Also known as: Glitter Storm, Jeskai Ascendancy with green, 4C Jeskai Ascendancy, Jeskai Ascendancy 1.0 (without Fatestitcher), Jeskai Ascendancy 1.5 (with Fatestitcher)
Contents
1) What is Ascendancy Storm?
2) Card Choices
3) Deck Construction
4) Technical Play
5) Decklists
6) Articles
1) What is Ascendancy Storm?
Ascendancy Storm is a 4-color combo deck. The basic engine is Jeskai Ascendancy + mana dork. The rest of the deck is filled with cheap cantrips (1-mana spells that draw a card or cards). You tap the mana dork for 1 mana, and use that mana to cast a cantrip. Jeskai Ascendancy will trigger, untapping the mana dork and looting (draw+discard) once. By untapping the mana dork, you basically get to cast the cantrip for free. This lets you draw through your entire deck.
With multiple Ascendancies or mana dorks, you can actually generate mana, instead of merely breaking even. You win by 1) Wishing for your sideboarded wincon (Flesh // Blood), 2) beating down with an Ascendancy-boosted creature (it pumps the mana dork too!).
Please don't confuse this Ascendancy Storm with the other Ascendancy Storm (in Standard): the one that uses Ascendancy + creature + Retraction Helix/Banishing Knack + 0-cost artifact to generate unlimited triggers/Storm. That deck is completely different (and much more inconsistent, IMO), so I won't be discussing it here.
Please also don’t confuse this Ascendancy Storm with the UWR version. That version is slower and packs a lot more controlling elements. They’re different enough to warrant separate threads for discussion. You can find the thread for UWR Ascendancy here.
Why should you play Ascendancy Storm?
1) High level of redundancy. You can play 12+ mana dorks and effectively 7 copies of Ascendancy. You also have something like 20 cantrips in the deck to find what you want faster.
2) Wishboard. Glittering Wish isn’t just a way to get a copy of Jeskai Ascendancy. It also grabs answers to hate cards that your opponent might have, even in Game 1.
3) Potentially fast kills. The fastest kill with Ascendancy Storm is turn 2:
T1 land, mana dork
T2 land, Ascendancy, Gitaxian Probe (paying 2 life). You can now untap your mana dork and combo off.
4) Resistance to grave hate. With the exception of Treasure Cruise, Ascendancy Storm does not require the use of its graveyard, unlike UR Storm. Even then, Relic of Progenitus is merely a soft-counter to Treasure Cruise. If you have priority and 7 cards in your graveyard, your opponent can’t stop you from casting Cruise, since Delve is part of the cost. The best they can do is pop Relic before you get 7 cards in your graveyard and hope that you fizzle before you can get another 7.
Why shouldn’t you play Ascendancy Storm?
1) Chance of fizzling. Even with the untouchable Sylvan Caryatid, Ascendancy Storm is still a combo that requires 2 cards and has a chance of fizzling. Compare this to other combo decks in Modern: Twin, Scapeshift and Ad Nauseam don't fizzle, and UR Storm only needs one engine card (PA/Mancer).
2) Too many colors. This hurts you two ways: one, your mana base deals a lot of damage to you, with constant fetching for untapped shocklands. Two, you have to keep track of a lot of colors during the combo. Some people use dice, some people write it down on a piece of paper. Be aware of this overhead.
3) Weakness to removal. One half of the engine is an easily-killed, summoning sick mana dork. Sylvan Caryatid is immune to most removal though.
4) Time. You will have to draw through a large portion of your library, which takes upwards of five minutes. This is especially a concern on MTGO.
2) Card Choices a) Engine: Ascendancy
Staples: Jeskai Ascendancy: The sole reason this deck is possible. Unfortunately, you can only play 3 maindeck, because you need one in the sideboard to Wish for. Glittering Wish: Ascendancies 4-7, plus any card in your sideboard. Glittering Wish is much cheaper than other tutors, costing only 2 mana.
Wish exiles itself on resolution, so it doesn't feed the graveyard for Treasure Cruise, and you can't use, say, Treasured Find to bring it back. However, if Wish is countered, it goes to your graveyard.
Wish can't be used to retrieve a card in exile. This used to be the case before 2009, but the rules have changed.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Your mana dorks MUST be able to tap for blue mana. If they don’t, you can’t cast your cantrips.
Staples: Birds of Paradise: The best mana dork for this deck. It costs the least amount possible, taps for every color, and has flying for when you have to win by beatdown. Noble Hierarch: Second best mana dork. It taps for 3/5 colors. No red means you need some other red source (Stomping Ground, Manamorphose, Mana Confluence) to cast Ascendancy, and no black means the same for some Wished cards e.g. Slaughter Games. Sylvan Caryatid: Hexproof mana dork. This takes a load off your back, since you don’t have to worry about it getting killed. In exchange for that it costs 1 more mana to cast. And it has defender, so attacking for 20 isn’t an option. Fatestitcher: An alternative, hasty mana dork. You use it to untap your lands, so it has the same effect as Birds/Hierarch/Caryatid. Here’s a breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of Fatestitcher compared to mana dorks:
Advantages
- It basically costs 0 mana on the combo turn, since it has haste and pays for itself by untapping a land. With a Stitcher in the graveyard, you can win on 4 lands: tap 3 for Ascendancy, tap 1 for Stitcher, tap Stitcher for a cantrip and combo off.
- It is safe from sorcery-speed removal. In addition, it can’t be killed by Abrupt Decay. (Of course, the other player will save Decay for Ascendancy, but you might be able to tap their lands, empty their mana pools, and cast Ascendancy.)
- It can’t be countered by traditional means, as unearth is an ability.
- It effectively turns one loot into a draw.
- It can tap down your opponent’s permanents, such as their lands, or a Trinisphere (lol). Its ability also makes it easier to win by attacking; just tap all their blockers.
If you tap down your opponent’s lands, you need to enter the second main phase to empty their mana pools.
- It can be unearthed midway through the combo. Once you do that, you get back 2 mana per spell. Cantrips which cost 1 mana now put you ahead instead of breaking even.
Disadvantages
- It needs to be put in the graveyard first, which means playing Faithless Looting or Thought Scour. Alternatively, you need an Ascendancy and 2 cantrips. Cast Ascendancy, then cast a cantrip. Trigger Ascendancy’s loot and discard Fatestitcher. Then unearth Fatestitcher and combo off. Note that you can do this over two turns, e.g. T3 Ascendancy > T4 cantrip and combo off.
- It uses the graveyard, so it can be hated on (by Scavenging Ooze for example).
- It needs a blue source that can be used indefinitely in order to combo off, i.e. basic Island or Breeding Pool. Mana Confluence pings you for 1 each time you tap it for mana and Gemstone Mine is gone after at most 3 uses.
Play 12 mana dorks. The traditional build has 4 each of the green ones. The Fatestitcher build has 4 each of Birds, Hierarch and Fatestitcher.
Other choices: Wind Zendikon: This card turns one of your lands into a creature, so it gets the benefit of untapping from Ascendancy. It also counts as a noncreature spell, so it triggers Ascendancy mid-combo. Postmortem Lunge: Another hasty mana dork. When you pay black mana for it, it acts the same as a Zendikon. However, it is a lot less consistent. A deck with 8 mana dorks and 4 Zendikons can still win if it draws 0 mana dorks and 1 Zendikon. The same can’t be said of a deck that plays 8 mana dorks and 4 Lunge. Kiora’s Follower, Hydroform: You can Wish for them. Lifespark Spellbomb: More expensive Zendikon, with the option of cantripping if you have more mana than cards. Bloom Tender: It taps for 4 mana with Ascendancy out. Unfortunately it costs 2 mana, competes with Caryatid, and does not actually help you cast Jeskai Ascendancy (it doesn’t tap for U/W/R until you already have one permanent of that color).
Fatestitcher analysis (vs Zendikon):
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 *.
Postmortem Lunge analysis (vs Zendikon):
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.
c) Cantrips
Staples: Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand: The basic cantrips for any base-blue combo deck. These are vital to the functioning of your deck. Gitaxian Probe: It cycles for 1 mana, which is acceptable. You also have the option of casting it for 2 life to dig a little bit deeper for a land in the early-game, or to untap your mana dorks for 0 mana mid-combo. Oh and it lets you look at your opponent’s hand as well. Manamorphose: This card cycles for a net 0 mana, filters into red for Ascendancy if you only have Noble Hierarch, and untaps your mana dorks mid-combo. It can get a bit clumsy early-game (you have to decide, before drawing, whether you want UU, UG or GG for mana dorks and cantrips) and mid-combo (it’s useless if you only have 1 mana floating, which can happen if you tapped low for Ascendancy and tried to combo off immediately). Treasure Cruise: The best card in the deck mid-combo. It basically draws 3 cards for 1 mana, which is insane. You’ll need it to avoid fizzling. Even pre-combo, it has some utility; you’re playing mana dorks after all, so it’s not unreasonable to cast this for 3 or 4 after fetching/cantripping a little. Thought Scour: This card fills up your graveyard for Treasure Cruise, and if you get lucky you might mill a Fatestitcher. It’s also a wincon with Wheel of Sun and Moon (more on that later). Faithless Looting (Fatestitcher build): This is necessary to get Fatestitcher in the graveyard pre-combo. It costs red mana and is useless if it’s the only card in your hand, but it has flashback. The flashback cost is seldom a problem in the Fatestitcher build because it generates so much mana.
Play 4 copies of Serum Visions, Gitaxian Probe, Manamorphose and Treasure Cruise. Some players play only 3 Cruise, which I don’t recommend.
Other options: Cerulean Wisps: Works the same way as Manamorphose; it cycles for net 0 mana if you have a mana dork out. However, it requires a target to cast, and if the target gets killed in response, it’s countered on resolution and you don’t get to draw. Ideas Unbound: Treasure Cruises 5-8. It costs 1 more mana, which may leave you stuck mid-combo if you haven’t got a second mana dork or Ascendancy yet. It can be casted before the combo to loot. Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere: They fix your mana, like Manamorphose, but for net 1 mana instead of 0. Star is better because if it gets destroyed for some reason, you still get to draw. Conjurer’s Bauble: It lets you bottom-deck a card, which is mildly relevant. Two Baubles can loop indefinitely.
Note that the bottom-decking is optional, so if you want to keep your graveyard stocked for Treasure Cruise you can do so. Peek, Quicken, Visions of Beyond, Whispers of the Muse: More cantrips with low utility. Abundant Growth: It lets any land tap for blue, which is useful with Fatestitcher or Wind Zendikon. However, outside of that situation it’s worse than any other cantrip, because it doesn’t feed the graveyard for Treasure Cruise. Crimson Wisps: This lets you grant haste to a mid-combo mana dork. You need to have a lot of cards in hand before you can make that play safely though.
d) Wincons
Staples: Flesh // Blood: Cheap, Wishable wincon. Equivalent to Grapeshot, since Ascendancy pumps 1 power every time you cast a noncreature spell. Unlike Grapeshot though, it doesn’t use up maindeck space.
Other options: Grapeshot: It does nothing to extend your combo, and you can’t discard it unless beatdown is an option. If you play Grapeshot, avoid looting with Ascendancy when you’re down to 2 cantrips in hand. If you cast one cantrip and draw Grapeshot, you’re stuck – you either have to discard the cantrip and win with your current board state + Grapeshot, or discard Grapeshot and win with beatdown. Wheel of Sun and Moon (with Thought Scour): Wheel + Thought Scour + any cantrip results in infinite mill. Here’s how it works:
1) Get yourself down to 1 card in your library.
2) Cast Wheel of Sun and Moon, enchanting yourself.
3) Cast Thought Scour, targeting your opponent for the mill. Draw the last card in your library. Thought Scour goes back into your library after resolving due to Wheel.
4) Cast a cantrip. It doesn’t matter what the secondary effects are, you just need it to draw you a card. Draw Thought Scour. The cantrip goes back into your library.
5) Repeat steps 3-4.
Do note that this wincon is not feasible on MTGO. It simply takes too long.
Play 1 Flesh//Blood in the sideboard. All other wincons are optional.
e) Lands
IMPORTANT NOTE: The two main colors in this deck are blue and green. All your early plays cost one mana in either of these colors. Any land that does not tap for either color should not be up for consideration. Green is a bit more important because you can cast mana dorks with it and then use the mana dorks to cast cantrips, whereas you can’t cast cantrips followed by mana dorks if you only have blue-producing lands.
Fetchlands: Obvious includes. They get all your shocks, feed your graveyard, and thin your deck ever so slightly. Play the Gx ones.
Shocklands: You need Breeding Pool (taps for both main colors), Stomping Ground (taps for red if your mana dork is Hierarch), Temple Garden (taps for white, for Wish). In the Fatestitcher build, you can play Ux shocklands, since Stitcher costs U and requires a blue source to cast cantrips during the combo. Mana Confluence: It taps for all colors, which is super useful in this deck. The downside is that it costs 1 life every time you do so. Playing this as your first land will rack up life payments fast.
Basic lands: It’s possible to do without these. They can be played at no cost to your life during the combo turn. Also, including basic lands leaves you with a consolation prize should your opponent play Path to Exile on your mana dork.
Basic Island is better than basic Forest, because casting Ascendancy + a cantrip in one turn consumes WUUR, and Forest doesn’t pay for any of that. Dryad Arbor: Sac fodder for Liliana. It’s not that useful as a mana dork because it doesn’t tap for blue. Gemstone Mine: It works up to 3 times with Fatestitcher, and feeds the graveyard once it’s exhausted.
Play 15-16 lands. Historically, this number is appropriate for combo decks looking to draw through a substantial portion of their library – a low land count is good, because you are less likely to draw lands during the combo. UR Storm plays 16, Eggs played 17, Extended Elves played 17. 16 lands is definitely not too low because you’re playing both cantrips and mana dorks.
f) Sideboard
IMPORTANT NOTE: You have a lot of freedom when it comes to SB cards, because your maindeck is 4 colors and you have Glittering Wish to grab them. However, that doesn’t mean that every single SB spell you play has to be multicolored – you can play some mono-colored ones, with the intention of siding out maindeck cards for them.
In general, I wouldn’t play any SB cards that cost 4 or more mana, other than Slaughter Games. Being able to Wish for them means that you can afford to play 2x 2CMC narrow answer instead of 2x 3CMC general answer.
3) Deck Construction
There are two different builds of this deck: the traditional build with regular mana dorks, and the Fatestitcher build. Regardless of which build you’re playing, your deck should satisfy the following criteria:
1) 12 mana dorks. The traditional build plays 4 Birds, 4 Hierarch, 4 Caryatid. The Fatestitcher build plays 4 Birds, 4 Caryatid, 4 Stitcher. Hierarch is cut because it doesn’t tap for red (Faithless Looting), and is easier to remove.
2) 4 of each of the important cantrips. That means Serum Visions, Gitaxian Probe, Manamorphose, Treasure Cruise.
3) Some way of generating mana mid-combo, other than Probe and Manamorphose. In the traditional build this means Cerulean Wisps or Crimson Wisps. The Stitcher build has Fatestichers.
The Stitcher build plays Faithless Looting and Thought Scour to get Stitchers into the graveyard pre-combo. It doesn’t need Cerulean Wisps, because sometimes it simply can’t be cycled pre-combo due to the lack of targets (e.g. a Stitcher in the graveyard and no other creatures on the battlefield). Crimson Wisps is also cuttable, since Fatestitcher performs the same function.
You can play one or two Silence main. It’s a lifesaver against decks with counterspells, and pre-emptively stops Abrupt Decay, so you can cast Ascendancy and combo off unhindered. Against other decks you can burn it early to “Time Walk” your opponent, loosely speaking.
Don't play 1-ofs that form a true infinite loop and justify them with "it reduces the combo time" (e.g. the Retraction Helix combo). You will end up having to dig for those 1-ofs anyway, turning over a large portion of your library, so you don't actually save any time.
4) Technical Play Land Sequencing
The first land you want to fetch is Breeding Pool – it lets you cast both mana dorks and cantrips. After that, get Temple Garden for Glittering Wish/Jeskai Ascendancy. If you casted a Noble Hierarch, get Stomping Ground instead.
Ascendancy Triggers
1) Tap all your mana dorks. Refer to the section below for which colors you should generate.
2) Cast the cantrip. Announce the untap trigger(s), then the loot trigger(s).
3) Resolve the loot trigger(s).
4) Resolve one untap trigger. Untap your mana dorks. If you still have untap triggers, tap your mana dorks for mana, then resolve the next untap trigger.
4x) WHEN CASTING CERULEAN WISPS: Tap the mana dork that you targeted with Wisps for mana.
5) Resolve the cantrip.
As far as I know, you can't choose to resolve the cantrip before the loot trigger.
Some shortcuts when goldfishing or playing with people who trust you. The following assumes a board state of 1 untapped mana dork, 1 Jeskai Ascendancy:
Casting cantrips: Loot, then resolve the cantrip.
Cerulean Wisps/Manamorphose: Loot, add 1 mana to your mana pool, then draw a card. If you target Hierarch with Wisps, you only have 3 colors to choose from. If you play Manamorphose, check that you have at least 2 mana floating before you cast it.
Multiple Ascendancies and/or (untapped) mana dorks: multiply the number of mana dorks with the number of Ascendancies, then subtract the cost of the cantrip (usually 1). Add that much mana to your mana pool. Or just ask your opponent to scoop, you’re going to win anyway .
Which colors to generate during the combo
This will vary depending on your build. Generally, before the second Ascendancy/mana dork, I’ll choose to float 1 blue, then 1 red, then 1 white. Blue is for cantrips, red is for Manamorphose, and white is for the second Ascendancy.
After the second Ascendancy/mana dork, I’ll float 1 blue, 1 green, 1 white, then 1 green. I float white after green if I need to Glittering Wish, then green on top of that for Bound//Determined (Wish target).
If your only mana dork is Noble Hierarch, make sure you have a Manamorphose to generate red for Flesh//Blood.
Comboing off
The two most important cards when comboing off are:
1) Treasure Cruise
2) a second Jeskai Ascendancy, or a Wind Zendikon/Fatestitcher/Crimson Wisps+mana dork (if you don’t already have 2+ mana dorks)
Treasure Cruise fills up your hand at a very low cost. It gets you out of situations where you only have a few cards in hand and a series of bad draws will end you. It draws past land clumps – if you desperately need draw spells to keep going, another cantrip might just draw 1 card, which turns out to be a land. Then you lose. Treasure Cruise digs 3 cards deep for that vital spell, and on top of that, you get to keep whatever junk cards you drew as discard fodder. A combo turn can often turn into a race towards the nearest Treasure Cruise from the top of your library. It’s vital in this deck, and I think playing 4 is worth the risk of drawing them early.
The second Ascendancy/mana dork breaks you out of the 1-3 mana barrier. Once you get it down, you have a lot more options – you can Wish for something as mundane as Bound // Determined, simply because you have so much mana. Or cast a third Ascendancy just to loot twice. Every spell you cast now loots 2 instead of 1, digging twice as fast towards that vital Treasure Cruise.
Leave your mana dorks untapped until you need the mana (if you have extra dorks/Ascendancies, then go ahead and tap the extras). When you draw more cards, you get more information, so you can plan your mana expenditure better. You should loot before you untap, for the same reason.
These cards can be safely pitched to Ascendancy;
lands
mana dorks
any Ascendancy past the second, or any Ascendancy that you won’t be able to cast soon
Glittering Wish, provided you don’t need it to grab stuff from the SB
You should always use the loot trigger on Ascendancy, unless you have a comfortable number of draw spells in hand that fizzling is not an issue, and are seeking to maximize your storm count before reaching the end of your library.
The Fiery Justice-on-Spellskite Trick
If you have a hatebear or hatebears that you want to kill with Fiery Justice, but your opponent has Spellskite, just aim 1 damage at the Spellskite and the rest at the hatebears. This works because players can't target the same creature more than once. If Spellskite is already targeted for 1 damage, it can't redirect more damage onto itself. See this link, "Spellskite and Multiple Target Spells".
Public mod note!
Banlist discussion is prohibited outside of the official ban thread. If you want to talk about bannings in relation to this deck, please do so there. The MTGS Modern subforum rules are very clear on this point. One-time offenders will be warned. Repeat offenders will be infracted.
-ktkenshinx-
Can you please replace my decklist in the primer with the one below? My build is currently somewhat unstable, but that decklist is fairly outdated (too many lands, subpar Wishboard).
This has been testing really well for me. Fatestitcher makes the deck 10x more resilient, and works really well with ascendancy, looting, and ideas unbound.
Not running Sleight of Hand might hurt you more than you'd think. You need to have as many good U cantrips as you can, and neither Ideas Unbound nor Faithless Looting fit the bill. Not saying they're bad, didn't have an experience with them yet, but I feel like you're way more prone to fizzling with them.
I've actually found it to be the opposite. Ideas unbound and looting prevent you from fizzling when you start drawing extra mana dorks - ideas unbound specifically works well since it's a 2 mana draw 3 during your combo turn that supports the fatestitcher plan early on. Ideas costs slightly more mana, but when you start comboing out, you can start unearthing fatestitchers to get ahead on mana rather easily.
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Since we have up to 16 essentially free tutors for dryad arbor, I wonder if we could fit some Trace of Abundance in the sideboard for slower matches where we face more removal. It nonbos hard with Fatestitcher or Arbor Elf, but casting it after a Zendikon also sets you up pretty well to win next turn.
@Lectrys: How have you been liking the one of Whispers of the Muse? What would you say the pros and cons are vs. Mystic Speculation? Pros and cons on the 4th Caryatid? Now that you're down to 1 confluence, would you say abundant growth is still pulling its weight?
2 questions that I'm not seeing discussed as much as I'd like.
1) What are people doing with their extra glittering wish? I've been swapping it for Manamorphose, is there something obvious I'm missing here? Could I swap it out for another Glittering Wish and gain infinite damage/draw?
2) Retraction Helix seems really good in the Standard deck and offers a way to play around annoying enchants that prevent or ignore damage. Is there a reason why people are going with grapeshot over this card which seems obviously better to me?
bonus note:
Abundance seems like it would be great if/when you get up to 4 mana, which is pretty easy with Fatestitcher builds
kt: This is just one amongst many. I still miss Eggs, but I stuck on with Modern instead of ragequitting.
Badd Business: I don't like Fatestitcher because it's pretty bad pre-combo. Just imagine a starting hand of 2 lands, Ascendancy and Fatestitcher. That hand would be so much better is the Fatestitcher was a Sylvan Caryatid instead.
Faithless Looting is dangerous because Noble Hierarch doesn't tap for red. I'd avoid Looting and Ideas Unbound, even if they do get Fatestitcher into the graveyard before the combo, simply because they don't replace themselves (at least, Ideas Unbound doesn't pre-combo). You'll end up trying to combo off with much fewer cards in hand, meaning it's more likely that you fizzle.
I get the feeling that your deck can assemble the two pieces more easily, but when it comes to comboing off, you fizzle more often than a conventional build with Wind Zendikon and Sleight of Hand.
Sliver Lord: I wouldn't play Trace of Abundance, it's too much effort. They can kill your Dryad Arbor or Zendikon in response to the enchant.
I'm not Lectrys, but I think Whispers of the Muse is worse than any other cantrip with mild utility, like Peek or Conjurer's Bauble. You'll probably never get to cast it with buyback.
I would dismiss Mystic Speculation immediately because it doesn't replace itself unless you pay the extra mana. Early in the combo, when you're mana-starved, casting it for 3 isn't an option.
jermstuddog: 1) You mean what people get from their SB? For me it's Bound // Determined. I only Wish from the SB when I have enough mana (i.e. 2 Ascendancies or 2 mana dorks). Usually it's 2 Ascendancy triggers that do the job; I Wish, loot twice, cast Determined, loot twice, and draw into Treasure Cruise, which refills my hand. If you have enough space in the SB to play Manamorphose or Scarscale Ritual, then use those.
You can't Wish for Wish, they changed the rules to prevent that.
2) People play Retraction Helix because they can combo it with a 0-mana artifact for infinite triggers. We're not trying to do that. Besides, you have a sideboard full of answers to Wish for.
Abundance is bad. If you call non-land, you might just end up flipping a mana dork. I'll go so far as to say that hardcasting Treasure Cruise for 4 has a larger impact than resolving Abundance.
1) If you don't have something relevant to get, they're loot fodder.
2) Glittering Wish plays around those pesky enchantments by getting stuff like Wear // Tear or Abrupt Decay no need to dilute.
3) Abundance does nothing until you're well into your combo. At that point you might as well run Past in Flames. You can discard it while looting so it isn't taking up precious space in your hand.
By the way, Past in Flames is quite good as a one-of in builds running Commune with the Gods and their wincon in the board. The fact it lets you discard all your wishes when looting is probably the nicest thing about it but even if you have to cast it fairly early it can easily draw you 5-6 cards on top of all the loot triggers. The lack of synergy with Treasure Cruise is mitigated by each spell you flashback replacing itself with a loot trigger and if you've cast Treasure Cruise, unless you had the worst draw, you should have a restocked GY by the time you need to cast PiF. Obviously, you want to focus on Delving non-cantrips whenever possible.
Since we have up to 16 essentially free tutors for dryad arbor, I wonder if we could fit some Trace of Abundance in the sideboard for slower matches where we face more removal. It nonbos hard with Fatestitcher or Arbor Elf, but casting it after a Zendikon also sets you up pretty well to win next turn.
@Lectrys: How have you been liking the one of Whispers of the Muse? What would you say the pros and cons are vs. Mystic Speculation? Pros and cons on the 4th Caryatid? Now that you're down to 1 confluence, would you say abundant growth is still pulling its weight?
I'm not a fan of Dryad Arbor or Trace of Abundance. Arbor can't be your first dork because it can't tap for blue mana. Then Trace of Abundance is only OK ramp. If they kill Arbor in response to Trace, you're screwed. Tectonic Edge is already cruel enough against Wind Zendikon. Arbor's a fine second dork, but I'm comboing off on one dork more and more often.
I like Whispers of the Muse a lot more than Mystic Speculation because it cantrips. It also helped nail a win against UWR Kiki once when I was down to just it and Debt to the Deathless (I drained Scarscale Ritual earlier), so I Buybacked it once, then cantripped it. (It seals wins when I get 3 dorks and 2 Ascendancies to boot.) It's a neat trick cantrip, and I suspect it will help fix the subpar match-up that is heavy control.
It's tough to say whether Abundant Growth is pulling its weight. I included it to up my black and red mana source counts and cantrip. Its true strength will probably be shown in match-ups where I really need Slaughter Games (and other black cards). Not fuelling Treasure Cruise is annoying, but fixing mana on my basic Forest probably helped win me a game against Blue Moon by accelerating Ascendancies...
The 4th Caryatid is worth its weight in gold against most fair decks, but I like the faster speed boost of the single Hierarch against unfair decks, and I like the cantrip of Lifespark Spellbomb mid-combo.
2 questions that I'm not seeing discussed as much as I'd like.
1) What are people doing with their extra glittering wish? I've been swapping it for Manamorphose, is there something obvious I'm missing here? Could I swap it out for another Glittering Wish and gain infinite damage/draw?
2) Retraction Helix seems really good in the Standard deck and offers a way to play around annoying enchants that prevent or ignore damage. Is there a reason why people are going with grapeshot over this card which seems obviously better to me?
bonus note:
Abundance seems like it would be great if/when you get up to 4 mana, which is pretty easy with Fatestitcher builds
I'm finding Ascendancy, draw, finishers, and sideboard hate with the 4th Glittering Wish. izzetmage is apparently looting it away. You can't Wish for exiled cards because they're still in the game (Restoration Angel and Detention Sphere insist on that), so no infinite pump for you Wish-in-sideboard hiders.
For what it's worth, I approve of maindecking Manamorphose #4.
Grapeshot allows you to win outside of combat, kills Eidolon of the Great Revel early, is nigh-impossible to counter, and supplements a combat kill if you're against an empty board but fizzled. In Standard, Retraction Helix gets to bounce Dragon Mantle. To be honest, I'm not a fan of Retraction Helix or Grapeshot--I prefer Wishable finishers. I tend to see a 1-of every 1.5-2 games, so every slot matters.
I think maindeck Abundance will kill me when it gums up my combo turn. Turn 3 4-mana Treasure Cruises already suck enough.
Could Down // Dirty be a useful wish target? It seems pretty reasonable returning Probe/Cruise, and if you hit three mana per cycle you can Wish->D&D->return Wish->2nd D&D->infinite.
Edit: Looks like I need to read wish more carefully. Seems pretty weak then.
There's already a deck called Angry Birds (UW fliers with Pride of the Clouds). Honestly, the name ranks lowest on the list of priorities I have for this deck. I'm much more interested in knowing how to build and SB with this deck.
This version of the deck has to be careful around grave hate; if Commune ends up milling Grapeshot and your opponent exiles it, it's curtains. Well, maybe not if you can stick Zendikon on a non-summoning sick land and pump it enough.
It's possible that there's a better wincon than Grapeshot - an enchantment, perhaps Mass Hysteria? Ideally it should be cheap so you can cast it to loot if you draw it mid-combo. Then instead of Mystic Retrieval, play Memory's Journey.
edit: a small trick with Abundant Growth: play it on a fetchland, and you can tap the fetch for mana. Then when you need to get it in the GY for Cruise, sac it. Ta-daa!
I agree about naming. I think this is time to do it, when you can introduce the deck as the first time with a new name. Once it is at all established it will be too late for it to be anything but 'ascendancy combo or whatnot.
What about 'weathertop'. If you ascend and there is a storm, where else might you be?
I think Ascendancy Combo is the best name for the deck. It will be easier to find. Now, there's a different type of thinking that you may want to make it tougher to find to keep the deck under the radar. Personally, I don't think this will work as several Pro Players have made comments about the deck and/or are playing the deck themselves.
My vote is for what it is now or Ascendancy Combo, which is close enough.
Private Mod Note
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
I agree about naming. I think this is time to do it, when you can introduce the deck as the first time with a new name. Once it is at all established it will be too late for it to be anything but 'ascendancy combo or whatnot.
What about 'weathertop'. If you ascend and there is a storm, where else might you be?
Sounds kinda lame (sorry). Which cards are core in the deck? You can't name the deck after Wind Zendikon because a lot of people don't even run it in their lists. You definitely don't want to name it after a mana dork.
Also known as: Glitter Storm, Jeskai Ascendancy with green, 4C Jeskai Ascendancy, Jeskai Ascendancy 1.0 (without Fatestitcher), Jeskai Ascendancy 1.5 (with Fatestitcher)
Contents
1) What is Ascendancy Storm?
2) Card Choices
3) Deck Construction
4) Technical Play
5) Decklists
6) Articles
1) What is Ascendancy Storm?
Ascendancy Storm is a 4-color combo deck. The basic engine is Jeskai Ascendancy + mana dork. The rest of the deck is filled with cheap cantrips (1-mana spells that draw a card or cards). You tap the mana dork for 1 mana, and use that mana to cast a cantrip. Jeskai Ascendancy will trigger, untapping the mana dork and looting (draw+discard) once. By untapping the mana dork, you basically get to cast the cantrip for free. This lets you draw through your entire deck.
With multiple Ascendancies or mana dorks, you can actually generate mana, instead of merely breaking even. You win by 1) Wishing for your sideboarded wincon (Flesh // Blood), 2) beating down with an Ascendancy-boosted creature (it pumps the mana dork too!).
Please don't confuse this Ascendancy Storm with the other Ascendancy Storm (in Standard): the one that uses Ascendancy + creature + Retraction Helix/Banishing Knack + 0-cost artifact to generate unlimited triggers/Storm. That deck is completely different (and much more inconsistent, IMO), so I won't be discussing it here.
Please also don’t confuse this Ascendancy Storm with the UWR version. That version is slower and packs a lot more controlling elements. They’re different enough to warrant separate threads for discussion. You can find the thread for UWR Ascendancy here.
Why should you play Ascendancy Storm?
2) Wishboard. Glittering Wish isn’t just a way to get a copy of Jeskai Ascendancy. It also grabs answers to hate cards that your opponent might have, even in Game 1.
3) Potentially fast kills. The fastest kill with Ascendancy Storm is turn 2:
T1 land, mana dork
T2 land, Ascendancy, Gitaxian Probe (paying 2 life). You can now untap your mana dork and combo off.
4) Resistance to grave hate. With the exception of Treasure Cruise, Ascendancy Storm does not require the use of its graveyard, unlike UR Storm. Even then, Relic of Progenitus is merely a soft-counter to Treasure Cruise. If you have priority and 7 cards in your graveyard, your opponent can’t stop you from casting Cruise, since Delve is part of the cost. The best they can do is pop Relic before you get 7 cards in your graveyard and hope that you fizzle before you can get another 7.
2) Too many colors. This hurts you two ways: one, your mana base deals a lot of damage to you, with constant fetching for untapped shocklands. Two, you have to keep track of a lot of colors during the combo. Some people use dice, some people write it down on a piece of paper. Be aware of this overhead.
3) Weakness to removal. One half of the engine is an easily-killed, summoning sick mana dork. Sylvan Caryatid is immune to most removal though.
4) Time. You will have to draw through a large portion of your library, which takes upwards of five minutes. This is especially a concern on MTGO.
a) Engine: Ascendancy
Jeskai Ascendancy: The sole reason this deck is possible. Unfortunately, you can only play 3 maindeck, because you need one in the sideboard to Wish for.
Glittering Wish: Ascendancies 4-7, plus any card in your sideboard. Glittering Wish is much cheaper than other tutors, costing only 2 mana.
Wish exiles itself on resolution, so it doesn't feed the graveyard for Treasure Cruise, and you can't use, say, Treasured Find to bring it back. However, if Wish is countered, it goes to your graveyard.
Wish can't be used to retrieve a card in exile. This used to be the case before 2009, but the rules have changed.
Play 3 Ascendancy and 4 Wish. Avoid other tutors (Idyllic Tutor, Supply // Demand, Drift of Phantasms); 3 mana is too much and they’re dead mid-combo.
Staples:
Birds of Paradise: The best mana dork for this deck. It costs the least amount possible, taps for every color, and has flying for when you have to win by beatdown.
Noble Hierarch: Second best mana dork. It taps for 3/5 colors. No red means you need some other red source (Stomping Ground, Manamorphose, Mana Confluence) to cast Ascendancy, and no black means the same for some Wished cards e.g. Slaughter Games.
Sylvan Caryatid: Hexproof mana dork. This takes a load off your back, since you don’t have to worry about it getting killed. In exchange for that it costs 1 more mana to cast. And it has defender, so attacking for 20 isn’t an option.
Fatestitcher: An alternative, hasty mana dork. You use it to untap your lands, so it has the same effect as Birds/Hierarch/Caryatid. Here’s a breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of Fatestitcher compared to mana dorks:
Advantages
- It basically costs 0 mana on the combo turn, since it has haste and pays for itself by untapping a land. With a Stitcher in the graveyard, you can win on 4 lands: tap 3 for Ascendancy, tap 1 for Stitcher, tap Stitcher for a cantrip and combo off.
- It is safe from sorcery-speed removal. In addition, it can’t be killed by Abrupt Decay. (Of course, the other player will save Decay for Ascendancy, but you might be able to tap their lands, empty their mana pools, and cast Ascendancy.)
- It can’t be countered by traditional means, as unearth is an ability.
- It effectively turns one loot into a draw.
- It can tap down your opponent’s permanents, such as their lands, or a Trinisphere (lol). Its ability also makes it easier to win by attacking; just tap all their blockers.
If you tap down your opponent’s lands, you need to enter the second main phase to empty their mana pools.
- It can be unearthed midway through the combo. Once you do that, you get back 2 mana per spell. Cantrips which cost 1 mana now put you ahead instead of breaking even.
Disadvantages
- It needs to be put in the graveyard first, which means playing Faithless Looting or Thought Scour. Alternatively, you need an Ascendancy and 2 cantrips. Cast Ascendancy, then cast a cantrip. Trigger Ascendancy’s loot and discard Fatestitcher. Then unearth Fatestitcher and combo off. Note that you can do this over two turns, e.g. T3 Ascendancy > T4 cantrip and combo off.
- It uses the graveyard, so it can be hated on (by Scavenging Ooze for example).
- It needs a blue source that can be used indefinitely in order to combo off, i.e. basic Island or Breeding Pool. Mana Confluence pings you for 1 each time you tap it for mana and Gemstone Mine is gone after at most 3 uses.
Play 12 mana dorks. The traditional build has 4 each of the green ones. The Fatestitcher build has 4 each of Birds, Hierarch and Fatestitcher.
Other choices:
Wind Zendikon: This card turns one of your lands into a creature, so it gets the benefit of untapping from Ascendancy. It also counts as a noncreature spell, so it triggers Ascendancy mid-combo.
Postmortem Lunge: Another hasty mana dork. When you pay black mana for it, it acts the same as a Zendikon. However, it is a lot less consistent. A deck with 8 mana dorks and 4 Zendikons can still win if it draws 0 mana dorks and 1 Zendikon. The same can’t be said of a deck that plays 8 mana dorks and 4 Lunge.
Kiora’s Follower, Hydroform: You can Wish for them.
Lifespark Spellbomb: More expensive Zendikon, with the option of cantripping if you have more mana than cards.
Bloom Tender: It taps for 4 mana with Ascendancy out. Unfortunately it costs 2 mana, competes with Caryatid, and does not actually help you cast Jeskai Ascendancy (it doesn’t tap for U/W/R until you already have one permanent of that color).
Fatestitcher analysis (vs Zendikon):
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 *.
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.
Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand: The basic cantrips for any base-blue combo deck. These are vital to the functioning of your deck.
Gitaxian Probe: It cycles for 1 mana, which is acceptable. You also have the option of casting it for 2 life to dig a little bit deeper for a land in the early-game, or to untap your mana dorks for 0 mana mid-combo. Oh and it lets you look at your opponent’s hand as well.
Manamorphose: This card cycles for a net 0 mana, filters into red for Ascendancy if you only have Noble Hierarch, and untaps your mana dorks mid-combo. It can get a bit clumsy early-game (you have to decide, before drawing, whether you want UU, UG or GG for mana dorks and cantrips) and mid-combo (it’s useless if you only have 1 mana floating, which can happen if you tapped low for Ascendancy and tried to combo off immediately).
Treasure Cruise: The best card in the deck mid-combo. It basically draws 3 cards for 1 mana, which is insane. You’ll need it to avoid fizzling. Even pre-combo, it has some utility; you’re playing mana dorks after all, so it’s not unreasonable to cast this for 3 or 4 after fetching/cantripping a little.
Thought Scour: This card fills up your graveyard for Treasure Cruise, and if you get lucky you might mill a Fatestitcher. It’s also a wincon with Wheel of Sun and Moon (more on that later).
Faithless Looting (Fatestitcher build): This is necessary to get Fatestitcher in the graveyard pre-combo. It costs red mana and is useless if it’s the only card in your hand, but it has flashback. The flashback cost is seldom a problem in the Fatestitcher build because it generates so much mana.
Play 4 copies of Serum Visions, Gitaxian Probe, Manamorphose and Treasure Cruise. Some players play only 3 Cruise, which I don’t recommend.
Other options:
Cerulean Wisps: Works the same way as Manamorphose; it cycles for net 0 mana if you have a mana dork out. However, it requires a target to cast, and if the target gets killed in response, it’s countered on resolution and you don’t get to draw.
Ideas Unbound: Treasure Cruises 5-8. It costs 1 more mana, which may leave you stuck mid-combo if you haven’t got a second mana dork or Ascendancy yet. It can be casted before the combo to loot.
Chromatic Star, Chromatic Sphere: They fix your mana, like Manamorphose, but for net 1 mana instead of 0. Star is better because if it gets destroyed for some reason, you still get to draw.
Conjurer’s Bauble: It lets you bottom-deck a card, which is mildly relevant. Two Baubles can loop indefinitely.
Note that the bottom-decking is optional, so if you want to keep your graveyard stocked for Treasure Cruise you can do so.
Peek, Quicken, Visions of Beyond, Whispers of the Muse: More cantrips with low utility.
Abundant Growth: It lets any land tap for blue, which is useful with Fatestitcher or Wind Zendikon. However, outside of that situation it’s worse than any other cantrip, because it doesn’t feed the graveyard for Treasure Cruise.
Crimson Wisps: This lets you grant haste to a mid-combo mana dork. You need to have a lot of cards in hand before you can make that play safely though.
Flesh // Blood: Cheap, Wishable wincon. Equivalent to Grapeshot, since Ascendancy pumps 1 power every time you cast a noncreature spell. Unlike Grapeshot though, it doesn’t use up maindeck space.
Other options:
Grapeshot: It does nothing to extend your combo, and you can’t discard it unless beatdown is an option. If you play Grapeshot, avoid looting with Ascendancy when you’re down to 2 cantrips in hand. If you cast one cantrip and draw Grapeshot, you’re stuck – you either have to discard the cantrip and win with your current board state + Grapeshot, or discard Grapeshot and win with beatdown.
Wheel of Sun and Moon (with Thought Scour): Wheel + Thought Scour + any cantrip results in infinite mill. Here’s how it works:
1) Get yourself down to 1 card in your library.
2) Cast Wheel of Sun and Moon, enchanting yourself.
3) Cast Thought Scour, targeting your opponent for the mill. Draw the last card in your library. Thought Scour goes back into your library after resolving due to Wheel.
4) Cast a cantrip. It doesn’t matter what the secondary effects are, you just need it to draw you a card. Draw Thought Scour. The cantrip goes back into your library.
5) Repeat steps 3-4.
Do note that this wincon is not feasible on MTGO. It simply takes too long.
Play 1 Flesh//Blood in the sideboard. All other wincons are optional.
Fetchlands: Obvious includes. They get all your shocks, feed your graveyard, and thin your deck ever so slightly. Play the Gx ones.
Shocklands: You need Breeding Pool (taps for both main colors), Stomping Ground (taps for red if your mana dork is Hierarch), Temple Garden (taps for white, for Wish). In the Fatestitcher build, you can play Ux shocklands, since Stitcher costs U and requires a blue source to cast cantrips during the combo.
Mana Confluence: It taps for all colors, which is super useful in this deck. The downside is that it costs 1 life every time you do so. Playing this as your first land will rack up life payments fast.
Basic lands: It’s possible to do without these. They can be played at no cost to your life during the combo turn. Also, including basic lands leaves you with a consolation prize should your opponent play Path to Exile on your mana dork.
Basic Island is better than basic Forest, because casting Ascendancy + a cantrip in one turn consumes WUUR, and Forest doesn’t pay for any of that.
Dryad Arbor: Sac fodder for Liliana. It’s not that useful as a mana dork because it doesn’t tap for blue.
Gemstone Mine: It works up to 3 times with Fatestitcher, and feeds the graveyard once it’s exhausted.
Play 15-16 lands. Historically, this number is appropriate for combo decks looking to draw through a substantial portion of their library – a low land count is good, because you are less likely to draw lands during the combo. UR Storm plays 16, Eggs played 17, Extended Elves played 17. 16 lands is definitely not too low because you’re playing both cantrips and mana dorks.
General SB cards – you’ll find these in most other combo decks
Echoing Truth
Silence
Defense Grid
Swan Song
Lightning Bolt
Path to Exile
Nature’s Claim
Spellskite
Wish Targets – Combo pieces
Jeskai Ascendancy
Scarscale Ritual
Manamorphose
Alt wincons
Treasured Find
Research // Development
Wish Targets – counter-hate
Guttural Response
Bound // Determined
Assault // Battery
Lightning Helix
Far // Away
Simic Charm
Terminate
Fiery Justice
Wear // Tear
Hide // Seek
Rakdos Charm
Golgari Charm
Fracturing Gust
Abrupt Decay
Dreadbore
Maelstrom Pulse
Detention Sphere
Bant Charm
Sultai Charm
Grixis Charm
Jund Charm
Wheel of Sun and Moon
Meddling Mage
Slaughter Games
In general, I wouldn’t play any SB cards that cost 4 or more mana, other than Slaughter Games. Being able to Wish for them means that you can afford to play 2x 2CMC narrow answer instead of 2x 3CMC general answer.
1) 12 mana dorks. The traditional build plays 4 Birds, 4 Hierarch, 4 Caryatid. The Fatestitcher build plays 4 Birds, 4 Caryatid, 4 Stitcher. Hierarch is cut because it doesn’t tap for red (Faithless Looting), and is easier to remove.
2) 4 of each of the important cantrips. That means Serum Visions, Gitaxian Probe, Manamorphose, Treasure Cruise.
3) Some way of generating mana mid-combo, other than Probe and Manamorphose. In the traditional build this means Cerulean Wisps or Crimson Wisps. The Stitcher build has Fatestichers.
The Stitcher build plays Faithless Looting and Thought Scour to get Stitchers into the graveyard pre-combo. It doesn’t need Cerulean Wisps, because sometimes it simply can’t be cycled pre-combo due to the lack of targets (e.g. a Stitcher in the graveyard and no other creatures on the battlefield). Crimson Wisps is also cuttable, since Fatestitcher performs the same function.
You can play one or two Silence main. It’s a lifesaver against decks with counterspells, and pre-emptively stops Abrupt Decay, so you can cast Ascendancy and combo off unhindered. Against other decks you can burn it early to “Time Walk” your opponent, loosely speaking.
Don't play 1-ofs that form a true infinite loop and justify them with "it reduces the combo time" (e.g. the Retraction Helix combo). You will end up having to dig for those 1-ofs anyway, turning over a large portion of your library, so you don't actually save any time.
Land Sequencing
2) Cast the cantrip. Announce the untap trigger(s), then the loot trigger(s).
3) Resolve the loot trigger(s).
4) Resolve one untap trigger. Untap your mana dorks. If you still have untap triggers, tap your mana dorks for mana, then resolve the next untap trigger.
4x) WHEN CASTING CERULEAN WISPS: Tap the mana dork that you targeted with Wisps for mana.
5) Resolve the cantrip.
As far as I know, you can't choose to resolve the cantrip before the loot trigger.
Some shortcuts when goldfishing or playing with people who trust you. The following assumes a board state of 1 untapped mana dork, 1 Jeskai Ascendancy:
Casting cantrips: Loot, then resolve the cantrip.
Cerulean Wisps/Manamorphose: Loot, add 1 mana to your mana pool, then draw a card. If you target Hierarch with Wisps, you only have 3 colors to choose from. If you play Manamorphose, check that you have at least 2 mana floating before you cast it.
Multiple Ascendancies and/or (untapped) mana dorks: multiply the number of mana dorks with the number of Ascendancies, then subtract the cost of the cantrip (usually 1). Add that much mana to your mana pool. Or just ask your opponent to scoop, you’re going to win anyway .
After the second Ascendancy/mana dork, I’ll float 1 blue, 1 green, 1 white, then 1 green. I float white after green if I need to Glittering Wish, then green on top of that for Bound//Determined (Wish target).
If your only mana dork is Noble Hierarch, make sure you have a Manamorphose to generate red for Flesh//Blood.
1) Treasure Cruise
2) a second Jeskai Ascendancy, or a Wind Zendikon/Fatestitcher/Crimson Wisps+mana dork (if you don’t already have 2+ mana dorks)
Treasure Cruise fills up your hand at a very low cost. It gets you out of situations where you only have a few cards in hand and a series of bad draws will end you. It draws past land clumps – if you desperately need draw spells to keep going, another cantrip might just draw 1 card, which turns out to be a land. Then you lose. Treasure Cruise digs 3 cards deep for that vital spell, and on top of that, you get to keep whatever junk cards you drew as discard fodder. A combo turn can often turn into a race towards the nearest Treasure Cruise from the top of your library. It’s vital in this deck, and I think playing 4 is worth the risk of drawing them early.
The second Ascendancy/mana dork breaks you out of the 1-3 mana barrier. Once you get it down, you have a lot more options – you can Wish for something as mundane as Bound // Determined, simply because you have so much mana. Or cast a third Ascendancy just to loot twice. Every spell you cast now loots 2 instead of 1, digging twice as fast towards that vital Treasure Cruise.
Leave your mana dorks untapped until you need the mana (if you have extra dorks/Ascendancies, then go ahead and tap the extras). When you draw more cards, you get more information, so you can plan your mana expenditure better. You should loot before you untap, for the same reason.
These cards can be safely pitched to Ascendancy;
lands
mana dorks
any Ascendancy past the second, or any Ascendancy that you won’t be able to cast soon
Glittering Wish, provided you don’t need it to grab stuff from the SB
You should always use the loot trigger on Ascendancy, unless you have a comfortable number of draw spells in hand that fizzling is not an issue, and are seeking to maximize your storm count before reaching the end of your library.
5) Decklists
4 Mana Confluence
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Arbor Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Glittering Wish
3 Cerulean Wisps
3 Manamorphose
1 Noxious Revival
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Grapeshot
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Treasure Cruise
1 Meddling Mage
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
2 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Guttural Response
1 Manamorphose
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Simic Charm
2 Swan Song
1 Firespout
1 Flesh // Blood
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Mana Confluence
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
2 Arbor Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Glittering Wish
4 Cerulean Wisps
4 Manamorphose
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Treasure Cruise
1 Meddling Mage
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Guttural Response
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Simic Charm
4 Swan Song
1 Firespout
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Fiery Justice
1 Flesh // Blood
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Temple Garden
2 Breeding Pool
2 Stomping Ground
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Mana Confluence
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Arbor Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
3 Manamorphose
4 Cerulean Wisps
1 Grapeshot
3 Treasure Cruise
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
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
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Mana Confluence
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Breeding Pool
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Glittering Wish
4 Serum Visions
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Manamorphose
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Cerulean Wisps
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Flesh // Blood
1 Wear // Tear
1 Fiery Justice
1 Simic Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Guttural Response
3 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Swan Song
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Glittering Wish
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cerulean Wisps
4 Manamorphose
1 Noxious Revival
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
3 Swan Song
1 Flesh
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Spellskite
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Vexing Shusher
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Windswept Heath
1 Steam Vents
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Gemstone Mine
2 Mana Confluence
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Fatestitcher
4 Thought Scour
4 Serum Visions
3 Faithless Looting
1 Ideas Unbound
1 Silence
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Manamorphose
4 Glittering Wish
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Treasure Cruise
3 Silence
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Fiery Justice
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Wear // Tear
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Path to Exile
1 Slaughter Games
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Mana Confluence
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Fatestitcher
1 Silence
1 Izzet Charm
2 Faithless Looting
4 Manamorphose
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Glittering Wish
4 Thought Scour
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Serum Visions
3 Silence
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Wear // Tear
1 Slaughter Games
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Fiery Justice
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Path to Exile
3 Leyline of Sanctity
6) Articles
Sam Black: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29394_The-Return-Of-The-Turn-2-Kill-.html
Kar Yung Tom and Noah Long: http://manadeprived.com/captains-log-15-noahs-ascendancy/
Sam Pardee: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pardee-time-jeskai-ascendancy/
GP Madrid coverage: http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpmad14/deck-tech-stitch-your-own-fate-2014-11-16
Brian DeMars: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/29799_On-Blue.html
Public mod note!
Banlist discussion is prohibited outside of the official ban thread. If you want to talk about bannings in relation to this deck, please do so there. The MTGS Modern subforum rules are very clear on this point. One-time offenders will be warned. Repeat offenders will be infracted.
-ktkenshinx-
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Can you please replace my decklist in the primer with the one below? My build is currently somewhat unstable, but that decklist is fairly outdated (too many lands, subpar Wishboard).
1 Mana Confluence
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Flooded Strand
1 Windswept Heath
2 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Noble Hierarch
Spells
4 Glittering Wish
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Wind Zendikon
1 Lifespark Spellbomb
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Manamorphose
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Abundant Growth
1 Whispers of the Muse
3 Treasure Cruise
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Debt to the Deathless
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Kiora's Follower
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Wear // Tear
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Fiery Justice
1 Slaughter Games
1 Guttural Response
1 Lightning Helix
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Swan Song
2 Spellskite
Maybe add Dreadbore to the Wishboard as a cheaper Karn answer?
I'm going to shut down the other thread and redirect traffic here.
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Fatestitcher
Spells
4 Glittering Wish
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Treasure Cruise
4 Ideas Unbound
4 Faithless Looting
4 Cerulean Wisps
4 Serum Visions
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
Land
1 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Snow-Covered Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Mana Confluence
1 Temple Garden
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Fiery Justice
1 Flesh // Blood
1 Ajani Vengeant
2 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Hydroform
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Wear // Tear
1 Bound // Determined
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Rhox War Monk
I've actually found it to be the opposite. Ideas unbound and looting prevent you from fizzling when you start drawing extra mana dorks - ideas unbound specifically works well since it's a 2 mana draw 3 during your combo turn that supports the fatestitcher plan early on. Ideas costs slightly more mana, but when you start comboing out, you can start unearthing fatestitchers to get ahead on mana rather easily.
@Lectrys: How have you been liking the one of Whispers of the Muse? What would you say the pros and cons are vs. Mystic Speculation? Pros and cons on the 4th Caryatid? Now that you're down to 1 confluence, would you say abundant growth is still pulling its weight?
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
1) What are people doing with their extra glittering wish? I've been swapping it for Manamorphose, is there something obvious I'm missing here? Could I swap it out for another Glittering Wish and gain infinite damage/draw?
2) Retraction Helix seems really good in the Standard deck and offers a way to play around annoying enchants that prevent or ignore damage. Is there a reason why people are going with grapeshot over this card which seems obviously better to me?
bonus note:
Abundance seems like it would be great if/when you get up to 4 mana, which is pretty easy with Fatestitcher builds
Badd Business: I don't like Fatestitcher because it's pretty bad pre-combo. Just imagine a starting hand of 2 lands, Ascendancy and Fatestitcher. That hand would be so much better is the Fatestitcher was a Sylvan Caryatid instead.
Faithless Looting is dangerous because Noble Hierarch doesn't tap for red. I'd avoid Looting and Ideas Unbound, even if they do get Fatestitcher into the graveyard before the combo, simply because they don't replace themselves (at least, Ideas Unbound doesn't pre-combo). You'll end up trying to combo off with much fewer cards in hand, meaning it's more likely that you fizzle.
I get the feeling that your deck can assemble the two pieces more easily, but when it comes to comboing off, you fizzle more often than a conventional build with Wind Zendikon and Sleight of Hand.
Sliver Lord: I wouldn't play Trace of Abundance, it's too much effort. They can kill your Dryad Arbor or Zendikon in response to the enchant.
I'm not Lectrys, but I think Whispers of the Muse is worse than any other cantrip with mild utility, like Peek or Conjurer's Bauble. You'll probably never get to cast it with buyback.
I would dismiss Mystic Speculation immediately because it doesn't replace itself unless you pay the extra mana. Early in the combo, when you're mana-starved, casting it for 3 isn't an option.
jermstuddog: 1) You mean what people get from their SB? For me it's Bound // Determined. I only Wish from the SB when I have enough mana (i.e. 2 Ascendancies or 2 mana dorks). Usually it's 2 Ascendancy triggers that do the job; I Wish, loot twice, cast Determined, loot twice, and draw into Treasure Cruise, which refills my hand. If you have enough space in the SB to play Manamorphose or Scarscale Ritual, then use those.
You can't Wish for Wish, they changed the rules to prevent that.
2) People play Retraction Helix because they can combo it with a 0-mana artifact for infinite triggers. We're not trying to do that. Besides, you have a sideboard full of answers to Wish for.
Abundance is bad. If you call non-land, you might just end up flipping a mana dork. I'll go so far as to say that hardcasting Treasure Cruise for 4 has a larger impact than resolving Abundance.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
2) Glittering Wish plays around those pesky enchantments by getting stuff like Wear // Tear or Abrupt Decay no need to dilute.
3) Abundance does nothing until you're well into your combo. At that point you might as well run Past in Flames. You can discard it while looting so it isn't taking up precious space in your hand.
By the way, Past in Flames is quite good as a one-of in builds running Commune with the Gods and their wincon in the board. The fact it lets you discard all your wishes when looting is probably the nicest thing about it but even if you have to cast it fairly early it can easily draw you 5-6 cards on top of all the loot triggers. The lack of synergy with Treasure Cruise is mitigated by each spell you flashback replacing itself with a loot trigger and if you've cast Treasure Cruise, unless you had the worst draw, you should have a restocked GY by the time you need to cast PiF. Obviously, you want to focus on Delving non-cantrips whenever possible.
My current list:
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Mana Confluence
3 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
2 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
Creatures
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Noble Hierarch
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Wind Zendikon
4 Glittering Wish
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Manamorphose
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Treasure Cruise
3 Commune with the Gods
1 Past in Flames
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Debt to the Deathless
1 Hydroform
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Echoing Truth
1 Slaughter Games
4 Lightning Helix
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Wear // Tear
1 Guttural Response
1 Far // Away
I'm not a fan of Dryad Arbor or Trace of Abundance. Arbor can't be your first dork because it can't tap for blue mana. Then Trace of Abundance is only OK ramp. If they kill Arbor in response to Trace, you're screwed. Tectonic Edge is already cruel enough against Wind Zendikon. Arbor's a fine second dork, but I'm comboing off on one dork more and more often.
I like Whispers of the Muse a lot more than Mystic Speculation because it cantrips. It also helped nail a win against UWR Kiki once when I was down to just it and Debt to the Deathless (I drained Scarscale Ritual earlier), so I Buybacked it once, then cantripped it. (It seals wins when I get 3 dorks and 2 Ascendancies to boot.) It's a neat trick cantrip, and I suspect it will help fix the subpar match-up that is heavy control.
It's tough to say whether Abundant Growth is pulling its weight. I included it to up my black and red mana source counts and cantrip. Its true strength will probably be shown in match-ups where I really need Slaughter Games (and other black cards). Not fuelling Treasure Cruise is annoying, but fixing mana on my basic Forest probably helped win me a game against Blue Moon by accelerating Ascendancies...
The 4th Caryatid is worth its weight in gold against most fair decks, but I like the faster speed boost of the single Hierarch against unfair decks, and I like the cantrip of Lifespark Spellbomb mid-combo.
I'm finding Ascendancy, draw, finishers, and sideboard hate with the 4th Glittering Wish. izzetmage is apparently looting it away. You can't Wish for exiled cards because they're still in the game (Restoration Angel and Detention Sphere insist on that), so no infinite pump for you Wish-in-sideboard hiders.
For what it's worth, I approve of maindecking Manamorphose #4.
Grapeshot allows you to win outside of combat, kills Eidolon of the Great Revel early, is nigh-impossible to counter, and supplements a combat kill if you're against an empty board but fizzled. In Standard, Retraction Helix gets to bounce Dragon Mantle. To be honest, I'm not a fan of Retraction Helix or Grapeshot--I prefer Wishable finishers. I tend to see a 1-of every 1.5-2 games, so every slot matters.
I think maindeck Abundance will kill me when it gums up my combo turn. Turn 3 4-mana Treasure Cruises already suck enough.
Edit: Looks like I need to read wish more carefully. Seems pretty weak then.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
By the way, regarding Commune with the Gods: I think if you're playing those you should cut the Wishes entirely, bring the 4th Ascendancy back main, and max Abundant Growth and Wind Zendikon.
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
2 Windswept Heath
3 Breeding Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
1 Island
4 Mana Confluence
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Wind Zendikon
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Abundant Growth
4 Treasure Cruise
1 Grapeshot
1 Mystic Retrieval
This version of the deck has to be careful around grave hate; if Commune ends up milling Grapeshot and your opponent exiles it, it's curtains. Well, maybe not if you can stick Zendikon on a non-summoning sick land and pump it enough.
It's possible that there's a better wincon than Grapeshot - an enchantment, perhaps Mass Hysteria? Ideally it should be cheap so you can cast it to loot if you draw it mid-combo. Then instead of Mystic Retrieval, play Memory's Journey.
edit: a small trick with Abundant Growth: play it on a fetchland, and you can tap the fetch for mana. Then when you need to get it in the GY for Cruise, sac it. Ta-daa!
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
I agree about naming. I think this is time to do it, when you can introduce the deck as the first time with a new name. Once it is at all established it will be too late for it to be anything but 'ascendancy combo or whatnot.
What about 'weathertop'. If you ascend and there is a storm, where else might you be?
My vote is for what it is now or Ascendancy Combo, which is close enough.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)[center][color=Blue]
Edric Spy and die
Azami the lady of the draw
Naya Zoo
Past decks
Orloro
sharuum the hegemond
Mono black control
splinter twin