Any MTG player who’s been playing Standard for the past year should be aware of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron. Thanks to granting abilities from creatures it exiles, this artifact ended up creating one of the most broken combos Standard has ever seen. Combined with Vivi Ornitier, Agatha’s Soul Cauldron went on to rule, and ultimately ruin, Standard as we knew it. Until Vivi Ornitier was banned five months later, Standard was basically a dead format.
While Vivi is certainly the most memorable Agatha’s Soul Cauldron combo in Standard’s history, it’s not the only one. Another, less offensive variation of the strategy existed back when March of the Machines was Standard legal. Now, thanks to a new MTG TMNT uncommon, that same competitive Agatha’s Soul Cauldron combo has returned.
Comboing With the Cauldron
Replacing Kami of Whispered Hopes from March of the Machine, Mona Lisa, Science Geek can make infinite mana when combined with Sleep-Cursed Faerie and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron. With one of the two cards under the Cauldron, and three power on the other creature of your choice, assuming that there are no Stun Counters on your Faerie, you can tap for three mana with Mona Lisa’s ability, and use two of those mana to untap your creature with Sleep-Cursed Faerie. You’ll be netting one mana each time, allowing you to win in any number of different ways.
The strongest part about this combo is its versatility. While having one of the two combo creatures in play can save some time, you can also exile both creatures under the Cauldron and combo with any three-powered creature. This makes cards that can untap the Cauldron, like Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, a sneaky way to win the game from nowhere, exiling both combo creatures and putting two +1/+1 counters on any creature.
Even with all this utility, this combo may seem a bit difficult to fully assemble. While it’s certainly no Vivi Cauldron, the old version of this combo was competitively viable when it was Standard-legal. Using a four-colored base to include Wilds of Eldraine’s Realm-Scorcher Hellkite allows this strategy to deal infinite damage once you have your combo assembled. Combine that with all the graveyard engines in the format, like Overlord of the Balemurk, as well as the various tutor effects like Formidable Speaker, and this combo certainly has a chance to be the real deal.
A Brew Come True
Thanks to this deck once being a Standard breakout, some optimistic MTG brewers have been trying to make similar ideas work to this day. While the deck is certainly missing something prior to MTG x TMNT, Mona Lisa, Science Geek could very well give the archetype the tool it needs to return once again.
That said, Standard has seen a lot of power creep over even the last few years, meaning that this combo will have its work cut out for it. That said, at the right tournament, Mona Lisa, Science Geek may be able to catch your opponents off guard, especially with the recent decline in Standard graveyard decks.
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