For those curious about the deck I’m talking about, you can see it here.

Jenara is without a doubt, my favorite deck.  It’s also my most powerful, yes, but the deck is just so rewarding to play that the power is more of a perk than a feature.  There are so many rich interactions between all of the ETB creatures and bounce outlets, and the suite of tutors gives you access to a whole toolbox full of cards capable of handling almost every threat.  It just gives you this sense of confidence, knowing you can handle just about anything your opponents can throw at you.  Of course, as much fun as it is to play, it’s also the one that inspires the biggest groans when I bring it out at the table.  I’ve tried a couple times to tone down the power level to something a little less soul-crushing, but my efforts didn’t really make it any less powerful, they just slowed the deck down.

So I’ve given up.  If Jenara is going to be an unholy terror, then so be it.  Up to a point, that is.  I’m still sticking to my usual deckbuilding standards: no mass land destruction, no infinite combos, and no broken mana acceleration (save everyone’s favorite, Sol Ring).  In other words, I want to make the deck as strong as possible without breaking the game or denying my opponents access to their resources.  EDH is at its most fun for me when I’m responding to my opponents’ plays and coming out the stronger for it.  Granted, this means that Jenara will never really measure up to a tuned first-tier general like Zur or Arcum, but that’s okay.  Not only are those kind of decks largely absent in my meta, they’re not particularly fun to play with or against anyway.

So, before we get into the nitty gritty of what’s in and what’s out, let’s go over exactly what Jenara is.  Jenara is a deck that uses repeatable bounce and blink effects to abuse ETB effects to generate a steady flow of card advantage and disruption throughout the mid to late game.  Bouncing creatures and repeatable blink isn’t particularly cheap, so the deck also has a ton of mana acceleration and doublers to fuel its shenanigans.  The massive amounts of mana it can create also makes Jenara an extremely potent threat in the late game.  The changes I’ve made have focused on making the deck more focused consistent and explosive, forcing other decks to respond to it instead of sitting back and controlling the board until it can begin to get lethal hits with Jenara in.

What’s in:

[card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card]: When I decided to go all-in on Jenara, this was the first card I thought of.  I’ve stayed away from equipment thus far in this deck because it doesn’t synergize with ETB effects, but the extra mana that the sword provides is exactly what this deck needs.  Also, being able to make plays, untap, and then leave up mana for instant speed effects during opponents’ turns is incredibly powerful at times.

[card]Birthing Pod[/card]: I’ve played this in the cube a couple times, and every time I’ve had it on the battlefield I’ve been extremely impressed with what it’s been able to do.  It does have a drawback in that it forces you to pay a little more attention to the CMCs of your creatures to ensure you’ll always have a good chain, though, which brings me to my next three cards.

[card]Nevermaker[/card]: Jenara has always been light on 4 drop creatures, and Nevermaker fills in that slot nicely while also having an extremely powerful ability.  While just sticking something on top of an opponent’s deck can be extremely frustrating for them, the deck’s sources of instant-speed bounce and blink allow you to pull off stunts like triggering the Nevermaker in response to an opponent’s shuffle effect.  Pretty savage on a general, and quite excellent on everything else.

[card]Solemn Simulacrum[/card]: I’m not the biggest fan of the sad robot, especially in green decks, but it does go quite well with the Pod.  That said, I’m seriously considering using Slithermuse instead as another way to keep my hand full.

[card]Wood Elves[/card]: Not the most exciting card, but it ramps and provides a 3-drop body to feed to Birthing Pod.  It also can pick up a Sword in a pinch.

[card]Avenger of Zendikar[/card]: It’s the go-to finisher for just about every deck running green nowadays, and I’ve resisted putting it in the deck for a long while now due to its it’s power level.  No more.  I want to be able to decisively end games, and this is a card that will do it.

[card]Snapcaster Mage[/card]: It may seem strange that I haven’t put Tiago in my flagship deck yet, but the fact that it forces you to exile the spell you flash back with it has always seemed so painful in a deck that focuses on reusing its resources over and over.  My time cubing has showed me just how powerful and flexible it can be, though, which means that exile be damned, it’s going in.

[card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card]: Speaking of flexible cards, the Zenith’s absence until now may strike some people as odd or even a bit silly.  I left it out to make more room for ETB creatures and tone down the power level of the deck, but now that I’ve discarded such illusions, it’s time to bring it back in.

[card]Dryad Arbor[/card]: Yes, it’s the world’s worst forest, but if you’re running GSZ, you need to run this card, full stop.

What’s out:

[card]Sunblast Angel[/card]: Having a repeatable wrath ETB effect is nice, but I’ve found that it usually just picks off a creature here or there.  In EDH, if an opponent’s entire team is tapped, a lot of the time it’s because they’re swinging in for the win.  Without a way to reliably flash this in mid-combat, it just isn’t worth a slot.

[card]Survival of the Fittest[/card]: It’s an incredibly powerful card, don’t get me wrong.  It draws a huge amount of hate, though, and without an infinite [card]Reveillark[/card]/[card]Karmic Guide[/card] combo or mass reanimator shenanigans to synergize with it, the card is merely good.  Birthing Pod works better with the deck’s themes.

[card]Spitting Image[/card]: It’s a fantastic card, but six mana is quite a lot to make a clone in a deck that is largely constrained by how much mana it has available.  The deck also really doesn’t need Retrace to recur it’s spells.  I’d rather have land in play than in my graveyard, anyway.

[card]Pithing Needle[/card]: This one hurt, let me tell you.  But Jenara isn’t exactly lacking for answers, and this is a slot that could be better spent elsewhere.

[card]Praetor’s Counsel[/card]: It’s a potentially game-winning card, but eight mana is a lot to ask, especially in a deck that has no trouble recurring cards from its graveyard, anyway.

[card]Hornet Queen[/card]: In my older, more toned down versions of the deck, this was a fantastic defensive card.  With the deck’s new, more offensive bias, Hornet queen doesn’t really have quite as much to offer.

[card]Stonecloaker[/card]: I have some wonderful Stonecloaker memories (especially ones involving [card]Venser, the Sojourner[/card]), but as graveyard hate it’s expensive, and as a bounce outlet it doesn’t do enough.

[card]Tezzeret the Seeker[/card]: I love Tezzeret to death, but in this deck he’s just a glorified artifact tutor.  That’s pretty good, but not essential enough to keep him in.

[card]Windbrisk Heights[/card]: Don’t get me wrong, I love me some hideaway lands.  This deck rarely attacks with more than one or two creatures, though, so you run into situations where you’re forced to make bad attacks in order to cast the spell under your land.  Yes, you can occasionally get value off of it, but in the end I don’t think it’s a good fit for the deck.

As it stands, the deck still has one weakpoint – aside from stealing or copying an opponent’s life-gaining creatures, it has no way to gain life.  I’m a little torn on what to do about this.  Part of me wants to leave that weakness in as the deck’s Persian flaw, and part of me wants to add a card like [card]Loxodon Warhammer[/card] or [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card].

What do you people think?  Should I add lifegain?  If so, what should I add, and what should I take out?  Are there any other cards you think I’m overlooking?