Well, another Magic expansion will soon be upon us! We don't have much hard info on the set or the block, so we're here to talk about what might happen. We know one thing for sure: Tarkir is a world dominated by five Clans. In this series, we will give our thoughts on each one.
Ash: Next is the Jeskai Way, a clan comprised of blue, white and red. They are a clan of mystical martial artists who live in the remote mountains. I really doubt they will be directly involved in any major conflict in the story. They seem like they would be neutral, and probably have an isolationist philosophy.
Chris: This color combination is one of the more odd combinations you can imagine. Being centered around blue with a monk theme, they are motivated by self perfection, the red manifests itself in the type of freedom and wanderlust that joining a remote monastery would require and what at first seems like a direct conflict with the freedom of red, white is the discipline of the combination but not as a society like in Azban but of the self..
This is one of the few clans where we already know their keyword ability: Prowess. Creatures with this ability are martial arts masters, who get buffed for every non-creature spell you play.
This is a big deal mechanic. I doubt we will see a "Prowess deck," but went printed on a pushed creature we will see a creature that will mold the coming standard. If we see an aggressively costed hexproof Prowess creature, then be on the look out for it to see Modern and Legacy play.
Time for the art!
Looks like we have some Kung Fu Panda influence here, although I mean that in the best possible way! What the heck are these races?
Well since you asked, in this pic we see Humans, Aven, Djinn and Efreeti. Yes . . .Efreeti.
The Jeskai are not a clan who stand toe-to-toe and trade blows with their enemies. They dodge, weave and use secret martial arts techniques to prevail. This is represented by their Prowess ability, but I bet we will see a few powerful combat tricks from them as well.
Will we see combat tricks? Yes, especially following the block with Heroic in it. What I am really excited for are possible powerful cantrips that just so happen to turn into combat tricks. Can you imagine Brainstorm or Gitaxian Probe pumping your dude?
Narset, the Khan of Jeskai. She is said to be a master martial artist and sage, and to possess many, many other skills. Where Anafenza is probably at home fighting in a regimented formation, my guess is that Narset is more of a one-on-one duelist. Maybe she can use her kung fu mastery to redirect an enemy's force back at him, similar to this guy?
Well my first thought was this guy.
The cover rare from the Jeskai intro pack. This guy definitely has the "enlightened sage" look. But what will he do? Draw cards? Stack your deck? Maybe for him, the path to enlightenment is through physical perfection, so he trains all of your other creatures to have Prowess?
To me this screams a Propaganda like affect.
Okay, time for final thoughts. According to Mark Rosewater, the Jeskai will be confusing to play against, and the opponenet "won't know what the heck is going on". It's easy to see why, just from the Prowess keyword. Your opponent will never know what kind of combat tricks you're holding, because Prowess makes about 1/3 of the cards in your deck into combat tricks! I had originally thought this would be my clan, and I still really like the feel and visual style. But now I am finding myself drawn to... a darker power, somewhere deep in the steaming jungles...
Go go Standard "Patriot Aggro!"
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