Yesterday was a huge day for MTG Star Trek reveals, with an entire Commander precon and two funky Scene Boxes both being unveiled. On top of that, we also got to see the rest of the Stardates bonus sheet, which is packed with both quality reprints and dubious artwork.
One of these reprints, Stella Lee, Wild Card, actually enables an infinite combo in MTG Star Trek Limited, alongside common
Make It So
Make It So
Choose one —
• Untap target permanent you control. Target player draws two cards.
• Create a 1/1 red Officer creature token and draw two cards.
. While it’s rare, and risky, this combo marks another step in Wizards normalizing the archetype in Limited.
The Stella Lee, Wild Card/Make It So Combo
To pull off this new combo line, you’ll first need Stella Lee on the board, without summoning sickness, and
Make It So
Make It So
Choose one —
• Untap target permanent you control. Target player draws two cards.
• Create a 1/1 red Officer creature token and draw two cards.
in your hand. Additionally, you’ll need access to Stella Lee’s activated ability, which means you need to have cast at least two spells already this turn (Make It So will count as the third as you cast it). There are a few decent cheap Izzet spell options at common in MTG Star Trek to help with this, including
Federation Probe
Federation Probe
Flying
When this creature enters, choose one —
• Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
• Surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put it into your graveyard.)
and
Planetary Bombardment
Planetary Bombardment
Planetary Bombardment deals 2 damage to target creature. Planetary Bombardment deals 4 damage to that creature instead if a creature died this turn.
.
Once you’re all set up, simply cast
Make It So
Make It So
Choose one —
• Untap target permanent you control. Target player draws two cards.
• Create a 1/1 red Officer creature token and draw two cards.
, choosing the first mode, and tap Stella Lee to copy it. When the copy resolves, use it to untap Stella Lee and force your opponent to draw two cards. Next, before the original Make It So resolves, tap Stella Lee again to copy it, thus creating a loop. You can repeat this infinite times to force your opponent to deck out, winning the game on the spot.
While this is a potent combo, especially for Limited, it’s not without its flaws. In addition to being fairly clunky to pull off, requiring at least four cards in total, it’s also extremely risky. Your opponent has every opportunity to remove Stella Lee at instant speed in response to any of your activations, and a decent chance of being able to do so with all the free draw you’re giving them.
If this happens, you’ll have granted them a ton of card advantage for no reason, which will very likely cause you to lose that game. That said, you can mitigate this risk by waiting until your opponent is tapped out to try the combo, so it’s hardly impossible to pull off. You can also draw yourself a ton of cards with Make It So before you start forcing your opponent to do so, ensuring you have some countermagic ready to protect against anything they try to pull.
Execution issues aside, the bigger concern here is likely the low chances of even having the two cards necessary for the combo in the first place. While
Make It So
Make It So
Choose one —
• Untap target permanent you control. Target player draws two cards.
• Create a 1/1 red Officer creature token and draw two cards.
is a common, and therefore a fairly reliable pull in both Draft and Sealed, Stella Lee is a Stardates card. These only appear in one out of 25 Play Boosters, and there are 30 different cards in the pool, so your chances of pulling it are slim.
For this reason, like the Splinter Twin combo from Secrets of Strixhaven, actually seeing someone pull this off in Limited will likely be a rare event. While there are valid concerns about Wizards adding infinite combos to Limited, to me this feels like a good balance. Having infinite combos tied to rare pulls means these are flashy occasional events rather than regular occurrences, which should provide great stories without compromising the overall Limited environment.
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