In Magic, being able to react to your opponent’s moves can be quite powerful. Control decks thrive off of their ability to leave up mana and cast spells accordingly depending on what the opponent plays. Unfortunately, not every archetype has the luxury of playing at instant speed, especially those that don’t feature blue.
Luckily, a unique green enchantment printed back in Mercadian Masques can help creature and enchantment-centric decks get in on the fun. There are plenty of ways to take advantage of what this card brings to the table, including via some devastating infinite combos.
MTG Vernal Equinox
It takes some effort to use Vernal Equinox properly. After all, this enchantment doesn’t directly impact the board itself, and its effect is symmetrical. While this does contribute to the card being underplayed, in the right deck, it can benefit you a lot more than your opponents.
The easiest key to breaking parity with Vernal Equinox lies with your Commander. Vernal Equinox makes it a lot easier for Varis, Silverymoon Ranger decks, for example, to turbocharge their way through the Dungeon. Similarly, Vernal Equinox allows Tuvasa, the Sunlit shells to draw a bunch of extra cards, and lets Kadina, Slinking Sorcerer make multiple spells cheaper.
Outside of triggering once-per-turn effects every turn, Vernal Equinox also works well when combined with cards that make an abundance of mana. Omnath, Locus of Mana, and Seedborn Muse are two examples of this, generating constant mana for you to Flash in creatures with. Together, Vernal Equinox and Seedborn Muse essentially let you build your own Prophet of Kruphix, a card so powerful that it received a ban in Commander. There’s no shortage of ways to make Vernal Equinox pull its weight, and the card only becomes more appealing as a combo enabler.
Cool Combos
Of all the combos Vernal Equinox makes possible, the most exciting of the bunch is definitely making your opponent skip all their future turns. The goal is to activate Mindslaver with Vernal Equinox in play and Lethal Vapors in hand. Once your opponent starts their turn, you’re free to cast Lethal Vapors. Because you have control of your opponent, you now get to force them to activate Lethal Vapor’s ability an infinite number of times before it’s destroyed.
This is certainly the flashiest combo that Vernal Equinox enables, but the enchantment can also grant infinite mana in a few different ways. In Zask, Skittering Swarmlord EDH decks, for example, assembling your Commander, Universal Automaton, Ashnod’s Altar, and Vernal Equinox lets you create infinite mana. Assembling any spell that makes at least eight mana, like Brass’s Bounty or Rude Awakening, with Rootha, Martial Artist also does the trick.
For those who want to go above and beyond, you can even generate infinite creature tokens with Ulalek, Fused Atrocity, Drowner of Truth, and Vernal Equinox. With Ulalek and Vernal Equinox in play, you’ll need to kick things off by casting any other Eldrazi spell. With Ulalek’s trigger on the stack, cast Drowner of Truth from hand, putting a second Ulalek trigger on the stack. Once paid for, Ulalek’s trigger will, notably, grant you a copy of both Drowner of Truth and Ulalek’s triggers. From here, so long as you continually arrange the triggers so that the Scions from Drowner of Truth pay for Ulalek’s copy effect, you’ll have infinite Eldrazi, mana, and Spawns once you’re ready to resolve the stack.
Old But Cheap
Even with all of these different ways to maximize Vernal Equinox, the enchantment remains quite underplayed, only seeing play in 2,500 different decks according to EDHREC. While this 27-year-old tool’s symmetrical effect may scare some players away, Vernal Equinox still deserves more recognition than it currently receives.
Fortunately, for anyone intrigued enough to pick up a copy, Vernal Equinox’s reprint on The List helped lower its price tag. Players can safely purchase copies for under $1, making Vernal Equinox a solid budget-friendly upgrade.
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