Couple turn 3 kills possible. Went into blue for the vizier, also censor seems pretty sweet as disruption. This deck needs to stay really low to the ground.
Can I just say that it will feel amazing to cast this eot turn 4 and untap to an emtpy board and cast a Jace, unraveler of secrets . I see a mono blue control deck maybe with a white or black splash for a dragonlord or their command. Especially with a scalable draw card in Epiphany at the drownyard.
So, with the printing of Pristine Skywise and Zephyr Scribe, we have 2 creatures that untap on casting a non creature spell. Throw in Retraction Helix and Briber's Purse and you can cast them infinatly, a la Jeskai Ascendancy combo without the ascendancy. You get to cut a whole 2 colors from the deck. It is still a 4 card combo, needing a payoff in this new instance, such as Monastery MentorMyth Realized or something to take advantage of the combo.
You get to be a combo deck with End Hostilities and counterspells and a real backup plan of DRAGONS. Your mana is better, and probably even get to run Radiant Fountain .
Of course you could also look at it as a bad control deck, so only testing will tell.
I played regular Mono Green Devotion for a while now so here is my take, given that experience:
I love the idea for this deck. I like the idea that I have a way to effectively end the game on the spot vs stalled board positions. MGD itself tends to be soft to sweepers / heavy removal / planeswalkers. Adding Temur Ascendancy helps to fix both of these issues by giving you a card when you play a threat, and giving your huge guys haste. It makes it much easier to come back from your opponent tapping out to wipe the board, only for you to drop a hasty monster that eats planeswalkers and/or life totals.
That said, the key here is that you need to play more threats than your opponent has answers. A big mistake a lot of lists I've looked at make is they don't play enough 4+ power guys to impact the board. Ideally you need somewhere between 15-20 cards that are true threats if you want to really be a green devotion deck. If you look at the 11th place SCG list, he plays 16 cards that put 4 or more power on the board, which I think is just about right for this deck. He also only plays 3 Ascendancy because having multiples isn't terribly great and the combo is secondary to the reasonably strong devotion plan. I think that's the right way to build this because honestly you are going to see lots of removal and forcing them to burn a 3 mana Downfall / delved Cut on a 2 mana Voyaging Satyr is better than them using it on a 4 mana Acolyte. Satyr is a card that's usually not terribly great to play after turn 2-3, so the combo being a backup plan actually increases his value to the deck and makes him slightly less miserable to top deck.
I like the idea of using Purphoros as a win condition, but only for the sideboard. The thing is, it's not always safe to just attack for infinite damage because Deflecting Palm exists and you will either draw or lose against it (this argument also applies to Crater's Claws.) Against any deck that may be sideboarding Palm, you can bring in a single Purphoros, so when you go to combo out, you can simply just Genesis Hydra for it, and kill your opponent 2 damage at a time (which can't be Palmed back at you for lethal). Other than that, there isn't really any reason you couldn't just attack for infinity to win so it'd be a waste of a main deck slot. Altar of the Brood is a completely dead card without the combo; Purphoros is harder to get rid of due to indestructibility and his activated ability may occasionally be relevant.
The secret deck tech to beating the Heroic decks is Voyage's End. Trying to nuke enchantments usually doesn't work well, as the Ordeals pop themselves off and the plan is usually to just add a bunch of +1/+1 counters (which is also done heavily via instants), so your best bet is to try and declare a blocker, and when they give it pro green / indestructible, bounce it back to their hand. They will get to replay the threat, but minus all the counters it had accrued.
Deflecting palm dosent work. You just make multiple 1000000/1000000, and bounce the one that the palm is preventing.
I think the main misconception is thinking of this as a combo deck. You don't need acolyte or singing bell strike or kioras follower or commune with the gods. Take a normal mono green devotion deck from theros standard, add ascendancy and sabertooth, and you have a 'plan b' of comboing. arbor colossus > singing bell strike. Hornet queen > karamenta's acolyte.
Ascendancy, sabertooth, voyaging satyr, nyxthos in play. Tap nyxthos, untap with satyr, bounce satyr replay satyr. Tap nyxthos, untap with satyr, bounce satyr... you need devotion 7, while you already have 4 from the combo pieces.
Nyxthos makes 7 mana, use 2 to bounce, 2 to replay, and 2 to activate the nyxthos again, netting 1 mana. Then use any creature with 4 power, or a genesis hydra to draw your deck/put it all into play with a hydra, by playing and bouncing either 1000000 times. Then your whole deck is in play and you kill them with hasty trample guys.
Cloudform and Frost Walker are the new additions. Both seem to be perfect for this deck. Certainly it would be best to Cloudform a Frost Walker from the top of the deck, but this is magical christmas land.
I think its best use is a 'chill' effect against the imminent burn decks. With the soulfire grand master and Wild Slash being spoiled, i can only assume that people will play lots of burn, and in a control deck (u/b, esper etc.) you side this in against them, and it acts like a Chill.
I have been thoroughly impressed with Genesis Hydra against decks with counterspells. Being able to get an assendancy off the top of the deck for 'free' and it being uncountable is great. I tend to sideboard out most of the dig in my list for all of the creatures/nykthos. I get to play a bad devotion deck with a combo backup against the control decks, while against everything else I bring in swan songs. The mono red match is improved by the creatures.
I've been so impressed with the hydra that I've though about playing it in the main deck. I know that is crazy, there is definitly no room for it, and its probably a bad idea, but uncounterable ascendancies are definitely what this deck is in need of.
4 Bomat Courier
2 Ruthless Sniper
4 Shadowstorm Vizier
4 Noose Constrictor
2 Insult//Injury
2 Cartouche of Zeal
4 Shadow of the Grave
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Censor
Couple turn 3 kills possible. Went into blue for the vizier, also censor seems pretty sweet as disruption. This deck needs to stay really low to the ground.
Just think of all the madness triggers though!
I do agree on the merits of an ascendancy on board giving you passive card selection.
Also, you could be mono blue if you wanted to. Just the scribe, helix and purse w/ blue prowess dudes
So:
helix, purse, scribe, myth
vs.
helix, purse, ascendancy, creature
same number of pieces, 1-2 less colors.
My proposed list:
2 Zephyr Scribe
2 Monastery Mentor
2 Dragonlord Ojutai
4 Myth Realized
3 Retraction Helix
2 Last Breath
2 Valorous Stance
3 End Hostilities
2 Dig Through Time
4 Anticipate
24 Land
You get to be a combo deck with End Hostilities and counterspells and a real backup plan of DRAGONS. Your mana is better, and probably even get to run Radiant Fountain .
Of course you could also look at it as a bad control deck, so only testing will tell.
Thoughts?
Deflecting palm dosent work. You just make multiple 1000000/1000000, and bounce the one that the palm is preventing.
Nyxthos makes 7 mana, use 2 to bounce, 2 to replay, and 2 to activate the nyxthos again, netting 1 mana. Then use any creature with 4 power, or a genesis hydra to draw your deck/put it all into play with a hydra, by playing and bouncing either 1000000 times. Then your whole deck is in play and you kill them with hasty trample guys.
4 voyaging satyr
3 sylvan caryatid
1 karametra's acolyte
4 courser of kruphix
2 boon satyr
4 eidolon of blossoms
4 temur sabertooth
3 arbor colossus
4 genesis hydra
1 nylea, god of the hunt
3 temur ascendancy
4 yavimaya coast
1 mana confluence
4 frontier bivouac
4 nykthos, shrine to nyx
1 mountain
6 forest
Temur Sabertooth, Temur Ascendancy, voyaging satyr and Nyxthos, Shrine to Nyx with enough devotion goes infinite. Genesis Hyrda grabs Nylea, God of the Hunt and you have 10000000 trample damage.
Id say that 1 less mana makes a large difference.
4 Winds of Qal Sisma
4 Pressure Point
4 Aetherspout
4 Valorous Stance
4 Treasure Cruise
2 Marang River Prowler
3 Dictate of Karametra
2 Monastery Siege
Bant version hoping to rely on the grand master buying back fogs. Win with Marang River Prowler recursion with a dictate in play.
4 Frost Walker
4 Vaporkin
4 Mindreaver
4 Cloudform
4 Thassa, God of the Sea
4 Master of Waves
1 Bident of Thassa
1 Jace, the Living Guildpact
2 Icy Blast
4 Singing Bell Strike
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
14 Island
Cloudform and Frost Walker are the new additions. Both seem to be perfect for this deck. Certainly it would be best to Cloudform a Frost Walker from the top of the deck, but this is magical christmas land.
Thoughts?
2 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Arbor Colossus
3 Sagu Mauler
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3 Swan Song
I have been thoroughly impressed with Genesis Hydra against decks with counterspells. Being able to get an assendancy off the top of the deck for 'free' and it being uncountable is great. I tend to sideboard out most of the dig in my list for all of the creatures/nykthos. I get to play a bad devotion deck with a combo backup against the control decks, while against everything else I bring in swan songs. The mono red match is improved by the creatures.
I've been so impressed with the hydra that I've though about playing it in the main deck. I know that is crazy, there is definitly no room for it, and its probably a bad idea, but uncounterable ascendancies are definitely what this deck is in need of.
Someone talk me out of it.