Welcome to another Deck Tech edition of the Daily Dose of Aether Revolt. Friday I went over an Abzan Revolt deck that I think will be doing well in the upcoming Standard Season. Today's Standard Deck Tech, Jeskai Triple Combo, will be implementing a new two-card combo that came to fruition thanks to the new card Felidar Guardian.
Why just stop at one combo, when you can have not one, not two, but three combos in one deck. The deck will be a Jeskai deck, but will also allow you to have access to colourless mana needed as well. Before I go into more detail on the three combos, we need to have a base for the deck. The deck will be loosely based on a Blue/White Panharmonicon deck that takes advantage of cards with great enter the battlefield triggers. It will also use the concept of "artifact matter" as well, as there are many cards in the deck that will take advantage of having multiple artifacts in the deck as well.
Now let's talk about the three combos in the deck that will give you the chance to win games instantly. Lets consider how each combos works, how fast you can get the combo off and then how well the cards work outside of the combo.
Combo #1
How the combo works: In case it isn't obvious to all, here is how the combo works. You need to have a Saheeli Rai on the battlefield with at least 3 loyalty counters and a copy of Felidar Guardian. Once they are both on the battlefield at the same time, you can use Saheeli Rai's -2 ability to create a token that's a copy of Felidar Guardian that gains haste. When the token copy of Felidar Guardian enters the battlefield, you can use it to blink Saheeli Rai so it resets to 3 loyalty counters. At this point you can rinse and repeat to create as many Felidar Guardian tokens as you want and than use them to attack your opponent for the win!
How fast can you get the combo: This two-card combo can be achieved as early as turn four which means that if your opponent has no answer for this combo, you can kill them quickly with it. If you want to activate the combo in the same turn and wait for your opponent to tap out, you can wait until turn six and than play Felidar Guardian, exiling one of your lands so that you can then use that land to cast Saheeli Rai and set off the combo right away.
How well do the cards work outside of the combo: There will be plenty of uses for both cards in this deck. Many creatures and artifacts with enter the battlefield triggers benefit from either Saheeli Rai's or Felidar Guardian's abilities. With Felidar Guardian having four toughness it also acts as a good blocker as well. If you have nothing to copy with Saheeli Rai, being able to filter your card draws is just as great and will allow you to get the cards that you need to hit any of your combos.
Combo #2
How the combo works: This combo works when you attack with Crackdown Construct and your opponent has either no blockers or chooses not to block. You can than turn Wandering Fumarole into a creature and use its 0 ability of switching its power and toughness. Repeat this 0 ability as often as you want to give Crackdown Construct +1/+1 each time you activate the ability. This will allow you to have a very large Crackdown Construct that can deal the damage necessary to finish off your opponent.
How fast can you get the combo: If you have Crackdown Construct already on the battlefield by turn four, you can achieve this combo as early as turn five. You will even have a blue mana available from the Wandering Fumarole if you need this to counter any removal spell with Metallic Rebuke.
How well do the cards work outside of the combo: Crackdown Construct is probably the worst of the combo cards outside of the combo itself. There aren't many cards outside of Wandering Fumarole that can pump up Consulate Crackdown. Wandering Fumarole is a great card by itself, as it can be tapped for two colours of mana and can act great on attack or defence as a creature.
Combo #3
How the combo works: This three-card combo allows you to create unlimited Eldrazi Scion tokens that you can use for unlimited mana or to tap down unlimited number of creatures with Drowner of Hope's ability. Once you have Panharmonicon in play, you need to have Eldrazi Displacer and Drowner of Hope on the battlefield. Playing Drowner of Hope with Panharmonicon on the battlefield will give you four Eldrazi Scion tokens instead of two. You can than use Eldrazi Displacer's ability by sacrificing three of the Eldrazi Scion tokens for three mana to blink Drowner of Hope and create four additional Eldrazi Scion tokens. You can than repeat this to have unlimited tokens. If you did this during your opponents turn you can then attack with those tokens on your next turn. If you activated the combo on your turn, you can attack with all the tokens on your next turn for the win!
How fast can you get the combo: To get this combo going as fast as possible, you want to make sure before turn six you already have Panharmonicon and Eldrazi Displacer on the battlefield. This means that when you play Drowner of Hope on turn six, you will get the four Eldrazi Scion tokens you need to start the combo immediately. During the upkeep of your opponent’s turn is the best time to sacrifice some Eldrazi Scion tokens to tap down all your opponent’s creatures. Your opponent will only be able to get out of certain death if they can kill all the tokens and Eldrazi Displacer with a sweeper spell.
How well do the cards work outside of the combo: Like Felidar Guardian, Panharmonicon and Eldrazi Displacer provide extra and repeated value for your creatures and artifacts and their enter the battlefield triggers. This makes them a very integral part of the deck as often you are wanting to play a Panharmonicon on turn four so that for the rest of the game you can gain extra value from all your cards. Eldrazi Displacer is also great as a defensive measure[/c] to stop your strong opposing creatures from attacking you. Drowner of Hope is a great defensive card that allows you to tap down any creatures that will be doing some major damage to you. It's also a nice 5/5 creature that can get in the red zone and make a quick four turn clock on your opponent.
Now that we know which cards are needed to implement the combos, here is the deck that will make it happen. Here is Jeskai Triple Combo.
The ideal win situation would be to win with any of three combos I talked about earlier, but this is a deck that can simply win by giving you an extreme amount of value thanks to all the triggers of your permanents coming onto the battlefield. This is a combo deck that can also play a long grinding game thanks to card advantage if needed. So, the key when playing this deck is to not just always play for the combo win and realize that there are many routes that you can take to win with this deck. The mana base for the deck can be difficult to maneuver with, so it will take some getting used to as you are often fighting to have access to four different mana types (including colourless mana).
Thanks again for reading more of the Daily Dose of Aether Revolt and I hope that this Standard Deck Tech gives you a little window into what the Standard metagame will look like in a couple of weeks. With the banning of the three cards in Standard and the appearance of new cards in Aether Revolt, it will give an opportunity for deck builders to use their deck-building brains to come up with new decks that will shape the Standard season to come. Thanks for reading all the Daily Dose of Aether Revolt articles this month and I look forward to bringing you more of the Daily Dose in March as we see what Modern Masters 2017 has in store for us.
