Summary
Set in a quaint valley full of woodland creatures practising spells, making meals, and raising their families,Magic: The Gathering’supcoming Bloomburrow set has built up huge hype since its debut last week, and looks primed to go down as one of the game’s all-time best releases.
Birds are just one of the many denizens of Bloomburrow. Soaring through the skies, their flying abilities give them a unique edge over the inhabitants of the valley below. Wizards of the Coast has given us one such bird to reveal from the set, and it could give sacrifice decks a big boost if you use it right.
Name And Description
Jackdaw Savior
Two generic, one white creature - Bird Cleric - 3/1 - Rare
Flying
Whenever Jackdaw Savior or another creature you control with flying dies, return another target creature card with lesser mana value from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Stat-wise, Jackdaw Savior is solidly fine. A 3/1 with flying for three mana is on curve, but it does put it within range of Standard’s go-to removal spell, Cut Down. Both Cleric and Bird are also nice, synergistic creature types, especially thanks to Bloomburrow, which gives it a good chance of being included in a Standard mono-white deck.
But the real strength of Jacksaw Savior is, of course, in its ability. Whenever a creature with flying dies, you can return a creature with a lower mana value from your graveyard to the battlefield. With two hoops to jump through - it having flying, and having cheaper creatures to bring back with it – it sounds difficult to get online, but there’s a lot this little Bird can do.
In Standard, you’re going to be looking atAclazotz, Deepest Betrayal. Black/white midrange decks are huge in Standard right now, and Aclazotz already returns as a land when it dies, that you can flip back into a creature.Its mana value is more than enough to get most of a deck’s key pieces back out into play too, like Caustic Bronco, Bloodletter of Aclazotz, and Deep-Cavern Bat.
It may have somewhat fallen out of favour, but Jackdaw Savior could also be very good friends with Atraxa, Grand Unifier.
Commander And Beyond
Outside of Standard, only one card came to mind the second I saw Jacksaw Savior: Luminous Broodmoth. One of my favourite cards from Ikoria, any creature without flyingwho diesis returned to the battlefield with a flying counter on it.
The first time a creature without flying dies, it’ll be brought back by the Luminous Broodmoth. Then, when it dies again, the Jackdaw Savior will trigger courtesy of the added flying counter. Now that’s value.
Another place I can’t wait to use this is in my Preston, The Vanisher Commander deck. While tokens have a mana value of zero, tokencopieskeep the same value as their original version, and so any token copies that Preston makes will still work nicely with Jackdaw Savior. The creature you find then enters the battlefield and wasn’t cast, so is then copied by Preston to keep the whole thing going.
Levitation, Wonder, and Archetype of Imagination give all of your creatures flying, turning every death into a trigger for Jackdaw Savior.
However you plan to use it, Jackdaw Savior is one of those unassuming cards that becomes funnier and scarier the more you think about it. It’ll be legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Vintage, Legacy, Commander, and Oathbreaker when it launches inBloomburrowon August 2.
Magic: The Gathering
Created by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) has become one of the biggest tabletop collectible card games in the world. Taking on the role of a Planeswalker, players build decks of cards and do battle with other players. In excess of 100 additional sets have added new cards to the library, while the brand has expanded into video games, comics, and more.
