Luckily for all you @torerotutor fans, the blathering about Pyromancer Ascension is likely nearing its finale. The namesake card will rotate from Standard soon, and while I may brew up a Modern version, I doubt I'll have many opportunities to play the format, unless GP San Diego is indeed changed.
I have however, had a great deal of success with my most recent version, and I want to share some of the progress since my last post about this deck. An important thing to note, is that this deck is /MEANT/ to be flexible. The only required cards are the Ascension and cantrips. The win-con (in this case: burn) can vary to be mill using Archive Traps etc. I played this list in a PTQ and did pretty well, forced to play the 9th round as the worst-breakered 7-1 and lost finishing 15th at 7-2 :(. I have slightly tweaked the sideboard since then, but not many changes. As the format morphs, this deck needs to too. So if you have thoughts of improving other matchups, there's certainly room to do that.
The Decklist:
4x Pyromancer Ascension
4x Mana Leak
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Visions of Beyond
4x Twisted Image
3x Into the Roil
4x Ponder
4x Preordain
4x Gitaxian Probe
2x Red Sun's Zenith
4x Halimar Depths
4x Scalding Tarn
8x Island
7x Mountain
SB: The sideboard needs to be flexible, but as of now, I'm playing
3x Frost Breath (will likely cut this to 2 or remove it all together)
1x Flashfreeze
2x Mental Misstep
2x Spell Pierce
4x Deceiver Exarch
3x Splinter Twin
Note on the Splinter Twin Combo. I've had a ton of success boarding this in against almost everything, but i've been told that on MTGO its nearly expected, and the surprise factor is non-existant. I've just started playing this deck on MTGO and i'm 3-1 in 2-man queues. (0-1 in an 8man also). I haven't run into people packing too much hate for twin g2, but there were some instances of dismembers. My plan is usually to leave Ascensions in against most decks, while bringing in the twin combo, so even if they left dismembers in the deck, they may see a Ascension, and think they boarded wrong, and leave you an opening to win via Twin. If they don't give you that opening, the Ascension itself needs to be answered, or winning that way is just as easy.
There is only 2 G1 matchups that are tough. Vampires and RDW/Goblins. This version doesn't run a ton of removal, so you are literally racing. Using up too many bolts to kill guys could mean you have trouble finishing the game. that does NOT mean to save your RSZ's. You should kill dudes with it whenever possible. You'll always be able to find it again once you're active and ready to win through a chain of cantrips. You probably need to use some bolts too, just be smart about it. Usually winning a G1 against these decks involves getting multiple ascensions online. Burning up a couple bolts early to stay alive, using one PA to dig and load up another one, so that your cantrips are all refilling your hand every turn. Eventually into the roils will bounce their whole team, and a single Red Suns Zenith finishes 'er up. I know it sound slike a lot of pieces have to fit the puzzle, but remember there are 20 1mana cantrips in this deck mainboard, so digging to pieces isn't exactly hard, especially when 8 of those cantrips dig fairly deep. there is also the Into the Roils, which when kicked aid in the digging. Also remember, this is one of the worst G1 matchups. Typically the splinter twin plan is pretty effective G2, and it takes a bit of a read on your opponent g3 to figure out how the board plan should go. Be sure to slam your full 15 cards in to your deck each game, pulling out the 15 you wont play. Even if its the same 60 you had the previous game. I need to figure out a way to work on this methodology for MTGO, because I rely on it heavily "over-the-table." Even if your opponent employs the same strategy, of hiding their plan by shuffling all 15 in, then pulling 15 out, a resounding number of opponents will groan about dead cards in their hand. At high levels, obviously people won't do this, but you'd be surprised. I had an opponent at the PTQ in Round 7 X-1 bracket, show me a hand of 3 removal spells after I won g1, and did no amount of work to disguise the fact that they were immediately going into the SB. If Twin is truly expected, then maybe it doesn't even need to be in the board to do its job. If my opponent is keeping dismember in their deck, then i should be able to just win using my normal plan and adding removal or counters to firm up the given matchup. Maybe arc-trail/slagstorm needs to replace those slots and an increase on spell pierce and flashfreeze. IDK.
Against Control decks: Please, just don't punt.Every time I lose to a control deck, I can usually point to multiple punts that created a perfect storm where I could lose that game. You can win with 5 cards against a control deck, please read mulligan portion below. I've had a lot of people ask me how to play a variety of matchups, especially U/B or Caw. Both should be literal cake-walks G1. you only have to counte rtheir big threats, and nearly everything else can be ignored while you cantrip your way to victory. Against Caw that means Hero/Angels/Planeswalkers against U/B that's really just the 6-drops whether its sphinx/titan or wurmcoil. U/W players think their o-ring is good against you. Tip: it's not. Just into the roil your asension in response, they'll have to exile their own permanent. G2 I rarely bring in the Twin combo against CawBlade, but i sometimes bring it in G3 if i dorp g2. Depending on the variety of hate they have, the mainboard is usually good enough after swapping the twisted images for the 2xpierce 2xmisstep. If I fizzle g2, sometimes I'll bring in twin g3 if i think it will be surprising enough, otherwise, the same plan on the play should be just fine. Against U/B i run both wincons PA and Twin. Mainly to protect yoruself form Memoricide. Missteps are a must here too, likely spell pierces also. This means you cut Visions for sure, but only cut image if you think they don't have spellskite. Sometimes when running both plans I"ll cut one PA and one RSZ to open up some slots. YMMV. A rule of thumb, your hand size should almost always be 7 against a control deck, unless you're about to win the game. You're only playing cantrips till they hit a big spell you want to counter, or you're trying to land a PA.
Against Combo/Valakut: Against valakut, use images to kill walls/birds. Use counters to stop explores, rampants, and avoid countering creatures lest you're sure they dont' have traps. You may need to counter a slime to protect your acsension, but thats fine. The into the roil trick can work to save an ascension if needed, because they don' thave many permanents you want to bounce other than walls/expeditions. Literally you should just be able to hinder their ramp just enough to out race their titan. Usually i win the turn they cast their titan, but before they can attack/killme with it.Post board, twin-combo is usually heartbreaking for them. Again, my experience comes from real-paper-Magic not MTGO, so if they have some anti-twin hate other than natures claim, then maybe an adjustment to the trap plan is better. Mental Misstep and spell pierce come in here too. both stop natures claim fairly well, and spell pierce also hits the mana rampers and traps.
Against Twin, or even a mirror, into the roil is the best card in your deck. be stingy with them, waiting till the last possible moment to start a counterwar at their endstep so you can untap and win the game.
I'm going to find out what it takes to record some games on MTGO. Some people birding me at the PTQ said i made some really interesting lines that they wouldn't have seen, so I dont know how to describe those, or the strategy. After two years of playing this deck, it just takes experience looking a few turns ahead as to how you want the game to progress. Just remember you're in the drivers seat, you decide what happens each game.
Some stuff that i thought was straight forward, that a few people didn't realize.
If you have 2x ponder and 1x preordain, but no PA yet. You cast ponder T1, then Preordain T2, hopefully finding an ascension by then (having dug up to 8 cards deep if you count the draw-step inbetween). That means on T3, when you cast asension, you can cast ponder and immediately put your first counter on. You should really really avoid casting your 2nd copy of any cantrip until you have an ascension in play, UNLESS YOU HAVE NO OTHER ACTION. You need to be doing something every turn, unless your hand size starts dwindling. If you're wiffing on cantrips, start bluffing counters. you can't let your hand size get too low. Also. YOUR LIFE TOTAL IS A RESOURCE. Take beats to the face. You don't lose till you hit 0. Be wary of goblin grenade though. I win a lot of games under 4 life. If your opponent has a creature in play, you always cast twisted image before visions, unless of course you know they have 0/x creatures in their deck you want to kill with it. A lot of it is using probe to see what they are playing, and how to sculpt the action of the next few turns aroudn it. Other times its god draw of: PA, PA preordain preordain preordain Island mountain. halimar depths is a sweet Turn 1 play. And you should almost never pay 2 life for probe turn 1. better to wait till turn 2, because thats when it actually matters, and they've drawn an extra card by then. The exception to this is against aggro, because you never really want to pay 2 life for probe against them. It's an auto-exclude post board.
MULLIGANNING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF SUCCESS WITH THIS DECK. People tell me they are losing matchups that I say are easy. I watch them play and they just don't mulligan enough. There are a lot of 7 card hands that are basically 5-6 card hands anyway (multiple ascensions early, RSZ in your opener, etc), so sending them back for a fresh 6 is fine if the opener isnt impressive. I dont feel hindered until I have a 5 card hand, and even then, I'd rather have a shot at a fresh 5 than an awful 6. Your hand must have a blue source. Period. There are 16 of them, so it's not that hard, but you have to have one. Your hand has to have one of the 3: Halimar Depths, Preordain, Ponder. That on its own doesn't mean keep, but you want it to have one of those 3 with an ascension, one of those three with some removal/counters, or two+ of those cards. Alternatively, you can keep a hand with a nice mix of land, and no draw spells, just leaks/bolts/roils. Just keep in mind you're playing a more control role from the onset, and you'll just want to use those resources wisely to find the drawspells to find the pa to win the game... Once you get down to 5 cards, then you have to be willing to take some chances, depending on what configuration you're in. Mountains become a bit more valuable with the twin plan in. I once kept a loose 6 of Mountain Mountain Probe probe probe Into the Roil G1. I managed to win that game, but he also stumbled and I was really unhappy with the keep later. Blue mana is important, it drives all of your action until you're ready to win the game.
I'm putting this up now on friday night, but will include more tomorrow, and hopefully some videos. (and probably also some copy editing)
