Degenerate Combo Nonsense

Commander / EDH Five Color Goodstuff Infinite Combo Primer Toolbox

BlackjackHD

Creature (27)

• 1x Ashen Rider
• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Bringer of the Black Dawn
• 1x Bringer of the Blue Dawn
• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Composite Golem
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Draining Whelk
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Felidar Guardian
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
• 1x Maelstrom Archangel
• 1x Maelstrom Wanderer
• 1x Magister Sphinx
• 1x Mystic Snake
• 1x Noble Hierarch
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Vizier of the Menagerie

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion
• 1x Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Land (28)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cascading Cataracts
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Opulent Palace
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Omniscience
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Temur Ascendancy

Artifact (10)

• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Fist of Suns
• 1x Nim Deathmantle
• 1x Prismatic Geoscope
• 1x Sol Ring

Instant (13)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Mindbreak Trap
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Bring to Light
• 1x Conflux
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Painful Truths
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Seasons Past
• 1x Time Warp
• 1x Traverse the Ulvenwald
• 1x Urban Evolution
• 1x Wargate
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Wrath of God

Commander (1)

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What began as a fun project to kill people with Progenitus became a personal challenge to cram as many easy, consistent infinite combo wins into one deck.

Why Progenitus?

Because he's cool, duh. Access to all five colors is powerful in its own right. Scion of the Ur-Dragon would be better for being an infinite-mana win from the command zone, and I'm probably going to switch commanders over to Ramos, Dragon Engine once it comes out, but Progenitus is Progenitus.

The Combos

Deadeye Navigator + Peregrine Drake

Ah, the bane of casual tables. The advantage this old, expensive, tired combo has in this deck is positive interaction with Birthing Pod and reanimation spells. Drake pods into Deadeye, and ramps when reanimated. A cavalcade of cards lead to a win with these two, utilizing creature ETB triggers to either draw the deck, exile every opponent-owned permanent, set every opponent to 10 life and then swing lethal...

Composite Golem + Nim Deathmantle

Another 2-card infinite mana combo which draws the deck with Ascendancy, but is susceptible to grave hate.

Birthing Pod + Felidar Guardian + Karmic Guide + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

A simple, innocuous CMC-3 creature and Pod wins the game with this chain.

Omniscience + Seasons Past

Usually following a Conflux, Seasons Past allows for an infinite turn loop with Demonic Tutor and Time Warp if we somehow can't win in a single turn.

Card Choices Explained

Lands Show

I won't go into each and every individual land. The land base is designed with color fixing in mind, playing a good number of fetches and shocks, and some filters to get double-blue or what have you. I have one of each basic so that I can (potentially) maintain total color fixing through Blood Moon or Ruination, even though more 'competitive' lists would opt out of at least the Mountain and Plains.

Creatures Show

• Ashen Rider: Potent answer to Show and Tell, and lockdown with Deadeye and P-Drake.

• Baleful Strix: Draw engine with Deadeye, excellent blocker, pod fodder and delirium enabler. An all-star.

• Birds of Paradise: Squaaw!

• Bloom Tender: Potentially taps for WUBRG. Usually taps for at least RUG or BUG.

• Bringer of the Black Dawn : Casting Vampiric Tutor even once is great, but getting to cast it every turn at least draws out your opponents' removal spells.

• Bringer of the Blue Dawn: Similar situation to his black brother. Very strong for 5 mana.

• Coiling Oracle: Worse than Baleful Strix but fills a similar purpose. Turn 1 or 2 ramping a land into play feels great. Still wins the game with Deadeye/P-Drake.

• Composite Golem: Shitty ramp on the worst of days, game-winner on most.

• Deadeye Navigator: A casual win-con who takes on a slightly more competitive role in this shell.

• Deathrite Shaman: Grave hate and mana ramp in one neat little package.

• Draining Whelk: Too expensive for a traditional counterspell, but a lockout with Deadeye.

• Eternal Witness: Preferable to Regrowth in this deck because it abuses creature ETB effects and Birthing Pod.

• Felidar Guardian: For the Kiki combo win with Pod.

• Karmic Guide: Strong on its own, but also for the Kiki combo.

• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: Ain't it cute how these guys are all alphabetical, too?

• Maelstrom Archangel : A phenomenal play following Temur Ascendancy the turn prior. Casting Omniscience or Conflux for free feels great, and is generally safer than Show and Tell. Solemn Simulacrum pods into this.

• Maelstrom Wanderer: Board haste is not to be underestimated. Cascading into Magister Sphinx is diabolical.

• Magister Sphinx: Speaking of! He and Wanderer can kill opponents with no blockers, but he also gives Progenitus the perfect alley-oop.

• Mystic Snake: A more reasonably-costed version of Draining Whelk.

• Noble Hierarch: A very good mana dork who makes Progenitus a two-swing kill, if that's ever relevant.

• Peregrine Drake: P-Drizzle.

• Pilgrim's Eye : Helps color fix and is a CMC 3 creature to initiate the pod chain.

• Prime Speaker Zegana: Wins with the Deadeye combo, but is a stronger draw by herself than Strix or Oracle. Notably, she draws at least 11 cards with Progenitus out.

• Reclamation Sage: Because there is always a mana rock or Rest in Peace worth destroying.

• Sakura-Tribe Elder: Hey, shut up. I like him.

• Solemn Simulacrum: Good card advantage and delirium enabler. Pods into Archangel or P-Drake.

• Vizier of the Menagerie: If I can't get my Chromatic Lantern online, this guy lets me cast my counterspell creatures with no blue mana, as an example. Knowing the top card of my library is also powerful enough without the ability to cast it if it's a creature, but he does that too. What a fella.

Instants and Sorceries Show

Anguished Unmaking: 3 mana to exile anything is decent, anyway. Void Winnower became annoyingly popular in my local meta's reanimator decks for a while, and this deals with it.

Blasphemous Act: I had swapped this for Toxic Deluge, but after twice losing because the card in my hand was Deluge instead of BlasAct, I switched back.

Brainstorm: It's Brainstorm. This deck shuffles often.

Bring to Light: Consider it a 1 mana tutor for a 4 drop or a 0 mana tutor for a 5 drop.

Conflux: Typically used with infinite mana to win the game by getting Seasons Past, Time Warp, and Demonic Tutor, which creates an infinite turn loop. The other cards are just gravy. Depending on board state, a Conflux package may win the turn it resolves, which I strive to do whenever possible.

Cyclonic Rift: Get that shit out of here.

Demonic Tutor: A card that probably ought not to be legal in Commander.

Dig Through Time: On occasion I've generated infinite mana or played Omniscience and had nowhere else to go in hand, except Dig, and Dig found the win. This isn't a spell-heavy graveyard-filling deck but it can still be cast pretty easily, and for far less mana than the spell is worth.

Enlightened Tutor: Can be used in response to Wanderer cascades to fix my free spell and tutors up several game-winning pieces, like Deathmantle, Golem, Ascendancy, and Omniscience.

Fact or Fiction: A powerful instant speed 'draw' spell that also fills the yard up some for Dig and Traverse.

Mindbreak Trap: Counters the uncounterable, and stops storm for 0 mana. Also a good answer to other Wanderers.

Nature's Claim: It's rare for there to be no good targets for this spell.

Noxious Revival: For Wanderer cascades, disrupting graveyard strategies, or recycling powerful spells like Demonic Tutor. In times of dire need it ensures we draw a land. One of my favorite cards in the game.

Painful Truths: It's no Ancestral Recall, but it will have to do.

Path to Exile: Worse than Swords but still good. Sometimes creatures need to go.

Ponder: Stupid strong for a 1 mana common.

Reanimate: Bring back things we podded away, steal stuff from the reanimator player, or enable an early Deadeye combo win. Situational, but still a ridiculously powerful spell, even in a fairly mismatched deck as this.

Seasons Past: Way better than Praetor's Counsel. Part of the infinite turn loop, but amazing card advantage besides.

Swords to Plowshares: The best creature removal spell in Magic.

Time Warp: Wanderer cascades into it, Seasons Past loops it. At least once I used it so I could untap and play one more land and win that turn.

Traverse the Ulvenwald: A cheaper Eladamri's Call, albeit at sorcery speed. Fetching basics isn't awful. A solid, versatile card, the kind this deck loves.

Urban Evolution: Divination and Explore stapled together. Bring to Light finds this, and also looks eerily similar as a card. A pet card, I realize it's not great, but I play in a fairly casual meta. It's still a good effect.

Vampiric Tutor: Arguably the best tutor in the format.

Wargate: Can be cast for 0 to get any land, or can tutor up any card draw engine we need once infinite mana is online.

Windfall: Just pretend it's Timetwister. After a ramp-heavy hand dump, this feels amazing.

Worldly Tutor: Most of my engines and outlets are creatures. Plays well with Wanderer.

Wrath of God: My casual-adjacent meta features several stompy aggro decks which almost invariably target me first, especially if I play this deck.

Artifacts and Enchantments Show

• Animate Dead: A worse second copy of Reanimate.

• Birthing Pod: A win condition and/or value engine.

• Chromatic Lantern: Perfect color fixing and a reasonably-costed mana rock as well.

• Chrome Mox: It has "Mox" in the name.

• Coalition Relic: A perfectly fine 3 mana rainbow rock. Hard to get too much value out of its quirky charge counter thing, but sometimes it's relevant.

• Commander's Sphere: Taps for any color and draws a card when no longer needed. Easy way to get an artifact in yard as well.

• Fellwar Stone: One of the best colored mana rocks, if not the best.

• Fist of Suns: Usually draws out removal that would otherwise hit something that actually wins, but if left unchecked enables very early Omniscience, Conflux, and Progenitus.

• Mirari's Wake: Double land mana for cheap. The creature buff is cute.

• Nim Deathmantle: Combos with Composite Golem. I want to play a sac outlet so I can more easily win with this combo, but I'm not sure where to cut.

• Omniscience: Pretty much wins the game.

• Phyrexian Arena: Steady card draw that can come down early. Necropotence is a tougher cost to pay, and this deck can't use a turn 2 Necro to win turn 3 like other decks can.

• Prismatic Geoscope: Usually taps for 5 colored mana. Sucks it comes in tapped. Might go out for a Gilded Lotus

• Sol Ring: Lost to time is the artificer's art of trapping light from a distant star in a ring of purest gold.

• Temur Ascendancy: Both effects make this a potent engine to produce a win.

Planeswalkers Show

• Elspeth, Sun's Champion: Dayman, ahh-AHH-ahh! Fighter of the Nightman, ahh-AHH-ahh! Champion of the Sun!

• Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker: You wanna know the truth? I usually end up pitching this guy to Chrome Mox. But sometimes I get to cast him turn 4, and I have fun those games.

Game Flow Show

I won't bore you to death with magical Christmas land Sol Ring possibilities or stats or mulligans. This is just how a pretty typical game with this deck might go. I'm just goldfishing as I write this.

Opening hand: City of Brass / Prime Speaker Zegana / Blood Crypt / Bring to Light / Commander's Sphere / Swords to Plowshares / Overgrown Tomb

T1: Draw Birthing Pod

Play Overgrown Tomb

T2: Draw Bloom Tender

Play Blood Crypt, Cast Bloom Tender

T3: Draw Vizier of the Menagerie

Play City of Brass, Cast Birthing Pod. Tap Bloom Tender, Pod Bloom Tender, get Pilgrim's Eye, find Island

T4: Draw Flooded Grove

Play Island. Pod Pilgrim's Eye for Felidar Guardian, blink Pod. Pod Felidar Guardian for Karmic Guide, reanimate Felidar Guardian, blink Pod. Pod Felidar Guardian, get Kiki-Jiki. Activate Kiki-Jiki targeting Karmic Guide. Reanimate Felidar Guardian, blink Kiki-Jiki, win the game.

So drawing the pod and a creature to sac to it was nuts, but that's how this deck plays sometimes. Whichever engine I find first dictates what kind of combo I go for. The advantage this deck has over some of the higher tier competitive decks is resilience. Having played Food Chain Tazri, I know it can lose to a single counterspell. Having played this deck against a top-tier Thrasios/Silas deck, I beat it by breaking his Dimir Signet and developing my win before he could recover from the loss of a single mana. This deck has too many combos to disrupt them all, and plays better in the casual environment I play it in than in competitive metas full of turn 3 wins. It's a little too slow to keep up there without a very nutty hand like this one.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.88
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Soldier 1/1 W
Folders	Interesting