Ouroboros (Infinite Combo) [[Primer]]

Commander / EDH Combo Infinite Combo Mono-Green Multiplayer Primer Ramp

ENZU

Advantage (8)

• 1x Garruk, Primal Hunter
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Harmonize
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Regal Force
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Soul's Majesty
• 1x Sylvan Library

Answers (8)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Cloudthresher
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Song of the Dryads
• 1x Squall Line
• 1x Terastodon

Bounce (2)

• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Temur Sabertooth

Haste (5)

• 1x Akroma's Memorial
• 1x Haunted Cloak
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thousand-Year Elixir

Other (40)

• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 33x Forest
• 1x Mosswort Bridge
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sapseep Forest
• 1x Tranquil Thicket
• 1x Winding Canyons

Ramp (21)

• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Boundless Realms
• 1x Emerald Medallion
• 1x Explore
• 1x Gaea's Touch
• 1x Karametra's Acolyte
• 1x Llanowar Druid
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Omnath, Locus of Mana
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Overgrowth
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Scout
• 1x Selvala, Heart of the Wilds
• 1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Voyaging Satyr
• 1x Wild Growth
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Recursion (3)

• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Praetor's Counsel
• 1x Skullwinder

Tutor (4)

• 1x Genesis Hydra
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Primal Command
• 1x Yisan, the Wanderer Bard

Utility (3)

• 1x Hall of Gemstone
• 1x Whisperwood Elemental
• 1x Yeva, Nature's Herald

Wincons (5)

• 1x Ant Queen
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Chameleon Colossus
• 1x Genesis Wave
• 1x Nylea, God of the Hunt

Commander (1)

---

Sideboard

Other (1)

• 1x Patron of the Orochi

---

Maybeboard

Other (14)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Dosan the Falling Leaf
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Lignify
• 1x Loaming Shaman
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Ring of Three Wishes
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x The Great Aurora
• 1x Thragtusk
• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1x Vedalken Orrery

Ramp (1)

• 1x Utopia Sprawl

---

Introduction Show

Alright, so this deck is without a doubt my favorite EDH deck and it has a surprising amount of depth so stay with me here. The name is of course a reference to the snake eating its own tail, a symbol for infinity. And guess what? This deck is intended to go infinite with Patron of the Orochi. How can you go infinite with Patron of Orochi, you ask? Well it's all thanks to a rule that states that Patron's one turn limitation on his ability resets if it changes zones.

One of the reasons I like this deck is just that its combo is so synergistic with the rest of the deck that it can play with or without it just fine and it doesn't feel degenerate but it actually has interaction. And it's has a pretty good bang for its buck! At its current power level it's capable of winning on turn 5 but usually pulls it off mostly in turns 7-9.

Combo Show

Imagine that my board-state has 4 things on it:

• 11 Forest
• Temur Sabertooth
• Lightning Greaves
• Patron of the Orochi

---

1. First use Patron's ability to untap all 11 forests (or dorks or whatever).
2. Then use 2 forests to return Patron using Temur Sabertooth. Bringing your total to 9 mana left.
3. Replay Patron of the Orochi from your hand for 8 mana.
4. Tap the leftover land for a floating mana.
5. Equip the Lightning Greaves to Patron of the Orochi.
6. Repeat step one. Generating 1 extra floating mana for each repetition of the combo.

---

There are multiple redundant pieces in this deck You CAN also go infinite with. The following are using Temur Sabertooth & Lightning Greaves as a baseline:

• Voyaging Satyr + Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: 5 devotion.
• Karametra's Acolyte: 7 devotion.
• Selvala, Heart of the Wilds: 7 power.
• Arbor Elf + Overgrowth + Wild Growth/Extraplanar Lens (this is almost assuredly never going to happen xD. I just thought I'd list it for your benefit.

One doesn't have to go entirely infinite though, for one mana less it is possible to get a loop of creatures ETBing which is beneficial with things like Soul of the Harvest.

Cloudstone Curio largely follows the same convention as the sabertooth but it can also use things like Arbor Elf and Shaman of the Forgotten Ways given the right circumstances. I won't bother going through all the permutations of the different threshholds you need to go infinite because there would be too many :p

Budget Show

For this list I tried to keep each card around $5 or less if possible. But some things eherm Greater Good are just too awesome. All cards in this list at the most that are very expensive are cards that I actually own. Things like Oracle of Mul Daya and Lotus Cobra I have either gotten from trading, as gifts, or I just broke down and finally got them.

However, since everyone's budgets and collections are different than mine I've linked some companion primers below to help others take this list from its current budget/power level (about 75%) to either a more budget list with things like Hunter's Prowess replacing Garruk, Primal Hunter or a more 100% pricey optimized list with things like Winter Orb & Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger.

Breakdown Show

Bounce Show

• Temur Sabertooth - Undoubtedly the MVP. Without him this deck wouldn't be half as much fun or even possible. Wizards needs to give Green some more activated ability self-bounce if only so I can add them in here. I'm glad he's so difficult to remove and even when he's not going infinite he's basically protecting your whole team.
• Cloudstone Curio - Pairs nicely with a lot of the cards in the deck in addition to being a combo piece. Arbor Elf (with a mana doubler out) and a discounted 2 drop creature ( Emerald Medallion ) can do some terrible things (think about Wood Elves). Same thing with any of the mana ramping creatures in the deck (i.e. Karametra's Acolyte & Selvala, Heart of the Wilds). Arguably Temur Sabertooth is stronger but Cloudstone Curio is more versatile and can achieve the infinite combo with mana dorks more easily.

Haste Show

• Akroma's Memorial - This card's an all star and it really helps you win when you've got your combo going and can play your whole deck.
• Lightning Greaves - The one and only.
• Swiftfoot Boots - This is the only haste-granter in here that will push up the price of your combo by 1.
• Thousand-Year Elixir - Helpful with all the great mana dorks and tap abilities in this deck.

Wincons Show

• Blightsteel Colossus - He does what he does. Works well with the haste-granting cards and the mana ramp in this deck.
• Chameleon Colossus - Anybody playing Black will have a tough time with this guy and all the mana acceleration in this deck gets this guy to lethal more often than not. He also can be sacced for a discounted Patron of the Orochi thanks to Snake offering.
• Shaman of Forgotten Ways - Works well with the untap synergy of the deck. Also, is Biorhythm . When has that not killed people? Also has the potential to make your life total very high (potentially infinite with all the tokens).
• Ant Queen - Admittedly a bit of weak spot in the deck. She's really in here to be part of the combo with Cloudstone Curio but she pulls her own weight when she stays alive to do so. An excellent mana dump.
• Avenger of Zendikar - his ETB ability works great with the bounce-centered shenanigans in the deck. Also turns your ramp into raw power. A classic green staple.

Wincons w/ Combo Show

• Acidic Slime - If I go infinite with the Patron then I have all the necessary tools to make this do the flubber until nobody has any lands or artifacts/enchantments. Not a win-con per se, but try to recover from that.
• Terastodon - See above. Also capable of delivering a pounding of his own thanks to his size.
• Squall Line - If you have more life than the other players...well. This pairs very nicely with the potential of infinite life from the Sapseep Forest.
• Nylea, God of the Hunt - She's a nice little mana dump and a beater herself. Works like Chameleon Colossus except a little different with the Trample.
• Polukranos, World Eater - Eat all your opponents creatures and have room for dessert (your opponent's face).
• Any permanent that draws cards with ETB - With these repeatable card engines you can draw your whole deck. With Greater Good Don't forget that when you go infinite with Patron that you can just sac and replay him any number of times for all the cards in your deck and still have infinite left over to still play them all. At that point I'd say you've won. With Regal Force, you just kind of have to watch it so that you don't deck yourself. Pretty straightforward with Soul of the Harvest & Selvala, Heart of the Wilds.

Tutors Show

• Primal Command - A swiss army knife. Has the power to sweep opponents graveyards, search for a creature, replenish your deck, and to either put an artifact or enchantment back on top of an opponent's deck or to do that and shuffle it away with the graveyard ability to remove it.
• Green Sun's Zenith - Needs no introduction. Will mostly be a 5cmc Temur Sabertooth.
• Ring of Three Wishes - Planar Portal is also good. I just like the reduced cost of this.

Card Draw Show

• Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - Obligatory Eldrazi.
• Regal Force - All your creatures are green. This guy is a great way to replenish your hand. Even 4 cards (his average) is excellent.
• Soul's Majesty - Green doesn't have the best options for draw and here's where it shows. This card can have the creature under it sniped and it'll fizzle and it relies on having a creature out to get any cards out. All that said, I've never been upset to see this card.
• Garruk, Primal Hunter - Soul's Majesty with occasional upside.
• Momentous Fall - Pretty nice on infinite Patron like Greater Good. It helps when adding these cards that our commander often pays for himself and has 7 power.
• Harmonize - Green card draw OP. I know this isn't the best or most flashy option and a tutor could be put in its place, but I like the risk of really needing to hit an ETB creature with the combo up or hoping that you'll hit a necessary piece of the combo to go off (if living on the edge isn't your style then freely replace some card draw with tutoring effects).
• Sylvan Library - One thing about playing combo is that your life starts to matter less. I almost always pay at least 8 life to this. But this card is good even without the lifeloss for just letting you pick your draws similar to the pseudo scry of Mirri's Guile. You can often shuffle away things you don't want with a ramp spell.
• Soul of the Harvest - A nice beater and a good value engine. As has been stated before I'm sure, with the combo up he wins you the game.

Recursion Show

• Praetor's Counsel - Basically this is Green's best card draw spell. The maximum hand size thing is a nice bonus. Recursion in general is good here because there's a limited number of combo pieces in the deck.
• Skullwinder - A deathtouch political witness that discounts my commander and makes it instant speed? Awesome.
• Eternal Witness - I have drawn my whole deck with this and Tranquil Thicket before. Recursion on a stick like this with the combo allows you to play any number of instants/sorceries/cycles you want from your graveyard.

Answers Show

• Krosan Grip - Good for stopping the shenanigans of others.
• Primal Command - Answers both noncreature permanents and graveyard decks (in addition to its other roles)
• Acidic Slime & Terastodon - Already mentioned above but it's worth noting they are premiere removal on their own.
• Beast Within
• Song of the Dryads - I basically just put this in here to lock down commanders but didn't notice that it says permanent and not creature. I'm surprised I don't see this thing everywhere.
• Squall Line - Aside from winning the game from time to time, this is also a really good way to kill fliers attacking you. I put this in over Hurricane because sometimes opponents use their fliers to attack other people and, since your commander is basically a budget Seedborn Muse, instant speed can be pretty handy.
• The Great Aurora - This card is so whacky. I love it. Basically its the reset button for impossible situations and this deck tends to keep a pretty high permanent amount so its likely going to come out on top.

Utility Show

• Sapseep Forest - The key to this is that it's a forest meaning it can be tutored w/ Wood Elves and Nature's Lore and untapped with Patron of Orochi. And since it can be untapped, it can go infinite and you can be proud to be one of the only people to have gained 100+ life with sapseep forest on this planet.
• Dosan the Falling Leaf - I occasionally tutor this guy up to prevent people doing annoying things like casting AEtherize when I swing in with my board or to set up protection for my combos. He's a respectable part of the creature toolbox that I can tutor for (plus look how cool he is).
• Mosswort Bridge - 10 power is a pretty easy threshold for the deck to meet.
• Tranquil Thicket - Did I mention I killed everyone with this already? xD
• Winding Canyons - The value of flash in this deck was already discussed when I talked about Squall Line but its mostly because Patron can act as a Seedborn Muse and you can get a lot of value from other players' turns. This effect also lets you combo out on other players turns which is nice.
• Yeva, Nature's Herald - See above. What's nice is that she has flash herself so you can have an explosive turn at the end step preceding your turn and have your mana untapped and ready to go.
• Whisperwood Elemental - Good value and protection against boardwipe. Really cute interaction with Cloudstone Curio and other bounce effects.

Ramp Worth Mentioning Show

• Arbor Elf - This guy is just in here because of Overgrowth effects and Extraplanar Lens effects.
• Boundless Realms - Hitting this with Lotus Cobra or, even better Avenger of Zendikar in play never ceases to make me smile. Another powerful play is casting this before you activate Patron of the Orochi.
• Emerald Medallion - When you play as many spells as I do in a turn with this deck, this thing really starts to shine. Its even better with the Cloudstone Curio + Mana Dork combos that I listed above.
• Extraplanar Lens & Vernal Bloom - By far the most comments on this deck are people disputing adding in these (and even the Patron himself) because it potentially helps other players. To that I have to say...That's a totally fair point xD I just wanted to go full balls-to-the-wall ramp to get to my combo as fast as possible as a proof of principle. Play these against combo decks with forests at your own risk. There are plenty of ramp substitutes for these if that's the case. I'll explore those in the final section.
• Gaea's Touch - Underrated forest-based Exploration at a fraction of a cost! I like it for its devotion and because of its sacrifice ability in a pinch. Once you've played all the lands in your hand it's a really nice upside to be able to get that extra two mana.
• Karametra's Acolyte - Much has already been said about her combo potential with the deck. But she also is a respectable ramper with out any shenanigans.
• Lotus Cobra - People are so used to seeing this guy in EDH that they sometimes forget that he is, in fact, a snek and therefore a little baby Patron of the Orochi ready and able to kill their attackers. Outside of Snake offering, this guy is also great for his innate ramp capability, effectively making many ramp spells one or two mana cheaper.
• Nature's Lore - Forest comes in untapped. Also can fetch your Sapseep Forest meaning that, if you hit combo with nothing else, you can at least gain an infinite amount of life (though I usually stop myself at 50).
• Overgrowth + Wild Growth - Included cards like these because you can enchant an untapped land and immediately use them and they tend to stick around through a lot of boardwipes. Plus it's neat to get value with them and Arbor Elf/ Voyaging Satyr .
• Sakura-Tribe Elder - You all know him. You all love him. But did you notice...that he is a snek? Patron did. The shock on an opponent's face when I've sacced this guy for a Giant Attacker-Destroying Snake Spirit God instead of a land is priceless.
• Orochi Sustainer - Unfortunately, unlike the other snakes (especially Chameleon Colossus, everyone will see the snake offering coming from a mile away. Truth is though, getting a discount of 3 mana and instant speed on my commander is pretty worth it anyway.
• Selvala, Heart of the Wilds - With a bit of tweaking this list could easily run her as the commander (just needs a tad more ~7 power creatures) and I'll probably run her as an alt commander. She's also really good because if the Patron is the biggest creature out and on-combo, she wins the game in the same way a Soul of the Harvest would.
• Shaman of Forgotten Ways - A good mana dork. Occasionally kills people. Nbd.
• Sol Ring - If your playgroup doesn't like this just replace it with a mana dork.
• Voyaging Satyr - At his worst he's a dork. With an Overgrowth or a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx out, he can become a god and serve as a Patron substitute for the combo.
• Wood Elves - Nature's Lore on a stick. That stick gives him the advantage of pulling every forest from your deck sometimes.

Primers (WIP) Show

Right now these primers are WIP but they'll ideally show you how to build this deck with different budget & power levels.

---

Budget Ouroboros [[Primer]]

Commander / EDH* NewHorizons

101 VIEWS

---

Leave an Upvote if you liked it! Comments are always appreciated.

Top Ranked	Achieved #16 position overall 9 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 1 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.65
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Elephant 3-3 G, Insect 1/1 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Plant 0/1 G, Wurm 6/6 G
Folders	EDH reference, Fun, ehd, I like it, Top Decks, Decks, Fun EDH, EDH, Other People's Decks, Other popel's cool decks