Following its recent reveal, players were quick to voice their criticism of The Naked Time. While its name is controversial, it’s still one of the most hyped cards in the set from a power-level perspective. There are plenty of cool ways to abuse it in a Standard setting, including by assembling a newly discovered infinite Goblin combo.
Infinite Goblins in Standard
This new combo is centered around three specific cards: The Naked Time, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron
Agatha’s Soul CauldronYou may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to activate abilities of creatures you control.
Creatures you control with +1/+1 counters on them have all activated abilities of all creature cards exiled with Agatha's Soul Cauldron.
{T}: Exile target card from a graveyard. When a creature card is exiled this way, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control., and Krenko, Mob Boss. To get started, you need to land Cauldron and exile Krenko from your graveyard with it.
Next, resolve The Naked Time and make sure it survives until it reaches chapter II. Once that chapter goes off, any Goblin you play as a follow-up will enter with a +1/+1 counter on it and have Haste. Now, any of your creatures that enter play will get Haste and Krenko’s ability.
Now, just use Krenko’s ability to create some Goblins, and the fun begins. Any Goblin tokens you make also enter with a counter and Haste, setting you up to use Krenko’s activated ability once more.
Each time you repeat this process, you’ll net more Goblin tokens than the previous activation. As such, you can make infinite tokens in the long run, then attack for lethal damage.
Setting this up does take some work, but Standard is plenty prepared for it. There’s lots of red looting effects, including the recently printed Goblin, Pompous Battlemage, that can help get Krenko into your bin. In a Goblin deck, the backup plan of curving out with Stadium Headliner, Searslicer Goblin, Howlsquad Heavy, and other strong Goblins isn’t terrible.
Even in games where you don’t draw Cauldron, the combination of The Naked Time and Krenko can still be quite powerful. After all, jamming the Saga turn two and getting an extra land sets you up to play Krenko turn three and activate it right away, which adds a lot of pressure to the board.
Even still, building around this combo leaves you extremely vulnerable to hate cards, with the worst being Authority of the Consuls. Forcing your creatures to enter tapped completely dismantles your combo potential, and the enchantment’s life gain makes any go-wide backup plan much worse.
Ultimately, this combo seems more set up for casual play than competitive play as a result. Regardless, don’t be surprised to see it around on MTG Arena at the very least, and perhaps someone will find a shell that breaks it.
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