MTG Spider Man cards have been out for a little while, and it’s safe to say that the set didn’t quite live up to the hype. Some Prereleases had noticeably lower attendance, and player enthusiasm for the set has quickly died down.
Fortunately, players seem very excited for the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed in January. The initial wave of spoilers revealed last Friday didn’t disappoint. Today, we want to highlight one powerful mythic rare that opens the door for a multitude of combos. Thanks to its two unique sides, there are plenty of ways to build around it as a Commander to your hearts content.
Combos with Isilu
Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn is the Elemental God that’s receiving a lot of attention. This creature presents a lot of upsides, but by far the most intriguing aspect of the card comes when you transform it. In this case, you need to make it to your next turn, and you’ll be able to transform it without investing much mana. Assuming you do, there are a bunch of ways to combo off and win.
The formula for taking advantage of all of your other nontoken creatures having Persist is pretty simple. You need a free sacrifice outlet as well as a way for whatever nontoken creature you sacrifice to enter with a +1/+1 counter on it. In doing so, you’ll be able to sacrifice that nontoken creature an infinite number of times.
For example, let’s say you have Phyrexian Altar and Cathar’s Crusade in play alongside Isilu and any creature with toughness two or greater. Generating infinite mana becomes trivial by executing the following steps:
- Sacrifice a nontoken creature other than Isulu to Phyrexian Altar, floating a mana
- Isulu will trigger, and that creature will come back from the graveyard to play with a -1/-1 counter on it
- Cathar’s Crusade triggers when that creature enters the battlefield, putting a +1/+1 counter on all of your creatures
- The +1/+1 counter and -1/-1 counter cancel out, allowing you to repeat steps one through three over and over
This process with Cathar’s Crusade will also make all of your other creatures, including Isilu, infinitely large. What’s nice about this process is that there are a bunch of cards you can replace either Altar or Crusade with and still create an insurmountable advantage.
As long as you have a Blood Artist– style effect in play (of which there are many), any sacrifice outlet, such as Viscera Seer, will win you the game on the spot with Cathar’s Crusade. At the same time, replacing Cathar’s Crusade with Mikaeus, the Unhallowed enables infinite sacrifice combo lines all the same.
Any card that causes your nontoken creatures to enter with a +1/+1 counter on them to negate the -1/-1 counter from Persist, including Metallic Mimic, will suffice. Blood Vassal is an elite tool alongside these cards, since it nets you infinite mana with Isilu and you don’t need any other sacrifice outlet to get your engine rolling.
Additionally, simple creatures like Zack Fair that naturally enter with a +1/+1 counter themselves work like a charm. With just Isilu, Zack Fair, a free sacrifice outlet and a sacrifice payoff, you’re free to sacrifice Zack Fair repeatedly and win games. These combos are seemingly limitless.
Protecting Eirdu and Further Maximizing Isilu
Given how important it is to transform Eirdu to get the most out of it, it’s in your best interest to utilize protection spells. The more likely you are to untap with Eirdu and transform it, the better chance you have of winning with a combo kill.
Given that Eirdu costs five mana, efficient options like Lightning Greaves and Mother of Runes immediately come to mind. Both of these cards can be cast earlier in the game. Then, on the turn you cast Eirdu, they can save the legend from targeted removal without needing to invest any extra mana.
As a deck that’s bound to be playing a lot of creatures to support your aristocrats gameplan, Clever Concealment and Ephemeral Shields become excellent choices. The same can be said for Flare of Fortitude. Unlike Greaves or Mother, these cards even protect Eirdu from board wipes.
From there, cheap token makers go a long way in maximizing your Blood Artist effects and sacrifice outlets. Wriggling Grub and Sanguine Evangelist provide a bunch of fodder for Phyrexian Altar and Ashnod’s Altar. With Isilu in the picture, they’ll produce even more tokens when they Persist back to play. In the event you don’t have a combo ready to go, having a backup plan is important.
With this in mind, any creatures with prominent enters-the-battlefield triggers get better with Isilu at your service. Sacrificing and Persisting back even something as basic as Loran of the Third Path improves your chances of winning.
Making Eirdu a Real Threat
Up to this point, we’ve focused solely on what Isilu brings to the table. Yet, Eirdu is a strong card in its own right. If you’re already building around an aristocrats theme and have some token-makers to go around, you can take advantage of Eirdu’s ability to give your other creatures Convoke.
The easiest way to do this is to incorporate some beefy, impactful creatures. For instance, Angel of Serenity, which is undoubtedly strong but costs a lot of mana, becomes trivial to cast if you’ve built out a board already. Sometimes, you’ll even be able to jam some extra threats the same turn you play Eirdu.
In the case of Angel of Serenity, any of your free sacrifice outlets go a long way towards abusing it. This is because if you sacrifice Angel with the enters-the-battlefield trigger on the stack, the leaves-the-battlefield trigger will resolve first. This way, whatever creatures you exile won’t get returned to your opponents’ hands.
There are a bunch of other large creatures worth Convoking out. Big token producers such as Captain of the Watch further fuel Eirdu while simultaneously synergizing with your sacrifice payoffs and Cathar’s Crusade.
Lorwyn Eclipsed won’t release for another few months, but we’re already looking forward to seeing how players work to abuse all that Eirdu has to offer.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!