Jaya Review

GrizzoMtGPQ
GrizzoMtGPQ Posts: 776 Critical Contributor
edited July 2018 in MtGPQ General Discussion
She's a top tier mono color Walker. Not quite as good as J2 or Elspeth but in the same camp near the lower end. She edges out Koth because she can play Storm the Vault and make good Bonus on the blue matches.

You need the really good red cards to make effective decks so if you don't have them she's a definite pass. Minimum you should have Dowsing Dagger, Hour of Devastation, and Storm the Vault. You need some good creatures too so if you don't have Darigaaz or Verix or Avarious Dragon she won't have much to work with.

Her abilities are cheap but not great. Her second draws cards which is huge for red especially if you play Avaricious Dragon but has this stupid clause in it about your last card NOT being a spell which makes it unreliable. Her Ult is gimmicky. Giving you two copies only really helps if you play Hazoret or Inferno Jet. The other spells she can use just are not worth copying.

BOTTOM LINE: if you are a new player she is a HARD PASS. She is not for you! If you're a completionist you might play her a couple times at most. I'll probably use her as much as I do the variations on Chandra. HINT: never
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Comments

  • babar3355
    babar3355 Posts: 1,128 Chairperson of the Boards
    Hmm, yea I am regretting my decision to buy her.  Sure I can build a strong deck with Verix, Etali, STV and HuF/Inferno Jet... but then Jaya herself is not particularly important to that strategy.  In fact, I think she is worse than Koth, who executes red agro far better. (Her only saving grace is the arguably way overpowered access to STV with her big mana gains in blue.)

    I will never use her in a serious competition and would not classify her as top tier even for mono walkers. Red has some serious holes.  She can't control the board while cheating out big creatures like G3. And I concur that she isn't as good as Elspeth or J2. I would probably throw her in the mid tier of mono-PW, and she is barely better than the basic walker once STV rotates out.  Disappointed.
  • Blazer
    Blazer Posts: 84 Match Maker
    We will have to see if her ultimate is bugged or gets nerf'd but right now there is and instant win condition with her and the right set-up, you don't even have to touch the screen.
  • FindingHeart8
    FindingHeart8 Posts: 2,731 Chairperson of the Boards
    I bought her and had enough runes to level her up to ~30ish.  Haven't had a chance to test her out because she'd get squished in all the current events going on at this moment.
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  • Kresgwyr
    Kresgwyr Posts: 24 Just Dropped In
    Damn ...

    I was looking forward to try her out once she hit the vault, but that's quite a turn down.  :D

    Oh, well, at least that saves me some runes to level Karn up for ... mhhhhhh ... maybe one level ?  :s
  • babar3355
    babar3355 Posts: 1,128 Chairperson of the Boards
    Blazer said:
    We will have to see if her ultimate is bugged or gets nerf'd but right now there is and instant win condition with her and the right set-up, you don't even have to touch the screen.
    What are some of the cards? I have heard magmatic insight, but not sure how you can force the deck to keep drawing spells... 
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    I don't agree with this. I've had her since the day she came out for cash. She's been quite effective in AWR and I also ran her last time in RtO -- she was perfect. 

    She must be maxed, and requires thoughtful building and a lot of testing, but once you get the hang of her, she's a beast.

    I've run her in active coalition events both creatureless and with creatures and I'm quite pleased with the outcome -- also M19 has some amazing direct damage spells and if they translate to PQ well, she is going to be amazing. 
  • Brakkis
    Brakkis Posts: 777 Critical Contributor
    babar3355 said:
    Blazer said:
    We will have to see if her ultimate is bugged or gets nerf'd but right now there is and instant win condition with her and the right set-up, you don't even have to touch the screen.
    What are some of the cards? I have heard magmatic insight, but not sure how you can force the deck to keep drawing spells... 
    Magmatic Insight and Firebrand Archer. Her ultimate treats the copied spell as a drawn spell so it keeps copying. So once you get it going it'll fill your hand with the spell you copied.

    The infinite loop occurs if the spell would draw a spell card but your hand is full. So when Magmatic Insight draws itself and your hand is full, every card drawn thereafter will be Magmatic Insight  and so Firebrand will just chain the opponent to death.

    Alhammaret's Archive makes it worse. In that case, you don't need Magmatic Insight to draw itself to begin the loop. Alhammaret's will double draw Magmatic Insights from the copies and begin the loop automatically.
  • bk1234
    bk1234 Posts: 2,924 Chairperson of the Boards
    There's a huge bug with her and archive. I have a BL where I pulled 30 copies of HoD in 37 rounds. It's posted in the bugs forum.
  • James13
    James13 Posts: 665 Critical Contributor
    I crushed every Bolas after Bolas in TG.  And I hadn't finished levelling her yet.  Won several matches without a single creature attack via jet, HoD, HuF.  Only dipped below 80 health when a Samut got an extra 5 match that double-striked her newly cast Revenge.  Which promptly died before her next turn.

    Standard cards only.

    Frankly, it was a little embarrassing how easy it was.

    Definitely top tier.
  • Theros
    Theros Posts: 490 Mover and Shaker
    how good will she be if her ultimate is nerfed?
  • Brakkis
    Brakkis Posts: 777 Critical Contributor
    edited July 2018
    Theros said:
    how good will she be if her ultimate is nerfed? 

    She can run creatureless red and double cast spells. Her mana lacks the spike of Koth; instead being distributed across red and blue, so shes not entirely reliant on matching a single color.

    That aside, there are better options in red with dual colors and Koth isn't suddenly not good. Unless you've got Crystal's to waste and aren't trying to save for a dual color or Karn, it's a pass.
  • Gunmix25
    Gunmix25 Posts: 1,442 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited July 2018
    Theros said:
    how good will she be if her ultimate is nerfed?
      I can apply that same question to Koth, Kiora, H2, Karn, Nahiri, Angrath, Ob, N3, etc. and get the same answer.
  • Blazer
    Blazer Posts: 84 Match Maker
    I don’t know how they could change it without a total re-work, If they change it to fetched card instead of draw that probably wouldn’t be an ultimate?
  • Mainloop25
    Mainloop25 Posts: 1,959 Chairperson of the Boards
    So far I've treated her as an upgraded Chandra2. Haven't got the hang of her abilities yet, but so far she is in the fun/novelty category. Tier 3, if we are going by that system. 
  • Firinmahlazer
    Firinmahlazer Posts: 417 Mover and Shaker
    Gunmix25 said:
    Theros said:
    how good will she be if her ultimate is nerfed?
      I can apply that same question to Koth, Kiora, H2, Karn, Nahiri, Angrath, Ob, N3, etc. and get the same answer.
    I think what he meant to say is when they fix the bug. 
  • Bil
    Bil Posts: 831 Critical Contributor
    edited July 2018
       She's definitely top tier IMO, but i don't think her third ability and the multi spells setup is the most interesting way to play her, despite the first impression.

       Playing the first and second skills with a restricted pool of spells makes them even more powerful and very nice to play.
       For 6 loyalty you will be able to fetch the particular spell you need, when you need it and give it 10 mana (generally enough to cast it on that same turn).
       The second skill wording is actually wrong, for 9 loyalty, you will deal 8 damage (or get 4 mana) AND draw 4 cards, generally creatures or conversion supports as you fetch the spells through the first skill.
       That makes her a very interesting option for weeny red decks and mass support setups too.
  • gogol666
    gogol666 Posts: 316 Mover and Shaker
    I mostly agree with OP, but:
    - if you build for her abilities you can have some fun. Again, this makes the jaya even more a pro pw
    - bugs!!!!1!
    - c'mon bugs!
  • DBJones
    DBJones Posts: 803 Critical Contributor
    For the bug, it looks like it's the way they programmed copying spells rather than her ultimate. If they adjust it so the copy is created somewhere other than your deck, or fetch it after creation rather than draw it, most of the bugs would probably stop happening. Fresh new bugs might take their place though…
  • babar3355
    babar3355 Posts: 1,128 Chairperson of the Boards
    With the prodding of a few wise friends, I am seeing the light with Jaya.  For one, as @Brakkis says her ultimate is totally bugged when Archive is on the board.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY22y02IYbI if you want to see how this looks.

    But it doesn't even require your hand to be full... Any time you have archive and ult down it will pull as many copies of any spell into your hand as you have space for in your hand. Then it will repeat this procedure with the same card next time. Forever.

    She also seems like a classic "Dump all of your biggest, best burn spells" walker and go to town... but she doesn't actually function well with that recipe.  

    One reason is her anti-synergy with HuF.  When playing a deck balanced with mostly spells, 1-2 creatures, and 2-3 supports, casting HuF will thin the next 4 spells out of the deck.  This is initially good, but then her ult likely becomes useless for the next few turns as the spells have been removed and you are likely to get a support or creature for the next few turns.

    However, I have seen a few good decks.  A well balanced creatureless deck from @babo21 worked out quite nicely.  Also, @boopers shared the most interesting deck I have seen, where instead of focusing on her 3rd ability, you run a mono-spell deck (Hour of Devastation) and use her first ability to dig it out whenever you need to deal with a threat. Pair that with a weyr of dragons and some red mana creating supports. (Surprisingly not STV).  It is absolutely brutal once it gets rolling.

    Anyway, I will upgrade her to a top tier of mono's... but still doubt I will use her in any serious events.

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