Wormfang Manta is awesome. Admit it. Don't believe me? Check this out:
We're playing a deck with a lot of ramping. It's probably best to stick to monoblue here so we can play something like Caged Sun.
So, assuming we have the mana in play, this is our ideal board: Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, and the super-secret tech Homarid Spawning Bed (*READ THAT CARD*) in play under our control. You'll also need a Vedalken Orrery or Leyline of Anticipation in play. All of these are pretty reasonable assumptions considering how mana-intensive this combo is.
Cast Wormfang Manta. Once it resolves, respond to its turn-skipping trigger with a Rite of Replication kicked, targeting our Manta. Now we have six turn-skipping clauses on the stack and six mantas. If you have 1UU free, use it to sacrifice a Manta to the Homarid Spawning Bed; if not, you can make 1UU by sacrificing three of your mantas to your altars. It is okay (even preferable) to try to let your extra turn triggers resolve, but make sure not to skip any of your extra turns.
The basic idea here will be to keep one of your mantas around (so that you can clone again before you run out of turns), and generate obscene amounts of mana with your Camarid tokens. So, you get five extra turns every time you kick a rite of replication on a Manta.
Long story short, you'll have a lot of mana of any color to fool around with as well as infinite turns. But we haven't quite gotten to the infinite turns part. Kill off five of your mantas (preferably turning all of them into seven camarid tokens), now you have five extra turns and six turn skips on the stack. Let your extra turns resolve.
Now, you want to end this turn. I believe the only two ways to do this as of now are Time Stop and Sundial of the Infinite. Sundial is preferred here due to its inherent reusability.
Before you end the turn, however, you might want to make use of your floating mana (if you have any). The last combo piece necessary to make this go infinite is Mnemonic Wall. If you cast it, you can recur your Rite of Replications by making multiple copies of the wall, allowing you to make more copies of your manta.
This gives you infinite creatures, infinite mana, and infinite turns.
Wormfang Manta was discussed in the "Hidden Gems" thread in the Commander subforum. The best way to abuse Wormfang Manta was using Torpor Orb - w/ enough mana that's infinite turns w/ Capsize or just any bounce like Crystal Shard, Erratic Portal, etc.
This would be easier to pull off using bounce tricks rather than Rite of Replication and sacrifice stuff.
Instead of all that, you could use a Cloudstone Curio, Vedalken Mastermind, Crystal Shard or similar. Then you need two Mantas (one if not using Curio) and the Sundial (or Torpor Orb as others have mentioned, though this doesn't work with Curio.)
1. Cast Manta 1, let the turn-skip trigger hit the stack. End turn.
2. Next turn, cast Manta 2. Stack its turn skip and the Curio so Curio resolves first, bouncing Manta 1.
3. Let Manta 1's extra turn ability resolve. End turn with everything else on the stack.
4. Repeat from 2 every turn.
there's an even easier way to do this considering its only a 3 card infinite turn combo with no requirement to use your lands or any mana source. Wormfang manta, torpor orb, and conjurer's closet no need to keep recasting it when you can just flicker it.
We're playing a deck with a lot of ramping. It's probably best to stick to monoblue here so we can play something like Caged Sun.
So, assuming we have the mana in play, this is our ideal board:
Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, and the super-secret tech Homarid Spawning Bed (*READ THAT CARD*) in play under our control. You'll also need a Vedalken Orrery or Leyline of Anticipation in play. All of these are pretty reasonable assumptions considering how mana-intensive this combo is.
Cast Wormfang Manta. Once it resolves, respond to its turn-skipping trigger with a Rite of Replication kicked, targeting our Manta. Now we have six turn-skipping clauses on the stack and six mantas. If you have 1UU free, use it to sacrifice a Manta to the Homarid Spawning Bed; if not, you can make 1UU by sacrificing three of your mantas to your altars. It is okay (even preferable) to try to let your extra turn triggers resolve, but make sure not to skip any of your extra turns.
The basic idea here will be to keep one of your mantas around (so that you can clone again before you run out of turns), and generate obscene amounts of mana with your Camarid tokens. So, you get five extra turns every time you kick a rite of replication on a Manta.
Long story short, you'll have a lot of mana of any color to fool around with as well as infinite turns. But we haven't quite gotten to the infinite turns part. Kill off five of your mantas (preferably turning all of them into seven camarid tokens), now you have five extra turns and six turn skips on the stack. Let your extra turns resolve.
Now, you want to end this turn. I believe the only two ways to do this as of now are Time Stop and Sundial of the Infinite. Sundial is preferred here due to its inherent reusability.
Before you end the turn, however, you might want to make use of your floating mana (if you have any). The last combo piece necessary to make this go infinite is Mnemonic Wall. If you cast it, you can recur your Rite of Replications by making multiple copies of the wall, allowing you to make more copies of your manta.
This gives you infinite creatures, infinite mana, and infinite turns.
Wormfang Manta is awesome.
[This post was inspired by randomly finding a Wormfang Manta.]
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Isochron Scepter and Stifle (or just Torpor Orb) work well with the following things:
- Crystal Shard (add Aether Vial if you don't want to spend ten mana every turn)
- Braids, Conjurer Adept and Umbilicus
I had these combos in a Venser EDH deck for a while.
Instead of all that, you could use a Cloudstone Curio, Vedalken Mastermind, Crystal Shard or similar. Then you need two Mantas (one if not using Curio) and the Sundial (or Torpor Orb as others have mentioned, though this doesn't work with Curio.)
1. Cast Manta 1, let the turn-skip trigger hit the stack. End turn.
2. Next turn, cast Manta 2. Stack its turn skip and the Curio so Curio resolves first, bouncing Manta 1.
3. Let Manta 1's extra turn ability resolve. End turn with everything else on the stack.
4. Repeat from 2 every turn.
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They changed the way Phasing works now so it doesn't work anymore.
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Long time ago I had a multi-player deck that phased the Manta with dual Shimmering Efreets. Was funny the like one time it worked.
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