VPN's are not a cybersecurity product. By saying that they are is false advertising. They do nothing but change your location in the world. This is advantageous for watching Netflix shows that you could otherwise not watch or for those in places with oppressive govenrmental structures to do anything unregulated. This does not protect you against Malware. This is not a needed product but if Nord told you this you would not buy from them.
Flash Hulk gets dirtier as time went on. LOTR Samwise Gamgee, Caldron Familiar, Viscera Seer is a 4 Mana win and then you get 2 free mana to stop interaction as you see fit. If it is your turn, you can use Grand Abolisher which stops practically all interaction your opponent could have.
If I had to guess it would be something like this: 1. Guff 2. Yawgmoth 3. The Ur Dragon 4. Eldrazi Titans 5. Pre-mending Bolas After that I'm not really sure would be pretty debatable
Just a little note, the Legend Rule doesn't have you sacrifice the objects that you don't keep. They are simply put into the Gtaveyard. If you controlled a Korvald, it wouldn't trigger if you Legend Ruled a creature away.
Nah, he’s right. Rule 704.5j. 704.5j If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are controlled by the same player, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.” Note that put into graveyard is distinct from sacrifices, but not from dies. You would still get leaves the battlefield triggers.
@@charlessmith208 except on arena, which is made, owned and run by wizards, you sac the extra. As such, its a sac and not a put, per the creators of the game
@@theaamanable Sorry, but that quick Google search is incorrect. I've been a Magic judge since 1999. If you can let me know where you found that answer then maybe I can reach out to the person who wrote the article or whatever and hopefully get the page updated to contain the right info so that players don't get confused.
The Flash Hulk combo I'm more familiar with is the Disciple of the Vault version. Though honestly, they're all instant wins so it doesn't really matter.
I've only been playing MTG for about 3 months and these are crazy. For me the 2-card combo of Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Rush of Dread is pretty crazy considering it wouldn't matter if your opponent has 301k hp, they're still dead.
Bruvac the Grandiloquent plus Traumatize lets you do the same 1/2 x 2 shenanigans with milling instead of damage. Wizards of the Coast thankfully didn’t put that combo into standard at least, lol.
Yeah, I had someone play it against me, posted to my friends how unfair the combo was, and because I already had Bloodletter in one of my black decks, loaded up on Rush of Dread. I ultimately abandoned that deck because I felt dirty playing it.
@@roguebarbarian9133 I would probably feel that way in paper Magic but playing that combo against faceless opponents on the Arena app doesn't bother me
Great vid as always, Prof. My favorite combo is Heliod Ballista, which I consider to be the second-best combo in cEDH behind Thoracle. Though a bit mana-intensive (9 total, split 3 + 6 over at least 2 turns), having one of the pieces in the command zone really pushes its power level in that format. Combined with White's multiple Silence effects, stax pieces, and artifact tutors, Heliod Ballista is a force to be reckoned with at any cEDH table. We also can't forget that this combo was banned out of Pioneer because of the deck's ability to play a fair midrange game until accidentally winning with a well-timed Ballista.
Heliod Ballista is really bad in cEDH tbh. Sure it'll win you games but you either need to be playing mono white to play it in the CZ (which is probably the second worst color to go mono in) or play it in the 99 which I don't think any decks should realistically do as there are so many better combos (breach lines, dockside loops, food chain loops, etc etc etc etc). I don't think it's even in the running for top 5 one card combos with the commander (with Tivit Time Sieve probably taking #1 in the current meta).
Heliod Ballista is not even among the top 5 combos in cEDH. Few combos that are straight up better: - BreachFreeze - Thoracle Consult - Dockside + recusion engine like Emiel or Cloudstone + your commander thats an inf mana outlet - Food Chain + Cast-From-Exile creature + casting your commander multiple times with FC mana - Chain of Smog + Witherblood Apprentice - Twinflame + Dualcaster mage or Kiki-Jiki + untapper (inf attackers, so basically the same) - T3feri + Displacer Kitten + mana positive artifact Also, there are commander centric combos that are better, like Tivit + Time Sieve, Najeela + Derevi and Inala + Spellseeker.
The new Flash-Hulk package is so much tighter than it used to be thanks to LOTR. Samwise Gamgee is 2 mana and says “whenever another nontoken creature enters the battlefield, create a food token”. Cauldron Familiar is 1 mana, drains an opponent for 1 life on etb, and allows you to return it by sacrificing a food. Together with a 1-mana free sac outlet this is literally infinite, and you now have 2 extra mana to include Grand Abolisher to lock your opponent(s) out of interacting. No clone shenanigans needed. This is the main reason Flash went from 5 to 7 points in Canadian Highlander, bringing it in line with other combo cards like Thoracle, Vault, Black Lotus, and Time Walk. Speaking of Time Walk, one of my favorite combos is SeekerWalk. You might think it’s as simple as using Spellseeker to find Time Walk, but to go infinite you need a few extra pieces that are cool. Your first Spellseeker finds Ephemerate, which you then use on seeker to find Walk and take an extra turn. Then you rebound the ephemerate (which now goes to the graveyard) on seeker and find Neoform (birthing pod but it’s a sorcery), then Neoform seeker (3 cmc) into Timeless Witness (a 4 cmc eternal witness), which returns a card from your graveyard to your hand, in this case ephemerate. Then you ephemerate the Witness and bring back Time Walk. Because of rebound, the Ephemerate-Witness-Time Walk loop is infinite turns for only 3 mana each turn, but in formats without Time Walk you can do it with 6 mana instead (using Time Warp or similar)
The version of Flash Hulk that got it banned from cEDH is arguably even stronger, because it doesn't fold to creature removal. Named Breakfast hulk, it was a mix of flash hulk, Thassa's Oracle, and an old combo called Cephalid Breakfast. Here is the combo: Cast flash putting Protean Hulk into play and immediately saccing it to get a Hulk death trigger. Grab Nomads en-Kor, Cephalid Illusionist and Thassa's Oracle from your deck. When they enter the battlefield, Thoracle's trigger goes into the stack, and you activate Nomads en-Kor targeting Cephalid Illusionist. Nomads' ability cost zero and its effect is meaningless, but every time Cephalid is targeted you mill three cards. When you have no cards, and Thoracle trigger resolves, you win. If anybody tries to put literally any game action on the stack proceed to put more Nomads activations on the stack, until you have enough to win anyway. The only way to stop this is either by stifling the Thoracle trigger or by making the person draw a card, but differently from a straight Thassa's Consultation win, you can do it on instant speed, as an answer to someone else's combo. Infact, the way the cEDH meta of its time developed, the only viable way to stop te win was to either counter the Flash, or wait for the hulk to die and ... cast your own flash hulk to win instant speed, with the opponent win on the stack.
Can we discuss how for a short time #1 was being used to grab #3 in cEDH? 2 of the most busted combos just hanging out together in a shell of mostly just the strongest control cards legal in commander.
Yeah, Breakfast hulk was probably the strongest version of the deck. It combined hulk's instant speed win and extreme cheap cost with ThOracle's narrow counterplay. For people who don't know, here is the combo: Cast flash putting Protean Hulk into play and immediately saccing it to get a Hulk death trigger. Grab Nomads en-Kor, Cephalid Illusionist and Thassa's Oracle from your deck. When they enter the battlefield, Thoracle's trigger goes into the stack, and you activate Nomads en-Kor targeting Cephalid Illusionist. Nomads' ability cost zero and its effect is meaningless, but every time Cephalid is targeted you mill three cards. When you have no cards, and Thoracle trigger resolves, you win. If anybody tries to put literally any game action on the stack proceed to put more Nomads activations on the stack, until you have enough to win anyway. The only way to stop this is either by stifling the Thoracle trigger or by making the person draw a card, but differently from a straight Thassa's Consultation win, you can do it on instant speed, as an answer to someone else's combo. Infact, the way the cEDH meta of its time developed, the only viable way to stop te win was to either counter the Flash, or wait for the hulk to die and ... cast your own flash hulk to win instant speed, with the opponent win on the stack.
@@felity1773 considering there now are startings of that with one already now being officially sponsored and others playing for ridiculous amounts of money, the current RC needs to be disbanded and replaced.
@@Dtoszi or, cEDH players can stop crying anytime someone suggest splitting it into its own format separate from casual EDH, then you can have your own ban list for your format without it ruining casual decks.
I think that the Hangarback Walker infinite loop deserves some kind of honorable mention. While yes, it is primarily a combo/loop you see in Commander, it is very consistent and fully capable of just ending games from out of nowhere. And there are so many ways to pull it off, with a ton of variants ranging from the Heliod or Mikaeus loop that pings everyone to death, to the Emry loop that generates infinite storm count, to the Sifter of Skulls variant that generates infinite mana, and so many more.
Honorable mentions should probably go to Krark-Clan Ironworks combos, as they abuse KCI's mana ability to pull combo nonsense off in the middle of activating abilities on other cards. The complexity and obscurity of the rules interactions was one of the factors cited in banning KCI.
My Flash-less Hulk/Flash deck is still my most consistent Legacy deck. It uses draw/discard effects like careful study to bin the Hulk, then reanimates it with Footsteps of the Goryo or Necromancy to prompt an end of turn sacrifice that starts the combo. Dark rituals, hand disruption, and free counterspells round out the package.
Honorary mention to all those infinite loop Enchantment decks where a bit of setup and a flicked match sets off a dust explosion of life gain triggering life loss triggering life gain triggering life loss and so on. Also literally any "ruin half of your opponent's entire day" card + "double any ruination inflicted upon your opponent" card combo, like Bruvac + Traumatize deleting your entire library.
One of my favourite combos, though it's not nearly powerful enough for this list, is one I love for how janky it is. First, you have any creature that can be tapped this turn and a way to untap it (my personal favourite is activated abilities with untapping in the cost) Then, you play Ashaya to make that creature a Forest land. Then you just enchant that creature so it taps for more mana than it costs to untap it, and you now have infinite mana. This combo can be even more fun when the creature is something like Hateflayer or Duergar Mine-Captain, since those can win you the game without even needing the infinite mana.
Mind over Mana and Recurring Survival are my favorite broken combos from the past. The fact that Recurring Nightmare is banned in Commander still shows the power of the card.
Hi Professor! Great video, as always! I was hoping to see illusions of grandeur + donate, it may not be the best combo as of today, but it was the core of one of the, if not the most, oppresive combo decks of all time, Trix.
I only have one Commander magic deck. But it's a pretty good deck. It's got one combo like you're talking about that would be the Heliod Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista or Triskelion "it just machine gun pokes everybody at the table to death for one damaged repeatedly". I usually change my commander out to make it harder to get this combo. But on occasion at the local game store there's some folks there that want to play rough.
Bloodline Keeper + Intruder Alarm. Infinite vampires on your turn. Painter's Servant + Grindstone. Instant win, possibly on first turn if you have the correct set up.
@@AnonymousHuman-ku5whI've won with this combo card in tournaments many years ago. It is instant. You just need to have Painter's Servant in play first. The color doesn't matter and could be a completely different color in the opponent's deck. Grindstone: Target player mills two cards. If two cards that share a color were milled this way, repeat this process. Painter's Servant: As Painter's Servant enters the battlefield, choose a color. All cards that aren't on the battlefield, spells, and permanents are the chosen color in addition to their other colors.
@@scottii they dont lose the game by having an empty library. They lose by going to draw a card with an empty library. Players will usually concede before they get to that draw step, but on rare occasions they may try to sneak the win with what they have in hand/ in play.
Let's Play The Booster Box Game For Thunder Junction: th-cam.com/video/TAfYo-sZlqw/w-d-xo.html New Shuffle Up & Play alert! I teach Crim to love playing Green Commander Decks? Watch here: th-cam.com/video/ClrU-0T7tOU/w-d-xo.html
Don't forget, Professor: you can tutor up Thassa's Oracle, Blood Pet or Wild Cantor, and Spellseeker. Thassa's Oracle triggers at the bottom of the stack, followed by Spellseeker. Spellseeker tutors Demonic Consultation, which you can cast by sacrificing the Pet/Cantor. Yes, the #1 most powerful combo in MtG's history can lead into the #3 most powerful combo in MtG's history.
One of my favorite combos... Play a Mountain, Cast Cacophony Scamp; Pass turn. Next turn Play a Plains, tap Mountain for Colossus Hammer. Swing for 1, Tap Plains play Resolute Strike, Attach the Hammer and get +2+2. Hits for 13, Sac The Scamp for an additional 13. 26 damage turn 2.
IllusionsDonate was pretty good in its heyday, and Slaver lock is worth a mention; but my favorite combo is one that isn't very good or consistent and is very fragile and even salty: Chronatog, Orb of Dreams, Stasis - skip all your turns, sleep for eternity, win by not playing.
Similarly, this was a combo I used in commander in a Zedruu deck + Venser the Sojurner He's one of the few effects in the game that allows you to exile something you own (as opposed to control) then return it to play under your control. In the multiplayer environment it meant you could cast the enchantment to gain 20, use Zedruu to donate it, flicker it with Venser to make your opponent lose 20, then have the enchantment enter again under your control gaining you another 20 life. And you could repeat that every turn so long as you could protect Venser
There's another Flash Hulk combo: 4 Disciple of the Vault and as many X cost artifact creatures like Phyrexian Marauder and Shifting Wall (and newer options like Stonecoil Serpent or Walking Ballista) as you want. You can play all of the X cost artifact creatures you want, since they add nothing to the total mana value, and since x is 0 they enter without counters, immediately die, triggering all of the Disciple. 5 of them give you 20 damage, 4 if the 5th card is another death trigger effect like Blood Artist, and unlike the Carrion Feeder combo it just happens, no loop to play out.
The cheapest price wise is Krakclan Ironworks, 2x Myr Retriever, and Disciple of the Vault. Just need to buy two starter decks for that infinite combo. (there's probably cheaper, but this was playground achievable, which is an achievement in itself). The "starter"/"planeswalker"/"introductory" deck infinite combo video would probably be pretty funny as well.
It’s funny because almost all those cards are included in a vintage cube. So they are kinda legal in at least one format. You just need to be lucky and draft the right cards. Thassa‘s Oracle also pairs nice with Doomsday. It’s always fun to see LSV agonizing his opponents with those combos. Still I think in a cube format those combos are absolutely fine.
I'd like to mention a card combo. While not quick like the ones on this video it is interesting. Solemnity into illusions of grandur and then play felidar guardian. You'll win the next upkeep. Solemnity is needed cuz it turns off cumulative upkeep. Cumulative upkeep requires the player to put an age counter on the permanent with the ability. We can play glacial chasm with this to make it impossible for us to lose by normal means. Tutors and some ramp brings it all together so it isn't overly slow. Still about 4 to 5 turns to get to a win best case
I’m a fan of tainted remedy + beacon of immortality. Not only ko’s a player but you can do it again and again as beacon shuffles into your deck. Not as strong as the ones in this video but can come out of nowhere if remedy is played early/resolves and no one is the wiser. It’s fairly tame on its own and doesn’t scream “remove me”.
I’m partial to the Mana Geyser-Reiterate loop followed up with Comet Storm. Or the Curiosity and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind/Niv-Mizzet, Parunn combo. They’re not near the levels of being broken as this list, but I enjoy them.
Squirrelcraft is still my all time favorite. I brutalized so many people at my LGS in the early to mid 2000’s with that and I still run it in my Chatterfang deck today.
Nailed, I would choose these 5 too. I would also do an honorable mention to karn + mycosynth lattice, since it is worse than all these combos (4+7 mana), but it is literally a 1 card combo
I particularly like a combo that I found using Reprecussion and Chandra's Incinerator. Any damage dealt to an opponent's creature will trigger Reprecussion which will then trigger Chandra's Incinerator to deal that much damage to a creature that opponent controls. That loops back to triggering Reprecussion and you now have a consistent board clear for your opponents while also pinging them for as much toughness they hand on board. Goblin Sharpshooter can start the combo on each of your opponents boards provided they all have creatures.
My favorite combo is casting Niv Mizzet and enchanting it with Curiosity (or something along that line) if I spent the game building up my battlefield with double damage enchantments like Furnace of Rath and a few others each card drawn does damage exponentially. I personally like it because since it's limited to how many cards are in my deck it isn't infinite which feels more...idk...fair? Especially if I'm playing with a big group
See this is why I run *fair* one hit kill combos, like Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood with a creature that can extort, or Sanguine Bond + Blood Tribute kicked with a vampire. Or Blood Tribute kicked with either Defiant Bloodlord or Vito Thorn of the Dusk Rose specifically, to skip needing Sanguine Bond entirely.
So, this is a different interpretation of the word "broken" but I've always loved seeing the expression on people's faces the first time they encounter Eye of the Storm + Shahrazad
Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame (or the new Molten Duplication) is almost good enough to make the list I think, with a seething song and a Spiritguide you can put it out turn 2 (or maybe even turn 1 with an additional lotus petal) and then you just win. Pretty overlooked too, if you ask me.
I am old, so honourable mention to the Necropotence obscenities definitely would make it for me. Heliod/Ballista, Breakfast, and the all spells variants too (those seem more fragile to me but still very busted).
I’ve never commented on a TH-cam video before. But I had to give my input here. I play a somewhat dragon deck in commander, and I surprisingly get a healthy amount of wins with this silly combo I have in it. Worldgorger Dragon (in graveyard) + Animate dead = infinite basic land mana Then use Animate Dead on Inferno of the star mounts and buff it with all the mana! (Because it has haste, it can attack no problem) Out of a 99 card deck, I shockingly get these cards in my graveyard often. Definitely a counter-able combo, but it’s pretty fun to pull off.
I have fond memories of tolarian academy/mind over matter/braingeyser. Chuck in candelabra and some artifact ramp to make it really absurd. Never killed turn 1 but turn 3 wasn't uncommon.
personally, I like Kiora's Chosen with a Freed From The Real. put a Fertile Ground on an island, and that's infinate mana, as well as infinate untap a permanent! I have a deck based on that, with things like Archavist, Disruptive Pitmage, and Experimental Kraj.
I love how I cracked the thassa’s oracle combo in minutes, never had a chance to prove it, then later heard it’s one of the most powerful win cons ever
A slept on EDH combo (bc it's a bs amount of mana, unless you know how to ramp or cheese it somehow): Dynaheir, Invoker Adept + (any copy creature/permanent) + Door to Nothingness. Create a copy of Dynaheir, Tap both Dynaheirs to copy 4+ cost mana abilities twice, like Door to Nothingness' double wubrg mana ability, "Target player loses the game", now the non-copied Door + 2 copies make all 3 opponents lose.
not stupid broken or anything but i found a very fun commander combo with agent frank horrigan and railway breaker from thunder junction, railway breaker says whenever a creature other than it enters the battlefield it get +1/+1 counters equal to it's power, so you you plot away railway breaker til you have a haste enabler and one other way to proliferate cards, then you cast railway breaker for zero and cast frank horrigan wo says when this card enters the battle field or attacks proliferate twice. frank will enter, get 8 +1/+1 counters then proliferate those counters to 10, add your haste enabler and swing at an open player he proliferate twice again to 12 giving him a total commander hit of 20, activate your additional proliferate engine (I recommend plaguemaw beast sacrificing the railway breaker to avoid spending more mana) and you now have a one turn 21 damage swing for game or at the very least a very massive commander hit since frank has trample built into him.
Combo 4 is basically guaranteed if you cast Intuition and grab LED, Underworld Breach, and Sevvine’s Reclamation. No matter which card your opponent picks you can activate the combo provided you have enough mana and cards in the graveyard to cast Intuition again, after using Sevvine’s Reclamation to grab Underworld Breach. Intuition can then nab your Brain Freeze.
So, for its time, I'd put the Trix deck Illusions of Grandeur + Donate up there back when Extended was still a format. It was SOO dominant. Now, not as broken as the others on the list, but given the card pool you had to draw from, it was just nasty, and so consistent with multiple forms of protection back in .... 2003 or 04?? It's been a while but my buddy loaned me the deck and I went to a PTQ and took 2nd place out of .... 300-400 players with no knowledge of the format and maybe 4 hours of goldfishing the deck. The only games I lost were on me, and I actually played the mirror in the finals and should have won but .... I misplayed multiple times not knowing the format. It was so strong.
My favorite combo is Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond and I run both of these in my Liesa Lifegain/Stax commander deck. They are expensive enchantments, fantastic alone and even better together. All you need once you have both out is to gain some life and you immediately win the game, the best part is that you can trigger life gain by playing a gain life land like Scoured Barrens. And your opponent's cannot respond to land drops!
Not technically the combo, but it's still absolutely insane. Any non-Legendary copy, like mask of Memory, or kiki jiki + Ojer Taq goes hard, by the first turn, you're making 3^4 the number of creature tokens
Vengevine + Survival of the Fittest broke legacy for a while. I remember it being extremely consistant and you could either win by attacking for lethal or if they had something like moat in their deck you could combo kill with infinite triskellon damage.
I discovered an interesting interaction in Jeski when I was first getting into commander Have noyan, dar roil shaper and Jeski ascendency on the field and cast haze of rage stack the triggers so that noyan dar turns your lands into creatures then have Jeski ascendency untap them and now you have infinite mana because of the buyback ability on haze of rage (it's an expensive and hard to pull off combo but it's fun when it works, throw in some cards like archmage ameritus or something else that can draw you cards for casting spells, and lab man and win the game
I typically protect myself online, and IRL by not having anything worth stealing. I learned that lesson the hard way many years ago. Now I only acquire things that no one else wants but I still enjoy. I also don't keep large amounts of money stored online, and I purposely tanked my own credit so no one would want to steal my identity. In other words, they would only find themselves worse off than if they hadn't robbed me.
I faced off against Thassa's Consultation once in commander, and then built a deck with Trickbind in it. Oh, whats that, you saved a force of will to prevent me breaking your combo? Too bad mine has Split Second. If I play against that deck again, I will mulligan until I can answer it. Don't care if the rest of my hand sucks and I die to the rest of the table, I will have done my job.
Stasis Combo remains one of my absolute favorites (Chronatog+Root Maze+Stasis), its such a funny way to win the game. I think Trix needed a honorary mention tho kinda (Illusions of Grandeur+Donate) or the first top modern deck with the Stroke of Genius over-draw.
20:00 I'm going to mention two here at the risk of a card, or cards, getting banned. Regardless, Kaya has become my favorite MTG character and I'll be playing her card even if it gets banned. Admittedly, I have the second one built in a commander deck. 1) -Kaya The Inexorable (emblem) -Karn's Temporal Sundering 2) -Kaya The Inexorable (emblem) -Braids, Arisen Nightmare -Ugin's Sylex
Back in _my_ day we had Illusions/Donate. And we found it with Necropotence. And we protected it with Force of Will. And we liked it. Uphill. Both ways.
Thought of Flash Hulk immediately when I saw the video, it's nuts. :) Bit surprised to see Grindstone (banned in modern) + Painter's Servant, two colorless card combo that mills target players whole deck, didn't get a mention.
I’d like to add atleast an honorable mention here. Erayo’s Law. It’s not the fastest, and has many working pieces, erayo, Soratami Ascendant, Rule of Law, and a couple of kobolds, completely locks out any of your opponents ability to cast any spell. It was a nightmare to play with, and also wasn’t even the win condition, just set tou up for you to play at a snails pace, one kobold at a time, drop a coat of arms and take out each opponent one by one while they did nothing but draw and discard. It was mean and sucked the life out of the game, disgustingly powerful, and one of the reasons Erayo is on ban lists.
well my favorite 2 card combo is Xenagos, God of Rebels and Emrakul the Aeons Torn, since i only need to cast a Tooth and Nail with entwine (and i only need 1 of each and not even in hand), and it is easily doable in Tron, since it is easily "hidable" because i play the usual tron and from out of nowhere, a 30/30 flying with haste and annihilator 6 comes your way you panic and on sideboard I have Iona, shield of emeria and painter's servant
8:45 fun fact: you actually don't tap lion's eye diamond in order to activate it's ability! Unlike things like treasures, black lotus, and lotus petal, tapping is not actually a requirement to get the 3 mana from lion's eye diamond, making this combo work through effects such as manglehorn and dauntless dismantler that make artifacts enter the battlefield tapped. This can also be used with effects such as urza to get an extra mana.
I remember that I used to play demonic consultation in a crazy storm deck in a non-format friends group (it was a backup win con with lab maniac), and at that time nobody in my area knew about that card lol
An EDH combo that thoroughly enraged people I played with prior to banning was a teansformed Erayo + Arcane Lab. It totally sucked the fun out of EDH // Commander games.
If you have done top 10, would Tolarian Academy, MoM, Stroke of Genius combo would make it? It's lot of pieces but it sure was consistent at the time. I'm old enough to remember them being legal in standard, but it was the most memorable combo to me as it defeats the opponent by decking instead of damage.
Wow, paused the video 12s in and learned about splinter twin and immediately ordered it for pick up from my local game store so I can plop it in my red green commander deck and make copies of my Nyxbloom Ancient. Can't wait for my Commander Rosheen to tap for 126 mana 😩
I remember playing a Cube Draft where I opened with a huge mana advantage setup, only for my opponent to cast Channel followed by Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
It doesn't meet the criteria of being small, reliable to set up, etc, but Jhoira, Ageless Innovator, Intruder Alarm, Ancestral Statue, and Reckless Fireweaver/Ingenious Artillerist is just fun. Putting Isochron Reversal or Isochron Drain in there would just be mean and totally not what I would do.
Thanks for this. Any chance of a jank combo episode. I'm partial to all the tricks you can do with Wall of Blood, or Wall of Shards, or changeling human-werewolves, or Pariah.
Not to get engagement baited, but I expected Memory Jar combo and KCI to get mentioned. Obviously Jar was banned before release or whatever, and KCI is long and not always deterministic... well, I guess that does exclude them, after all.
One of my favorites is abdel adrian gorion's ward+ Dance of the dead with agent of the Iron throne for black. Look It up I think it has real potential for comander.
The version of Flash Hulk that got it banned from cEDH is arguably even stronger, because it doesn't fold to creature removal. Named Breakfast hulk, it was a mix of flash hulk, Thassa's Oracle, and an old combo called Cephalid Breakfast. Here is the combo: Cast flash putting Protean Hulk into play and immediately saccing it to get a Hulk death trigger. Grab Nomads en-Kor, Cephalid Illusionist and Thassa's Oracle from your deck. When they enter the battlefield, Thoracle's trigger goes into the stack, and you activate Nomads en-Kor targeting Cephalid Illusionist. Nomads' ability cost zero and its effect is meaningless, but every time Cephalid is targeted you mill three cards. When you have no cards, and Thoracle trigger resolves, you win. If anybody tries to put literally any game action on the stack, proceed to put more Nomads activations on top of it, until you have enough to win anyway. The only way to stop this is either by stifling the Thoracle trigger or by making the person draw a card, but differently from a straight Thassa's Consultation win, you can do it on instant speed, as an answer to someone else's combo. Infact, the way the cEDH meta of its time developed, the only viable way to stop te win was to either counter the Flash, or wait for the hulk to die and ... cast your own flash hulk to win instant speed, with the opponent win on the stack.
Urzas Saga Block Constructed had Mind Over Matter and Tolarian Academy combo where you pitch cards to untap the Academy and deck your opponent with Stroke of Genius. Super busted for a format that's smaller than Standard.
My favorite combo right now is Lealia the blade reforged + Etali's favor.... Its not good, but you'll def surprise some people with a 150/150 on turn 4 IF the combo lands right... :P
Not exactly powerful, but Godo, Bandit Warlord + Helm of the Host is interesting because it can be a 1 card combo in your command zone. As long as you have 11 mana, cast Godo, tutor the helm and equip it, and you end up with a string of infinite combats with 2 godos swinging each combat.
In my opinion Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger + helm of the host is the most broken thing ever cause it will force all opponents to exile 40 cards immidetly and next time it will be 60 cards meaning everyone else loses in just 2 turns.
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Stella wild card has some broken combos
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Flash Hulk gets dirtier as time went on. LOTR Samwise Gamgee, Caldron Familiar, Viscera Seer is a 4 Mana win and then you get 2 free mana to stop interaction as you see fit. If it is your turn, you can use Grand Abolisher which stops practically all interaction your opponent could have.
I run this exact set up in my Thalia and the Gitrog monster deck. Super handy when your commander can sack the Hulk!.
Could u make a lore video about the idk top 10 most powerful characters in all of magic? That would be great!
If I had to guess it would be something like this:
1. Guff
2. Yawgmoth
3. The Ur Dragon
4. Eldrazi Titans
5. Pre-mending Bolas
After that I'm not really sure would be pretty debatable
Leaving Emrakul off your list eh? She's not on the same level as the other two.
@@styfenthey said eldrazi titans as in all 3
@@OnePointSafetyI would put Urza at one, but that's a fantastic list.
Have urza and bolas ever fought? I feel like urza would win.... pre mending bolas got smoked by toshiro
Just a little note, the Legend Rule doesn't have you sacrifice the objects that you don't keep. They are simply put into the Gtaveyard. If you controlled a Korvald, it wouldn't trigger if you Legend Ruled a creature away.
Incorrect, quick google search says that the second copy is indeed sacrificed
Nah, he’s right. Rule 704.5j.
704.5j If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are controlled by the same player, that player chooses one of them, and the rest are put into their owners’ graveyards. This is called the “legend rule.”
Note that put into graveyard is distinct from sacrifices, but not from dies. You would still get leaves the battlefield triggers.
@@charlessmith208 except on arena, which is made, owned and run by wizards, you sac the extra. As such, its a sac and not a put, per the creators of the game
@@thorbalt1 arena isnt the best way to learn the rules of magic
@@theaamanable Sorry, but that quick Google search is incorrect. I've been a Magic judge since 1999. If you can let me know where you found that answer then maybe I can reach out to the person who wrote the article or whatever and hopefully get the page updated to contain the right info so that players don't get confused.
The Flash Hulk combo I'm more familiar with is the Disciple of the Vault version. Though honestly, they're all instant wins so it doesn't really matter.
It's crazy because Hulk keeps getting better over the years because you can do it with less colors. BG Hulk is honestly a pretty solid cEDH deck.
my version won by giving a token of Phage to each opponent lol
they should have banned proteanhulk instead of flash in commander tho
@@xChikyx lol no
@@xChikyx, Flash is turn 0 even without Program Hulk. Both cards can make new cards better but Flash could make them broken.
@@TheSpiritombsableye i Know, but protean hulk is what makes the combo, when It was banned, flash wasn't a problem
Legit thought the sponsor was going to be Morgan and Morgan.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a tad disappointed
More like Markov's and Manors
I've only been playing MTG for about 3 months and these are crazy. For me the 2-card combo of Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Rush of Dread is pretty crazy considering it wouldn't matter if your opponent has 301k hp, they're still dead.
It's dumb and a testament to poor design.
Bruvac the Grandiloquent plus Traumatize lets you do the same 1/2 x 2 shenanigans with milling instead of damage. Wizards of the Coast thankfully didn’t put that combo into standard at least, lol.
Yeah, I had someone play it against me, posted to my friends how unfair the combo was, and because I already had Bloodletter in one of my black decks, loaded up on Rush of Dread. I ultimately abandoned that deck because I felt dirty playing it.
@@roguebarbarian9133 I would probably feel that way in paper Magic but playing that combo against faceless opponents on the Arena app doesn't bother me
Nah bro you be killing me not including reverberate and second breakfast. What is more powerful than a second second breakfast?
I don't think the Professor has heard of second second breakfast user-sc8xt7fh7o.
@@Anatak2222 What about brunch? Elvensies? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper?
I wouldn't count on it
Second Breakfast was a combo deck that I used to play, it just took so long to combo off and played the whole deck...
Shoutout to the Commander combos: Heliod + Ballista, Triskelion + Mikaeus, Lethal Vapors + Teferi's Protection, Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood
and Karn, the Great Creator + Mycosynth Lattice LOL
Exquisite Blood + Vito, Thorn Of The Dusk Rose
@@Link71386 Vito is just a Sanguine Bond on a body, at the end of the day =P
@@QjoWilwolf Yes, I know. It's easier to reanimate than an enchantment.
Great vid as always, Prof. My favorite combo is Heliod Ballista, which I consider to be the second-best combo in cEDH behind Thoracle. Though a bit mana-intensive (9 total, split 3 + 6 over at least 2 turns), having one of the pieces in the command zone really pushes its power level in that format. Combined with White's multiple Silence effects, stax pieces, and artifact tutors, Heliod Ballista is a force to be reckoned with at any cEDH table.
We also can't forget that this combo was banned out of Pioneer because of the deck's ability to play a fair midrange game until accidentally winning with a well-timed Ballista.
Heliod Ballista is really bad in cEDH tbh. Sure it'll win you games but you either need to be playing mono white to play it in the CZ (which is probably the second worst color to go mono in) or play it in the 99 which I don't think any decks should realistically do as there are so many better combos (breach lines, dockside loops, food chain loops, etc etc etc etc). I don't think it's even in the running for top 5 one card combos with the commander (with Tivit Time Sieve probably taking #1 in the current meta).
Heliod Ballista is not even among the top 5 combos in cEDH.
Few combos that are straight up better:
- BreachFreeze
- Thoracle Consult
- Dockside + recusion engine like Emiel or Cloudstone + your commander thats an inf mana outlet
- Food Chain + Cast-From-Exile creature + casting your commander multiple times with FC mana
- Chain of Smog + Witherblood Apprentice
- Twinflame + Dualcaster mage or Kiki-Jiki + untapper (inf attackers, so basically the same)
- T3feri + Displacer Kitten + mana positive artifact
Also, there are commander centric combos that are better, like Tivit + Time Sieve, Najeela + Derevi and Inala + Spellseeker.
The new Flash-Hulk package is so much tighter than it used to be thanks to LOTR. Samwise Gamgee is 2 mana and says “whenever another nontoken creature enters the battlefield, create a food token”. Cauldron Familiar is 1 mana, drains an opponent for 1 life on etb, and allows you to return it by sacrificing a food. Together with a 1-mana free sac outlet this is literally infinite, and you now have 2 extra mana to include Grand Abolisher to lock your opponent(s) out of interacting. No clone shenanigans needed. This is the main reason Flash went from 5 to 7 points in Canadian Highlander, bringing it in line with other combo cards like Thoracle, Vault, Black Lotus, and Time Walk.
Speaking of Time Walk, one of my favorite combos is SeekerWalk. You might think it’s as simple as using Spellseeker to find Time Walk, but to go infinite you need a few extra pieces that are cool. Your first Spellseeker finds Ephemerate, which you then use on seeker to find Walk and take an extra turn. Then you rebound the ephemerate (which now goes to the graveyard) on seeker and find Neoform (birthing pod but it’s a sorcery), then Neoform seeker (3 cmc) into Timeless Witness (a 4 cmc eternal witness), which returns a card from your graveyard to your hand, in this case ephemerate. Then you ephemerate the Witness and bring back Time Walk. Because of rebound, the Ephemerate-Witness-Time Walk loop is infinite turns for only 3 mana each turn, but in formats without Time Walk you can do it with 6 mana instead (using Time Warp or similar)
The version of Flash Hulk that got it banned from cEDH is arguably even stronger, because it doesn't fold to creature removal. Named Breakfast hulk, it was a mix of flash hulk, Thassa's Oracle, and an old combo called Cephalid Breakfast. Here is the combo:
Cast flash putting Protean Hulk into play and immediately saccing it to get a Hulk death trigger. Grab Nomads en-Kor, Cephalid Illusionist and Thassa's Oracle from your deck. When they enter the battlefield, Thoracle's trigger goes into the stack, and you activate Nomads en-Kor targeting Cephalid Illusionist. Nomads' ability cost zero and its effect is meaningless, but every time Cephalid is targeted you mill three cards. When you have no cards, and Thoracle trigger resolves, you win. If anybody tries to put literally any game action on the stack proceed to put more Nomads activations on the stack, until you have enough to win anyway.
The only way to stop this is either by stifling the Thoracle trigger or by making the person draw a card, but differently from a straight Thassa's Consultation win, you can do it on instant speed, as an answer to someone else's combo. Infact, the way the cEDH meta of its time developed, the only viable way to stop te win was to either counter the Flash, or wait for the hulk to die and ... cast your own flash hulk to win instant speed, with the opponent win on the stack.
Can we discuss how for a short time #1 was being used to grab #3 in cEDH? 2 of the most busted combos just hanging out together in a shell of mostly just the strongest control cards legal in commander.
yeah, the RC is a joke
Yeah, Breakfast hulk was probably the strongest version of the deck. It combined hulk's instant speed win and extreme cheap cost with ThOracle's narrow counterplay.
For people who don't know, here is the combo:
Cast flash putting Protean Hulk into play and immediately saccing it to get a Hulk death trigger. Grab Nomads en-Kor, Cephalid Illusionist and Thassa's Oracle from your deck. When they enter the battlefield, Thoracle's trigger goes into the stack, and you activate Nomads en-Kor targeting Cephalid Illusionist. Nomads' ability cost zero and its effect is meaningless, but every time Cephalid is targeted you mill three cards. When you have no cards, and Thoracle trigger resolves, you win. If anybody tries to put literally any game action on the stack proceed to put more Nomads activations on the stack, until you have enough to win anyway.
The only way to stop this is either by stifling the Thoracle trigger or by making the person draw a card, but differently from a straight Thassa's Consultation win, you can do it on instant speed, as an answer to someone else's combo. Infact, the way the cEDH meta of its time developed, the only viable way to stop te win was to either counter the Flash, or wait for the hulk to die and ... cast your own flash hulk to win instant speed, with the opponent win on the stack.
@@xChikyx
formats like cedh don't need to be overlooked by some arbitrary force as long as they are no "official" mtg sponsored cedh tournaments
@@felity1773 considering there now are startings of that with one already now being officially sponsored and others playing for ridiculous amounts of money, the current RC needs to be disbanded and replaced.
@@Dtoszi or, cEDH players can stop crying anytime someone suggest splitting it into its own format separate from casual EDH, then you can have your own ban list for your format without it ruining casual decks.
I think that the Hangarback Walker infinite loop deserves some kind of honorable mention. While yes, it is primarily a combo/loop you see in Commander, it is very consistent and fully capable of just ending games from out of nowhere. And there are so many ways to pull it off, with a ton of variants ranging from the Heliod or Mikaeus loop that pings everyone to death, to the Emry loop that generates infinite storm count, to the Sifter of Skulls variant that generates infinite mana, and so many more.
hangarback walker loops?
I think you're thinking of Triskelion/Walking Ballista
Honorable mentions should probably go to Krark-Clan Ironworks combos, as they abuse KCI's mana ability to pull combo nonsense off in the middle of activating abilities on other cards. The complexity and obscurity of the rules interactions was one of the factors cited in banning KCI.
What a fun list! There are many other great combos, including Painter-Grindstone and RIP or Leyline Helm.
My Flash-less Hulk/Flash deck is still my most consistent Legacy deck. It uses draw/discard effects like careful study to bin the Hulk, then reanimates it with Footsteps of the Goryo or Necromancy to prompt an end of turn sacrifice that starts the combo. Dark rituals, hand disruption, and free counterspells round out the package.
Honorary mention to all those infinite loop Enchantment decks where a bit of setup and a flicked match sets off a dust explosion of life gain triggering life loss triggering life gain triggering life loss and so on.
Also literally any "ruin half of your opponent's entire day" card + "double any ruination inflicted upon your opponent" card combo, like Bruvac + Traumatize deleting your entire library.
One of my favourite combos, though it's not nearly powerful enough for this list, is one I love for how janky it is. First, you have any creature that can be tapped this turn and a way to untap it (my personal favourite is activated abilities with untapping in the cost) Then, you play Ashaya to make that creature a Forest land. Then you just enchant that creature so it taps for more mana than it costs to untap it, and you now have infinite mana. This combo can be even more fun when the creature is something like Hateflayer or Duergar Mine-Captain, since those can win you the game without even needing the infinite mana.
Mind over Mana and Recurring Survival are my favorite broken combos from the past. The fact that Recurring Nightmare is banned in Commander still shows the power of the card.
It shows more how slow the CAG is than how strong Recurring Nightmare is.
Hi Professor! Great video, as always! I was hoping to see illusions of grandeur + donate, it may not be the best combo as of today, but it was the core of one of the, if not the most, oppresive combo decks of all time, Trix.
I only have one Commander magic deck. But it's a pretty good deck. It's got one combo like you're talking about that would be the Heliod Sun-Crowned, Walking Ballista or Triskelion "it just machine gun pokes everybody at the table to death for one damaged repeatedly". I usually change my commander out to make it harder to get this combo. But on occasion at the local game store there's some folks there that want to play rough.
Bloodline Keeper + Intruder Alarm. Infinite vampires on your turn.
Painter's Servant + Grindstone. Instant win, possibly on first turn if you have the correct set up.
Not instant. You still need to go to their draw step.
@@AnonymousHuman-ku5whI've won with this combo card in tournaments many years ago. It is instant. You just need to have Painter's Servant in play first. The color doesn't matter and could be a completely different color in the opponent's deck.
Grindstone: Target player mills two cards. If two cards that share a color were milled this way, repeat this process.
Painter's Servant: As Painter's Servant enters the battlefield, choose a color.
All cards that aren't on the battlefield, spells, and permanents are the chosen color in addition to their other colors.
@@scottii they dont lose the game by having an empty library. They lose by going to draw a card with an empty library. Players will usually concede before they get to that draw step, but on rare occasions they may try to sneak the win with what they have in hand/ in play.
Let's Play The Booster Box Game For Thunder Junction: th-cam.com/video/TAfYo-sZlqw/w-d-xo.html
New Shuffle Up & Play alert! I teach Crim to love playing Green Commander Decks? Watch here: th-cam.com/video/ClrU-0T7tOU/w-d-xo.html
Atog + Fling
A combo so powerful they banned Atog in Pauper.
I miss my smiley gremlin
Don't forget, Professor: you can tutor up Thassa's Oracle, Blood Pet or Wild Cantor, and Spellseeker. Thassa's Oracle triggers at the bottom of the stack, followed by Spellseeker. Spellseeker tutors Demonic Consultation, which you can cast by sacrificing the Pet/Cantor. Yes, the #1 most powerful combo in MtG's history can lead into the #3 most powerful combo in MtG's history.
This was what finally got Flash banned in Commander, btw.
One of my favorite combos... Play a Mountain, Cast Cacophony Scamp; Pass turn. Next turn Play a Plains, tap Mountain for Colossus Hammer. Swing for 1, Tap Plains play Resolute Strike, Attach the Hammer and get +2+2. Hits for 13, Sac The Scamp for an additional 13. 26 damage turn 2.
IllusionsDonate was pretty good in its heyday, and Slaver lock is worth a mention; but my favorite combo is one that isn't very good or consistent and is very fragile and even salty:
Chronatog, Orb of Dreams, Stasis - skip all your turns, sleep for eternity, win by not playing.
Similarly, this was a combo I used in commander in a Zedruu deck + Venser the Sojurner
He's one of the few effects in the game that allows you to exile something you own (as opposed to control) then return it to play under your control. In the multiplayer environment it meant you could cast the enchantment to gain 20, use Zedruu to donate it, flicker it with Venser to make your opponent lose 20, then have the enchantment enter again under your control gaining you another 20 life. And you could repeat that every turn so long as you could protect Venser
There's another Flash Hulk combo: 4 Disciple of the Vault and as many X cost artifact creatures like Phyrexian Marauder and Shifting Wall (and newer options like Stonecoil Serpent or Walking Ballista) as you want. You can play all of the X cost artifact creatures you want, since they add nothing to the total mana value, and since x is 0 they enter without counters, immediately die, triggering all of the Disciple. 5 of them give you 20 damage, 4 if the 5th card is another death trigger effect like Blood Artist, and unlike the Carrion Feeder combo it just happens, no loop to play out.
The cheapest price wise is Krakclan Ironworks, 2x Myr Retriever, and Disciple of the Vault. Just need to buy two starter decks for that infinite combo. (there's probably cheaper, but this was playground achievable, which is an achievement in itself).
The "starter"/"planeswalker"/"introductory" deck infinite combo video would probably be pretty funny as well.
It’s funny because almost all those cards are included in a vintage cube. So they are kinda legal in at least one format. You just need to be lucky and draft the right cards. Thassa‘s Oracle also pairs nice with Doomsday. It’s always fun to see LSV agonizing his opponents with those combos. Still I think in a cube format those combos are absolutely fine.
Cube isn't a format, though.
I'd like to mention a card combo. While not quick like the ones on this video it is interesting. Solemnity into illusions of grandur and then play felidar guardian. You'll win the next upkeep. Solemnity is needed cuz it turns off cumulative upkeep. Cumulative upkeep requires the player to put an age counter on the permanent with the ability. We can play glacial chasm with this to make it impossible for us to lose by normal means. Tutors and some ramp brings it all together so it isn't overly slow. Still about 4 to 5 turns to get to a win best case
I’m a fan of tainted remedy + beacon of immortality. Not only ko’s a player but you can do it again and again as beacon shuffles into your deck. Not as strong as the ones in this video but can come out of nowhere if remedy is played early/resolves and no one is the wiser. It’s fairly tame on its own and doesn’t scream “remove me”.
Wouldn't say its broken but its out of nowhere ko makes Satoru Umezawa + Blightsteel Colossus a top tier combo for me
I’m partial to the Mana Geyser-Reiterate loop followed up with Comet Storm. Or the Curiosity and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind/Niv-Mizzet, Parunn combo. They’re not near the levels of being broken as this list, but I enjoy them.
Dies to removal
Squirrelcraft is still my all time favorite. I brutalized so many people at my LGS in the early to mid 2000’s with that and I still run it in my Chatterfang deck today.
I liked Enduring renewal, Goblin Bombardment, and Ornithropter.
Nailed, I would choose these 5 too. I would also do an honorable mention to karn + mycosynth lattice, since it is worse than all these combos (4+7 mana), but it is literally a 1 card combo
I particularly like a combo that I found using Reprecussion and Chandra's Incinerator. Any damage dealt to an opponent's creature will trigger Reprecussion which will then trigger Chandra's Incinerator to deal that much damage to a creature that opponent controls. That loops back to triggering Reprecussion and you now have a consistent board clear for your opponents while also pinging them for as much toughness they hand on board. Goblin Sharpshooter can start the combo on each of your opponents boards provided they all have creatures.
My favorite combo is casting Niv Mizzet and enchanting it with Curiosity (or something along that line) if I spent the game building up my battlefield with double damage enchantments like Furnace of Rath and a few others each card drawn does damage exponentially. I personally like it because since it's limited to how many cards are in my deck it isn't infinite which feels more...idk...fair? Especially if I'm playing with a big group
See this is why I run *fair* one hit kill combos, like Sanguine Bond + Exquisite Blood with a creature that can extort, or Sanguine Bond + Blood Tribute kicked with a vampire. Or Blood Tribute kicked with either Defiant Bloodlord or Vito Thorn of the Dusk Rose specifically, to skip needing Sanguine Bond entirely.
So, this is a different interpretation of the word "broken" but I've always loved seeing the expression on people's faces the first time they encounter Eye of the Storm + Shahrazad
Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame (or the new Molten Duplication) is almost good enough to make the list I think, with a seething song and a Spiritguide you can put it out turn 2 (or maybe even turn 1 with an additional lotus petal) and then you just win. Pretty overlooked too, if you ask me.
I am old, so honourable mention to the Necropotence obscenities definitely would make it for me. Heliod/Ballista, Breakfast, and the all spells variants too (those seem more fragile to me but still very busted).
I’ve never commented on a TH-cam video before. But I had to give my input here.
I play a somewhat dragon deck in commander, and I surprisingly get a healthy amount of wins with this silly combo I have in it.
Worldgorger Dragon (in graveyard) + Animate dead = infinite basic land mana
Then use Animate Dead on Inferno of the star mounts and buff it with all the mana! (Because it has haste, it can attack no problem)
Out of a 99 card deck, I shockingly get these cards in my graveyard often. Definitely a counter-able combo, but it’s pretty fun to pull off.
I have fond memories of tolarian academy/mind over matter/braingeyser. Chuck in candelabra and some artifact ramp to make it really absurd. Never killed turn 1 but turn 3 wasn't uncommon.
personally, I like Kiora's Chosen with a Freed From The Real. put a Fertile Ground on an island, and that's infinate mana, as well as infinate untap a permanent! I have a deck based on that, with things like Archavist, Disruptive Pitmage, and Experimental Kraj.
I feel Urzas Saga is mentioned in every other of your videos. What a card.
That was one hell of a stretch to the ad lol but nice prof
Shout out to KCI for being so convoluted an extremely specific that any interaction against it results in a judge call
I love how I cracked the thassa’s oracle combo in minutes, never had a chance to prove it, then later heard it’s one of the most powerful win cons ever
A slept on EDH combo (bc it's a bs amount of mana, unless you know how to ramp or cheese it somehow): Dynaheir, Invoker Adept + (any copy creature/permanent) + Door to Nothingness. Create a copy of Dynaheir, Tap both Dynaheirs to copy 4+ cost mana abilities twice, like Door to Nothingness' double wubrg mana ability, "Target player loses the game", now the non-copied Door + 2 copies make all 3 opponents lose.
not stupid broken or anything but i found a very fun commander combo with agent frank horrigan and railway breaker from thunder junction, railway breaker says whenever a creature other than it enters the battlefield it get +1/+1 counters equal to it's power, so you you plot away railway breaker til you have a haste enabler and one other way to proliferate cards, then you cast railway breaker for zero and cast frank horrigan wo says when this card enters the battle field or attacks proliferate twice. frank will enter, get 8 +1/+1 counters then proliferate those counters to 10, add your haste enabler and swing at an open player he proliferate twice again to 12 giving him a total commander hit of 20, activate your additional proliferate engine (I recommend plaguemaw beast sacrificing the railway breaker to avoid spending more mana) and you now have a one turn 21 damage swing for game or at the very least a very massive commander hit since frank has trample built into him.
Combo 4 is basically guaranteed if you cast Intuition and grab LED, Underworld Breach, and Sevvine’s Reclamation. No matter which card your opponent picks you can activate the combo provided you have enough mana and cards in the graveyard to cast Intuition again, after using Sevvine’s Reclamation to grab Underworld Breach. Intuition can then nab your Brain Freeze.
So, for its time, I'd put the Trix deck Illusions of Grandeur + Donate up there back when Extended was still a format. It was SOO dominant. Now, not as broken as the others on the list, but given the card pool you had to draw from, it was just nasty, and so consistent with multiple forms of protection back in .... 2003 or 04?? It's been a while but my buddy loaned me the deck and I went to a PTQ and took 2nd place out of .... 300-400 players with no knowledge of the format and maybe 4 hours of goldfishing the deck. The only games I lost were on me, and I actually played the mirror in the finals and should have won but .... I misplayed multiple times not knowing the format. It was so strong.
My favorite combo is Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond and I run both of these in my Liesa Lifegain/Stax commander deck. They are expensive enchantments, fantastic alone and even better together. All you need once you have both out is to gain some life and you immediately win the game, the best part is that you can trigger life gain by playing a gain life land like Scoured Barrens. And your opponent's cannot respond to land drops!
I avoid the combo in my commander deck running astarion cuz people get so salty when I play it but I also love it. Commander players are too salty
Not technically the combo, but it's still absolutely insane.
Any non-Legendary copy, like mask of Memory, or kiki jiki + Ojer Taq goes hard, by the first turn, you're making 3^4 the number of creature tokens
Vengevine + Survival of the Fittest broke legacy for a while. I remember it being extremely consistant and you could either win by attacking for lethal or if they had something like moat in their deck you could combo kill with infinite triskellon damage.
I discovered an interesting interaction in Jeski when I was first getting into commander
Have noyan, dar roil shaper and Jeski ascendency on the field and cast haze of rage stack the triggers so that noyan dar turns your lands into creatures then have Jeski ascendency untap them and now you have infinite mana because of the buyback ability on haze of rage (it's an expensive and hard to pull off combo but it's fun when it works, throw in some cards like archmage ameritus or something else that can draw you cards for casting spells, and lab man and win the game
My two favorite mill combos are the classic Painter's Stone and the Maddening Bruvac.
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I faced off against Thassa's Consultation once in commander, and then built a deck with Trickbind in it. Oh, whats that, you saved a force of will to prevent me breaking your combo? Too bad mine has Split Second. If I play against that deck again, I will mulligan until I can answer it. Don't care if the rest of my hand sucks and I die to the rest of the table, I will have done my job.
Angel's Grace does the exact same thing, but is one mana cheaper.
Stasis Combo remains one of my absolute favorites (Chronatog+Root Maze+Stasis), its such a funny way to win the game. I think Trix needed a honorary mention tho kinda (Illusions of Grandeur+Donate) or the first top modern deck with the Stroke of Genius over-draw.
The detective mechanic should have been in New Capenna. Although it was a fun set to play in Sealed League.
20:00 I'm going to mention two here at the risk of a card, or cards, getting banned. Regardless, Kaya has become my favorite MTG character and I'll be playing her card even if it gets banned. Admittedly, I have the second one built in a commander deck.
1)
-Kaya The Inexorable (emblem)
-Karn's Temporal Sundering
2)
-Kaya The Inexorable (emblem)
-Braids, Arisen Nightmare
-Ugin's Sylex
Back in _my_ day we had Illusions/Donate. And we found it with Necropotence. And we protected it with Force of Will. And we liked it. Uphill. Both ways.
Vampire hexmage was also used in a combo with Dark depths
Not the strongest combo by a long shot but definitely my favorite combo in Modern: Narset, parter of veils + Day’s Undoing.
Thought of Flash Hulk immediately when I saw the video, it's nuts. :)
Bit surprised to see Grindstone (banned in modern) + Painter's Servant, two colorless card combo that mills target players whole deck, didn't get a mention.
Combo's that fold to creature removal < combo's that don't
@@B1gLupu True.
Leyline of the Void + Helm of Obedience, though :p Sadly, both of these tactics only sets up to kills one player at a time
I like this combo. It doesn’t hold a candle to these but Rosie cotton and scurry oak hit the spot for me!
Professor giving us the combos that need to be assessed in comparison to Splinter Twin.
I’d like to add atleast an honorable mention here. Erayo’s Law. It’s not the fastest, and has many working pieces, erayo, Soratami Ascendant, Rule of Law, and a couple of kobolds, completely locks out any of your opponents ability to cast any spell. It was a nightmare to play with, and also wasn’t even the win condition, just set tou up for you to play at a snails pace, one kobold at a time, drop a coat of arms and take out each opponent one by one while they did nothing but draw and discard. It was mean and sucked the life out of the game, disgustingly powerful, and one of the reasons Erayo is on ban lists.
well my favorite 2 card combo is Xenagos, God of Rebels and Emrakul the Aeons Torn, since i only need to cast a Tooth and Nail with entwine (and i only need 1 of each and not even in hand), and it is easily doable in Tron, since it is easily "hidable" because i play the usual tron and from out of nowhere, a 30/30 flying with haste and annihilator 6 comes your way you panic
and on sideboard I have Iona, shield of emeria and painter's servant
8:45
fun fact: you actually don't tap lion's eye diamond in order to activate it's ability! Unlike things like treasures, black lotus, and lotus petal, tapping is not actually a requirement to get the 3 mana from lion's eye diamond, making this combo work through effects such as manglehorn and dauntless dismantler that make artifacts enter the battlefield tapped. This can also be used with effects such as urza to get an extra mana.
I think Amalia and wildgrowth walker in pioneer is cool combo. I don't know if it's uber broken but it seems good on paper
Nord VPN: I don't want my friends, or ANYone, to know I'm looking up winter orb...
I remember that I used to play demonic consultation in a crazy storm deck in a non-format friends group (it was a backup win con with lab maniac), and at that time nobody in my area knew about that card lol
An EDH combo that thoroughly enraged people I played with prior to banning was a teansformed Erayo + Arcane Lab. It totally sucked the fun out of EDH // Commander games.
If you have done top 10, would Tolarian Academy, MoM, Stroke of Genius combo would make it? It's lot of pieces but it sure was consistent at the time. I'm old enough to remember them being legal in standard, but it was the most memorable combo to me as it defeats the opponent by decking instead of damage.
deadeye navigator and palinchron is my go-to infinite mana generator for blue
Wow, paused the video 12s in and learned about splinter twin and immediately ordered it for pick up from my local game store so I can plop it in my red green commander deck and make copies of my Nyxbloom Ancient. Can't wait for my Commander Rosheen to tap for 126 mana 😩
I remember playing a Cube Draft where I opened with a huge mana advantage setup, only for my opponent to cast Channel followed by Emrakul, the Aeons Torn.
It doesn't meet the criteria of being small, reliable to set up, etc, but Jhoira, Ageless Innovator, Intruder Alarm, Ancestral Statue, and Reckless Fireweaver/Ingenious Artillerist is just fun. Putting Isochron Reversal or Isochron Drain in there would just be mean and totally not what I would do.
Rings of brighthearth+ basalt monolith should be an honorable mention, infinite mana and untap is crazy
My favorite two card combo you didn’t mention is Lich and Mirror Universe.
It really is amazing how crazy some combos can really get
Thanks for this.
Any chance of a jank combo episode.
I'm partial to all the tricks you can do with Wall of Blood, or Wall of Shards, or changeling human-werewolves, or Pariah.
Seeing these combos no longer makes me feel bad for running an Exquisite Blood/Sanguine Bond combo in my commander deck.
I'm actually kinda surprised the Sanguine Bond / Exquisite Blood combo isn't on here.
Carrion feeder is great! I really like the little guy.
Theros Beyond Death is the modern day Urza's Saga with the amount of broken combos in the set.
Not to get engagement baited, but I expected Memory Jar combo and KCI to get mentioned. Obviously Jar was banned before release or whatever, and KCI is long and not always deterministic... well, I guess that does exclude them, after all.
"damn!" Is my favorite choice for Demonic Consultation.
Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond
Can I introduce you to Wall of Roots + Sands of Time + Magma Mine? Best combo ever.
One of my favorites is abdel adrian gorion's ward+ Dance of the dead with agent of the Iron throne for black. Look It up I think it has real potential for comander.
The version of Flash Hulk that got it banned from cEDH is arguably even stronger, because it doesn't fold to creature removal. Named Breakfast hulk, it was a mix of flash hulk, Thassa's Oracle, and an old combo called Cephalid Breakfast. Here is the combo:
Cast flash putting Protean Hulk into play and immediately saccing it to get a Hulk death trigger. Grab Nomads en-Kor, Cephalid Illusionist and Thassa's Oracle from your deck. When they enter the battlefield, Thoracle's trigger goes into the stack, and you activate Nomads en-Kor targeting Cephalid Illusionist. Nomads' ability cost zero and its effect is meaningless, but every time Cephalid is targeted you mill three cards. When you have no cards, and Thoracle trigger resolves, you win. If anybody tries to put literally any game action on the stack, proceed to put more Nomads activations on top of it, until you have enough to win anyway.
The only way to stop this is either by stifling the Thoracle trigger or by making the person draw a card, but differently from a straight Thassa's Consultation win, you can do it on instant speed, as an answer to someone else's combo. Infact, the way the cEDH meta of its time developed, the only viable way to stop te win was to either counter the Flash, or wait for the hulk to die and ... cast your own flash hulk to win instant speed, with the opponent win on the stack.
Urzas Saga Block Constructed had Mind Over Matter and Tolarian Academy combo where you pitch cards to untap the Academy and deck your opponent with Stroke of Genius. Super busted for a format that's smaller than Standard.
My favorite combo right now is Lealia the blade reforged + Etali's favor.... Its not good, but you'll def surprise some people with a 150/150 on turn 4 IF the combo lands right... :P
Not exactly powerful, but Godo, Bandit Warlord + Helm of the Host is interesting because it can be a 1 card combo in your command zone. As long as you have 11 mana, cast Godo, tutor the helm and equip it, and you end up with a string of infinite combats with 2 godos swinging each combat.
In my opinion
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger + helm of the host is the most broken thing ever cause it will force all opponents to exile 40 cards immidetly and next time it will be 60 cards meaning everyone else loses in just 2 turns.