Bloomburrow is finally here, and we’re now getting our first glimpse at how these cards might impact various Constructed formats. On the surface, Bloomburrow doesn’t appear to be an outrageously powerful set. Nonetheless, there are still some gems worth building around.
Today, we’re going to highlight a specific Pioneer combo deck that got a major upgrade. This deck is none other than Jeskai Ascendancy combo. Jeskai Ascendancy has died down in popularity quite a bit over the last year or so. Now, with the presence of Valley Floodcaller, the deck is more resilient and more consistent at actually assembling a combo kill. Let’s start by taking a look at how these combos are executed.
Double Win Conditions
- Mana Value: 2U
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 2/2
- 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.
Like traditional Jeskai Ascendancy shells of old, this deck makes use of the powerful Enchantment as a combo tool. This combo revolves around three cards: Jeskai Ascendancy, Retraction Helix, and Tormod’s Crypt. Once you have Jeskai Ascendancy in play, a creature without summoning sickness on the battlefield, and the other two pieces in hand, you can execute the following steps to grow your creatures infinitely large:
- Cast Retraction Helix, targeting your creature. This will trigger Jeskai Ascendancy, letting you loot and pumping your creature
- Cast Tormod’s Crypt, triggering Jeskai Ascendancy again.
- Tap your creature to return Tormod’s Crypt to your hand
- Cast Tormod’s Crypt another time, triggering Jeskai Ascendancy to untap and grow your creature
- Repeat steps 2 through 4 over and over.
Remember, Jeskai Ascendancy’s looting ability isn’t required, so you don’t have to worry about decking yourself. That being said, you can use it to your advantage to dig for removal spells to clear a path for your threats. Jeskai Ascendancy is a solid value engine that helps churn through your library to find your combo pieces in the first place, so make it a priority to resolve the card early and maximize it.
Where this deck gets its most notable upgrade is with the addition of Valley Floodcaller. Valley Floodcaller is an awesome card that has a lot in common with Jeskai Ascendancy. When you cast a noncreature spell, you get to grow Valley Floodcaller and untap it. This enables you to combo off nearly the same way, but without Jeskai Ascendancy. As long as Valley Floodcaller isn’t summoning sick, you can target it with Retraction Helix, then cast and recast Tormod’s Crypt repeatedly all the same.
You don’t get to loot in the process like with Jeskai Ascendancy, but you’ll still get a huge attack in. Valley Floodcaller has the added bonus of having Flash and giving your other noncreature spells Flash. This gives you the luxury of slamming Valley Floodcaller on an opponent’s end step if they tap out, then untapping and going off.
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Supporting Cast
- Mana Value: 7U
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Text: Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for 1). Draw three cards.
Most of the rest of the deck is made up of cards that dig for your combo pieces. Thundertrap Trainer joins Fallaji Archaeologist as another creature that digs for Retraction Helix, Tormod’s Crypt, or Jeskai Ascendancy. These cards do a lot of the dirty work for you. They both generate value, block opposing creatures, and act as targets for Retraction Helix all in one.
Fallaji Archaeologist has the added bonus of putting cards into your graveyard for Treasure Cruise. This deck isn’t quite as dedicated to enabling Cruise as Izzet Phoenix is, but between Fallaji Archaeologist, Consider, and looting from Jeskai Ascendancy, there are enough ways to get cards into the graveyard for the incredible Sorcery.
Rounding out the non-land cards, Fiery Impulse provides some early disruption that can clear blockers out of the way, and Spell Pierce helps you force through your combo cards in the face of disruption. Of course, countering problematic cards like Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is totally acceptable as well.
Notably, in the lands section, you’ll notice a full playset of Restless Spire. Restless Spire can be animated on the cheap and gives you yet another target for Retraction Helix. In some matchups, it can be a bit difficult to stick a creature for a turn cycle, and Restless Spire helps a lot.
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Improving Your Matchups
- Mana Value: URW
- Rarity: Rare
- Text: Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn. Untap those creatures. Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.
At the end of the day, having access to both Jeskai Ascendancy and Valley Floodcaller gives this deck a more consistent gameplan. The way this deck is constructed, you’re also a little less vulnerable to cheap removal spells than more traditional Jeskai Ascendancy builds.
See, most previous iterations of this archetype utilized Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Rona, Herald of Invasion as alternate win conditions alongside Mox Amber. Both of these cards are immensely powerful in the right circumstance. The problem is that both cards need to survive a turn cycle for you to maximize them, which isn’t always easy in a format dominated by Fatal Push.
This version of the archetype tries to alleviate this issue by playing playsets of both Fallaji Archaeologist and Thundertrap Trainer. Thundertrap Trainer digs deep for your combo pieces, and you don’t really care if it dies or not. Valley Floodcaller may not be the most resilient threat, but having Flash goes a long way in helping you set up your combo.
Valley Floodcaller also really shines against counter magic. You have free reign to cast Valley Floodcaller on the opponent’s end step. If they counter it, you now likely have a window to slam Jeskai Ascendancy. If they don’t, you can pass the turn again with the intention of casting your noncreature spells like Treasure Cruise and Jeskai Ascendancy at Instant speed.
Valley Floodcaller’s utility cannot be overstated. Jeskai Ascendancy combo has largely fallen out of favor over the last year, but it could very well be poised for a comeback. There are a lot of ways to build Jeskai Ascendancy in Pioneer depending on the matchups you expect, so it’ll be cool to see how players tinker with the strategy moving forward.
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