[MTG] Standard Ascendancy for gameday

[Poc]

It's back, Jeskai Ascendancy is still viable in standard and its actually pretty damn consistent, just mull hard until you can find an ascendancy then pray to Jesus they don't have D command.

 

4x Rattleclaw Mystic

2x Monastery Mentor

1x Jace

 

4x Jeskai Ascendancy

 

4x Slip Through Space

4x Expedite

4x Anticipate

4x Elemental Uprising

3x Tormenting Voice

4x Treasure Cruise

2x Dig Through Time

2x Dispel

 

4x Wooded Foothills

4x Windswept Heath

4x Flooded Strand

1x Prairie Stream

1x Canopy Vista

1x Cinder Glade

2x Shivan Reef

2x Island

2x Forest

1x Plains

1x Mountain

 

1x Monastery Mentor

1x Rending Volley

2x Dispel

2x Negate

3x Fiery Impulse

3x Roast

3x Radiant Flames

[Poc]

Gameday Report

 

Day 1

 

I made it to the store late and had to take a round 1 loss, Oh well. Its a free event and I'm not too interested in the mat.

 

Match 2 Vs Abzan Blue

 

This is about the worst matchup I could get. Mainboard Dromoka's commands, stubborn denials and infinite kill spells makes it very hard to sneak your pieces into play. Game 1 on the play I keep a strong hand with all 4 color's available, a mentor and some cantrips. I find an ascendancy with my anticipate and untap. I did not want to play into a D command so I played a fetch and passed. He leaves up D command mana which leaves me in a bad spot. On my draw step I wiff on land and then the game is basically over at that point.

 

Out

-1 Jace

-1 Tormenting Voice

In

+2 Roast

 

Game 2 went about the same as game 1. I mulled to a good 6 card hand with two ascendances and a Cruise on top of the deck. I play a land and pass, he leads with a duress and takes the ascendancy. Turn 2 I play a land and pass, he follows up with a transgress and takes the other ascendancy. After that I just topdecked no action and quickly lost.

 

0-2

 

Match 2 vs Hardened Scales

 

This is a pretty easy matchup. They have little interaction with your combo and only represent a fairly quick clock. Game 1 on the play I keep a 6 card hand with some lands, two anticipates and a mentor. My first few turns go by and I do nothing but play lands, he has a hangarback with 2 counters and a hardened scales. I fetch and anticipate on his end step and find a second mentor. On my turn 4 I play a Mentor and slip through space to get a token and a card. He untaps, plays a second hangarback and passes the turn. I figured he had no kill spells so I was off to the races. I untap, play a land and the second mentor and it was GG at that point. Two mentors and a ton of cantrips can do some work.

 

Out

-1 Jace

In

+1 Mentor

 

Game two I kept a 7 card hand with a mentor and an ascendancy. The first few turns go by normally. he has a hangarback and hardened scales and I drop ascendancy on t3. He misses his land drop and leaves his hangarback up to pump. I play a land and a Mentor+Expedite and swing for 4. I pass the turn and he pumps his hangarback. He misses another land drop and plays another hangarback and passes. I untap, showed him my hand of cruise+dispel and a ton of cantrips and he scooped

 

1-2

 

Match 3 Vs U/B Hedron Alignment (seriously?)

 

Combo vs control games are really not that interesting. Its a whole lot of doing nothing until you have enough redundant pieces to get through all the counter spells. Both games went very much the same. He would tap out on t3 or 4 for an angler or a hedron alignment, I would jam an ascendancy into play then slow roll and bait out counters with cruise and dig until he was out of resources. He had no way to interact with ascendancy at all.

 

2-2

 

I barely scrape my way into top 8 to get the promo card. Me and my opponent decide to drop and thats the end of day 1.

 

Day 2

 

Match 1 vs Abzan Blue (Same guy, FML)

 

You can't win this matchup with this deck, unless they stumble on lands and do nothing the whole match there's just no way. Even Mentor can't save your ass.

 

0-1

 

Match 2 vs U/R Prowress

 

I initially thought this would be a bad matchup. A fast clock+countermagic is bad times for this deck. Apparently Ascendancy is just faster than they are.

 

Game 1 I mull to 6, keep a hand with a rattleclaw,Jace,ascendancy and two lands. The mana was awkward but the hand was strong enough. He plays a land and passes, I do the same. He plays a jace, then I Untap and play my Jace. Ideally I would of liked to play rattleclaw but the RNG was not with me. He loots with Jace, drops and abbot flipping a swiftspear and passes. I draw, loot with jace, finding the mana for ascendancy and play that and pass. He swings for some damage and passes. I loot, flip jace, drop a rattleclaw and expedite it and its GG.

 

out

-1 Rattleclaw

-2 Tormenting Voice

In

+1 Radiant Flames

+1 Negate

+1 Firey Impulse

 

Game 2 I keep a hand similar to the first game, with Jace and ascendancy. He plays out his threats on curve with swiftspear and stormchaser. and I play Jace, I figured it was going to be killed but I played it anyways. He plays an abbot flipping a land then swings in with a titan's strength on the swiftspear. I draw an elemental uprising meaning I can go off next turn if I survive. I drop the ascendancy and pass. He swings in with no prowess triggers and passes back to me. I fetch a green source play elemental uprising and combo off.

 

1-1

 

Match 3 vs Abzan Displacer Combo

 

A very straightforward match, he didn't seem to be running D command so it was pretty easy to combo off

 

Game 1 on the draw with a hand of some lands+2 anticipates and a dig. Not a very strong hand but it has enough digging to find something. t2 he Transgress the Mind's me and only find's my dig through time.I play a land and pass, he plays a land and passes. I find an ascendancy with my anticipate. I untap, play the ascendancy and pass. After few turns of doing nothing but playing lands I find a mentor with anticipate and play it. I expedite it and he hits it with a stasis snare. I pass the turn and he plays a rhino and passes back. I topdeck an elemental uprising and proceed to combo off.

 

I didn't see much of his deck so I'm still unsure exactly what hes playing.

 

Out

-

In

-

Game 2 I mull to 5 with a hand of Jace+Anticipate and 3 lands. Scrying a negate onto the top. He plays some taplands and I play Jace, drawing some cantrips along the way. He plays a Nantuko husk and passes. I topdeck a mentor then loot with Jace drawing an Ascendancy. I play the Ascendancy and pass. He swings in with the husk, plays a land and passes. I draw a land, loot and flip jace then play mentor. He targets mentor with a stasis snare and I respond with expedite finding a rattleclaw and another expedite. He plays another land and passes. I play a land, drop a rattleclaw and expedite it. He responds with another stasis snare but I negate it. After that I was able to combo off and kill him.

 

2-1

 

Match 4 vs Mardu Green

 

Not nearly as bad of a matchup as Abzan is but since part of our combo involves creatures it's very hard to get anywhere without your pieces getting killed.

 

Game 1 on the play I keep a hand with Ascendancy and some cantrips. turn two anticipate finds me a red source, which I needed to cast ascendancy and a second ascendancy. After much debating I took the second ascendancy. He casts transgress on his turn 3 and takes one of the ascendancies. Its my turn 4 and I still can't find a red source but I draw into an elemental uprising. He casts a siege rhino and passes. I'm still looking for a red source so I tap out on t5 to cast a cruise, drawing into a wooded foothills and a mentor. He plays land, swings with rhino and passes. I cast Ascendancy and pass. He swings again with rhino and plays a land then passes. I play the monastery mentor then cast elemental uprising, he targets the mentor with murderous cut in response. I'm able to combo off enough to do about 15 damage and blank a couple of removal spells with dispel and the mentor token, unfortunately I fizzled before I could get lethal damage, but I was able to find a second mentor with the ascendancy triggers. He swings in again with rhino, casts an abzan charm on himself and plays a land and pass. I'm at 3 life now from the rhino+fetchlands. I untap. Cast mentor+expedite, he kills the mentor in response but I have a second expedite for the token+treasure cruise to kill him.

 

He decided to drop out since one of the other games had finished and it's results pushed him out of the top 4. so I took the game

 

3-1

 

Top 4

 

Game 1 Vs Abzan Blue

 

This deck is literally Hitler. It's everything wrong with standard combined into one deck. I did manage to get my combo going on him but I fizzled. Oh well. I got another promo (they're worth almost 10$ a piece right now)

 

 

 

Some thoughts on the deck-

 

I wouldn't recommend playing this deck competitively. It has some really fast kills and does some broken things but its really fragile to kill spells and this standard is FULL of them. The deck is very streamlined and consistent when you can get your pieces into play, not counting cruise and dig. the deck tops its curve at 3 mana making it an extremely mana efficient deck. This deck also showcases how broken of a card Jeskai Ascendancy is. The deck is a lot of fun to play if your into combo decks. So if you need your Jeskai Ascendancy fix before it rotates give this a try.