Since its release, MTG Spider Man has had a surprisingly big impact in Pioneer. Despite not being the most powerful set as a whole, specific cards opened the door for new successful combo archetypes like Five-Color Legends to arise.
Interestingly, even though the set has now been out for a while, it appears players are still brewing up combo shells with MTG Spider Man cards. Just yesterday, a deck centered around a unique Villain that hasn’t made much noise in Constructed up to this point made it all the way to the finals of a Pioneer Challenge. This deck is more consistent and resilient than it may look at first glance and could be poised for a breakout.
Carnage Combo
This multicolor shell is built to maximize the power of Carnage, Crimson Chaos like no other. On the surface, Carnage isn’t the scariest card since it requires setup to gain value. On top of that, the creature you bring back is forced to attack and only sticks around temporarily if your opponent chooses to take a hit.
What the card does extremely well, however, is initiate combo kills alongside Glasspool Mimic. Because Carnage is a legend, if you choose to resurrect Mimic with Carnage’s enters ability and then copy Carnage, you’re able to then sacrifice Mimic via the “Legend Rule”. Then, when Mimic’s triggered ability resolves, it can resurrect itself, letting you copy Carnage again and create an infinite loop.
By itself, this combo doesn’t do anything, but there are numerous ways to leverage it. This decklist chooses Tinybones Joins Up as its primary win condition, in large part because it’s so efficient. Once Tinybones Joins Up is in play, copying Carnage repeatedly will cause your opponent to lose all of their life.
Besides Tinybones Joins Up, you’ll also find one copy of Aunt May, which serves as an infinite-life gain enabler. Being able to tutor for this card with Lively Dirge‘s first mode and then reanimate it and Mimic with Dirge’s second mode is a strong option to have in grindy games. Of course, Lively Dirge can also search for Carnage if you already have your other combo pieces rolled up.
Setting Up a Win
Even with Dirge in the mix, given that there aren’t any redundant combo options to replace Carnage, it’s in your best interest to utilize ways to churn through your library and find your missing pieces. Fortunately, this decklist isn’t short on efficient looting effects.
In a deck chock full of legendary spells, Rona, Herald of Invasion becomes a premium inclusion. As a free discard outlet, Rona synergizes perfectly with Carnage’s Mayhem ability, helping you cast your Villain on a discount and pull ahead on resources in the process. With this in mind, this deck is capable of winning the game as early as turn three. Once you curve Tinybones Joins Up into Rona, you can discard Carnage on turn three and cast it via Mayhem, then reactivate Rona’s ability with Carnage on the stack and discard Glasspool Mimic to complete the combo.
Notably, because Rona taps to loot, if you resurrect it with Carnage, you can avoid ever having to attack in the first place. This ensures that Rona will stick around in spite of the downgrades it gained from Carnage’s enters ability.
Besides Rona, both Raffine, Scheming Seer and Inti, Seneschal of the Sun can also help get Mimic into your graveyard and enable Carnage. Plus, with both Inti and either Rona or Raffine online, you’ll be able to generate a ton of extra value in no time.
A Strong Backup Plan
As a whole, what makes Carnage Combo such an intriguing strategy in Pioneer is that it presents a versatile gameplan that attacks on multiple axes. Against decks like Selesnya Company and Mono-Green Ramp that don’t feature a ton of instant speed removal spells, you shouldn’t have a problem racing the opponent by executing a combo kill in short order. At the same time, though, this deck is perfectly set up to win longer games versus archetypes such as Rakdos Midrange.
This is mainly because each of your creatures are quite threatening even outside of the combo. Curving Inti into Raffine already puts your midrange opponents on the backfoot, forcing them to answer these creatures in a timely manner. This only makes it more likely that they’ll run out of ways to disrupt the combo.
Furthermore, thanks to the power of Unholy Annex/Ritual Chamber out of the sideboard, Carnage Combo is fully prepared to dominate attrition battles without needing to set up the combo at all. Even against aggressive decks, Carnage Combo can take on the role of a midrange deck itself by using removal spells and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to its advantage.
This flexibility gives Carnage Combo a much easier time than some other graveyard-based combo shells, beating Rest in Peace. All of these benefits make the deck a very intriguing choice moving forward, so don’t be shocked if this isn’t the only elite performance Carnage Combo has in the coming weeks.
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