Combo deck pilots can be the most intimidating opponents to sit down across from. If you don’t know what their plan is, it can be hard to figure it out on the spot, and then suddenly you are dead! I’m sure they took the time to walk you through the combo and explain just how really dead you are, but it can still seem sudden and confusing. If you feel this way about Modern’s combo decks, then this is the article for you.
You can learn about all of these decks with lots of experience, either by being beaten by them or with plenty of diligent research. Today I’m going to let you piggyback off my experience and knowledge to save you the pain and time.
The key to defeating combo decks is to know which cards are most important and to focus your removal, countermagic, and discard on those cards. Once you know what a combo deck is trying to do, it becomes much less intimidating. I have broken down many of the combo decks you are likely to see in Modern below, but there is always a chance that some new brew will pop up and take everyone by surprise.
The Combo Decks
Creatures (5)
Lands (20)
Spells (35)
Probably the truest of combo decks, Ad Nauseam plays virtually no creatures or interaction. The combo is built on Angel’s Grace or Phyrexian Unlife with Ad Nauseam. Once you have these two pieces, you can now draw your entire deck by losing life into the negative numbers. After you have all of your cards, there are two main ways you can win.
The primary win condition is to exile Simian Spirit Guides from your hand to cast Lightning Storm. You then get to discard all of your lands as direct burn damage. Your opponent can discard lands as well and redirect the Lightning Storm at you, but you should have more lands than they do and can send it flying back in their direction.
The other win condition is less favorable in most situations, but is sometimes the only option. If you are able to make one extra colored mana on the turn you go off, you can cast Laboratory Maniac and then Serum Visions, which lets you win when you would be required to draw. This is the answer to get around problematic cards like Leyline of Sanctity or Pithing Needle, but it does die to Abrupt Decay or creature removal. The other downside to this win condition is that it must be cast at sorcery speed.
In either case, once you have drawn your entire deck, you have the answers you need to protect your combo and finish the game. Pact of Negation and Slaughter Pact are free spells that let you answer any pesky creatures or stop your opponent from countering your win condition.
Ad Nauseam can rarely win on turn 3 but is much more likely to win on turn 4 or 5. To stop them you must counter the Ad Nauseam itself. If you allow them to draw their entire deck, they will have whatever tools they need to finish the game in Pact of Negation and Slaughter Pact.
Creatures (10)
Lands (25)
Spells (25)
Valakut Breach wins by ramping into Through the Breach and playing Primeval Titan or Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. It focuses more on the aggressive beatdown plan with Primeval Titan, with a backup of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle.
Most commonly, Through the Breach can be cast on turn 4, so you want to make sure you have a counterspell or other way to interrupt the combo for that turn. Focus on countering Through the Breach or Summoning Trap because these spells put the creature onto the battlefield rather than casting it. Removing Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle can slow down the deck a little bit but doesn’t have a huge impact most of the time. In general you want to try to stop the Primeval Titan in some way.
Creatures (10)
Lands (27)
Spells (23)
Very different from Valakut Breach, Titan Shift focuses on Scapeshift and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle to deal a large amount of damage. It plays land ramp to access lethal Mountain triggers as early as possible. Titan Shift runs a virtual six copies of Primeval Titan via Summoner’s Pact. Primeval Titan is helpful to continue land ramp and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle triggers but is not the primary win condition like it is in Valakut Breach.
This combo can consistently kill on turn 4, assuming your opponent has shocked themselves with their manabase. Stopping Scapeshift itself or Primeval Titan is best if you only have one piece of interaction, but if you can stop the early ramp, you can often buy yourself enough time to win before they reach enough lands. Removing Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle can interrupt their combo kill, but Primeval Titan is still an effective win condition.
Creatures (6)
Lands (26)
Spells (30)
Yet another variant of the Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle combo decks, Temur Scapeshift is a control deck that uses Scapeshift and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle as its win condition. It uses cards like Cryptic Command, Remand, and Izzet Charm to control the opponent while finding the combo.
Like most control decks, this does play a little slower than its sister Valakut decks. Without Primeval Titan and land ramp spells it must go longer into the game and attempt to combo while the opponent is tapped out or empty handed.
This variant is much harder to disrupt because they will likely have a counterspell to back up their game-winning Scapeshift. If you are able to win under their counterspells fast enough, they will not be able to assemble enough lands to combo off.
Creatures (29)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Spike Feeder
- 2 Eternal Witness
- 1 Wall of Roots
- 1 Reveillark
- 4 Kitchen Finks
- 1 Murderous Redcap
- 3 Noble Hierarch
- 2 Viscera Seer
- 1 Spellskite
- 2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
- 1 Fiend Hunter
- 2 Voice of Resurgence
- 1 Archangel of Thune
- 2 Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
Lands (22)
Spells (9)
Possibly the most common of the combo decks that I see is Abzan Company. It generates infinite life with Kitchen Finks by sacrificing it to Viscera Seer while Melira, Sylvok Outcast or Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit is on the battlefield. Kitchen Finks’s persist trigger brings it back to the battlefield, but either Melira says it can’t get its -1/-1 counter or Anafenza’s bolster trigger puts a +1/+1 counter on it, which counteracts the -1/-1 counter. You can continue doing this until you have infinite life. If your opponent does not concede to infinite life, you are able to use Viscera Seer’s scry trigger to dig to Murderous Redcap for an infinite damage loop the next turn.
The infinite life combo can go off as early as turn 3 but normally takes until turn 4 or 5. Because all three combo pieces cost three mana or less, you can use Collected Company to find them and put them onto the battlefield. Well-timed creature removal can disrupt the combo, as can graveyard hate or removal. While Kitchen Finks is in the graveyard, if it is exiled, the persist trigger will fizzle.
Creatures (27)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 3 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 2 Qasali Pridemage
- 1 Spellskite
- 2 Scavenging Ooze
- 3 Voice of Resurgence
- 2 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Spell Queller
- 2 Selfless Spirit
Lands (22)
Spells (11)
Sideboard
With both Knight of the Reliquary and Retreat to Coralhelm on the battlefield, you are able to grow your Knight as large as you have lands in y,our deck. Activate Knight of the Reliquary’s ability. Then, when the land enters the battlefield use the first ability on Retreat to Coralhelm to untap your Knight.
With the optimal draw, Bant Knightfall could make an exceptionally large Knight of the Reliquary as early as turn 4. If there are no blockers or removal, they can attack for lethal, but they are reliant on their Knight of the Reliquary surviving. If you can stop the Knight, you can stop the combo. Be aware that it can still play a value-creatures game with Collected Company as well, so stopping the combo does not win the game by itself.
Combo Out
Now that you are armed with a greater understanding of how these decks work, I hope you feel more comfortable and ready to take on your pesky combo-playing friends. Stay tuned next week for some more combo decks you may see in Modern, including everyone’s favorite Demon: Griselbrand! Have a wonderful week, and as always, happy gaming!