Magic Deck Vortex has one of the best (if not the best) combo archives on the entire World Wide Web. What other site features over 20 combos every other month complete with descriptions, deck links and additional infinite combos? However, this is not the focus of today’s article. The focus is actually on three cool combos I recently added to the Time Spiral Timeshifted combo page, all three of which include Legends card. And all of these Legends cards were actually Legendary too! Curious? Keep reading.

So which cards from Legends am I talking about? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not Jasmine Boreal. Aside from the beautiful old-school artwork of Jasmine, she has no combo potential at all – unless you're talking about a Mudhole or Water Elemental… and even then, those cards just invoke a sense of imagination you shouldn’t be sharing with a Magic card… even Akroma!

So back on topic here, the first legend I want to introduce into my first Combofusion article is Sol’kanar, the Swamp King. Of the three Legendary Legends I will talk about, this one is actually really good. Oh, and before I go any further, all three of the combos mentioned in this article were submitted originally by Your Worst Nightmare, resident combo genius of the MDV forums.

Sol'kanar is efficiently costed as a 5/5 for five mana, has swampwalk and has a second ability that any Johnny player would pick up on immediately:

“Whenever a player plays a black spell, you gain 1 life.”

At first glance, the ability is just another ability. It’s like a Throne of Bone on a stick, without the activation cost. Better yet, it’s like a Paradise Plume on a doll minus the tapping for an ability. Well, that’s still not right. Ah, Demon’s Horn! It’s like Demon’s Horn on a creature. And thanks to the Timeshifted goodness of Time Spiral, he’s a Demon now too. It all makes sense.

For the purposes of this next combo deck, you could always just substitute Sol’kanar for Demon’s Horn – however, Sol’kanar is a ton more fun, and thus I will ask you to forget my previous statement.

I’m thinking infinite here. Enter Blood Pet and Enduring Renewal.

Here's how this infinite life combo works. With Sol’kanar, Blood Pet and Enduring Renewal in play:

Step 1: Sacrifice Blood Pet to add one black mana to your mana pool. Enduring Renewal will put Blood Pet back in your hand.
Step 2: Cast Blood Pet with the black mana provided when you sacrificed him the first time and Sol’kanar will gain you one life.

Now you are back where you started, except one life ahead. Repeat steps one and two and watch your life soar into infinite.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of gaining mucho life, I also think of cards like Hatred. Paying X life for a big effect to finish off your opponent is key. I used Hatred in the deck, but there are a slew of cards you could use including Bond of Agony, Crypt Rats, Pyrohemia, etc. Fortunately, Hatred is the only one I could think of that doesn’t actually cost X mana and X life -- thus the inclusion.

Now that you understand why I used Hatred, you’ll probably notice that there’s one lone copy of Yawgmoth’s Tomb. While all of the lands in play are swamps, little ‘ol Sol’kanar will be unblockable. When the time comes, just use one of the deck’s tutors to pull out the Tomb of Yawgmoth, play it, cast Hatred on your Sol’kanar for 10,000 life and kill an opponent.

The rest of the deck sets up the combo. Dark Ritual gives you some early speed. Hymn to Tourach gives you some early disruption. Blood Celebrant filters your life and mana for different colors (which you may need to cast Enduring Renewal since the deck isn’t heavy on white mana). Simian Spirit Guide helps to power out an earlier Sol’kanar and/or Enduring Renewal, which in turns sets up your combo and your win condition a turn sooner. With infinite life, you could take a while to find your other combo pieces and not worry… but even then I had to go and add five tutors to fetch things at the opportune time.

One card I’d like to really gloat about is the inclusion of Covenant of Fire. Not many people know of this card or even remember it. Covenant of Fire, like Hatred, lets you pay life in addition to the cost, but not actually add to the total mana cost of the spell. When you have infinite life, three mana and any amount of life, the Covenant will rid your opponent of all of his or her creatures. *gloat*

If you like, go ahead and add some Repercussions in place of the Hatred for an alternate win condition. You’ll probably want to up the numbers of Covenant of Fire in your deck if you do this.

Wrath of God, Damnation… whatever!

Who needs Wrath of God or Damnation when a three-mana Legendary Legends card coupled with a Scourge Aura can do the same thing? Mind you, it isn’t going to be as efficient, but it certainly will be loads more entertaining. Let’s take a look:

Merieke Ri Berit is one of those cards I completely forgot about until they Timeshifted her into Time Spiral. She’s not a bad card being that she only costs three mana and has a tap effect to control an opponent’s creature. However, there is some wording on the card that we will use to our advantage:

T: Gain control of target creature as long as you control Merieke Ri Berit. When Merieke Ri Berit leaves play or becomes untapped, destroy that creature. It can't be regenerated.

Unlike many other creature cards that take control of other creatures, Merieke kills her puppet if she leaves play or becomes untapped. How cruel. Not even Old Man of the Sea kills his ride…

Using Pemmin’s Aura (easily substituted with Freed from the Real), you can untap Merieke as many times as you have blue mana available. In the process, kill a bunch of your opponents’ creatures. And thus, Merieke enchanted with Pemmin’s Aura translates into: “U: Destroy target creature”. Plus Pemmin’s Aura has this little built-in “U: Enchanted creature can't be the target of spells or abilities this turn.” This is really why I chose the Aura over Freed from the Real as it’s Combo Protection.

Onto the rest of the deck, there’s a plethora of things going on – the most obvious to note is Aether Vial. Aether Vial gives you an excellent way to keep your Merieke (or Mangara or Stinkweed Imp) from being countered. It also frees up mana for other spells like Vindicate, Mana Tithe and Ancestral Vision, which offer the deck control, disruption and card advantage.

The creature base is primarily there for early game protection. Mother of Runes likes to play PoxNora at least once a day. Oops – wrong game. Mother of Runes will prevent early rushes. Remember she can block and then use her ability to give herself protection from the creature she is blocking. Whipcorder gives you either surprise tactics or a way to tap down your opponent’s most valuable threat (before you eventually take it and kill it). And Stinkweed Imp gives you something to boast as your opponent thinks about attacking with their powerhouse.

Hopefully I don’t have to talk about why Mangara of Corondor is there (psst… he works fantastically well with Pemmin’s Aura too!) However, I would urge you to use his ability and Vindicate against creatures only if you have no other answer. Use Mangara’s abilities against Enchantments, Lands and Artifacts. Why? Because targeting creatures with Mangara will take the focus away from Merieke and we don’t want that.

You’ll notice I’ve included a few one-of cards like Sadistic Glee, Moonlit Wake and Inheritance. Each one of these cards activates when a creature is put into a graveyard from play (through the main combo the deck). Sadistic Glee can give any of your creatures +1/+1 counters (target Stinkweed), Moonlit Wake will gain you life and Inheritance will draw you a card for 3 mana per creature. While none of these cards play a major role in the deck, they fit in nicely with the whole Merieke-Pemmin’s Aura combo.

Evacuate the Elders!

For those of you that figured out the three Legends I hinted at earlier, and that have been paying attention, you will know the last card is Nicol Bolas. Nicol Bolas and his Elder-kin are the most unwieldy, cumbersome Dragons in the game. An eight-mana casting cost with only a 7/7 body and an upkeep cost of three different color mana?!?! Are you kidding me?

To make matters worse, and I’ve mentioned this before, they left the “Elder” creature type on the card? Why, Wizards? Why? Elder doesn’t make any sense as a creature type as much like Uncle-Istvan doesn’t make sense. However, you at least changed Istvan’s creature type to Human… why not just make Nicol Bolas a Dragon Wizard or something??

Anyway, Nicol Bolas may be a clumsy card, but he has a spiffy ability. Attack, damage, Mind Twist for 20… or however many cards they have in their hand. Stripping your opponent of their hand is a dangerous ability. Not as dangerous as Mind Twist and three Dark Rituals in an opening hand, but you get the gist.

The main combo here is Nicol Bolas + Evacuation. Here’s how it works:

Get Nicol Bolas into the graveyard. Use Goryo’s Vengeance to bring him into play (with haste) and then equip him with the longbow. Tap him to deal one point of damage to an opponent. With that damage on that stack, play Evacuation and return all creatures to their owner’s hand. When the damage resolves, your opponent will have to discard his or her hand. Thus, discarding all of those cute little creatures they had in play before evacuating. This leaves your opponent wide open to a full scale assault. Creatureless and cardless will keep your opponent from coming back strong any time soon.

Now I must admit I spent quite a bit of time working on this deck. At one point I had red splashed for Fire Whip. At another time I had both Aether Membrane and Wall of Tears for early game defense. At yet another time I went full-scale recursion. However, in all of these versions, I just couldn’t find a happy medium between getting the combo in place and having both early game defense and a win condition.

Once the combo is done, you have to remember that Nicol Bolas will be back in your hand. As the deck currently stands, there is no red in the deck so you can’t hardcast Nicol Bolas and use him as your win condition. Nor will discarding him and reanimating him win you the game with only seven damage to deal. That’s why I enlisted the help of Dimir Doppelganger. She could shapeshift into Nicol Bolas or into one of the creatures in your opponent’s graveyard. I’m sure there’s a decent win condition in your opponent’s graveyard for the Doppelganger to clone.

Then there’s the early game defense. Drift of Phantasms plays double-duty for this deck providing a 0/5 flyer for only three mana and providing a three mana transmute for Dimir Doppelganger once you’re ready. Duress gives you some pinpoint disruption and Dreamscape Artist is a chump blocker or a spellshaped Harrow as long as you keep him around. Note that being a Spellshaper assists in getting Nicol Bolas into your graveyard.

I could go on and on about card choices in the deck, but at this point my time has run out. Just take note of the two little legendary lands in the deck and bathe in their synergistic beauty…

Join me next time when I take three more combos from the combo pages of Magic Deck Vortex and turn them into decks. Only in Combofusion!!!

See you next time,

John Streetz
webmaster of www.magicdeckvortex.com

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.