Jennev Dragons

Just wanted to share my pet deck that I've been working on for the last couple sets and was finally able to take to masters in a relatively quick run. If you've ever wished you could beat your opponent's face in with a never ending stream of evasive threats that also generate card advantage, play a four cost Molot & Nakova, or just like dragons, this is the deck for you!

General Gameplay:

This deck is a quintessential high-end mid range deck that relies on Power Stone, Oni Dragonsmith, and Crimson Firemaw to play a string of massive high priority threats relatively early in the game that will keep your opponent on the back foot.


Main Deck Card Inclusions:
Oni Dragonsmith – This is probably one of the weaker cards in the list, but the occasionally insane plays it sets up are well work the slot. Being able to play a Crimson Firemaw and have a 3/2 quickdraw unit on turn three is nuts and occasionally leads to turn 5 or 6 kills against slower decks. It also trades with torch frequently, which means your opponent has less removal for your more valuable units.

Power Stone – Enables the +2/+2 on Curiox, Insatiable Seeker, +1/+1 on the Great Valley Smuggler, and turn 3 Firemaw plays. I’m still not completely happy with the quantity since it is a dead draw late game. 2 might be sufficient.

Display of Instinct – In my opinion this should be an auto include in all Jennev decks. It neatly deals with all sites and threats like Rizahn, Greatbow Master as well as protecting your own units from removal spells.

Great Valley Smuggler – I recently switched from the Howling Peak Smuggler to this one. While I’m a huge fan of the Howling Peak Smuggler , I found that the spell damage bonus just wasn’t relevant enough in this deck to justify sacrificing 2/2 in stats. Losing access to Bore is unfortunate, but Kaleb's Choice does a decent impression and has added flexibility. The other downside is that you can’t stick Xo of the Endless Hoard in the market for later. However, opponents frequently waste Slay or Vanquish to get rid of the 4/4 body.

Curiox, Insatiable Seeker – This card has never really found a home in any of the tier 1 or tier 2 decks due to its tough to meet requirements, high cost, and lack of instant impact when played. However, drawing 3 cards for 0 with Dragon's Eye is really good and a 7/7 flier for 6 is no joke either. The meta is currently less removal heavy on a whole than it has been in the past, so I’ve found that usually my opponent has already used their premium removal on other targets by the time Curiox comes down. I’d say he connected for the infiltrate at least 70% of the times I played him.

Crimson Firemaw - The bread and butter of this deck. Not only is 5 attack in the air very relevant, but the 4 cost discount on costly units like Curiox, Xo, and M&N is game winning in many situations. Always save your card draw spells for after it connects if possible.

Xo of the Endless Hoard – At this point, this card is an auto-include in all higher end fire decks. This deck is no exception. The fact that he is a dragon who also generates spells to activate Curiox, Insatiable Seeker is just icing on the cake.

Molot & Nakova – This card is very solid when paired with multiple evasive units to activate the spark. Hitting M&N with the Firemaw cost reduction often leads to instant concessions.

Removal Package – Torch, Permafrost, Equivocate, Hailstorm and Display of Instinct . Like most Jennev decks, this is much better equipped to remove aggro units then mid-range units. It’s typically best to focus on getting large units on the board before your opponent if you are in a mid-range match-up.

Market:
As mentioned, Kaleb's Choice is the sub in for Bore. It disposes of Martyr’s Chains, Pit of Lenekta, and Xenan Obelisk and has the added benefit of negating Grasping at Shadows and all sweepers.

Infinite Hourglass is a cheap relic to activate the stat buffs on both the smuggler and Curiox. Endurance is actually very relevant against primal decks and can create huge blowouts when your opponent plays Permafrost on units like Curiox.

Howling Peak is still a very solid card after the nerf. There are plenty of excellent targets for Mirror Image, Kaleb's Favor activates the spark on M&N in a pinch, and the spells generated often activate Curiox’s infiltrate.

Thunderstrike Dragon serves as another pair of threats against more removal heavy decks.

I haven’t completely settled on the fifth slot, but Zal Chi, Herald of War is a very solid unit that I would run main deck if I could find the space.

Match-ups:
Ambition (FJS) Midrange – This match-up is pretty favorable depending on how much removal the particular list is running. Most lists aren’t equipped to deal with multiple large flying units. Rizahn, Greatbow Master looks silly up against Curiox and DOI, Vara, Vengeance-Seeker can be dealt with by Torch, Equivocate, and Permafrost, and Xo usually has to block by the time it comes down.

Combrei Ramp/Chains – These matchups are pretty even. The key is to do as much damage as possible early while keeping the board under control and removing their mana dorks. Lists typically don’t run much removal outside of Chains, so getting down a Firemaw early usually results in a win.

AP Ramp/Chains – Similar to the above, but a more favorable match-up. Argenport doesn’t typically ramp as fast as the Combrei variant, so you have a much bigger window in which to finish the game before things get tough.

Skycraggro - Good as long as you find Hailstorm. Skycrag has trouble getting through large endurance units (get Hourglass from the market) and players typically over-extend into Hailstorm since most Jennev lists aren't currently running it.

Praxis Tokens - Generally favorable. Keep the board as clear as possible with Hailstorm and Torch and hold up a DOI if you suspect Rally is coming.

Rakano Aggro - This is a little trickier than other aggro match-ups with all the chargers and aegis units. Here getting on the board as quickly as possible is crucial and saving Equivocate for a Hojan, Crownbreaker with a weapon or Red Canyon Smuggler with Deepforged Plate is very important.

Haunted Highway - Good match up if you find Hailstorm and Torch. HH has a difficult time getting in for damage against large fliers and fast speed removal. Be careful not to leave yourself open to getting killed by a madness’d Xo, and it should be an easy win.

Feln Combo/Reanimator – I only lost about 1 out of 15 games against this deck. They are usually helpless against the fliers and take way too much damage before they get the combo off. If they have a Vara, Fate-Touched and Azindel, Revealed or two in the void and are near turn 5 (particularly if they just played a merchant), hold up DOI or Kaleb's Choice for an easy win.

Stonescar Control/Grenadin – This matchup is very favorable. Multiple board clears in the form of Hailstorm and Molot & Nakova deal with Scraptank and Gearcruncher efficiently and grenadin have always performed poorly into fliers. Make sure the game doesn’t go on too long and watch for madness on Curiox if the infiltrate is active.

Jennev Midrange/Peaks – This is generally a poor match-up because Sandstorm Titan puts a real damper on having mostly flying units and typically their ground units are just bigger. Plus, Heart of the Vault has a nasty habit of drawing/unearthing other HOTV and the card advantage generated can be backbreaking. I encountered very little of this deck in Diamond, but if you are having issues I’d recommend including more copies of Equivocate.