During Aetherdrift spoiler season, one card that was overlooked by lots of players, me included, is Stock Up. Stock Up has become a multi-format staple, seeing play in Standard down to Vintage.
As a card advantage spell, it’s a perfect fit for Azorius control in Standard. However, beyond that, the card selection you get makes it quite appealing for combo decks.
Recently, a sweet mono-blue combo shell in Pioneer emerged, and Stock Up’s presence plays a major role in the deck’s success. This deck managed to make top eight of a Magic Online Pioneer Challenge this weekend, and it’s much more consistent than it looks. To start, we need to take a look at how the combo lines work.
Retraction Helix Combo
- Mana Value: 2U
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 2/2
- Card Type: Creature- Otter Wizard
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Flash. You may cast noncreature spells as though they had flash. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, Birds, Frogs, Otters, and Rats you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Untap them.
There are a couple different combos this deck has access to. Perhaps the cleanest combo available rests with Valley Floodcaller and Retraction Helix. Valley Floodcaller’s ability to naturally untap and grow whenever you cast a noncreature spell helped give rise to a rather complex Temur combo deck in Standard. Here, though, the presence of Retraction Helix makes things much easier.
All you need is a free spell to cast, and Mox Amber fills that role nicely. From there, you can execute the following steps:
- Cast Retraction Helix targeting Valley Floodcaller.
- Cast Mox Amber, growing Valley Floodcaller and untapping it.
- Tap Valley Floodcaller to return Mox Amber to your hand
- Cast Mox Amber once more, untapping Valley Floodcaller and growing your Otter squad
- Repeat steps three and four over and over
The end result is, at minimum, an infinitely large Valley Floodcaller. This may be enough to cross the finish line. In the face of blockers however, you may need a little more. Thankfully, you have other Otters in the form of Thundertrap Trainer, tokens from Stormchaser’s Talent, and even a playset of Mutavault. All these creatures will also grow infinitely large when executing the Valley Floodcaller combo, which certainly helps the cause.
In addition to Valley Floodcaller, you also can use Rona, Herald of Invasion as a combo piece alongside Retraction Helix and Mox Amber. Rona conveniently untaps whenever you cast a legendary spell, and Mox Amber fits the mold. Rona is a legend itself, too, allowing Mox Amber to tap for mana.
So, by targeting Rona with Retraction Helix, you can tap Mox Amber for mana, bounce it with Rona, replay it untapping Rona, and repeat this process to generate infinite mana. This mana can be used to level up Stormchaser’s Talent all the way and cast card draw spells to pull ahead. Of course, if you happen to have a Prowess creature (either a token from Stormchaser’s Talent or Kitsa, Otterball Elite) without Summoning Sickness, you get to attack for a boatload of damage as well.
Digging and Digging
- Mana Value: 2U
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Card Type: Sorcery
- MTG Sets: Aetherdrift
- Card Text: Look at the top five cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
As cool as these combo lines are, they aren’t the most resilient. A Fatal Push in response to a Retraction Helix can break things up nicely. These combos also require multiple pieces to execute, which can be a bit tough in a format dominated by Thoughtseize and blazing fast red decks. These factors have contributed to Rona decks largely lying dormant for months.
So, what makes this mono-blue version so intriguing? Well, first off, this deck has tons of ways to dig for requisite combo pieces. This is where Stock Up comes into play.
Looking at five cards is a lot, and you get to potentially take multiple missing combo pieces at once, which is something typical cantrips don’t allow you to do. Add in Thundertrap Trainer and Rona’s looting ability, and you’ll be able to churn through your deck in no time.
The other reason this deck is poised for success in a way previous iterations of Rona combo weren’t is that this deck has an easier time winning without ever assembling a combo. Stormchaser’s Talent is a big part of the equation. You have tons of spells to trigger prowess, making the 1/1 Otter a threat on its own. The same is true for Valley Floodcaller.
From there, if the opponent trades for your creatures on a one-for-one basis, Stormchaser’s Talent will eventually be able to buyback copies of Retraction Helix or even Stock Up in grindy matchups.
On top of that, This Town Ain’t Big Enough gives you a bounce spell to buy you time, clear away opposing blockers, and reset your Stormchaser’s Talents to add even more pressure to the board. We all know how strong this two-card synergy is, and having a solid backup plan makes this deck much more threatening versus archetypes like Rakdos midrange.
One Major Concern
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 1/1
- Card Type: Creature- Mouse Soldier
- MTG Sets: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Valiant– Whenever Heartfire Hero becomes the target of a spell or ability you control for the first time each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on it. When Heartfire Hero dies, it deals damage equal to its power to each opponent.
By staying mono-blue, this combo deck is as consistent as ever. Getting to utilize a full playset of Mutavault without significant consequences to your manabase is very useful. Unfortunately, though, there is one matchup where not branching into other colors can come back to bite you.
If mono-blue decks have any major weakness historically, it’s usually their lack of good removal spells. Mono-red is on the rise in Pioneer. Fast draws involving Heartfire Hero and Manifold Mouse or Monstrous Rage are going to sometimes feel unbeatable, even with This Town Ain’t Big Enough at the ready.
Sure, staying mono-blue means you aren’t as vulnerable to Sunspine Lynx, which is nice. The problem is that you’re forced to jam cards like Witness Protection and Floodpits Drowner in your sideboard and hope they stave off early pressure long enough for you to enact your gameplan. On top of that, red has efficient removal spells that can kill Valley Floodcaller on the cheap.
This doesn’t mean the matchup is a lost cause. This deck is capable of presenting a combo kill pretty quickly. Your sideboard cards are useful, too, even if they’re not that exciting. Exhausting a lot of sideboard slots for aggro decks isn’t ideal, but you’re pretty well set up against a lot of the other top decks.
At the end of the day, the sudden success of this strategy really goes to show just how incredible Stormchaser’s Talent, This Town Ain’t Big Enough, and Stock Up are. Expect these cards to dominate in a variety of formats for quite some time.
