All of these decks can add Double Strike and Trample pretty easily
Suddenly they have one out in like a Maelstrom Pulse, Pernicious Deed, Declaration in Stone or Detention Sphere and you have fatal next turn and an armada of blockers they can't squeak any good attacks into
So while this doesnt fix the finding-an-Ascendency-problem, it makes winning the game when you do have one much easier
Getting to target your own creature with spells like Blacksmiths Skill or Malakir Rebirth is worth the extra mana to equip
So long as players keep their decks down to a reasonable size, manage the costs of their cards, and have plenty of cards to add to the Inkwell, their decks should be relatively well-balanced
in the past, we have always used the two single-player decks to play each side once over the course of about an hour or so, then we get additional plays in when I can coerce the kids to get back to the table