Hi everyone, I played Jaco Drazi at Knight-Ware's pre-Eternal Weekend tournament. I've played the deck quite a few times and have top 4'd with it a few times, but it was not to be this time!
Here's a link to the results and deck lists:
http://www.knight-ware.com/ccg/magic/tourney/07_21_2019vintage.html
We had three unpowered decks out of eight!
I like the deck and since I don't have power (nor even duals lands) it's great to have something to play that can be competitive.
I have a few minor tunings, mostly focused on turn 1 disruption via a Null Rod or Spyglass cast via the Ancient Tombs or the City of Traitors. I've found that unless it's a super-fast aggro hand (i.e., 3 or 4 Eldrazi Mimics turn one followed by a three-or-four drop turn two) the chances of winning are low unless the opponents deck is on the slower side.
During the tournament I made a few mistakes but I'm not at all sure they would have won me any more games or matches than I did win.
Here's what I played:
Round 1 was against Albert on an unpowered Delver/Arcanist build. Albert's a good player and he won it in three, with me being on the play in games 1 and 3. I got tripped by the Dazes twice and his Wastelands were brutal. I also love Delver so I'm to see it doing well. As others have said it's always an option for unpowered decks.
Round 2 was against Luke on a BUG deck. I've always felt like Jaco Drazi does well against BUG even though the 'Goyfs can too big to Dismember and bigger than the Eldrazi. The main deck wastes is there for Trophy and I got to search it out a few times. I won this one on three with Luke being on the play games 1 and 3. IIRC he had a Narset game 1 which didn't really do much other than net him a few filters/draws. I didn't bother to kill it. In game 1 I also had an early Chalice on 1 that I think slowed him down a bit. Game 2 I Spyglassed Wasteland which lasted for a while until the Spyglass was destroyed. Game 3 was pretty close with me at 6 life when I pulled it off. I might not keep the Wastes as the matchup against BUG feels pretty strong. Another Ghost Quarter or more likely the second Urborg is probably what I'll try next time.
Round 3 was against Ryan on Pitch Dredge. He won it in two. With Jaco Drazi I always feel like I have a chance to steal game 1 from Dredge but not this time! There are a lot of tricks - Metamorph copying nothing, sacrifice a Scion from Warping Wail and Endless One on X=0 to blow up Bridges from Below. Wastelands and Spyglass to handle the Bazaars, etc. I think my side board though needs a lot of adjustment now that FoV is so popular.
Overall I think it's still a deck with possibilities in a tournament and it seems like Null Rod is really good these days.
If anyone has any specific questions I'll try answer as best I can!
Geoff