Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge

Gameplan

Cast Jeleva early with as much mana as possible to exile a deep stack of cards (including opponents' instants/sorceries), then attack to free-cast the biggest spell each combat. You build toward a flying spellslinger value engine, leveraging X spells, big finishers, and cheap interaction off her exile pile while controlling the board with Grixis removal and counters.

Key Cards

• Mind's Desire — With mana doubling it can be cast from exile to chain into a game-ending storm of free spells.
• Sunbird's Invocation — Stacks with Jeleva's casts to cascade into more free spells from your library every time.
• Sneak Attack — Cheats huge threats in to pressure the board while Jeleva builds value, and reliable evasion finishes.
• Cabal Coffers — Generates the explosive mana needed to cast Jeleva for huge X and pay her escalating recast cost.
• Brainstorm — Cheap card selection that's great to free-cast off attacks and refills your hand cheaply.
• Anguished Unmaking — Premium catch-all removal you can grab from the exile pile to answer any threat.

Upgrade Path

Add fast mana (Mana Crypt, Jeweled Lotus, Dockside Extortionist) to land Jeleva early with a high X and recast her cheaply. Lean into payoffs that scale with casting—Aetherflux Reservoir, Sunbird's Invocation, Underworld Breach—and tighten the spell suite to high-value, low-cost interaction plus a couple of game-winning X spells. Upgrade the manabase with fetches, shocks, and duals, and include protection like Lightning Greaves so your attack triggers consistently connect.