For those interested in exploring combo archetypes in their cubes, I wanted to put together a list of 2-card combos that might be viable in cube. This list purposely does not include fatty cheater combos like Channel-Emrakul since those are more established and are a bit of a different animal. Before you grab your pitchforks, I am fully aware that many people are not interested in adding these to their cubes for a host of legitimate reasons such as (1) not powerful enough to compete with other cube strategies (2) narrow/inflexible cards will table in draft if no one is playing both halves (3) they aren't "fun" when they do come together. If that's your position, I totally understand; no need to beat the horse!!
For those that are interested, 2-card combos can be an archetype if you have a enough of them in your list and they can be fun! Here is an example of a cube that deploys some of them effectively. Here is another. It can be satisfying when you make the deck that can win with Illusions-Donate or Painter-Grindstone. While these cards will of course table a lot, I find that it can lead to a fun draft dynamic. For example, grab a combo piece at the end of pack 1 and hope the other half shows up. Also, knowing your pool may have a few more dead cards forces you to be just a tad more careful with the rest of your deck. We have this type of space in cube, because there are plenty of playables. One fun thing to try might be slotting in a few of the slightly less powerful ones into an unpowered list to improve variety of gameplay.
In searching for these types of combos, this EDH-focused page is an essential resource. I've combed over quite a bit of it, but there is so much there that it is impossible to take it all in at once. A lot of the interactions on that page involve 3+ cards and in general I don't think those make sense for cube, unless there is a cool web of them that can all work together. Things like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Melira, Sylvok Outcast are close.
I'm listing what I have so far in top 10 style. I have tried to rank these in order of power/viability and will be happy to edit with people's suggestions and improvements. If people have real-world experience playing with these, particularly the more unusual ones, it would be helpful to hear your thoughts on making them work as well as possible. This is a work in progress.
1. Time Vault and Voltaic Key, Ral Zarek, Tezzeret the Seeker, and a few others. 4-7 mana for infinite turns, and in all probability the win. This is an extremely powerful combo package and is a force to be reckoned with in any cube. I have seen the Time Vault deck run the table multiple times in my 360 brutal cube. This has been discussed on this forum before.
2. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Splinter Twin and Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch, Zealous Conscripts, and Restoration Angel (Kiki only). 8-10 mana instawin unless opponent can disrupt it. This combo is a tad expensive, but it relies on a bunch of cube staples so is quite viable and already in a lot of lists. This packages still works great even if you don't run the more marginal Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch. Imperial Recruiter works great with this. More cube forum wisdom here.
3. Palinchron infinite mana/storm count. Palinchron combos are not strictly two card combos since you need a third card to win, but there are many ways to win with infinite mana. Some of the cards that go infinite with Palinchron are already cube staples, and most can be used well without Palinchron. Palinchron itself is no Aetherling as a finisher, but still viable in that role. To go infinite with Palinchron, you need either 12 mana from 7 or less lands using lands such as bouncelands, Tolarian Academy, or Gaea's Cradle; or one of these: Phantasmal Image, Heartbeat of Spring, Mana Flare, Recurring Nightmare, Sneak Attack, Deadeye Navigator, Mirari's Wake. There may be more, please post!
4. Hive Mind and Pacts. 6 mana for win on their next upkeep unless they have the right mana. Slaughter Pact and Pact of Negation are already decent cube cards.
5. Grindstone and Painter's Servant. 6 mana mill their deck. Can be fetched with Tezzeret the Seeker like Time Vault. Grindstone can help support a mill theme if you want, and Painter's Servant is pretty damn useless but maybe can block a Savannah Lions! So requires adding two bad cards, but like Time Vault the combo is very cheap and potent.
6. Academy Ruins and Mindslaver. 6+6 mana on two consecutive turns. Expensive, but creates a sure win if the mindslaver survives to the following turn. Both of these used to be fully cubeworthy, but now are sort of at the margins. They certainly do have uses outside of this combo though, which is a plus.
7. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion. 12 mana. Expensive, but it is an instawin. Both pieces already marginally cubable. Works with Tooth and Nail as do a few others on this list. Both pieces are reasonable in reanimator even without the combo. Mikeaus has some other cool synergies if you can get a persist creature and sac outlet. Also gives infinite mana with Devoted Druid. Cube forum discussion here.
8. Wake Thrasher and Basalt Monolith. 6 mana for infinitely large creature. Basalt Monolith is quite cubeable, and Wake Thrasher is marginally cubeable, though blue beatdown has obviously gotten a lot of help recently with True-Name Nemesis. This combo is far from an instawin as it tends to just get chump-blocked or the Thrasher is somehow killed, but it can still kill in one shot when it works.
10. Tunnel Vision and Vendilion Clique, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Hinder, and maybe others. 6 mana for mill all but 1 card. So it's basically an autowin, but they have a turn still to kill you. Requires just adding Tunnel Vision, which has some synergy with Living Death and other dredge strategies.
11. Helm of Obedience, Leyline of the Void. 5-9 mana for exile opponent's library. Can spread across two turns easily. Just a matter of getting these into play. Helm has marginal utility as a bribery type effect and Leyline can be hate against reanimator not that that is really necessary.
12. Illusions of Grandeur and Donate. 7 mana. Two colored spells, one sorcery, one enchantment. Not an instakill. For example, I got this out in a game once and lost to a Primeval Titan that tutored up the cumulative upkeep every turn. Both cards have no purpose outside this combo, so that is a hit to their cube viability.
13. Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension. Gotta get the counters on Bloodchief and the cards suck, but only 3 mana so it has that going for it!
Some combos are cool for cubes because the cards have value in multiple archetypes and can also win the game if the combo shows up. Examples of that are like the Kiki-Combo package and maybe the Mikaeus/Trike one. But I'm not interested in including cards in the cube that are only playable when the other combo piece shows up (like Time Vault). Especially if both pieces are only usable together (see Illusions + Donate).
Both halves of the combo would have to be good enough to be maindeckable in multiple decks in order for me to be interested in the combo for the cube.
Great work on the OP, and thanks for making the thread!
Of all of the combos I think the best by far is the Twin package. All those cards are good in multiple archetypes, even Deceiver Exarch and Splinter Twin make decks that don't feature the combo. I love drafting around it and several players have ended up with an almost constructed-quality Twin Combo deck.
I've got the Kiki combo in my cube, as well as Palinchron for some infinite Mana stuff (though I guess that needs a third card to spend the mana on). As others have said, I will only run a combo if the pieces are cubable in their own right, but being part of a combo does make a card more cubable.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
Combo focused cubes like this really benefit from tutors because there is no redundancy. With all the things you have listed and some tutoring, the rest of the cube would need to be disruption/removal to stop this stuff. I'd be interested in drafting it if you were able to put together a complete list.
Thanks everyone for the great feedback and suggested combos! I had not included a few combos since they were not quite as 'instawin' as the rest of the list (eg Palinchron combos need something to do with mana), but I like generally being more inclusive, so I added them all. I had totally forgotten about the slaver/ruins combo and that one is well in line with the others I had posted, so that's a great one. Also thanks to wtwlf for the encouragement even though, yes, I know this list isn't all that relevant for what you and many others here are trying to do with your cubes. I just know there is that dude out there who is psyched about this aspect of cubing and I hope it helps them!!
There seems to be some synergy between the Twin combo package and the Time Vault package (Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch and Zealous Conscripts all say "ETB: Time Walk" when Time Vault is in play).
Based on that, I'm trying out the following combo package in my 450 powered:
Twin: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - Not quite good enough on its own, but plenty of strong interactions outside of the infinite combo's. Splinter Twin - I don't expect this to see much play outside of the combo deck, but it's still an interesting and potentially powerful card. Pestermite - Not that far removed from Cube-worthy; can see play in a wide variety of decks. Deceiver Exarch - Slightly worse on its own then Pestermite, but still not embarrassing in a control deck. Zealous Conscripts - Between the ~58th and the ~62th red card in a vacuum (I run 60 per colour), so there's not really a cost associated with this. Restoration Angel - Staple.
Vault: Time Vault - Not really playable outside of the combo deck, but still some useful interactions (Tangle Wire, Smokestack), as well as using it "as intended". Voltaic Key - Same as above, but interacts favourably with Sensei's Divining Top, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith and, to a lesser extent, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and Worn Powerstone. I also run things like Birthing Pod, Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal, which can come up. Tezzeret the Seeker - Already in for the artifact deck. Kiora's Follower - See Pestermite. It's not quite powerful enough on its own, but it's versatile and the competition in Simic is not that strong. Ral Zarek - Staple.
So that's three cards that will be picked late and/or go unplayed except in their one deck, and about four more slightly suboptimal cards, but that will get played in other decks. In return I hope there will be both dedicated Combo decks, as decks that will use (part of) one of the combo packages as a plan B. That seems like a tradeoff I'll gladly make.
EDIT: It creates less "dead" slots in the Cube than a Storm package does.
I've put in all the pieces for the Twin combo as well (shout out to Konfusius!) and will be making room for the Time Vault. We already run Tezzeret and Ral Zarek, which in my head I think is enough on top of the Twin stuff.
A few slots dedicated to narrow cards but can potentially end the game right then and there is acceptable in my books. On top of adding yet another layer of variety.
This is a combo I look to support at 450. I have tried to partially do these things at 360, but outside the staples I am down to Kiki-Jiki with perstermite/restoration angel.
If you are including all the untappers I recommend Gilded Lotus. It shines in ramp/upheaval/wildfire and is a plan b for reanimator/natural order/sneak attack. Another two to consider are quicksilver amulet and aether vial to flash in some of your combo creature pieces. They have nice synergy with the untappers and help with critical combo environment mass.
Glad to see there has been additional interest in this thread. Falcone, all the points you make are really good ones. Yes, there is some synergy between the Time Vault and Kiki packages. I originally decided to include both in my powered 360 'brutal' list because I liked that they made a kind of 'untap combo' package. My experience was that Kiki is fun but harder to put together while Time Vault is a top tier strategy. Hardb0dy, I had the same thought when I added Time Vault so I did it without including Voltaic Key due to Voltaic Key being narrow. However, drafters were so keen on Time Vault I was eventually told that it was 'criminal' to not include Voltaic Key! So I added it and I would say it is now the most common enabler for Time Vault in my brutal cube. In my unpowered list, I ended up taking Time Vault out since it ended up being out of the spirit of that cube to have a 4 colorless mana instawin, but Kiki/Twin are still fun in there.
Another addition to the splinter twin/kiki package is Village Bell-Ringer, allowing R/W combo with Restoration Angel.
Others we have had fun with in my cube:
Basalt Monolith/Wake Thrasher
Palinchron/Mirari's Wake
Mikaeus/Triskelion
Niv-Mizzet/Curiosity etc.
Fastbond/Courser of Kruphix/Zuran Orb (not necessarily infinite)
Archangel of Thune/Spike Feeder
Staff of Domination/Metal Worker
I also run Doubling Season & Corpsejack Menace which is fun with Phantom Centaur, Khalonian Hydra, Spike feeder and such
I also run a poison package which occasionally works out.
I'm surprised that there's no talk of Palinchron combos / infinite mana combos in here, does anybody else support this sort of combo?
I personally run Palinchron since I think it's also a usable control finisher, and there is no lack of potential mana outlets.
Here are some enablers that I run: Heartbeat of Spring (definitely the most questionable, but I like the possible archetypes it allows) Mirari's Wake Sneak Attack Recurring Nightmare
The problem with infinite mana combos is that you need a third card to actually win the game. Granted, which card that is is pretty flexible and sometimes just using the mana to dump several powerful permanents might be enough. Still, you need something beyond the initial combo, while the Kiki/Twin and Time Vault combos only need two cards to win outright.
One thing that bothers me about the Palinchron combo is that there is only one card like Palinchron, which means that one of the combo pieces has no redundancy. The same is true for Time Vault, but at least you don't need a third card in that combo (see above).
Btw, Phantasmal Image is a commonly played cube card that lets you go infinite with Palinchron, too.
Edit: I totally forgot about Village Bell-Ringer at first. Included him for a test run a few days ago. Too bad that he is even narrower than Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch and is pretty much only worth it in the combo deck. Another card that lets you go infinite with Kiki or Twin is Intruder Alarm.
While it is true that Palinchron is the only card that can do what it does, limiting redundancy, what I like about it is that all of the cards are playable without an ability to produce infinite mana and often are -- this is, for me personally, exactly where I want combo to be in my cube.
Some people have mentioned the time vault combo issue: without a combo piece (be that an infinite enabler or even smokestack) it's neigh-unplayable, which is something that I'd prefer not be true of any card in my cube. That would be different with a combo cube, of course.
As a side note about time vault combo: my playgroup didn't care for it when we did run it not because time vault is useless outside of combo, but because it's a difficult combo to interact with (usually an artifact and a planeswalker) unlike kiki-jiki / splinter-twin combos for example; there are fewer instant-speed answers to it so it often ended games out of nowhere on a sour / anti-climactic note.
Good calls! Chameleon Colossus has been under review for awhile now, so this might be what it needed.
Have you (or anyone else) cubed with Genesis Wave? It's another one I considered for this role, but I could see how it might be very unimpressive outside of a best-case-scenario; opinions?
Btw, Phantasmal Image is a commonly played cube card that lets you go infinite with Palinchron, too.
Another good catch! I've got this combo in my cube, and didn't even realize it.
One more goofy combo to throw out there: Mindslaver + Chain of Plasma = your opponent discards their entire hand to burn themselves out.
It's a bit of a stretch, I know, but they're both cards that I enjoy for the unique interactions they create outside of their combo.
I'm surprised that there's no talk of Palinchron combos / infinite mana combos in here, does anybody else support this sort of combo?
I've gone infinite with Palinchron and Tolarian Academy before. Upheaval has been a win condition with this combo, allowing me to replay my entire board and leaving my opponent with nothing.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
The best combos on this list are by far the first three. I've had testing with a lot of the stuff here, and only the first three work in cube shells where a lot of the cards do a lot of things. Palinchron stuff is easiest to support if your cube has storm as an archetype.
For those interested in exploring combo archetypes in their cubes, I wanted to put together a list of 2-card combos that might be viable in cube. This list purposely does not include fatty cheater combos like Channel-Emrakul since those are more established and are a bit of a different animal. Before you grab your pitchforks, I am fully aware that many people are not interested in adding these to their cubes for a host of legitimate reasons such as (1) not powerful enough to compete with other cube strategies (2) narrow/inflexible cards will table in draft if no one is playing both halves (3) they aren't "fun" when they do come together. If that's your position, I totally understand; no need to beat the horse!!
For those that are interested, 2-card combos can be an archetype if you have a enough of them in your list and they can be fun! Here is an example of a cube that deploys some of them effectively. Here is another. It can be satisfying when you make the deck that can win with Illusions-Donate or Painter-Grindstone. While these cards will of course table a lot, I find that it can lead to a fun draft dynamic. For example, grab a combo piece at the end of pack 1 and hope the other half shows up. Also, knowing your pool may have a few more dead cards forces you to be just a tad more careful with the rest of your deck. We have this type of space in cube, because there are plenty of playables. One fun thing to try might be slotting in a few of the slightly less powerful ones into an unpowered list to improve variety of gameplay.
In searching for these types of combos, this EDH-focused page is an essential resource. I've combed over quite a bit of it, but there is so much there that it is impossible to take it all in at once. A lot of the interactions on that page involve 3+ cards and in general I don't think those make sense for cube, unless there is a cool web of them that can all work together. Things like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Melira, Sylvok Outcast are close.
I'm listing what I have so far in top 10 style. I have tried to rank these in order of power/viability and will be happy to edit with people's suggestions and improvements. If people have real-world experience playing with these, particularly the more unusual ones, it would be helpful to hear your thoughts on making them work as well as possible. This is a work in progress.
1. Time Vault and Voltaic Key, Ral Zarek, Tezzeret the Seeker, and a few others. 4-7 mana for infinite turns, and in all probability the win. This is an extremely powerful combo package and is a force to be reckoned with in any cube. I have seen the Time Vault deck run the table multiple times in my 360 brutal cube. This has been discussed on this forum before.
2. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker/Splinter Twin and Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch, Zealous Conscripts, and Restoration Angel (Kiki only). 8-10 mana instawin unless opponent can disrupt it. This combo is a tad expensive, but it relies on a bunch of cube staples so is quite viable and already in a lot of lists. This packages still works great even if you don't run the more marginal Splinter Twin and Deceiver Exarch. Imperial Recruiter works great with this. More cube forum wisdom here.
3. Palinchron infinite mana/storm count. Palinchron combos are not strictly two card combos since you need a third card to win, but there are many ways to win with infinite mana. Some of the cards that go infinite with Palinchron are already cube staples, and most can be used well without Palinchron. Palinchron itself is no Aetherling as a finisher, but still viable in that role. To go infinite with Palinchron, you need either 12 mana from 7 or less lands using lands such as bouncelands, Tolarian Academy, or Gaea's Cradle; or one of these: Phantasmal Image, Heartbeat of Spring, Mana Flare, Recurring Nightmare, Sneak Attack, Deadeye Navigator, Mirari's Wake. There may be more, please post!
4. Hive Mind and Pacts. 6 mana for win on their next upkeep unless they have the right mana. Slaughter Pact and Pact of Negation are already decent cube cards.
5. Grindstone and Painter's Servant. 6 mana mill their deck. Can be fetched with Tezzeret the Seeker like Time Vault. Grindstone can help support a mill theme if you want, and Painter's Servant is pretty damn useless but maybe can block a Savannah Lions! So requires adding two bad cards, but like Time Vault the combo is very cheap and potent.
6. Academy Ruins and Mindslaver. 6+6 mana on two consecutive turns. Expensive, but creates a sure win if the mindslaver survives to the following turn. Both of these used to be fully cubeworthy, but now are sort of at the margins. They certainly do have uses outside of this combo though, which is a plus.
7. Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion. 12 mana. Expensive, but it is an instawin. Both pieces already marginally cubable. Works with Tooth and Nail as do a few others on this list. Both pieces are reasonable in reanimator even without the combo. Mikeaus has some other cool synergies if you can get a persist creature and sac outlet. Also gives infinite mana with Devoted Druid. Cube forum discussion here.
8. Wake Thrasher and Basalt Monolith. 6 mana for infinitely large creature. Basalt Monolith is quite cubeable, and Wake Thrasher is marginally cubeable, though blue beatdown has obviously gotten a lot of help recently with True-Name Nemesis. This combo is far from an instawin as it tends to just get chump-blocked or the Thrasher is somehow killed, but it can still kill in one shot when it works.
9. Dark Depths and Vampire Hexmage, Hex Parasite, Aether Snap, or Thespian's Stage. Great deal for a land drop and a few mana. Not instawin, but 20/20 indestructible flier is pretty good! Vampire Hexmage is already cubeable, which is nice.
10. Tunnel Vision and Vendilion Clique, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Hinder, and maybe others. 6 mana for mill all but 1 card. So it's basically an autowin, but they have a turn still to kill you. Requires just adding Tunnel Vision, which has some synergy with Living Death and other dredge strategies.
11. Helm of Obedience, Leyline of the Void. 5-9 mana for exile opponent's library. Can spread across two turns easily. Just a matter of getting these into play. Helm has marginal utility as a bribery type effect and Leyline can be hate against reanimator not that that is really necessary.
12. Illusions of Grandeur and Donate. 7 mana. Two colored spells, one sorcery, one enchantment. Not an instakill. For example, I got this out in a game once and lost to a Primeval Titan that tutored up the cumulative upkeep every turn. Both cards have no purpose outside this combo, so that is a hit to their cube viability.
13. Mindcrank and Bloodchief Ascension. Gotta get the counters on Bloodchief and the cards suck, but only 3 mana so it has that going for it!
14. (Honorable mention). Channel Fireball. It's a classic!
Going deep: A few other combos or packages that I think are worse than the ones above but maybe they have merits I have missed or would work in a combo-centric cube:
Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond
Laboratory Maniac and Demonic Consultation, Paradigm Shift, or Thought Lash
Stasis and Gush, Chronatog, Ral Zarek, Vedalken Mastermind
Wound Reflection and Blood Tribute
Time Sieve and Thopter Assembly
Squirrel Nest and Earthcraft
Staff of Domination and Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary, or Metalworker.
Kaervek's Spite and Barren Glory
Stuffy Doll and Guilty Conscience
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Curiosity, Keen Sense, Ophidian Eye, Snake Umbra
Quillspike and Devoted Druid
Near-Death Experience and Channel, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Worship
Both halves of the combo would have to be good enough to be maindeckable in multiple decks in order for me to be interested in the combo for the cube.
Great work on the OP, and thanks for making the thread!
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Of all of the combos I think the best by far is the Twin package. All those cards are good in multiple archetypes, even Deceiver Exarch and Splinter Twin make decks that don't feature the combo. I love drafting around it and several players have ended up with an almost constructed-quality Twin Combo deck.
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"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." -Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
Based on that, I'm trying out the following combo package in my 450 powered:
Twin:
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - Not quite good enough on its own, but plenty of strong interactions outside of the infinite combo's.
Splinter Twin - I don't expect this to see much play outside of the combo deck, but it's still an interesting and potentially powerful card.
Pestermite - Not that far removed from Cube-worthy; can see play in a wide variety of decks.
Deceiver Exarch - Slightly worse on its own then Pestermite, but still not embarrassing in a control deck.
Zealous Conscripts - Between the ~58th and the ~62th red card in a vacuum (I run 60 per colour), so there's not really a cost associated with this.
Restoration Angel - Staple.
Vault:
Time Vault - Not really playable outside of the combo deck, but still some useful interactions (Tangle Wire, Smokestack), as well as using it "as intended".
Voltaic Key - Same as above, but interacts favourably with Sensei's Divining Top, Mana Vault, Grim Monolith and, to a lesser extent, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt and Worn Powerstone. I also run things like Birthing Pod, Crystal Shard and Erratic Portal, which can come up.
Tezzeret the Seeker - Already in for the artifact deck.
Kiora's Follower - See Pestermite. It's not quite powerful enough on its own, but it's versatile and the competition in Simic is not that strong.
Ral Zarek - Staple.
So that's three cards that will be picked late and/or go unplayed except in their one deck, and about four more slightly suboptimal cards, but that will get played in other decks. In return I hope there will be both dedicated Combo decks, as decks that will use (part of) one of the combo packages as a plan B. That seems like a tradeoff I'll gladly make.
EDIT: It creates less "dead" slots in the Cube than a Storm package does.
A Comprehensive list of Cube Archetypes
A few slots dedicated to narrow cards but can potentially end the game right then and there is acceptable in my books. On top of adding yet another layer of variety.
If you are including all the untappers I recommend Gilded Lotus. It shines in ramp/upheaval/wildfire and is a plan b for reanimator/natural order/sneak attack. Another two to consider are quicksilver amulet and aether vial to flash in some of your combo creature pieces. They have nice synergy with the untappers and help with critical combo environment mass.
Edit: The creature aspects of these decks are helped by the fires package, which is almost a combo itself
Lightning Greaves
Swiftfoot Boots
Fires of Yavimaya
Hammer of Purphoros
Another addition to the splinter twin/kiki package is Village Bell-Ringer, allowing R/W combo with Restoration Angel.
Others we have had fun with in my cube:
Basalt Monolith/Wake Thrasher
Palinchron/Mirari's Wake
Mikaeus/Triskelion
Niv-Mizzet/Curiosity etc.
Fastbond/Courser of Kruphix/Zuran Orb (not necessarily infinite)
Archangel of Thune/Spike Feeder
Staff of Domination/Metal Worker
I also run Doubling Season & Corpsejack Menace which is fun with Phantom Centaur, Khalonian Hydra, Spike feeder and such
I also run a poison package which occasionally works out.
There are a metric crap-ton of two card combos. Everytime I look, I find another one.
As for a two-card not listed: Bomberman
Lion's Eye Diamond+ Auriok Salvagers
540 Peasant cube- Gold EditionSomething SpicyI personally run Palinchron since I think it's also a usable control finisher, and there is no lack of potential mana outlets.
Here are some enablers that I run:
Heartbeat of Spring (definitely the most questionable, but I like the possible archetypes it allows)
Mirari's Wake
Sneak Attack
Recurring Nightmare
And here are some of the outlets:
Bonfire of the Damned
Devil's Play
Stroke of Genius
Martial Coup
Tempt With Vengeance
I'm still looking for a good green manadump (ironically) for the archetype, haven't found anything that snaps my socks.
One thing that bothers me about the Palinchron combo is that there is only one card like Palinchron, which means that one of the combo pieces has no redundancy. The same is true for Time Vault, but at least you don't need a third card in that combo (see above).
Btw, Phantasmal Image is a commonly played cube card that lets you go infinite with Palinchron, too.
Edit: I totally forgot about Village Bell-Ringer at first. Included him for a test run a few days ago. Too bad that he is even narrower than Pestermite and Deceiver Exarch and is pretty much only worth it in the combo deck. Another card that lets you go infinite with Kiki or Twin is Intruder Alarm.
Uril, the Miststalker RGW -- Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre C -- Vhati il-Dal BG -- Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer RW -- Animar, Soul of Elements URG
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker R -- Maga, Traitor to Mortals B -- Ghave, Guru of Spores BGW -- Sliver Hivelord WUBRG
Some people have mentioned the time vault combo issue: without a combo piece (be that an infinite enabler or even smokestack) it's neigh-unplayable, which is something that I'd prefer not be true of any card in my cube. That would be different with a combo cube, of course.
As a side note about time vault combo: my playgroup didn't care for it when we did run it not because time vault is useless outside of combo, but because it's a difficult combo to interact with (usually an artifact and a planeswalker) unlike kiki-jiki / splinter-twin combos for example; there are fewer instant-speed answers to it so it often ended games out of nowhere on a sour / anti-climactic note.
Good calls! Chameleon Colossus has been under review for awhile now, so this might be what it needed.
Have you (or anyone else) cubed with Genesis Wave? It's another one I considered for this role, but I could see how it might be very unimpressive outside of a best-case-scenario; opinions?
Another good catch! I've got this combo in my cube, and didn't even realize it.
One more goofy combo to throw out there:
Mindslaver + Chain of Plasma = your opponent discards their entire hand to burn themselves out.
It's a bit of a stretch, I know, but they're both cards that I enjoy for the unique interactions they create outside of their combo.
I've gone infinite with Palinchron and Tolarian Academy before. Upheaval has been a win condition with this combo, allowing me to replay my entire board and leaving my opponent with nothing.
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