I posted this deck a week and a half ago on my facebook wall and Sam Black, who I know, wrote an article about it. By now, the deck has already had some major success- it’s won multiple events with over a hundred people in them. This deck is the real deal. I broke modern.

Here’s a sample build:

Jeskai Ascendancy

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Windswept Heath

3 Mana Confluence

2 Breeding Pool

1 Stomping Ground

1 Temple Garden

1 Island

4 Glittering Wish

3 Jeskai Ascendancy

4 Gitaxian Probe

4 Serum Visions

4 Sleight of Hand

4 Cerulean Wisps

2 Crimson Wisps

3 Manamorphose

4 Treasure Cruise

4 Birds of Paradise

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Sylvan Caryatid

Sideboard

1 Jeskai Ascendancy

1 Guttural Response

1 Abrupt Decay

1 Manamorphose

1 Meddling Mage

1 Fiery Justice

1 Assemble the Legion

1 Wear // Tear

1 Flesh // Blood

1 Scarscale Ritual

1 Path to Exile

4 Swan Song

I think this is a reasonable place to start. The list isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty good.

Here’s how it works: With a Jeskai Ascendancy and a mana creature in play, each of your spells generates a mana thanks to the untap trigger. This makes Sleight of Hands and Serum Visions free and Gitaxian Probe and Cerulean Wisps and Manamorphose mana positive. As such, you’re likely able to cast any number of spells. Since Jeskai Ascendancy loots, you’re also likely to always have spells. You have a bunch of mana dorks and spells to trigger ascendancy, so it’s mostly about getting Jeskai Ascendancy into play. Once it’s in play you can immediately generate some mana and get through all the cards in your deck. Jeskai Ascendancy will have pumped your mana creature large enough to kill your opponent in a single attack. If they have blockers or your creature is a Caryatid, you can Glittering Wish for Flesh // Blood and kill them.

I think a large portion of the deck is fairly set in stone. I like the Glittering Wish package a lot, but there are other ways to build the deck- Idyllic Tutor and Wargate and Supply // Demand can all find Jeskai Ascendancy in a pinch. I think Glittering Wish is just superior, since it just costs less mana and gives access to a wishboard. There are some downsides to it; you must run one less Jeskai Ascendancy in your maindeck and (more relevantly) subsequent copies of Glittering Wish can’t find Ascendancy.

Cerulean Wisps and Gitaxian Probe and Manamorphose are cheap and mana positive with Ascendancy. Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand are the best cantrips we have access to in the format and are great at finding your combo piece. The twelve mana dorks we’ve included are the best mana dorks you have access to. You play the maximum number of Jeskai Ascendancy and Glittering Wish. Treasure Cruise is just an excellent engine card in a deck that doesn’t use it’s graveyard and fills it quickly.

There’s a bunch of options for the few slots that are “haste mana dorks while you’re going off” and it’s not clear to me which of Fatestitcher, Wind Zendikon, Twinflame, Postmortem Lunge, and Crimson Wisps is better, since they all serve the same purpose. Fatestitcher is neither a noncreature spell nor does it draw a card, so there’s some amount of downside to it. It’s possible that none of these are necessary, since it’s so hard to fizzle and they really don’t do much unless you’re already going off. My guess is that the order is Crimson Wisps > Wind Zendikon > Postmortem Lunge > Twinflame > Fatestitcher since these cards are at their best when they let you combo off from an empty board (which Twinflame and Fatesticher can’t quite do) and Crimson Wisps doubles as a one mana cantrip while comboing in a pinch.

There are a bunch of cards that I’m not playing in my deck:

- Grapeshot - Grapeshot is really just completely unnecessary. You can attack or wish for Flesh // Blood, no reason to take up a maindeck slot.

- Dryad Arbor - This was in the deck for a while, but it’s really more cute than good. Green mana is rarely useful while comboing and it’s premier function has been Liliana fodder.

- Arbor Elf - It’s just not a very good mana dork, even if it is the next best one. I think the manabase should likely be updated given that this card is cut; you don’t need to be mono-Forests anymore. I added an Island in place of the Dryad Arbor (which is nice against Path), but you might also want a Steam Vents.

- Sprout Swarm / Mystic Speculation / View from Above - I’ve heard these suggested a lot (and played a bit with Mystic Speculation) and they’re not very good.The concept behind them is that if your creature count is higher than the cost of the spell with buyback, you have the win with Jeskai Ascendancy. The problem is that a live Jeskai Ascendancy means you probably have the win already.

My wishboard at this point is a bit large, and it’s worth trimming down on it. There are a bunch of options here:

- Jeskai Ascendancy - The fourth Ascendancy in the board is the whole reason to play Glittering Wish in the first place. It gives you access to a virtual seven copies of the card.

- Manamorphose and Scarscale Ritual - Sometimes you draw Glittering Wish while going through the combo. These spells exist to ensure you don’t fizzle and can continue comboing off.

- Flesh // Blood - Lets you win the game if your storm count is high

- Guttural Response - The best possible thing you can have against counterspells.

- Abrupt Decay - An unconditional (but hard to cast) removal spell that answers hateful permanents.

- Wear // Tear - Another removal spell, but cheaper for dealing with various Eidolons and things.

- Meddling Mage - This allows you to preemptively answer an Abrupt Decay (or another card you are aware of) and I think it’s the best thing at doing that

- Fiery Justice - Kills lots of creatures, currently the only sideboard spell that removes a Linvala.

- Assemble the Legion - I think I want a card that I can wish for that singlehandedly allows me to win the game against BGx decks. I think this is a better option than Keranos or Sigarda.

Ones I’ve chosen not to play, some of which I could see playing. :

- Simic Charm - This is a fairly nice protection spell against Abrupt Decay and a reasonable removal spell against a hate card, but those bases are already covered.

- Rakdos Charm - I included this mostly because of its versatility earlier, but you rarely need to exile a graveyard.

- Wheel of Sun and Moon - Decent hate card that lets you win against infinite life (draw your deck except for one cantrip, wish for Wheel, cast a cantrip from hand, demonstrate a loop). I just didn’t wish for it ever.

- Maelstrom Pulse / Detention Sphere - This effect hasn’t really been necessary in practice.

- Naya Charm / Treasured Find / Reborn Hope - Lets you have a second Ascendancy as a wish target in case the first one gets countered. This one costs a lot of mana, though.

Then there’s the actual sideboard, which is cards you actually bring in (though it is possible to bring in wishboard targets- in some matchups some targets are good but redundant in the board or you might only ever want to find Ascendancy with Wish). There are a bunch of sideboard options:

- Swan Song - This seems like the best interactive card you could ask for in a combo deck, it answers most spells at a fairly low cost. I think it’s better than Pact of Negation, since it can be used defensively against an opposing combo and is less risky.

- Leyline of Sanctity - An option that helps shore up the fairly poor matchups against Jund and Burn. There’s some issue with this card in that it doesn’t answer the way they’re answering your combo (Decay / Eidolon) so there’s some fear they can beat you despite it.

- Silence - Playing this on upkeep just ensures you can go off without fear of an Abrupt Decay.

- Path to Exile - If you want something that removes a creature, this seems like the best option. In some places you expect to face a hate card and it’s nice to have a way to deal with a Linvala or Eidolon.

- Noxious Revival - This can replace copies of Jeskai Ascendancy for little mana in grindy matchups.

- Faith’s Shield - A cheap spell that allows you to protect mana dorks and Ascendencies from removal.

So far, it seems like the actual hard matchups are the ones where your opponent has both a reasonable clock and actual interaction for the combo. Burn, UR Delver, and Jund seem like the worst matchups. Control decks can interact well, but don’t have the clock to close things out.