Combo decks in Magic: The Gathering take many forms. Some deal lethal damage all at once, some whittle away every card in your opponent’s deck. There are countless variations, but generally speaking, the idea is to win the game in a quick, flashy, unconventional manner. In this context, the deck we’re looking at today seems particularly unusual. That deck is Herald of Eternal Dawn Combo, and it’s not so much concerned with winning the game as it is with never losing it.
The Herald Of Eternal Dawn Combo
This list comes to us from the ever-reliable MTG Creative Combos. As you’d expect, the combo here is built primarily around the title card: Herald of Eternal Dawn. This is a fresh Foundations take on the classic Platinum Angel from way back in Mirrodin. Both cards are seven mana fliers with the crucial text “You can’t lose the game and your opponents can’t win the game.”
Now this is clearly a fantastic ability, but in practice, it tends to be far too slow to actually work. Seven is a lot of mana after all, and all your opponent needs to do to get past it is remove a single creature. This deck seeks to address both of those issues.
First of all: the mana cost. Rather than actually cast Herald of Eternal Dawn, this deck goes down the reanimator route. There are some fantastic options for this in Standard right now, specifically Zombify and Rite of the Moth. The list plays full playsets of each, alongside some ways of getting Herald into the ‘yard in the first place. Liliana of the Veil and Matzalantli, the Great Door can pitch it from your hand, while Lively Dirge and Vile Entomber can tutor it right into the graveyard from your deck.
With all of this together, the deck can get Herald into play consistently around the turn four or five mark. Once it’s there, you can address the second issue with Platinum Angel: its vulnerability to removal. Simply equip Herald with the freshly-reprinted Swiftfoot Boots and you have a Hexproof creature that stops you from losing the game. Winning is pretty much a formality at that point, but Herald being a 6/6 flier will likely finish things off sooner rather than later.
Stayin’ Alive
That’s the crux of the Herald of Eternal Dawn combo deck. You could certainly argue that simply putting a Swiftfoot Boots on a Herald doesn’t exactly constitute a ‘Combo.’ After all, there are still ways for your opponent to get around it. Any kind of sacrifice effect will get around Hexproof, and board wipes like Sunfall can deal with it too. There’s even a specific anti-Hexproof tech card, Nowhere to Run, in Standard right now.
On the other hand, decks not running one of those outs will find themselves completely stonewalled. Since Herald prevents losing through any means, you can just pass every turn and wait for your opponent to deck out if you want. Most of the big decks in Standard right now don’t run a ton of possible answers to the combo either. You’ll see the occasional Nowhere to Run or Gix’s Command in Midrange, but for the most part, it’s GG once those Boots are on.
That said, it’s still more of a fun novelty than anything else. The deck doesn’t develop much of a board presence early on, which turns every game against Aggro into an unfavorable dice roll. It’s also fairly easy to deal with outside of the sideboard, either through board wipes or artifact hate. The lack of any explosive instant-win gives your opponent a lot of time, which in turn boosts their chances of drawing any answers they have.
The games where the combo works, however, are absolutely golden. It’s the kind of total lock that leaves opponents too stunned to even complain; the kind of simple yet ingenious interaction that MTG legends are made of. If you’re looking for a fun budget option for FNM, you can’t go far wrong with this one.
