Divine Convocation is a Jeskai convoke deck. Kristen reviews the precon and shares a budget upgrade package, offering plenty of infinite combos and win conditions to take the deck to the next level.
The Divine Convocation precon is all about building a token army to help you cast splashy spells. But how good is it? And how do we take it to the next level? Let’s jump into it.
DIVINE CONVOCATION: NEW CARDS
If you didn’t pick up the Divine Convocation precon because it’s Jeskai Convoke, then you probably picked it up for the awesome art on Kasla, the Broken Halo. Angels are a fan favorite creature type, and though Kasla doesn’t add value for having a deck full of Angels, she is easy to cast, hits hard and offers card advantage in the Command Zone.
The alternate Commander, Saint Traft and Rem Karolus, is a dream for those who enjoy tinkering away at a refined machine of a board state. It’s neat that the tokens it makes give Jeskai colors for convoking spells.
The two, hallmark, new cards in this precon are Wildfire Awakener, who brings a token army that pings repeatedly, and Flockchaser Phantom, who grants Convoke to your next spell when it attacks. Both of these are excellent elsewhere, with Phantom being a shoe-in for Kykar decks (and it’s making me wanna build one, ngl).
Wand of the Worldsoul is perhaps the most exciting addition to the precon, and it’s a card I reviewed highly in my Precon Highlights Guide.
March of the Machines precons also feature new and reprint Planechase cards. Divine Convocation contains:
- Enigma Ridges
- Gavony
- Hedron Fields of Agadeem
- Krosa
- Norn’s Seedcore
- Reality Shaping
- Stensia
- Strixhaven
- The Fertile Lands of Saulvinia
- Valor’s Reach
Out of the box, the deck probably enjoys Gavony and Valor’s Reach the most. Vigilance to the team helps with Convoking after combat while Valor’s Reach gives Kesla and her chonky friends the power to annihilate opponents in the air.
DIVINE CONVOCATION: DECK REVIEW
For a Precon, Divine Convocation isn’t quite at the heady heights of the Warhammer 40k releases, or at the power of precons like Buckle Up. It does, however, play well alongside the other March of the Machines decks, which matters a lot, given they can be played as a Battle-Box of Planechase decks.
The precon also hides some of its strength behind seemingly lower powered or forgettable spells that synergise greatly with the overall strategy of the deck. Some of the older convoke cards look a bit undercooked, but the deck makes a lot of tokens, so you’re spending mana pretty efficiently.
Reprints wise, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion is the big one, with Skullclamp and Impact Tremors being great pickups, too. Overall, it’s a solid precon, and despite having a basic mana base and lacking definitive win conditions, has some excellent new cards.
DIVINE CONVOCATION BUDGET UPGRADE
One attractive quality of Divine Convocation is it’s easy to go in different directions and prioritize different win conditions. Open ended precons are a joy to tinker with.
Thankfully, it’s relatively easy to pack a lot of punch into this precon with a few tasty upgrades. Spending as little as $50-60 gets you multiple infinite combos, multiple win conditions and some much needed consistency.
Given the precon already includes Village Bellringer, it’s a given that adding a Kiki-Jiki combo should be our first point of call when upping the power. Imperial Recruiter is now easily affordable, too, giving us a tutor to dig for either half.
In Jeskai, you can add Deceiver Exarch and Felidar Guardian, too — and even Saheeli Rai. So, if you own different pieces, go with what suits you.
The deck needs some more consistency, though, so adding Neyali, Suns’ Vanguard and Professional Face-Breaker boost the setup and midgame of the deck considerably. You can easily add other draw and ramp, but most are replacement level — so dig out what you have to go alongside these.
Mass token making is what helps these decks pop, so Myojin of Blooming Dawn is a fantastic option. Coupled with the Impact Tremors in the Precon, both it and White Sun’s Twilight give the deck the ability to deal mass damage, with the latter also being a much needed board wipe. I’d also recommend Storm Herd, because if we grant it convoke, we can cast it super early.
I’m a big fan of using ostensibly spikey combos in weird ways, and Scepter/Reversal lends this deck the ability to storm off. With Thran Dynamo and other rocks, you can use this combo in myriad ways.
The obvious is to cast the Empty the Warrens, which I’ve added, too. But it also does cool stuff with Ghirapur Aether Grid. If we use our artifact creature tokens with the Aether Grid, we can ping everyone to death.
White Suns’ Twilight grants us what we need, and Spawning Pit can be used to convert our other tokens into artifact creatures. Plus it’s a great redundancy piece in the face of Wraths.
Speaking of untapping, Jeskai Ascendancy is a slam dunk for this kind of convoke-storm build. We can use it to go wide, dig through to win conditions and otherwise murder our opponents. I’d also note Kasla is not to be ignored as a win condition: Horn of Valhalla gives us a token army, but also pumps her into two (or even one)-shot territory. Given she has flying and haste, that’s not to be trifled with.
Rounding things out, I want to talk about Energy Arc, a weird old tech from Alliances. Fogs are really good in Commander these days, and Energy Arc is a way to fog damage. You can do this by untapping your creatures, blocking with them and then taking no damage, sure. But in a pinch, you can untap your opponent’s Trampley/Infecty/Commander Damage-y threats and prevent their damage, too.
Yet, if that was all this card did, it wouldn’t quite earn a slot. When you combine it with the fact it can instant speed untap your board, giving you the option to Convoke another spell? Well, that becomes a sweet combat trick and essentially a two mana ritual. That’s pretty baller.
The most exciting part is all of these upgrades set you back only $50-60, which is really good value considering the finishing power they add to the deck. In order to make room for them, cut the following cards. They either don’t do enough or don’t contribute to the overall strategy we’re aiming for:
- Angel of Finality
- Angel of Salvation
- Banisher Priest
- Chant of Vitu-Ghazi
- Cut Short
- Deluxe Dragster
- Flight of Equenauts
- Fractured Powerstone
- Goblin Medics
- Ichor Elixir
- Migratory Route
- Path of the Ghosthunter
- Port Town
- Shatter the Source
- Skycloud Expanse
- Stoke the Flames
- Temporal Cleansing
- Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
- Venerated Loxodon
FURTHER UPGRADES
If you’re not on a budget, the sky truly is the limit when it comes to upgrading this list. The first place to look at is probably the manabase, which could do with better lands and rocks.
As far as the deck itself, start with Bennie Bracks, Zoologist for card draw; Clever Concealment for protection; and Purphoros, a second and more damaging copy of Impact Tremors. These aren’t cheap, though, and to add just these three to the deck is already $50 alone.
The upgrades discussed above will do way more for the deck than adding three powerful cards, but if you want to look at powering up more, these should be at the top of your list.
Next, token makes like Myrel, Shield of Argive and Skrelv’s Hive are worth checking out, alongside card draw from Welcoming Vampire and Tocasia’s Welcome.
For untapping your board, some powerful options include the likes of Intruder Alarm, Turnabout and Drumbellower.
If you’re adding more punch, you need more interaction, too. While Bolt Bend is a great option in our budget list, you should look to Fierce Guardianship and Deflecting Swat, and maybe even Teferi’s Protection if you’re upping the ante considerably.
Part of me would be tempted to swap the Commander to Kykar at that point, who is much better suited to a higher power casual meta. If you’d rather stick to Kasla, then adding Halo Fountain as another win condition couldn’t hurt.
END STEP
Divine Convocation is a great entry point for any player wanting to try a tokens deck or a pseudo-storm spellslinger deck in Jeskai colors. You can take it in many different directions, and with just $50-60, add a package that elevates it considerably.
Turning precons into decks that can turn the corner and end a game is the biggest challenge on a budget, but thankfully it doesn’t take much to make Divine Convocation lethal. The real cost in the upgrades will be fixing the mana base and adding more consistency.
Let me know how you plan to build her on Twitter. Maybe you’re just excited to have a legendary Lightning Angel in the Command Zone!
Kristen is Card Kingdom’s Head Writer and a member of the Commander Format Panel. Formerly a competitive Pokémon TCG grinder, she has been playing Magic since Shadows Over Innistrad, which in her opinion, was a great set to start with. When she’s not taking names with Equipment and Aggro strategies in Commander, she loves to play any form of Limited.