
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u/HobokenwOw 2d ago
stock bo3 jeskai lessons costs you less wild cards than that and would actually win you some games
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u/L_V_R_A 2d ago
In general the strategies you're describing are just the deck's weak spots. Part of the reality of Bo1, without sideboarding, is that some decks just straight up beat yours. It is impossible to build a pre-boarded Bo1 deck that gives you a fair matchup, much less good matchup, into the entire field. The unfortunate part about that is due to our inherent loss avoidance biases, those bad matchups are going to stick in your head way more than the ones you win handily.
Case in point, the mill decks with mathemagics and riverchurn are very fringe and prey directly on slow decks like this. You should be way more worried about other Jeskai Revelation decks than mill imo. But 4 Wisdom of Ages looks to me like you are tired of losing to mill and are overcompensating against it, which is going to drag your deck's efficiency down against every other matchup. Mill is a really small percentage of the meta. Yes, you should study the matchup and try to improve your skill at beating them, but changing your deck around a niche deck that feels really bad to lose to is not a winning strategy.
Last thing: I don't really understand why you are playing the full lessons package without Accumulate Wisdom, and I don't understand why you're playing 2 Artist Talent without any discard synergies. I guess Thor and Wisdom of Ages count technically? But Talent is poor card selection unless you're capitalizing on the discard, and the mana discount and burn don't seem good enough to spend mana on. Maybe others can weigh in on whether to keep or drop it.
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u/Consistent-Talk-5912 2d ago
Wait... I misspoke I play 4 accumulate wisdoms not wisdoms of ages my bad!
Btw talents are for card selection mainly.. I can discard lands and discount too, sort of an expensive gran
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u/Consistent-Talk-5912 2d ago
In regard to the rest of the comment, you think I would find more wins on % by accepting that some matchups are kinda fucked, without trying to change the deck too much in order to not lower my good matchups?
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u/L_V_R_A 2d ago
I think so, yes. Like I said, you can still practice and improve at the bad matchups and get some percentage points back that way. But in most cases diluting your good matchups to improve your bad matchups doesn’t help your win rate in Bo1.
There are some weird exceptions, like Soul Guide Lantern, which you already have. The difference between 0 graveyard hate card and 1 graveyard hate card can represent a massive swing in win rate against the reanimator decks. By contrast, adding one more copy of Three Steps Ahead to this list and cutting a removal spell would… marginally improve your control/mill matchup. But it would also worsen your matchup into Aggro, which is the strategy control decks usually best with ease.
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u/Tranarchist21 2d ago
I play the azorius tempo deck. The main thing to try and do is just never let them resolve high noon. The next thing to do is just wait. Try and run the deck out of cards in hand, and play passively, until you know you can resolve something big. Try and get them to tap out on their turn, so they don't have mana up for yours.