[Brainstorming] Competitive Multiplayer EDH Combos

[ivanpei]

I was psyched up about going down to the Singapore GP for the Legacy Sideevent until I found out there wasn't one. But there will be EDH tournaments all weekend long and I'm planning to unleash my competitive streak on it. I'm playing UBW and I'm open to play any general. I generally avoid Zur and Sharuum as the Douche-bagness will usually lead to me being mass raped.

The format at the GP Sideevents will be multiplayer pods of 4, last man standing. I have a fully optimised Sharuum deck with Drain, Grims Tutor and Imperial Seal along with the Douche-bag combo components. Obviously, Sharuum is an obviously combo oriented general and I get mass raped straight away. What I want is to play a Low Key General in UBW so that I can lie low and explode suddenly to win the game.

I have the following choices:

Ertai, the Corrupt (My english Alternate Art Foil might give away the deck's power level, but at least I will lose in style)
Dromar, the Banisher (Pretty friendly General, screams useless and people usually leave it alone)
Merieke Ri Berit (Not friendly, everyone kills it)
Sens Triplets (Same as Merieke)

So it's basically Ertai vs Dromar. Ertai is crazy powerful once my token engine gets going and it can protect me while combo-ing off. I plan to play a Token + Combo deck which concentrates on pumping out tokens to block early game and then late game using the Tokens to feed Ertai and protect the combo finish.

I'm playing all the usual Token Generators:

Elspeth 1.0
Elspeth 2.0
Bitterblossom
Martial Coup
Decree of Justice
Grave Titan
Myr Battlesphere
Wurmcoil Engine (Not sure if he really counts)

with a bunch of CIP creatures like Mulldrifter, Venser, Solemn, Duplicant, Shriekmaw etc that sac to Ertai.

Also playing the following "Good" Tutors:

Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Mystical Tutor
Imperial Seal
Grim Tutor
Mystical Teachings

Not too many, just enough to find the combo components when I need em. As you can see, the deck is not balls to the wall combo. It's a pretty balanced deck with dudes as another aggro approach. What I want to brainstorm are combos that are competitive yet contain components that are not Dead when drawn without other components. I've come up with 2 so far that gels very well with my current deck:

Palinchron + Minion Reflector- 2 Card infinite dudes + infinite mana. Palinchron is big, bad and free so it's always good to draw it. Minion Reflector is busted with all the CIP creatures I run. Double Mulldrifting/Solemning/Gravetitaning/Myr Battlesphering is fun.

Sakashima/ Capsize + Mnemonic Wall + Timestretch- Each of these cards are excellent on their own with the combo being recurring bounce/copy on Mnemonic Wall, returning Timestretch for infinite turns. What I love about this combo is that all you need is a single tutor to start the Chain ie;

Demonic tutor (Or tutor into Demonic tutor with your topdeck tutor to avoid card disadvantage) into Mnemonic Wall. Cast the wall, return Demonic. Use Demonic for Sakashima. Next turn Sakashima copying Mnemonic, returning tutor. Cast Tutor for Time Stretch. Next turn, Stretch and infinite Turns ensue by bouncing Sakashima and recasting her copying Mnemonic and then Time Stretching on the following turn.

Some combos I don't run because the components are useless and give away my combo straight away, ie;
Future Sight, Top, Helm of Awakening/Cloud Key combo, Brain Freeze (Too many Crap cards like Helm/Key/Freeze, Future Sight most likely to be blown up straight away)
Helm of Obedience - Leyline of the Void- Kills just 1 guy, both components pretty obvious tells and crap when drawn without the other.
Tidespout Tyrant - Crypt / Sol Ring/ Mana Vault- 1cc Artifact- Brain Freeze/Clone effect/Any CIP dude (if you have a signet/artifact that produces coloured mana on the table)- Tidespout Tyrant has a huge bullseye on it's head and the combo needs too many components. Pretty hard to pull off but 1 slot isn't too much to sacrifice since I play Sol Ring, Crypt (don't play Vault, card is bad) and a ton of CIP creatures and artifact mana.

Thoughts and suggestions?

[TheArchitect]

Ertai seems like the way to go. Dromar is kind of useless, and Ertai, with all your tokens and need for combo protection, is actually very useful. I don't think he will draw too much hate and he also gives you some leverage to make your opponents target each other and not you (target me and I'll counter, target him and i wont). People often go all out pimping their general so I don't think that will intimidate people too much.

One combo I would recomend:
Rings of Brighthearth + Basalt monolith
Then Exsanguinate (ideally) but martial coup/decree of justice might work if they don't have board wipe (decree is uncountable which is kind of nice).

The two infinite pieces are useful by themselves and don't scream "hey guys I'm comboing off soon" when one hits play.

[ivanpei]

Infinite mana combos, cool. I may just play a super Oona UB combo deck with plenty of Infinite mana combos involving Rings, power artifact and Grim Monolith, Basalt Monolith etc. High Tide + Palinchron may work too, but I'd have to run all islands, splashing just for Tutors. Thanks for the suggestion.

Any other ideas for Combos that involve components that can masquerade as "EDH staples" in order not to draw the heat? EDH is fun this way, we always need to find new ways to kill guys without being too obvious. I got gangbanged out of almost every pod after I pulled of my Sharuum + Sculpting Steel + Disciple combo. I was being a Douche but the prize was a FTV box and I paid a pretty hefty fee so I wanted to make my money back.

Unfortunately my 2HG partner and I couldn't overcome a 5 colour deck backed by a monoblue one that packed pretty much every counterspell in MTG. I swapped generals and the next pod I won by Rite of Replicating my Palinchron with kicker into a bunch of draw spells and minion reflector.

Obviously, next tournament, 1st pod I met Ruination, Magus of the Moon and Buried Alive + Necrotic Ooze Combo (Pile was Kiki Jiki, Mogg Fanatic and Anger). The tournament was for a Force of Will, hence the Douche cards my opponents ran. I was not pleased that I spend an hour driving to the shop to get eliminated in 15 minutes after casting a grand total of 2 spells.

So the level of Douche-ness in my playgroup is pretty high, please throw me any combos, no matter how Douche they may seem! They say fight fire with fire, I say fight the Douche with more Douchyness!

[Malchar]

To me, it seems like multiplayer tournaments games would be full of collusion. If you aren't going to partake in that aspect of the "game", then I would suggest just using the strongest general and comboing off as fast as possible. As for combos, I think that it's possible to make an effective Doomsday pile in EDH. I had a thread about it somewhere in this forum.

[Admiral_Arzar]

Infinite mana combos, cool. I may just play a super Oona UB combo deck with plenty of Infinite mana combos involving Rings, power artifact and Grim Monolith, Basalt Monolith etc. High Tide + Palinchron may work too, but I'd have to run all islands, splashing just for Tutors. Thanks for the suggestion.



Personally, I like my Oona build, which hybrizes a bunch of infinite mana combos with storm elements and a bunch of game-bending bombs. There's a ton of different routes to victory and a ton of tutors and filtering. However, it's pretty obvious what you're playing when all you do is play artifact mana and tutors/draw spells. The primary issue with the deck is consistency - it's theoretically possible to eliminate the entire table on turn 2, but that obviously doesn't really happen.

[Mirrislegend]

Future Sight: awesome to start with (if you feel it gives away the combo, who cares? Hopefully they're just shoot the card, not kill you). SDT: should be in your deck already. Once both are on the field, casually toss out a Helm of Awakening, draw your deck, and storm out everyone.

EDIT:
Also, Power Artifact ftw. Grim Monolith, Basalt Monolith, and at least a few others that I can't think of. Does it work with Mana Vault, during your upkeep? Oracle wording seems to just say "during upkeep: Pay 4 to untap".

[ivanpei]

I am mightily intrigued by doomsday in EDH. Seems like Doomsday + cantrip= I win. Anyway, I wish we could have more "spirit of EDH" but it seems that things get competitive when money is on the line. Every pod involves someone comboing off in one way or another (ie Tooth and nail into palinchron and eternal witness into another tooth and nail into primevil + Cradle + Tidespout tyrant for infinite bounce, infinite mana). Brokenness apparently is the way to go apparently or get blown out by combos. I quite dislike 2 card combos in the deck because often you get stuck with multiple pieces of different combos which are useless.

Dday seems good because theoretically Doomsday + cantrip = Game win. What's the best pile? Probably going to involve meditate/cantrip. The best one I've seen so far for UBW is:

Tome Scour
Sharuum the Hegemon
Sculpting Steel
Bridge From Below
Altar of Dementia

You still need a Reanimate and a cantrip though. Still sucky.

This is another:
Gush
Channel the Suns
Mind's Desire
Apocalypse
Barren Glory

I can't play Channel the Suns or Apocalypse in UBW but I can replace Channel with a random Accel spell like Dark Ritual and Apocalypse with Upheaval.

So it's BBB + U (Cantrip) + B (Dark Ritual), +1UU. 8 mana for a win on the spot is pretty good (Barring stuff like suspended creatures etc). Dark Ritual, Gush, Mind's Desire and Upheaval are all great cards by themselves with Barren Glory the only really bad one. If you past the Turn, you just need 1BUU to win the game. Pretty solid. You could CONSISTENTLY get a T4 Kill this way as the only card you need is Doomsday. If you draw any of the components, you'll need to replace Gush with Brainstorm and the combo component slot can be replaced with lotus petal or whatever acceleration.

I can see this happening:
T1 Cantrip
T2 Tutor for Dday
T3 Dday
T4 Win

Very douchy. Probably top douche, but you will most probably die if your ritual/gush/brainstorm gets countered.

[lorddotm]

Why not play Bryant's Super Broken Pile?

That thing is Pitch Long in EDH. It's good, and you can play any random ass general with it.

[ivanpei]

Possible, is there really enough rituals to consistently go broken? I kinda doubt it. Also playing a bunch of rituals, draw 7s and then fizzling, kinda blows and everybody will aim you straight away as you are obviously the combo player. I'm aiming to be more discreet, and suddenly breaking out, winning the game, preferably with EDH staples that are inconspicuous.

[lorddotm]

Possible, is there really enough rituals to consistently go broken? I kinda doubt it. Also playing a bunch of rituals, draw 7s and then fizzling, kinda blows and everybody will aim you straight away as you are obviously the combo player. I'm aiming to be more discreet, and suddenly breaking out, winning the game, preferably with EDH staples that are inconspicuous.

Honestly, it is that broken, you will be fine. People usually think im just a control deck, and ignore me, then I bust out and kill the entire table when they are least expecting it.

Edit:
Nevermind, I forgot you were doing multiplayer. The deck is a little less broken in multiplayer.

[ivanpei]

Honestly, it is that broken, you will be fine. People usually think im just a control deck, and ignore me, then I bust out and kill the entire table when they are least expecting it.

Edit:
Nevermind, I forgot you were doing multiplayer. The deck is a little less broken in multiplayer.

It's cool, I always missed playing long in vintage. I might build it just for kicks and take it apart after. My fondest Magic moments have always involved Mind's desiring into the nuts. Its a bit harder to have the bomb density of Killer Draw/Tutors to go nuts in EDH though. Do you play the UB list or the 5 colour lists which have all the red/green rituals and Wheel of Fortune?

[lorddotm]

It's cool, I always missed playing long in vintage. I might build it just for kicks and take it apart after. My fondest Magic moments have always involved Mind's desiring into the nuts. Its a bit harder to have the bomb density of Killer Draw/Tutors to go nuts in EDH though. Do you play the UB list or the 5 colour lists which have all the red/green rituals and Wheel of Fortune?

5c. Love me a Wheel of Fortune.