With all of the excitement enveloping Modern right now, it’s easy to forget that things are still happening in Standard. Thanks to its sheer size, Foundations was almost a reset for the format. Players are still making new discoveries even now, one month on from release. Many of these discoveries are new infinite combos, enabled by one Foundations reprint or another.
This week, for example, a new combo using Gossip’s Talent from Bloomburrow and Aurelia, the Warleader has come to light. As combos go it’s not the quickest, but there’s real precedent in Standard for something like this doing well.
The Gossip’s Talent/Aurelia Combo
The Gossip’s Talent/Aurelia combo is simultaneously very simple and quite complex. While it only requires two cards it also taps into some unusual interactions. To execute this combo, all you’ll need in play is Gossip’s Talent and Aurelia, the Warleader. You’ll also need to have leveled Talent all the way up to level three.
Once these steps are complete, you can move to combat and attack with Aurelia. The level two ability on Talent will trigger, making Aurelia unblockable for the turn. Aurelia’s own ability will also trigger, granting you an additional combat phase after this one. She’ll get in for three damage, which will trigger the level three ability on Talent and let you blink her in and out of play.
Now, you’ll move to your extra combat step with a brand-new instance of Aurelia, which means her next attack will technically be her “first” this turn. This means her attack will get you another combat step after your extra one. You can repeat these steps an infinite number of times to kill your opponent with Aurelia attacks alone.
Though Aurelia’s ability also untaps your other creatures, you don’t actually need any for this combo to work. Aurelia will always be unblockable thanks to Talent, so unless your opponent has instant speed removal there’s really nothing they can do. This combo does require quite a big mana investment to pull off, eight for a max-level Talent and six for Aurelia. You can spread the Talent payments over multiple turns, however, which means you can feasibly combo off on turn six. Assuming you can generate both blue mana and the RRWW needed for Aurelia by then, of course.
Jeskai Good Stuff
To get to the point where the combo is possible, you’ll need some survival tools. In this deck, these come in the form of some of the best, most widely-played Jeskai cards in Standard.
It’s almost funny how prolific some of these cards are. You’ve got Screaming Nemesis from Gruul Prowess, Beza, the Bounding Spring from Token Control, and Faerie Mastermind from Dimir Midrange, to name but a few. Enduring Curiosity and Spyglass Siren even make appearances, alongside premium removal spells Get Lost and Torch the Tower. Outside of the core combo the rest of this deck is tried-and-tested Jeskai staples, in other words.
This was an interesting decision on the part of the deck’s original creator, MTG Creative Combos. Most Combo decks prioritize survival and card draw outside of their core pieces, but this one almost feels like a Midrange deck. Granted a lot of the picks here have the potential to draw cards, but Screaming Nemesis certainly doesn’t. This aggressive edge does make a certain sense, however. It allows Aurelia to end games by herself when she comes down, provided you have a few creatures in play already.
Even with Talent on just level two, she can guarantee six damage in the air. With a couple of other creatures swinging in twice, that can quickly stack up to lethal. Combo decks having additional ways to win beyond their combos is essential in modern Magic, and the Gossip’s Talent/Aurelia Combo nails that aspect. It’s really just a solid list that happens to have a combo in it, as opposed to a fully-dedicated Combo deck.
Echoes Of Wisdom
If that sounds familiar, then it should. Standard has recently been blessed with another combo that plays pretty much identically: that being Innkeeper’s Talent and Vraska. The two combos are actually eerily similar. Both require a combination of a fully-leveled Bloomburrow Talent and a six mana card to go off. Both also win the game immediately, no questions asked, if they fulfill their conditions. Removal excepted, of course.
There are a couple of key differences, mind you. First of all, Innkeeper’s Talent costs one less total mana to max out that Gossip’s Talent does. It’s also just a more impactful card outside of its combo applications. On the other hand, Aurelia is a far better standalone card than Vraska. You’re pretty much never dropping Vraska outside of your combo turn, but Aurelia can easily come down and start wreaking havoc alone.
While it isn’t played as much nowadays, the Innkeeper’s/Vraska combo was a mainstay of Golgari Midrange decks in Standard for a while. Based on that, it’s not unreasonable to think that the comparable Gossip’s/Aurelia combo could do the same. There are a few obstacles in its path, however.
The first of these is the fact that there’s not really an existing Jeskai shell for the combo to slot into. The above list from MTG Creative Combos feels like a solid start, but it has no proven record in the format. The second, more crucial issue is mana. It’s much harder to consistently hit three colors than two, of course. Given the card quality available in Jeskai right now, and the high likelihood we’ll get more dual lands in the near future, these issues may work themselves out soon. Hopefully so, because this combo is very sweet indeed.
