Philosophy Behind #6: Combo

I would like to welcome everyone to the exciting conclusion of this three-part series as we finally address the deck archetype; Combo.

Combo, another very popular strategy in MtG, attempts to win as quickly as possible by using a few cards to gain an almost sure win. Often, combo decks attempt to try to search out the deck for the combo pieces in order to achieve this goal. These decks really focus on the interaction of two or more cards.

There are three things that combo decks value; power, consistency, and speed. A combo ought to be strong enough to ensure a win and should be able to achieve the combo before the opponent gains the upperhand.

Degenerate combos usually make an infinite amount of something, whether it be creatures, mana, life, cards, or even try to perform an infinite loop (by repeating a process over and over). In casual magic, and even in competitive play, you often won't make a lot of friends by playing with a degenerate combo (it's very frustrating for players to play against), so keep that in mind. Similar to my previous articles, here are few aspects regarding Combo decks:

• Few Creatures: Attempting to enable the desired combo, Combo decks don't ordinarily win by attacking. Creatures usually are used to enable the combo or as part of the combo itself. As such, creature removal isn't usually very efficient against most combo decks.
  
• Few Non-Land Permanents: Most combo decks hold on to creatures, artifacts, and enchantments until the turn they're ready to aim for the win. A good place to attack a combo deck is in the hand with discard spells. a timely enchantment removal spell or counterspell can also be effective in defeating a combo player.
  
• Life-Total Clock: Sometimes a combo deck will take as long as possible to win (i.e., the turn before the player would otherwise die, or the turn it has a definite win) to get as many draw steps as possible. Having a lot of cards act as viable resources for a combo player. A good strategy is to put pressure on combo decks, either with creatures or threatening spells, to coerce them into attempting to win prematurely.
  
• Narrow Strategy: Combo decks tend to be greatly focused, with their objective of initiating that combo. One strategy is to try to take away just one of the combo pieces (like via Memoricide or Cranial Extraction).
  
• Poor Defense: Many combo decks trade removal and responsive spells so that they can have room for cards to enact their combo.
  
• Specific in Nature: Combo decks are more diverse than other deck types and can vary vastly. Artiact removal might be great against one variant, but completely useless against another.

White operates very well with equipment-based combos, like Stoneforge Mystic and Quest for the Holy Relic. white has been also known to use 'blink' strategies to take advantage of 'enter the battlefield' and/or 'leave the battlefield' triggers. When it comes to life-gain combos, Felidar Sovereign and Test of Endurance come to mind. Karmic Guide and Sun Titan are great examples of white reanimation spells that can be the start of some irritating combos. White also has potent synergies with using enchantments, like Sigil of the Empty Throne. The most notable White tutors include Enlightened Tutor, Steelshaper's Gift, and Idyllic Tutor.

Blue's card draw and library manipulation give it the tools for a great color for Combo decks. Want to mill your opponent away using Brain Freeze? Another storm card that has been known for some potent combos is Mind's Desire. Hive Mind also prompts some powerful interactions with the right cards. Blue loves artifact combos, such as degeneracy with Mycosynth Lattice. Blue is also known to have great sorcery and instant cards, like Time Warp, where the player wins by taking multiple turns. The most notable Blue tutors include Personal Tutor, Tinker, Fabricate, Trinket Mage, Treasure Mage, and Mystical Tutor.

Black is great in Combo decks since it has the potential to tutor any card. Dark Ritual, Tendrils of Agony, and Necropotence have been in very popular combo decks. Animate Dead is one of many popular Black cards that interact with the graveyard to perform some powerful combos. Grave Pact is good with decks that have sacrifice outlets. With cards like Underworld Dreams, a player can win via forcing their opponents to draw into defeat. With some manipulation of the graveyard, one could play Bitter Ordeal and eliminate all spells from a player's library. The most notable black tutors include Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, and Diabolic Tutor.

You'll notice for Red, I don't discuss tutors because Red is a weak color in that area. I've seen Red combo decks that use Pyretic Ritual into Seething Song to finish off with Dragonstorm. Similar decks also involve Grapeshot, Ignite Memories, and Pyromancer's Swath. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can combo with some creatures to form infinite attackers, such as Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch.

Green's combos almost always involve either creatures and/or lands, staying true to the philosophy of the color. Tooth and Nail and Protean Hulk operate to gain two creatures to combo out or gain insurmountable card advantage with. Hermit Druid and Survival of the Fittest are popular in Dredge/Reanimation combos. In addition, Glimpse of Nature works well with cheap elves to draw your entire deck. The most notable Green tutors include Scapeshift, Natural Order, Chord of Calling, Wordly Tutor, and Green Sun's Zenith.

With that, I'd like to mention that many combos in MtG involve more than one color, especially the more viable ones and the list does little to compare to the comprehensive list of combos. With that, I'd like ton conclude this discussion on Combo decks. Also, I'd like to credit the following articles as a reference and helping me write this article. Aggro, Combo, and Control by Jeff Cunningham and Wikipedia.

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-Michael Hood-Julien

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Quest for the Holy Relics #4: Pack to Power

I started my first Pack to Power project a little more than half a year ago and failed miserably. I used a binder that was rather clunky and cumbersome to move around and I felt embarrassed to hold a binder full of 'junky' cards in the beginning. Worst of all, I didn't have my trading priorities in order.

(If anyone's curious, Pack to Power is a project started by Jonathan Medina on Gatheringmagic.com. For more details, check out Quest for the Holy Relics #1: Humble Beginnings)

At the time, trading had become a big thing and I thought I was ready for the next step. Using my personal trade binder, I had been able to trade for almost anything I wanted or needed at the time. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in trading for things I wanted or cards that looked cool instead of cards I knew could move. At the time, I was unable to make the switch from personal trading to a 'next-level' trading. This time, I'm all in.

I picked up a new, light-weight binder that will make it easier to move around and it'll have a better presentation. I've also put Standard deck building aside to completely commit to the Quest. This shouldn't be too difficult considering I want to play more EDH and Casual magic in the next few months and dedicate more time to articles about them and growth of the casual formats. Any involvement I have in Standard will be reduced to borrowing decks and commenting on the format by following the Star City Games Standard Open Series and other big events. This will help me maintain focus on the Quest. I've also slowly emptied my personal binder towards Power and relics to reduce the amount of binders I'll be carrying.

I picked up this binder a couple days ago along with this lone Innistrad pack that I hope will become a piece of power one day and a binder that will be my Trusty Machete. I was aiming to pull an Innistrad dual land, a rare that sees play in sideboards or maindecks, or even a mythic rare to help me get through the grueling beginning stages. Unfortunately, none of those things happened.

Our beginning contents begin with an overly impressive assortment of cards. yay..

Blasphemous Act

Delver of Secrets

Bloodcrazed Neonate

Silverchase Fox

Spare from Evil

Geistflame

Stitcher's Apprentice

Mulch

Smite the Monstrous

Armored Skaab

Blazing Torch

Unburial Rites

Rolling Temblor

Rakish Heir

Wolf Token

Double-Faced Card Proxy

Hm. Not the best pack in the world, but we can work with it. Blasphemous Act has seen play in Standard decks' sideboards that don't have the means to get double red for Slagstorm but still want to kill off the token armies. Delver of Secrets is also really hot right now, I'm just not sure how many people haven't already bought their copies. There's also that Unburial Rites that's in a strange spot of being good, but not good enough. I'm hoping to find someone with a B/W EDH deck that hasn't picked up their copy yet. The proxy card is obviously, priceless. After putting everything away in the binder, I sat down to play some Casual games with a couple of guys sitting around. One of the guys (that also had the name David!) spotted the Rakish Heir and needed it for his red deck. Awesome start!

-1 Rakish Heir $0.59

+1 Brutalizer Exarch $0.20

Total: -$0.39

(Prices taken from Coolstuffinc.com)

Already off to a loss, I made a few mistakes with this trade. I should have thrown in another common or two considering he really needed the card and I didn't think the Rakish Heir was worth more than a quarter. Hopefully, I can find someone with a green EDH deck that needs an exarch, considering he's very strong. I'll have to be more aggressive in the future trades. Live and learn. 

Going back about a week ago, I had been stalking the price of Underground Sea for a while for the Quest. The price of the dual had been on the fall recently, since the U/B decks in Legacy had been falling short these past few months. To my surprise, a mint condition Sea was listed, when there had only been played versions available for several weeks. A lot of the trade opportunities that have come up for Underground Sea have fallen through too many times and I knew I had to act fast. 

I had a quite a bit of cards ready to sell set aside to obtain it, considering it's the most expensive of the dual land cycle and I knew it would be a tough one to tackle. After putting everything in the buy cart, here were the numbers.

Daybreak Ranger

Mikaeus, the Lunarch

Knight of the Reliquary (promo foil)

Green Sun's Zenith

Seachrome Coast

Basilisk Collar

Stoneforge Mystic

Necroskitter

2x Damnation

Helm of Kaldra

Pristine Angel

Decree of Pain

Buried Alive

2x Black Sun's Zenith (promo foil)

Damnation (promo foil)

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of all the traded cards because it was an FNM night and the local store was crazy with people running around, sorry about that. The store was packed and I patiently waited for the staff to resolve (i got jokes!) all of their other plethora of buy orders of Yugioh cards. I kept myself entertained watching Evan dance around frustrated at them taking so long and the text messages from CJ, complaining about how late we were for his friend's birthday party. Relics have priority tonight. I walked home with this awesome pick up.

Underground Sea: valued at $127.79

After nabbing the Sea, I felt a really big sense of accomplishment and realized there were only 3 more duals left to tackle, Savannah, Scrubland, and Plateau; all relatively easier to the one's I've already obtained. This dual also set the precedent of starting the hunt for Power of 9. A feat I've never had experience with and am extremely reluctant to start. I've already received offers and potential trades for Power, but I've been almost afraid to put so many resources in to obtain. It's difficult to justify trading away a bunch of playable cards for a relatively unplayable piece of power, unless you're jumping into Vintage. There's a grey area in Magic cards between utility and luxury. An idea I'll have to Ponder over for the next few weeks. I'll save the bigger complications and details behind my recent Power searches in another post. Until the next relic, Magic players!

Interested in more Magic content? Check out every series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-David J.

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