Servo Guarantees Citizenship [EDH]

[Oversoul]

Stuff going on in my life delayed the creation of my deck helmed by a commander from Modern Horizons 3, but we have arrived. I just can't stay away from Jeskai Ascendancy. Also, I was going to need a deck for the Fourth of July anyway, so this can serve both purposes.

While setting up Jeskai Asendancy as an engine is my primary gameplan here, this deck has some other lines it can explore. The commander strikes me as potent, perhaps the best Jeskai commander I've built around to date. Seriously. I'm going to make so many servos...

Commander:
1 Cayth, Famed Mechanist

1 Aggravated Assault
1 Alloy Myr
1 Anger
1 Aphetto Alchemist
1 Apprentice Wizard
1 Arcane Denial
1 Arid Mesa
1 Aura of Silence
1 Bloodshot Cyclops
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Brainstorm
1 Bronze Walrus
1 Capture of Jingzhou
1 Change of Fortune
1 Chaos Warp
1 Command Tower
1 Crashing Drawbridge
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Dovin's Veto
1 Echo of Eons
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Esper Sentinel
1 Etched Oracle
1 Evacuation
1 Fatestitcher
1 Flooded Strand
1 Force of Will
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Goblin Bombardment
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
1 Gold Myr
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Heartwarming Redemption
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Intruder Alarm
1 Iron Myr
4 Island
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mana Drain
1 Manakin
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mother of Runes
4 Mountain
1 Mutavault
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ornithopter of Paradise
1 Otawara, Soaring City
1 Palladium Myr
4 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Polluted Delta
1 Raugrin Triome
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rhystic Study
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Sage of Lat-Nam
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Scuttlemutt
1 Sea Scryer
1 Silver Myr
1 Sisters of the Flame
1 Skullclamp
1 Sol Ring
1 Steam Vents
1 Strip Mine
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Swan Song
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master
1 Thought Vessel
1 Thrilling Discovery
1 Time Spiral
1 Time Warp
1 Time Wipe
1 Tradewind Rider
1 Treasure Vault
1 Tundra
1 Unexpectedly Absent
1 Urza, Lord High Artificer
1 Urza's Saga
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Whirlwind of Thought
1 Windfall
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

 

[Oversoul]

Played this deck on Wednesday night. It ended up being the only game of the night that I actually won. The deck got to ramping fairly quickly, then stalled out for a few turns. Fortunately, my board state was enough of a deterrent that I was able to work toward six lands and cast Time Spiral. While my hand ended up being lackluster, I was able to get Jeskai Ascendancy. No one removed Jeskai Ascendancy or killed very many of my mana dorks, so when the turned passed back around to me I was able to get Anger into my graveyard and cast enough spells that my board state could overwhelm all three of my opponents. It's too early to tell for sure, but this is probably my favorite Jeskai Ascendancy EDH deck so far.

 

[Oversoul]

In honor of Independence Day, I played this deck twice on Wednesday night. OK, it's more like it went poorly the first time so I tried again.

First game I dropped Sisters of the Flame into Scuttlemutt and was set up to us them both for building a solid board state on my fifth turn. Before I could, one of my opponents cheated in a Massacre Wurm. I never recovered from the tempo loss and that opponent went on to dominate the game. If you want to stop this deck, killing its creatures is the way to go.

Brought the deck out again against different opponents. Didn't get my trusty mana dorks, but I was able to make enough servos to block attacks. Jeskai Ascendancy functioned well enough with Cayth, Kiki-Jiki, and Goblin Sharpshooter that I began to dominate even without mana dorks. I ate a big attack at one point, but survived and hit back with a bunch of token copies of Goblin Sharpshooter for the win.

 

[Oversoul]

It occurs to me only now that if Cayth proliferates tokens made by Kiki-Jiki, then the ones I made off proliferation won't expire at the end of the turn. Missed opportunity there and I could probably have won at least a turn earlier if I'd noticed that interaction. Oops! I mean, the deck worked even without that, but still...

 

[Oversoul]

This deck keeps racking up wins.

And Goblin Sharpshooter continues to fascinate me with its quirks! I missed an opportunity to save myself a bunch of damage because I kinda got shouted down by the rest of the table due to a bit of rules confusion. One of my opponents was plyaing Prossh, Skyraider of Kher. His intention was to immediately sacrifice all of the kobolds to the commander, then attack (I forget what was granting haste, but there was something and it doesn't matter). Now, making the kobolds is a cast trigger, not an EtB trigger, so I could have killed the kobolds with Goblin Sharpshooter before the commander resolved, but I didn't remember this at the time and it kind of got skipped over. Not any deception by the Prossh player, just an honest misunderstanding. That was my first missed opportunity. The Prossh player announced the sacrifice of all six kobolds, but did so in a way that I didn't interpret it as holding priority. So I tried to interrupt by activating Goblin Sharpshooter, but this got the other two players arguing with me right away because they (correctly) were pointing out that the Prossh player still had priority. After realizing the source of the confusion there, I was flustered enough that I only activated Goblin Sharpshooter once, after priority was passed to me. Of course, thinking about this with hindsight, I could have activated the Goblin Sharpshooter in response to each trigger generated by a kobold dying. Priority pri-shmority. This meant that I could have killed Prossh before Prossh ever had an opportunity to attack.

The way the game played out, I took something like 18 damage that turn. Then I cast Temporal Manipulation and Skullclamped the Goblin Sharpshooter because I desperately needed another creature to enter the battlefield. I drew Esper Sentinel. This let me make a servo, and once I had a token to start populating, I was able to use Intruder Alarm with Gold Myr and Palladium Myr for infinite servos. Goblin Bombardment could then deal lethal damage to my opponents. One of my opponents had a Grim Feast, which would counteract this. But I already had Aura of Silence in my hand to deal with that and also had Skullclamp to draw into answers anyway.

Another infinite combo finish. I know, I know! But it was a close call and we were all one turn away from the Prossh player ending us anyway, so I don't feel bad.

 

[Oversoul]

Played this deck in a five-person pod on Wednesday. Had a good start, but got stuck with mostly just mana dorks. I had to use Tradewind Rider to keep myself alive against Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos. My board full of mana dorks and servos was starting to get outscaled, though. Just when I thought that all hope was lost, I topdecked Urza and activated Urza, hitting Idyllic Tutor. This let me grab Intruder Alarm for an infinite combo with Cayth and my mana dorks.

 

[Oversoul]

It's been a while. I played this deck and, yet again, it pulled off a win. I did get stuck for a bit, but this deck has the uncanny habit of waiting to give me the cards I need right before it would be too late.

Got some mana dorks, went for Jeskai Ascendancy, saw it get blown up by Beast Within, and kept on digging for more cards. Amusginly enough, Sage of Lat-Nam was the card that proved to be a lifesaver here. I kept populating to make more servos, then sacrificing them to draw more cards. The board got scary. I was facing an attack from two 9/9 tramplers, so I overloaded Cyclonic Rift. This put the opponent who went next in turn order somewhat ahead, as he had a lot of mana production and rebuilt nicely. Time Spiral gave me Cyclonic Rift back again, so I was able to overload it a second time, followed by Wheel of Fortune. I'd already used Mystical Tutot for Enlightened Tutor, then Enlightened Tutor to put Intruder Alarm on top of my library. With all my mana dorks, Cayth, Sage of Lat-Nam, Intruder Alarm, and with Anger in my graveyard I was then able to draw through my deck to set up a win.

This is the third year in a row of me building some new Jeskai EDH deck based around trying to make Jeskai Ascendancy work in a three-color deck. The first one was OK and I did derive some enjoyment from the convoke theme of the second one. But this deck is just a lot better. It's so smooth. Cayth pairs so perfectly with Jeskai Ascendancy. My only qualm with this deck is that it probably pushes the power level a bit too much, and I prefer to err on the side of having a deck that's underpowered relative to the pods I'm in. Also, because it uses a lot of ordinarily mediocre creatures (like Sea Scryer, Manakin, and Iron Myr, which I relied on in this most recent game), it often causes opponents who aren't familiar with the deck to underestimate it. They think, "Oh, he's just got some weak creatures, so he's not a threat. Oh look, he made another servo. That's cute." But from where I'm sitting, it's clear that I'm close to assembling a deadly board state or even an infinite combo. I don't want to be in a position where my deck is tricking my opponents. But I do really like this one. Goblin Sharpshooter has been a rockstar. The extra turn spells feel like real bombs here because of how they play with my creatures. Cayth makes even the jankiest of my mana dorks feel significant, while having other impactful tap-activated abilities on Tradewind Rider, Bloodshot Cyclops, and Kiki-Jiki makes untapping all of my creatures feel really powerful.

I will probably scrap this deck for parts so that I can build a new deck with one of the upcoming Duskmourn commanders. But it's been great. Jeskai was always a color combination I struggled to like, and this deck has finally made a fan out of me.

 

[Oversoul]

Won with this deck yet again last night. It was a good game, and actually pretty close. Had to recover from a board wipe and then deal with the fact that Heartwarming Redemption drew me into a land pocket. I ate 25 damage to the face once and was worried about how to block the next one, but that opponent was left struggling to deal with the other two opponents on the next turn. Jeskai Ascendancy on the board and Anger in the graveyard gave me an opportunity to set up an engine, and I cast Time Warp. One opponent tried to counter the Time Warp with Arcane Denial, but I had my own Arcane Denial for that. On my next turn, I was able to use Jeskai Ascendancy with Sage of Lat-Nam and servo tokens to draw into Intruder Alarm, which went infinite with Cayth.

 

[Oversoul]

Yet again, I Sage of Lat-Nam saved me. I piloted this deck for my final game of last night. Kept a lousy starting hand, but was able to get Cayth making servos and Sage of Lat-Nam sacrificing those servos in order to dig for more cards. The going was slow, but no one had anything that immediately threatened me. I started making copies of Tradewind Rider with Kiki-Jiki and then copying those copies with Cayth, which should have made me the archenemy of the table. I think that my opponents mistakenly believed that Tradewind Rider only bounced creatures. Despite my having read the ability to them, I'd only been using it on attackers and on creatures that actively presented a problem for me, so they didn't realize how dangerous it would be for me to have multiple Tradewind Riders. Just when I thought that it might be too late, Sage of Lat-Nam drew me into Idyllic Tutor. I had tentatively planned to make enough mana for overloaded Cyclonic Rift into Time Warp, but the tutor presented a faster win. I grabbed Intruder Alarm. One of my opponents was able to sacrifice enough creatures with his Grist deck to drain my life total and bring me down to 3, but he couldn't finish the job. With Cayth, Kiki-Jiki, Tradewind Rider, Apprentice Wizard, Sea Scryer, and Silver Myr on the field, Intruder Alarm let me go infinite and win the game.

This deck has won more than its fair share of games, including a couple that it probably shouldn't have. It's time to take this one apart. I'll need some of my staples for this year's Halloween theme deck anyway. The deck is honestly probably too high-powered for my purposes anyway. But before I close this chapter for good, I just want to make a note that it's been great in so many ways. I didn't expect this overpowered pile of nonsense and underpowered mana dorks to be one of my favorite decks. Well, here we are.

In the past three years, I've tried to build three different Jeskai-colors EDH decks with Jeskai Ascendancy. Gnostro was a bitter disappointment. Kasla was pretty cool. But this one surpassed my expectations. It felt like a proper Jeskai Ascendancy experience. It also gave me the opportunity to really appreciate some great cards that I'd partially forgotten about. Goblin Sharpshooter, Sage of Lat-Nam, Tradewind Rider, and Change of Fortune were especially potent with this deck.

So yeah, out of all three-color combinations, this has always been one of my least favorite to build around. But I tried, and now this deck has taken its place as one of my most memorable. I never set out to make an annual tradition of using Jeskai Ascendancy in an EDH deck. That part was a coincidence. So this might be the last year for that. But it was glorious while it lasted. I think that the only game this deck ever lost was that one time Massacre Wurm hit the table early on. Despite sometimes shaky performances, it always pulled out a win in my other games. So it's retiring as a champion. Or something.