Since the ban announcement in August provided a major shakeup to Pioneer, we’ve seen a lot of intriguing strategies pop up. With Abzan Amalia and Rakdos Vampires out of the picture, assertive archetypes like Rakdos aggro have become the face of the format. Creature decks in general have been thriving, as they longer need to compete with the life gain and combo aspect of Abzan Amalia.
As it turns out, there appears to be a new creature combo deck that has garnered some attention. While it’s likely nowhere near as oppressive as Abzan Amalia, it does a solid job preying on decks that lack removal. With a recent top four finish in a Magic Online Pioneer Challenge, this unique shell built around Acererak the Archlich has proven its power.
The goal is to be able to cast Acererak an infinite number of times, repeatedly entering the Lost Mine of Phandelver Dungeon and draining the opponent of all their life. This is certainly a sweet way to win. There are a few different combo lines available that make this possible, so let’s start by discussing how the Acererak combo actually works.
Executing Acererak Combos
- Mana Value: 2G
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 2/3
- MTG Sets: The Brother’s War
- Card Text: Tap: Add two mana in any combination of colors. Spend this mana only to cast creature spells or activate abilities of a creature or creature card. Whenever you cast a creature spell with power 5 or greater, put a +1/+1 counter on Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea and untap it.
Comboing with Acererak can be done with a few different combinations of cards, but the easiest combos to pull off start with two specific creatures. The first, of course, is Acererak the Archlich itself. The second is Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea. Gwenna is an interesting mana accelerant. It’s a bit narrow and inefficient, but it synergizes incredibly well with Acererak. Not only does Gwenna tap for two-thirds of the mana needed to cast Acererak, but because Acererak has five power, you get to untap Gwenna in the process.
When Acererak enters the battlefield, you’ll typically want to choose to Venture into the Lost Mine of Phandelver Dungeon. The reason for this is because this Dungeon has a room that drains the opponent for 1 life. So, if you’re able to Venture into this Dungeon infinite times, winning the game becomes trivial.
From there, Acererak will return to your hand, with Gwenna untapped and ready to pay for the majority of Acererak’s casting cost. All you need to go infinite is a way to consistently generate the third requisite mana to cast Acererak. Luckily, Relic of Legends, Honest Rutstein, and Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy all do the trick.
With Honest Rutstein in play, Acererak’s casting cost is reduced by one. As such, you can simply tap Gwenna to cast Acererak straight up. This untaps Gwenna, and you can keep returning Acererak to your hand and recasting it over and over for infinite enters-the-battlefield triggers.
In the case of Relic of Legends, you start by tapping Relic and Gwenna to cast Acererak. Each time Acererak enters, you can tap it to make a mana thanks to Relic’s ability and use that mana to keep replaying it. If you have access to Kinnan instead, each time you tap Gwenna, you’ll get to add another mana to your mana pool to help cast Acererak.
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Speed and Consistency
- Mana Value: 3G
- Rarity: Rare
- MTG Sets: Dragons of Tarkir, Mystery Booster 2
- Card Text: Look at the top six cards of your library. Put up to two creature cards with converted mana cost 3 or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
The rest of the deck is primarily made up of ways to either speed the combo up or help find the relevant pieces. In the mana acceleration category, Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic are as good as they come in the Pioneer format. Being able to play Gwenna or Relic of Legends a turn ahead of schedule is very important, especially considering how popular the blazing Rakdos aggro deck has become.
As for ways to dig for Gwenna, Acererak, and Honest Rutstein, a full playset of Rona, Herald of Invasion makes an appearance. With such a high density of legends at your disposal, Rona often lets you loot multiple times in a turn. This makes it easy to find your best cards.
Speaking of your best cards, Collected Company is likely at the top of the list. Collected Company does everything this deck wants. It digs for all of your elite three-drop creatures. It puts multiple creatures into play at once. As an instant, your opponent will always have to fear the worst, since you may be able to go from having no combo pieces on board to having the combo entirely set up when you untap and take your turn.
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A Combo Deck in an Aggro World
- Mana Value: R
- Rarity: Uncommon
- Stats: 1/2
- MTG Sets: Khans of Tarkir, Iconic Masters, Time Spiral Remastered, Double Masters 2022, The Brother’s War
- Card Text: Haste. Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
With Abzan Amalia and Rakdos Vampires out of the picture, Collected Company decks certainly have more of an opportunity to showcase their strengths in Pioneer. While it might seem unusual for this archetype to pop up out of nowhere, its position in the metagame has improved significantly.
As fast as Rakdos aggro is, it doesn’t utilize much in the way of removal. Some of the strategies that have increased in popularity as a result of aggro’s rise, such as Selesnya Angels, also have few ways to get creatures off the table. As such, your copies of Gwenna and Kinnan will often survive unscathed.
Even against archetypes like Izzet Phoenix that have a decent amount of removal. Honest Rutstein and Collected Company help a lot in that area. If you can generate enough mana, Kinnan activations become a real threat, too. Kinnan can find Gwenna, Acererak, or even Atraxa, Grand Unifier if you’re lucky.
Much like Abzan Amalia, this creature combo deck gets a lot of mileage out of being able to win the game very quickly. It’s obviously nowhere near as problematic, but that doesn’t mean the strategy isn’t effective.
It should also be noted that executing this combo can be a hastle on Magic Online, since you have to click through casting Acererak over and over. As such, there’s a chance the deck would make more noise in a paper setting and could be even stronger than its current online data shows. So, if you’re looking to register something unique for your next Pioneer event, Acererak combo is a neat choice.
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