The March of the Machine spoiler season has already detailed some absurdly powerful cards. The Praetor Saga cards look incredible, and many of the new cards look to make a splashy impact in Commander. Even a series of two-card death combos are being introduced with March of the Machine. We detailed one recently that probably won’t be winning Pro Tours but could be a nuisance during your prerelease weekend. There is, however, a much scarier 20-damage combo that looks playable in the Standard format. This combo uses a Mythic Rare card from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that was so bad it wasn’t even considered a good card in Limited. Now, that card can suddenly deal 20 damage to your opponent’s face without spending a single mana.
Hidetsugu and Kairi
In an interesting twist, the card from March of the Machine that combos with the previously-unplayable Neon Dynasty Mythic are a combination of Legendary characters from the plane that have reappeared through the team-up gimmick in March of the Machine. Hidetsugu and Kairi is a five-mana Dimir Legendary Creature that looks incredibly powerful. This card looks like a combo enabler that could have a presence in Standard, Pioneer, and even cEDH.
When Hidetsugu and Kairi enters the battlefield, you essentially get to Brainstorm. This effect is incredible in older formats because there are so many ways to shuffle your library, which allows you to draw three new cards, put two cards back on top of your deck and get rid of them. However, Hidetsugu and Kairi care about the top of your library.
The second ability of Hidetsugu and Kairi is scary and synergizes incredibly well with its first ability. When it dies, you exile the top card of your library. Past this point, two things happen. First, your opponent loses life equal to the card’s mana value. Secondly, if the card exiled is an instant or sorcery, you can cast it for free. This heavily incentivizes you to exile an expensive instant or sorcery spell with a massive effect like Emergent Ultimatum. This also allows the previously unplayable Explosive Singularity to become 20 damage for no cost.
Explosive Singularity
Explosive Singularity seems like a fantastic card for MTG Finance-invested players to take a look at. Not only is Convoke a major focus in March of the Machine (this card has a sort of pseudo-Convoke), but Hidetsugu and Kairi turn this card into a zero-mana 20-damage interaction. All you need to do is stack the top of your library with Hidetsugu and Kairi’s enter the battlefield trigger so that you reveal Explosive Singularity when it dies. You can run sacrifice outlets and such, but for the sake of Standard, you only need to do this combo once. Something as simple as a Go for the Throat can set this combo into motion with little effort while doubling as a removal spell.
Revealing Explosive Singularity will cause your opponent to lose ten life because of the card’s mana value. You will also get to cast it for free since it’s a sorcery, allowing you to target your opponent for another ten damage. If this combo needs more hits to be effective, Shadow of Mortality is a 15-damage alternative that can double as a threat when you’re behind.
Grixis is already a potent color combination in the Standard format. Grixis Midrange has been considered the best deck in the format for quite some time. To make things even better, a top-heavy version of the midrange deck uses Cruelty of Gix and Atraxa, Grand Unifier as a powerful combo to go over the top of other Midrange opponents already exists. The aforementioned combo is a bit more flexible since, with enough time, it’s reasonable to cast an Atraxa without reanimating it, but the same is probably not true for Explosive Singularity.
The upside to the new combo is that, under most circumstances, Hidetsugu and Kairi will end the game immediately, while the Atraxa combo puts you in a good position. Getting outgrinded by an opponent’s Atraxa, even after resolving your own, is easier than you think, but that’s not something they can do if they’re dead.
Cruelty of Gix can even be used as an additional combo piece to resurrect Hidetsugu and Kairi in case something goes wrong. Finally, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker can discard extra copies of Explosive Singularity to help offset how dead they are in your hand.
Read More: March of the Machine MTG Mechanics Officially Revealed
Efficiency and Board Wipes
Interestingly, a new March of the Machine Rare may help make this strategy even more realistic. This combo can undeniably have some consistency issues, but Into the Fire is just the sort of card the deck needs to execute its gameplan flawlessly. In an aggressive matchup, Into the Fire can function as a board wipe. In slower matchups, the card can help find your combo more consistently. That said, Into the Fire also helps boost the efficiency of the Atraxa Reanimator decks that are already popular. This could mean that the already-established Reanimator strategy remains stronger than this crazy combo.
Read More: MTG March of the Machine Precon Commanders Revealed!
Hidetsugu and Kairi in cEDH
Hidetsugu and Kairi are so powerful that some players are already anticipating that this card could be a viable option in cEDH and, subsequently, may be too powerful for a casual game of Commander. This early brew from Twitter user Hawaj_magic_guy details a Dimir deck chock-full of interaction and tutors that wants to use a free Enter the Infinite from Hidetsugu’s death trigger as a way to cast draw your entire deck and cast Thassa’s Oracle to win the game. The Demonic Consultation combo is also a part of this deck.
That said, many MTG players think that going for a reanimation and sacrifice method may be the best way to play this Commander. It’s pretty easy to hit an extra turn spell with Hidetsugu and Kairi, use that turn to Reanimate the creature, set up another powerful card on top of the library, and sacrifice it to something like Phyrexian Altar or Altar of Dementia to cast another free spell.
Either way, the power level of Hidetsugu and Kairi is clear; this card has an enormous potential to be problematic. There are also ways to build this like a weaker version Yuriko, The Tiger’s Shadow, but that deck is still likely to happen upon a colossal tempo swing from a free big spell, which may not be great for casual tables. Regardless of what you will do with Hidetsugu and Kairi, it will be interesting to see if this card ends up becoming competitively viable in constructed formats!
Read More: Gorgeous March of the Machine Reprints Could Cost $1000+!