By now, you’ve probably heard about the infinite damage combo available in MTG Foundations Limited. You may have even pulled it off yourself at last weekend’s Prerelease. While combos like this have been possible before, they’ve never been this easy. As a result, some members of the MTG community are pushing back against the combo’s inclusion. In response, a Wizards Designer has weighed in defending the decision. There are strong arguments on both sides here, and it’s fascinating to see the discussion play out.
The Issues With Infinites
To quickly recap for those out of the loop, the infinite combo in question involves two cards you can grab in Foundations Limited: Bloodthirsty Conqueror and Marauding Blight-Priest. The former is like an Exquisite Blood on a body, while the latter is the same but for Sanguine Bond. This means that if your opponent loses life or you gain life with these two out, you win the game on the spot.
Typically, combos like this aren’t part of Limited formats. It was possible to draft the Saheeli Rai/Felidar Guardian combo back in Aether Revolt, but that was across two sets and three colors. This combo is doable in Mono-Black, and only uses cards from Foundations, so it’s much more consistent and accessible. You need only check Twitter to see countless players using the combo in their Prerelease games to verify that.
Because of this, the combo has rubbed some in the community the wrong way. On Saturday, MTG content creator PleasantKenobi took to Twitter to criticize the combo.
“Not pearl clutching, not a huge deal, an observation/opinion: I’m not sure combos like this should exist in limited environments by design, even if part of it is a Mythic. I think the fact that it exists in the new player friendly Foundations set is kinda whack.”
PleasantKenobi
This is certainly a valid criticism. You don’t see infinite combos in the majority of Magic sets aimed at enfranchised players, so adding one to the ‘gateway set’ that is Foundations is an odd move. PleasantKenobi wasn’t the only one with concerns, either.
“It’s fine if both parts are rare or higher, but a mythic that infinite combos with a common is not healthy.”
Kevin Jennings
The rarity of the combo pieces was also a common point of contention. Bloodthirsty Conqueror is a mythic, so that’s absolutely fine. Blight-Priest is a common, however, which means you’ll more than likely have access to the combo in Sealed if you pull a Conqueror. As mentioned above, the consistency is the issue here. Infinite combos as a rare, special event are one thing. Infinite combos that show up regularly and are easy to pull off are quite another.
Wizards Rallies A Defense
Criticisms like this were seen online throughout Prerelease weekend. To address them, Senior MTG Game Designer Carmen Klomparens put out a rebuttal in the form of a Twitter thread.
“When working on Foundations, the team really wanted to make sure we were making the best ‘Core Set’ ever, which meant questioning a lot of things that historic analogues may have taken for granted. […] But fundamentally, the goal of Foundations was something to the effect of ‘Close the gap between <someone who’s a new Magic player> and <a Magic player>.’ To that end, making sure Foundations wasn’t infantilizing new players was important to us.”
Carmen Klomparens
Before it gets into the combo, the thread already provides a solid counter-argument to the criticism. Past Magic core sets have fallen into the trap of playing it too safe and simple, resulting in products of little value to anyone. Foundations, as Klomparens notes here, is aiming a little higher. It’s not just intended as an entry point for new players, but also as a tool that pushes them to become experienced ones.
“To that end, trying to include the breadth of Magic experiences was important to the team, and so you can find the combo in OP as well as Demonic Pact/Harmless Offering in Starter Collection- because new Magic players are just players on a journey like all of us, And that includes players who like combos! Maybe this proves out to be too strong, but it felt like the kind of shape that was a reasonable bet to take at giving players a taste of cool stuff that can happen in Magic, even with cards that look weak at first blush”
Carmen Klomparens
This, again, makes a lot of sense. If Foundations is intended as a ‘real’ Magic experience for new players, then including combo elements is pretty crucial. Combos play a huge part in the game as a whole, after all. Standard actually has a surprising density of them right now thanks to Bloodletter of Aclazotz. A player heading into a format like that will be well-served by being introduced to the idea of an infinite combo via Foundations Limited.
The point about the combo being a potential power outlier is an interesting one. Complexity aside, it also has the potential to create unfun games where players lose out of nowhere. Only time will tell if this becomes a real issue, but I think it’s unlikely. The combo is more consistent than similar ones in the past, but it still relies on a specific mythic to function.
Whichever side of the debate you come down on, I think the fact that Wizards is experimenting more with its new-player products is 100% a good thing. Foundations is shaping up to be the best core set in the game’s history for that very reason.
