Last updated on December 8, 2023
Drumbellower | Illustration by Lie Setiawan
Commander 2019 was all about ability-driven precons. Flashback, morph, madness, and populate all received new support, but convoke didn’t make the list. Fast forward to March of the Machine Commander, and we have the convoke deck that surely someone out there was clamoring for.
Built around tapping and untapping hijinks, Divine Convocation enlists the help of its creatures to cast expensive spells. It’s full of instant-speed trickery and Twiddle effects, but the precon needs a serious overhaul to make it at the average casual table.
Lucky for you, I’ve got you covered with 15 budget-friendly swaps to upgrade this deck and convoke your way to victory. Let's get to it!
Deck Overview
Divine Convocation is a Jeskai () deck from the MOC precons. Everything here points to one unified gameplan: flood the board with creatures and convoke out powerful spells. It’s part token deck, part spellcaster deck, and it plays well at instant speed.
The headlining commander is Kasla, the Broken Halo, a hasty angel that hits hard and turns convoke spells into card draw. Kasla also has convoke, which gets them out faster and lessens the impact of commander tax. The secondary commander Saint Traft and Rem Karolus is on-theme and rewards the tapping/untapping shenanigans in the deck.
My goal is to level up the out-of-the-box experience by removing 15 of the weaker, more unnecessary cards and replacing them with budget-friendly synergy pieces and cards that fill in the gaps of the precon. I avoided generically powerful format staples; you can add Jeweled Lotus if you have it, but the goal is to upgrade the deck without shilling out too much money.
I’m also doing away with the Planechase cards. There are only three Planechase-specific tie-ins, but they lose their relevance in normal games, which I assume most of you will be playing.
- Divine Convocation (Blue-Red-White deck)—100-card ready-to-play March of the Machine Commander Deck with 2 Traditional Foil Legendary cards and 98 nonfoil cards
- 10 Planechase cards and 1 planar die to trigger unique abilities and jump across the Multiverse
- 2-card Collector Booster Sample Pack—contains 2 special treatment cards from the March of the Machine main set, including 1 Rare or Mythic Rare and at least 1 Traditional Foil card
- Deck introduces 10 never-before-seen MTG cards to Commander
- Accessories—1 Foil-Etched Display Commander, 10 double-sided tokens, Life Tracker, and deck box
Strengths and Weaknesses
The one major strength of Divine Convocation is its consistency and dedication to a single gameplan. Convoke is the name of the game here, and everything in the deck is centered around it.
That’s also ironically one of the deck’s weaknesses. The Jeskai colors don’t have an enormous spread of convoke cards, with only 52 that either have or grant the ability. There aren’t many exciting convoke cards to dig up since a lot of those cards are already in the precon. I’m adding some obvious convoke cards to the mix, but a lot of the upgrades revolve around tapping and untapping creatures.
Another weakness I mentioned in the breakdown was the severe lack of wincons in the precon. This deck can convoke to its heart’s content but has trouble getting over the finish line. I’ve added a couple more explicit wincons that still tie into the themes of the deck.
Let’s see what swaps we’ve got in store with an emphasis on better wincons, upgraded convoke spells, and a few bonus synergy pieces.
City on Fire
Suggested Cut: Shatter the Source
City on Fire is your own personal Fiery Emancipation with convoke. I’ve played enough Emancipation to know the world “triple” is bad news for your opponents. This isn’t a burn deck or hyper-aggressive strategy, but City turns all your tokens into threats and makes you commander nearly lethal on its own.
I replaced convoke spells with different ones to keep the density the same. Shatter the Source is one of the least impactful convoke spells relative to how much it costs.
Transcendent Message
Suggested Cut: Meeting of Minds
Transcendent Message was tailor-made for this deck. You already want to hold up mana/creatures to play at instant speed, and big draw spells slot right into that strategy. looks intimidating, but your blue creatures can tap to pay for the colored pips.
Meeting of Minds fits the deck fine, but Transcendent Message is an improved instant-speed convoke draw spell.
Zephyr Singer
Suggested Cut: Flight of Equenauts
Zephyr Singer is a cheap and efficient convoke threat. The flying counters are just a bonus here because you mostly care about the evasive body and synergy with your commander. It’s an easy improvement over Flight of Equenauts.
I know you need critical mass of convoke spells, but this one’s clearly outclassed. Just compare it side-by-side with Angel of Salvation or Flockchaser Phantom.
Clever Concealment
Suggested Cut: Temporal Cleansing
It’s strange that Clever Concealment was printed in the Rebellion Rising deck instead of debuting here. That aside, it’s a near-mandatory addition that takes this deck to the next level. It fits perfectly, and it’s one of the best protection spells in the entire game.
Sorcery speed kills Temporal Cleansing for me since it means tapping down creatures during your own turn.
Finale of Glory
Suggested Cut: Path of the Ghosthunter
Let the bodies hit the board, let the bodies hit the board.
… or whatever Drowning Pool said.
One of the deck’s main paths to victory is giving an X spell convoke with cards like Wand of the Worldsoul. Finale of Glory is an exceptional X spell that easily replaces Path of the Ghosthunter if you don’t intend to focus on Planechase.
Jeskai Ascendancy
Suggested Cut: Wrenn's Resolve
Jeskai Ascendancy gets you as close to a storm deck as you’re ever going to be. You can freely tap your creature to convoke out noncreature spells, which untaps and buffs them, and even loots for your troubles. Do this a couple times and Ascendency becomes something of an Overrun.
Wrenn's Resolve is fine, but it doesn’t enable any meaningful interactions here.
Throne of the God-Pharaoh
Suggested Cut: Fractured Powerstone
I’m a fan of Throne of the God-Pharaoh in decks that plan on having full boards of tapped creatures. It passively deals damage each turn and gives you a reason to convoke during your turn.
Fractured Powerstone rolled the planar die and planeswalked out of the deck to make room.
Drumbellower
Suggested Cut: Banisher Priest
Drumbellower was designed for the Buckle Up vehicle precon, but it works wonders in any deck that’s tapping down its own creatures. It does a good impression of Seedborn Muse since your creatures often act like mana sources anyway.
Banisher Priest might cut it out of the box, but creatures like this are usually huge underperformers.
Scaretiller
Suggested Cut: Angel of Finality
It’s finally time for Scaretiller to shine. It felt like a dud when it came out but consistently overperforms expectations now, and it triggers off being tapped for convoke.
Angel of Finality gives the deck generic graveyard hate, but it doesn’t tie into the rest of the deck.
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
Suggested Cut: Goblin Medics
Is this a dive bar? Because Magda, Brazen Outlaw has Treasure tokens on tap.
It functions like a regular mana dork here, ramping and fixing without engaging in combat. The dragon text isn’t relevant, but you can sometimes trade in Treasures for Wand of the Worldsoul, one of the key pieces in this deck. Goblin Medics has the same trigger condition as Magda, but one damage per tap doesn’t hold up in most games.
Ghostly Pilferer
Suggested Cut: Cloud of Faeries
Ghostly Pilferer draws cards on untap, making it a great with convoke. Also, something as simple as opponents casting their commanders triggers its second ability.
I get that Cloud of Faeries adds a body to the board without using up mana, but you can do better.
Prosperous Partnership
Suggested Cut: Deluxe Dragster
Prosperous Partnership creates a few bodies and gives you something to do with your creatures when you’re not convoking spells. Between this and convoke, you should have no shortage of mana.
Vehicles have some minor synergies here, but I cut Deluxe Dragster mostly to lower the curve.
Invasion of Segovia / Caetus, Sea Tyrant of Segovia
Suggested Cut: Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
Who doesn’t love a good 1/1 trampler? Segovia is the plane of tiny creatures, so it’s ironic that Invasion of Segovia has such a big impact here. It gives you multiple tokens, and defeating the battle rewards you with Caetus, Sea Tyrant of Segovia, an untapper and convoke enabler.
Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive is a cheap body for convoke, but attacking with your tokens isn’t the main gameplan.
Protect the Negotiators
Suggested Cut: Ichor Elixir
I love when I find a thematically appropriate counterspell for a deck. Protect the Negotiators is ideal in decks that play at instant speed and want bodies on board. It widens your control options, with Artistic Refusal as the only other counterspell.
No Planechase equals no Ichor Elixir, and the deck doesn’t need much generic artifact ramp in the first place.
God-Favored General
Suggested Cut: Emeria Angel
I’ve never been impressed with Emeria Angel. It doesn’t generate an advantage until turn 5 and maxes out at one token per turn if it even sticks around.
I cut it for God-Favored General, a 2-drop that can produce extra bodies each turn. You have to spend mana during your own turn the make those bodies, but the tokens “refund” some of that when you tap them to convoke.
Hope This Helps a Twiddle Bit
Finale of Glory | Illustration by Stanton Feng
It won’t sit at the cEDH tables, but Divine Convocation should have a better time hanging with the average tuned casual deck thanks to the upgrades presented here. These swaps can get you convoking without spending much out of pocket even if there's further room for improvement or a bunch of other March of the Machine Commanders.
If you’ve had success with this deck or have any fun tech cards that you’ve added, I want to hear them! Let me know in the comments below, or over in the official Draftsim Discord.
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