MTG Foundations is a set meant for beginners. The set is meant to teach new MTG players all of the joys that Magic: The Gathering can offer. Of course, we know that not every player enjoys every play style. While some players enjoy blowing up lands, or countering every single spell that they possibly can, most MTG players aren’t huge fans of this kind of gameplay. Two-card death combos, at least for the purposes of Commander, fall into the same category.
So, while this kind of Commander tech won’t be for everyone, it’s common for casual playgroups to engage in an arms race once someone starts to dip their hand into the perverbial ‘infinite combo’ cookie jar. If you’re looking to add some infinite combos to your Commander deck, here are a series of two-card infinite combos including at least one card from MTG Foundations. We’ll start with some lesser known ones, and will quickly gloss over the incredibly unpopular ones.
Electroduplicate and Dualcaster Mage
Electroduplicate is one of the weaker cards in MTG Foundations. It’s certainly strong in some scenarios, namely when it’s copying enter-the-battlefield, or ETB effects, but the card is rather unimpressive outside of degenerate combo appliances. This just happens to be one of those.
In order for this to work, you need six mana, three of them being red. You need to respond to Electroduplicate with Dualcaster Mage in order for this to work. Here’s the combo:
- Cast Electroduplicate on any legal target. Hold priority, and Flash in Dualcaster Mage.
- Dualcaster Mage enters and targets Electroduplicate, making a copy of the spell.
- The new Electroduplicate targets Dualcaster Mage.
- The Dualcaster Mage copy creates another Electroduplicate. Rinse and repeat.
Because Electroduplicate gives your tokens Haste, you can swing in for infinite damage to end the game.
While this combo only needs two cards to pull off, it is rather easy to break up. Creature removal or a counterspell will stop this plan in its tracks. Creature removal can respond to the copied Electroduplicate, removing the Dualcaster Mage, and making Electroduplicate fail to resolve due to a lack of targets.
One-Shot KO
Twinflame Tyrant and Heartless Hidetsugu team up to take out the entire table with just one activated ability. Heartless Hidetsugu deals half damage to every opponent rounded down. Twinflame Tyrant doubles that damage to kill… almost everyone.
Because Heartless Hidetsugu rounds down, it only kills players with even life totals. If an opponent is at 39, they’ll take 19 damage from Heartless Hidetsugu’s ability. This damage, doubled, leaves the opponent at one life. This will happen to any opponent who has an odd life total. Even lifetotals will die, no matter what the life total is.
Sadly, because Heartless Hidetsugu’s ability is an activated one, it needs to shake off summoning sickness. You can use Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots to speed things along, but this still gives the opponent a chance to remove Heartless Hidetsugu before you can activate its ability. Considering the creature is threatening to halve all of your opponent’s life totals, however, there is little chance your opponents are going to let this go without putting up some resistence.
If Heartless Hidetsugu is entering the battlefield with Haste and a Twinflame Tyrant in play, opponents have a chance to kill the Tyrant before Heartless Hidetsugu’s trigger resolves. Long story short, while this combo is a one-shot kill, it is very easy to stop it. Notably, Twinflame Tyrant can be replaced with Bloodletter of Aclazotz.
Infamous Combos
While most players already know about these infinite combos using MTG Foundations cards, they still remain powerful combinations to include in your Commander decks.
First, we have Bloodthirsty Conqueror and Marauding Blight-Priest. If you play MTG Foundations Limited, you’ve probably experienced this combo before. Both of these cards are available in the main Foundations set and, while Bloodthirsty Conqueror is a Mythic Rare, it’s very easy to find at least one Marauding Blight-Priest.
These two cards create an infinite feedback loop that drains all of your opponent’s life total. As soon as an opponent loses life, or you gain life, the feedback loop will start, killing all of your opponents. Like the other combos on this list, this one is easy to break up with some removal.
Niv-Mizzet infamously combos infinitely with himself, partially thanks to MTG Foundations. Niv-Mizzet, Visionary creates an infinite combo with any Niv-Mizzet that deals damage whenever you draw a card. Niv-Mizzet, Visionary turns that damage into more card draw, which creates more damage. Rinse and repeat.
To be specific, Niv-Mizzet, Visionary goes infinite with Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. Just note that, if you choose to use these infinite combos in the Commander format, you may run out of cards in your deck before all of your opponents are dead. For that reason, it’s good to have some sort of effect that can draw a ton of cards without effecting your deck size, like Valakut Awakening, to finish opponents off.
Lastly, there is an instant death combo available in the MTG Foundations Starter Collection. Demonic Pact and Harmless Offering is a simple infinite combo that’s creeped up repetitively over the years. Simply use up the first three modes of Demonic Pact during your turns, and give your opponent the enchantment when the last mode is the only one left. You get massive benefits, while your opponent loses the game. Do note that, in Commander, this will only cause one person to lose the game.
Easy to Access
All of these infinite combos are relatively easy to understand, and should give you some certain ways to end the game. None of these combos are particularly fast or powerful, and are relatively easy to break up. As long as you have a conversation with your Commander playgroup, and players are ok with infinite combos as an idea, these should be relatively inoffensive.
