As it should be. It's impressive to break into a format as large as Modern, filled with such powerful decks. As one of two cards from Guilds of Ravnica to make the leap, it's important to understand why.

The other card, Assassin's Trophy, made the leap into Modern because it makes the Modern decks that use the card - Jund, Abzan, and Midrange - function more like Legacy decks, with more ability to answer a wide swath of cards with just a single card, opening up their options for more specific answers. The cost - that Path to Exile-like loss of card advantage - often doesn't matter when those decks are going to do something potent on the board, typically attacking with something large while nullifying the rest of the board. But, slowly.

Arclight Phoenix, on the other hand, is the kind of rare and powerful graveyard effect that we typically see come out of Black and Green. Faithless Looting, already a powerful card, gets more fuel for the engine, especially with how cheaply it could drop a Phoenix or two into play. Vengevine has always been a powerful card, but it required a bit more help to make work; Arclight Phoenix working with a Faithless Looting generally just requires more of the same. A Manamorphose into a Faithless Looting only requires another card you'd probably already want to play to make the machine hum.

Quickly, we get to the Bedlam Reveler decks and the Burning Inquiry decks, with some odd builds even becoming quasi-Storm decks, adding Desperate Ritual to the mix.

But still, all of these decks fueled by Guilds of Ravnica largely do the same thing: they attack.

Now, this could mean that now is a great time for a card like Ensnaring Bridge, but this is actually not fully true. Jund and Jund-like decks have always been good at tearing apart Ensnaring Bridge strategies.

On the other hand, it is a very good time to be a Terminus deck.

Enter Jeskai Control.

Now, you could certainly be a pure Control deck, but I've come to really appreciate the power of a lot of removal spells that are active; sitting on your Condemn for even a turn versus a Dark Confidant feels awful, and there are plenty of other common situations where that Lightning Bolt feels great. One of the added benefits of Red, too, is the chip damage you get in over the course of a slow slog, where you can turn the corner versus an opposing controlling deck and just win.

Versus the Arclight Phoenix

The answers that don't put Phoenixes in the graveyard are impressive and Terminus is the all-star. Faithless Looting decks tend to run out of resources quickly, so taking out a swathe of payoffs all at once is huge. Besides that, cards like Path to Exile, Detention Sphere, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria can all take a creature out of play but not place it in the graveyard - an important consideration when dealing with a graveyard strategy.

The support cards are often just largely 'glue' of sorts; Opt and Search for Azcanta keep the deck humming, while the countermagic and removal both serve as a means to stop the important play. Lightning Bolt is not huge versus Arclight Phoenix, but it can serve as a kind of speed bump. Lightning Helix is, in some ways, better, as the life gain can shut off the avenues provided by opposing Lightning Bolts and Fiery Tempers.

There is a certain fragility to a plan that will often require a Manamorphose or Desperate Ritual to get a true payoff. While counterspells aren't great against a Phoenix by itself, they are good against the engine cards, buying you time to draw Terminus and Path to Exile.

Angels from the sideboard can also be an issue. Lyra Dawnbringer and Baneslayer Angel are huge problems for an Arclight Phoenix deck. Lightning Axe is a rare card to see, and other than that, Thing in the Ice or multiple burn spells are the only real answer. This is doable, but it also requires making that work through the resistance of a deck that has every reason to board in Dispel, which also helps fight the engine.

Other board cards, like Celestial Purge, Rest in Peace, and Damping Sphere - should you choose to run them - are powerfully effective against the Phoenix decks. Just getting to that point where a Planeswalker stands alone, or an you have an active Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin indicates the beginning of the end.

Jeskai has the tools for this fight.

Versus the Assassin's Trophy

Games can quickly get out of control, with Jund's discard tearing apart the Jeskai player's hand while a Tarmogoyf (or friends) end the game, or a Liliana/Raging Ravine getting out of control. If that doesn't occur, the Jeskai deck nullifies everything else. It gets to a point where Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin or a random powerful Planeswalker pull you ahead, aided by Cryptic Command or Snapcaster Mage (or heaven forbid something like Secure the Wastes or a large Sphinx's Revelation) and putting the game out of reach. If the Jund player answers something with Assassin's Trophy, unless they are getting close to killing you, they are entering into a devil's bargain by playing outside their role.

Helping the Jeskai deck make their long-game is a bad plan. A Jund or Jund-like deck only really has Raging Ravine as a payoff for lots of mana. Conversely, Jeskai can start doing things like casting Cryptic Command and something else. A Terminus during the draw step for only one mana, followed up by a Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Teferi, Hero of Dominaria with counterspell back up can spell doom for your opponent. Assassin's Trophy positions the deck in more of a controlling role for most matchups, but it just can't compete with Jeskai or Control decks in the long game. Jund needs to stay aggressive with Bloodbraid Elf and Tireless Tracker, if they want to stand a chance.

An "out-of-control Liliana" is nicely handled by those sideboard Celestial Purgees and Engineered Explosives - which both fill multiple roles. The best aggressive draws can be stopped by a discard spell, but they can't stop the top of the deck from providing a solution.

Versus the Others in this New World

Jund and its friends aren't currently a huge part of the metagame, but they are having an effect by slightly suppressing the most powerful linear strategies. Happily enough for Jeskai and , these strategies were some of the more difficult to beat.

The addition of the Arclight Phoenix decks to the milieu of powerful graveyard strategies is having a much more pronounced effect. More and more, these decks are taking up space in the metagame, and pushing decks toward more proactive responses to the graveyard/the stack or making powerful game-ending plays. Three of the Top 4 decks in the recent Modern Open in Charlotte featured four Primeval Titans. If you can fight through the Pact of Negation/Cavern of Souls, this puts you in a good positionto be a Cryptic Command deck.

In general, Jeskai Control features a ton of solidly powerful cards, good in their own right. When you have both power and synergy, you're well set-up to face down nearly any opponent.

The Deck

Here is my current take on Jeskai Control:

Jeskai Control | Modern | Adrian Sullivan

• Creatures (4)
• 1 Vendilion Clique
• 3 Snapcaster Mage

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 2 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

• Instants (20)
• 1 Negate
• 2 Logic Knot
• 3 Cryptic Command
• 3 Lightning Bolt
• 3 Lightning Helix
• 4 Opt
• 4 Path to Exile

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Terminus

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Detention Sphere
• 2 Search for Azcanta

• Lands (25)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Plains
• 3 Island
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 2 Field of Ruin
• 2 Hallowed Fountain
• 2 Steam Vents
• 3 Celestial Colonnade
• 4 Flooded Strand
• 4 Scalding Tarn

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Celestial Purge
• 2 Stony Silence
• 1 Baneslayer Angel
• 1 Lyra Dawnbringer
• 1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1 Settle the Wreckage
• 1 Wear // Tear
• 2 Dispel
• 1 Vendilion Clique
• 2 Damping Sphere
• 1 Engineered Explosives

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In many ways this deck looks fairly typical. Here are some explanations for things that are slightly out of the norm:

1 Detention Sphere/0 Electrolyze: this card has been a great catch-all. Even if it is vulnerable to destruction from an Assassin's Trophy or Abrupt Decay, the other targets for those cards are so much higher in value that running this card is worth the risk, especially with the payoff of taking out multiple creatures or a Planeswalker. I'm playing this card over Electrolyze, a card which I mostly despise for its inefficiency. While there have absolutely been times I've used an Electrolyze to powerful effect, it seems that the only time I'm really getting something impressive out of it is when I'm facing down a Noble Hierarch deck. In those matchups, I appreciate the payoff, but far too often, I'm spending three mana to cycle.

0 Rest in Peace/1 Settle the Wreckage: Most of the cards I care about from graveyard decks are creatures. There are exceptions (I'm looking at you, Life from the Loam), but I've been currently eschewing Rest in Peace from my decks, mostly because of how much I'm leaning on Search for Azcanta and Snapcaster Mage in many of these matchups. I do find myself wanting an 'extra' Terminus there, which is where Settle the Wreckage comes in - as it does versus numerous swarming strategies. I'd rather maintain the power of my own graveyard, though I am somewhat open to other cards like Tormod's Crypt.

2 Damping Sphere in the board: More and more I'm just coming to love Damping Sphere. Some of the hardest games can always be against the decks that are making such large mana plays. The fact that the card can be used against Tron and Storm and Arclight Phoenix and even Amulet Titan is a huge deal, not to mention other surprises where you find yourself bringing it in against Sram or other oddballs.

1 Engineered Explosives in the board: This card is just such a great catch-all. I've used it to take down so many random cards, from Blood Moon to swarms of Humans, from Liliana of the Veil to Amulet of Vigor, and more. There are times that I think about this card entering the main, but I really love the access to it from the board as a strange extra-sweeper/Disenchant-effect.

In Modern right now, this deck joins Blue Moon and Lantern Prison as one of my current favorites. I hope you have the successes with it that I've had!

- Adrian Sullivan

Follow me on Twitter! @AdrianLSullivan