Since the release of Bloomburrow, the Standard metagame has become incredibly diverse. A relatively healthy mix of aggro, midrange, and control archetypes helps keep Standard enjoyable.
Still, the one area that Standard has been lacking, for better or worse, has been combo. With Temur Aftermath Analyst shells being a thing of the past, there hasn’t been much in the way of combo to fill the void. Well, that is until now.
Even without the cycle of Streets of New Capenna lands (such as Brokers Hideout) that naturally go to the graveyard, it appears that Aftermath Analyst may be poised for a comeback. With new Bloomburrow tools in the mix, a unique Golgari lands combo deck recently emerged. This deck is very cool, and we decided its combo potential deserved a shoutout.
Combo Cards
- Mana Value: B
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 1/2
- MTG Set: Bloomburrow
- Card Text: Offspring 2 (You may pay an additional 2 as you cast this spell. If you do, when this creature enters, create a 1/1 token copy of it.) Landfall- Whenever a land you control enters, this creature deals 1 damage to target opponent.
The deck’s main engine revolves around three key pieces. The first piece is Pitiless Carnage. Pitiless Carnage plays an interesting role, allowing you to sacrifice all of your lands with the intention of bringing them back with Aftermath Analyst. Thanks to its Plot ability, you can set things up so that you don’t have to invest any mana into casting Pitiless Carnage on your combo turn.
Next up, we have Aftermath Analyst itself. Aftermath Analyst allows you to bring back all lands from your graveyard to play. Lumra, Bellow of the Woods accomplishes the same task, giving you some extra redundancy in this slot.
Finally, we have Iridescent Vinelasher. Iridescent Vinelasher acts as the primary win condition for this deck’s combo. The goal is to use Iridescent Vinelasher’s Offspring ability to create a copy of it, so that each land entering play forces the opponent to lose two life.
From there, assuming you have enough mana to work with, you can float a bunch of mana and sacrifice your lands to Pitiless Carnage. Then, you use Aftermath Analyst or Lumra to bring them all back, doming the opponent for a boatload of damage and winning the game on the spot! This avenue to victory is really cool and should strike fear in the opponent’s heart the longer the game goes.
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Supporting Cast
- Mana Value: 2G
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 3/3
- MTG Set: March of the Machine: The Aftermath
- Card Text: Landfall- Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, add one mana of any color. Then if this is the second time this ability has resolved this turn, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal an Elf or Elemental card. Put that card into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Most of the rest of the deck is built to support the combo cards above. Nissa, Resurgent Animist in particular is an amazing inclusion. First of all, any lands that enter the battlefield net you more mana. Alongside Aftermath Analyst and Lumra, it’s easy to generate a bunch of extra mana to work with.
On top of that, any time your second land enters the battlefield (Fabled Passage and Escape Tunnel are potent follow-ups to Nissa that make this trivial), you get to grab an Elf or Elemental card from your deck. The only cards that fit the description in the maindeck are Lumra, Aftermath Analyst, and Nissa, so you’re guaranteed something good.
To help add even more consistency to the archetype, a full playset of Pillage the Bog makes an appearance. Pillage the Bog helps you find any of your missing pieces. Meanwhile, to help with explosiveness, four copies of Spelunking let you ramp and have all your lands enter untapped from Lumra or Aftermath Analyst.
There’s a lot to like about how this deck is constructed. While it hasn’t made a ton of noise yet from a competitive standpoint, there’s always room for a breakout performance in the near future. If you’re a fan of Aftermath Analyst strategies, this deck could be right up your alley.
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