Overview:

This Grixis (U/B/R) deck leverages Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge as a potent spellslinging engine, focusing on cheating massive instants and sorceries from exile. The primary strategy involves ramping into Jeleva early, exiling high-impact spells from all libraries, and casting them for free during combat. Key themes include extra combat steps, mass removal, spell copying, and leveraging suspend/delayed cast mechanics. Jeleva is absolutely essential as the deck's core enabler and primary source of card advantage/threat deployment. While expensive to recast (9+ mana), cards like Sanctum of Eternity and Riptide Laboratory help mitigate this cost. The strategy is highly vulnerable to commander removal, as losing Jeleva severely hampers access to exiled spells and slows the game plan significantly. Harmonic Prodigy acts as a potent "hidden commander," doubling Jeleva's attack triggers.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Early Setup (Turns 1-4): Prioritize ramp (Sol Ring, Talismans, Signets) and fixing to cast Jeleva ASAP. Use tutors (Trinket Mage, Tribute Mage, Trophy Mage) to find key artifacts like Swiftfoot Boots, Chromatic Lantern, or Strionic Resonator. Protect Jeleva with Lazotep Plating or haste/hexproof equipment. Cast suspend cards (Ancestral Vision, Inevitable Betrayal, Wheel of Fate) early.
2. Deploy & Attack with Jeleva (Turns 4-6): Cast Jeleva, exiling a critical mass of spells. Equip her for protection/haste. Attack immediately to cast the most impactful exiled spell for free. Prioritize extra combat spells (Seize the Day, World at War, Full Throttle, Savage Beating), mass draw (Windfall, Blood for the Blood God!), or board wipes (In Garruk's Wake, Plague Wind, Decree of Pain). Use Harmonic Prodigy to double triggers.
3. Win Condition Execution (Turns 5-8):
   • Combat/Extra Turns: Chain multiple combat phases using spells cast via Jeleva or copied with Arcane Bombardment/Surge to Victory. Equip Jeleva or other creatures with powerful Swords/Equipment (Sword of Wealth and Power, Glamdring, Two-Handed Axe) for lethal commander damage or general aggression.
   • Massive Spell Value: Resolve game-ending spells like Cruel Ultimatum or Blood for the Blood God! for free. Use Mizzix's Mastery or Volcanic Vision to recur and cast multiple high-impact sorceries from the graveyard. Leverage Arcane Bombardment to generate overwhelming value and board presence each turn.
   • Control Lock: Utilize repeated mass removal (wiped boards + Jeleva exiling threats) combined with value engines to grind out opponents.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Essential: 3+ lands (including color fixing), at least one piece of ramp (Sol Ring, Talisman, Signet).
• High Priority: Early protection for Jeleva (Swiftfoot Boots, Lavaspur Boots, Lazotep Plating), a tutor (any Mage), or a suspend card.
• Good: Card draw/filtering (Faithless Looting, Fact or Fiction), interaction (Izzet Charm, Rakdos Charm), or a high-impact spell to hope Jeleva exiles.
• Avoid: Hands lacking ramp, color fixing, or protection; hands clogged with only high-CMC spells without setup.

Key Tips:

• Protect Jeleva Relentlessly: Haste and hexproof are paramount. Riptide Laboratory is a key land for bouncing her to hand to avoid commander tax or re-trigger ETB.
• Sequence Attacks Wisely: Cast spells during combat before damage to potentially enable extra combats or clear blockers. Prioritize spells that enable further attacks (extra combats) or remove obstacles (board wipes).
• Maximize Copy Effects: Strionic Resonator copies Jeleva's attack trigger. Harmonic Prodigy doubles it. Arcane Bombardment and Surge to Victory exponentially increase spell output. Copying an extra combat spell is often game-winning.
• Leverage Graveyard: Use Buried Ruin, Volcanic Vision, and especially Mizzix's Mastery to recur powerful sorceries. Bojuka Bog protects your own graveyard if needed.
• Manage Exile: Remember you can only cast spells exiled by Jeleva with her ability. Cards suspended or exiled by other effects (like Arcane Bombardment) are not castable via her attack trigger.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Extreme Jeleva Dependency: Removal targeting Jeleva cripples the deck's engine and slows it dramatically. Losing her early often means falling irreparably behind.
• Slow Mana Development: High density of tapped lands (Bounce lands, Modal DFCs, Tri-lands) and limited low-CMC ramp significantly delays casting Jeleva and key spells, hindering speed.
• Minimal Stack Interaction: Lacks counterspells and instant-speed answers to protect Jeleva or disrupt opponents during critical turns, making the strategy fragile.

Moderate

• Vulnerability to Graveyard Hate: Bojuka Bog, Rakdos Charm, etc., disrupt recursion plans (Mizzix's Mastery, Volcanic Vision, Buried Ruin).
• Susceptible to Stax: Rule of Law/Archon of Emeria effects severely limit casting multiple free spells per turn. Cursed Totem shuts off Mage tutors.
• Difficulty Recovering from Board Wipes: While the deck runs wipes, it has few creatures and relies on Jeleva; mass removal sets it back significantly without strong draw engines online.

Minor

• High Average CMC: Many key spells are expensive, making them hard to cast normally if Jeleva is unavailable or exiled spells are unusable.
• Limited Creature Presence: Struggles to apply early pressure or defend against aggressive decks without relying on wipes.

Most Important Cards:

• Harmonic Prodigy (Doubles Jeleva's attack triggers, massively increasing value)
• Swiftfoot Boots (Essential protection and haste for Jeleva)
• Strionic Resonator (Copies Jeleva's attack trigger for double spells)
• Arcane Bombardment (Recursive value engine, generates immense card advantage and threats)
• Mizzix's Mastery (Recurs and casts multiple high-impact sorceries from the graveyard)
• Surge to Victory (Turns combat damage into massive spell copying, potential win condition)
• Chromatic Lantern (Critical color fixing for a greedy mana base)
• Sol Ring (Core ramp to accelerate Jeleva)
• Riptide Laboratory (Protects Jeleva from tax, resets ETB)
• Savage Beating (Key extra combat spell, enables lethal swings)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 5/10

• Capable of explosive T5-7 wins via Jeleva exiling/casting extra combat spells or massive value like Cruel Ultimatum, but heavily reliant on resolving/attacking with Jeleva and exiling the right spells. Slower without her.

Resilience: 4/10

• Highly vulnerable to targeted removal on Jeleva. Some protection (Boots, Plating) and recursion (Riptide Lab, Sanctum) exist, but limited interaction and reliance on the commander make recovery difficult. Board wipes also hurt.

Consistency: 6/10

• Tutors (Mage cycle) find key artifacts/ramp/protection. Card draw/filtering (Windfall, Fact or Fiction, Faithless Looting) helps dig, but finding specific non-artifact win conditions or answers is inconsistent. Jeleva's exile is random.

Interaction: 3/10

• Interaction is primarily sorcery-speed removal (Charms, Gix's Command, Hagra Mauling) or board wipes. Lacks counterspells and efficient instant-speed answers, making it hard to protect the game plan or disrupt opponents proactively.

Rating Justification:

This deck possesses the ramp and high-impact spells to threaten wins around T8-10 via Jeleva cheating expensive sorceries, placing it in the Optimized Casual range. However, its critical vulnerability to commander removal, slow mana base, and lack of stack interaction significantly hinder resilience and consistency, preventing it from reaching higher power tiers reliably.

Power level: 5.0 - 5.5