2025-05-03 Genesis RCQ with Jeskai Ascendancy (4-0-1, 3-0)

Introduction

Running it back with Jeskai Ascendancy after a semifinals finish. What's neat about the deck is that it can really push the Urza's Saga beatdown plan, unlike Breach. Which is weird to think about, but the density of non-artifact spells in Breach (Underworld Breach, interaction spells, Malevolent Rumble) diluted the artifact count enough that I never found myself doing construct beatdowns (also because you would just win with the combo).

Part of the deck's power is having multiple synergistic packages that play off each other. A list of synergies - italicized for basic ones

• Emry/Tamiyo/Mox Amber
• 0 drops + Emry
• Emry + artifacts
• Cori-Steel Cutter + 0 drops/cheap spells
• Emry + Jeskai Ascendancy + 0 drops (+ Mox)
• Urza's Saga + artifacts + Tamiyo
• Urza's Saga constructs + Cori-Steel Cutter for trample
• Mox Opal + artifacts for metalcraft
• Emry + Cori-Steel Cutter for haste
• Tamiyo + Mishra's Bauble and Preordain - notably, trimmed from this deck
• Stock Up + good cards
• Kappa Cannoneer + artifacts - 1 card package
• Emry + SB Phlage

Decklist & Change Discussion

• Preordain, Flame of Anor, and flipping Tamiyo: aggressive Tamiyo play makes sense online where half the field is seemingly Boros. Local meta is heavily overindexed on UB so less interested in spells that say draw a card.
• Portable Hole - this card is largely for Boros and UB. It's not dead vs other archetypes, but the efficiency and target spread is crucial for those matchups.
  
• Cori-Steel Cutter: Four-of is gas.
• Fetchland mana base: dropped 4 Spire of Industry, added two fetches, added two fetchables. Basic mountain hedges vs Harbinger of the Seas, then flip Flooded Strands to Arid Mesas accordingly.

Swiss

• R1 Asham K on mana-screwed Jeskai Wizards WW (1-0)
• R2 Eric D on UB WLW (2-0)
• R3 Kevin M on Boros Energy (3-0)
  G1 lose the die roll, then they go Guide of Souls > Galvanic Discharge Tamiyo + Ocelot Pride okay
  G3 Pithing Needle on Goblin Bombardment was big game vs double Bombardment hand + Voice of Victory
• R4 Anthony D on UBr WW (4-0)
• R5 ID, 2nd seed going in

Top 8

• QF Eric D (7) LWW
  
• SF Josh M (3) T4 split, concession
• F Sean T (4) on UB WW

Conclusive Thoughts

• Deck is good. Like my Temur Otters time, I benefited a good bit from my opponents not knowing the matchup & therefore not able to assess threats properly.
• Cori-Steel Cutter is a very primary kill axis and adds a lot of agency to the deck.
• Jeskai Ascendancy - I describe this card as the worst card in the deck until it isn't.
  
• Board state management was a little tricky at times. Between several lands, Mox mana, creatures, artifacts, new constructs/monks vs old ones, Cori-Steel Cutter equips ... things get messy. To make things slightly easier for myself, I should source some white sleeves for my monk tokens.
• One thing I made sure not to miss was my own Bauble triggers, perhaps overly so. I checked every upkeep, didn't miss a one - but also checked/double-checked many times when I didn't have one. Probably should be using my reminder token more so it's less disruptive.
• Scheduled to judge some RCQs this season, should probably push for L2. Main requirement would be working a multi-judge event & writing a review.

2025-04-19 D&A RCQ with Jeskai Ascendancy (3-1-1, 1-1)

Introduction

For Modern RCQ season after the Underworld Breach ban, initial consideration was towards Amulet Titan. However, for some reason it seems like it's actually worse now relative to the meta? My current theory on Amulet Titan is that it needs to Titan on T3 to be competitive. Which is problematic - sure the deck might have a 33% chance to have a T3 Titan going, but then quick maths you're expecting to mulligan 3 times per game to get such a hand. But savvy statistics readers will understand that's still a 30% fail rate (0.67 ^ 3).

So instead I elected to play the Breachiest Breachless deck, which is Jeskai Ascendancy + Emry combo. The deck goes off by having the following:

• Emry, Lurker of the Loch without summoning sickness
• Jeskai Ascendancy
• A: Mishra's Bauble in hand/graveyard/battlefield
• B: Two of the same Mox in hand/graveyard/battlefield

This allows you to

1. Make Emry & any other creatures arbitrarily large
2. Loot through your deck one at a time as many times as you want
3. Make infinite mana of any color with Mox Opals
4. Cast all your non-creature artifacts from the graveyard if you like
5. If you had a card in hand to start with, stick a second Jeskai Ascendancy and also cast all the artifact creatures you want out of the yard by targeting them with Emry with your extra untaps
6. Give a creature or two trample + haste via Cori-Steel Cutter

I built the deck for FNM and 0-3'd.

Decklist

Driving home, I reflected on what led to my 0-3's. I narrowed down a few possibilities.

1. I'm playing the deck wrong. Incorrect keeps/mulligans, sequencing, Preordains, land sequencing, holding spells, etc. -- all the decision points
2. My opponents were playing better than me (corollary to 1)
3. The deck is bad / my opponents' decks are better
   
4. The deck isn't tuned for the meta / me

I felt fine about 1, can't do much about 2&3, so I focused on 4.

• Preordain: I think this card is a crutch for bad hands. It can also flip Tamiyo aggressively, but I want to play some Stock Ups. Stock Up is insane - it's card advantage, it's card selection, it's only 3 mana
• Portable Hole: 4-of in online lists. This makes sense in online metas where Boros is #1 and UB #2. Unfortunately my FNM meta is half-Eldrazi and 0% Boros so this is a trim. I would pack 1-2 for FNM, 3 for a local RCQ, 4 for an RC.
• Cori-Steel Cutter: the hot new hotness. A powerful plan B. Having two on board usually takes over the game, I would play more if I had them. Does things with Emry.
•  Kappa Cannoneer: I cut to one, card is great against a lot of stuff but is super high investment. As a standalone plan B it's a solid package.
• Sink Into Stupor: I've yet to see this card or make it work. I think the mana base could use an extra fetchable, and will probably swap it in the future.
• R removal: Flame of Anor, Unholy Heat. I wanted Heat for cheap interaction, can find it easily enough off Stock Up, I don't expect my wizards to live much to really get Flame of Anor value.
  

Swiss

• R1 Brad A on Jeskai Ascendancy WW (1-0)
• R2 Dylan P on UR Steel-Cutter WW (2-0)
• R3 Sam M on Jeskai Steel-Cutter LWL (2-1)
• R4 Max S on UR Demilich (Phoenix MIA) WW (3-1)
• R5 ID
  

Top 8

• QF Joseph B on UR Twin WW
  Knew what he was on, got to keep an Aether Spellbomb in both openers. With that, easy enough to pressure him while he has to play tempo vs Spellbomb
• SF Collin S on Boros Energy LWL
  Really sweaty G2 and G3, RC-level match. Lot of back-and-forth interaction, he Wrath of the Skies'd me to the stone age. I had to use Mox Opal as a Lotus Petal to escape Phlage in G3... twice. Almost escaped it a third time too. Ended up losing to Goblin Bombardment + Ajani shenanigans ... lot of small decisions in that last game that could have done differently, but it ended up coming down to too small of a life total with two Spire of Industry.

Conclusive Thoughts

• Deck is good. I think 3 Ascendancy is a fine number, but I want 4 CSCs.
• Cards I'm looking to trim: Pithing Needle, Sink Into Stupor, Orim's Chant, Strix Serenade
• Remembered all my triggers today, Mishra's Bauble triggers always mess with my memory.
• I think my only oopsie (caught immediately) was trying to attack with a new Monk token, but I had put the CSC on my Emry.
• Will try to judge more this season