Bloomburrow spoiler season is among us, and there are a ton of different cool cards and designs to look at. In collector boosters, players can find a range of adorable Courageous Critters, which serve as reprints of potent Planeswalkers and legends that have been animalized. When it comes to the Commander Precons, we now know what each face Commander is looking to accomplish.
Of course, a multitude of cards from the main set have also been spoiled, and there’s a lot to like. Today, we’re going to focus on one particular mythic rare legend that has opened the door for a range of infinite combos. The card in question is none other than Ygra, Eater of All.
Players were quick to highlight some unique combos for EDH, Pioneer, and even Standard. It’s unclear if these synergies will end up dominating the competitive scene, but there’s no denying the hype surrounding Ygra and what he brings to the table. To kick things off, let’s talk about the Pioneer combo that sparked a great deal of discussion.
Ygra and Cauldron Familiar Unite
Ygra is a very powerful legendary Cat that can have a huge impact on the game. The key to making all of the associated combos work lies with Ygra’s second ability. With Ygra in play, all of your other creatures (as well as your opponent’s creatures) are Food artifacts as well. This opens the door for some incredible Food synergies that would never be available otherwise.
Soon after Ygra was spoiled, MTG player Mason Clark took to Twitter to showcase a rather simple infinite combo in Pioneer that ends the game on the spot. In order to execute the requisite steps, you need to have a copy of Ygra in play, Cauldron Familiar on the battlefield, and another Cauldron Familiar in your graveyard. From there, simply follow the procedure below, and you’ll emerge victorious easily.
- Activate the ability of the Cauldron Familiar in your graveyard by sacrificing the Cauldron Familiar in play (It’s a Food thanks to Ygra).
- Ygra will get two +1/+1 counters when you sacrifice the Cauldron Familiar in play.
- Drain the opponent for one life when the Cauldron Familiar from the graveyard enters play
- Repeat these steps over and over, looping your Cauldron Familiars between the graveyard and the battlefield
The end result of this combo is that you drain the opponent infinite times. This line is really interesting and isn’t the easiest to break up with removal. Ygra does cost a lot of mana to cast, but it naturally dodges some of Pioneer’s most common kill spells, like Fatal Push and Lightning Axe. As we will see later, there are still some major weaknesses to be weary of when building around this combo, but there’s certainly room for experimentation.
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Standard Ygra Combo
While the Pioneer combo seems to be the most widely talked about, there will actually be an infinite combo available in Standard thanks to Ygra’s printing. This combo revolves around three key cards: Ygra, Eater of All, Bartolome del Presidio, and Camellia, the Seedmiser. With these three cards and at least one other creature in play, you can grow Bartolome and Ygra infinitely large by completing the following steps:
- Sacrifice a creature to Bartolome other than Ygra or Camellia. Both Bartolome and Ygra will get +1/+1 counters in the process
- Camellia will trigger as well because all of your creatures are Food tokens thanks to Ygra, netting you a 1/1 Squirrel token
- Sacrifice the 1/1 Squirrel to Bartolome, growing Bartolome and Ygra once more
- Camellia will trigger again, and you can repeat this process over and over
Of note, there are more similar combos to be had in EDH, since other repeatable sacrifice outlets besides Bartolome can fill the same slot. Bartolome is supposedly the only Standard-legal card that fits the bill, though. You can, however, replace Camellia with Experimental Confectioner in Standard and yield the same results as described above. This at least provides you with some level of redundancy.
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Competitive Viability
Both of these combo lines are sweet, but how likely are they to see meaningful competitive play when Bloomburrow releases? All things considered, it doesn’t seem super likely that Ygra will take the Pioneer world by storm. This is because the combo is quite weak to a few specific cards that see a lot of play.
At the top of that list, we have Vein Ripper out of Rakdos Vampires. Vein Ripper makes it impossible to combo while in play, since you need to sacrifice your Cauldron Familiars repeatedly. The massive presence of the Rakdos Vampires deck partly explains why Rakdos sacrifice has fallen out of favor.
Beyond problematic maindeck cards, you also have to contend with graveyard hate cards out of the sideboard. With Izzet Phoenix as popular as it is, you’re bound to run into cards like Unlicensed Hearse that can nab your Cauldron Familiars from the graveyard and break things up. The good news is that, as Mason pointed out, both of these cards get answered by Pick Your Poison. Ultimately, the path for a five-mana card to see play in Pioneer isn’t easy, but Ygra is a house once it enters, so there’s still hope.
When it comes to Standard, utilizing a five-mana creature as top end is a bit more reasonable. The three-card combo we described isn’t trivial to pull off, but the good news is that Bartolome, Ygra, and Camellia are all decent cards on their own. Perhaps an Abzan midrange shell featuring cards like The Huntsman’s Redemption and Pillage the Bog that help dig for your combo pieces could emerge.
The more Food and Squirrel synergies that arise during Bloomburrow spoiler season, the better this strategy becomes. Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for any helpful tools that get spoiled in the coming days. Ygra is a neat card no matter what, and is sure to lead to some innovative deckbuilding in the future.
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