Ascending Scale: A Budget Bard Infinite Combo Deck

Commander / EDH Budget Combo Elves Infinite Combo Mono-Green Toolbox

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5 drop (7)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Aerie Ouphes
• 1x Haze Frog
• 1x Plaguemaw Beast
• 1x Shared Summons
• 1x Tel-Jilad Lifebreather
• 1x Whisperwood Elemental

2 drop (19)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ambush Viper
• 1x Bond of Flourishing
• 1x Copper Myr
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Gaea's Herald
• 1x Lesser Masticore
• 1x Lignify
• 1x Melira, Sylvok Outcast
• 1x Moss Diamond
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Pollenbright Druid
• 1x Scorned Villager  ^Flip
• 1x Scryb Ranger
• 1x Seeker of Skybreak
• 1x Spore Flower
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wirewood Herald
• 1x Wirewood Hivemaster

4 drop (8)

• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Gamekeeper
• 1x Karametra's Acolyte
• 1x Llanowar Empath
• 1x Masked Admirers
• 1x Sylvan Messenger
• 1x Temur Sabertooth
• 1x Yeva, Nature's Herald

1 drop (11)

• 1x Animation Module
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Brittle Effigy
• 1x Copperhorn Scout
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Reclaimer
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Permeating Mass
• 1x Spore Frog
• 1x Voyager Staff
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote

0 drop (36)

• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Cryptic Caves
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 28x Forest
• 1x Havenwood Battleground
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Memorial to Unity
• 1x Mystifying Maze
• 1x Zhalfirin Void

3 drop (15)

• 1x Elvish Archdruid
• 1x Elvish Rejuvenator
• 1x Evolution Sage
• 1x Foul Emissary
• 1x Hermit of the Natterknolls  ^Flip
• 1x Invasive Species
• 1x Marwyn, the Nurturer
• 1x Oak Street Innkeeper
• 1x Palladium Myr
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Runic Armasaur
• 1x Springbloom Druid
• 1x Timberwatch Elf
• 1x Unstable Obelisk
• 1x Waiting in the Weeds

7 drop (2)

• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Spine of Ish Sah

6 drop (1)

• 1x Realm Seekers

Commander (1)

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This deck focuses around assembling one of our two infinite combos using Yisan, the Wanderer Bard and surviving until then! I'll note the mana costs next to important cards so you can tell at a glance how we're fetching them.

Combo 1: Persistent

Melira, Sylvok Outcast (2) + Lesser Masticore (2) or Aerie Ouphes (5) + Altar of Dementia (Can't fetch)

While we can't fetch Altar of Dementia with our commander, we can fetch it with Inventors' Fair . We run a few mana rocks and other random artifacts like Animation Module to make this happen. Lesser Masticore also counts for this! We can fetch Inventors' Fair with Elvish Reclaimer or we can find it off the top with Bond of Flourishing .

Assuming we have free rein to use our commander's ability, we fetch Elvish Reclaimer with our 1st verse, Melira, Sylvok Outcast with our 2nd verse, Evolution Sage with our 3rd verse, play a land either this turn or next turn to proliferate to the 4th verse, then with our 5th verse we get Aerie Ouphes . Somewhere along the line we use Elvish Reclaimer to get Inventors' Fair to get Altar of Dementia .

If our commander dies half way through or we already have Melira, Sylvok Outcast , we can get Lesser Masticore on verse 2 instead.

Combo 2: Bouncy Elves

1. Have Wirewood Symbiote (1), Temur Sabertooth (4), any elf**, and a mana dork which taps for 3 + the elve's mana cost + 1. This dork can be Elvish Archdruid (3), Marwyn, the Nurturer (3) or Karametra's Acolyte (4)
2. Tap the dork
3. Use Wirewood Symbiote to bounce the elf and untap the dork.
4. Use Temur Sabertooth 's ability to bounce the Wirewood Symbiote .
5. Replay the elf and the Wirewood Symbiote .
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for Infinite mana!

**Elf Note: There are multiple ways to get more out of this combo than infinite mana. Elvish Visionary (2) lets you draw you whole deck and Wirewood Hivemaster (2) gives you infinite 1/1s (although it can't be the elf you bounce. Note that going infinite with draws and mana means we eventually find our other combo and use that to kill our opponent's with.

Assuming we have free rein to use our commander's ability, we get Wirewood Symbiote on the 1st verse, Elvish Visionary on the 2nd, Elvish Archdruid on the 3rd verse and Temur Sabertooth on the 4th verse.

The only complication comes when we don't have 5 elves for the 5 mana with Elvish Archdruid , in which case we need Karametra's Acolyte instead of Temur Sabertooth on 4. Hopefully if this is the case we can find those missing pieces other ways. If our commander dies we can accelerate to the 4th verse by getting Pollenbright Druid on 2.

Combo Support

The following cards help find pieces of the combo:

Evolution Sage , Pollenbright Druid and Animation Module adds verse counters when we need to find a specific creature.

Bond of Flourishing , Foul Emissary , and Memorial to Unity let us look at the top cards of our deck for combo pieces.

Elvish Reclaimer fetches Inventors' Fair which fetches Altar of Dementia .

Invasive Species and Ancestral Statue come in at instant speed with our commander's ability or Yeva, Nature's Herald to bounce him or our pieces to prevent them from being removed.

Wirewood Herald searches for elves. For the combos this can be Elvish Reclaimer or Elvish Visionary . If you've already got the combo but want to play if at instant speed for more security get Yeva, Nature's Herald .

Shared Summons tutors for creatures.

A lot of other stuff just ramps to get our commander out as soon as possible or stalls out our opponents until we get the combo.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 26 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.88
Tokens	Cat 1/1 G, Eldrazi Horror 3/2 C, Insect 1/1 G, Manifest 2/2 C, Servo 1/1 C
Folders	inspiration, Budget