Jeskai Ascendency Combo

[Darkenslight]

A singleton Brainfreeze doesn't sound terrible. You can pull some tricks with it like Solidarity and respond to the copies with cantrips, thus utilizing Brainfreezes a little better, fill up your yard for Treasure Cruise, mill some chaff so you fizzle less, or use it as a kill spell if you draw it much later in the game.

Soemthing to be aware of: WIth the 'Stitchers, you can generate enough mana to just flat kill with a Blue Sun's Zenith, like Solidarity.

[nodahero]

You aren't generating that much mana without double Stitcher at which point, you should be able to kill your opponent anyway by simplying tapping every asset he has.

[janluis1]

got stunning results in testing recently with sneak and show transformational sideboard im using sam main deck list.
a side note here:siding in 4 sneak attack 4 show and tell 4 grizzly and 2 emrakul means you cant use so much milling yourself cause of emrakul resshufle effect anti sinergy with cruise and dig. happened me just once in 10 matches but can happen.

[iriisnes]

Here's what I've been working with.


Land (21)

1x Academy Ruins
2x Arid Mesa
1x Faerie Conclave
4x Flooded Strand
1x Island
1x Mountain
1x Plains
1x Plateau
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Tundra
2x Volcanic Island

Instant (14)

4x Brainstorm
2x Enlightened Tutor
4x Force of Will
2x Spell Pierce
2x Swords to Plowshares

Sorcery (6)

4x Gitaxian Probe
2x Ponder

Enchantment (4)

4x Jeskai Ascendancy

Artifact (9)

1x Batterskull
1x Paradise Mantle
4x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sword of the Meek
2x Thopter Foundry

Creature (6)

4x Etherium Sculptor
2x Stoneforge Mystic

Instead of fatestitcher, we can use etherium sculptor to great effect. It requires a few more moving parts (Top + Paradise mantle), but gets more cantrips, tutor effects, and isn't as vulnerable to RIP. The secondary and tertiary wincons of SFM + Batterskull and Thopter/Sword seem good against a field full of UR delver.

Top + Top + Ascendancy + Sculptor (Infi loop for kill)
Top + Ascendancy + Sculptor (lets you flip top to ensure that you draw a non-creature spell to continue comboing)
Stoneforge Mystic + Batterskull (plan B)
Thopter Foundry + Sword of the meek (plan C)
Stoneforge Mystic (fetching Paradise Mantle) + Ascendancy (another way to kill)
Enlightened tutor means that you search for any missing piece of the ascendancy combo or for Thopter + Sword

The high density of cantrips (4 BS + 4 Probe + 2 Ponder + 4 Top) means that the build will goldfish a turn 3-4 kill about 60% of the time (I tested ~40 times). Otherwise you can beat down with Batterksull or thopters.

The mana is very consistent, only running red for ascendancy or potential SB cards. I included basic Mountain and ugly step-child dual land Plateau, and they seemed fine, but could be cut. 24 blue cards consistently enables FoW. The 1-of Academy ruins seems good for rebuying dead Etherium sculptors or artifacts sacrificed to Thopter foundry.

The numbers are fluid; for example the build could be modified to include Counterbalance as additional combo protection (i.e. -2 Swords to Plowshares, -1 Spell Pierce, +3 Counterbalance). Cut 1 ascendancy, 1 Etherium sculptor, and 1 Probe to move up to the full 4 SFM + Jitte (play a more "fair" SFM deck), or even 2x Jace + extra land. Cut 2 StP + academy ruins for 3 Fatestitcher to move more all-in on the ascendancy combo. Cut the thopter package for another combo win (brain freeze, RIP/Helm both seem fine). You get the idea.

I didn't include a specfic SB b/c there are so many different directions you can take. I like the idea of siding into another combo like Sneak/Show (-4 ascendancy, -4 Etherium scupltor, -1 Paradise mantle, -2 SfM, -1 Batterskull, -2 StP, -1 Tutor for +3 Sneak attack, +4 Show and Tell, +4 Emmy, +4 Griseldaddy) or siding into a RIP miracles build (-4 ascendancy, -4 Etherium scupltor, -1 Paradise mantle, -3 probe, +3 counterbalance, +3 Jace, +1 Entreat, +4 terminus, +1 land). For GY based decks, try removing the thopter/sword combo for 2x RIP and 1x Helm. Or just board in good cards like pyro/hydroblast, flusterstorm, Wear//Tear. Ethersworn canonist seems good for the "mirror" vs the fatestiticher builds; you can combo with Top + Top + Ascendancy + Sculptor or Stoneforge Mystic (fetching Paradise Mantle) + Ascendancy + Top + Top, but they can't.

Happy brewing and Merry Christmas!

[why]

I like Sam's build a lot. I've tried a bunch of variants.

I don't like having other win conditions in the maindeck. Jeskai Ascendancy is enough. I want to be all interaction and four Ascendancies and four Fatestitchers and some Conclaves / Zendikons. Every time I tried other things I got flooded on win conditions. I had cards that were part of one variant and part of another in my hand.

I don't think you need anything specific to go off once you have Fatestitcher + Ascendancy. As long as your deck is full of Cantrips and Cruises it's hard to fizzle. I think Thought Scour and Mental Note are both great. It is super low cost and high upside to be playing them. There's some argument for Ponders instead. The reason to run Mental Note/Thought Scour is that you get the ability to go off "at instant speed". After seeing an enchantment removal spell in my opponents hand via Gitaxian Probe, I have returned a Fatestitcher or two, and played Ascendancy. I start by playing a cantrip. My opponent tries to kill Ascendancy. Before their spell resolves, my Fatestitcher(s) are big enough to kill my opponent.

Sensei's Divining Top is just so mana intensive. I had it in my deck because you can loop when you have two Tops but I cut them quickly since they're so bad to draw in every other situation. I'd rather have any other cantrip.

I think Enlighteneded Tutor is sort of sweet, but I can see why Sam wasn't playing with it. You want as much as possible in your deck to say "draw a card" on it. You'll start fizzling if you don't do that. I don't know that Enlightened Tutor can find you anything cheap and card neutral (ie a 1-2 mana spell that functionally said "draw two cards" in this deck), but it'd definitely be good if that card existed.

I have no idea why we're transforming. Yeah, people have hate but most of it can be dodged. I really want to use my actual sideboard space. Bringing in removal is great against aggressive decks and I like having Flusterstorms and Pyroblasts in my board. I like Wind Zendikon as a sideboard card for beating graveyard hate (including containment priest) and Pithing Needle. I like Noxious Revival a lot in postboard games- it helps protect from Surgical and gets back an Ascendancy you milled or that got destroyed.

Any combo you bring in will probably make your deck worse. The transformational sideboard I had the most success with was playing True-Name, Geist of Saint Traft, and equipment. If you want to transform you want to dodge interaction. Very little does that better than hexproof.

[Fuzzy]

Can anyone explain me why Sam is running Gut Shot instead of Lava Dart? It doubles as looti during mid combo, can be cast from the grave, it's free and also can kill opposing Deathrite Shamans.

And it has more style points too.

[rufus]

Can anyone explain me why Sam is running Gut Shot instead of Lava Dart? It doubles as looti during mid combo, can be cast from the grave, it's free and also can kill opposing Deathrite Shamans.

And it has more style points too.

There are advantages to gut shot because it doesn't require a land sac, and it's not graveyard dependent. That said, I wouldn't be too surprised if it's a simple oversight.

[nodahero]

A huge boon for Gut Shot is the phyrexian mana... you don't need to have access to a mana to start comboing; it makes comboing on turn 2 alot easier than a Lava Dart would.

You basically trade combo efficency for a bit more control.

[nodahero]

I piolted the following list to a 3-1 record last night playing against UR, mono-red, Storm and Miracles in that order. My loss came to UR (primarily as a result of drawing WAY to many lands.

Combo A
4 Jeskai Ascendency
3 Fatestitchers

Combo B
4 Sensei's Diving Top
4 Counterbalance

Backup Kill Condition
4 Young Pyromancer

Cantrips
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Treasure Cruise

Removal/Protection
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Pyroblast

Test Slot
1 Intuition

Mana
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarns
4 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island
2 Farie Conclave
1 Island

First realization, You can't treat Intuition as Stitcher number 4 no matter how obvious it seems; it simply never worked out that way.

Second, 3 mana spells are not worth it in this deck outside of Ascendency between only running 19 lands and trying to cast multiple spells in the kill turn it simply isn't a boon in the least.

Third, the counter/top list shell is very handy in this deck because of the top/top/stitcher/ascendency line of play and adding CBalance doesn't hurt the deck that bad and makes protecting your stitchers from blast/StP fairly easy.

Fourth, it is highly possible that when running the counter/top shell you don't need access to 4 Pyromancers.

A line I have been contemplating testing is cutting the Ponders and Pyromancers for a mix of Mental Note/Though Scour and Noxious Revival. This line speeds up Treasure Cruise and also allows us to fetch back whatever we mill if we have a Noxious in hand and can play cute with Counterbalance also.

[Tachikoma]

Hi, there,

I just joined the hype after being catched by the modern version at the World Championships.
Interesting to see the deck takes 2 pretty different directions in Legacy with the same combo : all-in combo with Sam Black's version on one side, combo-control with Drew Levin's one on the other.

Here is the list I'm testing, more on the Levin's side packing both CB+Top and YP.

I'll warn players with no experience with those 2 like I am, you WILL miss tons of triggers, poorly sequence things, loose track of what's on top of your deck for several games before getting up to speed (and adding Jeskai Ascendancy in the mix makes it even harder)
DO NOT only test with anything that automates triggers (I did that with Forge for those who know this app and was pretty confident with it ... until I get to play it for real :)
But no pain, no gain, and after 2 tournaments I'm starting to like it :)

I highlighted what made a difference to me so far.

//Combo
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
3 Fatestitcher
2 Wind Zendikon

//Alternative gameplans
4 Young Pyromancer
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance

//Control
4 Force of Will
1 Pyroblast
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Swords to Plowshares

//Cantrip/Draw
4 Brainstorm
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Treasure Cruise
1 Dig Through Time
1 Thought Scour

//Manabase
3 Lotus Petal
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Mountain

In the sideboard I go almost full regular Jeskai Stoneblade
//Full stoneblade package
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Batterskull
//Other random stuff
1 Flusterstorm
1 Meddling Mage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Wear // Tear

As I said only a 2 tournaments record so far (15-20 players)

The 1st one I had the Top but no CB and Faery conclave instead of Zendikon
2-1 vs Goblins
0-2 vs 4 color cascade
1-1 vs Affinity
1-1 vs a Legacy port of Splinter-Twin

The second one with the list above
1-1 vs Miracles
2-0 vs Infect
2-0 vs Dredge
0-2 vs MUD

About highlighted cards:
- Top: I can confirm Top works great to keep your combo alive (or infinite when you have 2), also sometimes you have the mana but few cards in hand and use it to ensure you know exactly when to loot or skip looting.
- CB: obvious with Top as it makes the "Top is too slow" issue a lot less relevant (And it was sometimes a real issue in my games before I add CB)
- Dig through time: Agree with Rich, "5 is the correct number", hesitated between 3 TC / 2 Dig and 4 TC / 1 Dig, you usually want Dig before combo, TC when you go off. Went 4/1 because CB/top gives you more time to find the pieces.
- Wind Zendikon: seems like a strict upgrade to Conclave, can be used for combo the turn it comes into play, can produce different colors when enchanting duals, resists to -1/-1, can even protect your land from wasteland.
- Lotus Petal: was not only useful to combo earlier but also to do stupid plays like T1 Stoneforge into Batterskull T2, T1 CB even T1 TNN :)
- Basic lands: wastelands hurts pretty hard, maybe a downside of having petals, so less actual lands, not sure all 3 are needed (maybe cut the mountain ?)
- TNN: Easy to fit in the stoneblade package (combo -8, stoneblade +8), can even be sided in standalone in certain matchups, excellent each time I saw it whatever the situation was (control game stalled, broken combo pieces, unchecked opponent biggie to block ...). You might argue it's at the expense of 2 sideboard cards, but did not feel that way, probably thanks to CB/Top.

General notes:
- Half of my combo wins were JA without Fatestitcher/Zendikon, just pump a bunch of YP token, usually wasn't enough to kill in the turn, but enough to finish with the newly spawned tokens the next turn. So I'm not getting away from the full 4 YP for now, and it makes [card]Anger[/card] appealing although it might be unnecessary.
- I also like how YP+Ascendancy can get you out of tough situations like T1 chalice x1 or against an opposing CB.

Thanks for reading :)

Laurent

[Tachikoma]

no one can kill an Ascendncy game 1 really and as a result we have inevitability on our end

Maybe not where you are, but current meta is pretty full of main deck Pyroblast/Hydroblast.

[bizdoin]

My list.

(18 lands)
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
1 Island
1 Mountain
3 Faerie Conclave

4 Fatestitcher
1 Glory

4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Force of Will
4 Treasure Cruise
3 Intuition
1 Deep analysis
1 Flame Jab
4 Lotus Petal
4 Wind Zendikon
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Ponder

SB

1 Hydroblast
2 Pyroblast
1 Misdirection
3 Meddling mage
2 Pithing needle
1 Wear/Tear
1 Sulfur elemental
1 Firebolt
2 Swords to plowshares
1 Flustestorm

[Secretly.A.Bee]

So I tore apart my Miracles deck to do some messing around with Ascendency. I don't know if it's something anyone here is considering pursuing since the ban of Cruise, but I too am trying out a CB/Top build, but I'm using Grapeshot and a Helm of Awakening, although I saw someone above me was playing the blue artifact creature version of it, which is fine other than dying to more things. Also, I'm trying 2x Path to Exile instead of StP, because I don't like my odds when I'm not on the infinite combo (I play a Single Emrakul to reshuffle my graveyard, just to see how it works out), to the point that giving them 4 points of life from their goyf is, in my opinion, out of the question. I am using Enlightened Tutors, Tops, Brainstorms, and I think I want fewer cantrips, not worry about an early combo, but play a control game and end on a heavily protected, later-game win-turn.

Also, if that isn't enough, I feel that even in more "traditional" builds that focus on an earlier combo turn haven't been using the best protection a combo deck can play: Silence. Silence alongside cheap counters and a fast, reliable combo makes for a top-tier deck, and with the ability to play both blasts as well, protection isn't this deck's Achilles' Heel; it's the combo. Has anyone been able to find a way to truly make this consistant via the string of cantrips? What's been the better cantrip for you: Thought Scour or Careful Study or Ponder? Has anyone tried Lotus Petals? There's the new red creature that draws two cards, and there's also Merfolk Looter or it's Human counterpart whose name eludes me currently. Do any of these hold any promise for anyone, or has the banning gotten everyone gloomy?

[leegoo]

I've been playing the "all in combo" version with ideas unbound in for cruise for about a week now and it seems fine. Not terribly exciting mind you, but serviceable.

Ponder has been better for me than the scour effects... The biggest problem with the deck is finding ascension and resolving ascension. Past that you are usually in a good position, so cards that let me dig for ascension/protection are better than raw # of cards in the GY, especially now that you'll be running considerably less delve spells. YMMV.

[mgrinshpon]

Someone at the WUBRG.xyz twitch stream has been playing the following brew:

4 Fatestitcher
4 Humble Defector
4 Young Pyromancer

3 Jeskai Ascendancy

2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
3 Lightning Bolt

4 Brainstorm
2 Dig Through Time
3 Gitaxian Probe
3 Obsessive Search
4 Ponder
2 Quicken

1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Flooded Strand
2 Homeward Path

//Sideboard
1 Hydroblast
1 Kor Firewalker
2 Meddling Mage
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Pyroblast
1 Sulfur Elemental
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Wear // Tear


Seems like it's pretty fun to play, at least. Humble Defector looks pretty sweet here with the tap/untap triggers everywhere drawing so many cards (barring removal) or eating a swords (keeping the Fatestitchers alive).

[bizdoin]

why cut one ascendancy?