@franky - You can combo turn 3 with just 1 cornucopia. Turn 2 catalyd, turn 3 you have 4 mana available for asc with the third land. Your first Cornucopia should net you the 5th mana to play twinflame. The second cornucopia just makes turn 3 kills about twice as likely.
A 13th land that comes into play untapped feels marginally better for getting a consistent turn 2 dude.
The deck's color fixing is generally more than good enough. Fate foretold can generally help you block and dig with an extra dude.
I also want to cut one or two Taigam's scheming, but it's hard to find any other way to fuel Dig Through Time. Maybe I'm not blocking enough. To be sure, the Dig Through Times kind of want to see fetchlands instead of scrylands, but with no shufflers, I feel like the DTTs can get deeper into the deck w/ scrys.
*(DTT is an instant, so you can float mana, block, and delve the blocker. With no commune or cards in graveyard, turn 2 dude, turn 3 Morph mystic, turn 4 untapped land allows you to block w/ moprh mystic, unmorph(3), tap(4), and tap your remaining lands and catalyd (7), let it die, then DTT. While digging, you'll need to find combo pieces for the next turn off of 5 mana and 1 dude). I have no idea whether this line of play is any good.)
I've been experimenting with running a Courser of Kruphix or an Eidolon. I don't anticipate the deck breaking past Tier 1.5 until either more 1cmc cantrips are printed or some better redundancy for Asc is printed, but it's a very strong tier 1.5.
I've also experimented with cutting down to 1 cornucopia. Cornucopia is nice because it allows the deck to arbitrarily dig off of 1 guy + helix (and build into most other full kills), but it's also nice because it allows the deck to generate arbitrary mana without drawing past the end of the deck.
***Evanescent Intellect allows the deck to also generate arbitrary mana if it mills its only cornucopia. If you've built into 1 Asc - 2 dudes (/ 1 dude twinflame) - helix - mantle, you are arbitrary-draw - mana neutral. One additional mantle nets you 1 mana. So long as your two dudes are not both Mystics (or so long as you have a spare white source), you can draw into and play a second Asc. This setup - 2asc - 2 dudes - helix - EI, nets you 2 mana per cycle: arbitrary - mana, draw neutral.
Technically, you can do this with Burning Anger as well so long as you can play the third and fourth Asc (so long as you didn't mill a cornucopia, an Asc, and the second Twinflame with your Communes or Ascendency digs). You can generate mana-neutral, draw-netural cycles with 3 Asc and burning anger.
I appreciate all testing input. It's tough to test on mws, on account of all the ********s. What do you generally side out?
You don't ever fizzle due to the ascendencys all being in the bottom 30? There's like a 6% chance of them being in the bottom 30 and a 3% of them being in the bottom 25.
Could you post your list again? Id like to goldfish it a bit
Edit - btw, has anyone thought about running a couple coursers?
EDIT 2 - Home now.
If you concede on turn 4, I think they'll know how to SB against you anyway. =)
I was thinking about dropping a Kiora's Follower for a 9th scryland. It's digging, after all.
Cheat sheet and math says that going from 21 to 22 lands will bring my likelihood of drawing 0 or 1 land in my opening 7 from 21.7% to 19.0% - about 1.4 games in 50. Dropping the dude count from 12 to 11 increases the likelihood of not seeing one in the opening 7 from 19.1% to 22.2% - about 1.5. If we calculate probabilities in the first 9 cards (assuming scry land turn 1 in games on the play), we get 11.3 vs 13.9 - a comparable increase in fizzles.
FWIW, I'd rather have the extra dude for now - there's more removal for creatures than for lands.
Besjbo- I'm glad You've taken an interest in my build and that you're testing has agreed with mine.
I'm out on a phone tonight so I'll be brief.
I added burning anger because someone had convinced me that you would still be able to kill with it even if you fizzled. Open your experience would be happy to sub it out for Evanescent Intellect, which I originally ran. It doesn't can trip, but it's cheap enough to trigger the ascendency's looting. It also reveals the commune, so I'm unlucky reveal won't discard every win condition and your deck.
You're probably right about the 22nd land, but I don't like cutting the 12th dude. Not playing a dude on turn 2 or 3 is a good way to lose - more so than not hitting the third land.
The nylea's gift will draw the deck if you have 3 dudes and helix or already have arbitrary mana, but you're probably right that it's crappy pre-combo. I'd take any other 1 mana permanent cantrip over it, but options are limited. Maybe the 1U creature aura that draws on both playing and dying? It's like a makeshift divination if you have to block a rabble master with a dude on a setup turn.
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How many cards deep do you go when you fizzle with this list? How many when you fizzle with the cantrip one?
I got 3 turn 3 goldfishes and 2 turn 4 gold fishes out of 6 tonight, so I'm feeling pretty good, but the 6th was a fizzle that didn't go off until turn 8. I don't think a turn 6 combo is any good in standard. An opponent who mulligans down to 3 can kill on turn 6 with a single Rabblemaster. If you block that Rabblemaster on turn 6, it still deals 19.
*
Anyway, it's hard to know for sure how often it fizzles relative to a deck with more cantrips. If I had to guess, I'd say something like 8-15% of the time in total, but mulligans complicate it, as the card disadvantage hurts most there. I think the deck's consistency drops to like 60% after mulling to 5, but I think you'd need to run divination straight up to dig yourself out of that hole.
The deck does lean on helix. Much of that 8-15% comes from helix being in the bottom 20 or mantle/nylea's being in the bottom 30.
The cornucopias allow the deck to continue generating mana and pumps even after your deck runs low on cards. They're also the only net positive mana spell off of one creature, so they're necessary for a turn 3 kill.
Turn 1 scryland, turn 2 dude, turn 3 Ascendency, helix/cornucopia, looter for twinflame (you can also looter for the third land). Then generate arbitrary mana, looter for mantle/presence, draw the deck, kill safely.
-You can also go Ascendency into cornucopia/twinflame, and use your 2cmc digging to hunt down helix.
-You can also just pass after Acendency or mana dorks turn 3 if you don't think you can assemble helix/cornucopia with your digging.
I don't think adding 2 more card draw to my 9 (15 if you include dig through time) would make a huge difference. I don't much like trying to support white, especially if Rattleclaw mystic is my mana dude, and Commune with Gods does not pick up Defiant Strike.
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I don't think Taigam's Scheming would be broken if it cantripped somehow. I mean, Commune with the Gods clearly isn't broken and it's almost strictly better. Peer Through Depths was very good, but it wasn't even format defining back in its day.
I guess you gotta feed the Dig Through Time somehow.
The twinflame kill isn't better, but twinflame is a better utility card, especially against opposing removal. If your opponent is packing a lot of removal, you may need to twinflame your Caryatid to actually generate sustainable engine mana.
Additionally, most turn 3 kills require a twinflame.
After your engine's running and you're able to draw your deck/generate arbitrary mana, you can then play your other 6 attacking creatures and twinflame them all. If they kill guys in response (with, say, bile blight), you can bounce them with a second retraction helix-ed guy and replay them, and twinflame again if necessary, to say nothing of bouncing all their blockers. Really, 3 50k/50k guys is good enough against most any maindeck defense, save fog (Defend the Hearth). You can always board in Burning Anger g2. Against cute stuff like Deflecting palm, you can bounce your attacker after the palm resolves and they choose a source.
All that being said, I'm against running Twinflame as the only kill condition in the deck. You're going to cast Commune with the Gods and see three twinflames. Then, g2, it's going to happen again, and you will be sad.
Black Aggro naturally struggles against courser decks, so I have a feeling that MBA will be knocked out early and often. Also, circle of flame has been nuts in testing. It gives me at least another 2 turn to dig and set up.
I don't know about you, but my black agro runs 4 Crippling Blight MD. Bloodsoaked champion is a house, and black will be a factor.
That being said, MBA is completely dead to Sylvan Caryatid. This is why it's so important to be able to kill off of just the 0/3.
*
Here's my latest list: the innovation is in the manabase - it's able to support 8 scry lands and just 1 tri-land by cutting down on white. It feels a lot better than a fetch manabase, especially after Dig Through Time sends trash to the bottom. These, in addition to a couple of Taigam's Schemings, make me feel a lot better about digging past the 30th card by turn 6.
Nylea's is the fifth Mantle, and Taigam's the fifth and sixth Commune to support Dig through Time.
This list is Twinflame only g1. I'd really love to find a slot for Burning Anger or Evanescent Intellect MD, but I can't quite figure out where. Maybe one of the twinflames? Revealing 3 twinflames with a Commune with the Gods would suck, esp with a caryatid only combo. Maybe cut a Taigam? I kind of like having 6 digging, but 8 card disadvantage cards with 4 helix is already a little tight.
I don't like the idea of cutting helixes without running something mid-rangey like Eidolon of Blossoms or Goblinslide or Courser of Kruphix. Or maybe Goblin Rabblemaster.
What should I cut? A Twinflame, a Taigam's, or maybe a Kiora's? Has anyone dared to cut down to 20 land?
EDIT: Oo. If an opponent tries to hose your Burning Anger with a Deflecting Palm, you can untap at instant speed with a Helix or a Dig through Time.
I find the deck struggling about 7% of the time to find a single Jeskai Ascendancy, and without the Ascendancy, the deck is just bad.
What do you guys do when your Ascendencies are in the bottom 30 or 20 cards? What do you think of adding x1 or x2 Plea for Guidance? Fetching 1 Asc + 1 Dragon's mantle assembles the helix combo with two dorks.
Has anyone running Taigam's scheming liked it? It's straight up card disadvantage, and doesn't get you the card on turn.
Ashk'rya - I don't think I'd rely on keeping two dorks alive without summoning sickness before I go off. Rabblaster is still a thing - lots of decks are going to be running cheap removal that happens to hit 2/3 of the dorks, and double cartyid is gonna catch anger of the gods when you need it.
How reliably can the full-cantrip list go off with one dork? Only dragon mantle cantrips for in colors - the two non cartyid dorks don't produce white mana on their own for strike, which makes me reluctant to include a full boat.
The two mana cantrips feel disappointing, relative to commune with nature, if we're digging for ascendency pre-combo. The helix lists can play the easy two dork combos too. Helix/mantle/2 dorks draws the deck without discards, with one ascendency. That will draw any 0 mana spell for inf mana and any kill you like.
The more I think about it, the more I like twinflame. It's an accelerant mid combo, it's mana neutral, and it's a win condition. With inf mana, you can play all the dorks in the deck, twinflame them all, and make them all infinitely huge. I'm replacing the purse and something else for two more.
I'm liking a hybrid approach, and he's my line of thinking:
-4 colors is hard, and necessitates running 4 Sylvan Caryatid
-Caryatid has defender and can't kill on its own if it's the only creature. Cantrips like dragon's mantle help dig for Helix, but they can't make a Caryatid lethal.
-0 mana spells like Astral Cornucopia can fix mana in setup, can combo with helix, and can act as lotus petals to cast a second Ascendancy while you dig with your first.
-If the opponent is interacting with you at all, you can't presume that your Rattleclaw Mystics and Kiora's Followers will go un-killed. The deck must be able to combo with one creature on the board.
This is easily the most difficult deck I've played in years
I added 1 monestary swiftspear as a kill outlet if get helix/ascendency/caryatid and nothing else. Sometimes you can't quite get infinite mana - still, it's vulnerable to removal, so I may bring Burning anger or Crater's Claws back in. Briber's purse also seems redundant with Helix, but it's better than crypt, and could be hardcast sometimes.
Helix/guy/ascendency/0 mana spell is the core combo you want to get to. This gives you an inf/inf guy and allows you to draw your deck for other pieces, if necessary (if your guy is a Caryatid, if there are blockers or combat-step removal spells).
-Helix/2x guy/asc/dragon's mantle is the same thing. When you draw into any 0 mana spell, it becomes infinite mana.
-Helix/guy/2x asc/dragon's mantle is the same thing.
-Guy/asc/Treasure Cruise digs 4 deep and ups hand size by 2. It's mana neutral if you've played ~7 spells
-Guy/asc/0 mana spell = 1 lotus petal and 1 dig for 1 hand size. 1 Treasure cruise offsets 2 cards, making it effectively net 2 mana if you dig into two 0 mana spells.
EDIT - Oo. Evanescent Intellect goes onto a caratyd, ignores the combat step, is cheap to cast while digging, is hard to counter with a Distainful Stroke, is hard to redirect, and doesn't get discarded by Commune with the Gods. I'm trying it in the md now.
EDIT 2 - Wow. I totally missed twinflame. x1 makes it much easier to go infinite after drawing down into it + any one 0 cmc spell. Took out a briber's purse for it.
A 13th land that comes into play untapped feels marginally better for getting a consistent turn 2 dude.
-1 Triland, +1 Shivan Reef.
-X Nylea's Presence, +X Fate Foretold
The deck's color fixing is generally more than good enough. Fate foretold can generally help you block and dig with an extra dude.
I also want to cut one or two Taigam's scheming, but it's hard to find any other way to fuel Dig Through Time. Maybe I'm not blocking enough. To be sure, the Dig Through Times kind of want to see fetchlands instead of scrylands, but with no shufflers, I feel like the DTTs can get deeper into the deck w/ scrys.
*(DTT is an instant, so you can float mana, block, and delve the blocker. With no commune or cards in graveyard, turn 2 dude, turn 3 Morph mystic, turn 4 untapped land allows you to block w/ moprh mystic, unmorph(3), tap(4), and tap your remaining lands and catalyd (7), let it die, then DTT. While digging, you'll need to find combo pieces for the next turn off of 5 mana and 1 dude). I have no idea whether this line of play is any good.)
I've been experimenting with running a Courser of Kruphix or an Eidolon. I don't anticipate the deck breaking past Tier 1.5 until either more 1cmc cantrips are printed or some better redundancy for Asc is printed, but it's a very strong tier 1.5.
I've also experimented with cutting down to 1 cornucopia. Cornucopia is nice because it allows the deck to arbitrarily dig off of 1 guy + helix (and build into most other full kills), but it's also nice because it allows the deck to generate arbitrary mana without drawing past the end of the deck.
***Evanescent Intellect allows the deck to also generate arbitrary mana if it mills its only cornucopia. If you've built into 1 Asc - 2 dudes (/ 1 dude twinflame) - helix - mantle, you are arbitrary-draw - mana neutral. One additional mantle nets you 1 mana. So long as your two dudes are not both Mystics (or so long as you have a spare white source), you can draw into and play a second Asc. This setup - 2asc - 2 dudes - helix - EI, nets you 2 mana per cycle: arbitrary - mana, draw neutral.
Technically, you can do this with Burning Anger as well so long as you can play the third and fourth Asc (so long as you didn't mill a cornucopia, an Asc, and the second Twinflame with your Communes or Ascendency digs). You can generate mana-neutral, draw-netural cycles with 3 Asc and burning anger.
I appreciate all testing input. It's tough to test on mws, on account of all the ********s. What do you generally side out?
Aetherspout
Also, the danger of revealing all three twinflames with communes.
Could you post your list again? Id like to goldfish it a bit
Edit - btw, has anyone thought about running a couple coursers?
EDIT 2 - Home now.
If you concede on turn 4, I think they'll know how to SB against you anyway. =)
-1 Nylea's Presence, +1 Fate Foretold.
-1 Burning Anger, +1 Evanescent Intellect
-1 Frontier Bivouac, -1 Temple of Epiphany, +1 Temple of Mystery, +1 Shivan Reef.
2 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Plenty
3 Temple of Mystery
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Yavimaya Coast
1 Shivan Reef
4 Mana Confluence
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Kiora's Follower
2 Astral Cornucopia
1 Evanescent Intellect
4 Retraction Helix
4 Dragon Mantle
1 Fate Foretold
2 Taigam's Scheming
4 Commune with the Gods
2 Twinflame
3 Dig Through Time
I was thinking about dropping a Kiora's Follower for a 9th scryland. It's digging, after all.
Cheat sheet and math says that going from 21 to 22 lands will bring my likelihood of drawing 0 or 1 land in my opening 7 from 21.7% to 19.0% - about 1.4 games in 50. Dropping the dude count from 12 to 11 increases the likelihood of not seeing one in the opening 7 from 19.1% to 22.2% - about 1.5. If we calculate probabilities in the first 9 cards (assuming scry land turn 1 in games on the play), we get 11.3 vs 13.9 - a comparable increase in fizzles.
FWIW, I'd rather have the extra dude for now - there's more removal for creatures than for lands.
EDIT 3 - Ooo - Brad Nelson's getting pied. =) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10piG3HW788#t=718
I'm out on a phone tonight so I'll be brief.
I added burning anger because someone had convinced me that you would still be able to kill with it even if you fizzled. Open your experience would be happy to sub it out for Evanescent Intellect, which I originally ran. It doesn't can trip, but it's cheap enough to trigger the ascendency's looting. It also reveals the commune, so I'm unlucky reveal won't discard every win condition and your deck.
You're probably right about the 22nd land, but I don't like cutting the 12th dude. Not playing a dude on turn 2 or 3 is a good way to lose - more so than not hitting the third land.
The nylea's gift will draw the deck if you have 3 dudes and helix or already have arbitrary mana, but you're probably right that it's crappy pre-combo. I'd take any other 1 mana permanent cantrip over it, but options are limited. Maybe the 1U creature aura that draws on both playing and dying? It's like a makeshift divination if you have to block a rabble master with a dude on a setup turn.
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How many cards deep do you go when you fizzle with this list? How many when you fizzle with the cantrip one?
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Anyway, it's hard to know for sure how often it fizzles relative to a deck with more cantrips. If I had to guess, I'd say something like 8-15% of the time in total, but mulligans complicate it, as the card disadvantage hurts most there. I think the deck's consistency drops to like 60% after mulling to 5, but I think you'd need to run divination straight up to dig yourself out of that hole.
The deck does lean on helix. Much of that 8-15% comes from helix being in the bottom 20 or mantle/nylea's being in the bottom 30.
The cornucopias allow the deck to continue generating mana and pumps even after your deck runs low on cards. They're also the only net positive mana spell off of one creature, so they're necessary for a turn 3 kill.
Turn 1 scryland, turn 2 dude, turn 3 Ascendency, helix/cornucopia, looter for twinflame (you can also looter for the third land). Then generate arbitrary mana, looter for mantle/presence, draw the deck, kill safely.
-You can also go Ascendency into cornucopia/twinflame, and use your 2cmc digging to hunt down helix.
-You can also just pass after Acendency or mana dorks turn 3 if you don't think you can assemble helix/cornucopia with your digging.
I don't think adding 2 more card draw to my 9 (15 if you include dig through time) would make a huge difference. I don't much like trying to support white, especially if Rattleclaw mystic is my mana dude, and Commune with Gods does not pick up Defiant Strike.
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I don't think Taigam's Scheming would be broken if it cantripped somehow. I mean, Commune with the Gods clearly isn't broken and it's almost strictly better. Peer Through Depths was very good, but it wasn't even format defining back in its day.
I guess you gotta feed the Dig Through Time somehow.
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/standard-new-card-discussion/572039-jeskai-ascendancy-storm?comment=124
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Yavimaya Coast
1 Frontier Bivouac
2 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Mystery
2 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Plenty
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Kiora's Follower
2 Astral Cornucopia
4 Retraction Helix
4 Dragon Mantle
1 Nylea's Presence
4 Commune with the Gods
2 Taigam's Scheming
3 Twinflame
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
3 Dig Through Time
I might goldfish some more tonight.
Unless they kill your guy in response. Or buff heir courser. Or counter your spell. Or don't block, because they have some better play.
Crippling blight is just better against courser. It's... Worse against rabble master.
Additionally, most turn 3 kills require a twinflame.
After your engine's running and you're able to draw your deck/generate arbitrary mana, you can then play your other 6 attacking creatures and twinflame them all. If they kill guys in response (with, say, bile blight), you can bounce them with a second retraction helix-ed guy and replay them, and twinflame again if necessary, to say nothing of bouncing all their blockers. Really, 3 50k/50k guys is good enough against most any maindeck defense, save fog (Defend the Hearth). You can always board in Burning Anger g2. Against cute stuff like Deflecting palm, you can bounce your attacker after the palm resolves and they choose a source.
All that being said, I'm against running Twinflame as the only kill condition in the deck. You're going to cast Commune with the Gods and see three twinflames. Then, g2, it's going to happen again, and you will be sad.
I don't know about you, but my black agro runs 4 Crippling Blight MD. Bloodsoaked champion is a house, and black will be a factor.
That being said, MBA is completely dead to Sylvan Caryatid. This is why it's so important to be able to kill off of just the 0/3.
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Here's my latest list: the innovation is in the manabase - it's able to support 8 scry lands and just 1 tri-land by cutting down on white. It feels a lot better than a fetch manabase, especially after Dig Through Time sends trash to the bottom. These, in addition to a couple of Taigam's Schemings, make me feel a lot better about digging past the 30th card by turn 6.
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Yavimaya Coast
1 Frontier Bivouac
2 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Mystery
2 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Plenty
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Kiora's Follower
2 Astral Cornucopia
4 Retraction Helix
4 Dragon Mantle
1 Nylea's Presence
4 Commune with the Gods
2 Taigam's Scheming
3 Twinflame
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
3 Dig Through Time
Nylea's is the fifth Mantle, and Taigam's the fifth and sixth Commune to support Dig through Time.
This list is Twinflame only g1. I'd really love to find a slot for Burning Anger or Evanescent Intellect MD, but I can't quite figure out where. Maybe one of the twinflames? Revealing 3 twinflames with a Commune with the Gods would suck, esp with a caryatid only combo. Maybe cut a Taigam? I kind of like having 6 digging, but 8 card disadvantage cards with 4 helix is already a little tight.
I don't like the idea of cutting helixes without running something mid-rangey like Eidolon of Blossoms or Goblinslide or Courser of Kruphix. Or maybe Goblin Rabblemaster.
What should I cut? A Twinflame, a Taigam's, or maybe a Kiora's? Has anyone dared to cut down to 20 land?
EDIT: Oo. If an opponent tries to hose your Burning Anger with a Deflecting Palm, you can untap at instant speed with a Helix or a Dig through Time.
What do you guys do when your Ascendencies are in the bottom 30 or 20 cards? What do you think of adding x1 or x2 Plea for Guidance? Fetching 1 Asc + 1 Dragon's mantle assembles the helix combo with two dorks.
Has anyone running Taigam's scheming liked it? It's straight up card disadvantage, and doesn't get you the card on turn.
How reliably can the full-cantrip list go off with one dork? Only dragon mantle cantrips for in colors - the two non cartyid dorks don't produce white mana on their own for strike, which makes me reluctant to include a full boat.
The two mana cantrips feel disappointing, relative to commune with nature, if we're digging for ascendency pre-combo. The helix lists can play the easy two dork combos too. Helix/mantle/2 dorks draws the deck without discards, with one ascendency. That will draw any 0 mana spell for inf mana and any kill you like.
The more I think about it, the more I like twinflame. It's an accelerant mid combo, it's mana neutral, and it's a win condition. With inf mana, you can play all the dorks in the deck, twinflame them all, and make them all infinitely huge. I'm replacing the purse and something else for two more.
-4 colors is hard, and necessitates running 4 Sylvan Caryatid
-Caryatid has defender and can't kill on its own if it's the only creature. Cantrips like dragon's mantle help dig for Helix, but they can't make a Caryatid lethal.
-0 mana spells like Astral Cornucopia can fix mana in setup, can combo with helix, and can act as lotus petals to cast a second Ascendancy while you dig with your first.
-If the opponent is interacting with you at all, you can't presume that your Rattleclaw Mystics and Kiora's Followers will go un-killed. The deck must be able to combo with one creature on the board.
This is easily the most difficult deck I've played in years
1 Mystic Monastery
4 Frontier Bivouac
2 Temple of Abandon
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Yavimaya Coast
4 Mana Confluence
4 Rattleclaw Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Kiora's Follower
4 Astral Cornucopia
4 Retraction Helix
1 Defiant Strike
1 Briber's Purse
1 Twinflame
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Jeskai Ascendancy
3 Treasure Cruise
I added 1 monestary swiftspear as a kill outlet if get helix/ascendency/caryatid and nothing else. Sometimes you can't quite get infinite mana - still, it's vulnerable to removal, so I may bring Burning anger or Crater's Claws back in. Briber's purse also seems redundant with Helix, but it's better than crypt, and could be hardcast sometimes.
Helix/guy/ascendency/0 mana spell is the core combo you want to get to. This gives you an inf/inf guy and allows you to draw your deck for other pieces, if necessary (if your guy is a Caryatid, if there are blockers or combat-step removal spells).
-Helix/2x guy/asc/dragon's mantle is the same thing. When you draw into any 0 mana spell, it becomes infinite mana.
-Helix/guy/2x asc/dragon's mantle is the same thing.
-Guy/asc/Treasure Cruise digs 4 deep and ups hand size by 2. It's mana neutral if you've played ~7 spells
-Guy/asc/0 mana spell = 1 lotus petal and 1 dig for 1 hand size. 1 Treasure cruise offsets 2 cards, making it effectively net 2 mana if you dig into two 0 mana spells.
EDIT - Oo. Evanescent Intellect goes onto a caratyd, ignores the combat step, is cheap to cast while digging, is hard to counter with a Distainful Stroke, is hard to redirect, and doesn't get discarded by Commune with the Gods. I'm trying it in the md now.
EDIT 2 - Wow. I totally missed twinflame. x1 makes it much easier to go infinite after drawing down into it + any one 0 cmc spell. Took out a briber's purse for it.