I'm just trying to solicit thoughts on how to build around combos in standard. I chose standard specifically because the card pool is smaller, so the approach is likely to be different. I haven't played a dedicated combo deck in over a decade, so hearing from 'real' combo players would be great!
Imagine you want to build a deck using a very powerful, maybe game-winning, combo. There are a number of ways you could approach that.
You could build a dedicated control deck that tries to take firm control of the game before deploying the combo. I can't think of a high-profile deck currently in standard like this but they have existed in other formats.
You could build a synergistic deck that is capable of deploying a powerful combo, but can also win by having individual combo pieces interacting favorably with the rest of the deck. Examples might be Temur Ascendancy or ChromantiFlayer decks.
You could build a deck that digs for the combo and tries to deploy it as quickly as possible and with as little interaction as possible. Jeskai Ascendancy combo is an example of this.
You could build a deck that is capable of playing the aggro/midrange game, but has the combo inserted as a bonus; if you get it, great, if not, just play fair Magic. I can't think of a high-profile deck like this, but some of the Rally the Ancestors combo decks I've seen might be an example.
How do you combo brewers know which approach to use? I've stumbled on combos that I wanted to build around and often couldn't decide which approach was most appropriate. If the release of Origins immediately gave you an idea for an absurdly powerful combo, what combo approach would you most hope you could work with?
In the current standard format, I think going with the Jeskai Ascendancy no interaction route is probably the best, just because it's the best, most consistent combo right now. In fact, I watched a game at the Pro Tour this previous weekend where an Ascendancy deck got dropped to 1 life with his opponent at 20-something with only ascendancy and a Caryatid on board and he managed to dig through his deck and generate enough mana to win the game.
If you don't like that approach, however, I would go with the aggro/combo gameplan with Jeskai Heroic Combo. The deck uses the Jeskai Ascendancy/Retraction Helix/Springleaf Drum combo with a number of very small (almost exclusively 1 mana) heroic creatures like Favored Hoplite and Akroan Crusader, as well as things like Monastery Swiftspear. It then runs Dragon Mantle and Defiant Strike to help it dig through the deck, along with Gods Willing to both keep its dudes alive and as something to dig for to win the game once you get your combo online. You just grab as many Gods Willing's as you need and give one guy protection from anything your opponents could cast to stop it and swing for lethal. The deck is still good at playing the standard heroic game though, just buffing the dudes and keeping them safe and killing your opponent the fair way.
I used to play the Heroic deck. It's plenty of fun and probably even better now than when I played it with access to Anticipate and probably a few other cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Imagine you want to build a deck using a very powerful, maybe game-winning, combo. There are a number of ways you could approach that.
You could build a dedicated control deck that tries to take firm control of the game before deploying the combo. I can't think of a high-profile deck currently in standard like this but they have existed in other formats.
You could build a synergistic deck that is capable of deploying a powerful combo, but can also win by having individual combo pieces interacting favorably with the rest of the deck. Examples might be Temur Ascendancy or ChromantiFlayer decks.
You could build a deck that digs for the combo and tries to deploy it as quickly as possible and with as little interaction as possible. Jeskai Ascendancy combo is an example of this.
You could build a deck that is capable of playing the aggro/midrange game, but has the combo inserted as a bonus; if you get it, great, if not, just play fair Magic. I can't think of a high-profile deck like this, but some of the Rally the Ancestors combo decks I've seen might be an example.
How do you combo brewers know which approach to use? I've stumbled on combos that I wanted to build around and often couldn't decide which approach was most appropriate. If the release of Origins immediately gave you an idea for an absurdly powerful combo, what combo approach would you most hope you could work with?
If you don't like that approach, however, I would go with the aggro/combo gameplan with Jeskai Heroic Combo. The deck uses the Jeskai Ascendancy/Retraction Helix/Springleaf Drum combo with a number of very small (almost exclusively 1 mana) heroic creatures like Favored Hoplite and Akroan Crusader, as well as things like Monastery Swiftspear. It then runs Dragon Mantle and Defiant Strike to help it dig through the deck, along with Gods Willing to both keep its dudes alive and as something to dig for to win the game once you get your combo online. You just grab as many Gods Willing's as you need and give one guy protection from anything your opponents could cast to stop it and swing for lethal. The deck is still good at playing the standard heroic game though, just buffing the dudes and keeping them safe and killing your opponent the fair way.
I used to play the Heroic deck. It's plenty of fun and probably even better now than when I played it with access to Anticipate and probably a few other cards.