Jeskai Striker Upgrade Guide – 19 Easy Changes You Can Make

Last updated on April 13, 2025

Jeskai Ascendancy | Illustration by Dan Scott

We have a new set coming out soon, so it must be any month in the year 2025!

Jokes aside, Tarkir: Dragonstorm looks excellent, like one of the first Magic sets in a while that feels like real Magic. Since we’re revisiting our wedge plane, we have a whopping five Commander precons, one for each of Tarkir’s wedges.

Today, I’m taking a look at the Jeskai Striker deck helmed by Shiko and Narset, Unified and featuring the brand-new flurry mechanic. It promises to be a spellslinger deck, but will it be any good? And how can we make it better?

Sale

Magic: The Gathering Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck - Jeskai Striker

• FIGHT DRAGONS WITH DRAGONS—Return to Tarkir for an epic battle between dragons and clans; discover which clan fits your playstyle with distinct three-color gameplay, and add draconic power to your collection
• HIT HARD AND HIT OFTEN—Join the Jeskai spirit dragon, Shiko, and former planeswalker Narset and the Jeskai clan to cast extra spells and flurry spell effects with this Blue-Red-White Commander deck
• 2 FOIL BORDERLESS COMMANDERS—Every Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander Deck contains 2 Traditional Foil Legendary Creature cards featuring gorgeous Borderless art, including each clan’s Mythic Spirit Dragon
• BATTLE ALONGSIDE YOUR CLAN—Led by monk-practitioners of the Way, the Jeskai seek unity of thought and a shared understanding of reality. Precise, compassionate, and rigorous, they consider it their duty to guide Tarkir to a better future.
• INTRODUCES 10 COMMANDER CARDS—Each deck introduces 10 never-before-seen Commander cards to Magic: The Gathering

$38.47

Buy on Amazon

Deck Overview

Myth Realized | Illustration by Jason Rainville

The recent precons I’ve seen have gone up in quality. None of them have been great, but I noticed plenty of improvements in terms of card quality and the like. So I was pretty disappointed to pull up the Jeskai Striker list and see that it rather sucked.

Precons generally have four weaknesses: The mana sucks (this has never meaningfully improved), they have several under-supported themes or cards, they don’t run nearly enough interaction, and they just have bad cards. This deck, sadly, isn’t the exception to any of those.

Jeskai Striker suffers from an excess of tapped lands, and it could really use fewer basics, but I’m well past the point of expecting WotC to give precons good, functional mana bases. You can always make a precon better by including more untapped lands. But I’m much more concerned with the card quality in this one, or the lack thereof.

The deck positions itself as a spellslinger deck, which you’d expect from Jeskai (); flurry looks like an excellent mechanic to enhance spellslinger strategies, even outside of the command zone. The deck has the expected incoherence; there’s a token theme, plus some cards like Mana Geyser and Will of the Jeskai that pretend the deck is a combo shell, and a few cards like Curse of Opulence that want the deck to be more aggressive than it really is.

The real problem rests within the quality of the cards, both the payoffs and the spells. Between weak payoffs like Guttersnipe and Haughty Djinn and excessive cantrips without anything meaningful to dig towards, the deck feels like the first spellslinger deck a player ever put together. We need to fix that.

I should mention that it’s not all doom and gloom. For once, the back-up commander, Elsha, Threefold Master, looks like it works well with the main commander instead of just sharing the same colors, and the deck has promising new cards like Voracious Bibliophile and Transcendent Dragon that are genuinely good while working with this deck.

Upgrade Plan

This upgrade primarily focuses on improving the mediocre card quality. Most of my swaps remove bad spellslinger payoffs and weak spells for strong interaction and far better payoffs.

I’ve cut away some of the excess themes, especially the cards that encourage a more combo-centric shell; cards like Mana Geyser belong in some configuration of the deck, but not this one. I also cut some of the more aggressive ones; the theme I chose to enhance is the token theme, supported by cards like Elsha, Threefold Master and Monastery Mentor.

I really like Shiko and Narset, Unified as a commander, so I’ve also added a handful of cards specifically to work with them and facilitate casting multiple cards; it’s worth noting that the extra removal benefits this commander as it gives you more spells to copy that target permanents and players to copy.

Torrential Gearhulk

Suggested Cut: Faithless Looting

Faithless Looting only belongs in decks with dedicated graveyard strategies; this deck doesn’t have them, so it doesn’t belong. This is arguably one of Commander’s most overrated and misused cards, and the most erroneous in the deck for encouraging bad deckbuilding practices. Shame on you, WotC.

On the other hand, Torrential Gearhulk fits perfectly! It triggers flurry off a single card, and some of its strongest partners, namely Magma Opus and Sublime Epiphany, are already in the deck.

Scholar of the Lost Trove

Suggested Cut: Ancestral Vision

Suspended cards are a handy way to trigger flurry, but Ancestral Vision is altogether too slow and a little clunky. Scholar of the Lost Trove doubles down on the value offered by Torrential Gearhulk and works well with the copy effects I’m about to add.

Quasiduplicate

Suggested Cut: Rite of Replication

I love the idea of copying a kicked Rite of Replication with this commander, but it seems too inconsistent. But copy spells work well enough with Shiko and Narset, Unified to add Quasiduplicate; you’re more likely to double-spell with it because it costs less mana than Rite, and jump-start makes those double-spell turns more likely.

Three Steps Ahead

Suggested Cut: Ponder

I can’t exactly call Ponder a bad card, but the cantrips fill the deck with air. Sometimes they’re handy, sometimes you wish you had something impactful.

Three Steps Ahead helps you to see extra cards, like Ponder, while swaying the game in your favor and offering two modes that interact with your commander.

Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Suggested Cut: Baral and Kari Zev

Baral and Kari Zev aids the flurry turns, but I find it too fiddly for long-term success. Saheeli, Sublime Artificer enhances the token theme and also helps flurry turns by turning Servo tokens into mana rocks.

Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Suggested Cut: Mana Geyser

I’ve rattled on enough about Mana Geyser; let’s focus on the card coming in. Niv-Mizzet, Parun is just the best spellslinger card, and it provides this deck with a much-needed power boost. Win cons are where this deck lacks the most, and this dragon might be the best I can add.

Narset, Enlightened Exile

Suggested Cut: Mangara, the Diplomat

Mangara, the Diplomat has its uses, but none of them apply to this deck. Narset, Enlightened Exile looks far more promising, both as a flurry enabler with its free spell and to enhance the token stratagem with prowess.

Path to Exile

Suggested Cut: Shiny Imputes

Shiny Impetus copied via your commander is very cute, but I don’t think it beats out a hyper-efficient removal spell like Path to Exile dealing with the two most prominent threats on the board. In a pinch, it even ramps you by taking out a token or two!

Arcane Denial

Suggested Cut: Will of the Jeskai

Will of the Jeskai has an incredible ceiling, but I want it in a storm-style deck rocking a bunch of rituals and stuff. This deck’s pretty far from that, so I’m happier with Arcane Denial protecting your board and stopping opponents from winning the game.

Snap

Suggested Cut: Adaptive Training Post

Most precons have an exceedingly cute new card with a clever design that won’t go anywhere. For Jeskai Striker, that honor goes to Adaptive Training Post, which just does nothing but encourage your opponents to draw their Nature's Claim, at least for a turn or two. I could get behind it if it tapped for mana, but Snap looks far better as a great interactive piece that ramps when copied.

Call the Coppercoats

Suggested Cut: Tempest Technique

Tempest Technique almost fits within the deck, but it just isn’t aggressive enough to leverage this card. It reads like an almost-thematic card that was printed less to help this deck than to introduce it into the format without printing a storm spell in Standard. It’s a very cool card, but it doesn’t help you the way Call the Coppercoats does; this produces a massive board state while synergizing with your commander.

Talisman of Creativity + Talisman of Conviction

Suggested Cut: Opt and Consider

These aren’t the craziest or most exciting changes in the world. This deck could use more ramp to facilitate casting multiple spells, and these are easily the worst cantrips in the deck.

Winds of Abandon

Suggested Cut: Vanquish the Horde

Board wipes are incredibly useful in Commander to deal with three other players, but blasting yourself back to the Stone Age can be just as detrimental as beneficial, especially without green. Swapping Vanquish the Horde for a one-sided board wipe in Winds of Abandon is just good deckbuilding.

Monk Class

Suggested Cut: Think Twice

Think Twice isn’t bad... it’s just underwhelming. If it targeted a player to work with the commander, I’d like it; since it doesn’t, the more thematic Monk Class looks more appealing. It’s slow, but precon games are rarely fast, and the new interaction should slow things down.

Eris, Roar of the Storm

Suggested Cut: Curse of Opulence

I don’t really get Curse of Opulence; maybe the name tricked Wizards into thinking that this was an aggressive deck?

Eris, Roar of the Storm rewards this deck for enacting its natural game plan, and it provides a solid board state for relatively little effort. You could use another solid win con, which Eris gives you.

Get Lost

Suggested Cut: Haughty Djinn

I like playing Haughty Djinn in Standard, but it doesn’t translate well to Commander. The mana reduction is nice, but so is telling your opponents’ commanders to Get Lost before they cause trouble.

Stubborn Denial

Suggested Cut: Electrodominance

This is the only swap I’m not 100% sure on. I don’t believe in Electrodominance but I could be convinced. Without an Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence on my shoulder, I’m erring towards cutting it.

As for Stubborn Denial, I like it in any deck with a 4-power commander; it’s basically just a flexible protection spell.

Swan Song

Suggested Cut: Guttersnipe

I was once infatuated with Guttersnipe as a win condition, but I found myself steadily cooling on the card. Swan Song has only grown in my estimation as a reliable means of salvaging yourself from Damnation or ensuring your spells resolve.

The Final Deck and New Cards

Here’s the upgraded decklist, plus a separate list of all the cards I added! If you want to pick up either, you can use the shopping cart button in the corner.

Commanding Conclusion

Narset, Enlightened Exile | Illustration by Marie Magny

Though this precon disappointed me, I think the commander has lots of potential with these swaps making it more controlling and adding better win conditions. If controlling isn’t your thing, the back-up commander, Elsha, Threefold Master, has lots of potential; I could easily see loading the deck with cards like Monstrous Rage and Slip Through Space to live up to the Striker in the name.

How would you upgrade Jeskai Striker? Which of the Tarkir: Dragonstorm precons are you most excited for? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

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