Our first week of Reality Fracture previews comes to a close today, and it’s been a heck of a ride so far. We’ve seen a controversial new mechanic, the return of one of Magic’s most fearsome villains, and a ton of playable new cards to boot. We’ve also seen a good number of the Mirrored Pair legends that make up the main gimmick of Reality Fracture, some of which, it turns out, are spicy MTG combo enablers.
Mabel, Valley Hero MTG
Making a surprise return from Bloomburrow, Mabel is capable of unleashing all manner of counter-based combos. For starters, it pairs perfectly with any kind of Persist creature, such as Lesser Masticore, and a sacrifice outlet.
This can get you infinite mana with Phyrexian Altar, or infinite damage with Goblin Bombardment. It’s particularly nice with Murderous Redcap, as it can target itself to cut out the need for an outlet, easily leading to wins with any Blood Artist effect.
If you’re running Mabel in the 99 of a Naya deck, it also enables a range of infinite token combos as well. Play Basking Broodscale
Basking BroodscaleDevoid (This card has no color.)
{1}{G}: Adapt 1. (If this creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on this creature, you may create a 0/1 colorless Eldrazi Spawn creature token with "Sacrifice this token: Add {C}.", Scurry Oak
Scurry OakEvolve (Whenever a creature you control enters, if that creature has greater power or toughness than this creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on this creature, you may create a 1/1 green Squirrel creature token., or Herd Baloth with Mabel out, and you can give them a counter immediately, setting off an infinite creature chain. This can wipe out the table with Altar of the Brood, or set you up for a lethal swing with a Haste granter like Anger
AngerHaste
As long as this card is in your graveyard and you control a Mountain, creatures you control have haste..
Hapatra, Desert’s Fang MTG
– Mana Value: 3U
– Type: Legendary Creature – Human Cleric
– Rarity: Uncommon
– Card Text: When this enters, for each opponent, choose up to one target creature they control. Tap those creatures and put a stun counter on each of them.
2U: untap target creature.
– Stats: 4/3
While we’ve seen plenty of cards that untap creatures over the years, Hapatra, Desert’s Fang is unique in that it can do so repeatedly. This lets it easily go infinite with any creature that can tap for three or more mana, such as Bloom Tender
Bloom TenderVivid — {T}: For each color among permanents you control, add one mana of that color.. Even just making three mana will net you infinite taps and untaps here, which lets you loot through your entire deck with Unctus, Grand Metatect to find your win.
Hapatra also makes it trivial to generate infinite mana, which can then be funneled into all kinds of outlets, from Walking Ballista to Finale of Devastation, for instant wins. This unique ability already has players considering Hapatra for Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy decks in cEDH, and it should be a solid player in many low-bracket lists as well.
Geist of Saint Thalia MTG
Uniting two Innistrad favorites in one great card, Geist of Saint Thalia is an absolute banger for Spellslinger fans. It’s also an excellent combo enabler, most notably letting you draw your entire deck with Sensei’s Divining Top and a play-from-library effect like The Reality Chip. This can then facilitate a win in all manner of ways, though the classic Thassa’s Oracle
Thassa’s OracleWhen this creature enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is your devotion to blue. Put up to one of them on top of your library and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If X is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library, you win the game. (Each {U} in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to blue.) option is almost certainly the best.
For a funkier combo line, you can pair Geist of Saint Thalia with View from Above, Orvar, the All-Form
Orvar, the All-FormChangeling
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, if it targets one or more other permanents you control, create a token that's a copy of one of those permanents.
When a spell or ability an opponent controls causes you to discard this card, create a token that's a copy of target permanent., and an animated land that can produce blue mana. Target the land with a discounted View from Above, then make a copy with Orvar; you can tap it to cast again and repeat the process. This nets you infinite Landfall triggers for a Hedron Crab win, as well as infinite Storm count for something like Brain Freeze
Brain FreezeTarget player mills three cards.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.).
While we’ve seen noncreature spell discount effects like this before, most notably with Final Fantasy’s Lyse Hext, Geist of Saint Thalia is the cheapest version yet. Thanks to this, and its ample combo potential, this new Thalia could well make an impact in multiple formats on release.
Fblthp, Impossibly Lost MTG
Wizards is getting a lot more liberal with the classic Laboratory Maniac win condition these days. Not only did we see it in black with Doctor Doom, Unrivaled, but now we’re getting it as an uncommon with Fblthp, Impossibly Lost. Granted, this is the trickiest-to-use variant of the effect yet, but it’s still wild to see such a proven alternate win condition at this rarity.
Naturally, the best way to win with this new Fblthp is to mill out your entire deck in one turn, which you can achieve in several ways. Both Demonic Consultation and Tainted Pact will get the job done themselves, or you can use Hermit Druid
Hermit Druid{G}, {T}: Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a basic land card. Put that card into your hand and all other cards revealed this way into your graveyard. in decks with no basic lands. For less optimal routes, Doomsday can get you there with support, and Leveler if you have the mana to spare.
Unlike its peers, Fblthp also comes with the condition that you need to connect with a creature in order to nab the win trigger here. For this reason, you’ll want to include evasive creatures like Slither Blade or Dauthi Voidwalker
Dauthi VoidwalkerShadow (This creature can block or be blocked by only creatures with shadow.)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, instead exile it with a void counter on it.
{T}, Sacrifice this creature: Choose an exiled card an opponent owns with a void counter on it. You may play it this turn without paying its mana cost. to ensure you can pull it off when needed. This does make Fblthp less reliable than the other options in this category, but the fact that it can be a reasonable ‘two mana draw two’ spell at other points in the game helps make up for that.
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