March of the Machine Prerelease season has officially concluded! Many MTG circles have been enamored with stories of new cards and freshly opened monkeys worth more than twice an entire Prerelease kit. Now that players have had a chance to play with new cards at the Prerelease, MTG’s community has moved on to figuring out which cards will be applicable in Magic’s various forms of engagement. Notably, not all of these need to be practical – part of Magic’s charm, especially in Commander, is having the space to pull off some wacky interactions. Some new dragon support may be stronger than players initially thought, but more are trying to figure out to pull off a wacky one-turn kill with the new Invasion of Tarkir card in Commander!
Invasion of Tarkir
Invasion of Tarkir is one of the new Battle cards introduced to MTG through March of the Machine. While the card does flip into something quite intimidating, especially in a dragon-themed EDH deck, many players are more interested in the card’s front side.
Invasion of Tarkir has the unique ability to deal an unlimited amount of damage to any other target. The determining factor, instead of mana, is the number of dragon creatures in your hand. If this strictly controlled the output of Invasion of Tarkir’s enter the battlefield ability, it may be considered rather useless. Thankfully, even if you do not have dragon cards in your hand, Invasion of Tarkir deals an additional two damage to any other target regardless. It is, therefore, an over-costed Shock at worst with additional upside should it flip.
Accumulating 38 Dragons
As mentioned before, MTG players are no strangers to pulling off bizarre combos in Commander strictly for the ‘wow’ factor that follows. Should an MTG player with Invasion of Tarkir somehow accumulate 38 dragons in their hand, the Battle can one-shot a player for 40 damage! Amassing 38 cards in a player’s hand, let alone 38 dragons, can be considered a difficult task, mainly when one’s hand size in MTG is limited to seven. As such, this can, generally, only be pulled off with some preparation. Fortunately, for players who do want to pull this ridiculous stunt off, a Redditor has already asked the hivemind if this was reasonably possible.
The Redditor posing the question suggested one way of pulling off this silly death combo: Enter the Infinite. This massive MTG sorcery can draw your entire deck (except for one card) while lifting the hand size limit. The downside is that this incredible effect demands 12 mana to pull off. The spell has been created so that a player who decides to Enter the Infinite should have a turn to untap their mana and use all the cards they drew, but, ideally, you should just be able to cast Invasion of Tarkir on the same turn you cast Enter the Infinite.
Food Chain
Enter the Infinite works, but it may be a more awkward way of pulling off the illustrious 38 dragon kill. Fortunately, other Redditors suggested stronger methods involving cards that would already be a part of an MTG dragon Commander deck. Most of these methods, however, have one thing in common: Food Chain.
Food Chain is a three-mana enchantment that, generally, threatens to win the game immediately. This is an incredible card for generating mana, and it can easily conclude a game thanks to loops created by Commanders being recurrable after they die.
Once upon a time, Food Chain had a rather lofty price tag, being worth over $50 per copy. This is because the high-demand Commander card only had one printing from an extremely old set: Mercadian Masques. The card saw a reprinting as a Judge Promo, but because of how scarce these cards are, Judge Promotional cards often fetch a premium over other copies of an MTG card. The average Judge Foil Food Chain goes for around $70 nowadays but went for more not too long ago.
Fortunately, Food Chain saw a reprint in Double Masters 2022, making the card much more affordable for the average MTG player. Players can now find a Food Chain for, at its cheapest, $16.
Read More: New Insane MTG Combo Deck Takes Over Championship!
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, as mentioned by Redditor Axeleffire, is perhaps the most well-known Food Chain enabler in the Commander format. This Commander was once considered one of the scariest that a player could come across. Power creep shows Prossh’s age nowadays, but the card can still pull off a two-card infinite mana combo with Food Chain.
This is thanks to Prossh’s unique cast-triggered ability that creates X 0/1 Red Kobold creature tokens equal to his casting cost. Since this scales with Commander tax, Food Chain can always keep creating an unlimited amount of mana even after Prossh’s Commander tax increases. This is because, in addition to ‘sacrificing’ all of the Kobold tokens for one mana each, Food Chain can also exile Prossh itself, netting seven mana on the spot. This means Food chain should net five mana per loop. Past this point, all you need to win is some sort of draw engine that can amass 38 dragons into your hand.
Do note that Food Chain mana can only be used to cast creatures. If you want to pull off the Invasion of Tarkir kill on the same turn that you go for your Food Chain infinite, you will need 1R worth of mana lying around to cast the Battle card.
Read More: New MTG Two-Card Infinite Combo Could Shake Up Multiple Formats!
Tiamat
Tiamat is one of the best MTG Dragon Commanders available to those who want to take the flying lizards to battle. Perhaps the craziest thing about that statement is that Tiamat is not unanimously the best Dragon Commander since the archetype also has access to cards like The Ur-Dragon.
As suggested by Redditor Aaarrrgh89, Tiamat is the piece that the previous Prossh Food Chain combo is missing: a way to amass 38 dragons into your hand. Each Tiamat loop can find more and more dragon cards, ultimately allowing for the 40-damage Invasion of Tarkir trigger to occur.
Unfortunately, a problem is still visible with this combo: the inability to loop Tiamat with Food Chain. Since Food Chain only generates one additional mana past an exiled creature’s mana value, you will lose mana trying to cast Tiamat repetitively. That means we need a third card enabling an infinite mana loop with Food Chain. If Tiamat is your Commander, Prossh will no longer work since there’s no way to get it back once it’s been exiled. Additionally, you cannot run Tiamat in a Commander deck manned by Prossh.
There are a few cards with the same effect, but Squee, the Immortal is the one best known to go infinite with Food Chain without being your Commander. This card was recently reprinted as a part of the March of the Machine bonus sheet, which means the card is more accessible now than ever.
Squee, the Immortal has the ability to be cast from exile. This means that, after exiling Squee to Food Chain, you can immediately recast it. Since Food Chain generates one mana plus the exiled creature’s mana value, you will net one mana per iteration of this loop.
Read More: New MTG Infinite Combo Breaks Feature Format!
Taking the Idea to Ludicrous Proportions
For some MTG players, the previous methods of gathering a one-shot Invasion of Tarkir are far too obvious. The need to go above and beyond and shock players at your Commander table may compel you to do something even more ridiculous than you ever imagined. If that’s where you want to take a 40-damage Invasion of Tarkir, then Redditor Koyoyomi Aragi‘s suggestion may be just for you.
Instead of killing players with dragons, why not change the text of the Battle? Artificial Evolution can exchange the dragon creature type with another, allowing you to reveal something ridiculous like Persistent Petitioners to end your opponent’s days. How you get 38 of those in your hand is up to you, but the blueprints to create something ridiculous have been provided for an EDH player brave enough to put it to paper.
Read More: New Serialized MTG Card Prices Are Complete Chaos
