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02-26-2019, 06:01 AM
Jeskai Ascendancy
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1601/3103/products/Resized_JeskaiAscendancy_800x.jpg?v=1530133840
Table of contents
1) Overview - about the deck
2) Card choices
3) Sideboard
4) Decklist
5) Resources
1) Overview - About the deck
Jeskai Ascendancy is a deck looking to kill the opponent primarily by abusing the Fatestitcher/Jeskai Ascendancy combo.
The deck used to be played in late 2014/early 2015 whilst Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time were legal. When those cards were banned, the deck disappeared as the draw power needed to find combo pieces and execute the kill were no longer available. The most popular variant of the deck was a version playing Young Pyromancer, both as a card which has synergy with Jeskai Ascendancy, but also as a win condition that dodged the traditional combo and graveyard hate. The other major loss since then has been Gitaxian Probe.
With the banning of Deathrite Shaman, a new/old draw engine popularised by Miracles reared its head again; Accumulated Knowledge. Accumulated Knowledge nicely fills the void left by the delve spells (though at a more acceptable power level for the format). Incidentally, Shaman being gone makes our combo more reliable.
The deck is slower than the majority of combo decks in Legacy, due to needing to cast a three mana enchantment and untap. However because the combo takes up so few slots (4 Fatestitcher, 4 Jeskai Ascendancy), the deck can run meaningful main deck interaction such as Force of Will, Spell Pierce, Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares.
2) Card choices
Core
Jeskai Ascendancy: Ascendancy is the namesake of the deck, the card we're looking to abuse. 4 copies.
Fatestitcher: The part B of the A+B combo, only gets better in multiples when comboing and you really want to find the first, so I believe that 4 copies are necessary. 3 could be correct.
Brainstorm/Ponder/Preordain: The best cards in the deck, I don't think going below 12 of these is an option. They help us dig for combo pieces, build a board with Pyromancer and then kick the combo off whilst we only have one Fatestitcher.
Spell Pierce: A cheap and highly effective disruptive piece to slow down opposing combo decks and protect our own combo. The main upside it has over Flusterstorm is that it counters lock pieces such as Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere, which are a pain to deal with main deck, and hard to impossible to win through.
Force of Will: One of the benefits of having such a high blue card count, and needing so few cards to kick off the combo, is that we can play Force of Will. Protect your combo, your Pyromancer, counter their disruption, prolong the game until you kill them.
Young Pyromancer: The alternate win condition in the deck, Pyromancer lets us play a more fair game, whilst being a card that gets turbocharged with an Ascendancy in play. Build your own Monastery Mentor! (More on that card later).
Accumulated Knowledge: The draw engine in the deck. Serves as a way to dig for the combo, and then fuel Ascendancy or Pyromancer once you get the cantrips flowing. Looting away the first copy of AK, or milling it with Mission Briefing, is particularly sweet.
Mission Briefing: Speaking of Mission Briefing - this card is excellent, though I don't want more than two copies, as at 2+ mana it can be a little clunky. Milling Fatestitchers and AKs whilst digging for what you need is a very strong effect, and effectively double triggering Ascendancy whilst going off is also very nice. When you're really going for it, these are your AKs 5 and 6, we both know you want to draw your whole deck.
Swords to Plowshares/Lightning Bolt: These help you buy time vs aggro decks, deal with problematic permanents like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Marit Lage, and occasionally you get to kill your opponent with them.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy: A proactive threat that loots away Fatestitcher and digs for whatever you need. The planeswalker side often operates as an addition cantrip whilst going off, but is a threat in its own right.
Lands
Needing to cast a three mana enchantment on curve means that I've not been comfortable going below 19 land.
Basics: Blue sources are at a premium in this deck because of all the cantrips and Mission Briefing, so non Islands are kept to a minimum. The build I'm playing is base UR, but despite this I'm playing a Plains over a Mountain to hedge against Blood Moon. This could be wrong, and I want to test a basic Mountain soon, so we can cast Bolt/Pyromancer without getting punished by Wasteland.
1-2 Island
0-1 Plains
0-1 Mountain
Duals and Fetches: Standard in the majority of Legacy decks. Fetches help us protect our red sources from Wasteland until we're ready to cast Ascendancy. I'm not playing Plateau, as non-Blue Wasteable lands are not something I'm in the market for.
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1-2 Arid Mesa
0-1 Polluted Delta/Misty Rainforest
Utility Lands: Faerie Conclave can serve the same role as Fatestitcher. I've found that I can almost always find Fatestitcher when I need it, and so these are not great game one being a tapped land that gets Wastelanded, and also requires two mana to bring online. However, post board these allow you to combo through graveyard hate. I'm considering a 1-1 split between main deck and sideboard.
1-2 Faerie Conclave
Cards that underperformed
The following cards I’ve tried, but haven't worked.
Faithless Looting: Initially I was playing a couple of copies of this, but I found that the only card you really want to discard is Fatestitcher, and you only care about it being in the graveyard when you already have an Ascendancy in play.
Thought Scour: The random draw is very poor, and you're not looking to fuel the graveyard to cast delve spells like in the older variants (which did play scours). Not necessary and makes the deck more inconsistent.
Monastery Mentor: This card is difficult to fit into the curve of the list. Having eight three mana threats is too clunky, and Young Pyromancer does a very similar job for less mana, allowing the curve of t2 Pyromancer, t3 Ascendancy. It does have potential as a sideboard card to beat heavy combo hate.
3) Sideboard
At this point my sideboard is not cleanly built, but I know that we need some number of the following types of card: Artifact/Enchantment removal, graveyard hate, additional disruption for combo, additional removal spells.
Card choices
Surgical Extraction: My initial graveyard hate of choice, it's the cheapest possible answer to Reanimator, whilst having utility against decks such as Storm. It also counts as a zero mana spell whilst comboing, netting us mana!
Flusterstorm: Additional cheap disruption for combo, which doubles as protection for our threats.
Disenchant: This kills Chalice of the Void (and some other things). As I'm playing basic Plains, this trumps Wear // Tear for the moment, though this would change if I switched to Mountain.
Engineered Explosives: This also kills Chalice of the Void, whilst being a flexible answer in a variety of matchups - sweeping the board of Delvers, or Goblin tokens, is a very pleasant feeling.
Lightning Bolt/Swords to Plowshares: Helps us kill hatebears like Containment Priest and Ethersworn Canonist, or Marit Lage (Depths has been a tricky matchup in testing so far without additional plows in the sideboard).
Vendilion Clique: Clears the opponents hand of cards like Abrupt Decay and countermagic before we deploy Ascendancy, whilst being pressure vs combo and control decks.
Pyroblast: Useful for when we might want to play a slower game to answer opposing cantrips/countermagic, or threats like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Counterbalance.
Abrade: A card that kills Chalice of the Void AND Thalia, Guardian of Thraben!? What more could you want? Unfortunately, this doesn't answer Blood Moon or Choke. Pick your battles I suppose.
Grim Lavamancer: Useful in opposing creature matchups to pick off hatebears and Delver of Secrets
Swords to Plowshares: In some lists I am only playing this card in the sideboard, mostly for Dark Depths when I want to be primarily UR main deck.
4) Decklists
//v1 Ascendancy 26/02/2019
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Fatestitcher
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Mission Briefing
2 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Faerie Conclave
// Sideboard
3 Flusterstorm
3 Disenchant
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Pyroblast
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Blazing Volley
1 Faerie Conclave
//v2 Ascendancy 12/03/2019
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 Fatestitcher
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Mission Briefing
1 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Faerie Conclave
//Sideboard
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
2 Abrade
2 Wear // Tear
1 Grim Lavamancer
5) Resources
To be updated as the deck is played more. I'd really appreciate any input, as I'm having a lot of fun jamming this on MTGO at the moment! Thanks for reading.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1601/3103/products/Resized_JeskaiAscendancy_800x.jpg?v=1530133840
Table of contents
1) Overview - about the deck
2) Card choices
3) Sideboard
4) Decklist
5) Resources
1) Overview - About the deck
Jeskai Ascendancy is a deck looking to kill the opponent primarily by abusing the Fatestitcher/Jeskai Ascendancy combo.
The deck used to be played in late 2014/early 2015 whilst Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time were legal. When those cards were banned, the deck disappeared as the draw power needed to find combo pieces and execute the kill were no longer available. The most popular variant of the deck was a version playing Young Pyromancer, both as a card which has synergy with Jeskai Ascendancy, but also as a win condition that dodged the traditional combo and graveyard hate. The other major loss since then has been Gitaxian Probe.
With the banning of Deathrite Shaman, a new/old draw engine popularised by Miracles reared its head again; Accumulated Knowledge. Accumulated Knowledge nicely fills the void left by the delve spells (though at a more acceptable power level for the format). Incidentally, Shaman being gone makes our combo more reliable.
The deck is slower than the majority of combo decks in Legacy, due to needing to cast a three mana enchantment and untap. However because the combo takes up so few slots (4 Fatestitcher, 4 Jeskai Ascendancy), the deck can run meaningful main deck interaction such as Force of Will, Spell Pierce, Lightning Bolt and Swords to Plowshares.
2) Card choices
Core
Jeskai Ascendancy: Ascendancy is the namesake of the deck, the card we're looking to abuse. 4 copies.
Fatestitcher: The part B of the A+B combo, only gets better in multiples when comboing and you really want to find the first, so I believe that 4 copies are necessary. 3 could be correct.
Brainstorm/Ponder/Preordain: The best cards in the deck, I don't think going below 12 of these is an option. They help us dig for combo pieces, build a board with Pyromancer and then kick the combo off whilst we only have one Fatestitcher.
Spell Pierce: A cheap and highly effective disruptive piece to slow down opposing combo decks and protect our own combo. The main upside it has over Flusterstorm is that it counters lock pieces such as Chalice of the Void and Trinisphere, which are a pain to deal with main deck, and hard to impossible to win through.
Force of Will: One of the benefits of having such a high blue card count, and needing so few cards to kick off the combo, is that we can play Force of Will. Protect your combo, your Pyromancer, counter their disruption, prolong the game until you kill them.
Young Pyromancer: The alternate win condition in the deck, Pyromancer lets us play a more fair game, whilst being a card that gets turbocharged with an Ascendancy in play. Build your own Monastery Mentor! (More on that card later).
Accumulated Knowledge: The draw engine in the deck. Serves as a way to dig for the combo, and then fuel Ascendancy or Pyromancer once you get the cantrips flowing. Looting away the first copy of AK, or milling it with Mission Briefing, is particularly sweet.
Mission Briefing: Speaking of Mission Briefing - this card is excellent, though I don't want more than two copies, as at 2+ mana it can be a little clunky. Milling Fatestitchers and AKs whilst digging for what you need is a very strong effect, and effectively double triggering Ascendancy whilst going off is also very nice. When you're really going for it, these are your AKs 5 and 6, we both know you want to draw your whole deck.
Swords to Plowshares/Lightning Bolt: These help you buy time vs aggro decks, deal with problematic permanents like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Marit Lage, and occasionally you get to kill your opponent with them.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy: A proactive threat that loots away Fatestitcher and digs for whatever you need. The planeswalker side often operates as an addition cantrip whilst going off, but is a threat in its own right.
Lands
Needing to cast a three mana enchantment on curve means that I've not been comfortable going below 19 land.
Basics: Blue sources are at a premium in this deck because of all the cantrips and Mission Briefing, so non Islands are kept to a minimum. The build I'm playing is base UR, but despite this I'm playing a Plains over a Mountain to hedge against Blood Moon. This could be wrong, and I want to test a basic Mountain soon, so we can cast Bolt/Pyromancer without getting punished by Wasteland.
1-2 Island
0-1 Plains
0-1 Mountain
Duals and Fetches: Standard in the majority of Legacy decks. Fetches help us protect our red sources from Wasteland until we're ready to cast Ascendancy. I'm not playing Plateau, as non-Blue Wasteable lands are not something I'm in the market for.
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1-2 Arid Mesa
0-1 Polluted Delta/Misty Rainforest
Utility Lands: Faerie Conclave can serve the same role as Fatestitcher. I've found that I can almost always find Fatestitcher when I need it, and so these are not great game one being a tapped land that gets Wastelanded, and also requires two mana to bring online. However, post board these allow you to combo through graveyard hate. I'm considering a 1-1 split between main deck and sideboard.
1-2 Faerie Conclave
Cards that underperformed
The following cards I’ve tried, but haven't worked.
Faithless Looting: Initially I was playing a couple of copies of this, but I found that the only card you really want to discard is Fatestitcher, and you only care about it being in the graveyard when you already have an Ascendancy in play.
Thought Scour: The random draw is very poor, and you're not looking to fuel the graveyard to cast delve spells like in the older variants (which did play scours). Not necessary and makes the deck more inconsistent.
Monastery Mentor: This card is difficult to fit into the curve of the list. Having eight three mana threats is too clunky, and Young Pyromancer does a very similar job for less mana, allowing the curve of t2 Pyromancer, t3 Ascendancy. It does have potential as a sideboard card to beat heavy combo hate.
3) Sideboard
At this point my sideboard is not cleanly built, but I know that we need some number of the following types of card: Artifact/Enchantment removal, graveyard hate, additional disruption for combo, additional removal spells.
Card choices
Surgical Extraction: My initial graveyard hate of choice, it's the cheapest possible answer to Reanimator, whilst having utility against decks such as Storm. It also counts as a zero mana spell whilst comboing, netting us mana!
Flusterstorm: Additional cheap disruption for combo, which doubles as protection for our threats.
Disenchant: This kills Chalice of the Void (and some other things). As I'm playing basic Plains, this trumps Wear // Tear for the moment, though this would change if I switched to Mountain.
Engineered Explosives: This also kills Chalice of the Void, whilst being a flexible answer in a variety of matchups - sweeping the board of Delvers, or Goblin tokens, is a very pleasant feeling.
Lightning Bolt/Swords to Plowshares: Helps us kill hatebears like Containment Priest and Ethersworn Canonist, or Marit Lage (Depths has been a tricky matchup in testing so far without additional plows in the sideboard).
Vendilion Clique: Clears the opponents hand of cards like Abrupt Decay and countermagic before we deploy Ascendancy, whilst being pressure vs combo and control decks.
Pyroblast: Useful for when we might want to play a slower game to answer opposing cantrips/countermagic, or threats like Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Counterbalance.
Abrade: A card that kills Chalice of the Void AND Thalia, Guardian of Thraben!? What more could you want? Unfortunately, this doesn't answer Blood Moon or Choke. Pick your battles I suppose.
Grim Lavamancer: Useful in opposing creature matchups to pick off hatebears and Delver of Secrets
Swords to Plowshares: In some lists I am only playing this card in the sideboard, mostly for Dark Depths when I want to be primarily UR main deck.
4) Decklists
//v1 Ascendancy 26/02/2019
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Fatestitcher
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Mission Briefing
2 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Faerie Conclave
// Sideboard
3 Flusterstorm
3 Disenchant
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Pyroblast
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Blazing Volley
1 Faerie Conclave
//v2 Ascendancy 12/03/2019
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
4 Fatestitcher
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Mission Briefing
1 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Arid Mesa
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Faerie Conclave
//Sideboard
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast
2 Abrade
2 Wear // Tear
1 Grim Lavamancer
5) Resources
To be updated as the deck is played more. I'd really appreciate any input, as I'm having a lot of fun jamming this on MTGO at the moment! Thanks for reading.