Instant Kills Infinite Creatures Explosive Kills
Transcription
Instant Kills Infinite Creatures Explosive Kills
Your Modern Combo Guide Alexander Shearer August, 2011 magic@alexandershearer.com Instant Kills Infinite Creatures Explosive Kills Cheating Things Out ETB / LTB / GTG Loops Locks Hive Mind Accelerate into... + ...and then cast any one of the Future Sight pacts.Your opponent’s upkeep comes first, and when they (typically) can’t pay for the pact, they lose. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Seismic Swans Use cascade spells to find Seismic Assault... ...then discard a land to Assault to deal 2 damage to Swans, drawing 2 cards. Then keep pitching lands to draw cards until you have enough lands in hand to deal lethal damage to the opponent. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) (Most Swans decks run 36-40 lands) Dragonstorm - getting there Cheap mana accelerators build mana and storm count... ...and Spinerock Knoll can be activated via fast burn spells to flip up key cards. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Dragonstorm - kill cards Dragonstorm has a wide range of targets... ...and the deck can also win via other storm cards, including Grapeshot and Ignite Memories (sometimes with Pyromancer’s Swath). Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Heartbeat Heartbeat Combo uses Early Harvest, Hearbeat of Spring, and basic lands to generate lots of mana in one turn. Weird Harvest and transmute spells find Early Harvest, Heartbeat, and various win conditions that use all that mana. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Ad Nauseam Cast Angel’s Grace, then Ad Nauseam to draw your deck (feeling free to go to negative life to do so). Then use multiple copies of Simian Spirit Guide to pay double red for Conflagrate, discarding X cards to pay the rest and kill your opponent. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Splinter Twin + Splinter Twin plus any creature with an untap effect on entering the battlefield lets you generate an arbitrarily large number of creatures. Deceiver Exarch and Pestermite are both popular choices because they have Flash, and can be cast on the opponent’s end step. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Kiki-Jiki + Kiki-Jiki plus any creature with an untap effect on entering the battlefield lets you generate an arbitrarily large number of creatures. Kiki-Jiki and a combo companion can also reach the battlefield via an entwined Tooth and Nail. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Mythic Fast mana creatures accelerate into Sovereigns of Lost Alara and Eldrazi Conscription. Alternately, if tempo is needed rather than board position, Sovereigns can find Helm or Mastery. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Living End Cycling creatures fill your graveyard and dig for action... ...until you can cast a cascade spell to find and cast Living End, killing the opponent’s board and generating an instant, giant board position for you. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Time Sieve Artifacts dig into your deck... +1 ...and Time Sieve converts them into extra turns. Sunrise and Vaults return those artifacts to the battlefield... Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) ...letting you cycle into a kill via Tezzeret, Glassdusk Hulk, or another artifact. Hideaway Trap Smaller creatures help activate hideaway lands... ...which, along with Summoning Trap, reveal bigger creatures... ...which trigger more lands and reveal giant monsters. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) All-In Red Red acceleration spells power out... ...giant monsters... ...hordes of goblins... Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) ...and game-locking cards. Polymorph Token generators and creature duals give the Poly deck access to creatures that are not creature cards. These are “laundered” through a suite of spells... ...into game-ending monsters Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Enduring Ideal Accelerate into Enduring Ideal, then take the game over with... ...and disruption and inevitable finishers. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) ...positional locks... ETB / LTB / GTG accessory cards There are many cards that trigger on creatures entering or leaving the battlefield. They are the key finishing component of all ETB / LTB combos. Make creatures. Gain life. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Exile their deck. Metamorph / LRW Phyrexian Metamorph and Leonin Relic-Warder combine to make an arbitrarily large number of ETB / LTB triggers. + Start with a Relic-Warder... Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) ...cast a Metamorph copying it. EXILE Metamorph exiles itself with Relic-Warder’s ability. When it leaves the battlefield, the second Relic-Warder ability triggers and Metamorph returns from exile. Repeat this as many times as you want. Metamorph / Sharuum Phyrexian Metamorph and Sharuum the Hegemon combine to make an arbitrarily large number of ETB / LTB / GTG triggers. + Both cards hit the graveyard. Start with Sharuum... ...copy it with Metamorph. Use Metamorph’s “Sharuum” trigger to return Sharuum. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Sharuum returns Metamorph. Repeat as many times as you like. Project X + Start with Saffi... ...cast Champion not paying red With Champion’s sacrifice trigger on the stack, target it with Saffi’s ability As Champion returns from the graveyard, use its ETB ability to return Saffi Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Repeat this cycle as many times as you like to generate an arbitrary number of ETB / LTB / GTG triggers. Melira Melira combines with any persist creature and a sacrifice outlet to let you generate an arbitrary number of ETB / LTB / GTG triggers. + + +2 life / cycle 2 damage / cycle Although you can combine Melira combo with an accessory card, Persist creatures with ETB / LTB / GTG triggers can also generate an arbitrary amount of life and damage. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Reveillark Body Double copies Reveillark in the graveyard, putting two “return” triggers on the stack. The right sacrifice outlet lets you place an arbitrary number of “deaths” on the stack... + guest ...which means Body Double dies, and its copied Reveillark triggers can return it and one other creature. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) There are many popular ETB / sac effects to abuse with Reveillark. Emeria + Yosei + Sacrifice Yosei to Miren to tap down 5 of opponent’s permanents and remove their next untap. Use active Emeria to return Yosei each turn, allowing another sacrifice. Once the Emeria + Yosei lock is online, for 3 mana per turn, you can gain 5 life and lock your opponent out of untapping. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Slaver Ruins + Use Mindslaver to take control of opponent’s next turn, then regain access to it via Academy Ruins. The active Slaver Ruins lock requires 12 mana in addition to Academy Ruins, meaning it is usually only played in decks powered by Urza lands or Cloudposts. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) Pickles + With Brine Elemental on the battlefield, unmorph Vesuvan Shapeshifter to copy its effect. Shapeshifter can then be turned face down during each of your upkeeps and flipped back up to deny your opponent their following untap step. The active Pickles lock costs just two mana per turn to maintain. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com) No Stick + Isochron Scepter can be combined with other spells to... ...lock the ...lock the opponent opponent out of out combat spells on their turn No Stick is versatile but also a rather soft lock, with many work-arounds available to your opponent. Alexander Shearer (magic@alexandershearer.com)