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Jori En ∞

Commander / EDH Combo Infinite Combo UR (Izzet)

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Instant (28)

Enchantment (4)

Land (34)

Creature (12)

Commander (1)

Commander: Jori En, Ruin Diver

Sorcery (12)

Artifact (9)

Maybeboard

Instant (32)

Creature (18)

Artifact (16)

Sorcery (17)

Enchantment (7)

Land (2)

What is this deck?

It's a turbo-xeroxing combo machine for the mad scientists among us. You will draw cards. You will cast spells. So. Many. Spells. *Surge intensifies.* You will play 34 lands and confidently hit 7 straight land drops. You might even make a token army along the way. Or you might not bother and just cast infinite Lightning Bolts. Electrifying!

"Quantity has a quality all its own." - Joseph Stalin, maybe

What this deck isn't is a durdly midrange value engine that slowly crawls its way towards an inevitably favorable board state around turn 35. If that's what you're after, go play Brago or Muldrotha and enjoy your 3 hour game, you filthy midrange player. This deck doesn't gain life. It doesn't set up profitable blocks. It barely even attacks with a finite number of creatures. And when you do win, it won't be with card quality, but with quantity. You will Pongify a fattie and then Bolt the token because cards flow in this deck as freely as subsidized vodka in the USSR.

Like the former Soviet Union, this deck has made some concessions to budget realities. There's no Force of Will, Volcanic Island, Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Mana Drain, or Scalding Tarn. That doesn't mean every card is cheap though. Reset is about $40 at the time of writing. However it's essential to one of the core combos in this deck. If you refuse to proxy (or your playgroup refuses to play with you if you do) then there are some budget replacement combos, but not replacement cards. You can't just replace a single card when that card is core to the deck's strategy; you have to replace the whole card cluster.

Now with that out of the way, I'd like to introduce you to my friend. Meet Jori En, Ruin Diver.

404 meme not found :-(

All Jori En really asks of you is that you have a low curve and play lots of instants. And if you take one look at the mana curve of this deck, you'll see that Jori En is pleased. But how does this deck win? Drawing cards is great but what if the deck just durdles forever and doesn't do anything?

Combo Win Conditions

Two independent infinite combos form this deck's Plan A. Neither require the use of your graveyard. One is cheap and similar to Splinter Twin, while the other is expensive and circumvents the battlefield entirely.

Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame produces as many copies of Dualcaster Mage as you like, each with haste. You must cast Twinflame first, hold priority, and only then cast Dualcaster Mage. When the Mage resolves, use its ETB to copy the Twinflame that's still on the stack. That copy makes another Dualcaster Mage, which copies Twinflame again...you get the idea. You can stop the combo because Twinflame lets you choose "any number" of creatures you control and 0 is a valid choice.

However, you must target a creature you control with Twinflame. This is a significant downside in a deck with few creatures and you might wonder why I'm not playing Heat Shimmer instead of, or in addition to, Twinflame. Since that's really two separate questions, I'll give two separate answers.

Q: Why not play Heat Shimmer instead of Twinflame?

A: Three reasons.

  1. It's more expensive
  2. It's slightly harder to tutor
  3. The ability to use Heat Shimmer on an opponent's creature as a non-combo line is minimally useful in a deck that doesn't do any real combat damage until the late game.

The fact that Heat Shimmer is only one mana more expensive than Twinflame may seem insignificant. It's a 5 mana combo vs a 6 mana combo. But this is also a 34 land deck. If you have a combo-oriented opener instead of the more usual cantrip/removal/counterspell-oriented opener, it's nice to have the option to combo early. And you may not hit 6 straight land drops or 5 + a mana rock with a combo heavy opener. The other combo in this deck is an 8 mana combo and there isn't a huge strategic difference between threatening a combo on turn 6 and turn 8. But a lot of players will tap out to cast 4 or 5 CMC generals and that gives you a window for a cheaper combo.

Spellseeker and Muddle the Mixture both find Twinflame but not Heat Shimmer. This also relates to point #1 above: if you have to tutor for Twinflame the same turn you combo, you want it to be cheaper.

Heat Shimmer does have utility when used on opposing creatures, especially since there are several ways to recur spells in this deck. You might get a sweet ETB trigger or a big attack with a copied fatty. The ETB trigger part is entirely up to your playgroup/meta, but generally I don't want to play a card because my opponent might have a creature with a useful ETB for me. The part where you can maybe copy a big creature and attack with it once doesn't matter. This deck struggles to do more than 5-10 combat damage total unless you get a token producer running.

Q: Why not play Heat Shimmer in addition to Twinflame?

A: Two reasons:

  1. Both are bad cards individually
  2. Adding Heat Shimmer is not the kind of redundancy that this deck is most interested in

Both Heat Shimmer and Twinflame are cards that you don't cast "for value". They are win conditions first and foremost and you only fire one off in other circumstances if you need to do it to survive. Dualcaster Mage, on the other hand, is a good card. It does lots of useful things for a good rate, and does them at instant speed. If there was a second card like Dualcaster Mage I would play that. Then and only then would I consider adding Heat Shimmer, since I would be more likely to find a Dualcaster Mage effect I'd want to also increase my odds of finding an effect that can copy him.

As for redundancy, it's definitely good, especially in combo decks. However in EDH the concept is widely misunderstood. You don't need 8 copies of an effect if you want to reliably find it. You need one copy that you can reliably find. Sometimes you don't even need card redundancy. What's more valuable in many cases is strategic redundancy--a seamless trainsition into a reliable Plan B in the event Plan A falls apart. This deck achieves card redundancy through a mix of tutors and card velocity. It achieves strategic redundancy through independent combos that benefit from the same supporting card clusters and a non-combo win condition if both of those fall through.

So, with that explanation out of the way, the downside of Twinflame compared to Heat Shimmer still has to be respected. Sometimes your creatures will die and you'll have to cast a 5 mana Jori En and hope to survive until next turn to combo. That's not ideal, and it's why I play more robust sources of creatures like Wandering Fumarole and Guardian Idol. I might add a Ghitu Encampment at some point too.

You can play around targeted removal on your only creature during the pre-combo turn cycle by holding up Pongify, Rapid Hybridization, or Reality Shift to use on your own creature in response. You can even create an 8/8 octopus with Crush of Tentacles. There are more ways to generate creatures in this deck than there might appear. Treachery is another good option--one that's only been excluded from this deck for budget reasons.

It's probably not surprising that an Izzet deck can win a game of EDH with infinite mana. But in true Izzet style, this combo is a bit wacky because it's technically a three card combo but in practice it's more like a one card combo when things go well and a two card combo when they don't.

The actual combo is Reset + Reiterate + any infinite mana payoff. On an opponent's turn, you cast Reset, hold priority, and then cast Reiterate with buyback targeting Reset. Reiterate will come back to your hand as a copy of Reset is created. 8 mana to start it off, but only 6 mana to keep it going since you only need to cast Reset the initial time and after that you're only casting a 6 mana Reiterate. This nets you two mana per cycle so you generate as much as you like.

Cool, so you have infinite mana and Reiterate in hand. What do you do now? What's the payoff? Well, here's a short list of cards that can finish the job:

  1. Lightning Bolt: infinite copies of it gives infinite direct damage
  2. Brainstorm/Supreme Will/Fact or Fiction/Dig Through Time: draw your deck
  3. Frantic Search: draw to any card (or cards) in your deck, provided you have a third card in hand (besides Frantic Search and Reiterate)
  4. Reality Shift: mill all opponents with at least one creature on the battlefield
  5. Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin: draw all your noncreature spells with copied Resets
  6. Expansion / Explosion: just kill them
  7. Young Pyromancer/Talrand, Sky Summoner/Docent of Perfection  /Metallurgic Summonings: infinite token army on their end step
  8. Archaeomancer + Twinflame: infinite 1/2s with haste. Splinter Twin with an infinite mana appetizer!

Even Snapcaster Mage and Torrential Gearhulk serve as payoff cards if you have one of the above instants in your graveyard (except Expansion / Explosion).

The reason this is often effectively a one card combo is because of Firemind's Foresight. It fetches Reset and Reiterate plus Lightning Bolt or Brainstorm.

The reason it's sometimes effectively a two card combo is because with so many payoffs in the deck you are likely to find multiple payoffs before you find Reset and Reiterate. Both can be tutored for in several ways. Finding Reset and Reiterate is what you have to work for, the payoff card will find its way into your hand or onto the battlefield naturally.

Non-combo Win Conditions

Sometimes you sit down across a real control deck (this one only pretends to be) and some smug Baral, Chief of Compliance, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, or Talrand, Sky Summoner player won't let you resolve any combo pieces. How rude. So you look them straight in the eye and say, "Fine, you can hold up your counterspells forever. I acknowledge your deck is the superior control deck. But..."

404 meme not found :-(

And then you slam you own Talrand, Sky Summoner on the table and dare the Talrand player to counter it. Look at me. I'm the Talrand player now.

Any of the following will do:

  1. Young Pyromancer
  2. Talrand, Sky Summoner
  3. Docent of Perfection  
  4. Metallurgic Summonings

If nobody kills it before you untap, you're good to go. Just make tokens and attack the most controlling player until you force their hand. If you're at an extremely controlling table, play one of these with spare mana and an instant or sorcery in hand in case they remove it before you untap.

Sometimes in a long game you can kill a player with Expansion / Explosion after making extra mana with Reset (no Reiterate). Not going to happen often, but it's a line to keep in mind for the really long games where both combos have been nullified.

Value is never a win condition. But sometimes Plans A through C fall apart and everybody is low on resources late in the game. Your combos have been countered, your token producers killed, and Expansion / Explosion is nowhere in sight. You go to your draw step and what do you find but Future Sight. Rejoice, fellow spellslingers, because the game has changed! Slam that thing down and then pray to Keranos that you untap with it. Because if you do it's nearly impossible to lose. This deck has an incredible amount of control over the top of its library:

  1. Ash Barrens
  2. Evolving Wilds
  3. Field of Ruin
  4. Grixis Panorama
  5. Flooded Strand
  6. Polluted Delta
  7. Temple of Epiphany
  8. Sensei's Divining Top
  9. Ponder
  10. Preordain
  11. Serum Visions
  12. Mission Briefing
  13. Supreme Will
  14. Any of the 8 tutors in the deck

(This list is also relevant for Brainstorm.)

If you've never played with Future Sight and think this is hyperbole, I invite you to try an exercise. Assume the worst case scenario that involves you untapping with Future Sight:

  • You only have 5 lands in play (that can produce ). No other permanents.
  • No cards in hand
  • Empty graveyard
  • Jori En costs a million mana

Assume that removal spells have valid targets. Now shuffle your library and begin your next turn. Goldfish 3 straight turns of this a few times.

Done? Good. Now, whatever your experience was, remember that that's the worst case scenario where you untap with Future Sight. Every other possibility is better. But not just better in a "slightly better" kind of way. Small improvements from that starting scenario yield exponentially better results. A humble fetchland in your hand lets you see 2-4 extra cards. A cantrip digs you past lands and lets you see 4-6 more cards. Starting with 8 lands instead of 5 lets you cast far more spells per turn. Jori En does insane things if he's on the battlefield. And so on.

Future Sight is incredibly strong by itself in a spell heavy deck with a low curve and lots of topdeck manipulation. But with the right support it's even stronger.

Future Sight + Sensei's Divining Top is such a strong synergy you could even call it a "combo". You will never run out of gas and you can draw past any lands on the top of your deck with Top's ability. You won't draw your whole deck in a single turn (add Helm of Awakening to your list for the full service valuegasm), but you will never need cards in hand again. Your deck will become your hand. And you will quickly draw into one of the remaining actual win conditions in the deck and have protection for it and gas to fuel it.

Just kidding.

Tutor Chains

Eight tutors are in this deck:

  1. Gamble
  2. Mystical Tutor
  3. Muddle the Mixture
  4. Merchant Scroll
  5. Vedalken AEthermage
  6. Long-Term Plans
  7. Spellseeker
  8. Firemind's Foresight

Generally, any two should be enough to assemble both combos. Some of these tutor chains are slow and require a lot of mana. Some involve tutoring for tutors. But it's important to know your winning lines when you find yourself playing uninteractive opponents. Time for some tutelage.

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

5 - 0 Mythic Rares

37 - 0 Rares

23 - 0 Uncommons

19 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.55
Tokens Ape 3/3 G, Bird 2/2 U, Boar 2/2 G, Construct X/X C, Copy Clone, Drake 2/2 U, Elemental 1/1 R, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Human Wizard 1/1 U, Manifest 2/2 C, Octopus 8/8 U
Folders EDH Creations
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