So, about Inalla, I would just like to mention that she has multiple combo lines as well as a combo-line that gets through rule of law (technomancer + necromancer). The deck basically threatens a win every turn after turn 2-3 and is in grixis which makes breach-loops eligible. I think it would be interesting making a video around the deck as it is now. Love your content
Tivit rep here, one thing that needs to be pointed out is that Tivit gives you the mana to play time sieve if you use your double vote for treasures. The downside of this is that you’ll need 2 other artifacts to go brrrrrrrrr, but you’re in esper so the mana rocks are the supply there. You also have to tutor for sieve but esper is solid at that
Also it needs to deal combat damage to trigger so you don't have infinite turns per se (kills a player in 4 attacks and a that point you no longer make 5 artifacts)
@@amarauk9687 The attack angle is a bit tricky due to that but you can typically dole out enough commander damage across all three that you can systematically take out at least 1-2 players before the well runs dry. Plus if you're in big T strats, you probably have a form of repeatable flicker as a backup. Hell, one good Ephemerate can get you over the line to win. I'm an aristocrats player though so my first plan is either Disciple of Vault, Agent of Iron Throne or Marionette Master.
@@dantemalick2872 I mean shit, even just casting it gives you enough to draw one card in the inbetween if you wanna just reload during setup. It does a lot.
As an Inalla main, I have some input here: 1. It's actually not as big of a disadvantage to have some of your combo pieces in hand before it's time to execute as it might seem, in a lot of cases it just makes the line less convoluted. Unless the card is Scholar of The Ages, which you never want to see until it's time to win. 2. Scholar of The Ages is not the backup for Spellseeker, the real backup is called Micromancer, which costs 3U and tutors for 1mv instants and sorceries. EDIT: The main line (Spellseeker) costs 2UB + 12 life under optimal conditions. Cheers
I think the algorithm for malcom and glint-horn buccaneer is: (the number of treasures you already have + lowest life) - (highest life - middle life) and as long as the result is greater than 0 then you can win (as long as the highest life isn’t higher than the number of cards in your deck) the first 1/2 of this is showing how many extra treasures you’ll have after your first opponent is dead and the second 1/2 is how many treasures you need to finish off the last player
Morophon + Buried Alive in a knight tribal deck. With Morophon out Buried Alive fetches Haakon, Corpse Knight, Dauntless Bodyguard. Haakon casts for 2 out of the graveyard letting you cast the other 2 cards for free. Then sac the bodyguard and recast for free until Corpse Knight kills your opponents.
The other thing to be aware of with Glint-horn is an Ophidian Eye effect means you don't even have to attack. You just need to pass the turn with 7+ cards in hand/cast a faithless looting with curiosity attached. You'll get multiple clean up steps every time you go past 7 cards in hand
Definitely would love to see Rionya, Fire Dancer on this list (at least an honorable mention)! I love the number of singular cards it combos with, which offsets the fact that it doesn't tutor the win-con like Godo (which it also goes infinite with!!!).
As far as i know Rionya only combo's with Port Razer and Combat Celebrant. Would you please list the cards that combo with her? (i know EDHREC should have them but just in case somehow they don't list anything you know about)
@@MageSkeleton Bloodthirster and Godo both work for infinite combats with nothing else. Bloodthirster works essentially just like Port Razer with Rionya but it also has Flample. I have Lightning Runner in my budget version. It needs a certain amount of copies to actually go infinite so it's probably not great at higher levels but it works for me. There's also some creatures that deal damage on ETB that can end the game without combat if you can make enough Rionya copies. I like Fanatic of Mogis and Scourge of Valkas in my deck and I believe Terror of the Peaks is also a strong thing to do on higher budgets.
My favorite one card combo with your commander is curiosity with niv mizzet! My favorite deck of all time and my first ever commander deck I built. And as I slowly got more and more competitive, I slowly tuned it up to cedh and every time I see niv on the channel it makes me so happy, love your channel guys, keep it up❤❤
Okay so it's cringe to say 'literally me' in response to a comment but that is almost exactly how my commander and CEDH journey went. Started by making a niv deck out of bulk and now I have a pile of turn 4 killing expensive cardboard. Always happy to see another member of the cult of card advantage out in the wild
It's technically a three card combo, but Maelstrom Wanderer on cast can win you the game if the only spells in your deck are Pestermite and Kiki-Jiki. There's also Maralen of the Mournsong and Opposition Agent
Pestermite can be literally any other card that combo's with Kiki Jiki, my favorite when there's access to green is Hyrax Tower Scout. But yes, by their logic Maelstrom Wanderer probably should be on the list (or revamped list part 2)
One point I'll make about Inalla, as someone who goldfished the hecc out of the deck: the video mentions that "if a bunch of the Inalla pieces are in your hand you have a bunch of dead cards in hand." I'd argue that having those pieces in hand make the combo even easier to pull off. The only real downsides to the combo are Opposition Agent and grave hate, and not so much the combo itself. Allow me to explain: To those who don't want to bother learning the steps, the ultimate goal of the combo is to bury a Scholar of the Ages in your grave, reanimate her, and sacrifice her to Burnt Offering to generate mana. Scholar gets these cards back, and Inalla makes a copy, so you end up with infinite Red/Black mana and infinite Hasty blue creatures, as well as infinite spell recursion. To do this, however, you'll need Entomb, Shallow Grave/Persist, and Burnt Offering in hand, which is a lot of resources to rely on. To combat this, we cast, sacrifice, and reanimate spellseeker a lot. Combined with Inalla, this lets us search for all these cards and rituals to add more mana to play them. If you have a lot of free mana you can skip a bunch of steps and go straight to the scholar loop, but the bare minimum required, assuming an otherwise empty game state, is 2UB and a Spellseeker in hand. This is why the combo is so long and convoluted: if you only have the bare minimum, you need to play this precise line to be able to access the loop. However, as stated before, having a bunch of mana lets you skip a bunch of the intermediate steps. How many ways are there to win with this combo? I have no idea, cause I'm finding new ways to win every second. The obvious one is swinging for infinite combat damage with infinitely many hasty Scholars. However, there are plenty of other ways to win, and some might evevn be better than others depending on the situation. For starters, Entomb, Shallow Grave, and Burnt Offering are all Instants, so this loop can happen at instant speed. What this means is that, if someone is about to win with Thoracle's ETB trigger, you can do the loop at instant speed, Entomb and Shallow Grave your own Thoracle, and steal the win from under their nose. Another point is that you can entomb Demonic Tutor and then get it back with Scholar, and with your infinite mana you can search for any card you want. Thus, if someone thinks they can survive with Angel's Grace, you just tutor up your mana rocks, summon Inalla(!), and ping them to negative life with Inalla's other ability so they lose on their upkeep. And let's not forget the infinite storm you get from this. If Scholar is in your hand, yes the combo is much harder to pull off as there is no (easy) way to bury her. However, that's pretty much the only bricked card to have in your hand. When you search for the other combo cards with Spellseeker, such as Unearth and Entomb, you are searching for them with the intent of playing them. Therefore, if they are already in your hand, you can instead search for protection like Force of Will or Flusterstorm, and potentially even save like 3-4 other steps. This makes the combo more robust and even harder to stop. The only real stops to the combo are graveyard hate, since we need to reanimate scholar; Oppo, cause we tutor a lot; and generally being unprepared for opposing interaction. Other than that, however, the combo is extremely compact, quick, effecient, and versatile, and you can pull out a win with it at anytime and from absolutely anywhere.
@@zachw5768 The wording is "damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead," but Inalla making you lose 7 life isn't damage
@@benmughal if you sac enough permanents to get dargo down to 1 red, you can then sacrifice him to altar for red, and his ability pays for commander tax. Cast dargo infinite times, then cast jeska, she has infinite loyalty, so her minus x can kill all 3 opponents.
My personal favorite izzet deck is Malcolm/Kediss. The mana ramp is just so stronk and helps turn corners quickly. I love the mana stability that Malcolm provides
My favorite combo ever is Tezzeret the Seeker, The Chain Veil, and Chromatic Orrery. Orrery taps for 5 mana (which can be used as any color due to Orrery's passive), dumps 4 into Chain Veil allowing your planeswalkers to activate an aditional time this turn, then Tezzeret +1s to untap both artifacts. Repeat infinitely to search out any other artifacts needed with the -X ability, and use any other planeswalker to your hearts content!😊
Yeah, I think agree with Dylan on Niv being better than mono white when y'all were discussing the first four decks. Having access to blue is Niv's best quality, and even though the combo is a little more difficult to pull off earlier, the deck specializes in making the game go long enough that assembling that combo is much easier than it would be out of the gate. Heliod does that too with stax, but Niv just counters spells and rewards you for it. Plus, plenty of stax pieces don't cause Niv much trouble because you'll be leaving your mana open most of the time to play reactionarily against your opponents. So really the only way to stop it in mono white is RoL and some Abolisher kind of effect, and to hope that none of those spells eat a counter spell or a removal piece from either Niv or any of your other opponents. Sure Curiosity is easier to interact with on the stack, but Niv should be packing enough protection to prevent that from being a problem. I think of all of these, the fastest one is probably Godo if you have a gand of rocks and rituals, and since he tutors his other half you don't need anything else. You just have to be able to produce the mana to cast and equip everything within the shortest timeframe. But it is still susceptible to interaction, so I think the more resilient list is likely Niv even though Heliod can soft lock a game to a halt sometimes.
The other great thing about Heliod Ballista combo is that you can grab the ballista with a ranger-captain of Eos, which also provides protection when you go for it.
What I love about Inalla is that she can win at instant speed (e.g. right before opposing Thoracle ETB resolves) and through effects like Angel's Grace. If you know the ins and outs of the deck there's so much potential
For those intrested in how to win through graveyard hate with Inalla: Alternative Route: Deafening Silence/Dauthi Voidwalker/Ruric Thar/Etc in Play Prerequisites: 4UUUB 1: Pay 2U and cast Spellseeker. Order triggers so Spellseeker's ETB is first, then Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. 2: Resolve Spellseeker trigger, tutoring for Alchemist's Retrieval. (Note: Can also use other bounce spells. Chain of Vapor is technically cheaper, but also runs the risk the chain being continued and negatively impacting us.) 3: Pay 1U and cast Alchemist's Retrieval for its cleave cost, bouncing the problematic stax piece. (Note: this is where an extra is needed) 4: Pay 1 and resolve Inalla, Archmage Ritualist's trigger, creating a token copy of Spellseeker. (Note: this is where an extra 1U is needed) 5: Resolve token copy of Spellseeker's ETB trigger, tutoring for Essence Flux. 6: Pay U and cast Essence Flux, flickering Spellseeker. Again, Order triggers so Spellseeker's ETB is first, then Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. (Note: this is where an extra U is needed) 7: Resume Default Spellseeker line at Step 2 Note: There are a lot of situations where it may be advantageous to go through this route. While this alternate route is quite expensive, it is typically going to be used in scenarios where the table has been slowed down and it has been difficult to actually attempt a win, giving us an opportunity to build up resources. If you have the additional mana to start, you can also use this to just bounce a Mystic Remora or Rhystic Study, only giving the opponent 1-2 draws before continuing on in the line. If grabbing Chain of Vapor as the bounce spell, it is advisable to resolve both ETB tutors before continuing, so that you have Essence Flux in hand already and can cast it in response to someone copying the Chain and targeting Spellseeker. Inalla is able to adjust the lines pretty well to beat different board states. You should definitely check out the Primer: www.moxfield.com/decks/yrFKOscy6kWLOZ6otDtXKw/primer
@@cobalt3142 That is exactly what i learned to love about Inalla. I started playing Kess, but wanted to play a faster deck so i tried Silas/Rograkh and Inalla.
Definitely watch more cedh than I play, but I am still glad to see godo shine on a list like this. These strong combos are mostly in decks with access to so many colors and interaction. Mono red is a restriction that leads to a completely different play style, which I enjoyed when I played cedh more.
Tivit pays for it's own combo making it super easy to cast. And time sieve is good on it's own in an esper deck where you have a lot of artifacts to sacrifice.
i dislike combo's where your relying on the single copy of something to "attack" to do it's thing because then if someone has something that can "full block" then your limited to any opponents you can safely attack unless you have a way to just flicker him like Conjurer's Closet. Of course unless you draw into or can get a removal for anything that can "full block" Tivit
You don't usually have to worry about it. He is a flyer. Unless every opponent has a flyer which is unlikely you have at minimum 4 turns to deal with a creature or two. We have enough card draw to make it through that
When looking at the combos as combos, I feel like factoring the number of things that lock out the combo or will stop you from going off, and the power of the combo in isolation, are both more important than cedh tournament results. I'm also not convinced factoring for it being just part of the 99 in other decks is fair, one of the pieces needs to be in the command zone or we may as well just give first place to Thoracle and second place to Ad Naus. For this reason, combat based combos take a hit, as do combos that don't directly tutor for or aggressively mulligan for all the pieces you need. There's a lot that can get in the way of a combo finish when you put all your eggs in one basket. With Rocco you have Impact Tremors/Purphoros lines, as well as slotting alternative combos together (Such as Minsc/Pattern or Heliod/Ballista) as part of your package depending on the meta. Najeela always needs combat, and if you're doing something else you run a different commander. Najeela is definitely stronger and aggressive as a deck because it can just win the hard way without a combo, but as a combo from the command zone I think Rocco has the better combo access overall and is more about the combos rather than the power of the commander alone. Najeela can certainly be better than Rocco, but when it won was it because of a 2 card combo finish or because Najeela just reached a breaking point where the commander did what the commander does? Malcolm is strong because of Partner. The combo in isolation isn't always deterministic which pushes it much lower on my list than it did for yours. A combo that doesn't always win you the game is often worse than a combo that does. I think the only Malcolm deck that is gunning for this combo specifically is the Temur build, because in Grixis I feel the greater threat is Consult / Thoracle and this is just a back up plan. There's a Godo player I play against locally and the combo doesn't seem that strong to me outside of requiring instant speed interaction to stop. Abrade and the whole thing goes away. Maybe this is some bias, but relying on combat damage tends to be very bad in our local meta as a lot of players run Ghostly Prison / Propoganda style effects. There's even an Angus Mackenzie player in the local pool. There's a lot of Najeela and Yuriko as well as Kiki-jiki style win cons in the pool, so combat reliant win cons (specifically "combat damage to player") are hated out often. Combos like Heliod/Ballista just seem like stronger combos overall. Godo seems more consistent, but also more vulnerable to interaction. I think the better Heliod combo is Shalai and Hallar + Heliod rather than using Heliod as the commander. This opens you up to Naya instead of mono-white, which is good for as many reasons as Rocco is good. You also get access to 3 other 2 card combos (The Red Terror, War Elemental, Phyrexian Devourer) and an absurd number of 3 card combos if you want them. I think it falls much closer in line with Niv than Heliod as commander does, they are very similar cards in effect (You can't tell me Managorger Hydra + S&H isn't just Niv + Rhystic Study with Trample instead of card advantage) or potentially should be much higher on the list as a Naya stax/combo deck in the same veign as Minsc. It's hard to say which order these three should be in for me, but Shalai's combos are slightly easier to cast than 7 colored pips. For that reason alone I'm bumping it up, but otherwise I think it should be tied with Niv. My tier list: Rocco / Food Chain Najeela / Druids' Repository Inalla / Spellseeker Kess / Consult Malcolm / Glint-horn Tivit / Sieve Minsc / Pattern Shalai and Hallar / Heliod Niv / Curiosity Godo / Helm Kiki-jiki / Zealous Conscripts? Honorable mention, doubt it sees much play even casually as a mono-red deck on its own. Note on Rocco 32:21 : In Naya I run the Selesnya Selvala with parley as a target to draw the card you tutor with Moon-Blessed Cleric so you can play it the same turn. Mana heavy, but you go infinite that turn instead of putting it on top and waiting. Varolz / Pattern of Rebirth is a 3 card combo, it requires another creature where Minsc brings the other creature with it. It doesn't count. Najeela / Derevi isn't really a combo. Depending on only your own boardstate it could just not be a combo with these two creatures in play. There's not really a direct input/output in the same way the other combos in this list function. Savage Ventmaw and Aggravated Assault is an example of a similar two card combo that has a consistent input/output. Although it is powerful, it doesn't belong on this list. I think the card that count as a combo with Najeela is Druids' Repository as it demonstrates how you generate WUBRG mana using only the two cards.
So the pattern I see makes me think "Payoffs" will be a topic in the future. I think it's worth mentioning that Razaketh in Golgari recently got a sick new tech with Saw in Half, LED, and Eternal Witness. Final Parting is also almost a one card win-con since it entombs and gets you a Reanimation spell! Both of these things make my Meren list feel so much better, but I'm still testing Parting
Razaketh as far as i know shines the most with Old Stickfingers (using Dyrad Arbar) and Prossh. But as a commander it's reliant on a bunch of stuff. i don't know what you mean about with "Saw in Half" with him, would love if you could elaborate on that. What i like to do with Final Parting is after getting Asmodeous into my hand, i'll cast Final Parting to grab Necrotic Ooze and graveyard Skirge, then i'm off to the races once i resolve putting Ooze on field.
@@MageSkeleton Prossh is crept out by Korvold by a huge margin, there is nothing he does in cEDH that Korvold doesn't do better. Stickfingers is a 1-trick deck, and not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about Razaketh (+ Protean Hulk) as a win-con, since his resolution can easily win you the game. The saw in half combo I'm referring to is an extension to popular lines with Razaketh using Eternal Witness. By using saw in half, Eternal witness, and led, we can create infinite Eternal witness tokens. This is an important backup line for Golgari, because previously in order to have an infinite token backup line, you needed to run Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft. These pieces all synergize beautifully with the RazaHulk gameplan. I go way more into depth on my Meren primer on moxfield (username: IDKGrim) that details exactly why Saw in Half is a fantastic new toy. RazaHulk is now a viable win-con for Golgari because of it.
I think you should evaluate these combos based on cmc/restrictiveness, game state requirements, fragility/weaknesses, and what it gets around/through. How good the cards are by themselves kinda muddies it because if that was the case Malcom should be higher. It also pushes the convo into how good the deck is vs the combo (Inalla).
Appreciate the Godo love! I agree that it's probably better than it ended up on the list because of being a resilient 1 card combo but I'm very biased lol.
As an avid Rocco player I have found dropping food chain has overall improved the deck's performance in cEDH. Food Chain gets held back by a lot of very common stax pieces like Dranith, Rule of Law, and the downside to feed a Rhystic Study if you can't set up a silence effect. Also the inability to get the food chain when needed is also a cause of trouble since you almost had to reserve your Enlightened or Gamble to get the Food Chain. For when I was playing Moon Cleric for Food Chain the best way I found to "crack" the card was with Face Breaker by sacking a Treasure for it's ability, but usually required prior set up with Dockside. I feel the "one" card combos with Rocco are overall stronger, and just the ability to finish other A+B combos including pod lines has been much more efficient for the deck overall.
Selvala is my favourite cEDH commander....too bad her foil is like $300. She needs to be at at least 5 the first time btw, you have to spend a green to activate her. Luckily she gets plus 2 each time.
The Inalla list I run is mostly a Grixis breach list with spellseeker as a wincon. There's a bunch of alternative routes if you lose one of the spell for the combo set up.
I play Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer a lot and lately I've been on a version that plays Arena Rector and a bunch of Lightning Bolt / Infernal Plunge effects. So with 7 mana + A Thunderclap / Mine Collapse (saccing a land to deal damage to a creature for free) or 8 mana with a Lightning Bolt / Infernal Plunge (Infernal Plunge sacrifices Arena Rector as part of the cost so it can't be countered like a Lightning Bolt can) you can win. I find this a lot more reliable than Food Chain and have been winning a lot more since converting to this version. Make 7 or 8 Mana > Play Rocco X=4 > Fetch Arena Rector > Kill it > Fetch Vivien of the hunt > Sac Rocco > Fetch Felidar Guardian > Flicker Vivien > Sac Felidar > Fetch Karmic Guide > Reanimate Felidar > Flicker Vivien > Sac Felidar > Fetch Kiki-jiki > Copy Karmic Guide > Reanimate Felidar > Flicker Kiki-jiki > Win Great content as always!
Another rep for tivitt being placed a little higher on the list is that when discussing reslilience against interaction and performance against the premiere stax, rule of law doesnt disrupt tivitt's main win-con, as well as tivitt entering the battlefield means that the commander tax is able to payed for an immediate attempt to win again the next turn which is not something any of the other decks can say except maybe malcom depending on how they interacted with malcom.
17:30 I do have to mention that as a long-time active member of the niv-mizzet CEDH discord you do NOT need a shuffler at all and probably shouldn't have one. Because life is such a freely used resource in CEDH you rarely draw more than 50 cards to kill 2 people leaving you with a ton of fast mana in hand (crypts, moxen... Etc) probably a glint-horn which kills on end step when you discard 50 cards AND if that doesn't work out you can pass with a board full of mana, a 5/5 flying commander damage beater and the 7 best counterspells in the game in hand. Shufflers are usually just bricks, if you pilot correctly you should be 15+ cards away from death after combo
Golgari Elves is my Pet deck and in relation to Umbral Mantle, I think of it as the second copy of Staff of Domination because Staff answers all the problems that Mantle has. It’s more mana investment, but in a big mana deck that hardly ever matters
I love these podcast topics, great break from the gameplay, I love hearing your thoughts on all the combos! I would say that I agree that Goto should be on this list- where it is true you don't have to have any of the cards in your hand (since one is in the command zone and the other gets tutored) it's still requires 2 very specific cards that other cards can't compare to, so the fact that Goto tutors, I think just adds to the combo, it doesn't make it a different type of combo You can't grab Helm if you draw it (low likelihood but still) and that would definitely stutter the combo because you're expecting to cheat it into play Basically a moot point because it's so powerful, but I do agree with the combo being on this list!
Ayy, my CEDH budget brew is malcom tana! I don’t know the math to guarantee you kill the table, but I do know that glint horn can get there even without malcom! Any of the curiosity effects on glint horn will auto win the game at the end of your turn as long as you have more than 7 cards in hand, since glint horn says ANY time you discard a card. Discard, ping, draw, move to discard, win :)
When y’all were talking about rocco tutoring for food chain, you mentioned enlightened tutor and moon-blessed, but you forgot to mention the other option for tutoring enchantments, idyllic tutor which puts it directly into your hand at sorcery speed.
@@KirkulesMagicTheGalavanting i get why you would say that, but the inconsistency of gamble (outside of a breah line) is why i personally didn’t bring it up
they also didn't mention all the other redundancy effects like Tandem Lookout for Niv Mizzet but as you could also say (for Rocco) you can just tutor for Vivian of the hunt and use Rocco to pull Planebound Accomplice in a combo that requires 7 mana. i'm amazed that card isn't even on Rocco's list.
Rocco + any sac outlet or damage spell I would count as a 2 card combo that’s extremely easy and fast, with x=4 to arena rector and kill it into pod lines
i'm an inalla main. i dont play anything else. but i learnt so much from playing inalla. and the combo is extremely hard to hate out (just oppo agent really) because you have lots of backup combos in the worst case. gy hate can be beat (keeping things simple you can be more efficient) by finding demonic tutor and consult and demonic tutor for thoracle
An honorable mention is also marneus calgar from Warhammer which is in esper colours and he is a solid win con in the command zone with iso/rev combo.He also gains insane value with smothering tithe!
i would put Godo at number one, only because you just have to have the mana/ability to cast godo and equip Helm of the Host which he himself fetches which protects the equipment entering the battlefield so the only thing there is to counter is a mana ramp spell? or Godo himself which has a limited pool of interaction to Force of Will and Subtlety. I would put Inalla at number 2, and Kess at number 3 only because if you really wanted to you can run Kess in the 99 with Inalla as commander. And for more redundancy you can run Lier. the rest as follows; 4; Najeela 5; Varolz/Minsc, Beloved Ranger/Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes 6; Rocco 7; Heliod sun crowned 8; Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (don't forget, he can be your commander and combo's with like 6 different things in mono red) 9; Niv Mizzet 10; Tivit (Technically i would put him at number 2) 11; Syr Konrad, the Grim, Morality Shift 12; Ayara, First of Locthwain, Plague of Vermin 13; Maralen of the Mornsong, Opposition Agent if i was to change your list i would put Atla Palani, Nest Tender at five, because all she has to do is create two eggs (preferably at same time ish) and then blow them up and your gonna reveal literally Heliod Sun Crowned and Triskelion. Would having Dargo, the Shipwrecker and Jeska, Thrice Reborn count as all you need really is Phyrexian Altar and having sac'd 3 things and then you just cast Dargo until you'd have say a billion loyalty counters on Jeska when you then cast her for four mana?
K'rrik and fleshwrither/sidisi are other one card combos that either set up a necrotic ooze + asmodeus, the archfiend or Gary and Chainer + discard outlet. Zaxara also combos with pemmin's aura/freed from the real and I run a bunch of target player draws x cards so I can draw my library and make my opponents draw out their library as well.
Yay! So excited to see this follow up video. Love these lists guys.🖖namaste homies. Hey if you two wanna venture into the world of budget cedh I am sure I could get another representative on board. “Who’s the best $100 budget commander in cEdh?” Say when.
I feel like you guys haven’t played enough Tivit. The lines are super clean and go along with your CEDH plan in general. You always have extra mana rocks in the deck to trash to go off on the same turn you play the commander. Tivit is SO hard to interact with having Ward 3. The times you don’t have a win, you can take extra turns to get into a position of getting rid of the problems. He is also insane CA and mana production when you don’t have time sieve. The deck can also go off instant speed with Whir of Invention. Don’t sleep on Tivit, it performs amazingly well in tournaments for a reason.
My non cEDH deck is Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose with an Exquisite Blood infinite. It’s probably not cEDH viable but I feel like there has to be a way to make it work at least in the play to win very specific gimmick games. I don’t know cEDH well enough to plan a good way to make it work but like, besides being mono black it’s an 8 mana combo that could be triggered off of any healing once the enchantment resolves. Again, not cEDH but the fun part is getting to respond to removal with tapping for mana that gains life and moves your triggers above the response, and then also doing that with a split second spell. It’s jank but I love it and honestly I’d love to see how anyone could make that work somehow
Good time as always...now just to fill the honorable Mentions: Kraum with Black Partner (Tevesh) has access The Reaver Cleaver and Time sieve, its fragile but fun as hell when it happens :D
Godo enthusiast here. I agree with a lot of what was said. Godo can come out consistently turn 2 with free removal. It's hard to play around dark rit + oppo, though..
Weighing in on niv mizzet and Godo arguments; Niv mizzet gives blue so as a strategy I feel its better to be able to interact more with your pod. When I’m tired of being the fun police, I switch to Godo. There are some interesting ways to construct Godo with a lot of red interaction and stax pieces to consider it isn’t just a race to 11 mana, but you are still somewhat at the mercy of the blue and black players in your pod. I think it’s tough to place either deck above grixis or esper decks simply because deck construction gives far more support in extending the game and finding your win conditions. Still, I love my big expensive card drawing dragon ❤️
i think the strength of the deck that plays them has a higher impact on the strength of the combos. inala playing bad grixis cards is far worse than a deck like rocco having multiple lines that it can tutor out of the command zone, even without having access to blue. maybe having a separate list for proactive and reactive rankings is a better approach... as the first player to attempt to go off usually gets all the interaction then clears the way for whoever trys to go off second. so maybe evaluation of the play patterns induced by those conditions is a more accurate evaluation of overall strength.
I’m pretty sure Scholar is actually the payoff for Spellseeker, you make infinite hasty copies of it at the end (and infinite red/black mana, and all the instant/sorceries in grave, etc) by looping it with Burnt Offering and Shallow Grave
Were you guys rating the combos or the decks that have the combos or the commanders that enable the combo? Rating Najeela as 1st because it is a 5 color deck doesn't make sense. It is the best deck and best commander, not necessarily the best combo.
Trazyn + buried alive 9 mana one dead card one deadish card but in black is something. I don't think it's been explored enough, but if Godo can win a tournament then I think Trazyn can as well.
Well, to be fair Najeela has a lot of one card combos besides Derevi: Grim Hireling, Druids' Repository, Bear Umbra and Sword of Feast and Famine. For drawing the deck, Kwain and Niv-Mizzet Firemind are good one card combo with Mind Over Matter (same is true for Azami, Arcanis ), and as janky as it goes, Trix has his one card combo with Enter the Infinite. As for infinite turns there's Ezuri with Sage of Hours, also Go-Shintai or Hanna Navigator with Second Chance,. Now for infinite damage we have Jarad and Phyrexian Devourer (including the aforementioned Niv-Mizzet). Also we have infinite storm + enter/leave the battefield with Morofon and Shrieking Drake/Cavern Harpy/Horned Kavu/Grinning Ignus. For just straight wins theres Saheeli and Mechanized Production, Iname and Mortal Combat, Selenia and Near-Death Experience. Since you guys were so akin to combat combos, Kediss with a black partner and Hatred, Alesha and Master of Cruelties. And can we consider Oloro and Felidar Sovereign/Test of Endurance a one card combo? I mean, technically... I just know that Nine-Fingers Keene with Maze's End is just too bad to even consider.
Recently Animar had a big change on his list. What did you guys feel about this deck? Could be this a great time to bring a Animar gameplay to the channel?
i think i know what your saying but to clarify the complication is you'd have to use the first casting of Rocco to fetch Temur and have to pass the turn, where then on the next turn you can return Rocco to your hand to fetch dockside and combo from there. Hope this info was helpful.
Chatterfang plunderer. As long as you have 1 squirrel to sack you can wipe the board if you have 1 squirrel and 1 any other creature you wipe the board+ infinite treasure
I’m a little surprised this list didn’t include Sisay + Jegantha because Sisay Elk has some genuine play options and your combo, although pricey, aren’t in the 99. Tap J, search Derevi, search Samut, 2 Derevi Triggers in combat, search Najeela+, rinse & repeat to your desire.
Lol we aren't gonna talk about Urza Ploymorph? And yes it does fit their description because urza makes the token that gets polymorphed and is the outlet for the combo. Plus urza does stuff when he's not winning
For NIV mizzet just play the 5 colourless golem with trample that puts the commander into play when it deals damage. Hand: geode golem + curiosity + sol ring + mana crypt + lotus petal + land + gitaxian probe = turn 2 win
Isn't Brallin and Shabraz just a better Nivmizt? Cheaper to cast and adding white. You have to get to 8 cards, but I think thats better than playing 4 blue 3 red.
Curious niv has play inside Malcolm keddis and Malcolm breeches I think. I played it in my malcolm kediss list and it worked great, I had magda which created treasures and could search for niv/pyre or something else and with Malcolm swinging once while kediss is on the field u can hard cast niv most of the time.
I would have Minsc, Beloved Ranger above the Malcolm combo if for no other reason that the density of 1-card combos that exist in Minsc that can win the game from a variety of game-states. I only say this as a player who plays BOTH decks, and I consistently have more success with the Minsc deck over the Malcolm piles.
Najeela is definitely no. 1 the amount of times i have been praetor's grasp, by all 3 players and still have 1 of the other ways to win through combat and that is not even saying thoracle + brain freeze combos is rediculous.
One combo you did not include, that is pretty new, is sisay, Weatherlight Captain and wburg+1 of any color which includes a dork. All of this is already in five color decks and just need this and eot cultist of the absolute>Dihada>Orrery>derevi>Emiel>win. It’s a sisay line that just need enough mana and a creature that you’re okay with sacing to CuTA. Pretty cool stuff. Is that a zero card combo? Idk
so the reason why Godo Helm belongs in this video is because you still have to equip helm to Godo. if it auto equipped then its a 0 card combo. the slight downside to the combo is if you draw helm then you have to cast it and equip it but casting Godo you then get hammer so you can auto equip.
Trazyn as a commander and burried alive is a 2 card combo. Burried alive put 3 creature in your yard, you get smthg like pili pala balista and paladium myr, there is others option but this combo get you infinite mana and damage
Spellseeker, into neoform. neoform the commander into displacer kitten. Cast any non creature spell (it just has to be affordable with your mana) flicker spellseeker. find dark ritual. Cast ritual, flicker find Entomb. Entomb Thassa's, flicker spellseeker find Reanimate. Reanimate thoracle, flicker spellseeker find consult. Cast consult when thoracle etb goes on stack. It's 6 mana + whatever trigger spell. Totally counts, the other card doesn't matter what it is and you're in green =P
i'm not sure how i feel about Planebound Accomplice not being mentioned on EDHREC as an important card cause he enables you to do a 7 mana combo if Vivian is in your hand. And your ending the combo with millions of Felidar Guardians with Haste.
Inalla should be ranked higher. The stacks you mentioned rarely come into play because she wins so fast. This is coming from an inalla player with a Rocco in my playgroup I should also add I run ad naus in mine and spellseaker easily sets this up using the same startup to win in combat
i'd agree with "Play To Win" here, Magda needs three cards in total (counting herself) as the only way you can avoid running an artifact creature that can be a Dwarf is to run Silverskin Armor which then you can equip to Magda and otherwise if you don't have a Dwarf becoming tapped no treasure tokens, and Clock of Omens only lets you tap artifacts to untap "any creature"
So, about Inalla, I would just like to mention that she has multiple combo lines as well as a combo-line that gets through rule of law (technomancer + necromancer). The deck basically threatens a win every turn after turn 2-3 and is in grixis which makes breach-loops eligible. I think it would be interesting making a video around the deck as it is now. Love your content
Yeah, play the deck! You guys talk about it so much lol
Tivit rep here, one thing that needs to be pointed out is that Tivit gives you the mana to play time sieve if you use your double vote for treasures. The downside of this is that you’ll need 2 other artifacts to go brrrrrrrrr, but you’re in esper so the mana rocks are the supply there. You also have to tutor for sieve but esper is solid at that
Also it needs to deal combat damage to trigger so you don't have infinite turns per se (kills a player in 4 attacks and a that point you no longer make 5 artifacts)
@@amarauk9687 The attack angle is a bit tricky due to that but you can typically dole out enough commander damage across all three that you can systematically take out at least 1-2 players before the well runs dry. Plus if you're in big T strats, you probably have a form of repeatable flicker as a backup. Hell, one good Ephemerate can get you over the line to win.
I'm an aristocrats player though so my first plan is either Disciple of Vault, Agent of Iron Throne or Marionette Master.
Another thing with tivit you don't need to wait an extra turn like they said it just entering the battle gives you enough to go my turn next
Esper is AMAZING at that. Hands down the best 3 color combo for tutoring artifacts
@@dantemalick2872 I mean shit, even just casting it gives you enough to draw one card in the inbetween if you wanna just reload during setup. It does a lot.
As an Inalla main, I have some input here:
1. It's actually not as big of a disadvantage to have some of your combo pieces in hand before it's time to execute as it might seem, in a lot of cases it just makes the line less convoluted. Unless the card is Scholar of The Ages, which you never want to see until it's time to win.
2. Scholar of The Ages is not the backup for Spellseeker, the real backup is called Micromancer, which costs 3U and tutors for 1mv instants and sorceries.
EDIT: The main line (Spellseeker) costs 2UB + 12 life under optimal conditions.
Cheers
You only need 8 life for optimal spellseeker line I thought, just need to reanimate scholar once and survive
@@cobalt3142 This video by Lab Maniacs will tell you everything you need to know: th-cam.com/video/AAvQWC3HZhA/w-d-xo.html
Yeah 8 life is enough
Najeela player smiles
maelstrom wanderer and food chain? sometimes good enough for turn 2
I think the algorithm for malcom and glint-horn buccaneer is:
(the number of treasures you already have + lowest life) - (highest life - middle life)
and as long as the result is greater than 0 then you can win (as long as the highest life isn’t higher than the number of cards in your deck)
the first 1/2 of this is showing how many extra treasures you’ll have after your first opponent is dead and the second 1/2 is how many treasures you need to finish off the last player
Morophon + Buried Alive in a knight tribal deck. With Morophon out Buried Alive fetches Haakon, Corpse Knight, Dauntless Bodyguard. Haakon casts for 2 out of the graveyard letting you cast the other 2 cards for free. Then sac the bodyguard and recast for free until Corpse Knight kills your opponents.
That's really cool!
🔥
The other thing to be aware of with Glint-horn is an Ophidian Eye effect means you don't even have to attack. You just need to pass the turn with 7+ cards in hand/cast a faithless looting with curiosity attached. You'll get multiple clean up steps every time you go past 7 cards in hand
I'm really enjoy this format of talking about and ranking things in the podcast rather than just presenting a top 10 list. Good video 👍🏻
Definitely would love to see Rionya, Fire Dancer on this list (at least an honorable mention)! I love the number of singular cards it combos with, which offsets the fact that it doesn't tutor the win-con like Godo (which it also goes infinite with!!!).
Does Rionya see much cedh play? I have a budget Rionya deck I've had a ton of fun with and it'd be cool to hear that it gets some high end play.
As far as i know Rionya only combo's with Port Razer and Combat Celebrant. Would you please list the cards that combo with her? (i know EDHREC should have them but just in case somehow they don't list anything you know about)
@@MageSkeleton Bloodthirster and Godo both work for infinite combats with nothing else. Bloodthirster works essentially just like Port Razer with Rionya but it also has Flample.
I have Lightning Runner in my budget version. It needs a certain amount of copies to actually go infinite so it's probably not great at higher levels but it works for me.
There's also some creatures that deal damage on ETB that can end the game without combat if you can make enough Rionya copies. I like Fanatic of Mogis and Scourge of Valkas in my deck and I believe Terror of the Peaks is also a strong thing to do on higher budgets.
@@MageSkeleton Sure! It 1 card combos combos with:
Bloodthirster
Combat Celebrant
Godo, Bandit Warlord
Lightning Runner (w/ 2 Instants and Sorceries)
Port Razer
And it 2 card combos with Aggravated Assault and:
Dockside Extortionist
Atsushi, the Blazing Sky (w/ 1 I&S)
Professional Face Breaker
Reckless Barbarian
@@mn6334 I still run Fanatic! It REALLY gets the job done in a meta with 'Blind Obedience' type of effects!
My favorite one card combo with your commander is curiosity with niv mizzet! My favorite deck of all time and my first ever commander deck I built. And as I slowly got more and more competitive, I slowly tuned it up to cedh and every time I see niv on the channel it makes me so happy, love your channel guys, keep it up❤❤
Okay so it's cringe to say 'literally me' in response to a comment but that is almost exactly how my commander and CEDH journey went.
Started by making a niv deck out of bulk and now I have a pile of turn 4 killing expensive cardboard.
Always happy to see another member of the cult of card advantage out in the wild
It's technically a three card combo, but Maelstrom Wanderer on cast can win you the game if the only spells in your deck are Pestermite and Kiki-Jiki.
There's also Maralen of the Mournsong and Opposition Agent
Pestermite can be literally any other card that combo's with Kiki Jiki, my favorite when there's access to green is Hyrax Tower Scout. But yes, by their logic Maelstrom Wanderer probably should be on the list (or revamped list part 2)
Top 7 being decks that run red is a really interesting thread connecting them all.
I didn’t even realize that
These podcasts are huge, keep up the good work guys! Love your banter and opinions. Most relatable and entertaining MTG content available online.
One point I'll make about Inalla, as someone who goldfished the hecc out of the deck: the video mentions that "if a bunch of the Inalla pieces are in your hand you have a bunch of dead cards in hand." I'd argue that having those pieces in hand make the combo even easier to pull off. The only real downsides to the combo are Opposition Agent and grave hate, and not so much the combo itself. Allow me to explain:
To those who don't want to bother learning the steps, the ultimate goal of the combo is to bury a Scholar of the Ages in your grave, reanimate her, and sacrifice her to Burnt Offering to generate mana. Scholar gets these cards back, and Inalla makes a copy, so you end up with infinite Red/Black mana and infinite Hasty blue creatures, as well as infinite spell recursion. To do this, however, you'll need Entomb, Shallow Grave/Persist, and Burnt Offering in hand, which is a lot of resources to rely on. To combat this, we cast, sacrifice, and reanimate spellseeker a lot. Combined with Inalla, this lets us search for all these cards and rituals to add more mana to play them. If you have a lot of free mana you can skip a bunch of steps and go straight to the scholar loop, but the bare minimum required, assuming an otherwise empty game state, is 2UB and a Spellseeker in hand. This is why the combo is so long and convoluted: if you only have the bare minimum, you need to play this precise line to be able to access the loop. However, as stated before, having a bunch of mana lets you skip a bunch of the intermediate steps.
How many ways are there to win with this combo? I have no idea, cause I'm finding new ways to win every second. The obvious one is swinging for infinite combat damage with infinitely many hasty Scholars. However, there are plenty of other ways to win, and some might evevn be better than others depending on the situation. For starters, Entomb, Shallow Grave, and Burnt Offering are all Instants, so this loop can happen at instant speed. What this means is that, if someone is about to win with Thoracle's ETB trigger, you can do the loop at instant speed, Entomb and Shallow Grave your own Thoracle, and steal the win from under their nose. Another point is that you can entomb Demonic Tutor and then get it back with Scholar, and with your infinite mana you can search for any card you want. Thus, if someone thinks they can survive with Angel's Grace, you just tutor up your mana rocks, summon Inalla(!), and ping them to negative life with Inalla's other ability so they lose on their upkeep. And let's not forget the infinite storm you get from this.
If Scholar is in your hand, yes the combo is much harder to pull off as there is no (easy) way to bury her. However, that's pretty much the only bricked card to have in your hand. When you search for the other combo cards with Spellseeker, such as Unearth and Entomb, you are searching for them with the intent of playing them. Therefore, if they are already in your hand, you can instead search for protection like Force of Will or Flusterstorm, and potentially even save like 3-4 other steps. This makes the combo more robust and even harder to stop.
The only real stops to the combo are graveyard hate, since we need to reanimate scholar; Oppo, cause we tutor a lot; and generally being unprepared for opposing interaction. Other than that, however, the combo is extremely compact, quick, effecient, and versatile, and you can pull out a win with it at anytime and from absolutely anywhere.
you cant ping them to negative life, Angel's grace says your life cant go below 1.
@@zachw5768 The wording is "damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead," but Inalla making you lose 7 life isn't damage
It's technically a 1-card + commander(s) combo, but phyrexian altar + jeska&dargo is a fun combo
How does that work?
@@benmughal if you sac enough permanents to get dargo down to 1 red, you can then sacrifice him to altar for red, and his ability pays for commander tax. Cast dargo infinite times, then cast jeska, she has infinite loyalty, so her minus x can kill all 3 opponents.
Inalla pro: you get to play all these great cards
Inalla con: you have to play every last one of them
My personal favorite izzet deck is Malcolm/Kediss. The mana ramp is just so stronk and helps turn corners quickly. I love the mana stability that Malcolm provides
My favorite combo ever is Tezzeret the Seeker, The Chain Veil, and Chromatic Orrery. Orrery taps for 5 mana (which can be used as any color due to Orrery's passive), dumps 4 into Chain Veil allowing your planeswalkers to activate an aditional time this turn, then Tezzeret +1s to untap both artifacts. Repeat infinitely to search out any other artifacts needed with the -X ability, and use any other planeswalker to your hearts content!😊
Yeah, I think agree with Dylan on Niv being better than mono white when y'all were discussing the first four decks. Having access to blue is Niv's best quality, and even though the combo is a little more difficult to pull off earlier, the deck specializes in making the game go long enough that assembling that combo is much easier than it would be out of the gate. Heliod does that too with stax, but Niv just counters spells and rewards you for it. Plus, plenty of stax pieces don't cause Niv much trouble because you'll be leaving your mana open most of the time to play reactionarily against your opponents. So really the only way to stop it in mono white is RoL and some Abolisher kind of effect, and to hope that none of those spells eat a counter spell or a removal piece from either Niv or any of your other opponents. Sure Curiosity is easier to interact with on the stack, but Niv should be packing enough protection to prevent that from being a problem. I think of all of these, the fastest one is probably Godo if you have a gand of rocks and rituals, and since he tutors his other half you don't need anything else. You just have to be able to produce the mana to cast and equip everything within the shortest timeframe. But it is still susceptible to interaction, so I think the more resilient list is likely Niv even though Heliod can soft lock a game to a halt sometimes.
The other great thing about Heliod Ballista combo is that you can grab the ballista with a ranger-captain of Eos, which also provides protection when you go for it.
Last two podcasts have been insanely good! Would love to see a play to win game of four decks using the top 4 combos
I really love Inalla,
She has so many versatile lines.
Ruthless Technomancer is so nice against RoL metas.
What I love about Inalla is that she can win at instant speed (e.g. right before opposing Thoracle ETB resolves) and through effects like Angel's Grace. If you know the ins and outs of the deck there's so much potential
For those intrested in how to win through graveyard hate with Inalla:
Alternative Route: Deafening Silence/Dauthi Voidwalker/Ruric Thar/Etc in Play
Prerequisites: 4UUUB
1: Pay 2U and cast Spellseeker. Order triggers so Spellseeker's ETB is first, then Inalla, Archmage Ritualist.
2: Resolve Spellseeker trigger, tutoring for Alchemist's Retrieval. (Note: Can also use other bounce spells. Chain of Vapor is technically cheaper, but also runs the risk the chain being continued and negatively impacting us.)
3: Pay 1U and cast Alchemist's Retrieval for its cleave cost, bouncing the problematic stax piece. (Note: this is where an extra is needed)
4: Pay 1 and resolve Inalla, Archmage Ritualist's trigger, creating a token copy of Spellseeker. (Note: this is where an extra 1U is needed)
5: Resolve token copy of Spellseeker's ETB trigger, tutoring for Essence Flux.
6: Pay U and cast Essence Flux, flickering Spellseeker. Again, Order triggers so Spellseeker's ETB is first, then Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. (Note: this is where an extra U is needed)
7: Resume Default Spellseeker line at Step 2
Note: There are a lot of situations where it may be advantageous to go through this route. While this alternate route is quite expensive, it is typically going to be used in scenarios where the table has been slowed down and it has been difficult to actually attempt a win, giving us an opportunity to build up resources. If you have the additional mana to start, you can also use this to just bounce a Mystic Remora or Rhystic Study, only giving the opponent 1-2 draws before continuing on in the line. If grabbing Chain of Vapor as the bounce spell, it is advisable to resolve both ETB tutors before continuing, so that you have Essence Flux in hand already and can cast it in response to someone copying the Chain and targeting Spellseeker.
Inalla is able to adjust the lines pretty well to beat different board states.
You should definitely check out the Primer: www.moxfield.com/decks/yrFKOscy6kWLOZ6otDtXKw/primer
@@cobalt3142 That is exactly what i learned to love about Inalla.
I started playing Kess, but wanted to play a faster deck so i tried Silas/Rograkh and Inalla.
Definitely watch more cedh than I play, but I am still glad to see godo shine on a list like this. These strong combos are mostly in decks with access to so many colors and interaction. Mono red is a restriction that leads to a completely different play style, which I enjoyed when I played cedh more.
Tivit pays for it's own combo making it super easy to cast. And time sieve is good on it's own in an esper deck where you have a lot of artifacts to sacrifice.
i dislike combo's where your relying on the single copy of something to "attack" to do it's thing because then if someone has something that can "full block" then your limited to any opponents you can safely attack unless you have a way to just flicker him like Conjurer's Closet. Of course unless you draw into or can get a removal for anything that can "full block" Tivit
You don't usually have to worry about it. He is a flyer. Unless every opponent has a flyer which is unlikely you have at minimum 4 turns to deal with a creature or two. We have enough card draw to make it through that
When looking at the combos as combos, I feel like factoring the number of things that lock out the combo or will stop you from going off, and the power of the combo in isolation, are both more important than cedh tournament results. I'm also not convinced factoring for it being just part of the 99 in other decks is fair, one of the pieces needs to be in the command zone or we may as well just give first place to Thoracle and second place to Ad Naus. For this reason, combat based combos take a hit, as do combos that don't directly tutor for or aggressively mulligan for all the pieces you need. There's a lot that can get in the way of a combo finish when you put all your eggs in one basket. With Rocco you have Impact Tremors/Purphoros lines, as well as slotting alternative combos together (Such as Minsc/Pattern or Heliod/Ballista) as part of your package depending on the meta. Najeela always needs combat, and if you're doing something else you run a different commander. Najeela is definitely stronger and aggressive as a deck because it can just win the hard way without a combo, but as a combo from the command zone I think Rocco has the better combo access overall and is more about the combos rather than the power of the commander alone. Najeela can certainly be better than Rocco, but when it won was it because of a 2 card combo finish or because Najeela just reached a breaking point where the commander did what the commander does?
Malcolm is strong because of Partner. The combo in isolation isn't always deterministic which pushes it much lower on my list than it did for yours. A combo that doesn't always win you the game is often worse than a combo that does. I think the only Malcolm deck that is gunning for this combo specifically is the Temur build, because in Grixis I feel the greater threat is Consult / Thoracle and this is just a back up plan.
There's a Godo player I play against locally and the combo doesn't seem that strong to me outside of requiring instant speed interaction to stop. Abrade and the whole thing goes away. Maybe this is some bias, but relying on combat damage tends to be very bad in our local meta as a lot of players run Ghostly Prison / Propoganda style effects. There's even an Angus Mackenzie player in the local pool. There's a lot of Najeela and Yuriko as well as Kiki-jiki style win cons in the pool, so combat reliant win cons (specifically "combat damage to player") are hated out often. Combos like Heliod/Ballista just seem like stronger combos overall. Godo seems more consistent, but also more vulnerable to interaction.
I think the better Heliod combo is Shalai and Hallar + Heliod rather than using Heliod as the commander. This opens you up to Naya instead of mono-white, which is good for as many reasons as Rocco is good. You also get access to 3 other 2 card combos (The Red Terror, War Elemental, Phyrexian Devourer) and an absurd number of 3 card combos if you want them. I think it falls much closer in line with Niv than Heliod as commander does, they are very similar cards in effect (You can't tell me Managorger Hydra + S&H isn't just Niv + Rhystic Study with Trample instead of card advantage) or potentially should be much higher on the list as a Naya stax/combo deck in the same veign as Minsc. It's hard to say which order these three should be in for me, but Shalai's combos are slightly easier to cast than 7 colored pips. For that reason alone I'm bumping it up, but otherwise I think it should be tied with Niv.
My tier list:
Rocco / Food Chain
Najeela / Druids' Repository
Inalla / Spellseeker
Kess / Consult
Malcolm / Glint-horn
Tivit / Sieve
Minsc / Pattern
Shalai and Hallar / Heliod
Niv / Curiosity
Godo / Helm
Kiki-jiki / Zealous Conscripts? Honorable mention, doubt it sees much play even casually as a mono-red deck on its own.
Note on Rocco 32:21 : In Naya I run the Selesnya Selvala with parley as a target to draw the card you tutor with Moon-Blessed Cleric so you can play it the same turn. Mana heavy, but you go infinite that turn instead of putting it on top and waiting.
Varolz / Pattern of Rebirth is a 3 card combo, it requires another creature where Minsc brings the other creature with it. It doesn't count.
Najeela / Derevi isn't really a combo. Depending on only your own boardstate it could just not be a combo with these two creatures in play. There's not really a direct input/output in the same way the other combos in this list function. Savage Ventmaw and Aggravated Assault is an example of a similar two card combo that has a consistent input/output. Although it is powerful, it doesn't belong on this list. I think the card that count as a combo with Najeela is Druids' Repository as it demonstrates how you generate WUBRG mana using only the two cards.
With the green infinet mana you can pass around the artifact and make all your creatures big enough to attack them and kill them off
So the pattern I see makes me think "Payoffs" will be a topic in the future.
I think it's worth mentioning that Razaketh in Golgari recently got a sick new tech with Saw in Half, LED, and Eternal Witness.
Final Parting is also almost a one card win-con since it entombs and gets you a Reanimation spell!
Both of these things make my Meren list feel so much better, but I'm still testing Parting
Just wanted to bring attention to potentially under-represented ideas
Razaketh as far as i know shines the most with Old Stickfingers (using Dyrad Arbar) and Prossh. But as a commander it's reliant on a bunch of stuff. i don't know what you mean about with "Saw in Half" with him, would love if you could elaborate on that. What i like to do with Final Parting is after getting Asmodeous into my hand, i'll cast Final Parting to grab Necrotic Ooze and graveyard Skirge, then i'm off to the races once i resolve putting Ooze on field.
@@MageSkeleton Prossh is crept out by Korvold by a huge margin, there is nothing he does in cEDH that Korvold doesn't do better. Stickfingers is a 1-trick deck, and not what I'm referring to.
I'm talking about Razaketh (+ Protean Hulk) as a win-con, since his resolution can easily win you the game.
The saw in half combo I'm referring to is an extension to popular lines with Razaketh using Eternal Witness.
By using saw in half, Eternal witness, and led, we can create infinite Eternal witness tokens. This is an important backup line for Golgari, because previously in order to have an infinite token backup line, you needed to run Squirrel Nest + Earthcraft. These pieces all synergize beautifully with the RazaHulk gameplan.
I go way more into depth on my Meren primer on moxfield (username: IDKGrim) that details exactly why Saw in Half is a fantastic new toy. RazaHulk is now a viable win-con for Golgari because of it.
I think you should evaluate these combos based on cmc/restrictiveness, game state requirements, fragility/weaknesses, and what it gets around/through. How good the cards are by themselves kinda muddies it because if that was the case Malcom should be higher. It also pushes the convo into how good the deck is vs the combo (Inalla).
Appreciate the Godo love! I agree that it's probably better than it ended up on the list because of being a resilient 1 card combo but I'm very biased lol.
As an avid Rocco player I have found dropping food chain has overall improved the deck's performance in cEDH. Food Chain gets held back by a lot of very common stax pieces like Dranith, Rule of Law, and the downside to feed a Rhystic Study if you can't set up a silence effect. Also the inability to get the food chain when needed is also a cause of trouble since you almost had to reserve your Enlightened or Gamble to get the Food Chain.
For when I was playing Moon Cleric for Food Chain the best way I found to "crack" the card was with Face Breaker by sacking a Treasure for it's ability, but usually required prior set up with Dockside.
I feel the "one" card combos with Rocco are overall stronger, and just the ability to finish other A+B combos including pod lines has been much more efficient for the deck overall.
Selvala is my favourite cEDH commander....too bad her foil is like $300. She needs to be at at least 5 the first time btw, you have to spend a green to activate her. Luckily she gets plus 2 each time.
I altered a jap mystic archive channel so i can have a foil selvala 😅 ,and it matches my sleeves
Proxy?
@@The808andrew808 some people (like myself) will proxy the whole deck but want cool real versions of their commanders
Isn't the mystery boosters version a foil??? And it's like 17 bucks.
@@TripsAhoy mystery booster didn't get a foil version of her. It's only available via conspiracy draft boosters
The Inalla list I run is mostly a Grixis breach list with spellseeker as a wincon. There's a bunch of alternative routes if you lose one of the spell for the combo set up.
I play Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer a lot and lately I've been on a version that plays Arena Rector and a bunch of Lightning Bolt / Infernal Plunge effects. So with 7 mana + A Thunderclap / Mine Collapse (saccing a land to deal damage to a creature for free) or 8 mana with a Lightning Bolt / Infernal Plunge (Infernal Plunge sacrifices Arena Rector as part of the cost so it can't be countered like a Lightning Bolt can) you can win. I find this a lot more reliable than Food Chain and have been winning a lot more since converting to this version.
Make 7 or 8 Mana > Play Rocco X=4 > Fetch Arena Rector > Kill it > Fetch Vivien of the hunt > Sac Rocco > Fetch Felidar Guardian > Flicker Vivien > Sac Felidar > Fetch Karmic Guide > Reanimate Felidar > Flicker Vivien > Sac Felidar > Fetch Kiki-jiki > Copy Karmic Guide > Reanimate Felidar > Flicker Kiki-jiki > Win
Great content as always!
Another rep for tivitt being placed a little higher on the list is that when discussing reslilience against interaction and performance against the premiere stax, rule of law doesnt disrupt tivitt's main win-con, as well as tivitt entering the battlefield means that the commander tax is able to payed for an immediate attempt to win again the next turn which is not something any of the other decks can say except maybe malcom depending on how they interacted with malcom.
26:00 Grist is my commander for my BG hulk deck. supplies a creature (last turn) and sac outlet, albeit one time use
17:30
I do have to mention that as a long-time active member of the niv-mizzet CEDH discord you do NOT need a shuffler at all and probably shouldn't have one.
Because life is such a freely used resource in CEDH you rarely draw more than 50 cards to kill 2 people leaving you with a ton of fast mana in hand (crypts, moxen... Etc) probably a glint-horn which kills on end step when you discard 50 cards AND if that doesn't work out you can pass with a board full of mana, a 5/5 flying commander damage beater and the 7 best counterspells in the game in hand.
Shufflers are usually just bricks, if you pilot correctly you should be 15+ cards away from death after combo
Golgari Elves is my Pet deck and in relation to Umbral Mantle, I think of it as the second copy of Staff of Domination because Staff answers all the problems that Mantle has. It’s more mana investment, but in a big mana deck that hardly ever matters
Ew elf deck player
I love you guys "ummmm actually"-ing yourselves so much.
I love these podcast topics, great break from the gameplay, I love hearing your thoughts on all the combos!
I would say that I agree that Goto should be on this list- where it is true you don't have to have any of the cards in your hand (since one is in the command zone and the other gets tutored) it's still requires 2 very specific cards that other cards can't compare to, so the fact that Goto tutors, I think just adds to the combo, it doesn't make it a different type of combo
You can't grab Helm if you draw it (low likelihood but still) and that would definitely stutter the combo because you're expecting to cheat it into play
Basically a moot point because it's so powerful, but I do agree with the combo being on this list!
if you draw helm you tutor Hammer of Nazahn and then cast helm :)
@@morganwhiting-fawcett2581 ahhh Shit that's true hahaha
Ayy, my CEDH budget brew is malcom tana! I don’t know the math to guarantee you kill the table, but I do know that glint horn can get there even without malcom! Any of the curiosity effects on glint horn will auto win the game at the end of your turn as long as you have more than 7 cards in hand, since glint horn says ANY time you discard a card. Discard, ping, draw, move to discard, win :)
Cam's hair flip at 2:14 was beyond majestic!
When y’all were talking about rocco tutoring for food chain, you mentioned enlightened tutor and moon-blessed, but you forgot to mention the other option for tutoring enchantments, idyllic tutor which puts it directly into your hand at sorcery speed.
Or Gamble
@@KirkulesMagicTheGalavanting i get why you would say that, but the inconsistency of gamble (outside of a breah line) is why i personally didn’t bring it up
they also didn't mention all the other redundancy effects like Tandem Lookout for Niv Mizzet but as you could also say (for Rocco) you can just tutor for Vivian of the hunt and use Rocco to pull Planebound Accomplice in a combo that requires 7 mana. i'm amazed that card isn't even on Rocco's list.
@@MageSkeleton it's even harder to tutor for planeswalkers in Naya than enchantments
Rocco + any sac outlet or damage spell I would count as a 2 card combo that’s extremely easy and fast, with x=4 to arena rector and kill it into pod lines
i'm an inalla main. i dont play anything else. but i learnt so much from playing inalla. and the combo is extremely hard to hate out (just oppo agent really) because you have lots of backup combos in the worst case. gy hate can be beat (keeping things simple you can be more efficient) by finding demonic tutor and consult and demonic tutor for thoracle
An honorable mention is also marneus calgar from Warhammer which is in esper colours and he is a solid win con in the command zone with iso/rev combo.He also gains insane value with smothering tithe!
Iso + Rev is 2 cards, this video is about 1 card combos
i would put Godo at number one, only because you just have to have the mana/ability to cast godo and equip Helm of the Host which he himself fetches which protects the equipment entering the battlefield so the only thing there is to counter is a mana ramp spell? or Godo himself which has a limited pool of interaction to Force of Will and Subtlety.
I would put Inalla at number 2, and Kess at number 3 only because if you really wanted to you can run Kess in the 99 with Inalla as commander. And for more redundancy you can run Lier.
the rest as follows;
4; Najeela
5; Varolz/Minsc, Beloved Ranger/Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes
6; Rocco
7; Heliod sun crowned
8; Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (don't forget, he can be your commander and combo's with like 6 different things in mono red)
9; Niv Mizzet
10; Tivit (Technically i would put him at number 2)
11; Syr Konrad, the Grim, Morality Shift
12; Ayara, First of Locthwain, Plague of Vermin
13; Maralen of the Mornsong, Opposition Agent
if i was to change your list i would put Atla Palani, Nest Tender at five, because all she has to do is create two eggs (preferably at same time ish) and then blow them up and your gonna reveal literally Heliod Sun Crowned and Triskelion.
Would having Dargo, the Shipwrecker and Jeska, Thrice Reborn count as all you need really is Phyrexian Altar and having sac'd 3 things and then you just cast Dargo until you'd have say a billion loyalty counters on Jeska when you then cast her for four mana?
K'rrik and fleshwrither/sidisi are other one card combos that either set up a necrotic ooze + asmodeus, the archfiend or Gary and Chainer + discard outlet. Zaxara also combos with pemmin's aura/freed from the real and I run a bunch of target player draws x cards so I can draw my library and make my opponents draw out their library as well.
Yay! So excited to see this follow up video. Love these lists guys.🖖namaste homies.
Hey if you two wanna venture into the world of budget cedh I am sure I could get another representative on board.
“Who’s the best $100 budget commander in cEdh?”
Say when.
Also another one card combo that does the same thing with niv mizzet is the creature tandem lookout:)
I feel like you guys haven’t played enough Tivit. The lines are super clean and go along with your CEDH plan in general. You always have extra mana rocks in the deck to trash to go off on the same turn you play the commander. Tivit is SO hard to interact with having Ward 3. The times you don’t have a win, you can take extra turns to get into a position of getting rid of the problems. He is also insane CA and mana production when you don’t have time sieve. The deck can also go off instant speed with Whir of Invention. Don’t sleep on Tivit, it performs amazingly well in tournaments for a reason.
My non cEDH deck is Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose with an Exquisite Blood infinite. It’s probably not cEDH viable but I feel like there has to be a way to make it work at least in the play to win very specific gimmick games. I don’t know cEDH well enough to plan a good way to make it work but like, besides being mono black it’s an 8 mana combo that could be triggered off of any healing once the enchantment resolves.
Again, not cEDH but the fun part is getting to respond to removal with tapping for mana that gains life and moves your triggers above the response, and then also doing that with a split second spell. It’s jank but I love it and honestly I’d love to see how anyone could make that work somehow
Good time as always...now just to fill the honorable Mentions: Kraum with Black Partner (Tevesh) has access The Reaver Cleaver and Time sieve, its fragile but fun as hell when it happens :D
Godo enthusiast here. I agree with a lot of what was said. Godo can come out consistently turn 2 with free removal. It's hard to play around dark rit + oppo, though..
Weighing in on niv mizzet and Godo arguments;
Niv mizzet gives blue so as a strategy I feel its better to be able to interact more with your pod. When I’m tired of being the fun police, I switch to Godo. There are some interesting ways to construct Godo with a lot of red interaction and stax pieces to consider it isn’t just a race to 11 mana, but you are still somewhat at the mercy of the blue and black players in your pod.
I think it’s tough to place either deck above grixis or esper decks simply because deck construction gives far more support in extending the game and finding your win conditions.
Still, I love my big expensive card drawing dragon ❤️
And also niv has 3 one card combos if you play tandem lookout… so there’s that
i think the strength of the deck that plays them has a higher impact on the strength of the combos. inala playing bad grixis cards is far worse than a deck like rocco having multiple lines that it can tutor out of the command zone, even without having access to blue. maybe having a separate list for proactive and reactive rankings is a better approach... as the first player to attempt to go off usually gets all the interaction then clears the way for whoever trys to go off second. so maybe evaluation of the play patterns induced by those conditions is a more accurate evaluation of overall strength.
Thanks guys. Love the channel.
I’m pretty sure Scholar is actually the payoff for Spellseeker, you make infinite hasty copies of it at the end (and infinite red/black mana, and all the instant/sorceries in grave, etc) by looping it with Burnt Offering and Shallow Grave
Malcolm Glint-horn also loses to draw hate such as notion thief bc you'd run out of cards to discard for the loop
52:53 it requires more lands but Najeela also combos with sword of feast and famine.
Were you guys rating the combos or the decks that have the combos or the commanders that enable the combo? Rating Najeela as 1st because it is a 5 color deck doesn't make sense. It is the best deck and best commander, not necessarily the best combo.
Trazyn + buried alive 9 mana one dead card one deadish card but in black is something. I don't think it's been explored enough, but if Godo can win a tournament then I think Trazyn can as well.
What about the Sisay Elk 😋? The fact that it is a 0 card combo should at least get it a honorable mention.
Well, to be fair Najeela has a lot of one card combos besides Derevi: Grim Hireling, Druids' Repository, Bear Umbra and Sword of Feast and Famine.
For drawing the deck, Kwain and Niv-Mizzet Firemind are good one card combo with Mind Over Matter (same is true for Azami, Arcanis ), and as janky as it goes, Trix has his one card combo with Enter the Infinite.
As for infinite turns there's Ezuri with Sage of Hours, also Go-Shintai or Hanna Navigator with Second Chance,.
Now for infinite damage we have Jarad and Phyrexian Devourer (including the aforementioned Niv-Mizzet).
Also we have infinite storm + enter/leave the battefield with Morofon and Shrieking Drake/Cavern Harpy/Horned Kavu/Grinning Ignus.
For just straight wins theres Saheeli and Mechanized Production, Iname and Mortal Combat, Selenia and Near-Death Experience.
Since you guys were so akin to combat combos, Kediss with a black partner and Hatred, Alesha and Master of Cruelties.
And can we consider Oloro and Felidar Sovereign/Test of Endurance a one card combo? I mean, technically...
I just know that Nine-Fingers Keene with Maze's End is just too bad to even consider.
Recently Animar had a big change on his list. What did you guys feel about this deck? Could be this a great time to bring a Animar gameplay to the channel?
What's the big change?
@@devashannaidoo6877 They change a bunch of niche cards to more cEDH staple ones. Making the deck more cEDH generic and less all in
Isn't Rocco Temur Dockside only expensive when you want to 0 card combo? Otherwise, you can cost Dockside into Rocco/Temur
i think i know what your saying but to clarify the complication is you'd have to use the first casting of Rocco to fetch Temur and have to pass the turn, where then on the next turn you can return Rocco to your hand to fetch dockside and combo from there. Hope this info was helpful.
When I grow up, I want to be just like you guys!
Awh
Also, my girl Najeela at the top of the list!
I hope you guys talk about mind over matter and azami
You thought I was feeling you nawh that cards a munch, eating Heliod like a phyrexian for lunch
Chatterfang plunderer. As long as you have 1 squirrel to sack you can wipe the board if you have 1 squirrel and 1 any other creature you wipe the board+ infinite treasure
I’m a little surprised this list didn’t include Sisay + Jegantha because Sisay Elk has some genuine play options and your combo, although pricey, aren’t in the 99. Tap J, search Derevi, search Samut, 2 Derevi Triggers in combat, search Najeela+, rinse & repeat to your desire.
Lol we aren't gonna talk about Urza Ploymorph? And yes it does fit their description because urza makes the token that gets polymorphed and is the outlet for the combo. Plus urza does stuff when he's not winning
Great discussion, guys! (FYI, sieve is pronounced 'siv')
For NIV mizzet just play the 5 colourless golem with trample that puts the commander into play when it deals damage.
Hand: geode golem + curiosity + sol ring + mana crypt + lotus petal + land + gitaxian probe = turn 2 win
If you put mana vault instead of sol ring you can take out the petal and have a free slot in had for free protection or similar
To recap:
Turn 1 = any 5 mana for golem
Turn 2 = 1 blu mana for curiosity
I wanna see a top 20 commanders list
Great as always, fellas. Also, love Dylan's mug! Haha.
52:00
Not that anyone plays this, but Phyrexian Altar also works with Najeela.
Yeah, but Najeela has five better 1 card combos first.
@@thetimebinder I know
Jezus guys, the Talking about what this list should include was through the roof this time
I don't play cEDH at all but this is literally some of my favorite content
Isn't Brallin and Shabraz just a better Nivmizt? Cheaper to cast and adding white. You have to get to 8 cards, but I think thats better than playing 4 blue 3 red.
I been having so much fun with Sisay+Dockside
with umbral mantle all your creatures gets +1000/+1000. Not insta kill but a win con never the less
Lol yes but also yes
Only if you can tap that creature.
Pump activated ability given Umbra has 'untap' cost, so creatures that is untapped can't use it.
Curious niv has play inside Malcolm keddis and Malcolm breeches I think.
I played it in my malcolm kediss list and it worked great, I had magda which created treasures and could search for niv/pyre or something else and with Malcolm swinging once while kediss is on the field u can hard cast niv most of the time.
Heliod combo biggest downside is that it’s mono white. If it was Boros?? IMAGINE THE POWER
I would have Minsc, Beloved Ranger above the Malcolm combo if for no other reason that the density of 1-card combos that exist in Minsc that can win the game from a variety of game-states. I only say this as a player who plays BOTH decks, and I consistently have more success with the Minsc deck over the Malcolm piles.
Marwyn and/or Selvala, heart of the wilds can use staff of domination as a win con instead of umbral mantle. Staff of domination is far more powerful.
Najeela is definitely no. 1 the amount of times i have been praetor's grasp, by all 3 players and still have 1 of the other ways to win through combat and that is not even saying thoracle + brain freeze combos is rediculous.
One combo you did not include, that is pretty new, is sisay, Weatherlight Captain and wburg+1 of any color which includes a dork. All of this is already in five color decks and just need this and eot cultist of the absolute>Dihada>Orrery>derevi>Emiel>win. It’s a sisay line that just need enough mana and a creature that you’re okay with sacing to CuTA. Pretty cool stuff. Is that a zero card combo? Idk
Just a sad Kess player here. Thanking y'all for the content.
so the reason why Godo Helm belongs in this video is because you still have to equip helm to Godo. if it auto equipped then its a 0 card combo. the slight downside to the combo is if you draw helm then you have to cast it and equip it but casting Godo you then get hammer so you can auto equip.
Trazyn as a commander and burried alive is a 2 card combo. Burried alive put 3 creature in your yard, you get smthg like pili pala balista and paladium myr, there is others option but this combo get you infinite mana and damage
Yeah and it's also mono black and terrible
Syr Konrad mindcrank is a two card combo for mono black I’ve lost to a few times
Inalla isn't the only spellseeker line. Anything in sultai can run a spellseeker line too. Though that requires a 3mv commander.
Spellseeker, into neoform.
neoform the commander into displacer kitten.
Cast any non creature spell (it just has to be affordable with your mana) flicker spellseeker. find dark ritual.
Cast ritual, flicker find Entomb.
Entomb Thassa's, flicker spellseeker find Reanimate.
Reanimate thoracle, flicker spellseeker find consult.
Cast consult when thoracle etb goes on stack.
It's 6 mana + whatever trigger spell.
Totally counts, the other card doesn't matter what it is and you're in green =P
Rocco is just so sick. Honestly surprised the Vivian line didn't come up, but Food Chain is just so on theme for a Chef it's cooler lol
i'm not sure how i feel about Planebound Accomplice not being mentioned on EDHREC as an important card cause he enables you to do a 7 mana combo if Vivian is in your hand. And your ending the combo with millions of Felidar Guardians with Haste.
Inalla should be ranked higher. The stacks you mentioned rarely come into play because she wins so fast. This is coming from an inalla player with a Rocco in my playgroup I should also add I run ad naus in mine and spellseaker easily sets this up using the same startup to win in combat
At 20:21 Im surprised you didn't comment on / edit in an outtake commenting on that "Vial Smash-el" mistake haha
If I'm not mistaken, Magda is a one card combo, as she IS the clock of omens. So the combo is Magda and artifact dwarf.
i'd agree with "Play To Win" here, Magda needs three cards in total (counting herself) as the only way you can avoid running an artifact creature that can be a Dwarf is to run Silverskin Armor which then you can equip to Magda and otherwise if you don't have a Dwarf becoming tapped no treasure tokens, and Clock of Omens only lets you tap artifacts to untap "any creature"
I always say Vial Smasher wrong like that lmfao. Vial Smashel. The AL and ER somehow makes me fuck it up😂
So are you doing a video on all of those commanders that go infinite with one other card and just need an outlet to win?
The way he said vile smasher had me rolling
Ob nexilis and all will be 1 should be on t his list, 2 colors easy to cast 9 mana tho... however I got it above Niv curiosity and and heliod balista.