What do you think about this combo?
Modern forum
Posted on Sept. 10, 2017, 10:37 p.m. by Fyr
Judge of Currents Kiora's Follower Ok so that's the combo First Is it legal?. if you don't understand i'll explain now Tap Follower targeting anything then tap another follower targeting that one to tap each other as many times as you wish therefore granting infinite life with judge of currents in play. Ok now for my main question. Is it a legal thing to do? because follower says "another" Does that only mean not that spesific card. or the card as a whole. Second Have you seen this combo before and if not what would you say are the merits of it?. Please reply with your answer's in the comments id LOVE to hear them. but not just say "this combo is bad" if you are going to say "This combo is bad" please say why. also i hope this was the right fourm for this because i was thinking of it as a modern combo. Alright i've rambeled on enough Thanks -Fyr
It does work but the deck would be terrible and dies to most combo decks.
September 10, 2017 10:46 p.m.
I might not know the modern meta as much as you but it's a low cmc combo that can look pretty innocent early game if your not expecting it
September 10, 2017 10:49 p.m.
Mtg_Khaotik says... #5
not trying to bash you at all, but it is not very good. although what your asking does work as long as you have 2 followers.Its not the combo itself being bad. most combo kills do infinite damage. therefor infinite life doesn't matter, it doesnt really stop anyone from winning the game as far as t1 decks go. tron can reset your life to 20. jund, if you start to go off and they dont understand once they do they can kill spell something. any cord deck, does infinite damage and can cord a kill creature. its the infinite life thats bad. not the combo itself.
September 10, 2017 11:01 p.m.
CharonSquared says... #6
I would argue that the combo itself is hard to pull off because you have to untap with both followers. The Melira/Anafenza + Kitchen Finks + sac outlet doesn't care about summoning sickness.
September 11, 2017 1:26 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #7
You're better off playing Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder.
September 11, 2017 4:38 a.m.
filthyc4sual says... #8
It's a SORT-OF low CMC three card combo where none of the cards are good on their own that doesn't come online until turn 5 at the earliest.
September 11, 2017 9:18 a.m.
Well, it's a bant colored combo deck, so you shouldnt find it too hard to come up with counterspells and protection for your vulnerable creatures...
Also, you could play Collected Company to dig for pieces.
What is needed mostly though, is some more cards to synergize with these - assembling a 3 card combo in modern can be rather demanding, if your deck doesn't contain redundant combos. Are there other merfolk with interesting tap abilities?
September 11, 2017 7:41 p.m.
filthyc4sual says... #11
I would build it in a Bant Merfolk shell as a random I-probably-win button, if at all.
September 11, 2017 7:44 p.m.
Wow at those people saying infinite life & infinite damage counter each other. Worst case scenario, if you have infinite life and someone goes for infinite damage, it's a draw. Also, infinite life, doesn't always win you the game, buuuuuut there are ways to use your life to win. Now, everyone knows there are many sick modern combos, but damn guys, cut him some slack. He should brew a deck and utilize aetherflux reservoir or some other shenanigans.
Nice combo Fyr
September 12, 2017 9:35 a.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #14
It is a combo. It is not a competitive one. Since his questioning of whether or not the combo was "legal" it seemed to most that OP is under the mistaken impression that this combo is competitive. It is a 3 card combo that doesn't win you the game and has to survive a turn. That's not a competitive combo by any stretch of the imagination.
If this is just Johnny talk, then sure. It's a combo.
September 12, 2017 12:07 p.m.
For the inf life v inf damage. This combo can be executed at instant speed on an opponent's turn. If they try to inf damage you, as per rules of magic, they must still declare a finite amount of damage at which their infinite loop stops. You can respond by gaining more life than they declared damage. That portion of the infinite is sound with this combo.
The problems are as follows:
1) 3 cards are needed for this. In modern, that's incredibly inconsistent as far as combo's go. Being a turn 4-6 format (typically), you want your deck to be able to consistently combo off by those turns. 3 card combos have a terribly difficult time doing that.
2) it's an entirely creature based combo. There are a lot of removal spells and even removal based decks in modern, and having an easily disruptable combo is just asking to be disrupted.
3) it's a three color combo, and in bant. In modern, bant is not that powerful of a color combination, lacking both strong removal options (other than path) and lacking a way to develop powerful board presence (that might be remedied if you're playing a merfolk tribal deck with a tangential infinite). This translates to you not having a solid alternate win-condition, meaning that if your combo gets disrupted (which as a three card creature combo is likely), you're also likely to lose.
4) because kiora's follower has a tap ability critical to the combo, both followers have to stick for a turn to utilize this combo. The dies to removal argument really kills the combo here, as assembling a three card combo is hard enough in modern. Assembling it AND making it stick for an entire turn when all three components are creatures is nigh on impossible, and if you can pull it off, you are probably winning without the combo anyway.
The problem isn't that the payoff of the combo isn't strong enough. It's that the combo itself is too complex, fragile, and therefore difficult to assemble in the modern format.
September 12, 2017 1:47 p.m. Edited.
This is all coming from the guy who has spent three years trying to break Grand Architect + Pili-Pala in modern. Don't let me tell you no if you don't wanna hear no. Give it your all and try to break it. Just bear in mind that success will be extremely difficult, as will be the deck to build around this combo.
September 12, 2017 1:52 p.m.
Weird Harvest is a pretty good enabler for creature combos, if you have low(er) mana requirements for your creatures.
The real question is "against what deck is this strategy an improvement over classic merfolk?"
Combo does well if its faster than aggro, or if it can use permission spells to protect itself.
DuTogira
Well "blue steel" managed to put up some results recently.
September 13, 2017 7:32 p.m.
Blue steel was a GA build, not a pili pala combo build.
That's irrelevant I suppose though because it supports the whole "build a rogue deck and try it even if it doesn't seem good" message I was going for.
September 13, 2017 7:39 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #19
I've 5-0ed three times now with a brew I have been working on for over a year. Finally got MTG media coverage on the deck which has been immensely cool and satisfying. Brew on, but you need to understand the format and what is viable and what isn't in the format if you're going to effectively brew competitively.
September 14, 2017 5:24 p.m.
It's a 3 card combo where every piece is easy to interact with, you can only do it on like turn 4 and there's no way to instantly do it. Seems bad
THE_WTF_Brewer says... #2
You need two kiora's followers for it to work, but it does work.
September 10, 2017 10:40 p.m.