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Main » Articles » 100 Combo Decks, Part 10

100 Combo Decks, Part 10

Abe Sargent
Posted on April 17, 2012
 Reddit

Tick . . . tock . . . tick . . . tock.

The articles have counted down bit by bit, and now we count down decks eighty-one through ninety in my 100-deck project. Whew! What is this thing? Well, a few months ago, I challenged myself to build 100 combo decks, in real life, from the cards I own that aren’t being used in other decks. I had twenty weeks to do it. I was ahead of schedule the whole time, and a couple of weeks ago in real life, we finished it. Now all I have to do it bring these decks to you.

Some of these decks are crazy from Abe Town, and some are my take on standard combo decks that have been seen before. Are you interested in seeing some combo-deliciousness?

Deck 81 – Saffi for the Cause!

"Saffi for the Cause!"

Do you like this infinite combo deck? Maybe you don’t see it; that’s okay.

  • Have Saffi Eriksdotter on the battlefield.

  • Play Crypt Champion. You don’t have red mana, so it will die . . . which you want.

  • Stack the two abilities from the Champion so that it will recur first and then die. Sacrifice Saffi to return the Champion to play the next time it dies.

  • Recur Saffi from your graveyard with the first resolution. Then, it dies with the second trigger.

  • When it dies, it comes right back, and you can recur Saffi, sacrifice her, and so forth.

You can repeat this two-card combo any number of times, and each time, these creatures will come back and forth into and out of play. Now that’s cute, but we need to add something to make it a combo. That’s what Aura Shards, Village Cannibals, Algae Gharial, Field of Souls, and Falkenrath Noble are all doing here. Each one triggers off these effects. Perhaps it’s inflating until you have a 10,890/10,890 creature. Maybe it’s netting 10,890 1/1 tokens or draining someone of 10,890 life or destroying 10,890 artifacts and/or enchantments. You can blow through every player at the table with aplomb. Then, you add some mana making, removal, and card-drawing, and you can call it a deck!

 

Deck #82 – The Pod That Broke the Camel’s Back

"The Pod That Broke the Camel’s Back"

Whew, that’s a big decklist. It’s built around Birthing Pod, and it has creatures at every casting cost doing different things. You can start with any creature out in the early game and Pod your way up the casting-cost tree. Ideally, you begin with a humble Veteran Explorer. Sacrifice it for two lands (for everyone) and a Strangleroot Geist. Then, sac it to make it stronger, and grab a 3-drop that best suits the board. I have a beater at every casting cost 3 and above, so you can tutor for beef and swing. I also included utility creatures at all casting costs.

Ideally, you’ll search up Kitchen Finks and sac them (bring them back) to keep going. But you can find something with an ability such as Eternal Witness or Hunting Moa (put a counter on Finks or Woodfall Primus to take off that −1/−1 counter from persist). There’s no shame in beating down with a Baloth. Then, you can go to 4 and consider a powerful Colossus or draw a card with the Admirers. If you need defense, Spike Weaver is a great card, and the Centaur Chieftain is a mini-Overrun to break through an opposing defense. Vengevine is your generic target if nothing else suits.

I included two Acidic Slimes because I expect they will regularly be a 5-drop target, but Genesis is the generic choice, and the Vorrac is often an 8/8 or 45/45 depending on how many foes you have. From there, the powerful ability of Brutalizer Exarch duels with Jedit Ojanen as a beater. Finally, we slide into one of three token-makers at the 7 spot and the ultimate 8-drop Primus. You can restart a chain with a token creature into an Explorer.

This deck has a massive amount of versatility built into it. It plays around the Pod, and you must have one to win. Pod defense in the Eternal Witness can be vital—never use it for anything else. I like to snatch the Witness early, Pod into Vengevine and Genesis, and then return the Witness with Genesis when the Pod goes. Anyway, here’s the deck all laid out for you!

 

Deck 83 – A Cure for What Ails You

"A Cure for What Ails You"

This deck wants to make sure there are a lot of creatures on the battlefield. Then, it plays Congregate targeting someone who is not you, followed by False Cure. This deck began about eight years ago when we were playing multiplayer with about seven people each week. Of those seven, roughly five played Congregate heavily to gain a ton of life and stay in the game. I built a multiplayer deck designed to take out the metagame at my table—and yet be nice. I added four Congregates and four False Cures as the essential elements. I False Cured people’s Congregates so often that their use dropped significantly. I also went, “Congregate? False Cure?” a lot. Lessons were learned.

I thought about that deck when I was doing this challenge, and I decided to build another sort of False Cure/Congregate deck, but this time around, with the great token-generators we’ve had in the last few years. With spells like Lingering Souls, Timely Reinforcements, and Gather the Townsfolk joining old standards like Battle Screech and Spectral Procession, we have a lot of options. I tossed in what was running around my deck stock to shore up the deck.

Then, I wanted some Eldrazi drones. I looked hard for Corpsehatch, but I already used them for a deck a few weeks ago, so I had just one left. Dread Drone went in to make up for the loss, and Hideous End became my removal spell. I also added a pair of surprise Celestial Crusaders, to give the deck a bit of bite in a different direction. When your foe sees tokens and Crusade effects, it will come out of nowhere when you Congregate and False Cure for the win!

Wanna see?

 

Deck 84 – The Best Independence Day Ever!

"The Best Independence Day Ever!"

This is another infinite deck. Here’s how this one works:

You need Toymaker, either Rocket Launcher or Magma Mine, either Dreamstone Hedron or Thran Dynamo, and Voltaic Construct.

  • Pay 1 mana, discard a card, and activateToymaker. Make a Hedron or a Dynamo an artifact creature.

  • Tap it for 3.

  • Spend 2 of that mana to activate Voltaic Construct and untap the Hedron or Dynamo.

  • You have made 1 mana. Repeat this roughly 10,890 times, and pump all of that mana into the Rocket Launcher or Magma Mine to kill someone. The Launcher is better—it can kill everyone.

Fun, eh? Once you are making all of that mana, if you can’t find a Launcher or Mine, you can play and sac a Hedron for three cards, play a Moriok dude and sac for two cards, and you can hope to find your kill card that way. Since this deck needs four cards to go off, I built in redundancy where I could. We have six copies of one card to go off and six copies of another. I also included a pair of Diabolic Tutors. Go crazy!

This is an awesome deck that will just improve over time. Beware Toymaker—it’s better than many players think. You can make an untapped artifact a creature to block, so if someone attacks into Hedron, you can make it a 6/6 to kill the attacking creature. No one respects it, but you can nip in for 4 or 6 surprise damage from it easily. Howzabout seeing this deck?

 

Deck 85 – Pay Your Taxes!

"Pay Your Taxes!"

One of the things I’ve noticed from this series is how popular tempo-oriented decks are with folks. At the end of each article, you can vote on your favorite deck of the ten presented in that article. The tempo decks tend to rock higher votes than other decks. Decks built around cards like Wildfire, Obliterate, Mind Whip, and other cards seem to be pretty popular with a lot of votes.

Great tempo cards just don’t see much print these days (and that’s sad). Not only are we no longer in an era of Stone Rain and Armageddon, Winter Orb and Rising Waters, Rishadan Port and Tangle Wire, but we aren’t even in the era of Hokori, Dust Drinker. Tempo just isn’t something that WotC really makes much of anymore. Stone Rain used to be so important that it was one of the basic tools we used to teach new people how to play. Now, 2r is too easy to play to destroy a land. I think a lot of folks miss the great tempo cards of yesterday as much as I do. I don’t need Stasis reprinted, but there is a place for these cards in Magic.

This deck is built around many of the white taxing effects to overtax your enemies’ resources. You can control the tempo of your own deck. Some hurt you, too (Tariff, Hokori, Magus), but since you know your own mana-production capability, you can play them when they don’t hurt you too badly.

I ran out of Aura of Silence earlier in the 100 Combo Decks challenge, but it would fit marvelously here, too. In order to attack, people have to pay mana (or life) for cards such as Ghostly Prison, Windborn Muse, and Norn's Annex. With all of the other taxing going on, attacking you is quite difficult. (That’s assuming opponents can attack through a Reverence).

Magus of the Tabernacle forces people to pay mana for creatures, and then Tariff comes along and forces people to pay the cost of their most expensive creature again or lose it. It’s a great tool in general against decks that drop a cheap fatty through reanimation, Show and Tell, or whatever. Just play this and it’s gone. In this deck, its virtual kill. You know you are going to play it, so you can pay the mana, but any foe is likely to be tapped out.

Then, add the taxing of playing cards through the single Aura of Silence and Isolation Cell to the Winter Orb goodness of Hokori. This deck is ready to party. Be careful before playing Hokori. There are times when it hurts you too much. Not every turn—or even every game—should see a Hokori played. Anyway, the deck is hither:

 

Deck 86 – The Fog Machine

"The Fog Machine"

This deck is lethal. Let’s discuss the combo. It wants everybody to draw a bunch of cards so that it draws a Fog effect each turn. Then, it wants to Fog every turn. Over time, it builds mana and draws cards. It drops a Words of Wilding to prevent it from drawing too many cards, and it instead churns out 2/2 Bears. Your foes will be decked, or you’ll overwhelm them with fifteen bears, or you’ll play one of the late-game cards with all of that mana you’ve built up and blast through defenses with a 25/25 Protean Hydra or seven 7/7 Ooze tokens.

Everybody likes cards such as Font of Mythos and Rites of Flourishing. If you are playing this in a multiplayer game, you probably won’t be attacked early, but when you are later, waves will come to out-race your Fogs, so cards that Fog and lock down creatures for a turn or flash back are particularly useful.

With just four creatures in the deck, we have a lot of space for the combo and Fogs. You don’t need the Words for a while, so don’t worry about starting with them. All you want at first is either a Font or a Rites to find the good stuff.

I included Shell-Dwellers for several reasons. I want it to look like you are playing, too; I don’t want you to be forced to pop a Fog when just a small number of creatures are coming your way, and I like the idea of adding to your token army for either offense or defense.

Who doesn’t like Fogs and card-drawing! Wanna see the deck?

 

Deck 87 – I Salvaged Your Love

"I Salvaged Your Love"

The mechanic of playing with artifacts that cost 1 mana debuted in Fifth Dawn alongside the more commonly known theme of sunburst. I built this deck around that theme. We have Trinket Mage to fetch any of these eighteen artifacts with a cost of 1 or less. A deck wouldn’t normally want a lot of cheap artifacts because it would probably lack a late-game punch, so I made sure that these artifacts included some that were quite powerful. We have a Swiss knife of artifacts with a variety of tools in the deck.

I began with the removal 1-drops of Dispeller's Capsule and Brittle Effigy. Sol Ring and Everflowing Chalice quickly jumped in as mana options. Then, I added land grabbing, untapping artifacts, gaining life, making creatures, swapping permanents, dealing damage, exiling graveyards, and finally, Skullclamp to the deck.

The powerful Auriok Salvagers and Salvaging Station provide very powerful recursion tools. For 2 mana, you can bring back any of these artifacts from your graveyard. For example, you can repeatedly pop a Capsule or a Spellbomb for various effects. I also included a single Leonin Squire since I had one.

With the deck mostly built, I added some card-drawing in Train of Thought and countermagic to the deck and called it. This is the result, and I hope you like it!

 

Deck 88 – Dragonanimation

"Dragonanimation"

Who likes Dragons? We all do! Who likes reanimation decks? We all do! Well, put your hands together for the Dragonanimation deck. We put Dragons in the graveyard, and then bring them right onto the battlefield with a reanimation spell. Ideally, you’ll bring back Bladewing the Risen, who will bring back a Dragon buddy and some Thralls for free. A well-stocked graveyard is a big fear for your enemies. Dragons know no boundaries, and not even death frightens them.

To discard Dragons and Thralls, we have Zombie Infestation, the Guildmage, and Hidden Horror. There are some typical reanimation pitch cards there and no major surprises. Then, we have six reanimation spells to bring back a big, bad Dragon. I played the Dragons that I had sitting around, and some aren’t the best Dragons ever. All Dragons are worth playing . . . because they are Dragons. I don’t care if its Mist Dragon or Exalted Dragon—you can play it. These are adequate to our purposes and include choices across the Dragon spectrum of casting costs.

Finally, I wrapped up the deck with a few select cards. Sarkhan the Mad is devastating here. Phyrexian Gargantua gives me another body and a way to draw cards. Fling works well with the big creatures and firebreathing madness. Finally, Wrecking Ball is a nice way to blow up something that annoys you too much. These flesh the deck out and give it new dimensions (particularly Sarkhan and the Flings).

The deck’s below; enjoy!

 

Deck 89 – In My Mind’s Eye

"In My Mind’s Eye"

The ideal combo for this deck is Mindslaver and Academy Ruins, but we’ve built so many other Ruins combos here that you can win with many other cards without ever Mindslaver-locking a foe.

The lock is simple. You sacrifice a Mindslaver to take your foe’s next turn. Then, you put it on top of your library with the Ruins, play it, and sacrifice it again, turn after turn, until you’ve killed your foe. It should be easy. That lock takes a ton of mana, so we have a lot of other things until you arrive.

This deck has a lot of sacrificing artifacts to recur with the Ruins. You can draw cards off a Hedron, return a Sphere for more lands, and so forth. I particularly like the Memory Jar here—it’s quite potent in this deck (discarding artifacts is not a bad thing, and neither is burning through cards). We do have the powerful Tinker in here, and Inkwell Leviathan is a nice tutor choice. I search for it by default unless I need an artifact for something.

There’s an odd mixture of blue cards and artifact ensures. The only things I have four of are Dissipate and Sea Gate Oracle. Everything else is whatever I had sitting around the deck stock. For example, I used Bottle Gnomes in my Corpse Dance deck, so I had just one copy left. I tossed in a pair of Tolaria West because I only had three Academies.

While a bit bizarre in card numbers, this deck plays like a real deck, but it lacks a serious punch. I ran out of Sol Rings, and this needs one. I also ran out of Temple of the False God, and this deck needs two. My favorite trick is to copy a sacrifice card (usually the Hedron) with a Sculpting Steel and then sac it and return it, using a lot less mana to abuse something. Anyway, the deck is below.

 

Deck 90 – Harvesting Shadows

"Harvesting Shadows"

This was the third deck I built for this project waaay back in the first week of January. Why is it here? Well, when I saw Harvest Pyre, I thought about a way to abuse it, and Binding Agony came to my mind. So, I pulled the cards to build it, and then set it aside, along with another twenty-five to thirty decks that were coming to my mind.

Then, I saw the Dark Ascension spoiler had a reprint of Binding Agony in it, so I decided to wait for its release to see if I wanted to slide Spiteful Shadows into the deck (I don’t own Creature Bond). When it came out, I tried to remove cards for the Shadows, but playtesting demonstrated that nothing in this deck could easily be taken out. So, I swapped the Shadows for the Agonies to make it a block combo and then called it a day, and here is the deck. One of the first built became one of the last shown.

You want to put a bunch of your cards into the graveyard. Once you have a thick graveyard, you just want to drop Spiteful Shadows on something and Pyre it for enough damage to kill the controller. Most of the rest of the deck is concentrated around moving cards into your discard pile.

Forbidden Alchemy grabs you a card while adding fuel to the Pyre. Armored Skaab provides a body and lumber. Curse of the Bloody Tome regularly provides another two cans of gas. Millstone can be used on you for cards (or on your foe if you prefer). Hedron Crab is a great trick from Zendikar that gives you a cheap creature and a mana-free way of milling yourself for a lot of cards over the course of the game. These all provide you with a lot of juice.

After that, I added Devil's Play to have an additional win condition if needed. Doom Blade kills an enemy creature that you can’t race or stop, and Wall of Frost tries to reduce the number of times you have to use your Blades. Desperate Ravings gives you cards and graveyard-filling, but it’s primarily here for the cards. I even included the Panoramas because they sacrifice for a land and give you two triggers from a Crab.

The result is a deck that plays fast, trying to find the combo piece and fuel to go off. It’s random when it works, and it rolls in fun when it does. Wanna see?

 

And that brings us to the end of these ten decks. Which was your favorite? Vote now!

[poll id="151"]

We’ll finish this series up next week with the final ten decks. Are you ready for the end? I’m a little misty-eyed.

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

TAGS articles, casual, deck lists, kitchen table, abe sargent, 100 combo decks, kitt, kitchen table tuesday

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