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Article Table of Contents

Introduction Combo Compendium Vol. 1; 68 Combos disscussed! Some w/ Sample Decks: Ensnaring a Bottled Skirk Memorial () Speedy Mean Black () MODERN Landfall Insanity () Krazy Kobolds () Ch-ch-ch-changes () Hivestone of Psionic Bangchucking vigor () Leyline of Singularity () Conclusion

O Hai fellow MTGO players, thanks for reading yet another article from your ol' planeswalker pal Boosh. I have had two article series on PureMTGO, Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks, and Boosh's Budget Builds. Deckbox of Tricks is more or less retired because these decks are built for those of us with enough income to make decks that have every single card we want. I started up Boosh's Budget Builds because I sold my whole MTGO collection, stated recollecting, and need to find budget ways to make decks and have fun on MTGO. It's my current article series and I love writing it-- but it pidgeon-holes what I can actually write about. Enter this article! Not particularly an article series, but it will be revisited on occasion.

So this article is a way for me to share with MTG/MTGO players new and old; experienced and beginner; basically all players of all skill-sets.. my Johnny love of synergies/combos. I am, and always have been, a self-professed Johnny. I let my inner Timmy out from time to time, and do my best to keep Spike buried down deep.. but my inner Johnny, he's always been my Magic copilot. As a Johnny, I have always relied on fun card interactions to make decks. Since I have been playing since Alpha I have done a lot of Magic shop-talk in my life, and, without blowing my own proverbial trumpet too much, I have always been a magic player that others have come to for advice in deck building. My mind is always teeming with magic combos to build decks around, so I thought I would impart some of the vast combo knowledge I possess with the general PureMTGO public.

Is this a complete list of all the combos in magic ever? Of course not. It IS a list of super awesome combos that know of/heard about/seen in action; Discovered played on my own (often concurrently when others did other times not); or are famous combos that may have won tournaments in the past. My hopes are you can take some of these combos and build decks around them, or that I prepare you to stop these combos when you spot them in games in order to save your own rump from doom.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a Complete List!

That's why it's volume 1.

Feel free to make this an open forum. I would love to see combos I haven't chronicled here showing up in the user comments section.

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In No Particular Order!

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This unexpected combo makes it so you have no hand during every turn but your own, so no creatures can attack (well, I guess a Swamp Mosquito could....) you...but the Bottled Cloister isn't doing its wonky hand trick during your turn (and it netted you extra cards at the ends of any opponents' turns) so you can attack with whatever creatures you have!

 

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This clearly only works in a deck where you have enough goblins to tap to activate the Skirk Fire Marshal. If you give all of your goblins pro red with the Memorial, then your goblins will not die due to the damage the Marshal deals while your opponents and their creatures will take ten to the dome. You can't use this too often without murderizing yourself with the damage. My advice? Basilisk Collar! Not only will it gain you a ridiculous amount of life, but it will murder anything that might even withstand the 10 damage it gets, and you'll keep on kicking to pull off this awesome combo again and again. This fits well into any goblin deck, because it's only red and colorless artifacts. I mentioned this combo in Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks: Having Fun with Classic Tribal Wars.

Now see? This is not a budget friendly deck, because Cavern of Souls is pretty pricey and Beetleback Chief is a buck fifty a pop (not to mention Ensnaring Bridge, part of the combo), to say the least about deck expenses. This combines our first two combos; the cloister/bridge combo stalls out your opponent from killing you with attacks, and the cloister nets you more cards getting you closer to your skirk/memorial combo pieces. The only instants in this deck produce mana for your big creatures or artifacts, so you don't actually need to have a hand of cards on your opponent's turn.  

 

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Giving the elder all creature types allows his Kinship ability to plop any creature in your deck directly onto the battlefield. I discussed this previously in my article: Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks: Hazed and Abused. 

 

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No creatures can attack! Excellent for decks that don't rely on attacking for the win condition.

 

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Once you manage to get out 4 Myrs, either through casting some or using the Matrix to make them, the fifth one will trigger the echoes producing 5 colorless mana, which you can use to activate the matrix to make a myr, which will put out 6 colorless through mana echoes, which you can put into the matrix for another myr; rinse, repeat, ad infinitum.

 

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Another infinite myr producing combo! The galvanizer need at least one other myr out that taps for mana. You pop Splinter Twin on the Myr Galvanizer, and tap it to put out a temporary token. That token has haste, remember.  Tap your Alloy Myr for a mana, use the hasty-temp-token's Galvanizer ability to untap all Myr-- it untaps the original Galvanizer that's been Splinter Twin'ed, and your Alloy Myr, and the hasty-temp-token. You can now tap the original galvanizer again for another hasty-temp-token. Rinse, repeat, ad infinitum until you have enough untapped myr tokens to swoop inf or the kill. Remember, Galvanizer also states "Other Myr creatures you control get +1/+1." If you have out 100 temporary Myr Galvanizer tokens, they are each 99/99. If all of them hit your opponent, you just did 9900 points of damage.

 

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Instead of Umbral Mantle you can use Sword of the Paruns. If you have out 6 swamps, you can pay 2 and tap the Magus for 4 black mana, then untap him for three colorless mana, netting you a floating black mana. You can now tap him again and untap him again, and have 2 floating. You can do this ad infinitum until you have unlimited black mana. Exsanguinate seems like a grand way to use all that mana.

 

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I have been waiting for Leveler to be useful for any reason, ever, besides casting it and Flinging it on the same turn-- hopefully killing your opponent before you die. Now there's a genuine Johnny Combo. Pop out both of these, and maybe just cast Whispers of the Muse to "draw" and win.

 

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A tried and true way to get out a 6/6 trampler for 4 mana, you cast the autocrat and immediately sacrifice the serf tokens to pop out the Delraich. A similar situation is Demon of Death's Gate and Marsh Flitter, though this one costs you 6 life in addition. You could get either huge beast on turn two with two Swamps, Dark Ritual; or turn one with Swamp, Dark Ritual, Sol Ring, Sengir Autocrat, Delraich. Here is a great example of Johnny combo fun turning into Spike mayhem doom.

Here's some speedy mean black-- again a nonbudget build. You want to Sol Ring, Dark Ritual, and Lake of the Dead-- Cheat your small token making creatures onto the field to sac' them to put out your fatties. Abyssal Persecutor is another cheap (CMC-wise) creature to beatdown your opponent, and then simply sac' him to the Delraich, Demon of Death's Gate, or Miren, the Moaning Well to make it so you can actually win. In a pinch you can Murder, Go for the Throat or Unmake the Persecutor to allow yourself to win. Discard is so dang Spikey, but it's effective when you want to speed win in black, that's why it's here. Last little tidbit I'll share here is that Bad Moon is both in main deck and sideboard because if you don't draw your Delraich or Demon, you still want your serf tokens and goblin rogue tokens to be useful.

 

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This is a pretty infamous infinite combo. I swear to you, dear reader, when Squirrel Nest came out I immediately thought to pair it with Earthcraft. I am not claiming to be this combo's creator, I never make that claim. I don't work for WOTC so someone there must have guessed at this interaction before I ever did. Tap your Forest that's been enchanted by the nest, and put out a 1/1 squirrel. Next, tap the squirrel using Earthcraft to untap the nest-enchanted forest which you can then tap for another squirrel. Rinse. Repeat. Be wary of this though.. on MTGO (online) that's a lot of clicking with your mouse in order to produce these tokens, and it may run out your game clock. In paper you have some more wiggle room. "Do you have anything to stop this combo? No? Ok then I do this 450 times and put out 450 tokens." Could you imagine if you had out Doubling Season or Parallel Lives? This is a great combo to include half-seriously in a Devour deck. I cast Predator Dragon but first make 15 tokens to have the dragon Devour.

 

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How awesome would it be to draw through your entire deck for six mana? Cast the grace then draw until your life is in the extreme negative. One of those draws should be a Tainted Sigil which happens to be in the same color combination as this combo, and can get you back your life. If you also happen to have out Sanguine Bond when you activate the sigil it could spell doom for your opponent.

 

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Does a very similar combo death to what I was talking about in the previous combo, except you can't pay past 1 life.

 

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I figured out that having an Aven Mimeomancer out is a loophole in giving Kangee more feather counters after you've cast it.

 

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Fastbond is restricted because it is one of the most awesome cards to break. As a self-proclaimed mana abuser and a Johnny I love to abuse Fastbond. Having out your happy landfall antelope completely nullifies the bond's damage draw back and, in fact, nets you 1 life per land drop. Other cards apt at fixing Fastbond's damage draw back are: Urza's Armor, Hedron-Field Purists, and Lifegift.

 

+ +
Seems similar to the combo above doesn't it? Except, adding Storm Cauldron to the other two makes this into a combo that yields infinite mana, and infinite life gain.

 

+ +  +
When landfall came out, I didn't want to solely beat it about the head and neck with Fastbond; I wanted to find other ways to combo it up. A unique way to do so that I discovered are these two ways. Since imprinting the arbor on the foundry makes the foundry's activation 0 (it reads tap: put out a land-creature) & imprinting the Tree of Tales or citadel on the portal makes the portal's activation 0 it becomes an awesome way to be able to pop out a land each turn to make your landfall abilities fire. 

Here's a Modern deck take on the idea, again nonbudget. Use the Voltaic Keys to untap your imprinted artifacts or Staff of Nins; Pop out tons of imprinted lands to pop out tons of tokens or put tons of counters on your plants. Harmonize or land-tutor to find your combo pieces. I included Staff of Nin for card-draw and Argentum Armor for permanent destruction so you could imprint them on the portals as well. Doubling Season seemed like a no-brainer inclusion.

 

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I've spoken about my love of the swans before. Honestly they combo incredibly well with many a card, but Fatal Attraction provides a way for you to draw 4 cards every upkeep without having to spend any mana. I spoke about this sort of thing previously in: Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks: Stuffy Doll Spotlight Special!

 

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While on the subject of the swans, I've written about how well they pair with Stuffy Doll. It's no secret Stuffy is one of my all time absolute favorite cards and combo pieces. These two bad boys together spell inevitable doom for your opponent in an infinite loop of damage that eventually murderizes them. Stuffy does 1 point to itself which triggers the GC to do a point to the Stuffy, which triggers the GC to do a point to the Stuffy, which triggers the GC to do a point to the Stuffy, which triggers the GC to do a point to the Stuffy.... you get the idea. Again, it's a no-brainer that this was previously discussed in Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks: Stuffy Doll Spotlight Special!

 

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I'm doing my best here not to completely overrun this list with Stuffy Doll combos, I promise you! It's taking restraint. This one is in here though because I haven't actually talked much about it in the past-- but it's a pretty nifty trick. See when Stuffy taps to do 1 point to itself, if the Furnace is out, it actually does 2 to itself. Now the trigger is going to do 2 damage to your opponent but the Furnace actually doubles that as well so your opponent takes 4 damage. So tapping the Stuffy once = 4 damage. Not too Shabby.

 

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Another infinite-loop to murderdeathkill your opponent. Enchant Niv-Mizzet; Niv taps to draw and does a point to your opponent, which activates Curiosity which activates Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, which activates Curiosity which activates Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, which activates Curiosity which activates Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind..... you get the idea.

 

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This one has been around for a while! Imma dust it off for this article since it was my favorite blue combo around during the Urza's block. Pop out the Illusions, gain 20, Donate it to your hapless opponent, Boomerang it back to your hand, they lose 20.  

 

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Zedruu can give your opponent a lot of different stuff for nefarious ends.. even Illusions of Grandeur from above (so you can Boomerang) or Bronze Bombshell.. but nothing tops the realization that giving Steel Golem to them immediately makes them unable to cast creatures and artifacts.

 

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Not only does Homeward Path make Karona more playable in regular decks, it actually makes Karona, False God more viable as a commander, especially in a Commander duel.  

 

+ +
Since both Kobolds pictured & Kobolds of Kher Keep have a CMC of zero, if you have any two CMC0 Kobolds in your hand and the Curio out in play you can cast one, then cast the other and return the original to your hand. Then you can cast it again and return the Kobolds in play back to your hand. You can do this again, and again, and again ad inifinitum. This can be abused in many ways: Storm (Grapeshot), Mana Echoes, Glimpse of Nature to draw a ton of cards, or Door of Destinies to make your Kobolds gigantic. I actually mentioned the Curio-Door-Kobold combo in Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks: Having Fun with Classic Tribal Wars.

So, basically, you pull off the nifty trick I wrote about above, and then after you cast Kobolds hundreds of times, you'll either have a supercharged charge-counter-laden Door of Destinies, or you can Grapeshot for murderdeathkill to your opponent, or Storm Entity for a huge hasty creature that can provide doom via hasty attacking, or Empty the Warrens to pop out a million goblins, the older, cooler cousins of kobolds (they drive mopeds and do kegstands)-- hopefully with a Mass Hysteria out so you can attack right away. Everything else in this deck is so you can draw into your combo pieces.

 

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You could also use Masako the Humorless with Dolmen Gate; Where seedborn is concerned, since all your creatures untap each untap and your creatures take no damage while attacking, barring some sort of odd battlefield filled with Thicket Basilisks on your opponent's side, you can attack each turn without fear of your creatures dying and/or leaving your bottom open for retaliation. I discussed this delicious interaction in Boosh's Budget Builds: #3 - Elephants, Cats, Sundials, Trees & Much More! in the deck Magic Murder Box. 

 

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This combo is so old it's literally dripping dust all over this article. *Cough, Hack, Wheeze* I include it, however, because just the other day I was playing mtgo and pulled this on a newbie and they were completely floored. It made me realize that sometimes a good old fashioned could be a bit of something new for people. If I added Darksteel Plate to the combo he/she probably would have exploded into a fine nerd mist all over their keyboard. Lure is absolutely great! Put it on Stuffy Doll as I've mentioned before, or Phytohydra for some absolute fun.

 

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On the other end of the combo spectrum from Lure is Entangler. Pop it on Phytohydra or Dawn Elemental or Stuffy Doll or Thicket Basilisk or Deathgazer and so on.

 

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I've spoken about this combo before, in Boosh’s Deckbox of Tricks: Dissecting and Constructing Commander Control. I know you could easily just have out 2 copies of Privileged Position-- but in Singleton formats like Commander, that's not possible. If you have out the Position, and Sterling Grove, That Which Was Taken, or Greater Auramancy: barring mass removal, your permanents are pretty darn safe.

 

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That Which Was Taken is awesome in its own right, but it can actually stack Divinity counters on the various Myojins so you can abuse their limit breaks (Final Fantasy VII reference what-what! OMNISLASH). Totally awesome if you throw Doubling Season in the mix.

 

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Glare of Subdual combo-ing with Fallowsage was covered in my first PureMTGO-writer-renaissance article: Boosh' s Budget Builds: #1 - Starting from Scratch.

 

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I covered this combo heavily in Boosh's Budget Builds: #2 - Back in Black. It's still super awesome face.

 

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This is probably the least powerful combo/card interaction in this article but it's funsy. I already crushed a disortation/dissection of Paradox Haze in Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks: Hazed and Abused, but Mercadian Masques was not out yet online. Still fun to accrue free damage during multiple upkeeps.

 

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Again, Sundial has been discussed previously. It interacts well with fun things like Nacatl War-Pride & Feral Lightning. It also happens to work extremely well with Thawing Glaciers. When the bounce-Thawing Glaciers-back-to-your-hand bit stacks, just end the turn. You wind up getting a cheap (mana-wise) land-grab/mana-ramp you can abuse every turn.

 

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I love changing creatures' types with various spells/abilities and then using ridiculously unexpected card interactions to hose them.. and this is my favorite example of that situation. Unnatural Selection pairs very well with a lot of cards. Sliver Overlord, Thrull Champion, Dormant Sliver, and Halo Hunter to name a few more. To see even more fun interactions, check out the classic red, white & blue deck below.

So this deck uses Imagecrafter, Unnatural Selection, & Amoeboid Changeling to change creatures' types for various fun, effective, and silly things to happen. I tried to make it so that a lot of the cards interacted with each other enough that if for some reason you didn't snag one of your 12 creature-type-changers your deck wouldn't be useless. You could always stack your deck with 4 Mistform Mutant to increase your type-changer count to 16, but I decided that the mutant was too expensive, mana-cost-wise, so I didn't include it.
Knight of the Mists: Card text: When Knight of the Mists comes into play, you may pay . If you don't, destroy target Knight and it can't be regenerated. Don't pay the ; pay  instead for your Unnatural Selection, change your opponent's Massacre Wurm into a Knight, and hose it.
Rashida Scalebane: Change your opponent's various attackers or blockers into dragons, and use Rashida to hose them and gain some life. Another fun interaction is destroying your own dragon tokens made by Utvara Hellkite to gain some life in a pinch.
Kinsbaile Cavalier: Change any creature you want into a knight to give them double strike. Automatically gives Amoeboid Changeling, Knight Exemplar & Knight of the Mists double strike.
Knight Exemplar: Change any creature you want into a knight to make them indestructible. Automatically makes Amoeboid Changeling, Kinsbaile Cavalier & Knight of the Mists indestructible.
Spirit Mirror: Combo is listed above. Dastardly.
Ancestor's Prophet: If you have out no other clerics, at least the prophet is one so you only need to change 4 other creatures into clerics to tap them all for 10 life. If you use Unnatural Selection solely, it's 4 colorless mana to gain 10 life. Holy Justiciar, Amoeboid Changeling & Undead Slayer are already clerics without fancy tricks.
Holy Justiciar: Without fancy creature-change tricks, this can still be activated to at least tap-down opposing threats. If you happen to alter an opposing creature's type to zombie, you'll get to exile the creature for .
Undead Slayer: Change an opposing creature's type to zombie, skeleton or vampire and exile them for only . Since Holy Justiciar provides the tap-down ability if there's no creature-change tricks to be had, I included more of them in the deck than Undead Slayer.
Siege-Gang Commander: Twofold reason for inclusion: provides goblin tokens that you can change into various creatures for various effects (change em all into clerics to gain life, etc) & allows you to sacrifice goblins for 2 damage a clip-- so you can either sac the tokens and itself, or change your various creatures into goblins to sacrifice for damage in a pinch.
Utvara Hellkite: turn any creature you control into a dragon before you attack so you can score some free dragon tokens. A great way to use this would be to have out Unnatural Selection. Plan to attack with your goblin token from Siege-Gang Commander and pay  to change it into a dragon before it attacks. After it attacks and the dragon-token-makin' trigger occurs on the stack, pay  again and change it into a knight if Knight Exemplar is out thus making the goblin-dragon-knight indestructible so it lives through combat and you can pull off this trick again next combat. Amoeboid Changeling also already counts as a dragon and a knight, so if both Utvara and the Exemplar are out, you can just attack with it.
Goatnapper: Tap Imagecrafter, make your opponent's Archon of Justice into a goat, cast Goatnapper and steal the Archon-of-Goat-Justice for a turn. Maybe tap Amoeboid Changeling to make the stolen Archon into a goblin, and sacrifice it to Siege-Gang Commander for hilarious results. Goatnapper itself is a goblin, and can be sac'ed to Siege-Gang Commander.
Muddle the Mixture: Counter a pesky sorcery or instant, or, Transmute it to find Unnatural Selection or Amoeboid Changeling--major combo pieces.
Sideboard: The sideboard contains more Goatnappers and Knight Exemplars which you already know function pretty well in this deck, but it contains a mini Sliver theme, since you can change your creatures into slivers if need be. Homing Sliver, like Muddle the Mixture, can be employed to search out Amoeboid Changeling. It also has 2x Enlightened Tutor in order to help you snag your Unnatural Selection or Spirit Mirror.

 

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Eon Hub is a very fun card to exploit, in this humble Johnny's opinion. Skipping your upkeep can help you avoid Cumulative Upkeep costs and Echo costs. It can also help you avoid other costs you wind up paying during you upkeep, like the damage from Serendib Efreet.

 

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I will start out by saying that Solitary Confinement can also be paired with Eon Hub from the combo above to keep it perpetually in play without worrying about discarding your whole hand being it's undoing. Elfhame Sanctuary reads: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. If you do, you skip your draw step this turn and shuffle your library. You are already skipping your draw step thanks to Solitary Confinement, but the Sanctuary allows you to tutor out a basic land each turn that you can then discard to pay the confinement's upkeep cost, thus keeping it in play for a longer time.

 

+
This combo is hilarious, especially in multiplayer formats. Sure, even you take damage equal to half your life total-- but you gain life equal to the damage Hidetsugu does to everyone. Priceless.

 

+
Chronicled in the zombie Commander deck I created for Boosh's Budget Builds: #4 - Boosh's Version of Budget Commander, the Thoctar becomes a Goblin Sharpshooter-esque Ping-Death-Machine thanks to adding Deathtouch to Deathbringer Thoctar's abilities.

 

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I completely lauded the awesomeness that is this combo in both Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks: Hazed and Abused (Deadly Duplicator section of the article) & revisited the combo, budget-mindedly, in Boosh's Budget Builds: #3 - Elephants, Cats, Sundials, Trees & Much More!  

 

+ + +
So the helm's ability to round up the various Kaldra artifacts and produce the Kaldra token has always been a nifty little Voltron-esque way to have fun in Magic. Adding Mirror Gallery to the mix makes a very interesting little trick. Helm says: : If you control Equipment named Helm of Kaldra, Sword of Kaldra, and Shield of Kaldra, put a 4/4 colorless Avatar Legend creature token named Kaldra into play and attach those Equipment to it. The token it produces is Legendary, but if we break the Legendary rule with Mirror Gallery, then the Helm actually reads: : put a 4/4 colorless token into play. And you can abuse the heck out of this combo by just paying  over and over popping out 4/4 tokens.

 

+ :
Hellkite Charger: Whenever Hellkite Charger attacks, you may pay . If you do, untap all attacking creatures and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase. As long as you have the  to spend with lands, if you have out Nature's Will, your lands will untap when the charger hits, and the charger will untap and produce another combat-- which means during said additional combat you can tap your lands again to activate the charger's  ability. You can basically beat down all your opponents with additional combats in one turn. Bear Umbra works well in place of Nature's will. I recommend popping Riding the Dilu Horse on the Hellkite Charger to make sure he hits your opponent. If you are using the Bear Umbra instead, you don't actually even need to smack your opponent to produce extra combats; you can just pop Darksteel Plate on your Bear Umbra-enchanted Hellkite Charger.

 

 +
Pit Spawn's  upkeep cost kind of sucks until you turn him into a creature that taps to exile any other creature. Then his upkeep doesn't seem so bad. You could always utilize Eon Hub in your deck. 

 

+
This is a pretty awesome combo for a sliver deck or could even be nestled into many green/blue decks just for fun. The Psionic Sliver does 2 damage to whatever of your choosing and when it smacks itself for 3 it actually just grows by three counters. You can even tap it to do 2 to itself so it'll snag 5 +1/+1 counters at a clip.
 

So here I am again, exploiting +1/+1 counters, this time using Hivestone. As a Johnny, I don't really care for slivers because they are pretty Spikey, and very easy to build around making them sort of Timmy. If we throw Hivestone into the mix, though, then my inner Johnny smiles. your spikes, bangchuckers, vigors and the behemoth each become slivers thanks to the stone, and gain all the benefits of Fungus Sliver, Shifting Sliver, Synapse Sliver and of course Psionic Sliver. Rite of Passage, Fungus Sliver & Vigor are in here to prevent Sliver-death to slivers using Psionic's ability. Spike Feeder, for example, when Hivestone & Psionic Sliver & Vigor are out, taps and does 2 to itself then 3 itself netting you five extra counters from Vigor, which you can then remove for 10 life. If Goblin Bangchuckers loses the flip and damages itself, it'll actually grow from Vigor instead of die like normal. Ion Storm can remove excess counters to do repeated damage-- if Vigor is out you can even remove 1 counter to damage the creature you removed it from to get 2 counters on that creature.. netting you a gain of one +1/+1 counter. Staff of Nin, clearly one of my favorite M13 cards, gives you card draw but also allows you to ping your creatures to get more counters. I am sure with all the potential damage flying around you can hose the beast tokens your opponent got for whatever permanent you axed with Beast Within. When Vigor is out, any creature (besides itself unless a second Vigor is out) equipped with Pariah's Shield not only prevents your death but rapidly enlarges creature with counters. The rest of the deck should be fairly easy to figure out.

 

+
If you Dismantle a Surge Node you can slap 6 charge counters on an artifact bypassing how long it would take Surge Node to do that naturally, or you can slap 6 +1/+1 counters.

 

+
Straight forward combo fun, tap the Elder to give all your creatures protection from all colors while the courier is out.

 

+
If all your creatures have exalted, then you are set up pretty darn good when only allowed to attack with one creature.

 

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Makes your one chosen attacker unblockable.

 

+ +
Last Stuffy reference, I swear! Arbiter only allows one attacker through, Fumiko forces your opponent to attack, Stuffy blocks whatever they throw at you.

 

+ .
The orb nullifies the heavyweights' drawback. Instead of the orb, you could use Shadow of Doubt, or in a pinch Aven Mindcensor.

 

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Again, sub in Shadow of Doubt or Mindlock Orb for the Aven if need be. Pretty awesome to make everyone skip their draw, slowly die, and inadequately tutor while you snag every component you need from your deck.

 

+ +
Giving away all my secrets! This is a way to take the three Chimeras from Visions and make them viable. Imprint a chimera on the foundry, if the Doubling Season is out, it'll produce two chimeras, and you can sac one to put two +2/+2 counters on the other.

 

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Popping the stalactite on the golem turns it into a wizard and goblin and so forth, meaning it gets all those cool abilities without you having to have one of each card out. Covered previously in my very first article Boosh’s Deckbox of Tricks: # I: Standard Green Eldrazi; Legacy Black Changelings.

 

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A really fun and unique way to Damnation. Covered previously in my very first article Boosh’s Deckbox of Tricks: # I: Standard Green Eldrazi; Legacy Black Changelings

I covered this deck once before, but have made some fun changes and made it more playable--since it is NOW appropriately stacked with lands. Plus, Odo reference! Double plus deck explanation: Use your changelings to do awesome things. They are demons, so steal creatures for 3 mana; they are zombies so give them deathtouch, they are dragons so bring back Bladewing's Thralls; they are vampires use them as a kicker for the Tribute; they are squirrels regenerate them! They are goblins, put out a Stenchskipper. Have fun!

 

+ +
The renewal makes it so the Ornithopter or Memnite goes right back to your hand instead of the graveyard, so you can cast it for CMC0 again, sac it, cast it, sac it-- an infinite loop. Makes a super huge Atog that you can attack with, Fling or abuse to use some sort of Storm spell like Grapeshot, similar to the combo-loop you get with the Kobolds that I previously mentioned.

 

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So this trick works really well with the various Zuberas that cost CMC2. They are commons from the Kamigawa block. The one I picked to showcase is the damage-dealing Zubera. This follows the combo above closely. Again Enduring Renewal will pop the Zubera back into your hand instead of the graveyard. Because the Zuberas cost two mana, they aren't easily recast a million times-- unless Aluren is out, then they are free to recast. So now we just need a way to sacrifice them for free, repeatedly, at instant-speed. My go-to for this situation is Altar of Dementia. It's a pretty darn Spikey card because it can lead to Milling as your win condition. The Zubera I picked for the example here, though, will kill your opponent quicker than Milling him/her will (ya know, unless they have 400 life and only 12 cards left in their library). Let's examine what Ember-Fist Zubera actually says: When Ember-Fist Zubera dies, it deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number of Zubera that died this turn. This breaks down as follows: Sacrifice the Ember-Fist to the Altar, it goes back to your hand and does 1 point of damage to your opponent and they mill one card. Cast the Zubera for free with Aluren. Sacrifice the Ember-Fist to the Altar, it goes back to your hand and does 2 points of damage to your opponent, because now two Zubera have died this turn, and they mill one card. Now your opponent has taken 3 damage, and milled two cards. Cast the Zubera for free with Aluren. Sacrifice the Ember-Fist to the Altar, it goes back to your hand and does 3 points of damage to your opponent, because now three Zubera have died this turn, and they mill one card. Now your opponent has taken 6 damage, and milled three cards. Cast the Zubera for free with Aluren. Rinse & Repeat ad infinitum until your opponent is damaged to death, or milled to death.

 

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Discussed previously in Boosh's Budget Builds: #4 - Boosh's Version of Budget Commander; Quite possibly, dear readers, my favorite combo in Magic. I've been using it since Mortuary came out in paper and I could combine it with the Call of the Wild I pulled from a pack of Weatherlight. If not my favorite combo ever, it's certainly my favorite graveyard recursion combo. 

 

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Always loved Ambush Commander for elf decks, but was always worried my land would get hosed since they are now 1/1 elves. Terra Eternal totally fixes that. 

 

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I obviously love this combo a lot. Boosh's Budget Builds: #2 - Back in Black & Boosh's Deckbox of Tricks: Stuffy Doll Spotlight Special! have both discussed the combo in great length-- it's a universal creature murderer combo that just keeps murdering and murdering.

 

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This combo is a fun way to finish off your opponent. It requires a deck with no creature cards-- only cards that make creature tokens. Make a creature token, like a squirrel, then use Proteus Staff on the squirrel. Since there are no creatures in your deck the way Proteus Staff works actually allows you to stack your deck in any order you could possibly want. This could be useful for so many decks and combos but what I like to do is stack all my nonland cards on top of my land cards, so the lands are at the bottom of the deck. The first land card you stack after the nonland should be a Mountain. Now activate the Charbelcher. Your opponent will take 2x the amount of nonland cards you stacked in your deck, probably killing them.

 

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Echoing Truth totally hoses tokens, since they share the same name. Token decks fear it like WHOA. Hunted Phantasm is a great card for a cheap CMC but drops tokens on your opponent's side to compensate. Echoing Truth remedies this draw-back.

 

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I love Leyline of Singularity. If you have it out and a Hatching Plans out you can drop out a second Hatching Plans and net 6 cards.
 

Here's a deck that completely exploits the Leyline, but does not solely depend upon it. (Haunted Phantasm) works with the leyline because the leyline hoses the tokens; Shapesharer and the Metamorph can be employed to copy stuff that thanks to the leyline is now legendary, thus hosing them both. Copy Enchantment can copy a Hatching Plans for 6 cards or can copy an opposing enchantment to hose it. Mulldrifter can be evoked if you have a copy in play. Empress Galina (untap her with Minamo! [Seek out Minamo with Tolaria West]) steals your opponent's stuff, and the one-of inclusion of Mimeofacture could provide some hilarious results. 

  

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This combo won tourneys in the past. The hasty Pestermite token created by Kiki untaps Kiki so you can do it again, an infinite amount of times, and then you can attack with an infinite amount of Pestermite tokens.

 

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This combo also won tournaments, and is generally reviled and hated by most. The sword comes back after you sac if for the 1/1 thopter equipped to the thopter so you can sac it again.

 

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You can read more about this awesome combo in Boosh’s Deckbox of Tricks: 6 Rise of Eldrazi Inspired Deck Concoctions.

 

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You can read more about how wonderful this interaction is in Boosh’s Deckbox of Tricks: 6 Rise of Eldrazi Inspired Deck Concoctions.

 

WACKIEST COMBO

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This is how I have finagled a way to win with Barren Glory. If you have all four of these out, it goes like this. Sacrifice all your lands to Lithatog. Discard all your cards with Phantatog. If you happen to have out any misc. artifacts or enchantments, these two Atogs can help you get rid of those as well. Now you have no cards in your hand, and no permanents besides Atogs. Sacrifice the two lesser Atogs to Atogatog. Then Sacrifice Atogatog to itself. BAM! Nothing but Barren Glory out so you can win with it. For added effectiveness, I'd make sure I had two red mana available before I sac'ed my lands, so I could cast Final Fortune and ensure the win. 

 

MEANEST COMBO

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If you get the Bloodchief Ascension rolling, and pop out Mindcrank as soon as the Ascension is active it's an infino-combo-doom of horror-torture.

 

MOST CLASSIC COMBO

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If you don't know this combo already and are playing Magic punch yourself in the face. Or maybe lightly scold yourself or whatever.

HERE ENDITH VOLUME ONE

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So I figured I'd stop there because if I kept going I'm not sure how much I'd have kickin' around the ol' noggin for Volume 2 of the Combo Compendium if/when it comes out. After this article I plan to go back to Boosh's Budget Builds format. Remember these combos were in no particular order. I didn't even have an article outline this time; I don't keep some tattered old journal under my mattress that has years and years of Magic combos that I've rocked out since I started waaaay back in Alpha. I just let my inner Johnny take control of  my memory banks and let him pull out all of the fun, wacky, effective, interesting, silly and game-winning combos I have created, played or could recall. I stream-of-consciousness-style wrote out this article.

I hope the combos held within the hallowed tome that is this article help players new and old alike come up with some fun new decks. Exploit these combos by adding cards around them to make unique decks. Try out the decks I included. Use this article to get your creative juices flowing to find combos & card interactions I haven't mentioned or even thought of! Maybe take a bunch of these combos and make a fun 100-Card Singleton deck, or a fun Commander deck.

I am sure this article enlightened many as to my level of Johnny and how I like to play the game and deck build. If nothing else, it should prove to you just how much I love Stuffy Doll, Doubling Season, Soul Foundry,  Urza's Armor, Darksteel Plate, & Sanguine Bond to say the least. If you find my playstyle seems to mesh with yours, find me online and buddy me/chat me up/ challenge me. Also, if you play me online you'll notice I have all this knowledge of infinite combos, yet do not abuse said power. I'm like Spiderman or Captain America, filled with righteousness and not using my powers for evil and all that.

Thanks for reading! Seek me out on Magic Online and start up a friendly chat or game! Load up the comments section with combo ideas! 

~Boosh!

AtomicBoosh on MTGO; Adam_the_Mentat on PureMTGO