Ascension of Crabs - 60

Hang tight. I'm swamped with work stuff, but I'll be back on this in a few days, I've got some ideas

Sounds good! What are you thinking dknight27?

Ok, here we go.

The sequence you need here is: 1- a fielded Ascension, 2- an activated Ascension (3 turns of 2+ damage), 3- anything that mills/destroys/discards

Off the bat, there are some advantages. Firstly, that Ascension will only need to deal 14 damage, provided opponent isn't running lifegain (which you have a good chance of not seeing much of in any random matchup). Meaning, you only need a mill sequence of 7 cards in total once Ascension is activated. That's very easy to get, and everything opponent does/loses just cuts into that 7 card runway.

The problem is, the build does next to nothing without a fielded Ascension, has no way to get to it quickly, and doesn't have consistent wants to get your 2 damage turns. So, here are some solutions to make that happen:

First and foremost, you've got to get ahold of a 4th Ascension if you're running this deck in paper. They're 13 bucks, which isn't ideal, but that's unfortunately the cost of doing business. You also need to run cards like Ponder, Brainstorm, and/or Preordain, which will help you dig through your deck faster so you can get to your Ascension (and will help with the second part). It might also be worth running some search like Demonic Bargain

As for the 2 damage, the most elegant solution I see to that problem is to run Thermo-Alchemist, which nets 1 damage a turn on its own just by tapping itself, and will get you the second damage if you can play any instant or sorcery. Since I'm advocating for the majority of the deck to be instant/sorceries anyway, that's damn near perfect synergy.

There are a few instants/sorceries I'd advise running with Alchemist and in general in this build, such as Collective Brutality, which gets you a 2 damage turn as well as acting as a potential 6 damage off of Ascension once it's activated. Plus it's just a great compromise card, as if hates on critters if you need that or hates on control if you need that. The same is true for Collective Defiance.

Thought Scour is a free 4 damage off of Ascension that trips Alchemist. Reforge the Soul is hella useful with 1 or 2 copies, as you're going to miracle into it, hit opponent off the discard damage, and have a refilled hand. Windfall has a similar effect.

Risk Factor might find a unique home in this build, as you win either way, and can play it in opponent's endphase. It's either good for 8 damage and 2 counters on Ascension or 5 cards for 6 mana at tempo.

This ... is amazing insight! I'll dig through my collection and also see if I can source a fourth Ascension. Thank you dknight27!

Do you have any recommendations for the most egregious cards to drop in favor of these suggested ones?

While I've been Pondering (ha), I came up with a couple other damage dorks you could use: Eidolon of the Great Revel and Kolaghan's Command.

As for what would be shaved out, Jace's mill ability is too slow/conditional, even if it's +2 is (theoretically) as helpful to you as it is harmful to opponent (with a loaded Ascension). So, long story short, it's too conditional, and you can get better/the same effects from more reliable sources. Lightning Reaver is too expensive and too easy to kill (dies to a Lightning Bolt). Deny Reality is too expensive for what it does in this deck's context, as you can't combo it into bouncing anything you own for maximum effect or anything like that. Sign in Blood is useful in general for card advantage for you, but it's a worse version of Night's Whisper, unless you're trying to use it as a way to get 2 damage on opponent, which is a bad idea as it also lets them draw 2 cards (which is only useful with a fully charged Ascension). Archive Trap is a great idea as a finisher once Ascension is charged, as it's an OTK under almost all circumstances, but it's conditional (for the search), expensive (without the search), and a dead draw until you both have an Ascension and have it charged. You're better off going with a mill source that is more reliable/not a dead draw like Ruin Crab or Fractured Sanity (which is the full kill for 3 blue if you need it, or you can cycle it away and still get a good mill).

I'd rely on the crabs, Thought Scour, and an assortment of redraw/burn damage cards for the finisher over any big OTK mill source (reasoning above), so hopefully all of that clarification helps. I realize I'm proposing major changes to the build.

Again, I appreciate the insight and it's something I'll seriously look into. These suggestions make sense to me 100% and are not ones I had thought of or considered.

If I could pick your brain further in a different direction, would you be willing to look at a separate deck I'm struggling with?
https://www.mtgvault.com/boshimi336/decks/gifted-tokens-60/