Man, who would have thought that Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood would work well together? I'm sure no one saw that right away when they printed Exquisite Blood. I mean, they wouldn't make such an obvious combo on purpose, right? Ok, I'm beating a dead horse now. Maybe they did intentionally make an infinite combo that they thought would be fair, but I'm going to try to prove that wrong. Another thing you should know; I have a soft spot for combo's, but I don't build decks that fizzle if the combo doesn't go off. Anyways, here's a breakdown of all the cards in the deck, since that seems to be popular now:
[C-C-C-Combo's]
The win-engines of the deck, these give my opponent a pretty serious threat to deal with alongside the aggro.
Exquisite Blood + Sanguine Bond: Yup, the obvious combo.
Vizkopa Guildmage: An essential combo piece; its second ability effectively makes it the same as Sanguine Bond, so now only one Sanguine Bond is necessary for the Lost Auramancers combo, and its first ability helps tremendously to counteract the life loss from Dark Confidant. Lastly, it can be searched up by Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, so this card is practically the star of the deck.
Vampire Hexmage + Lost Auramancers: Another relatively obvious combo, I get to search for one of my combo pieces and put it directly onto the battlefield.
[Sifters]
These help the win-engines see some play, as well as help find responses in a number of situations.
Ajani, Mentor of Heroes: Grabs
Oppressive Rays
when I need it, lays down more aggro, and finds creatures appropriate for the situation. What's not to love?
Graveborn Muse
: Gets me through the deck faster and keeps my hand full of fuel. Can be searched up with Ajani, Mentor of Heroes.
[Mana Ramp]
With some rather expensive combo pieces, it's pretty essential to get some mana ramp going so I can win before my opponent.
Noble Hierarch
: Since the overall deck curve is pretty steep, acceleration is necessary. This also has the added bonus of giving the deck more aggro capabilities, so definite 4 of.
Sylvan Caryatid: Brings the mana dork count up to 6 and has nice evasion. Solid card.
[Life Gain]
Fetchlands, Shocklands, and Pain Seer gets pretty painful if the game drags on. The extra life helps to alleviate the pain as well as drag the game on so the combo goes off.
Underworld Coinsmith
: There are really only a few enchantments for him to work off of, but he's mostly in here to get the combo going when it hits the board.
Kitchen Finks: This durable little guy doubles as life gain and aggro, and he works great with
Miren, the Moaning Well
, so he's rather powerful for this deck.
Courser of Kruphix: The life gain is very helpful to mitigate the life loss from Pain Seer, and it also turns fetch lands into life gain cards. Revealing the top card of my library is actually helpful because it lets me know when to not attack with Pain Seer to avoid losing a lot of life. Can be grabbed by Ajani, Mentor of Heroes, so it synergizes with the deck really well.
Miren, the Moaning Well
: Emergency life gain, and it also does great against control decks that try to prevent me from activating the combo once it's on the board.
[Targeted Removal]
Not planning to disrupt your opponent or expecting them not to disrupt you is like planning to not have an opponent. These help to make sure my opponent doesn't kill me or stop me from going off.
Abrupt Decay: If my opponent isn't running permanents that cost 3 or less, then they probably have more problems than I do anyways.
Qasali Pridemage: Excellent for both removal and aggro, this card is extremely effective in this deck.
Oppressive Rays
: Cheap, can be grabbed by Ajani, and pretty damn effective.
So there you have it, an original creation with a very obvious combo! Give it a +1 if you like it and leave a comment if you don't (or if you do)!
