Overview:

This Jon Irenicus deck focuses on donating creatures with detrimental effects to opponents while leveraging forced combat for card draw and incremental damage. The strategy relies on goading opponents' enhanced creatures with downsides (e.g., Ebon Drake, Rotting Regisaur) while protecting itself with pillowfort effects like Propaganda. Alternate win conditions include Psychosis Crawler pings and Laboratory Maniac, but the deck primarily grinds value through forced attacks.

Primer:

Core Strategy: The deck aims to deploy Jon Irenicus by turn 3-4 to start donating problematic creatures like Archfiend of the Dross or Flesh Reaver. Key phases:

1. Setup: Use low-CMC creatures with drawbacks (Wretched Anurid, Fledgling Djinn) as early donation targets while establishing defensive enchantments (Crawlspace, Dissipation Field).
2. Value Engine: Activate Jon's end-step trigger to gift creatures with +1/+1 counters, forcing opponents to attack each other while drawing 1-3 cards per combat cycle.
3. Win Conversion: Amplify card draw with Teferi's Ageless Insight to fuel Psychosis Crawler damage or assemble Sower of Discord + forced life loss effects.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 3 lands, Jon Irenicus, and 1-2 creatures with downsides.
• Prioritize early defense (Propaganda) or creature cheats (Heartless Summoning).
• Avoid hands lacking creatures or with only high-CMC demons.

Key Tips:

• Protect Jon with Swiftfoot Boots – his survival is critical to maintain donation triggers.
• Use Daring Thief and The Trickster-God's Heist to upgrade donated creatures into opponents' key permanents.
• Time Abyssal Persecutor donations carefully to lock opponents out of winning.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Glass Cannon Commander Dependency: 3+ removals on Jon Irenicus cripples the strategy
• No Infinite Combos: Relies on slow incremental damage vulnerable to life gain

Moderate

• Weak Board Wipe Recovery: Limited recursion beyond Phyrexian Reclamation
• Anti-Synergy Risks: Donated high-power creatures (Liege of the Pit) may backfire

Minor

• Predictable Play Patterns: Relies on visible creature-gifting mechanics
• Basic Mana Base: Vulnerable to Blood Moon/Contamination effects

Most Important Cards:

• Psychosis Crawler
• Teferi's Ageless Insight
• Puca's Mischief
• Sower of Discord
• Propaganda
• Daring Thief
• Archfiend of the Dross
• Heartless Summoning
• Laboratory Maniac
• Crawlspace

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 4/10

• Wins via incremental damage typically around T9-11, relying on multiple combat cycles to drain opponents.

Resilience: 3/10

• Foldsto repeated commander removal; limited protection (2 hexproof sources) and recursion.

Consistency: 5/10

• Moderate creature density (25) but only 2 tutors; relies on card draw engines post-Jon setup.

Interaction: 4/10

• 6 targeted removals and 3 counterspells, mostly sorcery-speed or overcosted (Aetherize).

Rating Justification:

This deck operates as a focused casual build with a clear combat-driven strategy but lacks fast combos, redundancy, and protection. Its T9-11 win clock and reliance on commander-centric combat synergies align with power level 4.0-4.5.

Power level: 4.0 - 4.5