We’re nearing the end of Edge of Eternities preview season now, which means we’ll soon be entering into the set’s official brewing season. This is where the real work begins, as deckbuilders find homes for all the new goodies Wizards has given us this time. While we don’t have the full information yet, there are a few Edge of Eternities cards that immediately jump out as exciting because of their innate combo potential.
Combo decks are a controversial, but vital, part of Magic: The Gathering. Many players hate when a game ends out of nowhere, but without outlets like that Control matchups would be unbearable. Edge of Eternities offers a number of new options in this department, as well as some explosive interactions you can exploit in more typical games.
Devastating Onslaught
Devastating Onslaught is the latest in the line of instants and sorceries that can duplicate your creatures. In regular games, this effect has potential if you run a lot of nonlegendary creatures. The best use for these cards, however, is creating infinite loops.
With a Dualcaster Mage in hand and one other creature in play, casting Onslaught can actually win you the game on the spot. All you need to do is cast Onslaught targeting your creature, then Flash in Mage to copy it. You can create a fresh Mage with the copy, which can then target the original Onslaught again. Rinse and repeat as many times as you like.
All the tokens Onslaught creates gain Haste, so you can instantly overrun your opponents with an endless horde of Hasty 2/2s. If you’re in Izzet colors, a more expensive version of this loop is available via Naru Meha, Master Wizard.
Devastating Onslaught is far from the only card that enables this combo. The same line is possible with Twinflame, Molten Duplication, Heat Shimmer, and Saw in Half. The advantage Onslaught offers over these other options is flexibility. It scales up like Twinflame, letting you copy multiple threats to go for a ‘fair’ win if the combo falls through. Unlike Twinflame, it also hits artifacts, which likely enables additional combo lines in the right deck.
Onslaught likely won’t replace the two-mana enablers like Twinflame and Molten Duplication, since speed is key for combo decks. It’s easily better than the other three-mana options, however, and could very well see play in cEDH as a result.
Mm’menon, The Right Hand
It wouldn’t be an outer space set without some incredibly hard-to-pronounce character names. Mm’menon takes that trophy in Edge of Eternities so far, and it’s also a sneaky combo enabler to boot.
The key to the Mm’menon combo line is Sensei’s Divining Top. If you activate Top’s draw ability with Mm’menon out, you get to draw a card then immediately replay Top thanks to Mm’menon’s artifact-based Future Sight effect. This interaction alone is pretty solid.
With some additional pieces, however, you can go infinite here. Any artifact that untaps when an artifact enters play can tap for the mana necessary to replay Top. Grinding Station is probably the best example, since it’s not held back by summoning sickness. Battered Golem and Traxos work too, though they’ll need to survive a turn in play first.
However you set it up, pulling this combo off will allow you to draw your entire deck. There are plenty of ways to win at that point, but the easiest are the classics: Laboratory Maniac and Thassa’s Oracle. Being in blue, you’ll likely be able to draw some free interaction like Force of Will on the way to help protect your win.
There are similar combos possible with Urza, Lord High Artificer, but Mm’menon actually has some significant advantages as an enabler. Specifically, getting the Future Sight effect built in is a huge bonus. Urza decks that want to pull off this combo need to rely on The Reality Chip or other similar cards, but Mm’menon gets it all in one.
Since it’s also legendary, this essentially means you can run two of your combo pieces out of the command zone. Five mana seems like a lot for a cutthroat format like cEDH, but players are already considering Mm’menon there because of combo lines like this.
Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist
The last Edge of Eternities combo line we’ll be looking at today isn’t a ‘win the game’ infinite like the last two. It is a very potent interaction, however, and one that could very well win you some games at lower-power tables.
This combo revolves around Xu-Ifit, Osteoharmonist, a fun new reanimation option from the set. While most reanimation spells in Magic encourage you to bring back a creature with a game-changing ability, a Griselbrand, perhaps, Xu-Ifit is the opposite. It actually removes all abilities from the creature it resurrects, meaning stats are all that matter here.
The best way to make use of this card, then, is to find the creatures with the lowest cost-to-stat ratio. Death’s Shadow and Phyrexian Dreadnought are the two best options by far. Both cost just one mana, and both can put themselves into the graveyard early so they’re ready for Xu-Ifit when it drops. Putting 13/13 worth of stats into play on turn four, or even earlier with Rituals, etc., is no joke even in Commander. There are plenty of other great creatures in this category, too, like Hunted Horror.
Once you’ve got your big pile of stats out, there are various ways you can go. If you’re feeling particularly mean, Tainted Strike can let one of these big beaters end the game in one swing. You can even do this the same turn they come in with Haste from Corpses of the Lost. While there aren’t many cards that care, it is worth bearing in mind that the creatures Xu-Ifit resurrects become Skeletons.
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