10 Combo Kills That Get Progressively More Absurd
Today we’re gonna kill our opponent with ten different combos, but they get progressively more absurd. I’m gonna add the decklists I used to the combos, but be aware that they are built to show off the combo, not optimized to win games.
1. Exquisite Blood Loops
Let’s first start off with a classic. A two card combo that seems too easy to be true. Today we have a bunch of cards that can slot in for either half of the combo, but the original pieces are Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. One says: “Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life” the other says: “Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life”. Once you have both on the battlefield, you just need to either gain life or have the opponent lose life to trigger a loop of triggers that will end with the opponent losing all of their life.
2. Niv Curiosity
The next one is another two card combo. This time, we need a tiny bit more setup. But only a little… as in, we only need to cast a Niv-Mizzet, Parun first, then enchant it with Curiosity and then either cast an instant or sorcery or draw a card. Whenever we draw a card, Niv will damage the opponent, which will trigger Curiosity to draw a card. As long as you have more cards in your deck than the opponent has life, you have now won the game.
3. Half Life Rite
The next combo is another one-two punch. And the only reason it wasn’t the first on the list is that Arena doesn’t have the piece to make it simple. Hidetsugu's Second Rite deals ten damage to our opponent, but only if they are at exactly ten life. Since 60 card magic starts at 20 life, any effect that halves the opponent’s life, will combo with this. Heartless Hidetsugu would just tap to do it, but on Arena, the safest way to do it is Torgaar, Famine Incarnate. Not only does it put the opponent to ten life for potentially two mana, it also sets the life to half of their starting life, meaning that they don’t need to be at exactly 20 life for the combo to work. If you want to see a full video about this combo, I did one quite a while ago, but the deck still functions the same.
4. Infinite Turns (Fun!)
5. Omniscience Combo (Standard)
The next combo is one that a lot of Standard players hate to see right now. It all starts by having a land on the battlefield that allows you to tap a creature to station it. Then, play a Kona, Rescue Beastie tap it, trigger it to put a permanent from your hand onto the battlefield, put an Omniscience on the board, allowing you to cast every spell from your hand without paying its mana cost. Now I know it’s almost trivial to win from here, but the cleanest way to do it in Standard right now is to cast Corroding Dragonstorm to drain your opponent, cast a Marang River Regent which will return the Dragonstorm to your hand, recast it, then cast another Regent to bounce the other dragon and the Dragonstorm and loop this process until the opponent is dead. I know… it’s kinda shocking that you can do this as early as turn four in Standard right now, but I guess every format is fast now.
6. Cat Pact
The next combo is technically just a two card combo, but it’s so weird that it deserves a spot in the middle of the list. Cast a Demonic Pact and keep it until you’ve used all of its triggers except the “You lose the game” option. Then target it with Harmless Offering to give your opponent control over the pact. In their next upkeep, they will only have one choice left to pick, killing them before they ever drew a card for the turn.
7. Shelldock Surprise
The next combo is one that I have recently seen in one of Seth’s videos. It is called Shelldock Surprise and is one of the most glass cannon-y decks I’ve ever seen. For a more detailed look, you can watch his video, but the whole point is to fill your deck with Shadowborn Apostle and only play 13 lands. Exile all of the Apostles from your deck with Surgical Extraction or Lost Legacy. Then play a Shelldock Isle, hide away an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, and cast it as early as turn three. Now, while that technically doesn’t kill your opponent on the spot, I would have almost excluded it from this list, but let’s be honest here, it’s almost unbeatable if you pull it off, and it’s too sweet to leave off this list.
8. Aatar Dungeons
The next combo plays a card from the recently released Avatar set. And not just any card, it’s the Avatar himself. Avatar Aang has a very unique text box. It transforms into an incredibly powerful creature, but to get there, you have to bend all four elements in the same turn. This part is about as challenging as it gets. Yes, Aang firebends by himself, but especially Airbending is very hard to pull off for cheap. Once we have done all of this (Or maybe just Moonmist to flip it for cheap) to flip Aang, all of our spells will cost [W][U][B][R][G] less to cast. That means, we can now play Man-o'-War, bounce itself with the trigger, cast it over and over again, and then finish off the opponent with a Grapeshot… or just cast Acererak the Archlich to infinitely go through the Lost Mine of Phandelver and kill the opponent with the Dark Pool.
9. Brainwash
Ok this next combo is getting into magical Christmas land territory, but funnily enough I actually made a video about it.
Technically, it’s just three combo pieces, but good lord is it janky. First, we need a Doom Whisperer. It allows us to pay 1 life to surveil. Then, we use a card like a Switcheroo to give our opponent control of it… I know, right. Then, we cast an Emrakul, the Promised End or Worst Fears to take control of the opponent in their next turn. Then, as our opponent, we use the Doom Whisperer to pay the opponent’s entire life total and basically concede the game for them. I still can’t believe this actually worked.
10. Something, something, Labman...
Oh, are we already at the last combo? And we haven’t done anything with a Laboratory Maniac yet? Well, I guess better late then never. Get ready for the most convoluted Manic win I could come up with on Arena: Cast Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, Jace, Cunning Castaway, and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God. Now use Chandra’s 0 ability to put a loyalty counter on Bolas. You can now use Bolas to activate Jace’s -5 ability to create two non-legendary copies of Bolas. Use one of them to Chandra plus a counter on the other, and one of them to create more copies. Do this until you have as many planeswalkers as you have cards in your deck. In your next upkeep, Oath of Jace will scry equal to the number of planeswalkers you control, effectively allowing you to arrange your entire deck. Arrange your deck in a pattern that has two cards of the same type, followed by another card, two cards of the same type, another type, and so on. Then cast the Laboratory Maniac and The Tale of Tamiyo. The saga will now mill your entire deck and either draw from an empty library, or leave you with a card or two to draw with a spell or Nicol Bolas to finally win the game with the Maniac.
