Despite only coming out last year, Aetherdrift feels like it was a world away. Thanks to the breakneck speed of modern MTG, six sets have been released since then, and another is right around the corner. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that MTG cards end up getting overlooked if they don’t immediately shake up formats.
This is exactly what happened to Treasure Hunt, which is decent, but hardly format-breaking. At worst, you won’t get a land from this two mana draw spell, but even that doesn’t guarantee a useful card. With some clever deck construction, however, you can turn this card into a real monster.
Alongside a couple of cards from Lorwyn Eclipsed and Aetherdrift, you can have a real combo deck on your hands. Beyond just being powerful, this deck is remarkably affordable, too, with the whole thing costing less than $2! Thanks to this, it’s no wonder that MTG players are excited about it.
MTG Treasure Hunt
On their own, Treasure Hunt, Magmakin Artillerist, and Sanar, Innovative First Year are all just okay. Offering somewhat useful, but definitely niche, abilities, these cards are hardly multiformat powerhouses. When you put these three janky budget cards together, however, you get a deck that can deal 88 damage in an instant.
All you need to do to achieve this impressive feat is cast Treasure Hunt with Magmakin Artillerist in play. Provided your deck is made of nothing but lands, this classic card from Worldwake can draw your entire deck. From here, all you have to do is discard all but seven cards at the end of the turn.
Ideally, by dropping Magmakin Artillerist on turn three and Treasure Hunt on four, you can discard 88 cards. While this will then hit each opponent for 88 damage, winning you the game, this is a magical Christmas land combo. Even when mulliganing down to two, your odds of getting both pieces at once in your opening hand aren’t great.
Thankfully, with Sanar, Innovative First Year in the command zone, you don’t have to worry about finding these cards. Instead, you can simply play Sanar on four, wait for its triggered ability on turn five, and then play both cards. This gives this wild 2.5 card combo deck a surprising amount of consistency. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s good…
A One-Time Meme
At best, you’ll be lucky to get this combo off once against your opponents in Commander. Since you’re just playing lands until you pop off, it’s difficult to see this deck coming, even with Sanar in the Command Zone. After doing it once, however, your opponents will know to disrupt your deck, which is incredibly easy to do.
For starters, if your opponents remove Magmakin Artillerist, you’re completely dead in the water. With no counterspells, reanimation, or alternative game plan, you’ll just be stuck playing lands till the game ends. As if that’s not risky enough, an opponent could also force you to draw a card after resolving Treasure Hunt.
With this in mind, it’s hard to call this deck anything other than a meme. Even if you get one win with it, you’ll be the talk of the table, causing opponents to be more careful. You can’t even play around this yourself, since adding any other cards means Treasure Hunt will stop working.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, this is a two-card combo deck, so it’s only playable in bracket four and above. If anything, this does just make winning with this combo even funnier, but it equally makes it a lot harder. Ultimately, the Magmakin Artillerist and Treasure Hunt combo definitely doesn’t seem like a good one, but it is very funny.
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