At this point, it’s no secret that there is tons of fast mana floating about in Standard. Between mana dorks and Earthbending cards, the format feels faster than ever. As if it wasn’t already fast enough, however, it now turns out Marvel Super Heroes is introducing a turn three infinite mana combo.
Admittedly, while this is a very real combo, the chances of it happening in a game are a bit magical Christmas land-y. Even with a perfect seven-card opening hand, you’ll have infinite mana and nothing to spend it on. Still, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and this combo offers one hell of an explosive finish.
Turn Three Infinite Mana Standard Combo
If you like the sound of infinite mana on turn three, you’ll need four cards and three lands to make it work. Thankfully, while this is a very steep requirement, the curve here isn’t terrible. Casting Sleep-Cursed Faerie after dropping an Island on one leads to Badgermole Cub after a forest on turn two.
After another land, you’ll untap on turn three with four mana, just enough to play Marvin, Murderous Mimic and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. From here, Marvin can tap for three mana, thanks to Badgermole Cub, and the fact that Marvin inherits all abilities. Marvin can then untap itself using Sleep-Cursed Fairie’s ability, before tapping again, netting you one mana every time.
Thankfully, while Shang-Chi’s ability can only be used to pay for abilities, the mana from Badgermole Cub isn’t restricted. As such, you can create infinite green mana to pay for a game-ending threat like Craterhoof Behemoth. Since this combo keeps all your creatures untapped, Craterhoof Behemoth threatens 39 damage on turn three.
While this potential may sound very exciting, it’s worth remembering that this combo is not good. Even though it’s only two colors, you still need a literally perfect opening hand to win on turn three. Even if you rely on luck to topdeck lands, you need five unique cards to make this work. With this in mind, there’s no chance in hell that this combo is competitive.
On top of needing an opening that only exists in magical Christmas land, this combo relies on nothing being removed. Since Marvin needs anything on the board, it’s incredibly vulnerable, especially with two turns of setup. Technically, if you really do want to make this combo work, though, there are some consistency boosters.
So Bad It’s Good
As Reddit user TEnOTT pointed out when discussing this combo, Raise the Past hits all of the necessary combo pieces. As such, if you can get everything into the graveyard beforehand, you can win out of nowhere. This, however, does open you up to graveyard removal, although that’s not quite as common as it used to be.
Should you not want to branch out into a third color, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron can also work instead. You’ll still need a way to put Sleep-Cursed Faerie or Shang-Chi in the bin, but this angle does open up some added consistency. Sadly, increasing consistency with cards like Dredger’s Insight comes at the cost of speed, which is the deck’s one selling point.
To make matters even worse, you don’t have much space to play with here. Since you’ll want four-ofs for maximum consistency, the main combo pieces take up at least 16 slots. Adding in Raise the Past and Agatha’s for consistency pushes that to 24, and that’s without any wincons. This leaves you with, optimistically, between six and eight slots for removal and counterplay.
Even then, however, since this combo demands all of your mana, using any counterplay is easier said than done. As such, this deck is absolutely a bad idea and won’t stand a chance in best-of-three matchups. In best-of-one on MTG Arena, however, there’s a non-zero chance this combo could hilariously sneak wins.
Ultimately, even if it’s not competitive, a turn-three infinite mana combo being possible in Standard is a hoot. Honestly, considering the ultra-fast state of Standard, it’s probably a good thing this isn’t viable.
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