Turn turtle IV.

Commander / EDH BUG (Sultai) Combo Infinite Combo Lands Primer Stax Tap/Untap

Yesterday

Land (40)

• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cabal Pit
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Cryptic Caves
• 1x Darkmoss Bridge
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Forest
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 1x Guildless Commons
• 1x Holdout Settlement
• 1x Island
• 1x Mirrorpool
• 1x Mistvault Bridge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Otawara, Soaring City
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sunscorched Desert
• 1x Survivors' Encampment
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1x Tanglepool Bridge
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Tree of Tales
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Urza's Saga
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Waterlogged Grove
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Witch's Cottage
• 1x Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
• 1x Zagoth Triome

Instant (19)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Infernal Grasp
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Power Word Kill
• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Rain of Filth
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Realms Uncharted
• 1x Rewind
• 1x Unwind
• 1x Wrap in Vigor

Artifact (12)

• 1x Amulet of Vigor
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Clock of Omens
• 1x Conduit of Worlds
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Honor-Worn Shaku
• 1x Icy Manipulator
• 1x Pacification Array
• 1x Relic of Legends
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Static Orb
• 1x Winter Orb

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Excavation
• 1x Opposition
• 1x Retreat to Coralhelm
• 1x Retreat to Hagra
• 1x Squandered Resources

Commander (1)

Creature (15)

• 1x Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait
• 1x Cultivator Colossus
• 1x Elvish Reclaimer
• 1x Llanowar Scout
• 1x Patron of the Moon
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Scout
• 1x Scaled Herbalist
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1x Tiller Engine
• 1x Tireless Provisioner
• 1x Tireless Tracker
• 1x Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1x World Shaper

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Casualties of War
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Reshape the Earth
• 1x Scapeshift
• 1x Splendid Reclamation
• 1x Titania's Command
• 1x Toxic Deluge

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Nissa, Vital Force

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Maybeboard

Land (13)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Coral Atoll
• 1x Everglades
• 1x Ghost Town
• 1x Jungle Basin
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Thawing Glaciers
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Creature (7)

• 1x Budoka Gardener  ^Flip
• 1x Perennial Behemoth
• 1x Scute Swarm
• 1x Skyshroud Ranger
• 1x The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Uyo, Silent Prophet
• 1x Walking Atlas

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Trade Routes

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I enjoy brewing Archelos.

The turtle lends himself to stax pretty well, and I've leaned into that a little bit with a few powerful cards like Static Orb and Winter Orb and ways to break parity. But the ultimate goal isn't to stax people out, it's to use Archelos's ability to enable weird game-winning land combos.

Land loop 1

Requirements:

1. Have {1} available mana.
2. Control Archelos, Lagoon Mystic untapped (or Amulet of Vigor or Tiller Engine).
3. Control Patron of the Moon.
4. Have Golgari Rot Farm (or Dimir Aqueduct or Simic Growth Chamber or Guildless Commons) in hand.

Activate Patron of the Moon, putting the Golgari Rot Farm into play untapped. Respond to the bounce trigger by floating two mana. Bounce the same land back to hand. Spend one of that mana to activate Patron of the Moon again. Loop.

You produce infinite mana. With Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait or Tireless Tracker on the battlefield during this loop, you can draw as many cards as you like. With Tatyova, Benthic Druid, you can draw as many cards as you like but are technically limited in how much mana you produce if there is nothing remaining in your library that can destroy Tatyova. Tireless Provisioner can net infinite life, and Retreat to Hagra wins the game on the spot.

Land loop 2

Requirements:

1. Control Archelos, Lagoon Mystic untapped (or Amulet of Vigor or Tiller Engine).
2. Control Retreat to Coralhelm.
3. Control Llanowar Scout (or Sakura-Tribe Scout or Scaled Herbalist).
4. Have Golgari Rot Farm (or Dimir Aqueduct or Simic Growth Chamber or Guildless Commons) in hand.

Activate Llanowar Scout, putting Golgari Rot Farm onto the battlefield untapped. Respond to the bounce trigger by floating two mana. Bounce the same land back to hand. Trigger Retreat to Coralhelm, untapping Llanowar Scout. Loop.

This loop has the same payoffs as loop 1.

Land loop 3

Requirements:

1. Have {6}{C}{G} available mana.
2. Control Archelos, Lagoon Mystic untapped (or Amulet of Vigor or Tiller Engine).
3. Control Mirrorpool.
4. Control Squandered Resources (or Sylvan Safekeeper); or control Excavation and Golgari Rot Farm (or Dimir Aqueduct or Simic Growth Chamber or Guildless Commons) and have {1} extra mana available.
5. Have Splendid Reclamation in hand.

Cast Splendid Reclamation. Hold priority and sacrifice Mirrorpool, copying Spendid Reclamation. Still holding priority, float remaining available mana and sacrifice remaining lands†. Allow Splendid Reclamation copy to resolve, returning lands to the battlefield untapped. Hold priority on original Splendid Reclamation, sacrificing Mirrorpool again to copy the spell again. Loop while leaving the original Splendid Reclamation unresolved for the duration of the combo‡.

†With only Excavation available as land sacrifice outlet, you'll need a bounce land like Golgari Rot Farm that taps for two mana to be able the net mana on returns. Using Excavation draws you cards during this loop, which is great, but it also means there is a limit on how much mana you can produce. After you've sacrificed the bounce land a large number of times, you can begin spending that mana to sacrifice other lands if looping them is beneficial.

‡In the case of using a bounce land in this loop and not winning during the loop, there will be a huge number of dangling bounce triggers on the stack at the end of the combo. To avoid ending the combo with all your lands in your hand, remember to sacrifice all your lands on the final loop before those triggers resolve, allowing the original Splendid Reclamation to return your lands to the battlefield after the fact.

This combo produces infinite mana unless you're sacrificing lands to Excavate. If you are sacrificing lands to Excavate, you can produce infinite mana if you also control a Phyrexian Tower and Field of the Dead. As above, Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait, Tireless Tracker, Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Tireless Provisioner, Retreat to Hagra all have huge payoffs.

However since this combo involves sac-looping uninvolved lands, there are a few extra things you can do. Sunscorched Desert being involved in this loop wins you the game on the spot. You can use Nurturing Peatland (or Waterlogged Grove or Cryptic Caves) to draw as much as you like, or you can use Cephalid Coliseum for card selection or to draw your opponents out. You can use Cabal Pit to kill all your opponents' creatures, or you can use Strip Mine to destroy all your opponents' lands. With both a bounce land and Boseiju, Who Endures or Takenuma, Abandoned Mire or Otawara, Soaring City, you can allow the bounce trigger to resolve before copying Splendid Reclamation to repeatedly use the channel effects.

If you've drawn your whole deck and created infinite mana, you can cast Patron of the Moon to put extra lands into play. Putting Mystic Sanctuary into play†‡ can put the Splendid Reclamation on top of your library, and you can draw that with one of the above lands to begin the loop anew with access to game-winning lands this time.

Alternatively in the case of going through your entire deck but having no access to Mystic Sanctuary triggers any more, you can use Witch's Cottage†‡ to put World Shaper on top of your library and draw it to begin loop 5 or 6.

†‡In both these scenarios, the lands need to actually enter untapped, so you can't rely on Amulet of Vigor or Tiller Engine.

Land loop 4

This is similar in principle to loop 3, except you can't find your Mirrorpool.

Requirements:

1. Have {4}{G} available mana.
2. Control Archelos, Lagoon Mystic untapped (or Amulet of Vigor or Tiller Engine AND three spare Islands not a part of the sacrifice loop†)
3. Control Mystic Sanctuary.
4. Control Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait (or Tatyova, Benthic Druid, or Tireless Tracker and {2} extra mana); or control Nurturing Peatland (or Waterlogged Grove or Cryptic Caves) and {1} extra mana.
5. Control Squandered Resources (or Sylvan Safekeeper).
6. Have Splendid Reclamation in hand.

Float all mana and sacrifice all lands. Cast Splendid Reclamation. Return all lands to the battlefield untapped, including Mystic Sanctuary†. Use Mystic Sanctuary's trigger to put Splendid Reclamation on top of your library. Draw Splendid Reclamation with one of the methods in requirement 4. Loop.

†While the rest of the lands may enter tapped and then untap via Amulet of Vigor, Mystic Sanctuary actually needs to enter untapped to trigger. Mystic Sanctuary will enter the battlefield tapped if it enters at the same time as the Islands on which it is contingent to enter untapped; if you don't control an untapped Archelos and are depending on three Islands for Mystic Sanctuary to enter untapped, then you need to not sacrifice those Islands as part of this loop.

The payoffs for this loop are the same as loop 3, except you will need two cards from among the draw lands to draw your entire library. Also unlike loop 3, it's possible to merely break even on mana while performing this loop. However it is still often worthwhile for drawing extra cards, or just using Sunscorched Desert as part of the loop or with Retreat to Hagra in play, outright wining.

Land loop 5

This is similar to loop 3 again, except replacing Splendid Reclamation with Worldshaper.

Requirements:

1. Have {4}{C} available mana.
2. Control Archelos, Lagoon Mystic untapped (or Amulet of Vigor or Tiller Engine)
3. Control Mirrorpool.
4. Control Phyrexian Tower.
5. Control Squandered Resources (or Sylvan Safekeeper or Excavation†).
6. Control WORLDSHAPER!.

Activate Mirrorpool to create a token copy of Worldshaper. Use Phyrexian Tower to sacrifice the token copy of Worldshaper. Hold priority on the Worldshaper's death trigger, then float remaining mana and sacrifice remaining lands. Worldshaper returns the lands to the battlefield untapped. Loop.

The payoffs for this loop are the same as loop 3.

†Because Phyrexian Tower taps for two mana, you don't need a bounce land to facilitate using Excavation in this loop. As with loop 3, Excavation draws you cards as part of this loop, which is great but also imposes a limit on how many times you can loop it. As with loop 3, performing this loop with Excavation doesn't innately grant infinite mana.

Land loop 6

Loop 6 is to loop 5 as loop 4 is to loop 3.

Requirements:

1. Have {1}{G} available mana.
2. Control Archelos, Lagoon Mystic untapped (or Amulet of Vigor or Tiller Engine AND three spare Swamps not a part of the sacrifice loop†)
3. Control Witch's Cottage.
4. Control Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait (or Tatyova, Benthic Druid, or Tireless Tracker and {2} extra mana); or control Nurturing Peatland (or Waterlogged Grove or Cryptic Caves) and {1} extra mana.
5. Control Squandered Resources (or Sylvan Safekeeper).
6. Control WORLDSHAPER!.

Sacrifice Worldshaper to Phyrexian Tower. Hold priority and float remaining mana and sacrifice remaining lands. Allow Worldshaper's ability to resolve, including Witch's Cottage†. Have the Witch's Cottage trigger put Worldshaper on top of your library. Draw Worldshaper with one of the methods in requirement 4. Cast Worldshaper. Loop.

†See loop 4 dagger note. Having three Swamps not part of the loop is much more easily facilitated thanks to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.

Payoffs for this loop are... y'know. As above. Land stuff.

Thanks for reading. Or at least skimming. Or... jumping to the end, I guess. You get half points for that.

If you have any recommendations or comments, please let me know!

k thx bbz

Date added	1 year
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 27 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.13
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Bear 2/2 G, Beast 3/3 G, Clue, Construct 0/0 C, Copy Clone, Emblem Nissa, Vital Force, Food, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B