I am reminded in part why I shelved this deck a while back - actually comboing off is really labour intensive. You need to float mana, track the ascendancy buff triggers (separately as you add fatestitchers). We need more colours than gift storm so it is actually more important to float properly early on to allow for wish - cast spell and such. You have to hedge around silly things like having two fatestitchers pathd or your flesh/blood negated or opponent having angel's grace that limits your ability to shortcut.
The saving grace in all that really is view from above. Once you hit that you have all fatestitchers out and all infinitely large with infinite mana so its pretty much impossible to lose. But until then you have to float and track to ensure you dont end up losing due to impatience. Tapping down their lands pre-combat obviously helps but theres still the issue of getting to the point where you can use stitcher to tap instead of untap which can take a while.
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Modern
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
Hey all! Long time ascendancy player here! Played the ever since it first showed up through all the banning and now looking to get back into it. This has been my current list and still trying to come back so any opinions are more than welcome!
So as you can see, i have 1 slot in the side, not sure what it could be. I think i should add swan songs to my sb since controls are a ***** otherwise. I also did run 2 silence in the main which helped a bit. But cutted those for 3rd opt and grapeshot but i'm not sure if those are even needed? And mystic speculation is there to go infinite once u have 3 dorks online. It can also be used as a cantrip early which i really like. View from above does absolutely nothing to help you get there so that's why i have this instead.
So yeah, not a perfect list so hit me up! Thanks!
So as someone whos been playing the deck for months now with good results I can give you some advice hopefully.
You need actual sideboard cards besides leyline and wish targets, you need at least 3 swan song's vs Control decks otherwise they make the matchup good to horrid.
Mystic speculation although a can trip early in the game isn't an instant, View from Above allows you to go off in response to something and also through an ensnaring bridge like against Lantern Control and you only need 2 dorks online which sometimes is a lot more easy to achieve then 3.
4 Wisps is a lot because if they remove your dork in response it doesn't resolve, Id go -2 wisps +2 ideas unbound. Also Claim // Fame is better then Lunge because its 2 spells in 1 which is very relevant late game, and is not dead in your hand if you dont have an ascendancy in play. Not really a need for grape shot in the main at all if your going off and you need to grape shot you can just win through combat or a flesh // blood. Id try to fit more faithless lootings in there as well as they let you go off from 1-2 cards in hands late game against grindier decks.
So Blood Sun... seems like it would be actually nice in our deck, it cantrips, doesn't affect our lands at all and can really put the hurt on many other decks.
So Blood Sun... seems like it would be actually nice in our deck, it cantrips, doesn't affect our lands at all and can really put the hurt on many other decks.
You'd also have to remove the fetchlands from your deck as they'd stop functioning under a blood sun.
I am not a fan of the list he's been playing as it has so many dead draws when going off.
Noxious Revival's are bleh, I was never impressed with Silence in the Main, I think there should be 4 fatestitchers as they typically win the game for us. View from above should be a 1 of as we can win from 1-2 cards in hand as long we have that. Glad he's playing the deck though.
I have been playing around with it on xmage, seems to be very good from what I've seen. The manabase has been surprisingly solid, and having EE as a zero cost way to trigger ascendancy in a pinch, as well as an answer to almost any problem permanent, has been great. It even can allow for you to generate infinite mana/pump with helix, which allows for a theoretical turn 2 kill. Overall, I think this avenue needs to be explored further, as although it resembles the standard version more, the tools it gains are so much better in modern.
It's cool to see this deck having a little success and some activity in this thread. I haven't tried the banishing knack version but it looks like a great idea. One small thing I feel strongly about with this deck that I almost never see is playing assault // battery in the sideboard. It's so nice against a number of problem creatures in the format. I think fiery justice, at two more mana, is much worse and would always play the split card over it in the old (gitaxian probe) version of this deck.
Saw someone on reddit talking about Sylvan Awakening in the deck and I thought it was a really interesting idea. Making the lands indestructible is cool, so K Return won't wipe them out. Reach doesn't do anything here, but I believe you would need at least 1 other mana source available to kick off another spell after, b/c they won't be creatures until after the Ascendancy has done it's untap. Correct?
Hey, I have been doing some testing online, and I think I am relatively comfortable with the deck and I think I am ready to play in paper. Do you have any tips on how to play this deck in paper? Also how does this decklist seem? Thank you!
Hi guys, just wanting to know how you all keep track of your triggers when playing in paper? I'm fairly interested in this deck as it does something unique and different that I'd like to have fun with. Thanks in advance!
Hey all! Was hoping for some feedback on my first attempt. I think the trickiest part right now is assessing the best landbase..but I think the fetchless one is my preference
After some goldfishing, I realize that the version with Sylvan Awakening allowed me to pool a lot of floating mana while comboing. Has anybody considered Aurelia's Fury and Sphinx's Revelation in the SB (tutored with Glittering Wish)? Revelation as a way to refill our hand ; Fury to tap blockers and hit the dome, and also a way to win faster in real life. It's already annoying for the opponent when we're doing our combo and playing alone, anything that can end his misery faster is good, IMHO.
Also, shouldn’t we play a single Pact of Negation in the main board to protect the combo while were're firing off? The drawback of the spell is of no consequence if we win this turn, and because it costs zero, we can cast it even when we're tapped out (and the untapped trigger is on the stack). It will also cause another trigger on JA, and can at worst cancel a dork mid combo if we're about to fizzle (just to get a trigger).
Edit: Another reason why I love Sylvan Awakening is it's ability to end the game much faster, and put an end to opponent’s misery (out of respect ; I deeply hate it myself when it takes forever for my opponent to do his KCI or Storm trick). It doesn’t take much triggers to get to lethal once we add 2 or 3 attackers. Farseek and/or Explore could be relevant addition to the main deck. I think I prefer Explore... we have so many cards in hand, so playing an otherwise useless land during the combo and also drawing an extra card seems better than what Farseek can do for us. But Farseek would be more relevant to cast on turn 2 than Explore (in a deck that never features more than 18 lands, usually 17), thus increasing our chances to have 4 lands in play on turn 3 (and start the combo even without dorks or zero mana spells like Noxious Revival or Engineered Explosives). Both ramp spells make drawing/casting another Sylvan Awakening more relevant (we're bound to see copy #2 while comboing, anyway). Maybe one of each?
Edit 2 : Another reason why I love Sylvan Awakening is it’s abilty to protect us if we fizzle during the combo. Two or three 2/2 creatures with reach and indestructible go a long way soaking up some damage. And face it, opponent will certainly forget about them, and will be in a hurry to close the door before we win next turn. What a nice ambush spell, even if it was cast last turn (because its effect lasts until our next turn).
Hi guys, just wanting to know how you all keep track of your triggers when playing in paper? I'm fairly interested in this deck as it does something unique and different that I'd like to have fun with. Thanks in advance!
This is what I would do : print at least 2-3 proxies of each of JA's triggers, and physically put them on the stack, on top of my spells and in the right order for them to resolve. This to avoid losing track of things if spells are chained before everything can resolve (Nagging Thoughts being the usual culprit).
Also, I would group and tag my creatures (including land creatures) with Post-it Flags and use a spin down counter of the appropriate color to keep track of the number of +1/+1 triggers each group has received. These flags won’t damage your cards, and they're reusable.
Finally, be sure to have basic lands nearby (Forest, Island, Mountain and Plains) to keep track of the pooled mana. Again, I would use a spin down counter instead of a d6 for that purpose.
Spin down counters (these d20 dice that we get at prerelease events and in fat packs) have all the numbers sorted in the right order. Manipulating a d6 is sometimes frustrating, and you have to use multiple dice if you get above 6 triggers. So I'll always use these special d20 as a faster and more efficient way to keep track of things.
After some goldfishing, I realize that the version with Sylvan Awakening allowed me to pool a lot of floating mana while comboing. Has anybody considered Aurelia's Fury and Sphinx's Revelation in the SB (tutored with Glittering Wish)? Revelation as a way to refill our hand ; Fury to tap blockers and hit the dome, and also a way to win faster in real life. It's already annoying for the opponent when we're doing our combo and playing alone, anything that can end his misery faster is good, IMHO.
Also, shouldn’t we play a single Pact of Negation in the main board to protect the combo while were're firing off? The drawback of the spell is of no consequence if we win this turn, and because it costs zero, we can cast it even when we're tapped out (and the untapped trigger is on the stack). It will also cause another trigger on JA, and can at worst cancel a dork mid combo if we're about to fizzle (just to get a trigger).
Edit: Another reason why I love Sylvan Awakening is it's ability to end the game much faster, and put an end to opponent’s misery (out of respect ; I deeply hate it myself when it takes forever for my opponent to do his KCI or Storm trick). It doesn’t take much triggers to get to lethal once we add 2 or 3 attackers. Farseek and/or Explore could be relevant addition to the main deck. I think I prefer Explore... we have so many cards in hand, so playing an otherwise useless land during the combo and also drawing an extra card seems better than what Farseek can do for us. But Farseek would be more relevant to cast on turn 2 than Explore (in a deck that never features more than 18 lands, usually 17), thus increasing our chances to have 4 lands in play on turn 3 (and start the combo even without dorks or zero mana spells like Noxious Revival or Engineered Explosives). Both ramp spells make drawing/casting another Sylvan Awakening more relevant (we're bound to see copy #2 while comboing, anyway). Maybe one of each?
Edit 2 : Another reason why I love Sylvan Awakening is it’s abilty to protect us if we fizzle during the combo. Two or three 2/2 creatures with reach and indestructible go a long way soaking up some damage. And face it, opponent will certainly forget about them, and will be in a hurry to close the door before we win next turn. What a nice ambush spell, even if it was cast last turn (because its effect lasts until our next turn).
Hey, so I've been running this on MTGO for quite a while now.
I love Sylvan Awakening for many of the same reasons (speed is end game is ALSO one of them!). I can tell you that Noxious Revival is fairly important if you need to go off now (3 mana, 0 mana, win). Aurielia's Fury and Sphinx, not so much. I usually run 1 or 2 retraction helix/banishing in MB for these reasons.
Pact of Negation is fine, but silence is better ;).
I love the idea of explore! I added 4 just now and will test with this.
Note* I'm still not sure if this is better than fatestitcher. Both feel even to me. Sylvan is more reliable once you've cast it, but fate can be a turn faster it feels.
Some goldfishing later : no need for 4 Sylvan Awakening. The second copy you cast is useless anyway, except after Explore. I'm on 3 right now, and 2 Explore. No Cerulean Wisps, as its main use is to generate an extra mana. Sylvan Awakening does that better. Fatestitcher is still part of the deck. I'm not running any Engineered Explosives, but I think I should be doing so. Whispers of the Muse is very tempting, as a one of. Being able to draw my whole deck once I get to 6 manlands/dorks (easy with Sylvan Awakening, Explore and Fatestitcher) is not negligible. Most of the time I fizzle, mana is not the issue, but instead the absence of non-creatures spells in my hand.
I don't like the usual Jeskai Ascendency list (featuring Glittering Wish and tons of cantrips to Combo). A 17 lands deck that relies on fragile manadorks, trying to perform in a metagame dominated by Thalias, Freebooters and Meddling Mages? That features close to no answers to whatever the field is playing? With a Combo that takes forever to conclude, is not fun to watch and play against? Not for me.
With the above list, your goal is to go infinite *triggers* on Jeskai Ascendency with Sprout Swarm. We don't win by attacking with a million tokens, but with other huge attackers, thanks to Ascendency's triggers. These other attackers could be 2/2 haste and indestructible lands (Sylvan Awakening), 1/1 Flying Spirits (Lingering Souls) or 2/2 and 1/1 Prowess Monks (Monastery Mentor).
Note that if plan A fails, we do have plans B and C in Monk and Spirit Tokens to simply grind opponent's life the usual way. Also, playing removals (Lightning Bolt) and disruption (Inquisition of Kozilek) in the main deck makes us a lot less fragile to other decks.
When we hit the Sylvan Awakening Combo, it is easy to go lethal even without Sprout Swarm. All the flashback spells in the graveyard don't cost a card to cast. They will add triggers to Ascendency to pump up and untap your lands, and to dig your deck for card advantage spells (rinse and repeat until lethal). But most likely, you'll hit Sprout Swarm before you know it.
Sylvan Awakening Combo (8 cards to start chaining, 9 cards required, seen 14+):
T1 Land + Faithless Looting
T2 Land + Flashbacked Lingering Souls (this doesn't cost a card) or hard cast Sprout Swarm (if extra in your hand)
T3 Land + Jeskai Ascendency
T4 Land + Sylvan Awakening ; with 4th Land, cast any of the 15 one-mana spells (Bolt/Inquisition/Growth/Looting/Dodge). This will untap your 4 creature lands. With 5+ creatures, you can go infinite right away with Sprout Swarm.
Alternate Sylvan Awakening Combo (7 cards to start chaining, 9 cards required, seen 12+):
T1 Land + skip (or Inquisition?)
T2 Land + skip (or Inventory?)
T3 Land + Jeskai Ascendency
T4 Land + Sylvan Awakening ; with 4th Land, cast any of the 15 one-mana spells (Bolt/Inquisition/Growth/Looting/Dodge). This will untap your 4 creature lands. Pool 4 mana and spend 1-3 to cast any spell and untap. With 5 mana available and 4 creatures (lands), you can go infinite with Sprout Swarm.
Monastery Mentor Combo (8 cards, seen 12) :
T1 Land + Faithless Looting
T2 Land + Flashbacked Lingering Souls (this doesn't cost a card)
T3 Land + Monastery Mentor
T4 Land + Jeskai Ascendency (trigger Mentor for a Token) ; with 4 creatures and 4th land, go infinite with Sprout Swarm and attack with two infinitely large flying spirits and a Mentor with power and toughness equal to 2 times infinity (thanks to Prowess).
Lingering Souls Combo (8 cards, seen 12) :
T1 Land + Faithless Looting
T2 Land + Flashbacked Lingering Souls (this doesn't cost a card)
T3 Land + Lingering Souls
T4 Land + Jeskai Ascendency ; with 4 creatures and 4th land, go infinite with Sprout Swarm and attack with four infinitely large flying spirits.
There are tons of variations to any of these combos. Sylvan Awakening is the one that requires the most cards, but the one that allows you to chain spell as you're used to with JAC.
Playing 22 lands is fine. You want to hit the 4th land drop on turn 4, and any extra lands can be looted away with Faithless Looting and Jeskai Ascendency.
This version of the deck is lot less an headache to play than classic JAC, and you can kill kill opponent quite fast on turn 4. Considering that this deck plays Inquisition of Kozilek, I feel safe delaying the Combo until turn 4 or 5. And since Mentor and Souls can win the game on their own, I believe I've brewed a nice reliable deck.
I still have to put together a SB... with access to 5 colors, this will be an interesting SB!!!
The saving grace in all that really is view from above. Once you hit that you have all fatestitchers out and all infinitely large with infinite mana so its pretty much impossible to lose. But until then you have to float and track to ensure you dont end up losing due to impatience. Tapping down their lands pre-combat obviously helps but theres still the issue of getting to the point where you can use stitcher to tap instead of untap which can take a while.
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
So as someone whos been playing the deck for months now with good results I can give you some advice hopefully.
You need actual sideboard cards besides leyline and wish targets, you need at least 3 swan song's vs Control decks otherwise they make the matchup good to horrid.
Mystic speculation although a can trip early in the game isn't an instant, View from Above allows you to go off in response to something and also through an ensnaring bridge like against Lantern Control and you only need 2 dorks online which sometimes is a lot more easy to achieve then 3.
4 Wisps is a lot because if they remove your dork in response it doesn't resolve, Id go -2 wisps +2 ideas unbound. Also Claim // Fame is better then Lunge because its 2 spells in 1 which is very relevant late game, and is not dead in your hand if you dont have an ascendancy in play. Not really a need for grape shot in the main at all if your going off and you need to grape shot you can just win through combat or a flesh // blood. Id try to fit more faithless lootings in there as well as they let you go off from 1-2 cards in hands late game against grindier decks.
You'd also have to remove the fetchlands from your deck as they'd stop functioning under a blood sun.
Noxious Revival's are bleh, I was never impressed with Silence in the Main, I think there should be 4 fatestitchers as they typically win the game for us. View from above should be a 1 of as we can win from 1-2 cards in hand as long we have that. Glad he's playing the deck though.
I have been playing around with it on xmage, seems to be very good from what I've seen. The manabase has been surprisingly solid, and having EE as a zero cost way to trigger ascendancy in a pinch, as well as an answer to almost any problem permanent, has been great. It even can allow for you to generate infinite mana/pump with helix, which allows for a theoretical turn 2 kill. Overall, I think this avenue needs to be explored further, as although it resembles the standard version more, the tools it gains are so much better in modern.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/910225#paper
2 Cerulean Wisps
4 Serum Visions
4 Glittering Wish
2 Opt
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Manamorphose
1 Retraction Helix
2 Banishing Knack
2 Engineered Explosives
Creatures:
2 Fatestitcher
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Noble Hierarch
Enchantments:
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Abundant Growth
1 Seachrome Coast
2 Botanical Sanctum
2 City of Brass
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Mana Confluence
1 Guttural Response
3 Swan Song
1 Fiery Justice
1 Flesh // Blood
1 Gutteral Response
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Jeskai Ascendency
1 Scarscale Ritual
2 Abrupt Decay
Also, shouldn’t we play a single Pact of Negation in the main board to protect the combo while were're firing off? The drawback of the spell is of no consequence if we win this turn, and because it costs zero, we can cast it even when we're tapped out (and the untapped trigger is on the stack). It will also cause another trigger on JA, and can at worst cancel a dork mid combo if we're about to fizzle (just to get a trigger).
Edit: Another reason why I love Sylvan Awakening is it's ability to end the game much faster, and put an end to opponent’s misery (out of respect ; I deeply hate it myself when it takes forever for my opponent to do his KCI or Storm trick). It doesn’t take much triggers to get to lethal once we add 2 or 3 attackers. Farseek and/or Explore could be relevant addition to the main deck. I think I prefer Explore... we have so many cards in hand, so playing an otherwise useless land during the combo and also drawing an extra card seems better than what Farseek can do for us. But Farseek would be more relevant to cast on turn 2 than Explore (in a deck that never features more than 18 lands, usually 17), thus increasing our chances to have 4 lands in play on turn 3 (and start the combo even without dorks or zero mana spells like Noxious Revival or Engineered Explosives). Both ramp spells make drawing/casting another Sylvan Awakening more relevant (we're bound to see copy #2 while comboing, anyway). Maybe one of each?
Edit 2 : Another reason why I love Sylvan Awakening is it’s abilty to protect us if we fizzle during the combo. Two or three 2/2 creatures with reach and indestructible go a long way soaking up some damage. And face it, opponent will certainly forget about them, and will be in a hurry to close the door before we win next turn. What a nice ambush spell, even if it was cast last turn (because its effect lasts until our next turn).
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
Also, I would group and tag my creatures (including land creatures) with Post-it Flags and use a spin down counter of the appropriate color to keep track of the number of +1/+1 triggers each group has received. These flags won’t damage your cards, and they're reusable.
Finally, be sure to have basic lands nearby (Forest, Island, Mountain and Plains) to keep track of the pooled mana. Again, I would use a spin down counter instead of a d6 for that purpose.
Spin down counters (these d20 dice that we get at prerelease events and in fat packs) have all the numbers sorted in the right order. Manipulating a d6 is sometimes frustrating, and you have to use multiple dice if you get above 6 triggers. So I'll always use these special d20 as a faster and more efficient way to keep track of things.
Hopefully this helps!
Edit : What about To Arms! as a beefed up Cerulean Wisps? With Sylvan Awakening, it seems pretty sick...
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
Hey, so I've been running this on MTGO for quite a while now.
I love Sylvan Awakening for many of the same reasons (speed is end game is ALSO one of them!). I can tell you that Noxious Revival is fairly important if you need to go off now (3 mana, 0 mana, win). Aurielia's Fury and Sphinx, not so much. I usually run 1 or 2 retraction helix/banishing in MB for these reasons.
Pact of Negation is fine, but silence is better ;).
I love the idea of explore! I added 4 just now and will test with this.
Note* I'm still not sure if this is better than fatestitcher. Both feel even to me. Sylvan is more reliable once you've cast it, but fate can be a turn faster it feels.
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
I am not using fate, although I have used 1 in past sylvan builds. Not sure yet to be honest.
Edit*
One other cool thing I picked up is that sylvan has allowed wins where opp. has damping sphere or other crazy sideboard hosers in play (chalice on 1).
Also, how do we feel about the list that Pablo122 consistently uses for a 5-0 finish?
1 Breeding Pool
3 Cerulean Wisps
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Faithless Looting
3 Fatestitcher
2 Flooded Strand
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Glittering Wish
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Island
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Lightning Bolt
4 Manamorphose
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Nagging Thoughts
1 Noxious Revival
1 Opt
1 Path to Exile
1 Peek
4 Serum Visions
2 Silence
3 Sleight of Hand
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swan Song
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Temple Garden
1 Assault/Battery
1 Failure/Comply
1 Fiery Justice
1 Flesh/Blood
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Path to Exile
1 Scarscale Ritual
1 Silence
1 Swan Song
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wear/Tear
3 Monastery Mentor
Enchantments (8)
4 Abundant Growth
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
Spells (27)
1 Artful Dodge
4 Faithless Looting
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Sprout Swarm
4 Take Inventory
4 Lingering Souls
4 Sylvan Awakening
2 Mana Confluence
4 Arid Mesa
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Blood Crypt
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Swamp
I don't like the usual Jeskai Ascendency list (featuring Glittering Wish and tons of cantrips to Combo). A 17 lands deck that relies on fragile manadorks, trying to perform in a metagame dominated by Thalias, Freebooters and Meddling Mages? That features close to no answers to whatever the field is playing? With a Combo that takes forever to conclude, is not fun to watch and play against? Not for me.
With the above list, your goal is to go infinite *triggers* on Jeskai Ascendency with Sprout Swarm. We don't win by attacking with a million tokens, but with other huge attackers, thanks to Ascendency's triggers. These other attackers could be 2/2 haste and indestructible lands (Sylvan Awakening), 1/1 Flying Spirits (Lingering Souls) or 2/2 and 1/1 Prowess Monks (Monastery Mentor).
Note that if plan A fails, we do have plans B and C in Monk and Spirit Tokens to simply grind opponent's life the usual way. Also, playing removals (Lightning Bolt) and disruption (Inquisition of Kozilek) in the main deck makes us a lot less fragile to other decks.
To put together the Combo, we have Faithless Looting, Take Inventory and Abundant Growth. The later should be used to enchant a Fetch Land or Mana Confluence if life is an issue, or else basic lands. The first Take Inventory is a relevant option to discard when you're Looting (others are Lingering Souls, extra Faithless Looting, and Artful Dodge). The second and third Inventory are pure gold.
Artful Dodge is interesting, because for UU, you can have two unblockable creatures, and double triggers on Monastery Mentor and Jeskai Ascendency.
When we hit the Sylvan Awakening Combo, it is easy to go lethal even without Sprout Swarm. All the flashback spells in the graveyard don't cost a card to cast. They will add triggers to Ascendency to pump up and untap your lands, and to dig your deck for card advantage spells (rinse and repeat until lethal). But most likely, you'll hit Sprout Swarm before you know it.
Sylvan Awakening Combo (8 cards to start chaining, 9 cards required, seen 14+):
T1 Land + Faithless Looting
T2 Land + Flashbacked Lingering Souls (this doesn't cost a card) or hard cast Sprout Swarm (if extra in your hand)
T3 Land + Jeskai Ascendency
T4 Land + Sylvan Awakening ; with 4th Land, cast any of the 15 one-mana spells (Bolt/Inquisition/Growth/Looting/Dodge). This will untap your 4 creature lands. With 5+ creatures, you can go infinite right away with Sprout Swarm.
Alternate Sylvan Awakening Combo (7 cards to start chaining, 9 cards required, seen 12+):
T1 Land + skip (or Inquisition?)
T2 Land + skip (or Inventory?)
T3 Land + Jeskai Ascendency
T4 Land + Sylvan Awakening ; with 4th Land, cast any of the 15 one-mana spells (Bolt/Inquisition/Growth/Looting/Dodge). This will untap your 4 creature lands. Pool 4 mana and spend 1-3 to cast any spell and untap. With 5 mana available and 4 creatures (lands), you can go infinite with Sprout Swarm.
Monastery Mentor Combo (8 cards, seen 12) :
T1 Land + Faithless Looting
T2 Land + Flashbacked Lingering Souls (this doesn't cost a card)
T3 Land + Monastery Mentor
T4 Land + Jeskai Ascendency (trigger Mentor for a Token) ; with 4 creatures and 4th land, go infinite with Sprout Swarm and attack with two infinitely large flying spirits and a Mentor with power and toughness equal to 2 times infinity (thanks to Prowess).
Lingering Souls Combo (8 cards, seen 12) :
T1 Land + Faithless Looting
T2 Land + Flashbacked Lingering Souls (this doesn't cost a card)
T3 Land + Lingering Souls
T4 Land + Jeskai Ascendency ; with 4 creatures and 4th land, go infinite with Sprout Swarm and attack with four infinitely large flying spirits.
There are tons of variations to any of these combos. Sylvan Awakening is the one that requires the most cards, but the one that allows you to chain spell as you're used to with JAC.
Playing 22 lands is fine. You want to hit the 4th land drop on turn 4, and any extra lands can be looted away with Faithless Looting and Jeskai Ascendency.
This version of the deck is lot less an headache to play than classic JAC, and you can kill kill opponent quite fast on turn 4. Considering that this deck plays Inquisition of Kozilek, I feel safe delaying the Combo until turn 4 or 5. And since Mentor and Souls can win the game on their own, I believe I've brewed a nice reliable deck.
I still have to put together a SB... with access to 5 colors, this will be an interesting SB!!!
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.