So what are people's thoughts on running Summoner's Pact? As a non creature spell it can trigger ascendancy, fuel Treasure Cruise, and thin the deck of mana dork's.
Guys, Guys, just busted this wide open Postmortem Lunge, a hasty dork for 1 mana that also triggers ascendancy, can also get a dryad arbor for free, just need to get a dork in the graveyard and that doesn't seem too difficult to me :p, empty board turn 3 Lunge>Ascendancy>Probe woops, I win
Wind Zendikon does the same thing. You don't have to pay extra life/mana for a Zendikon.
I should relook at Fatestitcher, it pays for itself with a card (virtually), while Zendikon pays for itself with a loot. I realized that you don't need to jam discard outlets in your deck to make it work. You're going to need Ascendancy and at least 1 cantrip to combo off, which is all the setup that Fatestitcher needs.
I'm not a fan of Fatestitcher when Wind Zendikon has consistently won me games post-fizzle. Wind Zendikon not being absolutely useless vs. Faeries, heavy control, and Infect helps.
On the alt win con slot, I got a great idea--Worm Harvest. It resists being targeted discarded, it doesn't entirely die to board wipes, and it blocks Goyf like a king.
So I tested it. I somehow kept getting it countered and board wiped by UWR Control--how the heck do they have the answer every turn until I'm in burn range? Guttural Response is probably better against them.
Then I tried Wishing for it first against Souls Rock. I won that game on Worm tokens alone. They had 2 Goyfs that couldn't bust through. (Them being stuck holding up Decay because I still had mana dorks helped.)
Obviously, Worm Harvest needs more testing, but if it might swing BGx match-ups that hard...
Postmortem lunge pays for itself though, enabling the turn 3 combo on an empty board, it even accelerates with a dryad arbor. Colorless mana is also a lot easier with a 4 color manabase.
Faith's Shield could be a strong card against abrupt decay and other disruption
I see your point on Postmortem Lunge paying for itself.
Cast Postmortem Lunge targeting Birds/Hierarch with 3 lands: net result is you lose 2 life, have 2 untapped lands, and 1 hasty mana dork.
OR if you paid black instead of 2 life, you have 1 untapped land and 1 hasty mana dork.
Cast Wind Zendikon with 3 lands: net result is you have 1 untapped land and 1 hasty mana dork.
HOWEVER...in order to cast Postmortem Lunge, you need a mana dork in your graveyard. That means that you need to actually draw into it in the first place, and get your opponent to discard/kill it. On the other hand Wind Zendikon is self-contained; it functions just fine even if you never drew another mana dork, or if your opponent ate your dead mana dork with Ooze, etc. Well, I guess you do need a land to enchant with Zendikon, but I don't see how you're winning with 0 lands, Zendikon/Lunge or otherwise.
Suppose you're playing a deck with 8 mana dorks and 4 Zendikons, vs a deck with 8 mana dorks and 4 Lunges. What happens when the Zendikon deck draws 0 mana dorks and 1 Zendikon? It can still combo off by the skin of its teeth. Vs the Lunge deck, which can't do anything at all. That's the reason to avoid playing Lunge IMO. Don't make your 2-card combo deck more inconsistent by turning it into a 3-card combo deck.
By the way, reanimating Dryad Arbor doesn't help because DA doesn't tap for blue.
For those interested here's my Zendikon vs Fatestitcher analysis.
Trivial case: you don't have Ascendancy. You're not winning, regardless of what you play.
Case 1: Ascendancy, 0 cantrips in hand. With Zendikon you can cast it, loot, and hope to draw into a cantrip and continue the combo. With Fatestitcher you can't do anything. It's still a long shot for Zendikon, since the moment you don't draw a cantrip you fizzle.
Case 2: Ascendancy, 2 cantrips in hand.
2a: Zendikon
Cast Zendikon (-1 mana), loot (draw 1 discard 1).
Tap Zendikon (+1 mana).
Cast cantrip (-1 mana, untap Zendikon), loot (draw 1 discard 1), resolve cantrip (draw 1).
End result: You spent 1 mana, have an untapped Zendikon on the field, drew 3, discarded 2.
2b: Fatestitcher
Cast cantrip (-1 mana), loot (draw 1 discard Fatestitcher), resolve cantrip (draw 1*).
Unearth Fatestitcher (-1 mana), tap Fatestitcher (+1 mana).
Cast cantrip (-1 mana, untap Fatestitcher), loot (draw 1 discard 1), resolve cantrip (draw 1).
End result: You spent 2 mana, have an untapped Fatestitcher on the field, drew 3, discarded 1. OK, strictly speaking you discarded 2, but you cast Fatestitcher from your graveyard so that counts as +1 card.
Case 3: Ascendancy, 1 cantrip in hand.
Similar to case 2, but you need to draw a cantrip at the point marked with a *.
I am the sort of guy who would rather play Desperate Ravings (2 mana, draw 2, discard 1) than Faithless Looting (1 mana, draw 2, discard 2) in Storm, so it seems I'll be switching to Fatestitcher.
Am I the only one who finds it hard to lose with even 1 dork out? And no Wind Zendikon?
Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand cost net 0 mana. Treasure Cruise, if you are able to delve fully, costs net 0 mana. Gitaxian Probe is either net 0 or 1, depending on your life level. Cerulean Wisps nets 1. Manamorphose costs 2 to cast, but nets 1. That's 23 22 spells (assuming only 3x cruise) that are either free or net +1 mana. Honestly, I'd rather play another U cantrip (Peek? Abundant Growth? Conjurer's Bauble?) than Wind Zendikon, I have literally 0 problems hitting 3 mana for a 2nd Ascendency without it.
[edit] The more I test without Zendikon, the more I like it. The only cards in the deck that don't cantrip are Ascendancy, Grapeshot, lands, and dorks, and those are plenty for dump fodder (I'm counting Glittering Wish as a cantrip since it puts a card into your hand, and mid-combo I'm often wishing for Manamorphose anyways) (also it should be clear I didn't mean that Grapeshot is dump fodder :P)
[edit 2] 22 free spells, that was me forgetting that one of the Manamorphose's is in the sideboard
Nature's Spiral might be worth SBing, it retrieves both halves of the combo in case of removal/discard.
Noxious Revival does the same, but costs you a draw. Upside is that it's another free spell for untapping your dorks for T2 wins and stuff (though you'd have to be pretty damn lucky to win with NR and only 3 other cards in hand, since you need at least 4 cards to start the combo: 2 lands, 1 mana dork, 1 Ascendancy).
Here's what I'm using without Wind Zendikon/Fatestitcher/any hasty guys, the mana seems tighter but I have had much more success with extra cantrips instead of extra untaps, one dork is plenty to win the game with.
29 cantrips is just so good. Its so much more consistent, I have such a miniscule chance of fizzling. I only might want to add another dork or 2, since removal is so bad, but I don't want to have to use arbor elves.
The only creatures we run are mana dorks anyways. It might help you get red from Noble Hierarch, but I don't even have a problem with that, running 4 Manamorphose and only a few cards needing red. It would gain mana with Ascendancy active, but there are already multiple cards that do that in the deck.
Again, do not discuss the banlist in this thread. I have added a public note to the OP, and this is the second verbal warning.
As this deck takes off in popularity, I suspect there will be more and more calls for bans. If you want to discuss that, head on over to the banlist thread. This thread is solely for developing the deck, discussing its matchups, refining its overall strategy, etc. Ban discussion here will be moderated whether or not you "know" that it isn't allowed.
Alright, let's talk about some possible ways to hate this deck out.
Kill/discard the mana dork/Ascendancy
By far the easiest way to hate out the deck. It's a 2-card combo, and if you kill either half, this deck does nothing. Mana dorks are easily Bolted/Helixed, some versions play 0 basics so even Path can become a drawback-free 1-mana kill spell. This deck does have a lot of redundancy though: it plays 12+ mana dorks and 7 Ascendancies. So it might just end up drawing into another copy of whatever you killed. With 20+ cantrips, it's not a long shot.
Sorcery-speed removal on Ascendancy is unreliable (but I guess it's better than nothing, especially if it also hits mana dorks). This deck can combo off 3 lands and 1 mana dork without exposing Ascendancy to sorcery-speed removal.
Grim Lavamancer is pretty good. This deck needs to draw Caryatid, or burn a Wish to find an answer for it, or slam 2 mana dorks and combo off immediately on the next turn.
Liliana deals with mana dorks, even Caryatid, and rips apart your hand once they're gone. Most versions of this deck play Dryad Arbor to soft-counter Liliana.
Counterspells
Spell Snare has a decent number of targets in this deck: Caryatid, Wish, and Manamorphose. Unfortunately it can't counter any other mana dork (there's 8 of them), cantrip, or Ascendancy itself.
Mana Leak is good. Even with mana dorks, most of the time Leak is a hard counter. This deck needs 6 mana to resolve an Ascendancy through Leak.
Remand is tricky to evaluate. I think the correct play is not to Remand the Ascendancy, but to save it for Treasure Cruise. Remember, exiling cards for Delve is part of the cost, so if you Remand a Cruise, the exiled cards stay exiled and this deck has to dump another 7 cards in the graveyard to reduce it to 1 again.
Grave hate to turn off Treasure Cruise
Rest in Peace is the best grave hate card, since it stops Cruise from being casted for 1 mana until it's answered. Relic is a soft-counter; you need to pop it before this deck hits 7 cards in the graveyard, otherwise you can't stop Cruise.
Slaughter Games on Glittering Wish
This works if they play wincons in the side and no Grapeshots main, but don't forget that they can still win by Bird beatdown. They only get one shot at the Bird win, though.
Chalice of the Void on 1
This stops most of the deck, but not Wishing for an answer to Chalice. On the plus side, this deck can't chain cantrips to find Wish with a Chalice on 1 on the field.
Fun fact: Bound // Determined beats Chalice of the Void, which is pretty cool since the Chalice is still on the board, but you get to ignore it completely. As a bonus, you get to draw a card.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
With 2 mana dorks down, the second cancels out Thalia's tax. It's beatable without having to Wish for an answer. The Thalia decks (hatebears/D&T) are lacking on removal (they only have 4 Path main) so your mana dorks are likely to survive, but as their name suggests, they play a ton of other hate.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Linvala shuts the deck down completely. Most of the winning decks this week only have 2, sometimes more, answers to her: Simic Charm and Fiery Justice. Linvala does cost 4, which is pretty slow.
Eidolon of the Great Revel
Once it comes down, the only outs are Grapeshot-ting it for 2 (not likely to happen with only 0-1 Grapeshot in the deck) or Wishing for an answer (which will cost 4 life AND burn through one Wish). Even if this deck gets rid of Eidolon, it likely can't survive the barrage of burn that follows. Postboard, this deck can bring in more answers to Eidolon. It's still hard to beat the deck that plays Eidolon (Burn), because they also have Grim Lavamancer and enough burn to kill mana dorks.
Rule of Law, Ethersworn Canonist, Eidolon of Rhetoric
Yup, these are unbeatable without Wishing for an answer.
Just some interesting stuff: This deck's answers to hate really remind me of Eggs. In Eggs you can beat a lot of stuff just by having 2 Sunrises: discard, counters, grave hate. Ascendancy Storm is a lot like that - you can beat a lot of stuff by having 2 mana dorks. You can beat 1 piece of removal/discard with 2 mana dorks, you can hardcast Treasure Cruise with 2 mana dorks, you can Wish for a bullet in time with 2 mana dorks.
Oh and lastly, don't go fishing for free wins against opponents who forget to side out their 4th Ascendancy. You should know that it's legal to play 61 main/14 side ever since July 13 2013.
I really do think the BGx decks, and Twin have a really good game against you. Killing off your turn one dorks, countering or forcing a discard of your Wishes/Ascendancy. BGx can then turn three Liliana, and twin can start threatening their own combo. It's a good, deck, and one I for see moving out of creation, but I have no idea why people are already screaming for bans on this deck.
Probs being overly picky but spirit of the labyrinth would also fit in the list with the Rule of Law and the like. I have a feeling it might start to see more play with the rise of treasure cruise. Although there's also the good chance that it'll never see play no matter how badly I might want it to.
I'm a huge fan of Haste dorks and want them to catch on because they let the deck dodge sorcery-speed board wipes. Thus, decks are stuck between tapping out to kill Sylvan Caryatid and risking me comboing off on (4-)5 lands or not tapping out to kill dorks and risking me calling the instant-speed disruption bluff. Opponents used to Sam Black variants will probably fall for Haste dork strategies, while the moment they have to hold up Ascendancy/dork removal, we can gather more resources and possibly land 2 Ascendancies in one turn. (Sadly, I've only pulled off 2 consecutive Ascendancies once!)
I've found that creature removal is generally worse against me than targeted discard, which is worse against me than counterspells, which is about as bad to me as Ascendancy nukes (while I do play Guttural Response and can lure counters with Treasure Cruise, at least I get one set of Ascendancy triggers if it gets nuked ASAP). If I start a combo turn with 2 dorks, I'm generally home free, even if one of them dies in response to Ascendancy.
Based on my Whispers of the Muse testing (it saved my butt yesterday once by Buybacking it multiple times vs. UWR Kiki during the combo turn because I was strapped for cards, and no, I didn't net neutral mana from it and eventually had to cantrip it), not even RIP may be able to disrupt mid-combo Treasure Cruise hard enough.
Why not just play a cantrip, like Peek or Conjurer's Bauble?
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Daniel Toledo won the Arcanis Deluxe modern tournament in Spain this past weekend with this deck:
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Island
2 Stomping Ground
2 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
3 Mana Confluence
2 Arbor Elf
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cerulean Wispd
3 Manamorphose
4 Glittering Wish
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Grapeshot
3 Treasure Cruise
2 Path to Exile
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Simic Charm
1 Fiery Justice
1 Manamorphose
3 Swan Song
1 Wear // Tear
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Guttural Response
1 Aurelia's Fury
1 Sphinx's Revelation
As for the name, I like Dork Ascendancy
I should relook at Fatestitcher, it pays for itself with a card (virtually), while Zendikon pays for itself with a loot. I realized that you don't need to jam discard outlets in your deck to make it work. You're going to need Ascendancy and at least 1 cantrip to combo off, which is all the setup that Fatestitcher needs.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
On the alt win con slot, I got a great idea--Worm Harvest. It resists being targeted discarded, it doesn't entirely die to board wipes, and it blocks Goyf like a king.
So I tested it. I somehow kept getting it countered and board wiped by UWR Control--how the heck do they have the answer every turn until I'm in burn range? Guttural Response is probably better against them.
Then I tried Wishing for it first against Souls Rock. I won that game on Worm tokens alone. They had 2 Goyfs that couldn't bust through. (Them being stuck holding up Decay because I still had mana dorks helped.)
Obviously, Worm Harvest needs more testing, but if it might swing BGx match-ups that hard...
Faith's Shield could be a strong card against abrupt decay and other disruption
Cast Postmortem Lunge targeting Birds/Hierarch with 3 lands: net result is you lose 2 life, have 2 untapped lands, and 1 hasty mana dork.
OR if you paid black instead of 2 life, you have 1 untapped land and 1 hasty mana dork.
Cast Wind Zendikon with 3 lands: net result is you have 1 untapped land and 1 hasty mana dork.
HOWEVER...in order to cast Postmortem Lunge, you need a mana dork in your graveyard. That means that you need to actually draw into it in the first place, and get your opponent to discard/kill it. On the other hand Wind Zendikon is self-contained; it functions just fine even if you never drew another mana dork, or if your opponent ate your dead mana dork with Ooze, etc. Well, I guess you do need a land to enchant with Zendikon, but I don't see how you're winning with 0 lands, Zendikon/Lunge or otherwise.
Suppose you're playing a deck with 8 mana dorks and 4 Zendikons, vs a deck with 8 mana dorks and 4 Lunges. What happens when the Zendikon deck draws 0 mana dorks and 1 Zendikon? It can still combo off by the skin of its teeth. Vs the Lunge deck, which can't do anything at all. That's the reason to avoid playing Lunge IMO. Don't make your 2-card combo deck more inconsistent by turning it into a 3-card combo deck.
By the way, reanimating Dryad Arbor doesn't help because DA doesn't tap for blue.
For those interested here's my Zendikon vs Fatestitcher analysis.
Trivial case: you don't have Ascendancy. You're not winning, regardless of what you play.
Case 1: Ascendancy, 0 cantrips in hand. With Zendikon you can cast it, loot, and hope to draw into a cantrip and continue the combo. With Fatestitcher you can't do anything. It's still a long shot for Zendikon, since the moment you don't draw a cantrip you fizzle.
Case 2: Ascendancy, 2 cantrips in hand.
2a: Zendikon
Cast Zendikon (-1 mana), loot (draw 1 discard 1).
Tap Zendikon (+1 mana).
Cast cantrip (-1 mana, untap Zendikon), loot (draw 1 discard 1), resolve cantrip (draw 1).
End result: You spent 1 mana, have an untapped Zendikon on the field, drew 3, discarded 2.
2b: Fatestitcher
Cast cantrip (-1 mana), loot (draw 1 discard Fatestitcher), resolve cantrip (draw 1*).
Unearth Fatestitcher (-1 mana), tap Fatestitcher (+1 mana).
Cast cantrip (-1 mana, untap Fatestitcher), loot (draw 1 discard 1), resolve cantrip (draw 1).
End result: You spent 2 mana, have an untapped Fatestitcher on the field, drew 3, discarded 1. OK, strictly speaking you discarded 2, but you cast Fatestitcher from your graveyard so that counts as +1 card.
Case 3: Ascendancy, 1 cantrip in hand.
Similar to case 2, but you need to draw a cantrip at the point marked with a *.
I am the sort of guy who would rather play Desperate Ravings (2 mana, draw 2, discard 1) than Faithless Looting (1 mana, draw 2, discard 2) in Storm, so it seems I'll be switching to Fatestitcher.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Former DCI L2 Judge
My old Cube podcast on ManaDeprived, with Goodking and artbcnco: http://manadeprived.com/podcasts/mtgin3d/
You can find me on Twitter as well.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand cost net 0 mana. Treasure Cruise, if you are able to delve fully, costs net 0 mana. Gitaxian Probe is either net 0 or 1, depending on your life level. Cerulean Wisps nets 1. Manamorphose costs 2 to cast, but nets 1. That's
2322 spells (assuming only 3x cruise) that are either free or net +1 mana. Honestly, I'd rather play another U cantrip (Peek? Abundant Growth? Conjurer's Bauble?) than Wind Zendikon, I have literally 0 problems hitting 3 mana for a 2nd Ascendency without it.[edit] The more I test without Zendikon, the more I like it. The only cards in the deck that don't cantrip are Ascendancy, Grapeshot, lands, and dorks, and those are plenty for dump fodder (I'm counting Glittering Wish as a cantrip since it puts a card into your hand, and mid-combo I'm often wishing for Manamorphose anyways) (also it should be clear I didn't mean that Grapeshot is dump fodder :P)
[edit 2] 22 free spells, that was me forgetting that one of the Manamorphose's is in the sideboard
Noxious Revival does the same, but costs you a draw. Upside is that it's another free spell for untapping your dorks for T2 wins and stuff (though you'd have to be pretty damn lucky to win with NR and only 3 other cards in hand, since you need at least 4 cards to start the combo: 2 lands, 1 mana dork, 1 Ascendancy).
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Breeding Pool
2 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Forest
3 Mana Confluence
Creatures 11
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Jeskai Ascendency
MB Win-con 1
1 Grapeshot
Cantrips 29
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Manamorphose
4 Glittering Wish
3 Treasure Cruise
4 Cerulean Wisps
3 Abundant Growth
1 Guttural Response
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Flesh // Blood
2 Wear // Tear
1 Meddling Mage
1 Lightning Helix
1 Dreadbore
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Rakdos Charm
3 Swan Song (to actually side in, not for wishboard)
29 cantrips is just so good. Its so much more consistent, I have such a miniscule chance of fizzling. I only might want to add another dork or 2, since removal is so bad, but I don't want to have to use arbor elves.
As this deck takes off in popularity, I suspect there will be more and more calls for bans. If you want to discuss that, head on over to the banlist thread. This thread is solely for developing the deck, discussing its matchups, refining its overall strategy, etc. Ban discussion here will be moderated whether or not you "know" that it isn't allowed.
Kill/discard the mana dork/Ascendancy
By far the easiest way to hate out the deck. It's a 2-card combo, and if you kill either half, this deck does nothing. Mana dorks are easily Bolted/Helixed, some versions play 0 basics so even Path can become a drawback-free 1-mana kill spell. This deck does have a lot of redundancy though: it plays 12+ mana dorks and 7 Ascendancies. So it might just end up drawing into another copy of whatever you killed. With 20+ cantrips, it's not a long shot.
Sorcery-speed removal on Ascendancy is unreliable (but I guess it's better than nothing, especially if it also hits mana dorks). This deck can combo off 3 lands and 1 mana dork without exposing Ascendancy to sorcery-speed removal.
Grim Lavamancer is pretty good. This deck needs to draw Caryatid, or burn a Wish to find an answer for it, or slam 2 mana dorks and combo off immediately on the next turn.
Liliana deals with mana dorks, even Caryatid, and rips apart your hand once they're gone. Most versions of this deck play Dryad Arbor to soft-counter Liliana.
Counterspells
Spell Snare has a decent number of targets in this deck: Caryatid, Wish, and Manamorphose. Unfortunately it can't counter any other mana dork (there's 8 of them), cantrip, or Ascendancy itself.
Mana Leak is good. Even with mana dorks, most of the time Leak is a hard counter. This deck needs 6 mana to resolve an Ascendancy through Leak.
Remand is tricky to evaluate. I think the correct play is not to Remand the Ascendancy, but to save it for Treasure Cruise. Remember, exiling cards for Delve is part of the cost, so if you Remand a Cruise, the exiled cards stay exiled and this deck has to dump another 7 cards in the graveyard to reduce it to 1 again.
Grave hate to turn off Treasure Cruise
Rest in Peace is the best grave hate card, since it stops Cruise from being casted for 1 mana until it's answered. Relic is a soft-counter; you need to pop it before this deck hits 7 cards in the graveyard, otherwise you can't stop Cruise.
Slaughter Games on Glittering Wish
This works if they play wincons in the side and no Grapeshots main, but don't forget that they can still win by Bird beatdown. They only get one shot at the Bird win, though.
Chalice of the Void on 1
This stops most of the deck, but not Wishing for an answer to Chalice. On the plus side, this deck can't chain cantrips to find Wish with a Chalice on 1 on the field.
Fun fact: Bound // Determined beats Chalice of the Void, which is pretty cool since the Chalice is still on the board, but you get to ignore it completely. As a bonus, you get to draw a card.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
With 2 mana dorks down, the second cancels out Thalia's tax. It's beatable without having to Wish for an answer. The Thalia decks (hatebears/D&T) are lacking on removal (they only have 4 Path main) so your mana dorks are likely to survive, but as their name suggests, they play a ton of other hate.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Linvala shuts the deck down completely. Most of the winning decks this week only have 2, sometimes more, answers to her: Simic Charm and Fiery Justice. Linvala does cost 4, which is pretty slow.
Eidolon of the Great Revel
Once it comes down, the only outs are Grapeshot-ting it for 2 (not likely to happen with only 0-1 Grapeshot in the deck) or Wishing for an answer (which will cost 4 life AND burn through one Wish). Even if this deck gets rid of Eidolon, it likely can't survive the barrage of burn that follows. Postboard, this deck can bring in more answers to Eidolon. It's still hard to beat the deck that plays Eidolon (Burn), because they also have Grim Lavamancer and enough burn to kill mana dorks.
Rule of Law, Ethersworn Canonist, Eidolon of Rhetoric
Yup, these are unbeatable without Wishing for an answer.
Just some interesting stuff: This deck's answers to hate really remind me of Eggs. In Eggs you can beat a lot of stuff just by having 2 Sunrises: discard, counters, grave hate. Ascendancy Storm is a lot like that - you can beat a lot of stuff by having 2 mana dorks. You can beat 1 piece of removal/discard with 2 mana dorks, you can hardcast Treasure Cruise with 2 mana dorks, you can Wish for a bullet in time with 2 mana dorks.
Oh and lastly, don't go fishing for free wins against opponents who forget to side out their 4th Ascendancy. You should know that it's legal to play 61 main/14 side ever since July 13 2013.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Edit-
How do you fight Phyrexian Revoker if someone were to call out your Glittering Wish?
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
I've found that creature removal is generally worse against me than targeted discard, which is worse against me than counterspells, which is about as bad to me as Ascendancy nukes (while I do play Guttural Response and can lure counters with Treasure Cruise, at least I get one set of Ascendancy triggers if it gets nuked ASAP). If I start a combo turn with 2 dorks, I'm generally home free, even if one of them dies in response to Ascendancy.
Based on my Whispers of the Muse testing (it saved my butt yesterday once by Buybacking it multiple times vs. UWR Kiki during the combo turn because I was strapped for cards, and no, I didn't net neutral mana from it and eventually had to cantrip it), not even RIP may be able to disrupt mid-combo Treasure Cruise hard enough.
For other hate bears, I've had to kick out Qasali Pridemage and Tidehollow Sculler before. Eidolon of the Great Revel is often game over for me, and I've never won through redundant Eidolons or Boros Charm protection.
Oblivion Stone is a meanie that often shoves me back turns.
Phyrexian Unlife is one heck of a combo roadblock, and Angel's Grace plain blows for Sam Black variants (Ad Nauseam is one of the strongest reasons why I push Debt to the Deathless instead of Flesh // Blood and prefer Haste dorks). Save yourself the trouble of trying to get 2 Wishes mid-combo and Slaughter Games Ad Nauseam with one Wish instead.
4 Grand Architect
Spells:
1 Gitaxian Prove
2 Silence
1 Grapeshot
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Reshape
4 Faith's Rewards
4 Jeskai Ascendency
Artifacts:
4 Chromaric Star
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Conjurer's Bauble
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Mox Opal
Land:
2 Flooded Strand
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Hallowed Fountain
6 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
2 Steam Vents
1 Scalding Tarn
So far the deck is running pretty smooth but I'm debating switching grand architect for Ensoul Artifact
UThada Adel AcquisitorU
GB Savara, Queen of the Golgori BG
GR Ulasht, the Hate Seed RG