In testing, the most common winning line is (
Recruiter of the Guard
-->)
Imperial Recruiter
-->
Felidar Guardian
--> Kiki-Jiki. As a result, a Recruiter with enough mana to cast it is a snap keep. You can try and go for a quick kill if your opponents are unwary, but if you want to raise less alarm, you can try Recruiter --> Kiki-Jiki -->
Karmic Guide
. Then if there's wrath/removal, use Guide + KJ to get pieces back. If you end up pinched on mana instead, use the Recruiters to get
Burnished Hart
,
Solemn Simulacrum
, or (if you have the right combo pieces in hand)
Treasonous Ogre
.
Treasonous Ogre
is a recruitable and extremely powerful card, that allows for either early combo attempts or wins out of nowhere. It's worth keeping in mind in terms of how you manage your life total in case you draw it- the payments quickly add up, but winning at 1 life is still winning.
You can utilize Aurelia in a couple different ways in your strategy. If you actually are trying to assemble the HoH combo, then wait as long as possible to cast her (this should usually be Plan C), unless you have Hammer out. Otherwise she can also function as a Plan A (ramp and beat face) or Plan B (try to stabilize after combo disruption).
If combat is shut down for whatever reason, we can go for Twin +
Goblin Sharpshooter
, KJ + Lightning Charger, or one of the combos involving
Goblin Bombardment
or
Outpost Siege
in Dragons mode. If we're up against some kind of
Glacial Chasm
-like effect, we can still use the RIP +
Helm of Possession
combo to win.
If you don't have a combo piece to search up, the default creatures to get/dig for are either
Imperial Recruiter
or Kiki-Jiki, the default enchantments to get are either
Outpost Siege
or
Rest in Peace
depending on how worrisome the graveyards are, and the default artifacts to get are one of
Mana Crypt
(obv),
Mirage Mirror
, or either Top or
Scroll Rack
depending on how many cards you have in hand (0-2 means Top is better). Lancers should default to KJ since you can get more searches off the copies.
Goblin Matron
is intended to fetch KJ, and then, if you don't have any other things to combo with, combine with him to get
Lightning Crafter
and
Goblin Chirurgeon
for the win. If you don't have the mana to cast KJ for additional searches, and don't think you'll survive to draw into it, you'll have to carefully evaluate your hand and the board. If you have an enchantment/aura tutor in hand, you can try and set up for Sharpshooter + Twin. If you need blockers, get
Siege-Gang Commander
. Finally, getting
Lightning Crafter
by itself can help you stabilize against 3-6 toughness creatures (threaten to block and bolt), while giving you another search if it dies and you've championed the Matron. Notice that Crafter can also champion
Treasonous Ogre
, as it is a shaman.
The way
Mirage Mirror
is worded, you can't activate it EOT and get it for a full turn cycle- it stops in the cleanup step. So use it wisely - and don't forgot about the land and enchantment copying! You can also use it in conjunction with Kiki-Jiki to get your opponents ETBs. There's also an interesting interaction with
Mangara of Corondor
- if you activate Managara, then copy it with the ability on the stack, state-based actions will let you sacrifice the original instead of the copy, so that it can be recurred with
Sun Titan
or
Karmic Guide
.
RestO's non-angel clause means she can't be used to blink either Aurelia or
Karmic Guide
- however she can be flashed in in response to Mangara's ability to 'save' him for another use. While she has to target our creatures,
Felidar Guardian
can blink any of our permanents. In particular, it can target a mana source to effectively reduce it's cost or Helm of Obedience to kill 2 players in a single turn with RIP.
All our non-Godo ways of generating additional attack steps (Aurelia,
Combat Celebrant
, and
Aggravated Assault
), untap all our creatures, not just the ones that attacked. This has can be abused with KJ, Twin (in value mode),
Mother of Runes
,
Goblin Sharpshooter
,
Lightning Crafter
, as well as (with enough mana)
Stoneforge Mystic
and
Stonehewer Giant
.
If you have multiple ways to find equipment handy, it is generally better to find
Hammer of Nazahn
first, since it autoequips your other equipment, especially important for HoH. Note that the trigger from Hammer allows you to attach the just-entered equipment to any creature, not necessarily the one holding the Hammer.
Our recursion package consists of
Karmic Guide
(for creatures, double recruitable), Sun Titan (for CMC <=3), and Buried Ruin (for artifacts). We can also use
Mistveil Plains
to put cards back into our deck under the right conditions, in order to dig/tutor for them again if we can't get them directly back to hand.