TPup's picture
By: TPup, Tony Pagliocco
Jul 29 2011 9:18am
4
Login to post comments
3191 views


Welcome to my first article on PureMTGO!  I had an urge to start writing again and with my slow transition from paper to digital, I figured PureMTGO was the best place to unleash my writing.  With that being said, I am using today to talk about a deck that has seen some play lately but hasn't really gotten the respect as a "player" in the new standard.  I'm talking about Pyromancer Ascension.

Last week at the SCG Seattle 5k - Arizona stud Adam Prosak took his list to a 9th place finish.  Two things come to mind right away - 1) It finished 9th in a generally hard tournament and 2) Adam Prosak played it - and he usually wont sleeve up a crappy 75 for a big event.  Those two facts alone intrigued me to take a harder look at the list he ran.

Pyromancer Ascension
Adam Prosak - 9th Place at SCG Seattle 7/2011
Creatures
0 cards

Other Spells
2 Call to Mind
3 Jace's Ingenuity
4 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Pyromancer Ascension
3 Burst Lightning
2 Spell Pierce
4 Into the Roil
38 cards
Lands
7 Mountain
11 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
22 cards

Pyromancer Ascension


After seeing his list at 1 am, I immediately grabbed my daughter and conned her start helping me put together this list for the TCG Q that was being held at Spell Bound in Waterville, Maine the next day.  Best part was that this was one of the few times I did not have to go hunting too hard for cards.  From the above list you can see Adam is going with a PA main deck and he sides into the Twin combo post board.  

I ran this list to a T4 finish on the following day and to be fair, my two losses were two vampires, and both my losses felt like they were due more to draws and some shaky hands I kept versus the deck itself.  Mental Misstep was amazing all day in games 2 and 3.  My rounds went like this.

Round 1 :: Win 2-0 vs Hawkward
Round 2 :: Win 2-0 vs UW Caw Blade
Round 3 :: Win 2-0 vs UW Caw Blade
Round 4:: Loss 0-2 vs Vampires
Round 5 :: ID With Vampires

Top 8 :: Win 2-1 vs Vampires
Top 4 :: Loss 0-2 vs Vampires piloted by Maine stud Josh Herr.

Every round I played, I kept wanting that 4th Burst Lighting main deck, and realized that if I had it, it would actually have tightened up my ability to get an active Ascension online a bit quicker.  I won't lie, being able to Ingenuity for 6 at EOT is pretty spicy but having more main deck consistency would have made my day a little bit better

The previous SCG, former IRC stud C1|Jax aka Jason Hager took a Pyro-Twin list to a top 8 of the SCG Cincinnati 5k. As you can see from his list below, he is just jamming the combo from game 1 and this allows his sideboard to be able to be a bit more versatile. However, the question comes up, is he weakening his main deck by trying to do much with the PA and Twin combo both in the main deck.  Some may say yes, but his results say otherwise.
 

Pyromancer Ascension
Jason Hager - 5th Place at SCG Cincinnati 7/2011
Creatures
4 Deceiver Exarch
4 cards

Other Spells
4 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Splinter Twin
4 Mana Leak
4 Burst Lightning
4 Into the Roil
4 Pyromancer Ascension
32 cards
Lands
8 Mountain
8 Island
4 Halimar Depths
4 Scalding Tarn
24 cards

Pyromancer Ascension

 

In comparing both decks, I really believe that I want to be combo free game 1.  I want all those creature spells to be totally dead to me and with the # of Dismembers and other ways to kill decks that swing sideways, I want to have those cards be totally useless.  While at first glance I really liked this layout, I am not 100% behind it as I really want to have a bit more flexibility and I also feel the Halimar Depths are unnecessary because you already are running 8 scry effects.  I would have to have a turn where I Ponder, see good stuff, then lay a Depths which does essentially nothing.

In deciding how I'd want to tweak this for an upcoming PTQ, I know there are a few things I want up front.  I want a full set of Burst Lightnings in the main deck but the question remains do we want the combo in the board or not.  Having the answer to that question really changes what we are going to have in our sideboard and possibly main deck.  So with that being said, I have two lists that I've been working towards to help me with that decision.

Pyromancer Ascension
Tony Pagliocco - Possible PTQ Deck ver 1
Creatures
0 cards

Other Spells
2 Call to Mind
2 Jace's Ingenuity
4 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Pyromancer Ascension
4 Burst Lightning
2 Dispel
4 Into the Roil
38 cards
Lands
7 Mountain
11 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
22 cards

Pyromancer Ascension


In the above list, I've changed the Spell Pierce to Dispel , but it could be either to be honest.  I'm looking at protecting myself vs Into the Roil which is a big card in the Caw Blade decks right now (see Flores / Spagnolo lists) and is a big card that can interrupt us.  Yes, we're weak to Oblivion Ring but that card is not seeing as much play in a lot of the bigger lists right now.  

Also on that same token, when you're playing this deck, people are going to assume you are siding the combo in or you already have the combo main deck so we can use that to our advantage and just not play it at all. Deceiver Exarch on it's own merit is strong vs creature based decks because you can negate a full attack step, be a chump blocker, even if you do not have the full combo in.  So even going 4/2 on Exarch/Twin is a possible where we have the Twin be our "out" in case we don't get the engine going.  Again, this is up for interpretation.

A second version of the deck that could be possible for the next PTQ would be as shown below:

 

Pyromancer Ascension
Tony Pagliocco - Possible PTQ Deck ver 1
Creatures
0 cards

Other Spells
2 Call to Mind
2 Jace's Ingenuity
4 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Pyromancer Ascension
4 Burst Lightning
2 Dispel
4 Into the Roil
38 cards
Lands
7 Mountain
11 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
22 cards

Archive Trap

 
In this version, we haven't changed much main deck (in fact nothing honestly) but the sideboard is bringing a different combo to the table that is still synergistic with Ascension, but also is good versus certain matchups.  I've always been a huge Archive Trap fan and loved it when Ali Antizar ran it in his sideboard vs Caw Blade.  I love it because there's the certain factor of being able to mill away very important parts of people's decks and when you can knock out X mountains vs Valakut, or money spells vs Caw Blade, you tend to be able to save yourself a lot of headaches. Yes you will whiff sometimes but that's part of the game as well. 

Overall, I think that right now, with this deck being under the radar, I think it's primed to make a very good showing.  Is it Tier 1 , no not yet, but does it have the stones to be able to make a good showing, without a doubt.  The majority of the players in your PTQ fall into two categories imho, the ones who know what won the week before, and the ones who are playing what they think is good and the good part about this deck is that in all likeliness, people in both categories will not be thinking about this deck when they are building their sideboards, so that is what is swaying me to play version 2.0.

I hope you enjoyed this article and I hope to have a very nice report from the Providence PTQ being run by Tom Shea from TJ Collectibles this Saturday that will show that I made a good decision and hopefully have a picture of a nice blue envelope to show everyone.

Thanks!
TPup
@tpupaz on Twitter
@magicgrinder on Twitter

5 Comments

i like your perspective on this deck by apaulogy at Fri, 07/29/2011 - 11:37
apaulogy's picture
5

You demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of each plan. While I may not agree that it "should" be Dispel MD (I would propose Mana Leak- a little more catch-all). I also agree that Burst Lightning Should be a 4-of.

Good Primer.

Thanks for reading!! I am by TPup at Fri, 07/29/2011 - 11:59
TPup's picture

Thanks for reading!! I am already running 4 Mana Leak main in all versions - the question is, what should be the "other" counterspell (in the 2x slot) - spell pierce? dispel? etc? I think in some cases it could be a "game day" decision based on live metagame, who know? :)

Spell Pierce? by apaulogy at Fri, 07/29/2011 - 13:04
apaulogy's picture
5

The reason the Splinter Twin lists run Dispel is that most of the spells that disrupt the combo are instants...Which is true here as well. I am not sure, but I would go with Spell Pierce personally. It is a soft counter that people can play around, but we kill pretty quickly after Ascension gets active.

I would be happy to test. I have RDW and Splinter Twin built for a partial gauntlet.

/add buddy tpup?

Game day decision is probably by Raddman at Fri, 07/29/2011 - 13:16
Raddman's picture
3

Game day decision is probably the best choice, but I'd still think Pierce is the more popular and correct choice.

Prosaks and Hagers lists had 1 twisted image together, yet your lists both ran 3. What are you trying to exploit here and would you be better served using a few of those slots for a pierce/dispel split?

After talking to Prosak , he by TPup at Fri, 07/29/2011 - 13:44
TPup's picture

After talking to Prosak , he said he would have def ran more Twisted Image, so that bit was from post tournament discussion.

If i had to make a partial list of what I'm worried against if if I'm JUST playing Ascension.

- Into the Roil
- Any Nature's claim type spell
- O-Ring
- Acidic Slime

Spell Pierce really only takes care of one of those, Dispel takes 2 slots, and I'd have to have a Mana Leak or some sort of hard counter for the Slime.

If I'm running the combo (board or intertwined), I think the counterspell suite could possibly change.

It's def requiring some thinking heh :)