JAC

Modern* Combo Five Color RUW (Jeskai, America)

nivikyesac

Land (17)

• 1x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 4x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Island
• 3x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Temple Garden
• 3x Wooded Foothills

Instant (11)

• 1x Banishing Knack
• 3x Cerulean Wisps
• 4x Manamorphose
• 1x Retraction Helix
• 2x Summoner's Pact

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Faithless Looting
• 4x Glittering Wish
• 4x Serum Visions
• 4x Sleight of Hand

Creature (12)

• 4x Birds of Paradise
• 2x Fatestitcher
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 4x Sylvan Caryatid
• 1x Verdant Eidolon

Enchantment (6)

• 3x Abundant Growth
• 3x Jeskai Ascendancy

Artifact (1)

• 1x Engineered Explosives

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Sideboard

Instant (8)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Failure / Comply
• 2x Path to Exile
• 3x Silence
• 1x Wear / Tear

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Flesh / Blood
• 1x Scarscale Ritual

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Jeskai Ascendancy
• 4x Leyline of Sanctity

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Hello and welcome to the strangest combo deck in Modern. Jeskai Ascendancy Combo, otherwise known as JAC.

This variation of the JAC deck is a little different in that it runs a Summoner's Pact package to grab Verdant Eidolon, which turns the loot trigger off Multicolored spells into straight card draw. This is a great way to alleviate the card issues by turning Multicolored cantrips, such as Manamorphose into card draw and cards like additional Ascendancy's and Glittering Wish into cantrips.

The Deck... and how to play it.

JAC is a combo oriented deck based around the card Jeskai Ascendancy. The deck relies on getting a mana dork, or two, as well as Jeskai Ascendancy into play. From here we chain together a series of cantrips to dig through the deck and get Ascendancy triggers. The most important trigger from Ascendancy is the +1/+1 and untap dudes, this trigger allows you to keep casting more cantrips and keep getting more triggers. The other trigger is not one to be ignored either, the loot trigger keeps cycling cards through your hand. By looting you can trade cards that cannot be used to keep comboing for cards that do, think trading a dork for a cantrip.

Should you go for it?

The Bottleneck Problem

A huge part for this deck is identifying your bottleneck, the component you are missing in order to keep the combo going (i.e. Cards or mana). One of these two options will almost always be a limiting factor in whether or not you can keep comboing for the win in a given turn. Once you identify the bottleneck you play to try to find a solution to it. Cards like Manamorphose, Cerulean Wisps and Fatestitcher help net more mana while comboing and Verdant Eidolon and Scarscale Ritual help net more cards to alleviate the card problems. Once the bottleneck is identified and a solution is found, the deck runs smoothly with rng being the only real issue. The card Bottleneck is most likely the hardest of the two to fix, we have have a smaller number of cards to help alleviate this problem. However, the mana bottleneck is relatively easy to manage because of the number of "free spells" we run. Cards like Manamorphose and Summoner's Pact, among others, allow us to cast a spell for free then by floating mana in response to the Ascendancy untap trigger we will end the cycle with more mana i our pool than before we started the cycle allowing us to combo further.

End Game

There are two ways to win with this deck:

1. Cast enough spells to attack with lethal Birds, Hierarch and/or Fatestitcher.

2. Cast enough spells to make a Sylvan Caryatid large enough to throw at your opponents face with Glittering Wish grabbing Flesh / Blood.

Cards

Core

Jeskai Ascendancy: Namesake of the deck. Always run 3 in the maindeck and 1 in the side for the wish package. Without this card the deck would not exist, it is the combo piece.

Glittering Wish: Copies of Ascendancy 4-7, this card is a 4 of. Not only does it grab Ascendancy, it can also grab any cards that may be relevant in a given game such as Knight of Autumn, Scarscale Ritual or Flesh//Blood to win games.

Cantrips

Serum Visions: This is one of the best cantrips we have access to in modern, it see more cards than any other cantrip we can play. Easily a 4-of.

Opt: On of the least powerful cantrips we have access to, it doesn't see as many cards as serum visions, doesn't let us see both the top cards at the same time and it doesn't net mana when comboing with one dork. 1-2 copies should suffice.

Sleight of Hand: The ability to see more than one card at the same time is nothing to scoff at, while we can only keep one of those cards, choice is key. Run it as a 4-of.

Manamorphose: Free cards like this are great in JAC. It nets mana and draws a card at the end (and it triggers an eidolon in the bin) run 4.

Cerulean Wisps: This card helps net us mana while cantriping as well, it allows us to untap with Ascendancy, tap for mana and untap again netting up mana in the end, run 2-3 copies

Mana Dorks

Birds of Paradise: Makes every color and can be played on turn 1. 4-of

Sylvan Caryatid: Hexproof and makes any color, enough said. 4-of

Noble Hierarch: The next best one drop dork we have access to, it provides the colors we care about the most but not being able to produce can be relevant. 2-3 should suffice.

Fatestitcher: This card is great while comboing off, Unearth is why we play this and it taps down blocking creatures as well as producing mana depending on the dorks/lands we have in play. 2-3 is plenty.

OTHER

Silence: A great 1 of in the maindeck, as a maindecked way to try to deal with control and other combo decks game one.

Verdant Eidolon: This card allows for Glittering wish to become a draw spell, and Ascendancy to be a cantrip mid combo. Its the reason we run the pacts. This card makes us slightly more weak to graveyard hate but its minimal and we can still combo without it. Only 1 copy is needed.

Summoner's Pact: Pact allows us to find Eidolon, and combo off on t2 because its a zero mana spell to trigger the Ascendancy we cast on 2. Being 0 mana also allows it to net mana while comboing. 3 copies is recommended.

Noxious Revival: another 0 mana spell to help get the ball rolling on t2. It also allows us to rebuy a card in our graveyard if we start to run out of gas. 0-1 copies

Abundant Growth: This card seems a little odd at first glance, but its a cheap card to trigger Ascendancy and it cantrips. It also combos well with Fatestitcher by turning a land into a rainbow land. 0-2 copies.

The Sideboard

Assassin's Trophy: Part of the wish package, this card answers any problematic permanent we may encounter.

Fiery Justice: This card it great against small, close to the ground aggressive decks. It acts as a pseudosweeper to help alleviate the pressure on your life total and it can be grabbed with wish.

Flesh / Blood: One of the win conditions, its kept safely in the sideboard so that you can wish for it when you need it. Run 1 in the side.

Jeskai Ascendancy: You keep a copy in here to be grabbed by a wish, it is effectively Ascendancy 4-7. You should store 1 in the sideboard.

Knight of Autumn: Versatile wish target, gives a life buffer and can pop an artifact or enchantment.

Leyline of Sanctity: Keeps discard from tearing apart your hand and helps make the burn matchup more reasonable, not great, but reasonable. You should run the full 4

Path to Exile: Targeted spot removal for hard to answer creatures.

Scarscale Ritual: A wish target that helps you if you find yourself needing more cards. Run 1.

Silence: A way to help deal with control or combo decks. Cast it on your upkeep to draw out a counterspell to safely cast your Ascendancy. Or Cast it on the upkeep of the turn your opponent is about to combo, it can effectively act like a timewalk in some matches. We tend to run the rest of the playset in here, 3 copies.

ALTERNATE CARD CHOICES

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	34 - 13 Rares 11 - 1 Uncommons 14 - 1 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.56