As we close in on the final days of Marvel Super Heroes spoilers, the set’s substantial suite of commons and uncommons is being revealed. While many of these cards are mere odds-and-ends, there are some legitimate gems in here, too. Hawkeye’s Bow, for instance, is an MTG common that unlocks a brand-new infinite combo in Pauper. Given its speed and splashability, this could make a real impact in the format on release.
Hawkeye’s Bow MTG
To pull off this spicy new combo, all you need is Hawkeye’s Bow and Seeker of Skybreak. Attach Bow to Seeker and, assuming it doesn’t have summoning sickness, you can tap it to untap itself with its ability. This will deal 1 damage to your opponent, and you can rinse and repeat for an instant kill.
With no other cards, you can pull this combo off on turn three by dropping Seeker on two, then playing and attaching Bow on three. If you add in either Simian Spirit Guide or Lotus Petal, however, you can power Seeker out on turn one and pop off on turn two instead. While this combo lacks the turn one win potential of Pauper Spy, it also requires far fewer deckbuilding concessions to function.
There’s clearly a lot of potential in such a simple combo kill in Pauper, but the challenge here will be finding the right shell to support it. Currently, slotting the combo pieces into Gruul Ponza seems like the best bet. This deck already runs Malevolent Rumble, which can find either combo piece, and Seeker of Skybreak becomes reasonable ramp when paired with Arbor Elf. Ponza has a fair few flex slots as well, so it’s not hard to find room for the pieces.
Alternatively, Jund Wildfire could prove to be a suitable home, thanks mainly to Hawkeye’s Bow. Simply being a cheap artifact gives this card a lot of utility in the list, as fodder for Fanatical Offering and Krark-Clan Shaman in a pinch. By extension, Jund Wildfire would have an easier time slotting in Lotus Petal than most decks, enabling the turn two version of the combo as well.
A Real Shot?
While it’s generally good to be skeptical of new MTG combos, I think the Hawkeye’s Bow combo could have a real shot in Pauper. Both combo pieces here, while not hugely exciting, do actually offer reasonable utility in the current metagame.
Hawkeye’s Bow can grant any creature Reach, which is excellent against all the Sneaky Snackers and Delver of Secrets running around right now. Seeker of Skybreak is also just a nice way to win races by granting pseudo-Vigilance, and can help Midrange decks out against the likes of Mono-Red Madness.
That said, there are some hurdles to overcome here, primarily just how fragile Seeker of Skybreak is as a creature. Between Lava Dart in Madness Burn and Galvanic Blast in Grixis Affinity, a big chunk of the top decks have cheap, instant-speed answers to this card. In a similar vein, Mono-Blue Terror can slow you down enough with Sleep of the Dead to stabilize.
As always, only time and testing will tell whether this new combo can actually make a mark on Pauper. Given how similar it feels to the now-banned Basking Broodscale/Sadistic Glee combo, however, I think its chances are actually pretty solid.
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