MTG Salvation

Eldrazi Displacer is a monster, for those who haven't seen it already. We haven't seen a repeatable Blink engine this cheap or efficient like this in standard since...maybe Momentary Blink? And I think it could definitely make a splash.

How? Well, the obvious route is an Abzan list. Blinking Siege Rhino is all good fun, while blinking Brood Monitor is infinite EtB triggers and death triggers, which translates to a straight win with Rot Shambler, Catacomb Sifter, Smothering Abomination, Shadows of the Past, Valor in Akros, and of course Zulaport Cutthroat. This combo seems even more resilient than Rally, since many of the pieces are individually good. A sample list...



A Bant or WUGB version could also be quite deadly, adding Whirler Rogue, Reflector Mage (oh man sweet Reflector Mage), and Sidisi's Faithful. A U/W controllish version might also be pretty good. Basically this card is insane. What do you all think?

Somehow I read him as 3<> to activate and I thought he was busted that way. Totally missed the brood monitor interaction.

Get two of them out and let them protect each other from spot removal

Modern is easier to abuse with Training Grounds and anything that adds C on etb, which is apparently only 11 Eldrazi Drone cards... so far. Huh, could have swore something added C on etb... but nope. Guess that would be a redundant ability.

For standard, it's at least a 3-card combo, which is too hard to make competitive. But yeah, Vile Redeemer would have been perfect, but it's on cast. Guess they saw the blink shenanigans coming.

I know the OP wants Standard, but I can't hep but think outside of it, as I see a number of these U/W/B/UB cards spoiled, and think "infinite colorless mana abuse" - am I off on this, or is infinite colorless mana abuse - in whichever formats actually have decent support for it - getting some (indirect, and/or unintentional) loving?

I am liking the bant idea, using Altar of the brood as the combo win con. haven't played standard in a while so I'm not up on the current best counters/ramp/creatures, but I think bant might be good.

In terms of combo, there really is only one: Eldrazi Displacer+Brood Monitor. There are however a ton of ways to build around the combo. First you pick a card or cards that can kill with either ETB, LTB or Death triggers.
Kill Cards

• Altar of the Brood
  
• Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit
  
• Boltwing Marauder
  
• Impact Tremors
  
• Outpost Siege
  
• Rot Shambler
  
• Swarm of Bloodflies
  
• Valor in Akros
  
• Zulaport Cutthroat

Some of those are terrible options, but all of them can give you a win when paired with the combo.

After that you have to decide what kind of deck you want to build around that win condition. Abzan Aristocrats already runs Zulaport Cutthroat, and sometimes Rot Shambler, so slotting the combo into that deck is most obvious. You could go Astral Slide style with Morph/Manifest. You could build a control deck that stalls and digs for combo pieces. You could build a value deck that abuses ETBs and has the combo as an "Oops, I win". This card is glorious in that it does amazing things without building the deck by itself.

Blinking an ally seems fun, to get all the ally ETB triggers at instant speed.

Quote from Thirtydirtybirds »

I am liking the bant idea, using Altar of the brood as the combo win con. haven't played standard in a while so I'm not up on the current best counters/ramp/creatures, but I think bant might be good.

I'm thinking Bant. I was trying to make Altar of the Brood playable with stuff like Blight Herder for lots of triggers, but it was really inefficient because there were no good recursive token generator... now there is, and it's perfect colors for a combo brew.

I think you might actually want colorless mana on demand, so maybe adding in sylvan scrying for to grab any land.

I'm on the bant wagon as well. Probably mainly U/G with W for Displacer and SB cards. Rattleclaw Mystic making 2 of 3 colors seems like a nice plus over Abzan or Naya, at least when going all-in on the combo. Abzan is probably better if you just want value with a possible combo finish, blinking Rhinos seems pretty decent

Quote from Kabirum »

I think you might actually want colorless mana on demand, so maybe adding in sylvan scrying for to grab any land.

Yeah, I guess that depends whether you want access to incidental use of the Eldrazi Displacer outside of the combo. For example, one thing I realized that's nice for a combo deck is the ability to flicker a Greenwarden of Murasa; access to any card in your graveyard at instant speed is a good defense against interaction.

I'd probably go Hedron Archive rather than Sylvan Scrying, but colorless sources might be advisable.

I'm sure I like scrying, I'd probably go with Hedron Archive as madd suggested, or some number of Blighted Woodland along with a singleton Wastes.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I'd probably start with a playset of Yavimaya Coast or Llanowar Wastes for colorless sources, depending on Bant or Abzan.

Whats also nice to blink is Thragtusk
I play it with sultai with Mirror Mockery

Quote from Thirtydirtybirds »

I am liking the bant idea, using Altar of the brood as the combo win con. haven't played standard in a while so I'm not up on the current best counters/ramp/creatures, but I think bant might be good.

The only problem with altar as your win con is that it is going to be awkward when you play against rally. Better have some Hallowed Moonlights on hand or something ~

You can set up your board and wait till they tap out to start your combo at instant speed. Or run Bant or Wux for counterspells.

I don't bother with Hallowed Moonlight as Dispel hits both Rally and CoCo. Which is why Bant is probably the safest for a pure combo route.

Eldrazi Displacer + Thought-Knot Seer = broken control combo. During your opponent's draw step, you blink Thought-Knot Seer. You stack the triggers so they draw a card, then you get to look at their hand and exile one. You've just chosen which of the top two cards of their library you don't want them to have. It's probably too slow to play in Standard, but it's not a bad interaction!

This isn't going to be nearly as powerful as other blink strategy. For the sole reason that it's attached to a creature