As some of you know, M10 is the name of the core set coming out this year. Even though I am not done with Alara Reborn posts, (I’ll post combos part 5 within 2 days.) there are already cards from M10 being spoiled, which I thought would start in late June. Here’s an MSE mockup of Golden Lotus, which is a Black Lotus variant much, much different from any other yet. (I know, the M10 symbol doesn’t look right. Blame MSE for that.)

First, and most important, it adds 9 mana. That’s not a typo. Second, it requires you to sacrifice lands. Third, it has shroud. Fourth, it comes into play tapped. Fifth, it actually doesn’t come into play, it enters the battlefield. This could easily lead to a turn 5 Progenitus, or even 2 turn 5 Progenituses. (On the off chance that you have 2 Dramatic Entrances, 2 progenituses, and a land in your hand turn 5.) It isn’t completly broken, but it also is a great card. Now the hunt is on to find ways to cheat this into play without sacrificing lands. This works well with Knight of the Reliquary, because you end up with 4 lands in your graveyard, or Crucible of Worlds, which will allow you to replay the lands you sacrificed and then replay this. This card has lots of potential for comboing. After M10 comes out, I’ll probably devote an entire post to this one card. (Unless the other M10 cards have more potential.)

I finally found a way to write a normal post, so here’s part 4, Jund

The first combo will do the same thing Maelstrom Pulse does, with the bonus of giving you a 3/2 creature. (And destroying a land, if you want. But only one permanent no matter what.)

There are, of course, other advantages to this combo. With this, you can play a blue or white card in a deck with no blue or white sources. (You would probably be better off using nonbasics for that, but you can do it.) You can return anything to your hand with Master Transmuter, although you can still only take back an artifact. (While cards are in yor hand, they aren’t artifacts, they’re omly colorless) You can return a land and bring down a Darksteel collosus. (I just realised, this combo would be better off in Esper, and in Conflux. But it’s here because of  Vithian Renegades, and Conflux is over, and Esper is over for Alara Reborn.)

The second combo applies to Jund, which it should. It will give you a victory very quickly if your creature survives the attck, and if not, you can try again with another creature.

With both equiptments attached to the same creature, and no tapped mana, you give a creature +4/+2 and trample, than use the rest of your mana to pay the X cost on Deamonspine Whip. If you have 3 mana, and attach this to a creature with power 0, it’s already 10 damage. But you’re obviously going to attach it to something bigger. (Unless you have a lust to attack with a Stuffy Doll…) If you attach it to a 5-power or greater creature, it’s an attack for the win. (And that’s assuming 3 mana…) If you also use Spellbreaker Behemoth, your opponent better have some countermagic or Path to Exile.

The next combo will punish your opponent for using nonbasic lands. You do not want to be on the receiving end of this if you have a large amount of nonbasics. (If you know you’re playing against a deck without nonbasics, don’t use a deck with this combo. That or put this combo on a sideboard, but it’s more of a casual combo, where there are no sideboards.)

If your opponent is running a lot of nonbasics, then that combo can just be mean. If you put it into a deck that usually has lots of little creatures it can be devastating. If you have the mana to play Wound reflection after you’ve played Mercadia’s Downfall, you could easily sneak in extra damage.

I’ll post part 5, Naya, hopefully on Thursday. (I’m busy tomorrow.) If not, I will write it by the end of Saturday.

Well, I’ve ran into some technical difficulty. I can’t write long posts in Firefox because every time I switch tabs, it refreshes the page and I lose all of my progress. Google Chrome has started to crash on me as soon as I try to do anything, and my computer has some nasty viruses which I’m in the process of trying to get rid of. Hopefully, I’ll be able to write Alara Reborn Combos Part 4 Sunday, (I’m posting at 1:00 AM, so I’m not sure if I should write tomorrow or today) but if not, I’ll post on Tuseday. (Monday is Memorial Day) I hope that the antivirus programs that I’m running will be enough.

Hello. I’m taking a small break from my combos post to post about a new format that I’ve read about on MTG Salvation. In fact, their article can give you a better explanation than I can, so I’ll give you the link to the article and post about it here. (An abridged version) Here’s the article. MTG Salvation is running an online, text based tournament of 5CB. You can sign up by reading this topic and PMing Mogg. Actually, you don’t play in it. You just submit a decklist and it’s paired against everyone else, with the TO actually calculating the matches. The deadline for submitting a decklist is May 27, 8:00 PM EST.

Rules:
The basic rules of this format are simple: You make a 5-card deck, then play a normal Magic game. (with some changes, of course.)  You obviously don’t lose this format because of trying to draw from an empty library, although you do have a draw step. Also, you obviously start with your entire deck in your hand (Cards can end up in your library even though they didn’t start there.) While you could play a game with only those rules, it might be more fun if you read the rest of the rules. (Which will be numbered)

1. You can use almost any cards that aren’t banned in vintage. This means Black Lotus and other Power 9 are legal. It’s not a bad idea to proxy cards if you’re going to play this format if you want to play it across a table, although it was meant to be played online and by text.

2. The exceptions to number 1 is a banned list that would give an unfair advantage. I’ll post the full banned list at the end of this post.

3. Random effects produce the most harmful effect to the person who played it.

4. A player cannot win the game or force an opponent to discard more than one card until the opponent’s second turn. (This is slightly different than in the article. This rule was changed slightly since the article came out.)

The best way to win this format is by playing expensive spells usually unusable because of cost on the first turn through multiple Black Lotuses. You don’t even need to play any lands in this format, because the restricted lists of normal Magic are ignored.I have made a deck that (Hopefully) will win 95% of the games on the play. On the draw, it will win any game in which the opponent doesn’t have either 2 countermagic spells that can be played by discarding a card/sacrificing a land or cards that pick cards out of the hand and force me to discard them.

If you decide you like 5CB, then you can also play a variation of it, which is 4 Card Blind, or even 3 Card Blind. Knowing the rules of 5CB, you can easily translate them into 4CB or 3CB.

Banned Cards:

Barren Glory (Banned for obvious reasons)
Force of Will (Too powerful in this format)
Unmask (Also way too powerful, although Thoughtseize is legal)
Magus of the Moon (Nonbasics are the base for some decks)
Trinisphere (Again, way too powerful)
Show and Tell (You can imagine how broken that is)
Pact of Negation (I don’t see why. If you play this card, you’d better have some lotuses that you’re willing to sacrifice)
Ghost Quarter (No library to search)
Strip Mine (Exactly the same effect as Ghost Quarter in this format)
Wasteland (Also almost the same effect)

Hi its Zach…Agian I just found a great combo for any deck with green in it. This would be great for decks that have very little flying… or no flying.

This is obvious… Equip the spike to the archer and then obvious. This is turn 4 anti creatures.

Turn 1- Archer
Turn 2- Whatever hopefully a decent attacker
turn 3- Spike
Turn 4-Equip and have no more fears…(of fliers)

Part 1 – Bant

Part 2 – Esper

Today, I have part 3 (Grixis) for you.

Yes, this combo does use white, and I do know that. But I don’t want my part 6 to steal all of the combos from the other shards. What this does is give you lots of 2/2 zombies with lifelink, then gives you the ability to use those to… Well, I’ll just show you:

This combo can kill your opponent in 2 turns, if used the right way. In fact, if you use it with the combo from part 2, it most likely will kill in 2 turns. If you’re against a deck that gains life, it will take longer, but it will still win through milling.

The second combo will give lots of mill. In fact, there aren’t many combos in Grixis, so mill might be the best way to go with a Grixis combo deck. In fact, one of the cards was used in the last combo.

This doesn’t produce any effect other than milling, but it will probably get rid of at least 20 cards. If you can repeat a few times, you will win. Anyway, you’ll want to play Mind Funeral, use the second effect of Lich Lord of Unx, and then attack with Nemesis of Reason.

Grixis hasn’t had many fun combos. I know that neither of those are very good. Jund and Naya will be much better, and the cross shard combos will be the best.

Part 1 -Bant

Combo #1: 3 turns in a row without your opponent

This combo involves Sen Triplets and Mindslaver:

If you play those side by side, and sacrifice Mindslaver, you can play the cards your opponent would play on your turn, control his/her whole turn on his/her turn, then repeat on your turn. If you want to be sure of Sen Triplets getting out and staying out, you can use Mindslaver to see if your opponent has any removal or burn, and if s/he does play it on one of their creatures, then play Sen Triplets with a good chance of it staying out. What if you want to get Mindslaver out before turn 6?

What if you want to use Mindslaver again?

Use Master Transmuter to return this to your hand and put it into play, then return Mindslaver to your hand. Next turn, it can come back out.

Combo 2: Invincible Creatures

As long as your creatures are artifacts, this combo will prevent all damage from being dealt to any of them.

This worke even better if you have 2 Master Transmuters. As long as you keep one mana untapped, you can tap Master Transmuter to return Ethersworn Sheildmage to your hand, then back to play. If you have 2, or have an Unbender Tine, you can do it twice, meaning your artifact creatures are safe from anything other than cards that either destroy them or remove them from the game.

Combo 3: Destroy your opponent’s creatures for WB

This combo will allow you to get rid of every single one of your opponent’s creatures, and there’s not much s/he could do about it. It only costs 2 mana, and as an extra bonus every single one of your creatures becomes a 2/2.

If you want to stay in standard, you can use Godhead of Awe:
 

This combo can quickly turn the game in your favor on turn 5, with you attacking with a bunch of 2/2s, and all of your opponent’s creatures dead. (Humility does strange things if you turn noncreature permanents into creatures. For example, if you turn a land into a creature with Humility out, the land will no longer be able to tap for mana as long as its a creature. Also, if you turn Humility itself into a creature, it makes itself lose all abilities, and I don’t even know what that will do.)

It’s Zach in the new set alot of creatures gain haste!

#5 is

Igneous Pouncer. It is great to throw one or two into the deck so when the opponent is tapped out or has no creatures just pop this guy into play and swing for 5 OR the more likly just cycle him to get yourself a despratly needed land. This guy is great for limited even though he costs a bit much…

Next for #4 is

Alot of poeple are going to be annoyed that I put this in as #4 because its a screwed up akroma angel of wrath! The this is its a 6/6 for a messed up 8 and doent have protection from the main removal color black. Dont get me wronge this is great for playing limited but if your not I’d seggest you go get an angel of wrath.

#3 in the countdown is:

Just plainly who doesnt like a 3/4 that gives evrything haste? Its a 3/4 for 4 mana=good its not monocolored=not so good But it gives your apoclyps hydra haste and all your other goody good jund cards like your dragons haste. It makes for a fun combonation!

#2 is

No matter what this card will do a great deal of damage to your opponent and lets say it gets into a decking battle this card really holds itself up to high expectations….

Now for #1————-

Most people are probobly saying wait? WHAT? but heres the thing, who doesnt like attacking with a 3/2 on turn four and getting a free extra spell. lets say this could be a collosal might? 7 damage turn 4?  is someone else smelling victory or is it just me? (yes this is a great combo for limited yes I used it and Yes I won the games I used it in)

Collossal might:

I was looking around to see what I should  post about…

I looked on the Magic the Gathering website and saw a post there about cascade and how it was developed. Click here to see

I read that and it gave me the idea to post about my cascade deck.

Just like in the post I made it so that I almost always get the card I want. I have 3 bloodbraid elfs in the deck arguably the best card in the set:

I got 3 malestrum nexesus:

And a bounch of other cascade cards. If you didn’t know you can give a card Cascade 2 or even 4! Its insane what you can do with cascade. And because all cards in the deck exept for 6 two drops (terminate and the grand Leach thing) I always get what I want. Like in the MAgic the gathering post (offical website) I love using:

Cascading into:

Cascading into:

And then Killing two of calvins creatures and blocking ther third.

Also with four:

They usually start the cascades…

I dont get to use the spinx the much it costs way to much but if I do use it i usually hallarouliously (<- spelled wrong) cascade into an enlisted wurm:

Thats all for now sorry I havnt been posting verry much I couldnt find anything to post!

This is the first post in the Alara Reborn combos series. This was originally called strategy and combos, but it’s mostly combos. Normally, I would organize the sections into 7 sections – one for each color and one for multicolored and one for artifacts. If I did it that way this time, there would be 6 very boring posts and one post that included everything. So, for Alara Reborn, I’m organizing them by shard, with one extra post for cross shard combos. (For example a combo using one card from Jund and one from Bant.) I’d usually go in WUBRG order, so this time I’ll go in Bant – Esper – Grixis – Jund – Naya order. The shards do have enough uniqueness that I can still organize it this way. Each post will have 1-3 different combos, starting today with Bant.

Combo: Attack for 48 with one creature on turn 5

All you need for this combo are 3 cards: Finest Hour, Rafiq of the Many, and Rhox Charger:

First turn, play a mana accel creature with exalted. (Noble Hierarch – Google it if you don’t know what it is, I’m not including an image because it’s not essential, it just makes the combo one turn faster.)  On turn 2, another creature with exalted. (Any 2 or 3 drop will work, but I suggest Ardent Plea – it gives you a chance to get another exalted card and even more bonuses. Turn 3, play Rafiq of the Many, which will give your big creature double strike . Turn 4, play Rhox Charger. Turn 5, play Finest Hour and attack with Rhox Charger. Now, you’re attacking for 48 and trample, if you got out a creature with exalted through Ardent Plea. Rhox Charger is a 3/3. This is because Rhox Charger will get 6 exalted bonuses (Noble Hierarch, Ardent Plea, creature Ardent Plea gave you, Rafiq of the Many, Finest Hour, Rhox Charger) making it a 9/9.  It also gains Double Strike, meaning you are attacking for 18. Finest Hour untaps it and gives you another cobat step. Fortunately, exalted bonuses don’t wear off until the end of the turn, so it’s still a 9/9. Now, it’s attacking alone again, so the 6 exalted bonuses are applied again, making it a 15/15. Now, you’re attacking for 30. (It would be fun to have double double strike, but that’s not how it works – although a card can have double lifelink, double cascade, or double exalted (or more than double, if you can)) This damage is all dealt with trample, so unless your opponent has 29 toughness worth of creatures, you win. (Actually, it takes at least a 9/10 because of the timing of the attacks. If you’re ever facing this combo, if you have a 9/X with first strike, you’ll live through it because the first half of the double strike damage is dealt at the same time as first strike damage, with the second half being dealt with normal combat damage. You’ll have an extra combat step either way, though, because Finest Hour’s ability triggers as soon as you declare your attack.)