“We wield the fires of rage. War is our blood and destruction our birthright.”
~ Crimson Creed, Crimson Mage
Hi Folks,
When I first heard of the Tiny Leaders format last year, the first Magic card that came to my mind was Jaya Ballard. Now Jaya Ballard is an iconic figure in the lore and history of Magic the Gathering. She first appeared in Ice Age back in 1995 and since then, she has been a favorite contributor to flavor text of some of the most played and memorable Magic cards. But fans, worshippers, and Chandra Nalaar would have to wait for more than 10 years before Jaya got her first Magic card in 2006 (Time Spiral Block).
~ Style with a Sizzle ~
Jaya is a dilemma in Commander. Many a red mage, me included, adore our fiery, mercurial task mage. Her first sin as a Commander is her color identity. Regardless of what red mages say, it is beyond reasonable doubt that red is the weakest in the Magic color pie when it comes to the big, flashy, battlecruiser-style Commander games.
Try casting a turn one lightning bolt at your playmate’s life total and watch him snicker as he reduces his life to 37 (we start with a life total of 40 in Commander). That 3 damage is, mathematically speaking, a mere 7% of a players starting life total. Compare that to a whopping 15% if players started their life at 20 like in the Standard format. The sad truth for red is that burn spells just don’t scale well in Commander when you start with double your life total.
~ Philosophy of Fire ~
Red doesn’t fare any better when it comes to removal as well. Red has limited spot removal after discounting burn spells. Mass removal for red is in the form of damage and doesn’t guarantee that you remove threats from the board (especially creatures with indestructible or protection from red).
But enough of red lets assess the viability of Jaya as a General. First of all, Jaya is small. She isn’t as small as Rhys the Redeemed or Isamaru, Hound of Konda, but her converted mana cost of three for a power/toughness of 2/2 isn’t that impressive either. In terms of abilities, she is proud to be able to do three tricks ie. destroying a blue permanent (for those pesky blue mages), incinerate for 3 damage and going supernova for 6 damage to each creature and player. Simply said, her first two abilities are conditional and her third might be harmful to your own board position. Hence, unlike Nekusar, Prossh, Animar and the lot, you don’t commonly find Jaya as a General among your playgroup.
But all this will change with the dawn of TINY LEADERS.
First of all, Jaya fits the bill of having a converted mana cost of 3. Tiny Leaders is a format that doesn’t allow any spells with converted mana cost above 3. Secondly, burn is finally viable again as tiny leaders is a 1-versus-1 format with a starting life total of 25. Please take note that there is no commander damage in Tiny Leaders. Thirdly, in a format where tiny soldiers and spells are all that is allowed to be played, the mana requirements are very different than in Commander. Once you have 3-5 lands, I would really be happy to start discarding lands to activate Jaya Ballard and start incinerating my enemy’s life total. In Jaya’s own words, “I think ‘toast’ is an appropriate description”.
So without further ado, please see the deck that I have cooked up for Jaya below:
| Creatures – 16 | Artifacts |
| Jaya Ballard, Task Mage *Commander* | |
| Ash Zealot | Enchantments -3 |
| Ashling the Pilgrim | Barrage of Expendables |
| Chandra’s Phoenix | Seal of Fire |
| Crimson Mage | Sulfuric Vortex |
| Firedrinker Satyr | |
| Foundry Street Denizen | Instants – 8 |
| Frenzied Goblin | Incinerate |
| Intimidator Initiate | Lightning Bolt |
| Jackal Pup | Lightning Strike |
| Keldon Marauders | Magma Jet |
| Legion Loyalist | Searing Blaze |
| Magus of the Scroll | Searing Blood |
| Mogg Fanatic | Sudden Shock |
| Scorched Rusalka | Skullcrack |
| Viashino Sandstalker | |
| Sorceries – 7 | |
| Land – 16 | Faithless Looting |
| Mountains (12) | Firebolt |
| Barbarian Ring | Pillar of Flame |
| Forgotten Cave | Pyroclasm |
| Keldon Megaliths | Slagstorm |
| Smoldering Spires | Tormenting Voice |
| Wild Guess | |
| Other Spells | |
Interesting Interactions
Unfortunately, no combos for Jaya.
For those of you who play magic often and long enough, you will recognize the deck to be ‘red sligh’ or ‘red deck wins’. If you play Commander, you will also know that a traditional monored sligh deck isn’t viable in a multiplayer commander format where your burn spells have one target but your opponents are many.
If you see the list, you will notice that there are 9 creatures that cost 1 mana to cast, 4 creatures that cost 2 mana to cast and 3 creatures (including Jaya) that cost 3 mana to cast. That brings the creature count to 16. The rest of the deck is made up of burn and 3 draw spells to filter out unwanted lands. The deck design and strategy is highly linear – go in with tiny creatures for initial combat damage and BURN BURN BURN.
The best creatures in the deck are staples from monored decks in the past. I don’t play Legacy and thanks to Tiny Leaders, I can finally remove my Jackal Pup and Mogg Fanatic from my binder for the first time in 10 years!
Strengths and Weaknesses
I managed to play my first game of Tiny Leaders last week. I was, of course, thrilled to be able to test Jaya in a singleton format. The other two opposing decks, Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death, were of my own design that I will feature here on this site in the next few days.
The deck was quite good at going against Shu Yun. Cards like Jackal Pup and Firedrinker Satyr went into an undefended open zone to deal initial combat damage. Following close behind were creatures with haste that kept up the pressure up until I drew into sufficient burn spells to fling at my opponents life total.
The deck fared noticeably worse against Alesha. Without consistently hurling burn spells at Alesha’s face when she entered the battlefield the deck would be quickly overwhelmed by the hordes of little soldiers that Alesha was able to bring back – tapped and attacking… In a way, it was like the horro of having to fight undead hordes of reanimating zombies.
The trick to playing the deck, I must add, is in the tempo. Just a word of caution. Like most monored decks, this one goes belly up when it runs out of steam. But that is what Jaya is there for ie. to turn lands that you draw in the late game into incinerates. A fine addition to the deck would be Eidolon of the Great Revel. Overall, it is a great and fun deck to play!
Please feel free to share your Jaya Ballard deck designs ideas.
Best Regards,
For Vorthos and Vulcans
Jaya Ballard Flavor Text
Browse – “Once great literature—now great litter.”
Burnout – “GOTCHA!”
Chicken Egg – “That’s a lotta nuggets.”
Flare – “I strive for elegance and speed in my work.”
Gorilla Chieftain – “Oh, no—not you again?”
Gorilla Shaman – “Frankly, destruction is best left to professionals.”
Gorilla War Cry – “The only ‘art’ these beasts possess is the art of noise”
Incinerate – “Yes, I think ‘toast’ is an appropriate description.”
Inferno – “Some have said there is no subtlety to destruction. You know what? They’re dead.”
Lava Burst – “Overkill? This isn’t a game of Kick-the-Ouphe!”
Melting – “Who needs the sun when you’ve got me around?”
Meteor Shower – “Eenie, meenie, minie, moe . . . oh, why not all of them?”
Mystic Compass – “And I say north is where I want it to be”
Panic – “If you’d been there, you would’ve run from that deer, too!”
Pyroclasm – “Leaves more room for the big ones to fight in, you know.”
Pyrokinesis – “Anybody want some . . . toast?”
Simian Spirit Guide – “All my spells smell like burnt hair lately.”
Sizzle – “Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire.”
Wall of Lava – “Now there’s something you don’t see every day.”
Word of Blasting – “Walls? What walls?”
History to Parody
So who does Jaya Ballard remind you of in history? The lady below has the fiery temper of Jaya and the habit of reducing enemies to…toast…
~ Margaret Thatcher ~
Known better these days as the ‘Iron Lady’, Margaret Thatcher was the sharp, sarcastic, and uncompromising Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. She introduced and implemented policies that are now known as Thatcherism. These policies include privatizations of state own companies and flexible labor markets. When faced with opposition, she is known to give no ground and bulldoze ahead to get her way.
Below are some of her better know quotes:
‘Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.’
‘If you lead a country like Britain, a strong country, a country which has taken a lead in world affairs in good times and in bad, a country that is always reliable, then you have to have a touch of iron about you.’
‘I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air.’
‘If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.’
‘Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.’
‘I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.’
‘If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.’
The Road Ahead
Please visit this site again when we preview Tiny Leaders for Shu Yun and Alesha!
The Commander Chronicles 