i know there are multiple banlist discussions but this more focused on the card itself. It is just too good. I mean in normal games where you life pool is 20 it is a fine card, even in a life gain deck. In EDH you start with 40 life. that is 10 more than the threshhold you need to meet in order to get Serra Ascendant's full power. However i seldom see Serra Ascendant come out late game in EDH it is always out within the first few turns if it is played and more often than not, turn 1. having a 6/6 flyer with lifelink able to attack turn 2 is just unfair. It is not bokren, but may as well be. Most things that can deal with a 6/6 flye rtake a few turns to get out, Even my dragons which are often 6/6 cost 6 mana. (though still take only 5 mana thanks to The Ur-dragon
This card needs to be banned. Unlike Felidar Sovereign (which cost 6 mana to get out) one hit and he is below the threshold. With Serra ascendant, not only are you above the threshold at the start and you keep gaining 6 life keeping you above the threshold.
I am personally fine with the Ascendant as it doesn't really lead anywhere.
When I look at the ban list for commander, all of the creatures on it seem to either...
A. Create a lock (Erayo, Leovald, Painter's Servant, arguably Braids)
B. End the game very quickly (Emrakul, Griselbrand)
C. Spiral out of control/warp the format as players repeatedly copy, steal, flicker, and/or reanimate a single creature (Sylvan, Primetime, Prophet, arguably Titan)
D. Broken levels of mana acceleration (Rofellos)
When I look at the ascendant, I see the following:
1. The ascendant does not create any obvious combos (Excepting synergies with Ranger of Eos and similar cards).
2. Barring a turn 2 bonesplitter and turn 3 tainted strike, it is VERY difficult for the ascendant to kill off even one player before the board puts together enough mana for wraths or spot removal.
3. On a similar line, the majority of games I have seen with an early ascendant end up with all players surviving into the mid-to-late game (barring an unrelated combo or winning move from someone else)
4. I have never seen a board fight to repeatedly revive, clone, and take control of an ascendant.
5. Because everyone is going to bring it up, playing that turn 1 ascendant does indeed paint a giant target on your head.
Above all of this, consider what you are left with when the Ascendant leaves play. You didn't get any mana or cards. You didn't take out any opponent cards (unless blocking is involved) and likely did little to slow down their plays.
A. Combo decks don't care about the damage you dealt them or the life you just gained as they plan on winning in one shot.
B. Stax decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to grind you out in the end.
C. Voltron decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to kill you with 21 commander damage as quickly as possible.
D. Reanimator decks don't care about the ascendant in general because they can grab more powerful creatures very quickly.
E. Even ramp decks are insulated against the full impact of the ascendant as they can likely get out their competitive creatures quickly.
To be clear, dealing 6 damage on turn 1 isn't a bad thing. As part of a good deck that is built to apply heavy pressure, it can help take out slower opponents (stax, combo, etc) before they get out of hand. Looking at the ascendant by itself, however, the only real strategy that it directly supports or counters is that of pure aggro... which is a relatively weak strategy in commander.
For me, the ascendant is a card with a REALLY high floor (enough so that casual playgroups may not want it there) but a very manageable ceiling.
I have almost never seen Serra Ascendant on its own get there. Generally speaking if you are lucky enough to get it in the opener most people don't just train in on one player (unless that one player is a giant jerk who needs to die). Most people though they spread it out and use it as a means to get a life buffer and reduce opponents life totals. If you play it T1 and tunnel vision someone then yea, its kind of a jerk move.
This said, I have almost never seen it run away for more than a handful of turns. I don't disagree that the design of it is poor for this format but I also think I would prefer to see something like Felidar Sovereign or Sorin Markov changed / banned than I would Serra Ascendant. I think Serra Ascendant is something that is more of a concern in more casual games and as people tune and build up their decks it tends to fall off a little more.
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I play Serra Ascendant in my Karlov deck because it's mana efficient and gains life. It's good, but it's not that good. I think I have once had it out on turn one. It created a mini-panic, ate some removal a couple turns later, and died with me still having a target on my back. Think about it - it takes seven swings to kill one player, twenty-one swings to kill a table, and that's assuming no blockers or removal. Yes, it gains you life and helps keep you alive a little longer, but it's really slow. It has no built-in protection and doesn't impede your opponents' plans in any way. There are literally hundreds or even thousands of answers to it.
However i seldom see Serra Ascendant come out late game in EDH it is always out within the first few turns if it is played and more often than not, turn 1.
I question how your opponents are getting it out so early so consistently. Given the odds, as well as experience, I can tell you it is more likely to be drawn late than be in your opening hand. Do they just keep it in hand if they draw it and are not above 30 life? If so, they're effectively making it a dead card, which plays to your advantage. Why would you want to ban a card that your opponents willing refuse to play?
I play Serra Ascendent myself in my aggro decks, but my experience has been the opposite from ISBP's. The optimal strategy is to tunnel vision SA into one person, chipping them down 12 or 24 life in the early turns usually guarantees that even if they deal with SA they will probably die to random aggression later in the game. Additionally unless the other two players are feeling very generous, they will let you ram SA into the one person repeatedly and not bother using removal on it.
I don't think it really falls into banworthy territory. It's a card that is really only good as a turn one play, takes 7 turns to kill one player, and is very unlikely to live long enough to kill multiple players.
I really can't see the RC acting on it at this point or in the future. However, there is a small chance that WOTC will issue errate for those cards to have him turn on at 10 more then starting life total instead of 30. One of the Duels of the Planeswalkers games already fetures this errate to SA to prevent it from being a bomb in 2HG games; but WOTC didn't carry it over when they reprinted SA in a master set.
I play Serra Ascendent myself in my aggro decks, but my experience has been the opposite from ISBP's. The optimal strategy is to tunnel vision SA into one person, chipping them down 12 or 24 life in the early turns usually guarantees that even if they deal with SA they will probably die to random aggression later in the game. Additionally unless the other two players are feeling very generous, they will let you ram SA into the one person repeatedly and not bother using removal on it.
I don't think it really falls into banworthy territory. It's a card that is really only good as a turn one play, takes 7 turns to kill one player, and is very unlikely to live long enough to kill multiple players.
I really can't see the RC acting on it at this point or in the future. However, there is a small chance that WOTC will issue errate for those cards to have him turn on at 10 more then starting life total instead of 30. One of the Duels of the Planeswalkers games already fetures this errate to SA to prevent it from being a bomb in 2HG games; but WOTC didn't carry it over when they reprinted SA in a master set.
I guess to each their own. I don't like to punk someone out of the game because a rare occasion draw but then again I don't like combo or haymaker and prefer to grind people out over a long slow game myself. My issue is that Serra Ascendant is never going to lead to running the table and so I don't like putting a single player in a situation that they are almost dead where everyone else is healthy because of a T1 play.
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I don't think it really falls into banworthy territory.
It is basically the definition of "interacts poorly with the format" and from what I understand, that is a significant criteria for banning.
No one is denying that it interacts oddly with the format. We're debating if it interacts poorly - that word leaves a lot of wiggle room. For example - does the creature get boosted because of your starting life total? Yes. But your opponents' life totals are also boosted, mitigating the damage. A 6/6 flier against one opponent at 20 life is a completely different story than a 6/6 flier against three opponents with 40 life each.
I don't think it really falls into banworthy territory.
It is basically the definition of "interacts poorly with the format" and from what I understand, that is a significant criteria for banning.
No one is denying that it interacts oddly with the format. We're debating if it interacts poorly - that word leaves a lot of wiggle room. For example - does the creature get boosted because of your starting life total? Yes. But your opponents' life totals are also boosted, mitigating the damage. A 6/6 flier against one opponent at 20 life is a completely different story than a 6/6 flier against three opponents with 40 life each.
True but a 6/6 flyer can kill a 40 lif eplayer much faste rthan just a 1/1 non flyer killing a 20 life player.
I think this card is like 20th on the list of problem cards that interact poorly with the format. I've lately started cutting it because it's just not that good.
If they start thinking about banning Luminarch ascension, Mystic Remora or Rhystic study I'd get on board with Ascendant going
No one is denying that it interacts oddly with the format. We're debating if it interacts poorly - that word leaves a lot of wiggle room.
From what I understand, "poorly" in this case means "does something it wasn't intended to". Serra Ascendant was never supposed to be a 1 mana 6/6 flying lifelinker on turn 1.
No one is denying that it interacts oddly with the format. We're debating if it interacts poorly - that word leaves a lot of wiggle room.
From what I understand, "poorly" in this case means "does something it wasn't intended to". Serra Ascendant was never supposed to be a 1 mana 6/6 flying lifelinker on turn 1.
Whereas my understanding is "does something it wasn't intended to in such a way that it invariably ruins the game." That's not the same thing.
Let me be facetious for a moment.
-Lava Axe was meant to take out 25% of a player's life total. But in a 40 life format, it only knocks 12.5% of their life.
- Phyrexian Arena was designed to make you pay 5% of your starting life total each turn to draw an extra card. In Commander, that drawback is trivialized to 2.5%.
Yet there are no calls to ban Lava Axe or Phyrexian Arena because they "interact poorly with the format" or act differently than they were intended (nor should there be). Which tells me there is an acceptable range of format-specific variation that we allow.
So the question is not "Does this do something it wasn't intended to?" but "Does this do something so severely bad in this format that it deserves to join the 0.023% of cards that are banned?" To which I say no. Again, is it potentially powerful? Yes. But it can't kill anyone before turn 8 on its own, even then it doesn't win the game in multiplayer, it has no protection of any sort, it dies to a massive amount of removal (this format does have nearly the entire game to draw answers from), and it is further balanced by multiplayer politics because the most threatening person is fighting an uphill battle against multiple opponents until they smack you down a bit.
Let me ask - Have any of you ever died to a Serra Ascendant? And if so, did it do all the damage or just connect for the final bit after a bunch of other threats hit you? As scary as it can be on turn 1, I don't think I've ever seen it actually kill anyone.
Let me ask - Have any of you ever died to a Serra Ascendant? And if so, did it do all the damage or just connect for the final bit after a bunch of other threats hit you? As scary as it can be on turn 1, I don't think I've ever seen it actually kill anyone.
Reverse that question. see late game serra ascendant will be a 1/1. But early game, it can chip away a large chunk of your life total. And now even if you kill it, you are at a large disadvantage, especially against battle cruiser decks.
So while it may not be the one that kills you, it did the work for the the other threats.
Let me ask - Have any of you ever died to a Serra Ascendant? And if so, did it do all the damage or just connect for the final bit after a bunch of other threats hit you? As scary as it can be on turn 1, I don't think I've ever seen it actually kill anyone.
I kill people with Ascendant all the time. It is one of the easiest ways to win in my Grand Arbiter Augustin IV deck.
Let me ask - Have any of you ever died to a Serra Ascendant? And if so, did it do all the damage or just connect for the final bit after a bunch of other threats hit you? As scary as it can be on turn 1, I don't think I've ever seen it actually kill anyone.
I kill people with Ascendant all the time. It is one of the easiest ways to win in my Grand Arbiter Augustin IV deck.
Considering you brought this up in the CV thread, I’ll just leave an answer you already know below.
Felidar Sovereign and Serra Ascendant are often brought up by folks for banning. The fact that you can counter them by orc-piling on that player keeps them on the safe side of the line. And, as you think Curiosity falls into the same bucket, we're obviously done here.
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Fact is, it’s only good early. It is a removal magnet. It’ll connect a few times, but it will never win a game on its own, ever.
I have also cut it from a ton of decks. Unless you are playing life gain, or have a way to reliably get it out, protect it and your life total for a significant amount of time, it rarely pulls its weight. Hell, I’d rather run Mana Tithe. I’ve had more games where it dies to a StP, PtE, or Fatal Push on the turn it hits more than I’ve ever significantly dented somebody’s life total.
Edit: Let me just put it this way. I’ve seen way more degenerate lines of play stemming from the luck(like landing a turn 1 SA) of getting Sol Ring and a rock to cast 4/5 drops on turn 2 that make SA look tame in comparison. I mean, I’ve stared down a Sorin Markov on turn 2 than I ever remember worrying about somebody’s early SA.
As far as the “Interacts poorly with the structure of the format” doesn’t really apply. Outside of corner cases like dedicated decks to the life gain strategy, this isn’t always a 6/6 flying lifelinker for 1.
Serra Ascendant is a fragile 21 turn clock that gains you some life. Cards like Sol Ring and Ancestral Vision cost the same amount and generate much more valuable resources. You will be better off having those cards in your opening hand.
You guys expect way too much out of your one mana spells if you think it has to outright, solo, win the game.
Backed by something like a greaves or a counterspell or both, someone is almost certainly dying from this thing, and if they aren't dead to it, they are probably crippled down to almost no life.
And you can say "but people will spread it around!", but that's usually not optimal play, that goes against the "build casually, play competitively". More optimally you'd want to hit the biggest threat at the table to take them out ASAP.
This card does not do good things in edh. It should not be legal. The format is worse having it in the card pool.
A. Combo decks don't care about the damage you dealt them or the life you just gained as they plan on winning in one shot.
B. Stax decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to grind you out in the end.
C. Voltron decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to kill you with 21 commander damage as quickly as possible.
D. Reanimator decks don't care about the ascendant in general because they can grab more powerful creatures very quickly.
E. Even ramp decks are insulated against the full impact of the ascendant as they can likely get out their competitive creatures quickly.
This is also somewhat wrong.
Combo decks absolutely care about something that kills in 7 swings, because it's pressure. If your combo gets disrupted in some way, you don't get a second shot now. You also have less time to assemble your combo pieces.
Stacks decks also care about a 7 turn clock that comes in before lock pieces can hit the board. You need to have the specific anti-creature ones you need.
Voltron decks do care about the damage and the life gain. You don't always get to build a 21 point commander swing. That might be their plan A, but how many decks work exactly as planned every game?
When I routinely see plays involving Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, A Monolith, a Signet, a ritual, a legal mox, etc. power out a turn 1, well, whatever they want, it’s hard to label a 1-drop that is only threatening if played in the first 2-3 turns ban worthy. I’ve seen it all. Turn 1/2 Terrastodons, Jin’s, Inferno Titans(With Haste!), Magister Sphinx, Sorin Markov, the list goes on. Sure, if this was 1v1, yeah(it’s already banned there anyway, 30 life variants anyways), otherwise, somebody is going to deal with it before it gets out of hand. Just like players deal with all of the threats I mentioned as early as turn 2, I mean, there are 3 other players.
This honestly sounds like an overreaction. I cannot imagine this card crops up in as many games as anybody is making it out too. It’s far from a staple, it’s not a tutor target save for that early turn creature tutor(and let’s be real, there are better targets), and the tutors/cards that actually synergize with this come down to late that you’ll probably be below the threshold.
It’s an annoyance, sure. Definitely not ban-worthy.
Okay, and? Why are you undercutting your own argument?
Delver isn't banworthy. It's a very good Magic card to be sure, but it doesn't warp any formats. Neither does Serra Ascendant. Yes, it sucks to have it come down on turn 1 and take a few chunks of life from you before you can get online, but I'm much more afraid of a turn 1 Sol Ring because the Ring usually ramps into something scarier than the Ascendant. The Ascendant is also usually a dead card in the late game, which is a very real opportunity cost to running it.
This feels like a salty "nerf scissors, rock is fine" paper post.
So a card thats not banned in any format and does not receive rational ban discussion in other formats? And on top of that its 1 out of 100, and early play of one turns the whole table against you?
Very strong for sure, but I have seen one person killed by one in years. A dozen cards are better bans than this, and we certainly don't need 12 more cards on the ban list.
Whereas my understanding is "does something it wasn't intended to in such a way that it invariably ruins the game."
Preaching to the choir. That's what I thought too. According to the Coalition Victory thread, however, I was wrong.
Except this card does not do nothing, or win the game. It hits one person for 6 with lifelink. One of those seems a lot more game ruining than the other.
If people are sick of reading about stuff just stop taking part. You have 100% control over what you read. Simic Ascendancy isn't going to get banned just because you didn't tell someone to shut up on the internet.
And those are just the ones of the top of my head at CMC 1...
Yes, an early Serra Ascendant is nasty, but it is far from broken. Virtually all mid to late game Serra Ascendants i've seen were sub-par to poor draws. Gambling on that has to come with a reward, so i'm all fine with it.
There are far worse cards in the format that interact akwardly with players' starting lifes. Looking at you Necropotence...
Okay, and? Why are you undercutting your own argument?
Delver isn't banworthy. It's a very good Magic card to be sure, but it doesn't warp any formats. Neither does Serra Ascendant. Yes, it sucks to have it come down on turn 1 and take a few chunks of life from you before you can get online, but I'm much more afraid of a turn 1 Sol Ring because the Ring usually ramps into something scarier than the Ascendant. The Ascendant is also usually a dead card in the late game, which is a very real opportunity cost to running it.
This feels like a salty "nerf scissors, rock is fine" paper post.
Delver of secrets is a big part of grixis delver which is very much warping legacy and the deck is quite likely to see a ban soon.
Okay, and? Why are you undercutting your own argument?
Delver isn't banworthy. It's a very good Magic card to be sure, but it doesn't warp any formats. Neither does Serra Ascendant. Yes, it sucks to have it come down on turn 1 and take a few chunks of life from you before you can get online, but I'm much more afraid of a turn 1 Sol Ring because the Ring usually ramps into something scarier than the Ascendant. The Ascendant is also usually a dead card in the late game, which is a very real opportunity cost to running it.
This feels like a salty "nerf scissors, rock is fine" paper post.
Delver of secrets is a big part of grixis delver which is very much warping legacy and the deck is quite likely to see a ban soon.
Why are you comparing a 1v1 competitive format to a Multi-player casual format? Apples to oranges comparisons do not serve either side of the argument.
i know there are multiple banlist discussions but this more focused on the card itself. It is just too good. I mean in normal games where you life pool is 20 it is a fine card, even in a life gain deck. In EDH you start with 40 life. that is 10 more than the threshhold you need to meet in order to get Serra Ascendant's full power. However i seldom see Serra Ascendant come out late game in EDH it is always out within the first few turns if it is played and more often than not, turn 1. having a 6/6 flyer with lifelink able to attack turn 2 is just unfair. It is not bokren, but may as well be. Most things that can deal with a 6/6 flye rtake a few turns to get out, Even my dragons which are often 6/6 cost 6 mana. (though still take only 5 mana thanks to The Ur-dragon
I have even seen decks that had Leyline of anticipation and Lotus petal get out Serra Ascendant turn 0 and attack the first turn.
This card needs to be banned. Unlike Felidar Sovereign (which cost 6 mana to get out) one hit and he is below the threshold. With Serra ascendant, not only are you above the threshold at the start and you keep gaining 6 life keeping you above the threshold.
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When I look at the ban list for commander, all of the creatures on it seem to either...
A. Create a lock (Erayo, Leovald, Painter's Servant, arguably Braids)
B. End the game very quickly (Emrakul, Griselbrand)
C. Spiral out of control/warp the format as players repeatedly copy, steal, flicker, and/or reanimate a single creature (Sylvan, Primetime, Prophet, arguably Titan)
D. Broken levels of mana acceleration (Rofellos)
When I look at the ascendant, I see the following:
1. The ascendant does not create any obvious combos (Excepting synergies with Ranger of Eos and similar cards).
2. Barring a turn 2 bonesplitter and turn 3 tainted strike, it is VERY difficult for the ascendant to kill off even one player before the board puts together enough mana for wraths or spot removal.
3. On a similar line, the majority of games I have seen with an early ascendant end up with all players surviving into the mid-to-late game (barring an unrelated combo or winning move from someone else)
4. I have never seen a board fight to repeatedly revive, clone, and take control of an ascendant.
5. Because everyone is going to bring it up, playing that turn 1 ascendant does indeed paint a giant target on your head.
Above all of this, consider what you are left with when the Ascendant leaves play. You didn't get any mana or cards. You didn't take out any opponent cards (unless blocking is involved) and likely did little to slow down their plays.
A. Combo decks don't care about the damage you dealt them or the life you just gained as they plan on winning in one shot.
B. Stax decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to grind you out in the end.
C. Voltron decks don't care about the damage or life gain because they intend to kill you with 21 commander damage as quickly as possible.
D. Reanimator decks don't care about the ascendant in general because they can grab more powerful creatures very quickly.
E. Even ramp decks are insulated against the full impact of the ascendant as they can likely get out their competitive creatures quickly.
To be clear, dealing 6 damage on turn 1 isn't a bad thing. As part of a good deck that is built to apply heavy pressure, it can help take out slower opponents (stax, combo, etc) before they get out of hand. Looking at the ascendant by itself, however, the only real strategy that it directly supports or counters is that of pure aggro... which is a relatively weak strategy in commander.
For me, the ascendant is a card with a REALLY high floor (enough so that casual playgroups may not want it there) but a very manageable ceiling.
This said, I have almost never seen it run away for more than a handful of turns. I don't disagree that the design of it is poor for this format but I also think I would prefer to see something like Felidar Sovereign or Sorin Markov changed / banned than I would Serra Ascendant. I think Serra Ascendant is something that is more of a concern in more casual games and as people tune and build up their decks it tends to fall off a little more.
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I don't think it really falls into banworthy territory. It's a card that is really only good as a turn one play, takes 7 turns to kill one player, and is very unlikely to live long enough to kill multiple players.
I really can't see the RC acting on it at this point or in the future. However, there is a small chance that WOTC will issue errate for those cards to have him turn on at 10 more then starting life total instead of 30. One of the Duels of the Planeswalkers games already fetures this errate to SA to prevent it from being a bomb in 2HG games; but WOTC didn't carry it over when they reprinted SA in a master set.
I guess to each their own. I don't like to punk someone out of the game because a rare occasion draw but then again I don't like combo or haymaker and prefer to grind people out over a long slow game myself. My issue is that Serra Ascendant is never going to lead to running the table and so I don't like putting a single player in a situation that they are almost dead where everyone else is healthy because of a T1 play.
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True but a 6/6 flyer can kill a 40 lif eplayer much faste rthan just a 1/1 non flyer killing a 20 life player.
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If they start thinking about banning Luminarch ascension, Mystic Remora or Rhystic study I'd get on board with Ascendant going
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Let me be facetious for a moment.
-Lava Axe was meant to take out 25% of a player's life total. But in a 40 life format, it only knocks 12.5% of their life.
- Phyrexian Arena was designed to make you pay 5% of your starting life total each turn to draw an extra card. In Commander, that drawback is trivialized to 2.5%.
Yet there are no calls to ban Lava Axe or Phyrexian Arena because they "interact poorly with the format" or act differently than they were intended (nor should there be). Which tells me there is an acceptable range of format-specific variation that we allow.
So the question is not "Does this do something it wasn't intended to?" but "Does this do something so severely bad in this format that it deserves to join the 0.023% of cards that are banned?" To which I say no. Again, is it potentially powerful? Yes. But it can't kill anyone before turn 8 on its own, even then it doesn't win the game in multiplayer, it has no protection of any sort, it dies to a massive amount of removal (this format does have nearly the entire game to draw answers from), and it is further balanced by multiplayer politics because the most threatening person is fighting an uphill battle against multiple opponents until they smack you down a bit.
Let me ask - Have any of you ever died to a Serra Ascendant? And if so, did it do all the damage or just connect for the final bit after a bunch of other threats hit you? As scary as it can be on turn 1, I don't think I've ever seen it actually kill anyone.
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Reverse that question. see late game serra ascendant will be a 1/1. But early game, it can chip away a large chunk of your life total. And now even if you kill it, you are at a large disadvantage, especially against battle cruiser decks.
So while it may not be the one that kills you, it did the work for the the other threats.
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I kill people with Ascendant all the time. It is one of the easiest ways to win in my Grand Arbiter Augustin IV deck.
Considering you brought this up in the CV thread, I’ll just leave an answer you already know below.
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Fact is, it’s only good early. It is a removal magnet. It’ll connect a few times, but it will never win a game on its own, ever.
I have also cut it from a ton of decks. Unless you are playing life gain, or have a way to reliably get it out, protect it and your life total for a significant amount of time, it rarely pulls its weight. Hell, I’d rather run Mana Tithe. I’ve had more games where it dies to a StP, PtE, or Fatal Push on the turn it hits more than I’ve ever significantly dented somebody’s life total.
Edit: Let me just put it this way. I’ve seen way more degenerate lines of play stemming from the luck(like landing a turn 1 SA) of getting Sol Ring and a rock to cast 4/5 drops on turn 2 that make SA look tame in comparison. I mean, I’ve stared down a Sorin Markov on turn 2 than I ever remember worrying about somebody’s early SA.
As far as the “Interacts poorly with the structure of the format” doesn’t really apply. Outside of corner cases like dedicated decks to the life gain strategy, this isn’t always a 6/6 flying lifelinker for 1.
Backed by something like a greaves or a counterspell or both, someone is almost certainly dying from this thing, and if they aren't dead to it, they are probably crippled down to almost no life.
And you can say "but people will spread it around!", but that's usually not optimal play, that goes against the "build casually, play competitively". More optimally you'd want to hit the biggest threat at the table to take them out ASAP.
This card does not do good things in edh. It should not be legal. The format is worse having it in the card pool.
This is also somewhat wrong.
Combo decks absolutely care about something that kills in 7 swings, because it's pressure. If your combo gets disrupted in some way, you don't get a second shot now. You also have less time to assemble your combo pieces.
Stacks decks also care about a 7 turn clock that comes in before lock pieces can hit the board. You need to have the specific anti-creature ones you need.
Voltron decks do care about the damage and the life gain. You don't always get to build a 21 point commander swing. That might be their plan A, but how many decks work exactly as planned every game?
and so on
Serra ascendant is delver of secrets for edh.
This honestly sounds like an overreaction. I cannot imagine this card crops up in as many games as anybody is making it out too. It’s far from a staple, it’s not a tutor target save for that early turn creature tutor(and let’s be real, there are better targets), and the tutors/cards that actually synergize with this come down to late that you’ll probably be below the threshold.
It’s an annoyance, sure. Definitely not ban-worthy.
Delver isn't banworthy. It's a very good Magic card to be sure, but it doesn't warp any formats. Neither does Serra Ascendant. Yes, it sucks to have it come down on turn 1 and take a few chunks of life from you before you can get online, but I'm much more afraid of a turn 1 Sol Ring because the Ring usually ramps into something scarier than the Ascendant. The Ascendant is also usually a dead card in the late game, which is a very real opportunity cost to running it.
This feels like a salty "nerf scissors, rock is fine" paper post.
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK
Very strong for sure, but I have seen one person killed by one in years. A dozen cards are better bans than this, and we certainly don't need 12 more cards on the ban list.
Except this card does not do nothing, or win the game. It hits one person for 6 with lifelink. One of those seems a lot more game ruining than the other.
Yes, an early Serra Ascendant is nasty, but it is far from broken. Virtually all mid to late game Serra Ascendants i've seen were sub-par to poor draws. Gambling on that has to come with a reward, so i'm all fine with it.
There are far worse cards in the format that interact akwardly with players' starting lifes. Looking at you Necropotence...
Delver of secrets is a big part of grixis delver which is very much warping legacy and the deck is quite likely to see a ban soon.
Why are you comparing a 1v1 competitive format to a Multi-player casual format? Apples to oranges comparisons do not serve either side of the argument.
[Primer] Erebos, God of the Dead
HONK HONK