MTG Salvation

Sounds like a plan!

I figured as much on the Conclave but ya never know, someone times we jam deck with four of something because we have them and need to see them in a game but not always is 4 the answer but again sometimes it is. I'm a big fan of the U enchant an Island Zen-whatever that makes it a 2/2 flyer as a back up between triggering Ascendancy when you play it and if you play it the turn before you go off it frees up that much more the turn you go off.

So this deck has seen a little resurgence on MODO, 3 5-0s in the last couple of weeks. Definitely going to sleeve it up and try it out.

Are you sure you haven't been seeing the Ascendancy Gifts list instead? It's more a traditional Gifts deck with Ascendancy pieces stuck in it. Had some good event coverage last weekend at the SCG Modern Open.

I've been testing this. It's actually pretty decent. View from above goes infinite with 2 dorks of course, and also makes geist and mentor a lot more powerful. I even won an affinity game by jumping kitchen finks and monks in front of their flyers.

This guy seems to be having some sucess on MTGO: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/modern-jeskai-ascendancy-23252#online

Do you think that this deck gets better with the twin ban? Or the green linear version?

now playing ascendancy gifts combo, i will test and post the results

There's actually a thread for the Green splash version which can be found here. This thread is for the Jeskai Control/Combo list.

How have you been liking Visions of Beyond? I started with it, then ended up dropping it for 2 Young Pyromancers and 2 Snapcaster Mages after being thoroughly unimpressed.

I've been liking this deck a lot, though. It kinda scratches that itch for a control/tempo deck with a combo finish that I originally played Twin to scratch. Granted that this version is more Combo->Tempo whereas Twin was Control->Combo, but they've been feeling fairly similar while playing.

Ideas Unbound is much much better than Visons. Always draws 3, and gets Stitcher into the grave pre combo. Visions, like legit 80% of the time just does nothing but draw you 1 card.

Thought Scour is also pretty terrible here now, and once you drop Visions for Ideas Unbound, there's literally no reason for Scour. Scour was only in the deck for Dig through Time, and/or Treasure Cruise. Milling 2 at a time to try and get 20 cards in your grave is just silly. It's a bad cantrip, and without cheap delve spells, it's useless.

Morphose is bad because it basically does nothing. Cantrips for 1 card.. and that's about it. No need for it in this deck at all.

Since Jace, Vryn's Prodigy came out I've been interested in abusing his synergy with Goryo's Vengeance. I went through Gatherer for other Legends to abuse with Vengeance, Arcanis jumped out as pretty busted with Fatestitcher and Ascendancy. After a bunch of games online I've gotten to this stage, far from perfect but's it's winning a lot. I'm just concerned how dependent it is on the GY and the number of Relics entering the format. The manabase is also quite painful. I've never been good with this part of deckbuilding, maybe quick lands are a good option? The deck doesn't need more than 4 land drops generally.

Thoughts?

why faiths shield over dispel?

so what are you guys playing to beat aggro? thinking of cutting remands for more bolts, so I have 4 bolt, 4 path, right now im sideboarding 4 helix and 4 timely reinforcements, and its still hard. maybe kitchen finks? or kor firewalker but double white :/

Quote from Gul_Dukat »

so what are you guys playing to beat aggro? thinking of cutting remands for more bolts, so I have 4 bolt, 4 path, right now im sideboarding 4 helix and 4 timely reinforcements, and its still hard. maybe kitchen finks? or kor firewalker but double white :/

Can you post your full list? That sounds like plenty of stuff to make aggro a good matchup.

Hi all!
I'm thinking of playing this deck, but can't actually test it before investing. Can you, please, tell me which are the worst match-ups? And, precisely how does it act versus tron and affinity?

harder matchups would seem to be BGx, and Burn but both are quit beatable with sideboard or even without it. (mostly jund). tron and affinity are both very easy if like me you run 4 stony silence. 3 is probably enough but so much affinity right now im not taking any chances. for jund I would recommmend, yong pyromancer, monastery mentor, concentrate, or chandra or something similiar if you want more edge vs jund

Quote from Gul_Dukat »

why faiths shield over dispel?

Abrupt Decay mostly. You're only going to be using it defensively so it plays the same role, except doesn't care for uncounterable clauses or Sorcery speed removal.

I think that Ideas Unbound is often superior to the Visions of Beyond builds. It's a much better early can-trip to find combo pieces and bin your fatestitchers, and most importantly it doesn't make you play suboptimal cards like Thought Scour. This deck doesn't really want to be milling itself (the combo can come close to milling ourselves as it is sometimes) and you don't want to accidentally turn over something like ascendancy. Instead I've filled the slots of Scour with Scarscale Ritual and Think Twice.

I find that the biggest problem this deck has is that with so many loot effects, and cards that only draw one to replace themselves, you can find yourself empty handed pretty quick. Having extra spells that net cards instead of just replacing themselves has been incredibly strong.

I think the only way to reliably combine Jeskai Ascendancy with the Remand+Bolt+Path+Izzet Charm package is with Life from the Loam and Flame Jab. There aren't any good instants that can generate card advantage both while going off or earlier in the game like Dig Through Time did, and chaining cantrips is impossible if you already replaced them with interactive spells you cast just to stay alive. Ideas Unbound is card disadvantage if you aren't playing an all-in combo version, and drawing three cards with Visions of Beyond is really hard. My main doubt if I had to build a combo-control version would be if I should play Gifts Ungiven or not.

It's fairly anecdotal because it's just one time at an FNM (I'm pretty new to the deck) but I was able to go 4-1 with the control package pretty easily. Remand/Bolt/etc give you decent control over the first few turns until you land ascendancy, and the deck feels incredibly consistent while comboing. I won 5 consecutive games on turn 4: going turn 1 bolt, turn 2 remand, turn 3 ascendancy, turn 4 win.

Ideas Unbound has quickly become my favorite card in the deck, it feels almost impossible to fizzle a combo after casting one. It, combined with Scarscale, give enough card advantage during the combo sequence that you can reliably find more spells to continue comboing. I've never really felt like Ideas Unbound is disadvantagous, even during non-combo turns while setting up. Being able to draw three then discard Fatestichers/think twice/useless cards end of turn is pretty nice.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the Gifts package using Loam and Flame Jab. The deck just feels too bipolar to me, and a lot of the time you get caught between 2 different lines from awkward draws.

Quote from PhyrexianBear »

I won 5 consecutive games on turn 4: going turn 1 bolt, turn 2 remand, turn 3 ascendancy, turn 4 win.

Just compute the odds of that happening once and you can call your 5 consecutive wins a lucky streak. Usually you'll be using your sorceries just to set up, and every sorcery you exchange for a disruption spell is one less spell you'll have when you go off. If you use Ideas Unbound before the combo and you don't discard any Fatestitcher, it will be card disadvantage, and won't generate card advantage unless you discard at least two. It is true that you can use Ideas Unbound to win turn 3 just by discarding at least a Fatestitcher with it turn 2, then unearth, play Ascendancy, untap with Probe and start chaining spells; however, if that was your goal you'd be playing Sleight of Hand and other cheap cantrips (although you already play many cards that are only useful while comboing) instead of Remand, Izzet Charm and Path to Exile.

I haven't tested this decklist thoroughly, but it tries to be capable to execute the control plan for longer, and still be capable of winning if you've been forced to use your cantrips to dig for answers instead of keeping them in hand for the final turn.


It would be better if the deck was just three colors, but a card drawing spell that can only be cast mid-combo and another one that will usually produce card disadvantage don't seem the best tools for the job.