In this experiment, we ascend to the rank of beastmaster in a firecat blitz.

For anyone with a Magic: The Gathering knowledge tracing back to Judgment, my intro already gave away that today’s deck is going to feature Beastmaster Ascension and Firecat Blitz. I don’t know how we ended up with Cat themes two weeks in a row, but here we are. Beastmaster Ascension prominently features tigers, and Firecat Blitz’s tokens proudly retain their Cat creature type—in addition to the Oracle-added Elemental subtype. From that feline foundation, however, we’ll be deviating into the realm of said Elementals.

Plan A

The deck’s origin started with the aforementioned combination.

With Beastmaster Ascension on the battlefield, when we cast Firecat Blitz with X equal to 7 or more, we can immediately trigger the Ascension sufficiently that our Elemental Cats will be 6/6s. Thus, only three and one third of our tokens will have to connect in order to 20-to-0 our opponent.

This is pretty low on the scale of how comboey I rate my combos, but it only takes two cards, it’s covered in cats, and I have to take my red-green decks where I can find them. (I bet if we went back and looked, we’d find a large number of my decks tend to be Simic- or Izzet-colored, with Boros and Gruul coming in last.)

Plan B

The humanoids were known as the flamekin, whereas the other Elementals were weirdo Kamigawa Spirit types and tended to have evoke—thus the existence of the famous Mulldrifter.

But Ashling, the Pilgrim’s tribe is the one we’ll be touching on alongside Firecat Blitz. We’re not going full-on with Flamekin Harbinger, Smokebraider, or Nova Chaser, but Incandescent Soulstoke is a very powerful uncommon lord that will turn our firecats into 2/2s or—with Beastmaster Ascension online—7/7s.

To supplement the sources of Elemental tokens, we have Molten Birth. Adding a little coin-flipping can be fun, though today isn’t the day for Krark's Thumb, and it can be an endless source for Elementals. We want to have a lot of creatures to ascend us into beastmasterhood, so endless sources of small things are always good.

Finally for this category, we have a pair of one-ofs. One drew my attention for its ability to make a small army of attackers, and the other drew my attention for its affiliation with the Elemental tribe. Incidentally, they can work incredibly well for us here together. Elemental Mastery is on the pricey end of Auras that don’t grant power or toughness, but its effect is quite potent, if a bit tension-inducing.

The other one-of I mentioned is Seething Pathblazer. It allows us to sacrifice an Elemental to give the Pathblazer 2 extra power for the turn. (It gains first strike, too, in case you’re in the market for that kind of keyword.) The reason each of these cards earned its slot is its powerful potential with the other, alongside other Elementals and Beastmaster Ascension. If we sacrifice, say, two Molten Birth tokens to Seething Pathblazer, the Pathblazer’s power will become 6. We can then tap it to use the Elemental Mastery superpower and generate six Elemental tokens. They only last for the turn, but those six attack triggers will go a long way toward ascending.

Image the situation, even more interestingly, with Firecat Blitz. Say we generate five tokens and proceed the same way. This time, we’re able to make twelve Elemental tokens—unfortunately, they’re no longer Cats, but at least Beastmaster Ascension will, at least visually, transform them into 6/6 tigers.

This synergy would become much more interesting with untap effects. If you want to go more aggressively in this direction, turn the two one-ofs into four-ofs, and add cards such as Mobilize for a more combo-heavy build.

Final Roundup

The deck has a few more cards to enhance the themes of turning on Ascension and of casting big Firecat Blitzes.

Elvish Mystic – Perhaps a bit of out of place, a 1-mana accelerant that can also help bring Beastmaster Ascension online is just too tempting. The deck is full of a lot of red and is also very greedy for Mountains, and a green 1-drop is greedy for Forests, but if we can circumvent that problem, the Elf should be a huge boon.

Young Pyromancer – Here is another cheap source of Elemental tokens. Again, this is a bit out of place, as the deck doesn’t run a ton of instant and sorcery spells, but we do want creatures to drop early and start attacking. Perhaps a more Elemental-oriented deck with the Smokebraiders, Flamekin Harbingers, and the like would be more consistent, but the power levels of Elvish Mystic and Young Pyromancer are generally higher, so I want to give them a shot. Besides, Molten Birth virtually represents one-and-one-half-plus-some-calculation-of-infinity spells, as every time you cast it, it has a fifty percent chance of coming back. I’m no math major, but with Young Pyromancer, that’s fifty percent more than infinity Elemental tokens.

Hordeling Outburst – This new Khans of Tarkir sorcery just offers a lot of consistency. It doesn’t provide the unlikely potential of Molten Birth—nor does it offer the Elementals—but it should perform, in general, much more solidly.

Wooded Foothills and Stomping Ground – I usually don’t make mention of the lands I select for the deck, instead choosing to leave it up to each deck-builder to select his or her own mana base of choice. I try to pick the lands that will best support casting the spells in the deck they’re in, ignoring cost issues (though I rarely if ever include original dual lands such as Underground Sea). Here, however, we want to keep our number of Mountains high for both Firecat Blitz’s flashback cost and Koth of the Hammer’s second loyalty ability. We also have the tension of wanting a turn-one Forest for Elvish Mystic and a turn-two 3-drop, such as Beastmaster Ascension, Molten Birth, or Incandescent Soulstoke. Stomping Ground is that Forest and Mountain, and Wooded Foothills can help us find it so we can keep our relative basic Forest count low.

Beastmaster Blitz ? Casual | Andrew Wilson

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Seething Pathblazer
• 4 Elvish Mystic
• 4 Incandescent Soulstoke
• 4 Young Pyromancer
• 2 Rosheen Meanderer

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Koth of the Hammer

• Spells (19)
• 2 Lightning Strike
• 4 Firecat Blitz
• 4 Hordeling Outburst
• 4 Molten Birth
• 1 Elemental Mastery
• 4 Beastmaster Ascension

• Lands (24)
• 12 Mountain
• 4 Forest
• 4 Stomping Ground
• 4 Wooded Foothills

Buy This Deck

If you didn’t get enough Cats last week, if you weren’t sure what to do what your new copy of Beastmaster Ascension from Commander (2014 Edition)’s Guided by Nature, or if you just needed another reason than Fireblast to sacrifice your Mountains, give this deck a try.

Andrew Wilson

@Silent7Seven

fissionessence at hotmail dot com