Ixalan is here, and with it come the much anticipated Dinosaur creatures! And with those dinos, the new enrage mechanic makes it's debut; a mechanic this deck uses for an infinity damage combo starting at turn 6. The combo revolves around using Bellowing Aegisaur, Winding Constrictor, and of course, Walking Ballista (Hence the name, "The Dino, The Snake, and The Construct).
You Start by removing a +1/+1 counter from Walking Ballista to hit your own Bellowing Aegisaur. After that, Bellowing Aegisaur's engrage ability activates, which also activates Winding Constrictor, Resulting in all your creatures getting 2 +1/+1 counters. Provided you have a Heroic Intervention at the ready, you can repeat this process an infinite amount of times now that all your creatures are indestructible. Repeating this an infinit amount of times also gives Walking Ballista an infinite source of +1/+1 counters which he can use to attack your opponent directly for infinity damage.
The new Vraska, Relic Seeker is also such a fantastic planeswalker that happens to fit our color-scheme, so she's in here to provide an alternate path to victory. If you manage use her -10 ability, you can immediately follow up by removing a +1/+1 counter from Walking Ballista to bring them from 1 life to zero.
Now the "infinite damage" combo part of this deck might be a bit tricky to pull off, even with a playset of every card needed to pull it off, for the sole reason that it may prove difficult to see one of every card needed: Walking Ballista, Winding Constrictor, Bellowing Aegisaur, and Heroic Intervention. That being said, So long as you have the 3 creatures, you can still use Walking Ballista to hit Bellowing Aegisaur 4 times before the Aegisaur would die, which still effectively gives all the other creatures on your side of the field 8 +1/+1 counters (with the exception of Walking Ballista, who only gets 4).
If it isn't obvious Walking Ballista is the MVP of this deck, It's about to be. Not only is he essential to both win conditions, but he can also use his ability to remove a +1/+1 counter at will to hit
Ranging Raptor
and
Ripjaw Raptor
to either get an extra land or draw a card. Provided you use your best judgment on where to spend Walking Ballista's +1/+1 counters, the deck should run smoothly.
The following wold be the ideal way your turns would play out (Provided nothing is countered or removed from play):
- Turn 1: Oashra Cultivator for Defense
- Turn 2: Winding Constrictor
- Turn 3: Ranging Raptors
- Turn 4: Walking Ballista (using all 4 mana). Before the end of your turn, hit the raptors for 1 with ballista and get a land out. If you dont already have a white source out, now would be the best time to grab the 1 plains.
- Turn 5: Bellowing Aegisaur
- Turn 6: Pump Ballista and play Heroic Intervention and congrats, you just won!
Obviously games won't run that smoothly, but that why you're running removal of your own with Fatal Push and Vraska's Contempt,
Bishop of Rebirth
to get your creatures back from the graveyard, And a side board full of shenanigans to help slow down a variety of decks just long enough for you to hopefully grab what you need.
