I think this is a huge hit to the deck since I don't think that the bannings slow anything but dredge down by that much, but losing Probe makes Pyromancer Ascension significantly slower in the matchups where we have no choice but to race. I will be testing -4 Probe +3 Noxious Revival +1 Faithless Looing this weekend. Hopefully it will still be ok. I really love the deck and I'll still play it some if it isn't as powerful as before, but I felt it was on the brink of being really good before and this brings it back a notch.
A turn one looting makes active Ascensions more feasible on turn 3, and Noxious Revival being free is a huge help. You can also pull some cantrip shenanigans with Revivals: With cantrip A in the yard, cast cantrip B. Ascension triggers. In response, cast Revival targeting cantrip A, which you then draw off of cantrip B and cast for the second Ascension counter. Revival's also nifty for fixing your Reveler draws, as it clears up your hand and buys back your best spells.
Looting is probably just a necessity now. At least beefing up on them beefs up our graveyard, which helps Ancestral Visions.
Turn 3 kills won't really be feasible anymore, though.
To extrapolate, the reason I don't think Surgical will replace Git Probe is that most decks have several more on-plan cards to replace it. Infect has Slip Through Space, Distortion Strike, and Blossoming Defense, which will likely just increase in numbers. Death's shadow might run more burn or a different pump spell, but phyrexian mana on SE makes this one a little more likely to show up in some numbers. Delver strategies will just play more generically good stuff or delirium enablers in place of probe.
Made an account just to reply to this. I agree, we need to work on more exciting brews for the deck instead of being so hacked off. We can make this thing work, it might look significantly different than it does now, but we WILL get there.
It's an interesting deck. The Ascension+Manamorphose+Revival combo is there, but it's rarely needed. Boros Charm giving Awoken Horror double strike is really bonkers, although you need to be careful of removal. In essence it's a glass-cannon deck with some ways of ameliorating risk, primarily Peek and Boros Charm. I'm not sure it has a turn 3 win, but it can win explosively once it has 3-4 mana, while dealing with creatures through Bolt/Helix, and planeswalkers through Boros Charm.
It plays like a burn deck sometimes, and a combo deck other times. It doesn't have the "control deck" undertones that old Thing Ascension had, primarily because Remand is gone. But it still has the unintuitive, non-linear plays that original Thing Ascension had, that many of us loved.
Peek is the weakest card in the deck, because we care slightly less about our opponent's hand without Remand. However, it is handy for knowing if the way is clear to cast Boros Charm on Thing, which is one of the best things this build has going for it. Still, I'm not tied to Peek. I'll be trying Faithless Looting, and would definitely try Preordain if it was unbanned.
I think Faithless Looting moves the deck a little more toward UnStorm, making it easier to activate Ascension, but at the cost of card disadvantage and losing the information from Peek. Still, it can be invaluable to have a spell with flashback to activate Ascension late game, for instance.
Snapcaster can occasionally do really silly things with a Noxious Revival to activate an Ascension or flip a Thing. But I can see running a Bedlam Reveler instead. You want 4-ofs for the spells, to maximize Ascension activation chance, but there are a few flex slots. You could try going -1 land, +1 whatever you like as well.
To play the original Thing Ascension list effectively, you had to identify moment-by-moment what your role was. You had to turn on a dime and go from "stabilize mode" to "beatdown mode" instantly. This deck has a similar style. With the addition of Boros Charm, you can afford to toss a Bolt or Helix at some creatures early on, since Ascension + Boros Charm makes up for the loss to an extent.
The indestructible mode of Boros Charm can't be overlooked, and it gives a little bit of protection to Ascension versus Abrupt Decay. It doesn't help versus Karn, but Tron is a matchup we are better set up to race now.
I'm not sure about a sideboard yet, but it would probably be similar to old Thing Ascension. I'd consider adding Skullcrack and Smash to Smithereens to the sb as well. Something to go wide versus Blue decks would be nice, so Monastery Mentor or Young Pyromancer might find a spot. Wear/Tear has to be in there, and some Paths, and possibly Blessed Alliance.
I got on-board with the Boros charms, tested against burn, BGx and a few controls including esper (tough match up). I actually really like it. Has caught a few people off guard, saved my win cons a few times, burnt em out, and surprisingly only once successfully given thing double strike. I can really get behind it currently. I opted to not play any Noxious in favor of the singleton Snappy, which has performed well. Hopefully we can get some more interest and conversation about this deck going.
I really like Burst Lightning as a way to add more firepower to the deck without going into white. I'm also a big fan of Bedlam Reveler based on what I've seen it do for other modern decks. I'd be interested to hear some feedback or suggestions. I'll update when I get the deck together and try it out.
Has anyone given Winds of Rebuke a look as a sideboard option? I really like the extra little mill 2 tacked on there for us, and the bounce can play the usual role of sometimes buying us a turn against aggro. Can also bounce our own permanents in response to removal when necessary.
I am actually trying one copy of Temporal Trespass at my next event. In a pyromancer deck that doesn't plan to storm out and win in a single turn I think it could be a great route to victory. Obviously with an active ascension out taking 2 extra turns for UUU is pretty obscene, but as you said I also think it could do some good work if we manage to stick a Thing in the Ice and get an extra attack in plus the usual untap+draw step benefits.
In playtesting this deck it seems really solid. But the matchups get a lot worse after the board it feels, what they bring in outclasses what we bring in. Is there any tech or power that would help us out more?
Why do you think that is the key to this deck? We really only have blue cards with CMC of 1, and I'm not too certain what cards you'd want to be countering.
Why do you think that is the key to this deck? We really only have blue cards with CMC of 1, and I'm not too certain what cards you'd want to be countering.
Well, with thing in the ice and 4x shoal that's 8 blue spells with a cmc of 2 as well.
I was taking a leaf out of infect's book. Infect since the gitaxian probe ban has become a different beast and has replaced the probes with shoals (plus a few other tweaks). Shoal is a perfect "nope" to fatal push or similar when you're trying to go off with a thing in the ice. It's also a powerful way to slam down your turn 2 play whole holding up protection for rest in peace or something.
Obviously in some matchups you'd side them out, but like the infect deck we want to stick a meaningful permanent and ride it to victory so having disrupting shoal is pretty great (in testing it's had a variety of uses)
Private Mod Note
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Modern: G Tron, Vannifar, Jund, Druid/Vizier combo, Humans, Eldrazi Stompy (Serum Powder), Amulet, Grishoalbrand, Breach Titan, Turns, Eternal Command, As Foretold Living End, Elves, Cheerios, RUG Scapeshift
I think it's too slow, it helps you to make graveyard and ramps you, but you dont want to run more no sorcery or istants spells and it's hated with the same cards that hate pyromancer. I usually play only 4 pyromancer and an snapcaster as non sorcey/instant spell.
Sideboard:
2x dispel
2x wear/tear
4x thing in the ice
2x monastery mentor
2x timely reforcement
3x blood moon
Im thinking in run lightning helix, but i dont know what remove. In the sideboard i probably change my dispels with swan song, And i want to run in my sideboard a shattering spree or abrado, to break the chalice of the void with a counter.
Moved to the Deck Creation. With the new forum update this thread has fallen out of the "Established" criteria. Since the bannings the 4+ colour Ascendancy Storm deck as somewhat survived but this has not. It will have to work its way up again.
It is absolutely lovely to see this deck perform well in the current meta. I think it was a great meta call by Zeekery for a few reasons:
1) As GDS and Storm have become smaller portions of the meta, graveyard hate isn't as prominent in sideboard. There are more Anger of the Gods than Surgical Extractions or Nihil Spellbombs right now.
2) Chalice of the Void is on the downswing as well. It was more common during the Colourless Eldrazi / GDS meta, pre-unbans. While Chalice is still around, it's not as powerful against Humans (Vial and diverse mana costs), or Jeskai (Cryptic and Teferi deal with it late game, although it can still be disruptive early).
3) Tron is not highly represented in the current meta. If it was, there would be way more Damping Spheres in sideboards, hurting this deck too.
Specifically with this list, dropping 2 Remands for 2 Bedlam Revelers seems solid.
There's actually not much else to say, I'm just really excited to give this deck a whirl again.
Picked this deck up after getting bored of UR Storm and hunting around on mtggoldfish for a new deck, a few of the 5-0 lists caught my eye. Really enjoying it so far, I am loving the mix of interaction, consistency, and the ability to just do some broken stuff when ascension is turned on.
I have a couple of questions. Apologies if they already have been discussed/answered before in this thread:
- T1 cantrips. Am I right in thinking the preferred order to play out cantrips is serum, sleight, opt, scour? Also in a goldfishing scenario is it correct to play a t1 cantrip with a thing in hand and only 2-3 other spells, or should you keep it in hand to flip thing earlier?
- Blood moon sideboard plan: What are peoples experience with this, is it any good? Kinda feels like we are a bad blood moon deck, as we can only ever get it out turn three at best and it doesnt synergise with our instant/sorcery plan. To my way of thinking, at least molten rain has the potential upsides of hitting two lands with ascension on/flipping thing/feeding reveller?
- Remand vs spell pierce/other counterspells. I personally am a big fan of spell pierce over remand. It is great to hold up t1 on the play if your opponent is on black to protect your ascension/thing from discard. Its also great against control to deploy a t3 threat and counter their counter. Can anyone explain why remand is the counterspell of choice in this deck? Is the cantrip really that relevant in a deck with 16-20 cantrips already?
Monastery mentor vs young pyromancer in SB. Is there a consensus? I’ve found pyromancer to be extremely strong so far, closing out quite a few post-SB games for me. If you can make pyromancer stick it generates so much value so quickly.
Regarding my build, I will probably find space for 2 surgicals and 1 EE in SB soon, this was just the build I started out with on a UR storm budget. I subbed 2 faithless lootings for 2 boros charm, from a suggestion a few pages back, and have been loving its versatility so far. Have used all three modes in relevant situations and adding that extra bit of reach has lead to some grindier post-SB wins where I just burn out the opponent without an activated ascension/thing.
recently discovered this deck and it caught my eye couse it seems very fun to play but i also own basically 90 % of all the cards so its very cheap for me to build.
im just wondering, why is thing in the ice preferred over young pyromancer? thing is a little harder to remove, sure, but young pyro can start generating value directly and have pretty decent offensive and defensive application just as thing.
Mission Briefing UU
Instant (Rare)
Surveil 2, then choose an instant or sorcery card in your graveyard. You may cast that card this turn. If that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
Could this replace our worst cantrip? Seems better for us then snapcaster because a) its 2 instant triggers for titi not 1, b) it allows us to filter selected cards into the bin for pyromancer ascension, and c) it doesn't reduce the instant/sorcery count in the bin for reveller, it goes 1 for 1.
Worst case it doesn't do any of the above but still gives us reach with bolt/snap/bolt, path/snap/path etc
Also - the 'choose' wording gets around some graveyard hosers as you don't choose the card until the spell resolves, and even if they exile your whole graveyard you still have the chance to choose from the 2 cards you surveil
A turn one looting makes active Ascensions more feasible on turn 3, and Noxious Revival being free is a huge help. You can also pull some cantrip shenanigans with Revivals: With cantrip A in the yard, cast cantrip B. Ascension triggers. In response, cast Revival targeting cantrip A, which you then draw off of cantrip B and cast for the second Ascension counter. Revival's also nifty for fixing your Reveler draws, as it clears up your hand and buys back your best spells.
Looting is probably just a necessity now. At least beefing up on them beefs up our graveyard, which helps Ancestral Visions.
Turn 3 kills won't really be feasible anymore, though.
To extrapolate, the reason I don't think Surgical will replace Git Probe is that most decks have several more on-plan cards to replace it. Infect has Slip Through Space, Distortion Strike, and Blossoming Defense, which will likely just increase in numbers. Death's shadow might run more burn or a different pump spell, but phyrexian mana on SE makes this one a little more likely to show up in some numbers. Delver strategies will just play more generically good stuff or delirium enablers in place of probe.
-4 Gitaxian Probe
+4 Noxious Revival
-4 Visions of Beyond
+4 Peek
-4 Remand
+4 Boros Charm
And tweaks to the mana so we can get white mana through Blood Moon, since Boros Charm is key to the deck.
4 Serum Visions
4 Peek
4 Noxious Revival
4 Manamorphose
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boros Charm
4 Thing in the Ice
4 Pyromancer Ascension
1 Snapcaster Mage
4 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
3 Island
1 Plains
2 Steam Vents
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Inspiring Vantage
It's an interesting deck. The Ascension+Manamorphose+Revival combo is there, but it's rarely needed. Boros Charm giving Awoken Horror double strike is really bonkers, although you need to be careful of removal. In essence it's a glass-cannon deck with some ways of ameliorating risk, primarily Peek and Boros Charm. I'm not sure it has a turn 3 win, but it can win explosively once it has 3-4 mana, while dealing with creatures through Bolt/Helix, and planeswalkers through Boros Charm.
It plays like a burn deck sometimes, and a combo deck other times. It doesn't have the "control deck" undertones that old Thing Ascension had, primarily because Remand is gone. But it still has the unintuitive, non-linear plays that original Thing Ascension had, that many of us loved.
Peek is the weakest card in the deck, because we care slightly less about our opponent's hand without Remand. However, it is handy for knowing if the way is clear to cast Boros Charm on Thing, which is one of the best things this build has going for it. Still, I'm not tied to Peek. I'll be trying Faithless Looting, and would definitely try Preordain if it was unbanned.
I think Faithless Looting moves the deck a little more toward UnStorm, making it easier to activate Ascension, but at the cost of card disadvantage and losing the information from Peek. Still, it can be invaluable to have a spell with flashback to activate Ascension late game, for instance.
Snapcaster can occasionally do really silly things with a Noxious Revival to activate an Ascension or flip a Thing. But I can see running a Bedlam Reveler instead. You want 4-ofs for the spells, to maximize Ascension activation chance, but there are a few flex slots. You could try going -1 land, +1 whatever you like as well.
To play the original Thing Ascension list effectively, you had to identify moment-by-moment what your role was. You had to turn on a dime and go from "stabilize mode" to "beatdown mode" instantly. This deck has a similar style. With the addition of Boros Charm, you can afford to toss a Bolt or Helix at some creatures early on, since Ascension + Boros Charm makes up for the loss to an extent.
The indestructible mode of Boros Charm can't be overlooked, and it gives a little bit of protection to Ascension versus Abrupt Decay. It doesn't help versus Karn, but Tron is a matchup we are better set up to race now.
I'm not sure about a sideboard yet, but it would probably be similar to old Thing Ascension. I'd consider adding Skullcrack and Smash to Smithereens to the sb as well. Something to go wide versus Blue decks would be nice, so Monastery Mentor or Young Pyromancer might find a spot. Wear/Tear has to be in there, and some Paths, and possibly Blessed Alliance.
Give it a try and let me know what you think.
Pls allow me to share my January and February experiences with the deck.
http://deartiyopaeng.blogspot.com/2017/01/january-ur-storm.html
http://deartiyopaeng.blogspot.com/2017/02/feb-ur-storm-modern.html
Thank you guys and keep storming!
-Paeng Paeng on FB
http://deartiyopaeng.blogspot.com
Legacy: :symu::symr::symb::symg:
Legacy:
Legacy:
Modern: :symu::symr:
Modern: :symr::symw:
2x Snapcaster Mage
2x Bedlam Reveler
4x Pyromancer Ascension
4x Burst Lightning
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Faithless Looting
4x Serum Visions
4x Sleight of Hand
4x Manamorphose
4x Thought Scour
2x Visions of Beyond
5x Island
4x Scalding Tarn
4x Steam Vents
1x Sulfur Falls
4x Anger of the Gods
3x Dispel
2x Negate
2x Spellskite
4x Young Pyromancer
Link to deck @ TappedOut.net
I really like Burst Lightning as a way to add more firepower to the deck without going into white. I'm also a big fan of Bedlam Reveler based on what I've seen it do for other modern decks. I'd be interested to hear some feedback or suggestions. I'll update when I get the deck together and try it out.
Has anyone given Winds of Rebuke a look as a sideboard option? I really like the extra little mill 2 tacked on there for us, and the bounce can play the usual role of sometimes buying us a turn against aggro. Can also bounce our own permanents in response to removal when necessary.
I think running disrupting shoal Could be the key to making it work.
Well, with thing in the ice and 4x shoal that's 8 blue spells with a cmc of 2 as well.
I was taking a leaf out of infect's book. Infect since the gitaxian probe ban has become a different beast and has replaced the probes with shoals (plus a few other tweaks). Shoal is a perfect "nope" to fatal push or similar when you're trying to go off with a thing in the ice. It's also a powerful way to slam down your turn 2 play whole holding up protection for rest in peace or something.
Obviously in some matchups you'd side them out, but like the infect deck we want to stick a meaningful permanent and ride it to victory so having disrupting shoal is pretty great (in testing it's had a variety of uses)
UB Faeries (15-6-0)
UWR Control (10-5-1)/Kiki Control/Midrange/Harbinger
UBR Cruel Control (6-4-0)/Grixis Control/Delver/Blue Jund
UWB Control/Mentor
UW Miracles/Control (currently active, 14-2-0)
BW Eldrazi & Taxes
RW Burn (9-1-0)
I do (academic) research on video games and archaeology! You can check out my open access book here: https://www.sidestone.com/books/the-interactive-past
1x snapcaster mage
4x pyromancer ascension
4x serum visions
4x sleight of hand
4x opt
4x thought scour
4x visions from veyond
4x noxious revibal
4x lightning bolt
4x remand
4x manamorphose
1x cryptic command
4x scalding tarn
2x flooded strand
2x steam vents
1x halloweed fountain
1x sacred foundry
3x spirebluff canal
4x island
1x mountain
Sideboard:
2x dispel
2x wear/tear
4x thing in the ice
2x monastery mentor
2x timely reforcement
3x blood moon
Im thinking in run lightning helix, but i dont know what remove. In the sideboard i probably change my dispels with swan song, And i want to run in my sideboard a shattering spree or abrado, to break the chalice of the void with a counter.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
4 Thing in the Ice
2 Bedlam Reveler
Enchantments (4)
4 Pyromancer Ascension
Spells (32)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Opt
2 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Thought Scour
4 Lightning Helix
4 Manamorphose
2 Remand
4 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Spirebluff Canal
2 Steam Vents
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Dispel
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrade
1 Blessed Alliance
2 Negate
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Molten Rain
2 Monastery Mentor
1 Wear // Tear
It is absolutely lovely to see this deck perform well in the current meta. I think it was a great meta call by Zeekery for a few reasons:
1) As GDS and Storm have become smaller portions of the meta, graveyard hate isn't as prominent in sideboard. There are more Anger of the Gods than Surgical Extractions or Nihil Spellbombs right now.
2) Chalice of the Void is on the downswing as well. It was more common during the Colourless Eldrazi / GDS meta, pre-unbans. While Chalice is still around, it's not as powerful against Humans (Vial and diverse mana costs), or Jeskai (Cryptic and Teferi deal with it late game, although it can still be disruptive early).
3) Tron is not highly represented in the current meta. If it was, there would be way more Damping Spheres in sideboards, hurting this deck too.
Specifically with this list, dropping 2 Remands for 2 Bedlam Revelers seems solid.
There's actually not much else to say, I'm just really excited to give this deck a whirl again.
I have a couple of questions. Apologies if they already have been discussed/answered before in this thread:
- T1 cantrips. Am I right in thinking the preferred order to play out cantrips is serum, sleight, opt, scour? Also in a goldfishing scenario is it correct to play a t1 cantrip with a thing in hand and only 2-3 other spells, or should you keep it in hand to flip thing earlier?
- Blood moon sideboard plan: What are peoples experience with this, is it any good? Kinda feels like we are a bad blood moon deck, as we can only ever get it out turn three at best and it doesnt synergise with our instant/sorcery plan. To my way of thinking, at least molten rain has the potential upsides of hitting two lands with ascension on/flipping thing/feeding reveller?
- Remand vs spell pierce/other counterspells. I personally am a big fan of spell pierce over remand. It is great to hold up t1 on the play if your opponent is on black to protect your ascension/thing from discard. Its also great against control to deploy a t3 threat and counter their counter. Can anyone explain why remand is the counterspell of choice in this deck? Is the cantrip really that relevant in a deck with 16-20 cantrips already?
Monastery mentor vs young pyromancer in SB. Is there a consensus? I’ve found pyromancer to be extremely strong so far, closing out quite a few post-SB games for me. If you can make pyromancer stick it generates so much value so quickly.
Here is my current decklist for reference - https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1258233#online
Regarding my build, I will probably find space for 2 surgicals and 1 EE in SB soon, this was just the build I started out with on a UR storm budget. I subbed 2 faithless lootings for 2 boros charm, from a suggestion a few pages back, and have been loving its versatility so far. Have used all three modes in relevant situations and adding that extra bit of reach has lead to some grindier post-SB wins where I just burn out the opponent without an activated ascension/thing.
im just wondering, why is thing in the ice preferred over young pyromancer? thing is a little harder to remove, sure, but young pyro can start generating value directly and have pretty decent offensive and defensive application just as thing.
Mission Briefing UU
Instant (Rare)
Surveil 2, then choose an instant or sorcery card in your graveyard. You may cast that card this turn. If that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.
Could this replace our worst cantrip? Seems better for us then snapcaster because a) its 2 instant triggers for titi not 1, b) it allows us to filter selected cards into the bin for pyromancer ascension, and c) it doesn't reduce the instant/sorcery count in the bin for reveller, it goes 1 for 1.
Worst case it doesn't do any of the above but still gives us reach with bolt/snap/bolt, path/snap/path etc
What would you cut for it? And hence this can be mana intensive, would going up to 19 lands be reasonable?