With the upcoming release of Lorwyn Eclipsed, we’re getting two new precon Commander decks that celebrate the duality of Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. Ashling, an elemental, will lead the Dance of the Elements deck while Auntie Ool, a boggart from Shadowmoor will lead the Blight Curse deck. As reported by Timothy Zaccagnino from Draftsim, the Blight Curse deck has an infinite combo that once it begins, instantly wins the game.
Three enchantments are required to pull off the combo. Flourishing Defenses costs and puts a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token into play.
The next enchantment is Blowfly Infestation which puts a -1/-1 counter on a target creature any time a creature enters the graveyard with a -1/-1 counter on it. This enchantment will set you back but is essential to the combo working.
New to Magic: The Gathering, the last piece of the puzzle is Grave Venerations. Grave Venerations has an ETB trigger making you the monarch and then at the beginning of your end step, if you’re the monarch, it returns a target card from your graveyard to your hand. The important part here though is that when a creature under your control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.
The combo comes into focus as you put Grave Venerations on the battlefield. Then you’ll need to kill a creature using something with blight. When that creature is given the -1/-1 counter, Flourishing Defenses will trigger creating a 1/1 green Elf Warrior creature token. Then when the dying creature enters the graveyard, Blowfly Infestation will trigger, causing you to put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature. Your green Elf Warrior is a good target. This begins a constant loop of creatures dying, you gaining life, creatures being created only to die again and every time you gain life, your opponents lose life.
Under the new bracket rules, this combo would put the deck most likely into bracket 3, an upgraded casual deck. That makes it competitive at most people’s kitchen tables but not in competitive play. The fact that it over time will cost 12 mana to cast all three enchantments, it requires something with blight to get the combo started, and is not likely to happen in the first 6 turns on a consistent basis, makes it fit perfectly in bracket 3 which allows for late-game infinite combos. Of course, as always, pre-game conversations about bracket power will help everyone in the pod and are necessary to avoid any confusion or misunderstandings.
Blight Curse and the Lorwyn-adjacent deck, Dance of the Elements, will be released alongside the main set. Lorwyn Eclipsed will release worldwide on January 23rd.
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