Magic: The Gathering’s Reserved List is a truly fascinating thing. While a lot of the cards on it are genuine design mistakes that really shouldn’t ever be printed again, even more are random chaff that just happened to get printed in an old set. Nestled in between these two camps you can find some hidden gems: cards with seriously powerful applications that haven’t quite caught the eye of the player base at large. Today, the MTG community unearthed one such gem in Second Chance.
This is a very strange enchantment from way back in 1999’s Urza’s Saga. It offers the potential for extra turns, but at a cost that seems far too steep at first. As explained in a new video from MTG YouTuber Ben Bateman, however, there’s a wild infinite combo you can pull off with the card and a popular Commander. Delving deeper into the card, it actually enables a wide range of other, similar combos, both with Commanders and in the 99.
The Second Chance/Tameshi MTG Combo
The MTG combo Ben Bateman uncovered around Second Chance is very simple, but also very effective. All you need to pull it off is Second Chance itself, and Tameshi, Reality Architect. You can run the latter as your Commander, which essentially makes this a one-card combo if you do so.
On your upkeep, provided you have five or less life, Second Chance will sacrifice itself in exchange for giving you an extra turn. Played fairly, this would be one of the least impressive extra turn spells in the game. Since it comes attached to an enchantment, however, Tameshi is able to bring it back from the ‘yard using its activated ability.
If you bring Second Chance back during the turn it triggers, it’ll then trigger again on the upkeep of your extra turn. You can rinse and repeat this process to take infinite turns, within which you should have little trouble winning the game. You do need to bounce a land for Tameshi’s ability each time, but with infinite turns, you can just replay it on each new turn to maintain your mana total.
This is a lovely self-contained combo, but it does require a scarily low life total to execute. The chances of you landing at five or less naturally are pretty remote, so you’ll want to include some cards that let you quickly reduce your own life total here as well. Adanto Vanguard, Spellskite, and Phyrexian Processor are great on-color picks. If you want to take a more granular approach, you can always use Tameshi’s ability to replay your Shock lands and MDFC lands, whittling down your life total each time.
Other Command Zone Combos
Impressive as the above combo is, Tameshi is far from the only MTG Commander that Second Chance can go infinite with. There are a number of other options, each with their own pros and cons.
Hanna, Ship’s Navigator is the closest alternative to the Tameshi combo. Much like Tameshi, it has an ability that lets you yank Second Chance out of the graveyard after it sacrifices itself. In Hanna’s case, it goes back to your hand, so you’ll need to recast it. This makes the Hanna combo more mana-intensive, but you do get to develop your mana base this way.
In a similar vein, Muldrotha, the Gravetide lets you simply recast Second Chance from your graveyard after it sacrifices itself each turn. It also gives you access to green and black, which opens up a lot of avenues in terms of life payment effects. Cards like Sylvan Library and Doom Whisperer are valid includes in a Muldrotha deck, which can up the consistency of the combo a lot. The big downside here is that Muldrotha itself is a lot more expensive than the other options, but it’s still a great pick.
If you’re feeling really fancy, you can also pull off a Second Chance combo with Zur the Enchanter. Zur can tutor Second Chance right out of your deck into play, which is a huge boost to the combo right away. It does lack a built-in way to recur the card, mind you, so you’ll need to resort to some unconventional tools. You can use cards like Tomb Trawler or Tel-Jilad Stylus to get Second Chance back in your deck to tutor up again. Zur itself also offers a great win condition you can use to leverage your infinite turns.
Friends In The 99
The ability to enable infinite turn combos with Commanders is the biggest strength of Second Chance, but the card is also more than capable of going infinite with regular cards in the 99.
Hall of Heliod’s Generosity may be the best card for this job. As a land, it’s extremely difficult to interact with for most decks. It can also recur Second Chance from your graveyard to the top of your deck for just two mana each turn. You will need some extra card draw if you go down this route, since the line essentially Fateseals you. If you can manage that, however, then it’s pretty hard to stop.
For a more straightforward approach, you can always just reanimate Second Chance repeatedly. Conduit of Worlds lets you recast it each turn, while Starfield of Nyx brings it back free of charge. Since Starfield triggers on your upkeep, you’ll need Paradox Haze as well to ensure Second Chance actually triggers each turn.
There are also some creatures that can go infinite with Second Chance. Provided you have clear attack windows, both Silent Sentinel and Sun Titan can bring it back each time they swing. This approach isn’t quite as reliable as other lines, but if you have a consistent way to grant creatures evasion, like Rogue’s Passage, then it can work.
Overall, Second Chance is one Reserved List card that really deserves a lot more love for its combo potential. Next time you’re putting together a Commander deck, consider giving a classic a second chance and throwing it in.
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