MTG: Jeskai Ascendancy Storm (Modern Combo)

Image via magic.wizards.com

This deck can actually win on turn 2. This combo is now being widely known as Ascendancy Storm where the basic engine is Jeskai Ascendancy + mana creature.
The rest of the deck is filled with cheap cantrips (1-mana spells that draw a card or cards). You tap the mana creature for 1 mana, and use that mana to cast a cantrip. Jeskai Ascendancy will trigger, untapping the mana creature and looting (draw+discard) once. By untapping the mana creature, you basically get to cast the cantrip for free. This lets you draw through your entire deck. With multiple Ascendancies or mana creatures, you can actually generate mana, instead of merely breaking even.

The Decklist?

Main board:
Creatures (15)
2 Arbor Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Dryad Arbor

Spells (30)
3 Jeskai Ascendancy
4 Cerulean Wisps
3 Manamorphose
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Glittering Wish
1 Grapeshot
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Treasure Cruise

Lands (15)
2 Breeding Pool
4 Mana Confluence
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath

Side board:
1 Meddling Mage
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Guttural Response
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Manamorphose
1 Rakdos Charm
1 Simic Charm
4 Swan Song
1 Firespout
1 Maelstrom Pulse

Please don't confuse this Ascendancy Storm with the other Ascendancy Storm: the one that uses Ascendancy + creature + Retraction Helix/Banishing Knack + 0-cost artifact to generate unlimited triggers/Storm. That deck is completely different (and much more inconsistent), so it won't be discussed here.

With this deck you win by:

• Casting Grapeshot
• Beating down with an Ascendancy-boosted creature (it pumps the mana creature too!) 
• Wishing for one of your side boarded wincons (which can vary from Flesh / Blood to an X spell like Clan Defiance).

Why should you play Ascendancy Storm on Modern?

• High level of redundancy. You can play 12+ mana creatures and effectively 7 copies of Ascendancy. You also have something like 20 cantrips in the deck to find what you want faster.
• Wishboard. Glittering Wish isn’t just a way to get a copy of Jeskai Ascendancy. It also grabs answers to hate cards that your opponent might have, even in Game 1.
• Potentially fast kills. The fastest kill with Ascendancy Storm is turn 2:
  T1 land, mana creature
  T2 land, Ascendancy, Gitaxian Probe (paying 2 life). You can now untap your mana creature and combo off.
• Resistance to grave hate. With the exception of Treasure Cruise, Ascendancy Storm does not require the use of its graveyard, unlike UR Storm. Even then, Relic of Progenitus is merely a soft-counter to Treasure Cruise. If you have priority and 7 cards in your graveyard, your opponent can’t stop you from casting Cruise, since Delve is part of the cost. The best they can do is pop Relic before you get 7 cards in your graveyard and hope that you fizzle before you can get another 7.

Why should you NOT play this deck on Modern?

• Inconsistency. Even with the untouchable Sylvan Caryatid, Ascendancy Storm is still a combo that requires 2 cards and has a chance of fizzling. Compare this to other combo decks in Modern: Twin, Scapeshift and Ad Nauseam don't fizzle, and UR Storm only needs one engine card (PA/Mancer).
• Too many colors. This hurts you two ways: one, your mana base deals a lot of damage to you, with constant fetching for untapped shocklands. Two, you have to keep track of a lot of colors during the combo. Some people use dice, some people write it down on a piece of paper. Be aware of this overhead.
• Weakness to removal. One half of the engine is an easily-killed, summoning sick mana creature. Sylvan Caryatid is immune to most removal though.