As we tiptoe ever closer to the release of Duskmourn, players are starting to piece together the potential synergies the new Standard might hold. Existing low-tier decks look to be getting a big boost, and there are some brand new combos on the table with the potential to shake things up. One such MTG combo relies on the interaction between Marina Vendrell’s Grimoire and Starving Revenant.
If you can get these two cards out at once, you can win on the spot. It’s mana-intensive to be sure, but so is the Vraska/Innkeeper’s Talent combo and that’s seeing real Standard play in Golgari Midrange. Thanks to Duskmourn, Dimir may have its own combo deck in the Standard meta.
The MTG Duskmourn Grimoire/Revenant Combo
Let’s break down the Grimoire/Revenant combo itself. In order to execute this combo, you need to have one of the pieces in play, then drop the other. The order you play them in doesn’t actually matter, which makes it much easier to pull off. You also need at least eight permanent cards in your graveyard to turn on Revenant’s Descend ability.
Once all of this is in place, an infinite loop will begin. Grimoire lets you draw a card whenever you gain life, and Revenant lets you drain a life from your opponent every time you draw a card. This will result in you drawing a constant stream of cards, and slowly draining your opponent’s life to zero. Since your opponent dies in the middle this isn’t an infinite combo that requires another piece to break out of, and you won’t mill yourself out either. Unless of course the number of cards in your deck is lower than your opponent’s life total, though that’s very unlikely in a Standard game.
The reason this combo works in either order is that both cards can draw you cards to get things going when they enter play. Grimoire does so for free, but you will need at least three life to draw off of Revenant. Keep that in mind when planning out your combo turn, since being on the edge of death can prevent you from executing it in some cases.
A Spot At The Top?
So far so good, but two cards do not a Magic deck make. You’ll need a supporting shell for the Grimoire/Revenant combo if you want to take it into MTG Standard. Thankfully, there’s one that already exists: Dimir Midrange. According to MTG Decks this is the third best deck in the format right now, commanding an 8.65% meta share. It’s also in the right colors for both combo pieces and has a game plan grindy enough to consistently execute it.
There are even some nice synergies between the combo and the cards in existing Dimir Midrange decks. Sheoldred, the Apocalypse provides a way to draw as many cards as you like with Grimoire, provided you have an instant speed removal spell ready to stop yourself from milling out. Spyglass Siren and Restless Reef also allow for some solid self-mill, which can get you to that eight permanent threshold quicker. I would recommend tossing in four Fabled Passage as well since that’s a very easy way to fill the yard while also fixing your mana.
The deck has quite a bit of draw and stall, so you can probably get away with running a 4-2 split of Revenant and Grimoire, respectively. Grimoire is a much worse card by itself, and for the most part you only really want to play it if you have Revenant out. It’s also legendary, so fewer copies make sense on two levels. Revenant on the other hand is actually a pretty solid card in the deck, since it can draw you cards and fill your graveyard. Playing the full four copies of this is no hardship for that reason.
Potential Problems
The Grimoire/Revenant combo is absolutely a feasible addition to Dimir Midrange decks in MTG Standard. The question is how well such a deck can stack up against the rest of the meta. The biggest barrier to any deck seeing play right now is the prevalence of Aggro. Gruul Prowess rules the roost, and its speedy starts keep a lot of slower decks out of contention. Dimir Midrange can put up a decent fight against such decks, but it’s worth noting that the integration of the Grimoire/Revenant combo isn’t going to improve its chances here.
Both pieces are slow, and don’t do a lot to swing an Aggro game back in your favor. For that reason alone the combo may be something Dimir decks have to sideboard into, rather than a main deck inclusion. With the numbers discussed above, that would require dedicating six sideboard slots to the combo, which is pretty reasonable. In other matchups, Midrange mirrors especially, having access to the combo should give you an edge, so it’s worth having in your back pocket for sure.
The other potential issue facing the combo is the high quality graveyard hate available in Standard right now. Both Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void will be legal once Duskmourn launches, and both completely shut this combo down. These cards are typically played out of the sideboard, which is another argument in favor of running this combo as a sideboard strategy. If you win with the combo in game one, your opponent knows to bring in their hate. But if you sub into it for games two and three, they’ll be less prepared. There’s no better feeling than catching someone out with a combo, after all.
Read More: The Best Duskmourn Commons To Take Down Your Prerelease
