Magic Deck Vortex: August 2009 Combos

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August (2009) Featured Combos Page! Last updated 8/23/09 (25/25 Combos) (8 Infinite Combos, 21 Deck Links) Discuss here. Post more Combos here or Email them here...
It's been a couple months since the last combo page so this time around I present to you 25 new combos. In these 25 combos are 21 deck links, eight infinite combos and several very fun build-a-deck-around-me combos. I hope you enjoy this month's featured combo page! As always, you can post combos in the forum or email them to me. Links are above. ~John Streetz~
Plague of Vermin - Essence Warden
Plague of Vermin may be an expensive card, both in mana and in life, but you can bid worry free if you have some life-gain tricks up your sleeve. In fact, Essence Warden or Soul Warden fit the bill for this card quite nicely. After everyone bids the most they can afford to bid, all the rats come into play and you gain 1 life for basically each life a player paid. (Each life paid equals one 1/1 Rat token and each token creature that comes into play gains you a life thanks to the Warden). Assuming you dropped the Warden early on the game, you should be ahead of your opponent's in life anyway. If only Plague of Vermin didn't cost seven mana...
Hell's Caretaker - Anger - Deathgreeter
Infinite Life - How it works: Start with one Hell's Caretaker in the graveyard, Anger in the graveyard, one Hell's Caretaker and Deathgreeter in play (and a Mountain in play). Tap the Hell's Caretaker and sacrifice itself to return the Hell's Caretaker already in the graveyard to play. Because it has Haste you can tap it, sacrifice itself, and return the other Caretaker to play. Repeat this as many times as you like, knowing that each time you do this you can 1 life from Deathgreeter. Infinite Life for the win! An easy way to get the cards into your graveyard is Buried Alive.
Subterranean Spirit - Pariah's Shield - Pyrohemia
Pyrohemia doesn't look like much fun to me, but a Subterranean Spirit doesn't share that thought. In fact, he loves it! Just look at the smile on his face! He's thinking about it right now. He's especially happy when equipped with a Pariah's Shield too. The Spirit won't take any damage from Pyrohemia thanks to being Pro:Red. Surviving the Pyrohemia every turn will also keep Pyrohemia in play (satisfying the creature in play clause). And the shield keeps you, the player, alive too.
Spellweaver Helix - Wurmcalling - Rude Awakening
Infinite Creatures - How does it work? Imprint both Wurmcalling and Rude Calling on the Helix. Whenever you play Rude Awakening you get a free 0/0 Wurm Token. That's not the point. The point is to play Wurmcalling with Buyback. Each time you play Wurmcalling, you get a free Rude Awakening which you want to use to Untap all of your lands so you can reply Wurmcalling (again with Buyback). Keep doing this to get infinite creatures and infinite Storm Count.
Unnatural Selection - Knight of the Mist - Crystal Shard
Unnatural Selection isn't as powerful as it use to be since they changed the Legend rule and now that the Wall rule is different, the "other than Wall" phrase is just silly. However, the card still can play some fun tricks. Take, for instance, Knight of the Mist. When he comes into you have the option to pay U or destroy target Knight. What if you turned one of your opponent's creatures into a Knight with Unnatural Selection and then targeted that creature? You have blue creature destruction. What's even better is Crystal Shard bouncing the Knight to do all over again.
Altar of Dementia - Deathrender - Warren Pilferers - Gravedigger
Infinite Mill - How is works: Start with Altar, Deathrender and one of the above creatures in play and the other in hand, and with Deathrender attached to the creature in play. Let's assume the Pilferers are in play and the Gravedigger is in your hand. Sacrifice the Pilferers to Altar of Dementia, milling some cards in the process. Deathrender's ability triggers and you can put a creature card from your hand into play with Deathrender attached to it. Put Gravedigger into play. The Gravedigger returns the Pilferer to your hand. Now sacrifice the Gravedigger to the Altar (milling cards in the process) and Deathrender's ability goes on the stack again. This time put Pilferer into play and target the Gravedigger (to return to hand). Repeat this as many times as you like, milling your opponent down the no cards in the process.
Tombstone Stairwell - Withered Wretch
Tombstone Stairwell is a very symmetrical card. It gives 2/2 hasty Zombie tokens to each player during each upkeep equal to the number of creature cards in their graveyard. One way to offset the symmetry of the Stairwell is to wipe out your opponent's graveyard. You could use one-time effects like Tormod's Crypt, or you could use something a little more efficient like Withered Wretch. Withered Wretch can pin point the cards that matter, in this case the creature cards, and exile them from the game. No more Zombie tokens for your opponents!
Sword of the Meek - Thopter Foundry - Time Sieve
Infinite Turns - How it works: With all three cards in play, sacrifice Sword of the Meek to the Thopter Foundry. Thopter Foundry makes a 1/1 blue Thopter artifact creature token with flying. Sword of the Meek returns to play equipped to the Thopter (for free). Sacrifice the Sword of the Meek again and repeat this at least five times. Note you will need at least five mana producers in order to make this work. Once you have accrued five tokens, sacrifice them to the Sieve and Take an extra turn after this one. Next turn rinse and repeat for infinite turns. How you win with those turns is up to you. Note that you will also be gaining life every time you make a Thopter token.
Seer's Vision - Void
Here's a combo I found in an old Inquest Magazine back around the Invasion Block. To quote the magazine, "Void is a pretty amazing card to begin with, able to nuke tons of cards from play and your opponent's hand. You can boost the advantage even further to your favor by using Seer's Vision to figure out what number to name for Void." You could always just use Telepathy instead of Seer's Vision, but Seer's Vision gives you the added bonus of making an opponent discard a specific card.
Nether Traitor - Genesis Chamber - Phyrexian Altar
Infinite mana - How it works: Have all three cards in play. Sacrifice Nether Traitor to the Phyrexian Altar and add a black mana to your mana pool. Genesis Chamber will create a 1/1 Myr token. Sacrifice that token to the Altar and add another black mana to your mana pool. Because the Myr token hits the graveyard, you have an opportunity to return the Nether Traitor to play for one black mana. Do that, note that you have one black mana floating. Rinse and Repeat for infinite mana. Infinite mana -- If you decide not to sacrifice the tokens the Genesis Chamber makes, you can achieve infinite creatures instead of infinite mana.
Umbilicus - Patagia Viper
This style of combo isn't anything new, but it certainly is fun. Umbilicus forces players to bounce a creature every turn unless they pay two life. Who needs to pay the life when you want to bounce a creature card. Especially a creature card like Patagia Viper that gives you two 1/1 snake tokens every time you play it. If only the Vipers had deathtouch... (Think Gorgon Flail).
Atogatog - Mirror Entity
Atogatog is one hungry atogavore but he's only hungry for Atogs. And thus building a deck around him can sometimes prove a challenge because your stuck building around just Atog creatures. Enter Mirror Entity. Mirror Entity will make all creatures you control X/X Changelings (including the Atog creature type). So, not only will they be edible by our Atogatog, but they will most likely make the Atogatog much bigger than through eating traditional Atogs. Now the trick is to give him trample or unblockability.
Did you know...?
I've recently updated the deck link buttons on new combo pages so keep reading to find out more about them. Blue buttons are deck links that link to a deck using the combo it's next to. Mind you, not all deck links are going to center around that particular combo, although most do. Red buttons indicate that I'm looking for a deck using that combo. To suggest a deck you can either post it in the casual deck forum or email it to me. In both scenarios be sure to note which combo the deck is for. Linking to the original combo page helps! If there is no blue or red button next to the right of a combo that means I'm not looking for a deck for that combo nor is there a deck in the MDV Deck Database list using it (that I'm aware of).
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror-Breaker - Pestermite
Infinite Creatures - How it Works: With both cards in play, tap Kiki-Jiki to make a token copy of Pestermite. When the Pestermite comes into play, untap Kiki-Jiki. Keep tapping Kiki-Jiki to make more and more Pestermites until you reach infinite if you like. Since all of these Pestermites have haste, you can attack all out for infinite damage.
Soul Snuffers - Necroskitter
There is something magical about taking your opponent's creatures, especially if you are playing Black. Necroskitter has this nifty little ability that reanimates your opponent's creatures if they went to the graveyard with a -1/-1 counter on them. While Wither on Necroskitter enables him to put -1/-1 counters on your opponent creatures, Soul Snuffers has the ability to put -1/-1 counters on ALL of their creatures (yours included). Follow up with some creature removal (or Damnation) and then proceed to beat your opponent with his or her own creatures. Now that's satisfying!
Gather Specimens - Planar Guide
Gather Specimens seems like a very boring card, and an expensive card too if you consider that you are spending six mana to potentially only grab one creature. Because your opponent is sure not to cast any more creatures after you resolve Gather Specimens. However, when you start combining Gather Specimens with mass blink abilities like that of Planar Guide, suddenly when all of your opponent's creatures blink back into play during the end of turn step, they all come back into play under YOUR control. Now that's spiffy! And well worth six mana.
Where Ancients Tread - Sharuum the Hegemon x 2
Infinite Damage - Here is who it works: With one Sharuum in the graveyard, one Sharuum in hand and Where Ancient Tread in play, play Sharuum. When she comes into play, target the Sharuum in your graveyard to return to play. From here, I'll quote Drathro from his article about Sharuum: A little primer on bringing multiple Sharuum the Hegemons in play: When you bring a second Hegemon into play, two things happen. First, state-based effects are generated and resolved, which means the two Legendary Sphinxes both go to the graveyard. It is only after all state-based effects have been resolved that triggered effects are put on the stack. Guess what - that means that the triggered comes-into-play (CIP) ability of the second Hegemon can target either of the Sphinxes that just went to the graveyard. If you want to, you can always bring the last Hegemon back to play. And thus you can keep returning the Sharuums infinitely, creating a loop of sorts. In the meantime, Where Ancients Tread is dealing 5 damage to a target each time a Sharuum comes into play. For Infinite Damage!
Divine Presence - Callous Giant
Here's another amusing combo I found in an old Inquest Magazine, again from the Invasion Block. Here's what Inquest had to say about the card combination, "Cho-Manno, Revolutionary was one of the coolest Mercadian Masques creatures, since he prevented all damage dealt to him. With Divine Presence, Callous Giant turns into a Cho-Manno on steroids, able to prevent all damage dealt to it and still swing for four a turn." You could make this combo as little more exciting and throw a Pariah's Shield on the Callous Giant. Still, if you've ever wanted to build a deck around Callous Giant, here's something to get you started.
Distorting Lens - Lightwielder Paladin
Lightwielder Paladin is a new member to the Sleight Knight crew and thankfully you can pull off all of the same tricks that you can with say Northern Paladin or White Knight. But if you don't want to splash blue for Mind Bend or one of its ilk, just try Distorting Lens. Turn on your opponent's cards into a Red or Black permanent with the Lens and then attack with the Paladin. If he succeeds in dealing combat damage to your opponent, you get to exile that permanent. Distorting Lens makes the Paladin useful against any color deck.
Cephalid Broker - Lotus Vale - Telekinetic Bonds
Infinite Milling - How does it work? With all three cards in play, tap the Broken and target your opponent; they will draw two and then discard two. With two triggers on the stack for Telekinetic Bonds, tap the Lotus Vale and make three blue mana. Use two blue mana to untap the Vale with the first Bonds trigger. Tap the Lotus Vale again and make three more blue mana (4 in pool). Pay 1U to untap the Broker with the second trigger. You have two blue mana in your mana pool and the Broken untapped, Vale tapped. Proceed to tap the broker, untap the vale, tap the vale, untap the vale, untap the broker, etc. Repeat for infinite milling.
Vigean Hydropon - Lignify
One of the downsides to the Vigean Hydropon is its inability to attack or block, limiting its usefulness to just storing and administering +1/+1 counters to new creature recruits. However, a 5/5 body for only three mana is extremely efficient. One excellent way to get around the 'can't attack or block' phrase is by casting Lignify on it. Suddenly it breaks out of its storage role and into it beat-face role where suddenly you now have a 5/9 powerhouse. How is this possible? The +1/+1 counter still count after the creature becomes a 0/4 Treefolk with no abilities. Sort of how a land return it's +1/+1 counter after being unanimated. You can also pull off similar shenanigans on the Hydrapon with Ovinize and Cytoshape.
Doubling Season - Gilder Bairn
Some might call this synergy, some might call it combo. No matter what you call it, it sure can be a fantastic interaction. By itself, Gilder Bairn is normally like a targeted Doubling Season, doubling up the counters on any permanent. But when you have Doubling Season in play, Gilder Bairn is more like a targeted Tripling Season. For instance, if the Bairn targets something with three counters on it, it will get six more counters instead of the normal three more (three from the Bairn and three more from Doubling Season). Now the problem still lies in tapping the Bairn without attacking with him... I'm sure you'll figure something out.
Eon Hub - Soul Echo
Who needs life when you have these two cards in play? Soul Echo, while Eon Hub is in play, is sort of like Worship except it doesn't matter if you have a creature in play. You don't lose the game as a result of having less than one life. The beauty of Soul Echo is that the ability to remove counters from Soul Echo is in its Upkeep clause. And thus, if you no longer have an Upkeep, you no longer have to worry about losing echo counters and more importantly losing Soul Echo.
Gilt-Leaf Archdruid - Limited Resources
The druids of the Gilt-Leaf clan feel that all lands should be under their care. In fact, their Archdruid feels so strongly about this that he just takes all of your lands. No questions asked. This becomes a nasty effect when you combine it with the land maximum set by Limited Resources. While you are controlling all of the lands thanks to the Archdruid, your opponent can't play lands at all. And thus, it becomes a lockdown duo of sorts.
Warp World - Siege-Gang Commander
The beauty of Warp World and Siege-Gang Commander is all in the token producing ability of the Commander. Siege-Gang Commander is capable of generating four more cards once Warp World resolves, potentially bringing out more Siege-Gang Commanders and more importantly, more permanents. If you Warp World a few times, you could conceivably put into play every permanent in your deck thanks to Siege-Gang Commander. Otherwise cards that produce multiple tokens work equally well with Warp World.
Morphling - Kyren Negotiations
Kyren Negotiations weren't going so well at first, but then Morphling Showed up and certainly improved matters. With Morphlings ability to untap it self for just a blue mana, free tapping effects from the Kyren Negotiations translates into: "U: Deal 1 damage to target opponent." This trick also works with cards like Horseshoe Crab or Opposition.
Your Combo Here!
You could have your combo featured in this spot right here (not literally, but on a future combo page). Email the webmaster with any combos you'd like to submit. Try to make sure your combo works and that there isn't already that combo on any other MDV combo page. You can always Search Magic Deck Vortex with the search tool to make sure before submitting it. I greatly appreciate your efforts to make these combo pages better. Every once in a while I have a page chock-full of your submitted combos... although I will admit about 75% of all submitted combos are duplicates.