I would swap out Battlefield Forge for Temple of Triumph. Scry lands are very helpful, even when they enter tapped. Also, paying 1 life to add a or could cost you the game.

-3 Chained to the Rocks +4 Path to Exile is pretty easy. Chained is sorcery speed, inconsistent with only 6 mountains and doesn't flip delver. Path is probably the best removal spell in modern.

Delver of Secrets  ^Flip is a bit tricky with this few instants and sorceries and no Serum Visions. Either cut down on creatures and planeswalkers or remove the delvers. Some good cards that don't cost too much are Serum Visions, Mana Leak, Lightning Helix and Electrolyze.

5 mana is a lot in modern so Stormbreath Dragon may be too pricey, so is noyan dar in the sideboard. Lightning Angel is quite cheep in money and very sweet. Young Pyromancer is also great in this type of strategy.

Jeskai Ascendancy seems very slow, especially with this few ways to trigger it. I'd probably remove it for more instants and sorceries.

The mana base is not great, but good mana bases do cost quite a bit of money in modern. Look for those fetches and shocklands if you want to greatly improve your deck, but I think you'll be ok if you cut the chained to the rocks.

Also, taplands suck in modern - the tempo loss is very awkward at times. Just saying.

Thanks Atony1400 and l4hlborg! I'll be taking out Chained to the Rocks, Jace Beleren and Jeskai Ascendancy for 4x Path to Exile, 2x Lightning Helix and 2x Mana Leak while adding the 2x Temple of Triumph. I'm going to try Stormbreath Dragon for a bit longer but I think it is wise to switch to Lightning Angel. I'll see how this goes after I finish trading for the cards.

I totally agree with the mana base, but limited now until I can get hold of a few fetchlands. I'll also see what I can trade for this weekend.

Honestly, I see no point in taking out the Jeskai Ascendancy. Besides the fact that your deck is named American Ascendancy, it works well with many instants and creatures, like you have.

The naming of the deck should be irrelevant when making card choices unless you are

Ascendancy requires noncreature spells and creatures to do anything, but this doesn't mean that any deck with NC spells and creatures is a good shell for it. It's generally too slow for modern - it's a three mana enchantment that does literally nothing upon entering the battlefield on turn three.

Well I named it because I was recycling cards from my standard RW I wanted to keep so it was 'ascending' to modern. Corny but sounds nice. Ironically I wanted to try the card and it didn't do well in a few games with friends. I swapped for spells. I'm debating biting the bullet for Serum Visions. I'll try this for now first. I might want to add 2 Jeskai Ascendancy but not sure if it's necessary.

Serum visions really is great with Delver, since it makes flipping it a lot more reliable. I know the price tag is a little silly for a common, but wizards isn't really showing interest in reprinting it and it has a place in almost all modern blue decks.

On a side note, for those interested in Jeskai Ascendancy in modern, LSV played a very cool ascendancy combo deck in the modern super league. It didn't do all too well (mostly because the BGx matchup seems unwinnable) but the deck is sweet and didn't seem all too expensive. At least I don't think it ran Snapcaster Mage. For those interested in ascendancy and something a bit more broken, I suggest you check it out.

After about 6 games I determined Jeskai Ascendancy is a bit too slow. Chained to the rocks was okay but only 50% chance I had a mountain turn 2. It did work but flipping delver is more important. Adding all instants speeds this up. I feel it just needs a solid mana base now and serum visions. The draw and scry would work wonders.

maybe Boros Charm instead of Lightning Helix?

And my other suggestion would be Counterspell instead of Negate, or else 2 more Mana Leaks. However, the is something to be aware of.

Counterspell in modern?

I think I'm good with Remand and Mana Leak for counters. Boros Charm maybe instead of Electrolyze but for now I need to test this. I'll keep that in mind.

Jeskai Ascendancy really only has a place in hardcore combo. It's a nice card when it performs but as mentioned above it does nothing the turn in comes in and leaves you open to opponent interaction. Even in standard this card can spell death if played wrong

Regardless of the deck's name, I'm only running 2x Jeskai Ascendancy since I can't rely on that spell in modern. It's nice to drop later on and it does trigger prowess on turn 3 if you drop it then. Otherwise I would sideboard it for some other counter or burn spell but I haven't been upset with drawing it and playing it so far. Although I've only done a handful of games up to this point with it. What you suggest as an alternative spell, cruxkid?

Can't think of anything in its place to be honest. I'm not saying it's a bad card, just that it CAN be.

I completely understand and I can see it being dangerous. So far I haven't encountered much issues so if I can find more effective spells instead of just squeezing in 2x Lightning Strike. I am still considering Serum Visions and 2 of those could help more. It's just partly budget and trying to see what works best. Thanks for the heads up!

Hey, nice too see the deck improving. Izzet Charm is a nice instant you aren't currently playing, maybe swap ascendancies for those? It catches removal, kills small blockers and can dig for better cards lategame.

On the sideboard: Erase isn't great in modern. Try Wear / Tear instead. It's just much more versatile, since artifacts matter quite a bit more than enchantments in modern.

Izzet Staticaster is cheep and wrecks decks like infect and ia good vs Lingering Souls, which can occasionally be a tricky card to beat with decks like this.

Generally speaking, you want your hate cards to be very hateful and specific in modern. Stony Silence can single handedly stop affinity and Rest in Peace can really make life difficult for living end. Suppression Field might also be good, since it stops splintertwin and meliracombos while randomly hating on opposing fetchlands. These cards are quite dependant on the meta though, but I'd try to find room for at least a few of them.

Hope this helps!

That helps a lot l4hlborg, thank you! I was already considering Wear / Tear so the rest helps a lot with main and sideboard. Cheers!

You need a proper modern manabase. Run 4 Flooded Strand and 4 Scalding Tarn with 2 Steam Vents, 1 Hallowed Fountain and 1 Sacred Foundry. 2 islands, 1 plains and 1 mountain will make up your basics, and you can go with a Sulfur Falls, and a Desolate Lighthouse to finish off the manabase.

Next, you'll want to play the modern cards. Serum Visions is a requirement with Delver. Jeskai Charm is too expensive, and is quite bad the majority of the time. Your creature base is lacking. Soulfire Grand Master and Seeker of the Way are bad in modern, and Mantis Rider is better off being a Geist of Saint Traft. Young Pyromancer, like prowess, rewards you for playing spells. You may also want Abbot of Keral Keep. Playing the 4th Swiftspear is a very good idea.

You mostly want to play lots of cheap and interactive spells. Planeswalkers are a bad idea, except perhaps for Ajani Vengeant.

Thanks, JexInfinite. Before reading your suggestions I ended up giving up after 3 games with trying Jeskai Charm so I traded a few cards for some Serum Visions and put in my fourth Monastery Swiftspear that way relying less on flipping a delver right away. I definitely need to work on making the mana base proper so that's really just budge restraints at the moment but I got rid of the slower Mystic Monastery and added Sulfur Falls and Clifftop Retreat for now. Thanks!

The only thing I don't know if I quite agree with is Mantis Rider, Seeker of the Way and Soulfire Grand Master. With the ability to interact with older spells I think the lifelink is definitely worth keeping with these guys. So far I've had no problems but I will look into what you said.

Seeker of the Way and Soulfire Grand Master don't pass the Bolt test. That's a pretty big reason not to run them. They're a mana investment, and you tap out on T2 for them, and it's just not worth the tempo loss.

Mantis Rider also does no pass the Bolt test, but it does have haste. It's quite a bit less good than Geist of Saint Traft, which gets in for 4, rather than 3. The evasion on Rider is good, but Geist is just the better creature.

Very good point, the Bolt Test. If I were to add Honor of the Pure I could save the Mantis Rider but I'm wondering would going down the route of Mutagenic Growth be beneficial to save the creatures I have? The loss of life to cast can be compensated by the life gain from Seeker of the Way and Soulfire Grand Master.

Theoretically this could work, but before I trade/buy anymore I'm just wondering what the consensus would be. I feel my options are swap Seeker and Soulfire for Lightning Angel and Geist of Saint Traft and add Honor of the Pure to save the Mantis Rider or keep my creatures and add Mutagenic Growth to save creatures from Lightning Bolt. I also have counterspells so I feel I'm leaning more towards the 2nd option only because I like the benefits of lifelink. This is where the feedback from you all comes in. Thanks so far, everyone!

I'm glad to see Jeskai prowess builds like yours popping up. I hope that prowess builds will gain some popularity as an archetype sometime soon.

Just wanted to throw my two-cents into the bolt-test discussion. I don't have any qualms with Seeker of the Way or Soulfire Grand Master. Sure, they don't pass the bolt, but neither does Young Pyromancer or Delver of Secrets  ^Flip. I run Seeker in my build, but I run a combined 7 total Gitaxian Probe and Serum Visions. The extra cantrips make it very easy to pump him up consistently. For your build, I would be inclined to say Young Pyromancer would work best. You have Jeskai Ascendency on the sideboard after all. I would agree that Mantis Rider has to go, a Lightning Angel would be a stronger play. Losing your turn 3 creature to a one cost spell is just too big of a disadvantage. As for Geist of Saint Traft, he is an amazing card, but you have to have ways for him to push his damage through.

It is definitely a blanket statement to say that Seeker of the Way and Soulfire Grand Master are bad in modern. I think it would be better to say that they aren't proven in modern.

Thank you eebrost! You worded it best, they're not proven. I feel I've proven what you all say about Mantis Rider since it is truly heartbreaking watching him die. I am swapping him for Lightning Angel immediately. I've been feeling the need to draw more so Gitaxian Probe might be what I'm missing to get a nice peek and draw a card. Young Pyromancer has been appealing from the start I just don't have any. I need to get a few and see.