Since the August ban announcement, the Standard metagame has been fairly open and diverse. While Izzet decks are still popular, there are plenty of other things to do, including crushing events with successful brews. Recently, one player won their Store Championship with a gnarly combo deck centered on a multitude of TMNT cards.
Consistently Assembling the Combo
This archetype piloted by Ricky is designed to deal infinite damage to the opponent as early as turn three. To set everything up, you’ll want to stick Redshift, Rocketeer Chief and Chrome Dome, while having Guac & Marshmallow Pizza lined up in hand.
From there, tap Redshift to float two mana to activate on abilities. Then cast the Pizza, untapping Redshift and buffing it, so Redshift can tap for four more mana. With six mana floating, you can make a token copy of the Pizza via Chrome Dome’s activated ability, letting you untap Redshift again.
At minimum, this loop grows Redshift infinitely large and nets you infinite mana to sink into Redshift’s Exhaust ability. With a second copy of Chrome Dome, however, you can use the infinite mana to make infinite Chrome Dome tokens and attack for lethal. Alternatively, by jamming Biotech Specialist, you can funnel mana into sacrificing your many Pizzas to deal lethal damage.
While assembling a three-card combo may seem difficult at first glance, this deck has plenty of ways to dig for its pieces. For example, both Rapid Rescue and Dredger’s Insight can find any part of the combo. Additionally, Courier of Comestibles reliably grabs the Pizza, while Formidable Speaker gives you access to either creature. This deck even has some bonus redundancy, since Topiary Lecturer can fill the same role as Redshift.
Surprisingly Resilient
Naturally, this creature combo deck shines brightest against archetypes with little removal. Decks like Mono-Green Landfall and Selesnya Offense typically struggle to put together a fast enough clock to race your combo, especially when you start with Llanowar Elves.
Interestingly, though, part of what makes this deck so intriguing is that it still fights through interaction better than you might expect. Redshift and Chrome Dome having three toughness is a huge deal versus Izzet Prowess and Spellementals, dodging Burst Lightning
Burst LightningKicker {4} (You may pay an additional {4} as you cast this spell.)
Burst Lightning deals 2 damage to any target. If this spell was kicked, it deals 4 damage instead. and Traumatic Critique to an extent.
Even against more robust Dimir Midrange kill spells, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron turns your other creatures into combo pieces on a whim. As such, if the opponent ever taps out or runs out of answers, they risk losing anyway.
Notably, this deck only gets better against control thanks to Chandra, Torch of Defiance from Reality Fracture. After all, this tool provides card advantage and a win condition in one, potentially helping you win even if you fail to put the combo together.
With all that upside, this archetype has a real chance to keep picking up steam after this performance. It’s always nice to see players get rewarded for bringing fun brews to an event, and this one certainly has legs.
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