Jeskai AscendancyJeskai Ascendancy | Art by Dan Scott

Welcome back to 60 to 100, a series where I take beloved decks from 60-card formats and convert them to Commander.

In December 2024, Modern experienced its biggest shakeup since the printing of Modern Horizons 3: Mox OpalMox Opal was removed from the ban list. This was a huge boost to Affinity decks, and it didn't take long for Affinity strategies to rise to the top of the format. Then, the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm introduced two very powerful cards that fit right in with Mox Opal: Cori-Steel CutterCori-Steel Cutter and Narset, Jeskai WaymasterNarset, Jeskai Waymaster. The result was a deck that often drew more cards than Affinity, was better in grindy games, and could produce tremendous offensive pressure thanks to Cori-Steel Cutter. With a little help from Emry, Lurker of the LochEmry, Lurker of the Loch and Jeskai AscendancyJeskai Ascendancy, the deck even had a sweet combo finish! In this installment of 60 to 100, I'm going to build that Jeskai Ascendancy deck in Commander. Let's get to the source material.

The key to Jeskai Ascendancy's success is its versatility. All in the same deck, there is a powerful aggressive angle of attack that uses Cori-Steel CutterCori-Steel Cutter in combination with the deck's many free spells, a game-winning combo with Jeskai AscendancyJeskai Ascendancy and Emry, Lurker of the LochEmry, Lurker of the Loch, and an inevitable control backup plan with Tamiyo, Inquisitive StudentTamiyo, Inquisitive Student. Narset, Jeskai WaymasterNarset, Jeskai Waymaster is the glue that allows all the cards in the deck to coexist, providing insane card advantage from turn to turn in the mid-game.

Choosing a Commander

Sometimes, choosing the right commander for an installment of 60 to 100 can be challenging. This is not one of those times! Modern Jeskai AscendancyJeskai Ascendancy features a three-color legendary creature as a central strategy piece, and that creature is right at home in the command zone. Narset, Jeskai WaymasterNarset, Jeskai Waymaster is the obvious choice.

Much like in the original Modern deck, the key to playing Narset is patience. This deck is full of cheap spells, and it will often be very tempting to cast them all as quickly as possible in the first couple turns of the game, before Narset hits the board. In this context, even mana rocks like Chrome MoxChrome Mox and Mox OpalMox Opal are better when they're cast with Narset in play, and more often than not it is incorrect to deploy them on turns one or two. Instead, they should be cast on turn three or four when Narset is in play to ensure she'll draw at minimum four or five cards at the end step. It isn't uncommon for me to even hold off on a turn-one Sol Ring just to have another spell to cast once Narset has hit the table. Otherwise, the deck gets caught in a death spiral of trying and failing to string together more than two or three spells to get a profitable Narset trigger the whole game and will be unable to make the impactful plays she's here to enable.

How Does Jeskai Ascendancy Win the Game?

In this deck's case, it is necessary to start with the win conditions, as most of the deck looks like total nonsense without an understanding of what it's building towards.

Just like the Modern version, the goal is to stick a Jeskai AscendancyJeskai Ascendancy into play with an Emry, Lurker of the LochEmry, Lurker of the Loch and an artifact that can sacrifice itself. A lot of the deck's ramp is focused on creatures, like Ornithopter of ParadiseOrnithopter of Paradise, that can be untapped repeatedly with Jeskai Ascendancy. The end result is assembling a board state that hearkens back to the days of Paradox EngineParadox Engine. From there, the high density of cantrips can be used to make mana and dig towards one of the several ways to win once a loop has been initiated.

Frostcliff SiegeFrostcliff Siege combines with a handful of token-generators, like Monastery MentorMonastery Mentor, to make a wide board of hasty tokens with the near-infinite mana and card draw generated on the turn the deck goes off with Jeskai Ascendancy.

With an Emry and at least two mana-generating creatures, Pyrite SpellbombPyrite Spellbomb can be looped, repeatedly shooting an opponent for two damage over and over again until the table is dead. Meanwhile, with only one mana-generating creature and a free artifact to loop with Emry, the second level of Cool but RudeCool but Rude can be used to burn the table out in a similar fashion.

Key Cards for Jeskai Ascendancy

A deck that's looking to wheel itself using Narset, Jeskai WaymasterNarset, Jeskai Waymaster's end step trigger every turn faces a challenge: interaction. Drawing into too many reactive cards will stop the deck in its tracks, and it will struggle to keep the interaction up while wheeling its hand away each turn. My solution is putting interactive pieces on the board! Seal of CleansingSeal of Cleansing, Aether SpellbombAether Spellbomb, and Tormod's CryptTormod's Crypt can threaten opposing game plans without having to leave up a lot of mana or keep any cards in the hand. The artifacts are easily recurred with Emry, Lurker of the LochEmry, Lurker of the Loch and the enchantments can easily be brought back by Sevinne's ReclamationSevinne's Reclamation or Hall of Heliod's GenerosityHall of Heliod's Generosity.

These pieces of interaction also come with the hidden benefit of warding off opponents. Often, a face-up piece of removal like Seal of Cleansing can generate virtual card advantage by deterring an opponent from committing to casting their most threatening artifacts and enchantments. An opponent may sit for several turns with a Doubling SeasonDoubling Season or Bolas's CitadelBolas's Citadel in their hand, waiting for someone else to deploy a spooky artifact or enchantment for the Seal of Cleansing to blow up.

There are 15 cheap permanents in this deck that benefit massively from self-bounce spells. Boomerang BasicsBoomerang Basics, RepealRepeal, and Paradoxical OutcomeParadoxical Outcome are best of the bunch, as they can generate card advantage (massive card advantage in Paradoxical Outcome's case!) and often increase the "spells cast this turn" count by more than one while only spending one card in the process. Repeal and Boomerang Basics double as removal spells that can help deal with problematic permanents, like Rule of LawRule of Law effects, to clear the way for a win attempt.

Finally, there are the token-generators! I started with more than just Monastery MentorMonastery Mentor, Cori-Steel CutterCori-Steel Cutter, and Third Path IconoclastThird Path Iconoclast, but the count was trimmed down as more space was made for tutors and other consistency cards. As I highlighted in the win conditions section, Monastery Mentor and Third Path Iconoclast can steal games out of nowhere with the Temur mode of Frostcliff SiegeFrostcliff Siege. Cori-Steel Cutter is good at slowly building an army over the course of many turns and eventually granting trample to one of the infinitely large creatures generated by a long turn with Jeskai Ascendancy in play.

I found very quickly when testing this deck that token generation is a better defensive tool than it is an offensive one in most games. While it's nice to have a fallback for games where the main plan of winning with Jeskai Ascendancy has been foiled, the main draw of token generation is a steady stream of chump blockers that can protect my life total while I build up enough resources to close out a game.

Jeskai Ascendancy Commander Deck List

Conclusion

Building and testing this deck was a lot of fun! The idea came to me while I was playing my Sokka, Tenacious TacticianSokka, Tenacious Tactician deck and I had an opening hand that included both Jeskai AscendancyJeskai Ascendancy and Ornithopter of ParadiseOrnithopter of Paradise. The combination was so powerful that I ended up winning a very convincing game in just five turns, way below the deck's average. It reminded me of how much fun I had with this Modern deck, so I simply had to revisit it.

The deck building process was a perfect demonstration of how irrelevant win conditions can be in Magic, as nearly every cut that I made to the first draft of the Jeskai Ascendancy deck was removing a way to convert the pivotal Jeskai Ascendancy storm turn into a win. Since the goal of the deck is to create a game state that can draw the entire deck with relative ease, adding cards that are only good in that game state is usually wrong when the functional cards in the deck can be strung together to create a win, even if the process is a little complicated. Who needs an Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir when casting a Pyrite SpellbombPyrite Spellbomb 60 times will do the same job?

Thanks for reading!