As Magic: The Gathering’s card pool grows larger and larger every year, so too does the number of wacky combos available to players. Most recently, Tarkir: Dragonstorm, released a couple of weeks back, and added a number of combos to the pool already. This week, enterprising players found another. Thanks to Iridescent Tiger, an uncommon MTG card from the set, a new infinite mana combo is possible in Standard.
This new combo needs three cards and a lot of mana to pull off, but should end the game on the spot once you do. Even in a Standard as fast-paced as the current one, something like this is still worth taking note of. All it takes is the right shell, and a combo like this can become a major meta player overnight. Whether that happens in this case or not, a new way to go infinite in Standard is always interesting to check out.
The MTG Iridescent Tiger Combo
To pull off the MTG Iridescent Tiger combo in current Standard, you need at least four cards: Roaming Throne, Meticulous Excavation, Iridescent Tiger itself, and an outlet for infinite mana. The line here is very simple, provided you drop the right pieces at the right points on the curve.
Generally, you’ll want to start preparation for the combo by playing Excavation. Since it costs just one white mana, you should easily be able to slot it into one of your early turns. Next, you’ll need to play out a Roaming Throne, naming Cat. Finally, you cast Iridescent Tiger, and double its enters trigger thanks to Throne. This will give you two mana of each color to play with, for a total of 10 mana.
Spend three of this mana to use Excavation’s activated ability, and return Tiger to your hand. You’ll then have seven floating mana remaining, five of which you can spend to cast Tiger again, gaining another 10 mana. You can repeat this loop any number of times, netting two mana each time, thus generating infinite mana.
From here, you’ll want to sink all of that mana into some kind of X spell to end the game immediately. MTG Creative Combos, who shared the combo via Twitter, suggested Goldvein Hydra for this purpose. There are plenty of alternatives in Standard right now, however, like Boommobile and Exsanguinate.
Alternatively, you can win the game by bouncing and replaying a permanent repeatedly via Excavation. Standard all-star Hopeless Nightmare is a great pick here, as are the Thunder Junction Ping Deserts, since they’re effectively ‘free’ includes as fixing lands. Either way, the game should be over the turn you drop Tiger if all goes to plan.
Building It Out
So that’s the Iridescent Tiger combo, now the question is what kind of MTG deck could run it effectively? In their original post, MTG Creative Combos suggested a focused Naya build of the deck. Outside of the key combo pieces and Llanowar Elves, the rest of the list is fully dedicated to digging through the deck. Helpful Hunter, Dredger’s Insight, Invasion of Ixalan, Inspiring Overseer, The Huntsman’s Redemption, and Brightglass Gearhulk all support this idea.
Since these are all permanents, they play very nicely with Meticulous Excavation. If you get your combo online but don’t have your finisher, you can loop a dig piece infinitely until you find it. Overall, this list is solid and highly focused, but it totally lacks any kind of interaction. The best it can muster against Aggro is a Helpful Hunter to hold off a single attack, which doesn’t really cut it in a world of Mice and Cori-Steel Cutter.
Derivative as it may be, I think a better home for this combo would be some kind of Mardu Pixie variant. Meticulous Excavation is a decent support card for the Pixie playstyle, which lets the deck play a fair game when it isn’t popping off. Hopeless Nightmare and Momentum Breaker are great at controlling the game early, and you can throw in Nowhere to Run and Tithing Blade for redundancy. Creature-wise, Helpful Hunter can probably stay, but you’ll want to bring in Nurturing Pixie and Sunpearl Kirin over some of the other dig creatures.
Throw in a copy or two of Exsanguinate, and you’ve got yourself a deck. While it naturally lacks some of the disruptive elements of the full Esper version, the potential for an early combo win is a big upside.
Meme Or Dream?
A Pixie variant of the MTG Iridescent Tiger combo may be its best bet for success, but that doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to make an impact. As I alluded to above, Standard is currently an incredibly tight format. The gatekeepers are well-established, and it’s tricky for any new archetype to establish a position.
Against red Aggro decks, be it Mice or the new Prowess lists running Cori-Steel Cutter, speed is this deck’s biggest problem. The combo is fairly clunky overall, since you need to land a four drop and a five drop in succession to pull it off. Roaming Throne is a pretty good blocker against Aggro, but with Monstrous Rage running about, it’s not even totally safe. If you opt for the Pixie package, there’s a chance you can compete early, but getting run over is always a risk. Slots are tight here, too, so direct removal likely isn’t an option.
As for other Pixie decks and Dimir Midrange, the issue will be getting and keeping your combo pieces in play through disruption. Both decks play countermagic and bounce spells, which can easily prevent you from popping off. Post-sideboard, in particular, your opponent will likely have sussed out the combo and know exactly which cards to counter. These decks can both have fast starts, too, which can catch you off guard on occasion.
Ultimately, as flashy as it is, I don’t expect the Iridescent Tiger combo to make a huge impact in Standard. While its pieces are largely resilient, they’re also pretty much useless in isolation. Outside of Roaming Throne doubling Helpful Hunter’s draw, the pieces serve just a single purpose, which tends to lower consistency. This looks like a great list for best-of-one on Arena, less so for serious Standard events.