Hello, and welcome to the celebration! If you count Abeth Edition as one article (it was written and submitted as one), then this is my 100th regular article for StarCityGames! Sure, there’ve been some daily articles in there as well, but this is the centennial article.
For my fiftieth article, I decided to write up fifty multiplayer combos from the current set: Mirrodin. Therefore, I might as well do the same thing for this anniversary. Therefore, we will have fifty multiplayer combos from Saviors.
Initially, I wanted to do a hundred combos. I put “one hundred” in the title, and even wrote an opening talking about how neat it was to do one hundred combos. Then I started brainstorming with the list of cards, and it became quite apparent that I wasn’t going to get anywhere near one hundred combos – well, unless you counted things like paring a fast creature with burn as a combo.
Therefore, we’re left with fifty combos, which is still quite a few. To be fair, only some of these “combos” will be combos in the classic sense. Just check out the first entry and you’ll see a classic combo. On the other hand, some of these combos are going to be more along the lines of synergies. This set is not the most combo friendly set, and creating fifty combos will really stretch the definition of “combo.” I’m game, however.
Hopefully, you’ll get some ideas in here for a bunch of decks. These ideas are meant to spark your deckbuilding skills, so I hope that you enjoy them. If you do start building a deck from one or more of these ideas, please drop me a note in the forums to let me know. I love to read decklists.
The most-used card from Saviors in my list below is a Blue card. Can you guess which one? What if I told you that it has a converted casting cost of two, would that help? How about if I pointed out that it’s common? Do you have an idea now?
No, it’s not Ideas Unbound.
Also a side note, just because I title this “multiplayer combos” does not mean that your other casual decks cannot use these ideas. Feel encouraged to pilfer and procure ideas.
Without further preface, allow me to present Fifty Multiplayer Combos from Saviors!
1. Oboro Breezecaller – Lifegift – Fastbond – Wild Growth
By having a land that taps for multiple mana, you can abuse the Breezecaller if you can play any number of lands. Fastbond helps there, but the life loss prevents too much abuse. Enter Lifegift, a card that will enable you to go crazy. Note you can find many substitutes for Wild Growth, like Gaea’s Cradle, Lotus Vale, and so forth. This gives you as much mana as you desire.
2. Sekki, Seasons’ Guide – Blasting Station
Unless someone disrupts you, you can have infinite damage with just these two cards alone. Play Sekki, and shoot it with the Blasting Station. You make a creature, untap the Station, and Blast again. Keep doing it until Sekki is dead, and you have eight spirit tokens plus an untapped Station. Then hit someone for one damage. Bring back Sekki, untapped the Station. Each cycle you can deal one damage, thereby killing everybody at the table.
3. Celestial Kirin – Sickening Shoal
A spell with X in the casting cost is treated as having a casting cost without the X everywhere but on the stack. That means all we need to do is find an Arcane spell with X in its casting cost. Sickening Shoal can be played for any casting cost above two. That allows you to pop any annoying permanent unless it costs one or nothing. That’s a pretty good deal.
4. Death of a Thousand Stings – Bazaar of Baghdad – Squee, Goblin Nabob
There are a lot of ways to turn Bazaar of Baghdad’s discard ability into actual card advantage. Death of a Thousand Stings continues that theme. It’s easy to have more cards in hand than your opponent when you are outdrawing them every turn by returning cards like Squee and Death to your hand. Exile Into Darkness will also work here as well.
5. Kemuri-Onna – Kemuri-Onna – Otherworldly Journey
The following trick will work with any two -Onna creatures out, but I like the Kemuri-Onna the best, because of the potential card advantage. The disadvantage of the Onna’s abilities is that you have to go and tap all of that mana again. By playing Otherworldly Journey, you can replay one Onna while the other comes back and gets a +1/+1 counter. That way, you only have to replay one, you get a bigger beater, and your opponent discards an additional card sooner.
6. Meishin, the Mind Cage – Reverence
Our first all-Saviors combo should prevent most creatures from ever attacking you. Just four cards in hand will keep any creature with six or less power from entering the red zone. In order to win, you can add pumpable creatures, or really large creatures, or just find an alternate path to victory.
7. Maga, Traitor to Mortals – Piracy
Piracy allows you to tap any player’s lands for mana, which is great in multiplayer. Maga provides an excellent outlet for all of that mana. Getting a huge Maga while also killing somebody with their own mana can be quite a spectacle.
8. Ideas Unbound – Stormbind
Do you have ideas that need binding? Use the power of storms. If you cannot possibly empty your hand, and you want to use those cards you drew, start Stormbinding away. Dealing an extra six damage can easily swing the game, kill a few critical creatures, or take someone’s life total down to a respectable level.
9. Footsteps of the Goryo – Kokusho, the Evening Star
If your multiplayer group is as tired of Kokusho as ours is, then you’d better hope that the Kokusho players don’t get ahold of this combo. Now they can swing for five damage in the air with an active Kokusho, and then gain a bunch more life as they suck away a quarter of your starting life total. Again.
10. Promised Kannushi – Kokusho, the Evening Star
Where one Kokusho combo lies, can another be far behind? When I first spied a creature with a really high Soulshift, I immediately thought that the Kannushi essentially had Soulshift: Kokusho. Let’s see how many ways Kokusho can be returned, eh?
11. Shifting Borders – Ayumi, The Last Visitor
Having a huge legendary landwalker isn’t going to help much if your opponent doesn’t help you out by playing a legendary land – so give him a land if Ayumi needs a bit of help! You can even throw in Livonya Silone for the flavor.
12. Ashes of the Fallen – Patriarch’s Bidding
I’m sure we all initially saw that Ashes of the Fallen would be useful to use to name spirits, and then we can soulshift into any creature. Another use for Ashes is to name some obscure creature type that your opponent will likely not have – like Elder. Then you can return all of your creatures while your opponent only gets a few.
13. Spiraling Embers – Prosperity
Everybody will love you when you play a huge Prosperity… That is, until you hit one of them for massive damage from a Spiraling Embers. You can also use Stormseeker and Sudden Impact.
14. Kami of the Crescent Moon – Spiraling Embers
Another trick is to try and fill up their hand slowly, using Kami of the Crescent Moon. Hopefully, players will want to keep more cards in their hand naturally after this set is released. The Kami will just help that natural reaction, until the Embers strike.
15. Thoughts of Ruin – Tomb of Urami
With a full hand, you can pop all lands – and in response, make a big, nasty 5/5 Demon. After both resolve, you can play the land that was sitting in your hand the entire time.
16. Wine of Blood and Iron – Berserk – Ball Lightning
Do you like swinging with twenty-four-power tramplers? Sure, we all do. This baby comes swinging out of nowhere to smack somebody upside the head. For an extra mana, you can use Blistering Firecat. Add Fling to kill two players.
17. Charge Across the Araba – Shinen of Life’s Roar
Attack with all of your creatures, including the Shinen of Life’s Roar. Your opponent has to block the Shinen with everything. Then use Charge Across the Araba to pump your army up significantly. The end result is that you have a few extra Plains in your hand, and your alpha strike probably just killed one of your opponents.
18. Dense Canopy – Jiwari, the Earth Aflame
Use Jiwari to steadily shoot down your opponent’s non-flyers. Since your opponent’s flyers cannot block your ground creatures, you can then attack with impunity. Make sure you have blockers of your own. A Silklash Spider would be particularly helpful, since it is one of the few creatures that can block both flyers and non-flyers under a Dense Canopy.
19. Kuon, Ogre Ascendant – Mutilate
Since both Mutilate and Kuon require a heavy commitment to Black, they can easily fit into the same deck. Note that you can play Mutilate, wiping the board, and then play Kuon. At the end of the turn, Kuon flips, and you get a virtual copy of The Abyss to help keep opponents down.
20. Oboro, Palace of the Clouds – Thoughts of Ruin
You can return the Palace to your hand, and then play Thoughts of Ruin. Not only will you get more lands sacrificed that way, but you can also save one of your lands. You can then put the Palace back down and keep going.
21. Razorjaw Oni – Darkest Hour
If you dislike the ability of Razorjaw Oni, make sure your opponent gets that disadvantage as well. By playing a simple enchantment, no creatures will be able to block – ever. If you have out a Razorjaw Oni and several other creatures, you can surprise your opponent by playing the Darkest hour, and then getting the first hit in. Often, the player who hits first hits last. It will also create Bedlam at a multiplayer table, as the person who thought he was secure behind his six walls is now the subject of multiple attacks.
22. Rally the Horde – Sensei’s Divining Top
You can use the Top to make sure that you go at least two rounds with Rally the Horde. That should give you three to five 1/1 creatures guaranteed, with the potential to get much deeper for more warriors.
23. Pure Intentions – Scandalmonger
Play Scandalmonger, and then you can either discard Pure Intentions or play it to temporarily keep your other cards. Either way you are able to stave off the use of the Scandalmonger. To further dissuade opponents, try using Dodecapod or Guerilla Tactics. Let’s develop this further in the next category.
24. Pure Intentions – Scandalmonger – Death of a Thousand Stings – Exile Into Darkness
The idea here is to have one card in hand in your upkeep – the regularly discarded Pure Intentions, while everybody else has been Mongered out of cards. Then you’ll be able to return Death of a Thousand Stings or Exile Into Darkness. Either will work. It gives you slow removal or a winning condition that you can use while swinging with the Scandalmonger. If you kill the Scandalmonger, then you will be three cards higher than your opponents – one for the Pure Intentions, another that you draw, and the third that you returned. If you returned more cards or had multiple Pure Intentions, you could be in a very good situation. Considering the number of cards in this set that thrive on you having more cards, I’m sure you could find a use for such an advantageous position.
25. Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker – Warmonger or Squallmonger
While we are on the subject of abusing the Masques ‘Mongers, why not take a look at the synergy between Michiko and the two damage-dealing ‘Mongers? In both cases, for each activation of a ‘Monger an opponent puts in, they’ll lose a permanent. Now, Warmonger will kill Michiko unless you find some way to protect her, so I suggest Squallmonger. You might be able to play Voice of Duty too, a flyer that has protection from Green and therefore will survive the coming storm.
26. Ashes of the Fallen – Lord of the Undead
For regular recursion, try naming Zombie when you play your Ashes. Then the Lord of the Undead can return any creature card in your graveyard to your hand with the simple tap ability. Getting an extra creature every turn is quite powerful – especially if you reuse creatures that have various abilities, including the Shinen in this set. It will also make your Soulless Ones much bigger.
27. Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant – Angelic Chorus
I wanted to find a creature oriented way to gain life, so that Rune-Tail’s flip ability would be pertinent. There are a lot of ways to gain the necessary life in order to flip Rune-Tail into a pretty powerful enchantment. However, I prefer one that can best use its flip ability – which requires that you have creatures. When I think of playing creatures to gain life, I think of Angelic Chorus.
28. Oboro Breezecaller – Azusa, Lost but Seeking – Gaea’s Cradle – Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant
To be honest, Sasaya is a hard creature to flip. I tried to come up with a way of getting her to flip more easily…. But having seven lands in hand is hard. I decided that the best way to guarantee Sasaya’s flip is to return an bunch of lands with moonfolk. With these three creatures out, Cradle taps for three Green mana. Use Oboro over and over to return enough lands so you can flip Sasaya…. then you can replay three of those lands. You’ll have a bunch of mana to spare, and you can easily toss in into something large.
29. Oboro Breezecaller – Tolarian Academy – Four Artifacts – Patron of the Moon
How about a Breezecaller combo that doesn’t even need Green? Sure, you can play around with Cradle and a bunch of creatures, but you can also run the Academy and artifacts as well. With this combo, you need a land that taps for four mana, so Scorched Ruins will work as well. You tap the land, returning another land to your hand. You put it back with the Patron, and you have one mana left, plus your land in untapped. You can repeat ad nauseam, getting infinite mana.
30. Blood Clock – Obliterate
Play Obliterate, floating four mana. Then slap down a Blood Clock. The typical problem with Blood Clock is that your opponents will always choose the lesser of two evils. If you Obliterate, you can force them into losing two life every turn. After all, who wants to return their only land? Since the Blood Clock only affects opponents, you can slowly create a defense while everyone else dies.
31. Ashes of the Fallen – Bladewing the Risen
If you name Dragon when you play Ashes of the Fallen, then getting Bladewing the Risen into play brings with him a free reanimation of any single creature in your graveyard. Feel free to bring Akroma, Angel of Wrath straight into play.
32. Ashes of the Fallen – Return of the Nightstalkers
Sure, using Ashes with Patriarch’s Bidding seems like the regular thing to do, but you are giving other players free creatures, and that’s no fun. In multiplayer, they can help each other out, and several beasts, spirits, zombies, soldiers, and whatnot are all going to get mentioned – bringing several creature types out of some graveyards.
For a really fun combo, name Nightstalkers with your Ashes, and then play Return of the Nightstalkers. You’ll have to lose your swamps – but then, there’s no guarantee that you’ll even have swamps, is there?
33. Ebony Owl Netsuke – Mikokoro, Center of the Sea – Kami of the Crescent Moon
A quick way to make players draw extra cards involves the land and creature from Saviors. Between the two, you are hopefully giving players enough cards so that they have difficulty emptying their hands. Then you punish them for their hand gluttony with Ebony Owl Netsuke. You could also play cards like Viseling, Howling Mine, Prosperity, and Underworld Dreams.
34. Jiwari, the Earth Aflame – Gravity Sphere
If you want Jiwari to off all creatures, including flyers, then look no further than Gravity Sphere. The G-Sphere used to be a highly sought-after card ages ago, but it has languished in relative obscurity for years. Bring it to light in your Jiwari/Earthquake/Fault Line deck.
35. Erayo, Soratami Ascendant – Mind’s Desire
The time to use Erayo is when you need to help playing Storm. You play Erayo, a Mox of some sort (probably Chrome), maybe a Lotus Petal, then Mind’s Desire four times. The Mind’s Desire will trigger Erayo, thus helping to ensure that your Desired cards get played smoothly. After all, your opponent will now need to play something before playing countermagic. You essentially get four free cards. If you have one Counterspell in hand (or you flip over one with Mind’s Desire) then your opponent will need three Counterspells in order to prevent you from playing a particular card off the Desire. (Remember, however, that if the spell is on the stack when Erayo flips, it will not be countered, as per the FAQ – The Ferrett)
36. Rally the Horde – Ancestral Knowledge
Ancestral Knowledge will let you set up to ten cards on the top of your library for just two mana. You can easily set yourself up for a major Rally the Horde. It should go through a guaranteed four times, and then as many times as it keeps going randomly. This can result in quite a few 1/1 critters on your side.
37. One with Nothing – Ashen Ghoul – Nether Shadow – Krovikan Horror – Crucible of Worlds – Bazaar of Baghdad
You can make One with Nothing work as long as you combine it with cards that want to be in the graveyard. Bazaar decks love to fill a graveyard with goodies like Squee, Goblin Nabob, and several of the creatures mentioned above. You can even reuse lands that are discarded by playing Crucibles. In this way, One with Nothing becomes a powerful advantage instead of a disadvantage. You can also use cards with flashback or Incarnations, like Anger, Wonder, or Filth, depending on what colors you are playing.
38. Sokenzan Spellblade – Dwarven Warriors
With a full hand, make the Spellblade unblockable. Then activate its ability three times, and hit your opponent for twenty-three unblockable damage. If you have six cards in hand, you can still hit for twenty, which should kill someone. Plus, you keep the cards for future death-dealing purposes. .
39. Freed from the Real – Arcanis the Omnipotent
I began brainstorming ideas for use with Freed from the Real. I initially had a Time Vault/Animate Artifact/Giant Fan combo thing going on with it, so you could take infinite turns. But I did a similar combo recently, so I tried to come up with a creature with the best tap ability printed. I didn’t want it to take up much mana, because you’ll be abusing Freed from the Real, not the creature itself. Enter Arcanis, with the ability to Ancestral Recall you. Now he actually can Ancestral you, with every Blue mana becoming three cards.
40. Freed from the Real – Solarion
Another way to abuse Freed from the Real is to have the biggest creature ever ™ in play. Simply play Solarion, slap Freed on him, then go all counter crazy. You can Fling Solarion, Grab the Reins him, use Surestrike Trident, Bloodshot Cyclops him, or my favorite, Rupture him. If you have out some method of staying alive – like Circle of Protection: Red, Worship, and a Pro Red creature, or maybe Platinum Angel and Mother of Runes, then you’ll be the only one standing after this Solarion blows up.
41. Freed from the Real – Kamahl, Pit Fighter
My last Freed from the Real combo, I promise. Here, every Blue mana is a Lightning Bolt. Kamahl doesn’t have the sheer power of the previous two combos, but it has tremendous versatility. Want to know something cool? All three of the Freed from the Real combos are in two colors. You can easily play an Arcanis/Kamahl/Freed from the Real/Fling deck.
42. Hidetsugu’s Second Rite – Illicit Auction – Mage’s Contest
The goal of this combo is to play a “fun” little multiplayer deck that no one will take seriously. Play either Mage’s Contest or Illicit Auction and bid one less life than someone will need to play in order to go to ten life. For example, Mages’ Contest something pretty good, like Visara the Dreadful; if your opponent is at sixteen life, call out a bid of five. If your opponent bids six, look concerned, then agree, sigh, and let the spell resolve. Then Rite them to death.
If they do not call your bet, then you gain the creature or counter the spell, which is a solid play. Note that although anybody can bid for Illicit Auction, I’ve noticed that few will do so except for the owner after the price goes up.
43. Overwhelming Intellect – Dream Halls – Polar Kraken
Using a simple Blue spell, play Polar Kraken, then counter it with Overwhelming Intellect and draw a bunch of cards. This combo is so cool, that the other players at the table may not mind you playing with Dream Halls. At least, they won’t mind until it is too late, and you reveal what your deck actually does…
44. Meishin, the Mind Cage – Academy Rector
If your table is anything like ours, then when you lose a Rector, you are getting one of two possible enchantments – Mirari’s Wake or Future Sight. Instead, get the Mind Cage. People will be relieved that you didn’t get one of the “Power Two” enchantments… yet you have secretly sneaked into play one of the better enchantments in the past few sets. You might even ask people around the table, as a friendly gesture, “Which would you guys prefer me to get; Future Sight, Wake, or that new Meishin that I want to play around with?”
45. Endless Swarm – Uyo, the Silent Prophet – Dream Halls
Continuing our apparent Dream Halls theme is Endless Swarm. We all love lots of creatures. Play Endless Swarm and then Fork it ad nauseam with Uyo. Forking will add lands to your hand, increasing its size for resolution. Plus, by forking the Swarm, you will fork the epic ability to. If you, say, Dream Halls out Endless Swarm and have eight mana available, then after forking four times, you’ll resolve five Endless Swarms and each will see additional cards in your hand. Then, on each of your turns, you’ll get five more Swarms to resolve. Just add something like Goblin Bombardment and stir. With Altar of Dementia, this combo can deck decks packing hundreds of cards in just a few turns. Heaven forbid that you have some sort of pump effect in play, like, say, Seshiro the Anointed.
46. Oboro Breezecaller – Fastbond – Lifegift – Minamo, School at Water’s Edge – Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Using Oboro Breezecaller once again, you need one land that taps for Blue and at least three Forests. You tap to add Blue mana to your pool. You then tap Rofellos for at least three mana. Untap Rofellos with the Blue mana, using Minamo. Activate the Breezecaller with Rofellos’s mana, returning the Blue land to your hand and untapping Minamo. Play the Blue land and repeat as necessary. This will give you any number of Green mana. You can combine with Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers to make any legendary creature have any power you want. You can also combine with any legendary creature’s tap ability and use it millions of times if you wish. Jeska and Kamahl, Pit Fighter can kill people. Arcanis or Azami can draw your deck. Visara can kill every creature. Aboshan can tap every permanent your opponents control. My personal favorite, however, is Heartless Hidetsugu. Combine with, say, a Stream of Life for fifty million life, and you can get everybody at one life, except for you.
47. Oboro Breezecaller – Fastbond – Lifegift – Seed the Land
With this double Saviors combo, you will not make any extra mana. Simply tap two lands for two mana, untapping one and bouncing the other. Then replay it and repeat. This combo gives you any number of 1/1 snakes. You can have thousands, millions – whatever you desire. You could have a second Lifegift in play as well – that’d give you millions of life.
48. Oboro, Palace in the Clouds – Heartbeat of Spring – Fastbond – Lifegift
I figured that with all of the cool Oboro Breezecaller tricks, the least I could do was try and use Oboro, Palace in the Clouds. This combo gives you infinite Blue mana, although you could just as easily combine with Seed the Land, Minamo, School at Water’s Edge, another Lifegift, and so forth.
49. Oboro Breezecaller named when playing Cranial Extraction
Based on how many ideas I have for Oboro Breezecaller, opponents at my table had better start taking care of things proactively.
50. Eternal Dominion – Five or more Players
The trick with Eternal Dominion and multiple players is to try and combo out by getting different cards from different decks. If you can grab a Worship here, a Darksteel Gargoyle there, then a Bloodfire Colossus to kill everybody, except you stay alive due to the Worship and Gargoyle. That’d be fun. Your challenge is to win using a different card from each and every deck, barring some sixty-card elf deck or somesuch. Good luck.
Wow – those are fifty combos, all right. Whew! I’m tired. It’s taken me seven days to write this article, and I’m beat. I hope that you’ve discovered a deck or three in here. After all, that’s why we write these articles – to give you ideas.
Until later,
Abe Sargent