Against the Odds: Infinite Warp Combo (Standard)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Against the Odds! Almost as soon as Edge of Eternities was released, I saw a post about a new infinite warp combo. The idea was to use two copies of Perigee Beckoner and a sacrifice outlet like Umbral Collar Zealot to generate infinite death triggers, and then toss in something like Vengeful Bloodwitch or Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER to convert those death triggers into a win. While the idea was funny, I didn't bother to build around it because I figured it had already gotten enough coverage. But more recently, I realized that another infinite warp combo could easily slot into the same deck involving Kheru Goldkeeper, a Tarkir: Dragonstorm card that I was convinced would be broken but that we haven't actually played yet. This was enough to get the brewing juices flowing! So today, we're heading Standard to warp infinitely in multiple ways! Can the plan work? What are the odds of winning by warping infinitely? Let's get to the video and find out!
Against the Odds: Infinite Warp Combo
The Deck
As I mentioned in the intro, our deck today has not just one but two infinite warp combos! The first involves Perigee Beckoner and an Umbral Collar Zealot. Here's the idea. First, we need two copies of Perigee Beckoner, a five-drop that we can warp for two mana that gives another creature "When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control." We can warp one targeting something random, and then warp the second one targeting the first one. Then, we can use Umbral Collar Zealot to sacrifice the first Beckoner, which will return to play and target the second one. We can keep doing this for as long as we want, generating infinite death triggers.
By itself, generating infinite death triggers doesn't do much of anything. But if we add a Blood Artist like Vengeful Bloodwitch or Sephiroth to the mix, we win the game on the spot by draining our opponent for one every time one of our creatures dies.
Our second combo also involves infinite death triggers and using Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER or Vengeful Bloodwitch as a finisher, but it involves Kheru Goldkeeper. If you were around during Tarkir: Dragonstorm spoiler season, you might remember that as soon as I saw Kheru Goldkeeper, I thought it would be breakable. Making a Treasure whenever a card leaves your graveyard during your turn is an incredibly strong ability, and surprisingly, there's no once-per-turn restriction. Well, this deck finally harnesses the Sultai Dragon's power.
So, how do we go infinite with Kheru Goldkeeper? The main idea is to combo it with Timeline Culler or Forsaken Miner, either of which can return themselves from our graveyard to the battlefield for just a single mana. We can warp a Timeline Culler from the graveyard, which will make a Treasure with Kheru Goldkeeper. Then, we can sacrifice the Timeline Culler to Umbral Collar Zealot to get it back into the graveyard to repeat the process. The only problem with this combo is that we have to pay two life every time we warp Timeline Culler, which means eventually we'll have to stop warping so we don't accidentally kill ourselves.
Thankfully, we have a plan for this, too. If we have a Vengeful Bloodwitch or Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER on the battlefield, we'll drain for one every time we go through the loop, which means we'll win the game on the spot, assuming we start with a higher life total than our opponent does. (Each time through the loop, we'll lose one life from warping Timeline Culler, and our opponent will lose one from the Blood Artist.) Of course, if we have two Vengeful Bloodwitches / Sephiroths on the battlefield, then we can win the game from any life total. Dredger's Insight helps here too, gaining us a life whenever we have a creature leave our graveyard, which means it can replace one of the Blood Artists in the combo. Hilariously, if we can stack up enough copies of Dredger's Insight, we can actually gain infinite life with the deck as well. And if we ever have multiple Kheru Goldkeepers on the battlefield during the combo, we can generate infinite mana!
And that's basically the deck. Otherwise, we've got Overlord of the Balemurk to fill our graveyard and dig for our combo pieces, all of which happen to be creatures, and then a smattering of removal in Tragic Trajectory, Shoot the Sheriff, and Archenemy's Charm.
Wrap-Up
Record-wise, I played a ton of games with the deck, and we ended up winning 45% of the time (14-17 overall), which is honestly better than I expected. While both of our combos require at least four pieces, which sounds like a lot, we actually managed to set up the combo fairly consistently thanks to Overlord of the Balemurk and Dredger's Insight. While it is annoying that graveyard hate shuts down our deck hard, assuming we can dodge it, the deck actually wins way more than it should. If you like janky combo decks and Aristocrat-style sacrifice synergies, give Infinite Warp Combo a shot! The deck is funny and oddly powerful when everything comes together.
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
