List of Compact Combos

I think it would be quite useful to make a list of compact combos that you can build around or that you could throw into a variety of decks.
I'm ignoring combos that require more than 15 slots or extreme design restrictions (which rules out most open-ended engines, like the ones used in typical Storm decks).

The numbers behind the combos stand for cards/mana/chaff. The first refers to the number of specific cards you need in hand, the second to the total amount of mana required, the third to the number of additional useless cards you need in the deck to make the whole thing work.

It would be nice if someone could expand this with playable combos, preferably with a few short pointers on how they work. If their numbers are dominated by something already on the list, I would appreciate a short summary of their advantages if those aren't obvious.




Doomsday: 1/6/5

Play Doomsday and assemble a winning stack. A typical one would be Predict, Grapeshot, Conjurer's Bauble, Lion's Eye Diamond, Second Sunrise; to win outright in one turn, we also need a cantrip, cycler or something else of the sort.
The plan is to Predict the Grapeshot, play the artifacts, sacrifice the Bauble targeting nothing and crack the LED in response for white mana. You can now return the artifacts an arbitary number of times, then break the loop by cracking the LED for red and sacrifice the Bauble for Grapeshot.
There are other Doomsday stacks, but to my knowledge 3 additional mana and 5 useless cards is as good as it gets and I prefer one that doesn't die to creature removal.



Tooth and Nail: 1/9/2

Play Tooth and Nail, put Kiki-Jiki and Pestermite or Sky Hussar into Play. Copy the flier an infinite number of times and swing for the win. Rather simple, but requires a big chunk of mana to be paid in one go.



Full English Breakfast: 1/9/3

The combo works by abusing synergy between Survival of the Fittest and Volrath's Shapeshifter, typically by turning it into an Akroma, Angel of Wrath (to attack immediately), Cephalid Inkshrouder (to make it unblockable and untargetable) and Phage the Untouchable (to make an opponent snuff it as soon as they take damage) in the same turn.
Survival-based combos can often reduce effective mana costs by tutoring up their own acceleration, in this case probably Palinchron (to be on top of the graveyard when Volrath's Shapeshifter enters play).



Saffi Survival: 1/9/3

Survival of the Fittest puts Saffi Eriksdotter and Caller of the Claw into the graveyard while fetching Crypt Champion. Crypt Champion and Saffi set up a loop which you end with Caller, giving you an arbitrary number of bears. While the pieces aren't individually strong, they aren't as unwieldy as the classic Full English Breakfast combo.



Survival/Sky Hussar/Kiki-Jiki: 1/10/3

The combo is rather straightforward: Fetch a Karmic Guide with Survival of the Fittest while depositing Kiki-Jiki and Sky Hussar or Pestermite in the graveyard. Play it returning Kiki, copy the Guide returning Sky Hussar, copy the Sky Hussar an arbitrary number of times and attack. Strictly speaking, the Karmic Guide isn't necessary but eases the mana and colour requirements.
On the upside, this is as small as it gets without extreme limitations to deck design (e.g. 2-Land-Belcher) and the 'chaff' is actually pretty decent for the high end of a creature-based deck, albeit a little colour intensive. As with all Survival-based combos, we can grab acceleration as we go along, in this case probably Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
On the downside, the combo is a bit on the fragile side.



Cephalid Breakfast: 2/3/5

This combo requires a Cephalid Illusionist and something to target it for free, such as a Nomads En-Kor. From then on, we mill ourselves until we can flashback Dread Return for either a Karmic Guide returning Kiki-Jiki and Sky Hussar or a Tarmogoyf-fueled Sutured Ghoul with Dragon Breath. Narcomoeba and Cabal Therapy ensure that we can do this even if we drew something we'd rather have in the yard. Please note that I didn't count Tarmogoyfs and Cabal Therapies under the 'chaff' needed as they are bloody fine cards in their own right and assumed 3 Narcomoebae. If you don't want Tarmogoyfs in your deck, 2 Phyrexian Dreadnoughts (Stifle targets?) or a single Lord of Extinction works as well, the latter probably being chaff.
To my knowlege, this is currently the cheapest way to kill someone outright with 2 cards, but it requires running a fairly large amount of junk.



Skill borrower / Worldly Tutor: 2/4/1

With Skill Borrower active, we play Worldly Tutor for Kiki-JikI. Since the Skill Borrower itself isn't legendary it can copy itself an arbitrary number of times. If you do this at the opponent's end step, you can swing for lethal in your turn. Cheap and easy to set up, this combo is also disturbingly fragile so some backup and preferably Haste would be welcome.



Aluren: 2/4/3

Under Aluren, playing an Imperial Recruiter for free allows us to fetch Man-o'-War or Dream Stalker, bouncing it. We play the Recruiter again for Cavern Harpy (bouncing the bouncer) and can now enter a loop fetching and bouncing new creatures. Parasitic Strix makes this sustainable and provides the kill.
While Aluren is neither terribly fast (4 mana are needed in one go) nor ultra-compact, it sets up an efficient engine that provides a lot fo flexibility, allowing us to play around many things at the expense of additional creature slots that tend to be weak on their own. There are many tricks and pitfalls to the combo, and it might be a good way to leverage a difference in skill level.



Buried Alive/Reanimate: 2/4/3

Yet another way to attack with infinite Sky Hussars/Pestermites, again brought into play by Karmic Guide. Buried Alive gets them in the yard, Reanimate gets Karmic Guide into play for cheap. Reanimating Necrotic Ooze with Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion in the graveyard is a possibly more robust alternative. There is a lot of redundancy available in reanimation spells.



Helm of Obedience/Leyline of the Void: 2/5/0

This one is very interesting in a metagame heavily infested with graveyard-dependent decks. If cards are exiled instead of milled when Helm of Obedience works its magic, we remove their entire library. Samurai of the Pale Curtain works as an alternative to Leyline that doesn't need to be in hand to start out with, but that drives the cost up to 7.



Mesmeric Orb / Basalt Monolith: 2/5/5

Mesmeric Orb and Basalt Monolith allow you to mill your entire library similar to the Cephalid Breakfast combo, with the same considerations of how to translate this into a win. Not involving creatures seemingly makes it more resilent, but more expensive and you can't rely on Aether Vial.



Stuffy Doll/Guilty Conscience: 2/6/0

Another efficient 2-card combo with individually weak pieces... at least both Stuffy Doll and Guilty Conscience are both fetchable with Enlightened Tutor.



Painter's Servant/Grindstone: 2/6/0

This is currently a more attractive option to the one above, as mana can be paid in chunks and it's easier to build an efficient shell around it... so much it works thrown into fairly random decks, but is also a decent starting point. With Painter's Servant in play, all cards in hand are the colour of your choice so Grindstone will deck your opponent. As with all library kills, it will only win next turn unless you also have a way to make them draw.



Hive Mind / any Pact: 2/6/0

This isn't 100% reliable as a 2-card combo and 6 mana need to be paid at once so this is probably not competitive. The idea is to force an opponent to copy one or more of the Pact series of spells from Future Sight like Pact of the Titan thanks to Hive Mind. This forces a mana payment in their upkeep to avoid losing the game, before we have to do the same.



Academy Rector / Diabolic Intent: 2/6/2*

This can fetch the above for the same convertedl mana cost, but allows us to split it up. It can also fetch something less conditional albeit more expensive, like Near-Death Experience and something that lets us control our life total, like Plunge into Darkness or Blood Celebrant.



Angel's Grace / Ad Nauseam: 2/6/?

Ad Nauseam causes life loss, it is not a cost. Ergo, with Angel's Grace in effect you can draw your entire deck without consideration for your life total. This should allow you to kill your opponent somehow - Storm would be an obvious option but decks built around the mechanic don't usually need Angel's Grace.



Swans of Bryn Argoll / Chain of Plasma: 2/6/?

Another way to draw your deck for 6 mana, with both cards being somewhat useful outside a dedicated combo shell. You target the Swans of Bryn Argoll with the Chain of Plasma, then discard a card to copy the Chain. If you have the Swans but not the chain, you can turn Lightning Bolts into Ancestral Recalls.



Trix: 2/7/0

Donate an Illusions of Grandeur and have them lose 20 life once they can't pay the upkeep any more.
Delightfully clean and simple, this doesn't care about creature or graveyard removal. On the down side, at least 5 mana have to be paid in one go, life gain needs to be considered and it doesn't kill outright... some decks can cheerfully burn through 40 life in time, others can use the delay to find a Stifle.



Frenetic Efreet / Chance Encounter: 2/7/0

Frenetic Efreet allows you to flip an arbitrary number of coins, Chance Encounter allows you to win on your next upkeep. I suppose you make your own luck.



Near-Death Experience / Plunge into Darkness: 2/7/0

Anything that lets us control our life total works with Near-Death Experience, and if we can stall for a turn Blood Celebrant allows us to do this for 6 mana. More interestingly, Plunge into Darkness and Lim-Dul's Vault work as companions and powerful tutors are always welcome.



Pestermite / Splinter Twin: 2/7/0

Enchanted by Splinter Twin, Pestermite can be tapped to add a hasty copy of itself that untaps the original when it comes into play. Repeat ad nauseam, attack.



Academy Rector / Kaervek's Spite: 2/7/1

With Academy Rector in play, cast Kaervek's Spite. The dying Rector fetches Barren Glory, making you win in your next upkeep. With style.



Kiki-Jiki/Pestermite: 2/8/0

Kiki-Jiki and Pestermite are potential finishers in many more efficient combos, but hardcasting is also an option. The cards might even be moderately useful on their own; Kiki is somewhat decent in most creature-based decks and Pestermite can be a nasty surprise to the opponent in many situations. If you have many mana critters, Sky Hussar can be effectively cheaper than Pestermite, if you have many cheap blue or white creatures it can become a decent draw engine.



Panoptic Mirror / Savor the Moment: 2/8/?

Panoptic Mirror with an imprinted Savor the moment allows you to take as many turns you want. While you don't get untap steps, drawing your library and playing the lands still in it should give you more than enough resources to win with.



Severance Belcher: 2/9/0

Without land, a Goblin Charbelcher activation deals damage equal to the number of cards in your library, which should usually be enough. Mana Severance enables this.
Another less efficient alternative to Trix, without the obvious drawbacks and an at least somewhat useful card in Goblin Charbelcher.



Pandemonium / Saproling Burst: 2/9/0

Another very straightforward combo: You use up the Saproling Burst immediately, having Pandemonium cause 21 damage to your opponent.

Umm Counterbalance and Sensei's divining top is strong from what i hear. :rolleyes:

2/3/nadda

He means a combo- as in a combination of cards that win the game...

Time Vault/Mizzium Transreliquat: 2/8/0
Time Vault/Rings of Brighthearth: 2/8/0

These are both comparable to Trix, as they are extremely compact (although you do have to have an actual win condition somewhere in your 60). As with Trix, you pay for this compactness with a higher cost in mana, but these are about as resilient as Severance/Belcher (and one mana cheaper), and the fact that both of these combos involve Time Vault makes for interesting design possibilities.

Unfortunately, I think that Legacy really favors mana-efficient win conditions over compact ones, which is why Cephalid Breakfast is the only combo in your list that can be found in a competitive deck right now.

Buried Alive/Reanimate: 2/4/3

Just an alternative Survival/Kiki/Hussar (the chaff being Kiki-Jiki, Karmic Guide, and Sky Hussar), but uses one more card and costs three less mana. You can also use Sutured Ghoul/Dreadnought/Dreadnought which is a bit less fragile. In either case, the deck construction is still somewhat closed (as it's 11 cards at minimum) but you can still do some interesing things with it.

Edit - But of course, for Ghoul you need Shallow Grave or Corpse Dance instead, making it 5-6 mana.

There's also Sensei Sensei:

SDT/SDT/Helm of Awakening/Storm card edit - it's 4/3/0

I'm not sure if I got the numbers quite right, but I didn't count SDT as part of the cards you need in hand or the chaff, because it's damn useful in its own right with Counterbalance or just to keep card quality up. The chaff here is the Helm and the Storm card (Brainfreeze most likely, but the rest of the combo is colorless so you can fit it in with Dragonstorm/Tendrils/what have you), which are also the cards you need in hand.

edit - Although if you actually want to see Helm or your storm card, the chaff could concievably be 8.

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Originally Posted by Pinder

There's also Sensei Sensei:

SDT/SDT/Helm of Awakening/Storm card 2/4/2

I'm not sure if I got the numbers quite right, but I didn't count SDT as part of the cards you need in hand or the chaff...

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lol wut? SDT counts as one of the cards you need for the combo to work, ...because you need it for the combo to work. That makes this a four-card combo, which is exactly why it sucks.

For the sake of completeness, the number breakdown should be 4/2/0
You need Top/Top/Helm/storm card to go off, two mana to play the Helm, and nothing else needs to be in the deck to win. So, this combo is extremely cheap, mana-wise, and as compact as possible when three unique cards are involved. However, as I said, it's killed by the fact that you need a total of four cards in hand or in play for it to work.

EDIT: Pinder corrected me, since I forgot about casting Brainfreeze. The number breakdown should actually be 4/3/0.

Ah, I see now. I broke it down completely wrong. I thought chaff here meant 'cards that did nothing for the deck outside of the combo', not 'cards that need to be in the library (or graveyard, or otherwise not in your hand) to combo.'

Either way though, you need 2 mana for Helm and an extra mana for Brainfreeze. So it's probably closer to 4/3/0.

But I contend that Top isn't really an issue here, even though you need 2 of them. You want one of them, regardless of the fact that it's part of the combo, because you can set up CounterTop to stall while you use it to find other pieces of the combo. I suppose once you have one on the table you need to find another before you can combo, but even then you really only need 3 cards in hand, because one will already be on the table. So, 3/3/0?

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Originally Posted by Pinder

Either way though, you need 2 mana for Helm and an extra mana for Brainfreeze. So it's probably closer to 4/3/0.

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Whoops. You're right. Edited.

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But I contend that Top isn't really an issue here, even though you need 2 of them. You want one of them, regardless of the fact that it's part of the combo, because you can set up CounterTop to stall while you use it to find other pieces of the combo. I suppose once you have one on the table you need to find another before you can combo, but even then you really only need 3 cards in hand, because one will already be on the table. So, 3/3/0?

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No, you really have to count both Tops, because you need both of them for the combo to function. You can't say that's irrelevant because you "want" a Top for other reasons. It isn't as if that helps you find, resolve, or protect one.

Breaking a combo down into three numbers is obviously going to present an incomplete description. Beyond the "4/3/0," You might be able to argue that this combo is better than other four-card combos because Top is a good card on its own. But that doesn't make it any less of a four-card combo.

I suppose for the purpose of hard numbers, you're right, in the same way that Survival is an amazing card all on its own, but you still need one for some of the combos listed above, and so it's still in the numbers.

Aluren / Imperial Recruiter: 2/4/4

Chaff is Cavern Harpy, bounce (ie Manowar), life gain (ie Spike Feeder), and kill (ie Ghitu Slinger).
EDIT: Recruiter grabs Manowar, bounce Recruiter, Recruiter grabs Harpy, bounce Manowar, bounce Recruiter, repeat. This loop lets you grab and re-bounce any 3cc creature in your deck. Re-bounce Feeder for infinite life to help pay for Harpy's bounce cost. Re-bounce Slinger to win. There are other choices for bounce and kill like Dream Stalker and Etched Oracle (this requires Wall of Roots to generate infinite mana).
There are cheaper combos than this, but this combo doesn't depend on the graveyard.

Gifts Ungiven

Cheapest targets are Dark Ritual (or Cabal Ritual which makes the combo cheaper, but adds Threshold as a requirement), Recoup, Reanimate, Buried Alive. Requires 9URRB to combo on the same turn in the worst case scenario. Incorporates Reanimate + Buried Alive and Kiki Jiki/Sky Hussar/Karmic Guide.

1/13/7*

*Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Sky Hussar, Karmic Guide, Recoup, Dark Ritual, Reanimate, Buried Alive are all chaff. It could be argued that this number is 6 since Dark Ritual is genuinely useful to cast Gifts Ungiven, reduce the mana cost of the combo, or to stall with.

Here is something i thought of but really could never break.

Intuition for:

Academy Ruins
Life from the Loam
Mindslaver

i guess its not that amazing.

In addition to that, I would suggest to write down the disruptability of the combo.
- Grave dependency (disruptable by planar void/leyline of the void/tormod's crypt) (half are)
- Needleability (a lot are)
- Stiflabitiliy (most are)
- Forceability (all are I think)
- Wastelandability (few are)
- Swordsability (half are)
- Disenchantability (half are)
- Chaliceability (most are)

In combos, peeble is also not that bad: 0CC creature, sacrifice outlet that can win the game when repeated (goblin bombardment is the best), enduring renewal. 3/6/0 (grave:yes, needle: not really if played with several sac outlets, stifle: not if 2 creatures in hand, yes if only 1, force: yes, wastelands: no, swords: no, disenchant: yes, chalice: yes)
Salvager combo: Auriok Salvager, LED, either a card that wins the game when infinite mana, or a 1CC artifact that makes your draw. 3/4/0 (grave:yes, needle: yes, stifle: no, force: yes, wastelands: no, swords: yes, disenchant: no, chalice: yes)

I'm not sure if this is considered Legacy playable, but:

Dark Depths+Aether Snap: 2/5/0

The combo is very similar to Trix in that it won't win you the game outright, but it will give you a 20/20 flying, indestructible creature. The mana investment is roughly the same, though you can Dark Ritual into Aether Snap. It's very disruptable, but the investment is low.

Grave dependency: No
Needleability: No
Stiflabitiliy: Yes
Forceability: Yes
Wastelandability: Yes
Swordsability: Yes
Disenchantability: No
Chaliceability: No

It's worth noting that Doomsday can actually pretty easily be 1/5/5 instead of 1/6/5. If you have Predict, Conjurer's Bauble, or Lion's Eye Diamond in your hand, then you can easily replace its slot with Chrome Mox or Lotus Petal in your stack. While technically this is still 1/6/5, the fact the combo can occasionally fetch itself the mana to go off makes it virtually count for less.

This is highly relevant in cases where you want to cast a first turn Dark Ritual / Doomsday and be able to win the next turn.

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Time Vault/Mizzium Transreliquat: 2/8/0
Time Vault/Rings of Brighthearth: 2/8/0

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This looks interesting together with Reconstruction or Argivian Restoration as a Gifts Pile, i'll try that.

Maybe a little slow though, like you said.

Wow, a lot of excellent feedback... thanks especially for doing my thinking for me and using the same format.
I'm aware it isn't perfect. The 'chaff' number doesn't take into account whether the combo pieces we need in hand are useful on their own right, and they do range from dead-ish to awesome. I tried to keep it as simple as possible, to let people rule some out as too slot-hungry or mana-hungry. If I started to comment on all the traits on Maveric78f's list I'd be tempted to also include things like alternate routes in the face of a Meddling Mage, colour intensity, Extractability, Froglockability, Jötungruntability, Truebelievability, Gaddockteegability and other brain-imploding words. This is something far beyond the scope I had in mind and I planned to leave that to each deckbuilder... hopefully, they know what traits they are looking for.

Not all of these have to be capable of powering a Deck-to-Beat; throwing a compact combo into a deck that can support it easily might net free wins simply through the rogue factor and in very defined/small metagames there might be the option of dodging the most common hate while maindecking 20 hate cards yourself.

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My brain tries very hard to forget that Time Vault exists, and was mostly successful before the reminder. That certainly deserves a spot in the list, as do Aluren and Buried Alive. Many thanks to iOWN, Obfuscate Freely and jamest.

I'm reluctant to include combos with more than 2 primary cards, unless I can see a very compelling reason. As a comparison, the cheapest IGG loop would come down as 3/2/3, and that's generally used in all-engine decks rather than as a compact combo.
Likewise, a 3*4 configuration only saves one slot compared to Cephalid Breakfast and getting 3 cards in hand at once is a lot trickier. Unless I'm very mistaken, a good Sensei, Sensei implementation (yes, the minimum would be a 4/3/0) would take up far too many slots to count as a compact combo.

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@ Emidlin: Personally, I'd see that as an (expensive) way to fetch the real combo rather than a 1-card-combo... at least in Legacy. With Survival, I can at least provide my own acceleration to cut the 'effective' cost down to 7-ish. We're fast approaching the regions of Door to Nothingness (1/15/0) or Kaervek's Torch (1/21/0 with a considerable benefit).

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@ Tacosnape: Duly noted, and relevant indeed. I tried to make as few assumptions as possible though, and considering we don't run multiples that alternative would be more along the lines of a 2/5/4... if multiple avenues with different values exist, I'll just write down the one I consider most impressive. Again, I can't be 100% fair without giving a ridiculous amount of details.

Actually I think, in FEB Cephalid Inkshrouder is not necessary. Because IF the opponent had removal, he could still play it in response for discarding phage. And if he has no removal, the Inkshrouder's ability (untargetable) does not matter. The unblockable thing does not matter too, since Akroma ALWAYS makes at least 1 (trample) damage to opponent, which will trigger Phage's ability. I cant image a situation, when the opponent has a untapped 6/6 flying blocker on turn 4 (except maybe against Reanimator or Mystic Enforcer).
At least I play no Inkshrouder, and I'm quite happy with it.

Maybe we should add the Savalgers Combo?
But this may not be a compact combo?

Speaking of Full English Breakfast, the combo can be made 1/7/4 instead of 1/9/3, which I think is the better option, just by adding in a Palinchron which you discard to fetch Shapeshifter and cast it (1G for Survival, GG for activations, 1UU for Shapeshifter). You then untap your lands and can play the rest of the combo "for free".

I don't know if you're only looking for combos that win right then and there, but otherwise you could include Enlightened Tutor (for Draco)/Erratic Explosion, which is a 2/4/1 combo dealing sixteen damage.

Usually you play FEB like this (at least I do): Play Survival (1G), discard random creature (G), search Squee, discard Squee (G), search Akroma, discard (G) her for Shapeshifter. Wait a turn, get Squee back, play Shapeshifter (1UU), attack, discard Squee (G) for Phage, discard Phage (G).
So you have actually 10 mana. Getting Squee first, is most often the best option, even in FEB, imo.
Playing Palinchron as an additional "chuff" card, seems not the best option. Usually you have enough mana. I'd rather play Quirion Ranger which has synergies with Birds and is not a dead card else.

Good idea. I used to keep a list of these, but it got lost. Here's what I can think of.

Fireball: 1/21/0

Door to Nothingness: 1/15/0

Tooth and Nail: 1/9/2

Enduring Ideal: 1/7/~5

Saffi Survival: 1/9+1/3+1 (Saffi+Caller+Crypt Champion, +1 is Anger)

PandeBurst: 2/9/0

Panoptic Mirror+Time Warp: 2/10/0

Academy Slaver: 2/13/0

Hulk Sneak/Breach: 2/5/3

Powered Monolith: 3/5+/0

Hulk Footsteps/Necro: 3/3+/3

Palinchron: 3/12/0 (6 lands + Flare/Beat/Tide/whatever)


For the record,

Hulk Flash: 2/2/3

That's sort of like the ideal.

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Originally Posted by Iranon

@ Emidlin: Personally, I'd see that as an (expensive) way to fetch the real combo rather than a 1-card-combo... at least in Legacy. With Survival, I can at least provide my own acceleration to cut the 'effective' cost down to 7-ish. We're fast approaching the regions of Door to Nothingness (1/15/0) or Kaervek's Torch (1/21/0 with a considerable benefit).

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Gifts can do it on 3-4 lands pretty easily if you're playing at least 5 black rituals. This lets you use Dark Ritual to cast Gifts/power into the combo and brings your total mana cost somewhere in the 8-10 range, and that's including Gifts, which you'll likely be resolving on an end step, bringing your mana down to below that of Mizzium/Vault, Severance/Belcher, or Trix. The upside to Gifts is that the mana cost is usually split and can be turned around to protect your actual win if you have other ways to find your Reanimate/Buried Alive combo by finding 4 disruption spells. Usually when I build Gifts, it includes Gifts Ungiven and Lim-dul's Vault so I can always find my Gifts, although LDV is sometimes used to directly find one half of the combo saving Gifts for disruption spells or force fodder. In any event casting Gifts is going to allow you to win immediately for a reasonable amount of mana for a combo-control deck (on 3-6 lands) similar in fashion to Doomsday (albeit obviously slower).

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Originally Posted by Illissius

PandeBurst: 2/9/0

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Shouldn't that be 1/7/3? or 1/8/3, but that'd probably get to be more. Replenish, with Intuition for Gigapede, Burst, Pandemonium. Actually I suppose it'd be 1/7/4.

Stupid Extirpate.

Spellweaver's Helix 2/5/2

Intuition or TfK or somehow get a Life from the Loam/any Dredge/Cabal Therapy in a pinch and a Time Stretch/Time Warp in the yard. Play Helix, imprinting the two. Play another copy of the dredge card every turn (every other card for Time Stretch, which makes it doable with Therapy).

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Originally Posted by lonelybaritone

Shouldn't that be 1/7/3? or 1/8/3, but that'd probably get to be more. Replenish, with Intuition for Gigapede, Burst, Pandemonium. Actually I suppose it'd be 1/7/4.

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Intuition-Replenish-PandeBurst: 2/7/3

I can recall some combos from the "turn 1-3 Combos in aggro decks" thread:

Mogg Maniac + Fire Covenant: 2/5/0
- Grave dependency: No
- Needleability: No
- Stiflability: Yes
- Forceability: Yes
- Wastelandability: No
- Swordsability: Yes
- Disenchantability: No
- Chaliceability: No (chalice@0/1 doesn't hurt)

The good thing about the combo is that both the cards are useful on their own. The bad thing is that you need more life than your opponent and that a single counterspell or stifle or creature removal ruins your day, lealing you with very little life points.

About Face + Tireless Tribe: 2*/2/0
*you need other 5 cards in hand to deal 21 dmg.
- Grave dependency: No
- Needleability: Yes
- Stiflability: Partly (you need 1 more card in hand for each stifle)
- Forceability: Yes
- Wastelandability: No
- Swordsability: Yes
- Disenchantability: No
- Chaliceability: Yes (chalice@1)
The combo doesn't work if the opponent blocks too.

Phyrexian Ghoul + Academy rector + another critter: 2*/7/2
- Grave dependency: Only Leyline of the Void
- Needleability: Yes
- Stiflability: Yes
- Forceability: Yes
- Wastelandability: No
- Swordsability: Yes
- Disenchantability: No
- Chaliceability: No
You need a 3rd creature fo the combo to work. Any creature without shroud is good, I'm going to take a 0cc critter to lessen the mana count.
Attack with Ghoul, Sac Rector for Pattern of Rebirth attached to the 3rd critter, sac 3rd critter to get Symbiotic Wurm, sac Wurm for 7 1/1's, sac 1/1s for lethal.
If the Ghoul is blocked the combo doesn't work.


It would be great if the first post could be constantly updated, so we can have a good list without going through the entire thread.

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Originally Posted by Illissius

Saffi Survival: 1/9+1/3+1 (Saffi+Caller+Crypt Champion, +1 is Anger)

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You can have it cost 1 mana less using Loyal Retainers (you can look at the "I wll survive" deck in the CanG forum)

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Originally Posted by Illissius

For the record,

Hulk Flash: 2/2/3

That's sort of like the ideal.

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The tireless tribe+about face is 2/2/0. Strictly better. :cool:

Draco/Explosion 2/3/0

Hrmm, I can see a flash-esque type deck with this!

Control body:
4 FoW
4 Counterbalance
4 Counterspell

Draw/get draco on top:

4 SdT
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Portent
4 Lim-dul's Vault

Win conditions:

4 Eratic Explosion
2-3 Draco
2 Fireblast (extra 4 damage if need-be)

Land
2-3 Barbarian Ring (also for extra 4 damage)
Rest of the land!

I love it!

Also, with the Kiki-Jiki Kill, why not use Pestermite instead of Hussar. Pestermite seems so much easier to actually play if need-be.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by largebrandon

Also, with the Kiki-Jiki Kill, why not use Pestermite instead of Hussar. Pestermite seems so much easier to actually play if need-be.

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Because they cannot attack FTW right away.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by C.P.

Because they cannot attack FTW right away.

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Why not? Kiki-jiki taps to make a hasty copy of pestermite, which untaps kiki-jiki, who again taps to make a hasty copy of pestermite, wash, rinse, repeat until you have a nigh infinite army of hasty pestermites, and attack for the win.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GreenOne

You can have it cost 1 mana less using Loyal Retainers (you can look at the "I wll survive" deck in the CanG forum)

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Actually, no. With Retainers you have to hardcast all the pieces; with Champion you get to Survival away the rest and cast only the Champion, returning the Saffi and starting the loop, and then returning the Caller once you've looped to your satisfaction. Loyal Retainers can't do that.

Maniac+Covenant is 2/5/0, I think.

Draco Explosion needs at least 3 cards because it's not going to hop on top of your library by itself. However...

Insidious Dreams into Draco Explosion: 1*/7/2

PandeNought, the forgotten Dreadnought interaction.

Pandemonium-Dreadnought-Dreadnought: 3/6/0
(Pandemonium-Pandemonium-Dreadnought also works, but that's 3/9/0)

Izzet Guildmage/Reset/Burn: 3/5/0

More like 2.5 cards because 'burn' is replaceable with any instant speed cantrip or burn spell. The mana needs to be all in land form. Two to play Reset, three to copy it. Copy resolves, untap, repeat for infinite mana. Then, play either the cantrip or burn spell and copy as much as needed. If it's a cantrip, you need one burn spell in your deck which you will eventually draw, play, and copy.

I personally like this combo because even though it's three cards, the third card is interchangeable, and the pieces are good on their own. I built an interesting deck around this a while ago, and the main drawback of the combo is that you need five lands to go off, which can be hard to secure against a deck with Wastelands or Sinkholes. Izzet can also be hard to keep in play because it's such a fragile body.


Basalt Monolith/Mesmeric Orb: 2/5/7

An alternative to Breakfast. It costs more mana, but isn't vulnerable to creature hate (in the sense that the pieces can safely come out on different turns). It mills a single card at a time. I listed chaff as 7, for 3 Narcomoeba, Kiki/Guide/Hussar, and Dread Return, however, considering the opening post, it could be 6 if you use 'Goyf and Ghoul instead (which also recquires Dragon Breath). This combo is also colorless, and can come out through the use of Ancient Tomb/City of Traitors.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by largebrandon

Very interesting indeed! You could easily play vial in that deck: "EOT tap vial to put in Guildmage, then go off" Bad thing, though is if they counter the reset.

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You'll be running blue, so you can play counters yourself.

Sorry I couldn't resist it:

Hatred + Carnophage/Sarcomancy: 2/6/0

BB

Another take on the Doomsday Combo,

(1/8/6)
Doomsday Stack

1 Night’s Whisper
1 Soul Spike
1 Erratic Explosion
1 Draco

Note, Soul Spike requires you to have two black cards in hand. The combo isn't as fast as Second Sunrise, but it is more resilient. I can't wait until Wizards finally prints the card that makes Doomsday tops.

Grave dependency: No
Needleability: No
Stiflabitiliy: No
Forceability: Yes
Wastelandability: No
Swordsability: No
Disenchantability: No
Chaliceability: Maybe



Also, I just had to add this in :cool:

Tarmogoyf
(1/2/0)

Grave dependency: Yes
Needleability: No
Stiflabitiliy: No
Forceability: Yes
Wastelandability: No
Swordsability: Yes
Disenchantability: No
Chaliceability: Maybe

Promoted to sticky. Great thread. I may purge the chaff later on.

I would like to add these two combos:

Stuffy Doll/Guilty Conscience: (2/6/0)

Grave dependency: No
Needleability: Yes
Stiflabitiliy: Yes
Forceability: Yes
Wastelandability: No
Swordsability: Yes
Disenchantability: Yes (the Enchantment - Aura)
Chaliceability: Yes

Life Combos: (3/???/1)
Daru Spiritualis or Task Force etc. +
Nomads en-Kor or Shaman en-Kor or Shuko etc. +
Diamond Valley or Worthy Cause or Starlit Sanctum etc.

After gaining millions of life you need a win condition like Test of Endurance or something else.

Grave dependency: No
Needleability: Yes
Stiflabitiliy: Yes
Forceability: Yes
Wastelandability: Maybe
Swordsability: Yes
Disenchantability: No
Chaliceability: Yes

For the targeting spell, you could use Lightning Greaves to make the combo un-Swords-able (after the Greaves equip).