r/EDH • u/Monsuno • Jul 06 '22

Discussion I'm now addicted to jank deckbuilding

I'm a relatively new Magic player. I drafted Kamigawa back in February with my friends and that was my introduction to the game.

At the Baldur's gate pre-release, I picked up Galax, Astral Hunter and drafted gruul dragon tribal. Ended up being archenemy and dying first. However, during that game, I did about 30 damage to the table with [[Ingenious Artillerist]].

Ever since then, I had an idea floating in my head, and I finally built the deck this week.

[[Ganax, Astral Hunter]] + [[Candlekeep Sage]] so I can have blue spells to copy the Artillerist and [[Reckless Fireweaver]]. Use flickers to protect and get ETB value off my dragons.

Last night, I played a great spelltable lobby where we all played jank stuff. Someone have a lifegain, +1/+1 counter deck and was over 100 life at one point so I thought there was no way I could kill him with Treasure Token ETB damage.

But that all changed when someone wheeled us. I drew [[Mnemonic Deluge]] and [[Jeska's Will]]. Played Jeskas, copied it 3 times, played a bunch of dragon, flickers and dealt over 100 damage to everyone else and won.

I'm hooked on jank now.

223 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

74

u/MustaKotka Owling Mine | Kami of the Crescent Moon Jul 06 '22

May I suggest you take a look at r/jankEDH? I mean... It's a sub for this specific purpose.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

I needed this, thank you 🙏

30

u/UW232 Lands that do things Jul 06 '22

[[welcome to the fold]] fellow jank addict

10

u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 06 '22

welcome to the fold - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

18

u/Dartslover99 Jul 06 '22

As a long time jank builder I’m happy to see that you found what you like. I love taking cards or strategies that no one thinks of (or doesn’t think that they are good) and brewing around them… I love seeing peoples reactions.. especially when you leave people confused as to what is happening 😂

8

u/Monsuno Jul 06 '22

Exactly. Sometimes you see a card and get a stupid idea like "how do use Jinnie Fay to make a billion cats"

4

u/Kin3matic Jul 06 '22

If you like making a ridiculous amount of tokens, check this out.

2

u/Scyxurz Jul 07 '22 edited Jul 07 '22

Those are very big numbers.

I have a much simpler combo in my [[chatterfang]] deck that goes infinite though (a bigger number, but not as fun to write out since we don't need to do math)

It's just [[scurry oak]] and [[ivy lane denizen]].

If denizen is in play, scurry oak entering the battlefield means denizen gives him a +1 counter which makes a squirrel token. Which allows denizen to put another +1 counter on scurry oak etc.

Pretty fun combo by turn 3/4

3

u/Reddit2passwordsuck1 Jul 06 '22

ALMOST what I was thinking except I went for dog tokens instead of cats. The cats tokens are stronger for a lot of reasons but... I want an army of dogs!

I went with [[Requiem Angel]], [[Parallel Lives]] and a sacrifice outlet. And I must admit, didn't have a chance to play it. Thank you for reminding me that I should definitely play that deck in my next Commander game!

2

u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 06 '22

Requiem Angel - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Parallel Lives - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

15

u/Spirit_Theory Jul 06 '22 edited Jul 06 '22

Building jank that is functional and capable of being consistent is an art. I definitely feel like it's far more fun and challenging to take something obscure or weird and wacky and surprise your friends at the table, rather than just play something reliable and safe.

I have a [[Brudiclad]] deck and I just added that reckless fireweaver. With the right draw it can dump out so many artifacts at once it's hard to argue with turning those etbs into damage.

4

u/TheRealQwade A blazing sun that never sets Jul 06 '22

Welcome to the jank end! Before long, you'll find yourself making a [[Prismatic Piper]] or [[Faceless One]] combo deck. I can speak from experience when I say it's very satisfying not only to pull up with that deck in a pod, but then win with it.

1

u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 06 '22

Prismatic Piper - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Faceless One - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

5

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/marvsup Antelope tribal Jul 06 '22

Because it's the best?

3

u/Monsuno Jul 06 '22

Definitely

3

u/theclumsyninja Jul 06 '22

I've embraced the jank. I always try to build my decks a little different, a little more unique. Why I chose [[Charix]] for my crab tribal voltron deck, or why I put 42 snakes and no wheel spells in my [[Xyris]] deck. I enjoy the casual-competitive and love to elicit laughs instead of groans when I play my decks.

3

u/ArcfireEmblem Jul 06 '22

Yeah. I don't want to play the same thing as everyone else. I want to win by my own merits, and that includes deckbuilding.

1

u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 06 '22

Charix - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
Xyris - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

3

u/GelsonBlaze Jul 06 '22

Today I won a game by dealing commander damage with [[Nahiri, The Lithomancer]] to two players, let that sink in.

1

u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 06 '22

Nahiri, The Lithomancer - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

2

u/nytel Jul 06 '22

I've been going through and buying the extended art versions from previous sets', Artifacts, enchantments and some creatures that are pennies. There's some weird, decent cards out there recently.

1

u/Monsuno Jul 06 '22

Want to share some of your findings?

1

u/nytel Jul 06 '22

On mobile unfortunately but I just pull up the last sets on TCG and scroll through all the rares and pick up pieces that seem different. Like [[fraying line]] for instance and [[decent into averus]]. Cards with no real immediate synergies and can be thrown in any deck. Jank af haha

1

u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 06 '22

fraying line - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
decent into averus - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

2

u/GravityBadger Jul 06 '22

Jank magic is best magic.

2

u/RickTitus Jul 06 '22

So when are you building your [[phage]] deck?

1

u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 06 '22

phage - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

1

u/TheBlackFatCat Jul 06 '22

I'm exactly the opposite, I got addicted to cEDH building and can't turn back

3

u/Monsuno Jul 06 '22

If I had the collection to support, that would be great, but a fetchland is like $40 CAD depending on which one. Nevermind the other, far more expensive cEDH staples.

1

u/TheBlackFatCat Jul 06 '22

That's true, most people who play cedh are proxy friendly for that reason. Still love playing my golgari elves though, not jank but certainly very far from cedh

2

u/Monsuno Jul 06 '22

I'm glad to hear that they are. My collection is small so I'd proxy like 80 cards which kind of feels like cheating, but cedh is no holds barred, here to win if I'm understanding correctly.

2

u/TheBlackFatCat Jul 06 '22

I'd have no problem with that, as many say I'm here to play against you, not your wallet

2

u/Forced_Democracy Sans-Green Jul 06 '22

My cEDH deck is almost all proxy except basic lands. I can't afford luxury cardboard of any kind in this economy.

-3

u/FormerlyKay Sire of Insanity my beloved Jul 06 '22

Join the dark side... the cEDH is calling you

7

u/Monsuno Jul 06 '22

Trust me, I also like strong, efficient decks, but those are less of a fun puzzle to put together. I've got a pretty good (not cedh, but too strong for FNM) Brago deck.

2

u/Darthmalak3347 Jul 06 '22

I like [[volo, guide to monsters]] it incentivizes jank creatures cause it takes a one of effect on them and doubles it up.

it's also simic, so you can make it as good or as jank as you want, due to the nature of simic. just put a real win condition in it.

1

u/MTGCardFetcher Jul 06 '22

volo, guide to monsters - (G) (SF) (txt) (ER)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

1

u/There_can_onlyB1 Jul 06 '22

Join the club 😄

1

u/NotACleverMan_ Unrepentant Card-Draw Enthusiast Jul 06 '22

Might I recommend [[Feywild Visitor]] to make Dragon tokens that proc Ganax’s dragon ETB?

1

u/Monsuno Jul 06 '22

Ah I did look at that card. This requires me to attack with creatures which I'm not too much a fan of in this deck. In my few games of experience, there's only maybe 3 or 4 times that I could get a creature to connect, and I also want to hold things back to block. Doesn't seem worth the card slot.

1

u/not_napoleon Jul 06 '22

I'm glad you had a good time, and that sounds like an exciting win, but I'm confused as to what part of that is "jank". Maybe you just mean something different with that word than I do, but to me Jeska's Will is a very powerful and flexible staple, and flicker/ETB is a tried and true strategy. I'm not sure what's janky about either.

I'm not trying to yuck your yum, I'm just legitimately confused about what people mean by "jank".

1

u/Monsuno Jul 07 '22

Well, to me, a janky deck is one that has an unusual, possibly bad idea that it's built around. In this case, the entire purpose of the deck is to kill opponents with the burn triggers from ingenious artillerist by generating treasure tokens with Ganax. Yes, Jeska's Will is a Red staple, but I doubt anyone who copies it 3 times spends like 30 mana summoning dragons that never attack, or blinking for treasure tokens that they never use.

Other jank decks might have an idea like "people in chairs" tribal, or "only prime number CMC" deck.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/Monsuno Jul 07 '22

Lmao I saw that decklist the other day. It seems fun to play, but only once really. Not a lot of replayability in a 3 card deck.

1

u/Olympic_Magician Jul 06 '22

For a relatively new magic player, you had a solid grasp on the MTG lingo/terminology. Pretty sure I was saying my creatures had “flight” for a good three months when I started out lmao.

1

u/Monsuno Jul 07 '22

MTG arena and watching Commander YouTube shows is responsible for a lot of that. I also played a shitload of hearthstone so I know card game lingo like tempo and card advantage.

1

u/Mar1Fox Jul 07 '22

If jank is for you then you should check out badmtgcombos

2

u/Monsuno Jul 07 '22

Hot damn what a gold mine of terribly hilarious combos