How to Play Draven Jinx
Hey everyone NicMakesPlays here and today I’m going to go over my Draven Jinx deck.
Jinx just got a huge buff alongside new cards to work with, making it a meta threat with a 55%+ winrate.
This is an aggressive archetype that can end games quickly, making it a great choice if you want to climb fast.
In this guide, I’ll cover the deck’s win condition, mulligans, matchups, tips/tricks, and more.
Deck Code: CECACAYECIAQMAZJAYAQIDANDQTSQLIEAEBQOFBHG4BACBIDAYAQCBABAA
[See NicMakesPlays Draven Jinx deck details]
Goal of Deck / Win condition
The goal of this deck is to utilize discarding to trigger effects that output a ton of damage. You can discard cards like Flame Chompers and Jury Rig to summon units, or Vision to buff your field.
After you’ve emptied your hand you can win with a leveled Jinx. The expected turn to win the game with this deck is turn 6-7.
In this deck you want to mulligan for a 1 drop, 2 drop and Draven. This ensures you have a strong early game curve and damage output. If you already have these three, the final card you want to mulligan for is a card to discard such as Jury Rig, Vision, Flame Chompers or for Jinx.
Card Choices & Key Synergies
Zaunite Urchin | Crimson Pigeon
Zaunite Urchin is the tried and true 1 drop for the Draven Jinx archetype. Zaunite Urchin allows you to activate your discard effects early on while netting you an extra draw.
The reason this card is particularly good in the early game is because it can start swarming the board with extra units like Jury Rig and Flame Chompers. These can be buffed on turn 2 by Arena Battlecaster to push for huge damage. Crimson Pigeon is a new addition to the deck from the latest expansion.
You can use it on Flame Chompers or Reborn Grenadier to make it a 3|3 with ease for a 1 drop, which makes it push more damage and become harder to remove.
House Spider | Arena Battlecaster
House Spider and Arena Battlecaster are your 2 drops of the deck. House Spider is perfect for this deck because it easily gives you a wide board for just a 2 drop. You can combine House Spider with Vision or Arena Battlecaster for huge offensive pressure.
House Spider also is great into aggro matchups because the 1|1 spiderling blocker can get decent trades. Arena Battlecaster has moved from a 2 of in the deck to a 3 of.
With the addition of Reborn Grenadier to the deck, you can forego using Crowd Favorite to benefit off of wide boards and just summon Reborn Grenadier + Arena Battlecaster. This creates much faster and reliable aggro damage output for a cheaper cost.
Draven | Jinx
Draven and Jinx are your Champions of the deck and they are both perfect fits. Draven gives you both discard fodder, and a discard outlet.
This helps add consistency to your deck by triggering your discard effects such as Jury Rig or Flame chompers, or giving you things to discard for Zaunite Urchin and Rummage. Draven also gives you more Aggro pressure via his Quick Attack and can easily help level Jinx.
Jinx just got a huge buff which gives you a Super Mega Death Rocket! On level up. This immediatly gives you value via burn damage and whittling away the enemy board for stronger attacks. Jinx also continues to refuel your hand the rest of the game and continue to give you burn damage.
Vision | Poro Cannon
Vision and Poro Cannon are two key cards of the deck that you want to maximize the usage of. Vision should be saved for when you have wide board to gain maximum benefit or if it gives you a favorable combat trade.
I usually use Vision early if it is the difference between units trading or me losing the trade, because then it acts as removal and nets me value.
Poro Cannon is extremely versatile and can be used in tons of spots. It can fulfill the requirement of having a 1 or 2 drop since it gives you two Poros to work with. It also can trigger all your discard effects at a burst speed so you can discard Reborn Grenadier to push 3 damage fast or burst him into play as a blocker.
Poro Cannon also costs 0 mana so it acn trick opponents up when you are low on mana, or be used to level Jinx immediately.
Augmented Experimenter | Get Excited!
Augmented Experimenter is one of the best cards in the deck and definitely the most underrated. He acts as removal, allows you to empty your hand, and refuels you all in one card.
In the mid-game you can use him to remove a key enemy unit, level Jinx, trigger all your discard effects and refuel to turn the tide in your favor.
Generally,turns 5+ all you want is Jinx and Augmented Experimenter to keep grinding so maxing out copies allows you to win when you are out of steam or they survive the early game.
Get Excited! Is your only removal spell in the deck and is quite versatile in Draven Jinx. Get Excited! allows you to trigger your discard effects, acts as removal or can even be used as burn reach for game.
Good Matchups
This deck’s best matchup is Ryze decks. Ryze decks have low amounts of blockers and fast speed removal so you can output huge damage and kill them before they set up Ryze’s landmarks.
If you do the standard mulligan for 1 drop, 2 drop, Draven you should have enough aggro pressure to cleanly win the game before they can stabilize.
Weak Matchups
This decks weakest matchup is against Ezreal Seraphine. This is because they have many removal spells for Draven and Jinx. To win this matchup you want to apply huge early game pressure.
They don’t have many blockers for your early game pressure so you can chip in huge damage and force them to use removal spells on your cheap units. Then when you play Draven/Jinx they are out of removal spells and stick on the board.
Tech Choices
This deck can cut copies of Reborn Grenadier, Jury Rig or Augmented Experimenter
Survival Skills – This card helps keep your Champs alive against removal such as Mystic Shot and Get Excited.
Crowd Favorite – This card gives more Aggro pressure and allows you to benefit off your wide boards.
Draven’s Biggest Fan – This card adds consistency to the deck by being a 1 drop that adds Draven to your hand for turn 3.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask NicMakesPlays during his streams (usually 6PM-1230AM EST).
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