Against the Odds: Traxos Combo (Modern)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ธ.ค. 2024
- Last week, we had another Dominaria poll but with a twist this time: rather than playing the winning card in Standard, we're playing it in Modern! In the end, the legendary construct Traxos, Scourge of Kroog came out on top, so we're heading to Modern today to see if we can win some games with a Traxos combo deck! The idea of the deck is pretty simple: our goal is to abuse the untap ability on Traxos, Scourge of Kroog with the help of Banishing Knack (or Retraction Helix) along with a zero-mana artifact, which allows us to generate an infinite number of enters-the-battlefield triggers. Then, we throw Altar of the Brood into the mix for infinite mill and hopefully win the game! Can the combo actually work in Modern? Let's get to the video and find out!
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"We have this Blue Sun's Zenith to let us win through an Emrakul deck"
Proceeds to board it out in the Emrakul matchup XD
It made me wonder if he even pays attention to his own deck tech.
he's boarding in relic and surgical to exile emrakul, so he doesn't really need zenith after game 1
Corey Sierchio I believe he makes the deck tech after his matches. He often talks about how sweet a deck is, or that it overperformed, during the deck tech. He also sometimes says "see you at the wrap up" as though he was recording them consecutively. Perhaps he thought of the zenith trick after his matches, and included it originally as a catch-all.
Calvin Anderson when talking of a decks performance he could be referring to how it has been performing for other players W/L? (Just keeping the debate going)
SinfulMonk I don't believe anyone else has ever played this deck, let alone published results that Mr. Olive would have seen between the time of creating the deck and editing/releasing the video to then comment upon
*stares at Swan Song in hand*
@mtggoldfish humm Seth.... Can you explain me why you did not counter that Anciant Grudge with your Swan Song at 40:53? Was this an intended punt to trigger us?
Thinking the same thing - feel like this episode had a ton of misplays
Paul Weiner
I felt like there were many times he could've gotten the combo off but passed the turn instead.
Even with all those punts he still could have won at 41:29 had he just cast the helix on his opponents snapcaster and then used swan song to get a bird. It would have likely eaten a dispel but the other option is die anyway. No reason to not go for it there.
Am I the only one seeing a ton of misplays first game? If you know you’re about to die and have a counterspell that can save you, then leave mana up. All games against burn had one or two swan songs in hand that would stall for a turn or two. The combo can win at potentially instant speed by making them draw or the turn after with mill.
It's jsut burn, dont need to block with riddlesmith.. naah
i was hoping you would swan song your own spell last turn to get that last permanent for the mill
How would that kill?
PalPlays Swan song makes a bird under the control of the person who's spell was countered. Seth counters his own spell, swan song makes a bird for him, altar triggers, opponent has 0 cards in library, goes to draw for turn, and can't
Just when I thought about sleeping, Seth posts a video.
:)
Austin Williams ikr
Seriously
I know right
He posts at the same time every day though
Can I have some of these thumbnail arts on a playmat please? I'd buy one with this video's thumbnail.
You're right that would make a sick playmat
I have been tinkering with a red blue version of this using reckless fire weaver and
Impact Tremors along side 0 mana artifact creatures. I think it was missing some pieces and this video has led me in the right direction to fill those gaps. Thanks Seth
In the last game, I think you could've countered Ancient Grudges with Swans Song, couldn't you?
Yes, turns out opp had Dispel though.
He also could've started the combo three turns earlier by playing a second Opal to untap Traxos, back when he still had two Altars
Seth, why not use at least 2 Minamo, School at Waters Edge? A good cheap way to untap him with no drawback.
Unfortunately, Traxos says "cast a historic spell" so lands don't work.
Nevermind I'm dumb, for some reason I thought of Oboro when you said Minamo. Please ignore, I'm dumb
You can still untap Traxos for U together with Minamo.
"no drawback" except that it doesn't work for the combo kill with mishra's bauble, only mox opal
Never base everything on a combo. Its better than having an Island in this deck.
So many punts in this video.
At 26:00, why not cast Battered Golem to untap Traxos, then retraction helix on Traxos, then bounce the Mox to win?
TH-camIsGay they could counter with 2 wanders, it was worth hoping the opp missed it but the game was over
Dactyl49 The spirits had only 2 power, so retraction helix traxos, opponent tries to counter and Seth can pay exactly 4 mana for that. Then he can start bouncing mox opal getting U each time and then casting thirst for knowledge trying to find wincon.
1managainsttheworld the problem is traxos was tapped at this point, and playing golem would take away the mana he would need to pay for the wanderers. He was just dead, too many super aggro decks burn/spirits/merfolk
Anthony Galante Oh that's right, didn't realize that :D
There are a good few changes that I think need to be applied in order to make it better. The Vedalkin that lowers Artifact spells by 1 speeds up the Combo by making Traxos cost 3 and allows you to Combo off with a pair of Alters (and is another artifact to tap to Whir of Invention). It also fits in the curve nicely as it’s a T2 spell. Welding Jar should also be in as it’s a 0 cost Artifact for the Combo and can protect Traxos. There’s another one from Lorwyn that’s 3, Sac: Regen a creature that can be used as a fill in if you can’t get Jar. I had a list for a RUG version of this deck from a few years ago that used Nettle Drone and Battered Gollum with the Helix/Knack loop, with a splash of green for Ancient Stirrings. Being able to be Mono-U means that we can instead use Glint Nest Crane as it can dig out the whole Combo save the Helix effect. Overall, I’ll probably be giving this deck a shot. It’ll be a bit different considering I don’t have access to the Moxen, but it should be fine.
41:51 cant you just cast banishing knack on snapcaster and swansong it gaining a 2/2 swan token and thus milling one card?
If you can produce infinite mana in your combo, why not just use the relic to combo off at 34:15?
Chad Doucette better yet he has mox opal in play to bounce. I'm thinking he was afraid of spell pierce or something.
26:19 The hand doesn't just need a land. It needs a blue source of which you have 13 fast ones plus 4 slow ones. Opal is slow because you're sacking bauble. It basically comes in tapped since you have to spend a mana to turn it on. Then you still need a third land for thirst.
Nvm opal's not slow. You play altar turn 1.
Seth, if you click “Always yield” *and* “Always yes” for abilities you always want to use, it speeds up the combo by a click each time.
can someone please explain to me why at 34:00 he didn't just retraction helix and win right there?
Was looking for a back up plan for the Colourless Bounce deck from ManaSource (- I think). Traxos was right on.
See here's a great way to show that any card if u put u mind to it can be a deck that's fun and playable great deck seth
Seth, I love the ingenuity of the stuff you come up with! Can you do a series on how you come up with stuff like this? I mean, going with the "cares about untapping" was going seriously deep here.
Nettle Sentinel also works and is one mana cheaper, and it also works like another copy of alter of the brood.
Do you mean nettle drone?
Yeah, sorry
It seems really good
Why no trinket mage? It's an extra copy of mox + altar. Too slow?
DailyDoseOfFunk what would you take out
Emory Hotchkiss At least one copy of traxos
You can do the Traxos, Mox Opal, Banishing Knack, and Altar of the Brood combo with any zero drop artifact to replace Mox Opal.
Looks like a nice brew
That turn 2 breached emmie was nasty af though... I would call that a literal god hand
@40:54 why not counter Ancient Grudge here?
Seth’s voice is MAGIC!!!
20:43 didnt you just have it? What am i missing? I mean: pay 4 to traxos -> play mox opal -> keep the untapped opal and untap traxos -> play the blue spell -> go off
Eyyyy cool, I was playing around with a retraction helix combo for the longest time.
Can you put up a budgeted version? Can’t really afford the Mox’s or Surgical Extractions.
23:43 why don't you just retract Goyf in response?
30:25 why didn't you keep alter so you could cast it to untap Traxos?
39:50 you would had the combo right there!
Am I missing something or did he have the win at 33:58 and just decided not to go for it?
Emrakul makes it really hard to get the mill win.
33:57 seth says he can't win yet, ¿am i missing something? he has the thraxos, helix, altar, and mox .....
It feels like there were a couple times where you could have used retraction helix on traxos to bounce itself and try again the next turn
I've always thought about doing this but with jeskai ascendancy
"they topdecked the ancient grudge" -seth after seeing the ancient grudge already in hand
41:30 you could have cast your spell on the snap caster and swan songed it so you got the bird and milled your opponant out.
at around 20:45 didn't he have the win since he couldve played traxos then used the other mox to play the one mana tap and bounce to then infinitely bounce the mox?
I must be missing something because the same thing happens at around 37:55
Could it be trax is summoning sick?
right its not like opposition where you can use it right away, gotcha ty ty
I remember facing down a W/U historic deck using Traxos on release weekend. It would've killed me if it weren't for a Haphazard Bombardment and some luck.
I’m probably forgetting something here but is it really smart to run mox opal over the 0 mana indestructible artifact. I guess it provides mana but it is really worth running mox as a 4 of
I wonder if changing the combo to include Impact Tremors is a better way to go?
Seth could have won game 5 by casting retraction helix on Snapcaster and then Sean's singing it at the end of his tur
BrotherGoro He never had the ability to do that until he was at the point of going off anyway.
In the emrakul matchup couldn’t you have retraction helix and then counter your helix with swan song to get a bird and finish milling the opponent?
What about splashing red to add in the infinite damage nettle drone combo?
41:40 "no... no noooo... no... no!" classic seth.
My Traxos mill deck has a green splash for ancient stirrings, adventurous impulse & memorial to unity. I also have genesis chamber as my alternate win condition and I run memnite and ornithopter as 0 mana artifacts
this works in pauper as jeskai
the human that untapped with creature etb and the golem and ornithopters blinks. win condition... I fogger red etb damage?
Oh my god that loss against Temur Breach! What a hilarious way to lose!
Then again, losing to Altar Of The Brood mill is hilarious too.
i have the same deck in paper pauper with Nettle Drone instead of Traxos and Reckless Fireweaver/Impact Tremors (or a 2nd Drone) instead of Alter as win con. i use Ornithopter and Phyrexian Walker as my artifact/creature to bounce.
41:25, could have cast Banishing Knack on opponent's creature, Swan Song it and get a bird, to mill the last card and win.
Although, still loses to the Dispel.
Weren't you supposed to ghost quarter their stomping ground in that last game? Keep em off green for ancient grudge?
So they just need to print retraction helix in M19 and we can do this in standard right?
Walking Ballista seems good as Emrakul insurance that also helps against some creature match-ups early as well as triggering Riddlesmith. Potentially bad against mtgo's timer though.
That game against Breach you could have banishing knack'd targeting snapcaster, then countered it with swan song to get a birdy and another altar trigger
Is there any way to update this without mox nowadays?
I’ve also seen this combo done with Nettle Drone
Where is the sideboarding in the first match?
That last game punt was real, cast knack on snapcaster then swan song to get another permanent to enter so they would've been out of a library
Why couldnt he combo off during the emrakul matchup game 2, I think he had all the pieces
Flowey the flower I'm left wondering the same thing 34:20
Because of Emrakul's shuffle grave effect. If he had gone for the combo, the grave would have repeatedly gone back into his opponent's library whenever he tried to mill him.
At first "hey..Looks interesting !"
Then I saw it was in modern... "OMG, I have to see that !"
20:45 has combo opp tapped out...seth pls
... you have blue suns zenith FOR Emrakul why would you board it out?
why not use the blue zenith in emrakul match-up?
Actually, Emrakul effects don't keep you from milling them unless there's more than one plus however many cards you can make your opponent draw. Of course only if they can't discard their Emrakul. If they only have one Emrakul and no other card with that effect you just continually mill them until Emrakul is the last card in their library and then pass turn and they draw it. If they have no way to get it in the graveyard then next turn they can't draw from their library and they lose. I know on magic online you can't really do it because of the timer but IRL you could. If they have 2 then you mill them until 2 cards remain in their library (both Emrakuls) then you need something to make your opponent draw an extra card or more cards or you wait more turns if they have no way to get one into the graveyard.
Joppanator unfortunately irl you run into the issue that the 4 horseman deck has, statistically the number of times it would take to get to only emrakul in the library is so high you may not every reach it and it is so random that trying to shortcut to that point doesn't work either and you run into slow play judge calls.
If you have an infinite mill combo shouldn't it be considered the same as any other infinite combo wherein the player shortcuts anyways? Otherwise wouldn't those people get a slow play call if they were to play out their combo?
Joppanator the difference between infinite mill against cards like emrakul and say the vizier devoted druid combo is that when you are dealing with a zone with hidden information (you don't typically know what is in a deck nor what order), is that with infinite combos you have to determine a specific *number* of times to repeat the loop, *not* reach a certain specific state.
So you could say that you want to repeatedly mill the top card of your opponent's deck 2^13 million times, but you don't know *how many times* it actually takes to reach that point. It could only take 50 triggers, or you could hit an emrakul every third trigger.
Its the same thing with Polyraptor, forerunner of the empire and some way of having forerunner (or more) be unable to die to its own trigger. You could say that you want to repeatedly deal damage until all possible creatures are dead, but that is a specifically definable number on loops.
Zairian Wouldn't stating a specific number of times to repeat a process be doing it that many times until you reach that specific state? I'm confused there.
Joppanator but due to the randomized nature of a person's library, you can't determine the exact state that you will end up in. You don't know when there's 3 cards left in a library if the top card is one of the emrakuls or a different card.
Basically it comes down to being able to exactly define the boardstate during and after each loop, and you don't have any way to run through all the possible boardstates in a reasonable amount of time, wether digitally or physically.
12:12 the shift player should of hard casted search, comes in untapped then play Sakura tribe elder threatening a prime time next turn especially against a blur artifact deck that normallly run load stone golem...
Wow that player was bad
In game 1 round 2 why not hold swan song?
Also, no ensnaring bridge??
What about using the combo to storm off.
Why was swan song even in the deck?
20:43 why didn't you play traxos, mox opal untap traxos, keep the untapped mox opal and then play retraction helix off the mox and combo off. He is tapped out and you have alter on the battlefield. I really feel like you go on auto pilot this video when you should be thinking about if you can combo more often.
The issue with this deck is the earliest it could reliably combo off is turn 5, which is too slow for a combo deck in modern
Ancient grudge seems like the perfect card against us. It's an instant and has flashback, so when we try to go off with altar of the brood we will eventually mill it and all they need is 1 green mana up and they can kill our traxos/buttered golem/altar and stop us.
Retraxos Helix
TH-camIsGay exactly 😂😂
I came to the comments looking for this pun. Thanks!
maybe another way to take advantage of the mana traxos produces would be a one of or two of walking bali
Sometime before the opponent's last turn, if you cast Banishing Knack targeting Snappy, then Swan Song'd it, you'd create a swan and mill them by one. There was a chance that they might not have had the Dispel two turns before you died, and it's also a convoluted enough play that they might have let it slide. Then, when you dropped the Darksteel Citadel, it would have killed them.
Can you replace the mox opals with another card? Those are a little bit out of my price range lol
That's a tough one, the problem is that Mox Opal is pretty unique and not easy to replace directly. Hopefully they reprint it soon to make it cheap (otherwise, you can just cut it, but the deck will be less powerful).
What happened to goldfish gladiators?
Anyone remember TMS Wedge built this with nettle drone instead of traxos? Also this looks like welding jar would be crucial
You should have included a few Minamo, School at Water's Edge for the extra wincon of simply beating down with Traxos lol.
Swangsongs would have delayed the kills a bit during burn matchup.
So I'm confused, you had traxos, mox opal, altar and relic in play, and you had the mana up for retraction helix.
How do you not win here? You just bounce and play the opal over and over? Am I missing something?
KaoticShadow saw that as well. I don't understand.
He had lethal so many games he need to stick to standard
I saw this idea a while ago with nettle sentinel instead of traxos, it’s a fun combo
Tiger Jones it's an actual pauper deck.
Why not play grapeshot instead of blue suns zenith as the alternate wincon? Both require active Mox opal with the other combo pieces (whereas altar can use either Mox or Bauble so it’s better) and grapeshot is easier to reach on MTGO as well as can’t just counter it and end your gameplan.
Just a tought, why not play 4 darksteel citadel (you already have them in deck) and 4 Seat of the Synod, it is an artifact land that produce blue mana, instead of 4 more basic land. so it is 4 more historic stuff, sack materiel for thirst and stuff for metalcraft. unless im wrong :/
omegaspanish0404 Seat of the synod is banned in modern. (As well as the other colored artifact lands.)
No pact of negation?
You definitely needed Pentad Prism in this deck, pulls double duty as an accelerator and a "0 mana" artifact, using its own mana to recast it
Noviaec needs two colours for it to be “free”
So Traxos is kind of insane as a clock, I wonder if he makes blue steel a bit better
Maybe, it's just hard to untap in some situations.
I think that this deck really wants Hall of the Bandit Lord so you have a better shot at Comboing turn 3 or 4.
Why did he build this, this combo or at least ones very similiar to this have been for a long time ,i played one with nettle drone and battered golmn like literal years ago at this point
Why doesnt this have nettle drone in it??????????????
Traxos coming in sick and trapped really hurts this deck a lot as does the fact that k command is a 3-4 of mainboard card. Really need an instant speed way to win if your a creature based combo that's this all in to be good. Decks pretty sweet though, I think the deck needs more whirl to be able to eot slam him and maybe more cantrips less redundant pieces.
A good edition to this deck would be walking ballista. Creating infinite mana during the combo, then cast walking ballista for infinite +1/+1 and then one shot your opponent.
Was hoping for some dualcast action :(
No repeal for Stony... not playing 4 Whir... what?
Lotus bloom seems really good here
Maybe add 2 Jhoiras and an aetherflux reservior just for life gain and another potential win con.
Isn't this just the jeskai combo of old?
I love seeing Jund eat this deck for breakfast.
Against the through the breach deck getting beat down by snap. If Seth targeted snap with the Banishing Knack then swan Songed the Knack - 2/2 bird on your side of the battlefield which would have milled the last card and chump trade.
So... how about a Haphazard bombardment deck ?..
In a land destruction one why not