Jaya or Teferi - Which super friend is more worth your money?

DumasAG

I haven't seen a thread yet discussing Jaya, but with Teferi about to hit the vault and, in theory, Jaya on his heels, a discussion seems constructive.

Today's Across Ixalan - Red is the first time I've been paired against her (don't own her), and I have to say she packs some power. This is the first time I've suffered two losses in across Ixalan. Granted, both opponents dropped early Etalis (this card needs to be reconsidered by the devs (just my opinion)), but the power inherent in drawing and casting spells while flooding the board with value is pretty high. Not saying she's broken, but I think she might be the better walker over Teferi, and thus more worth your money if you're crystal-lean like me.

Shoutout to Inferno Jet, which appeared to be the spell of choice for both of my Jaya opponents.

Bil

   On the other hand, inferno jet is about to rotate out, along with huf and red hour. She might loose part of his salt after that, but until then she's clearly the greatest firecannon among the walkers available.

bk1234

You can find the official discussion thread for Jaya here: https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/72753/jaya-ballard-official-thread

wereotter

Comparing Jaya with Teferi, I've felt more secure using Teferi.

Jaya seems like you have a lot of power to be sure, and I'm absolutely certain there are things that can be done that will make her absolutely ridiculous. I've only played with her a little and am still leveling her up, so I can't say for sure.

However, I will say that the ability Teferi has to control the state of your opponent's board is just insane. My personal favorite us using Search for Azcanta/Azcanta the Sunken Ruin for card filtering and gem conversion that will also keep my opponent's first two creatures locked down with Seal Away. Also you can use Raff Capashen to make Search for Azcanta really cheap to cast and as a second trigger for Seal Away. Then once you get his third loyalty support, your opponent basically will never be able to attack allowing you to win at your leisure. It's that kind of control that Jaya lacks, but she makes up for it in speed.

FeralSkald

May have been one of mine, was running that today. As already pointed out she's super powerful currently but after huf/inferno/hour rotate there's not a lot of high powered red only spells to replace with. Though who knows what the future has. The fact she benefits from stv isn't to be overlooked either.

wereotter

Looking at the core set upcoming, though it depends on how the cards are translated into the game, there's really not much in the way of red spells to be excited about. Only really these three have the potential to be powerful for her:

Mburn7

Apex should be pretty epic if its converted correctly.

And Lava Axe is a fantastic card, probably should be exactly the same except 10 damage for 15 or something similar.  Now all we need is my old Fire Servant...

DumasAG

bken1234 said:

You can find the official discussion thread for Jaya here: https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/72753/jaya-ballard-official-thread

Oops, realized my search only looked in the general discussion section. Sorry to dupe a discussion. Changed title name to spin it in a little different direction (and actually a bit more in line with original intent).

Unknown

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bk1234

They're completely different and have different strengths and weaknesses. 

I think it really depends what you need. 

They do however have one thing in common -- you can't build for their colors, you have to build for their abilities -- and they are both a bit tricky. 

I love them both, but probably prefer Jaya -- she's more fun and she takes me way outside of my box. She's also insanely powerful for mono red -- you can run a cretureless ID deck with high cost spells which is super cool -- you can boost her with StV because she has blue bonuses -- anything you think is the norm from red, you can do the opposite with her, and I love that. 

Kinesia

They have very different styles, beyond "what you need", it possibly depends on "how you play".

(Though you can always go against type! like Bianca is talking about.)

andrewvanmarle

I have both but teferi is king

Firinmahlazer

I'm on the fence about Jaya. I definitely don't need another mono red PW but she looks interesting. Teferi on the other hand is going to be a must for replacing Dovin. 

Matthew

Here's my Jaya deck. It's pretty solid, and can come back from some very deep holes.

Creatures:
Firesong and Sunspeaker

Spells:
Hazoret's Undying Fury
Inferno Jet
Exquisite Firecraft
Magmatic Insight
Seismic Shift
Fiery Intervention
Desert of the Fervent
Traveler's Amulet

Supports:
Storm the Vault

The Minotwins' lifegain ability from red spells makes her particularly robust once things get rolling. And I love that her secondary color strength is blue. It means that StV is perfect for her, even as a solitary support. Her ultimate is quite cheap, so it's easy to cast, and then all you need is a few Treasures to flip it. Plus I think that it makes sense thematically, since she's less about the selfish (i.e. black) or wild (i.e. green) sides of red and more about the seeking of knowledge and insight (a standard blue trait).

I don't have Teferi yet, but I'll be grabbing him tomorrow, assuming he hits for crystals. I think he's easily the better option, based on the decks I've seen from my teammates and the stories I've heard about how well he performs. In hindsight, I wish I'd sprung for him rather than Jaya. But I will say, I am pretty confident that Jaya is the best mono-red that we've got at this point.

Brakkis

Teferi. White/Blue is just a strong color combo, especially at the common/uncommon level in DOM. Dovin has been good but his mana is rather lackluster and his abilities lost good chunk of their oomph with the loss of KLD/AER. Teferi's abilities are great and he has better mana gains.

Jaya seems really good but I already have really good in red with Koth, Samut, Nahiri, & Bolas. I'll get her eventually but Teferi comes first by a large margin.

EDHdad

I can't see replacing Koth with Jaya Ballard.  I can definitely see replacing Dovin Baan with Teferi.  Teferi's ultimate is back breaking.  Like Sphinx's  Tutelage and Avaricious Dragon had a baby and then that baby was raised by Ob Nixilis' Emblem.

bk1234

EDHdad said:

I can't see replacing Koth with Jaya Ballard.  I can definitely see replacing Dovin Baan with Teferi.  Teferi's ultimate is back breaking.  Like Sphinx's  Tutelage and Avaricious Dragon had a baby and then that baby was raised by Ob Nixilis' Emblem.

It’s only back breaking if you build for it. 

Both of of them are like that. Also Jaya isn’t meant to be a replacement for Koth. She does something entirely different 

Brakkis

It's a nightmare with just a single card draw in your deck, which blue has ample amounts of, and finds a place in pretty much 90% of blue decks anyway. You don't necessarily have to build for it; it's like the little garnish on your prime piece of steak.

wereotter

Brakkis said:

It's a nightmare with just a single card draw in your deck, which blue has ample amounts of, and finds a place in pretty much 90% of blue decks anyway. You don't necessarily have to build for it; it's like the little garnish on your prime piece of steak.

You don't even need a massive card draw engine to really abuse Teferi's emblem. Just need Time or Ice or Seal Away and any historic permanent. If you can add to that with things like Mizzium Meddler, Sphinx's Tutelage, and Jace's Sanctum, your opponent will never have anything.

ZW2007-

Azor and Teferi are really good friends. Throw in his decree, with a side of Nyx and Tutelage and you've got yourself something nasty.

Can't weigh in on Jaya yet but I plan on getting her.

My opinion, if you have Dovin, you don't really need Teferi but he is superior. If crystals are tight and you have other walkers that fill similar roles, I say just save for the next set or pick up more DOM if you are lacking a lot of the good rares, uncommons, and commons.

Rhasget

I got Jaya for something different. She has her strengths but mono PWs feel a bit limited with cards in standard comparing to all the combos you can do with duals.

My standard deck currently is:
Firesong and Sunspeaker
Firebrand Archer

Storm the Vault

Inferno Jet
Exqusite Firecraft
Chandras Ignition
Fiery Intervention
Ramunap Ruins
Desert of the Fervent
Hostile Desert

Since she can pull alot of spell, you get to cast many deserts so Hostile desert makes your creatures huge fast.
Firesong and red spells work well also but firebrand doesn't really make a difference with the extra two damage/spell.

I'm getting Teferi tomorrow when he hits the vault so will se who gets the most use.