Let's Build: Aegisaur + Ballista inf. combo

Standard Deck Help forum

Posted on Oct. 14, 2017, 7:43 p.m. by Uri

I like building weird combo's, and ever since Amonhket came out, I built a deck revolving around Approach the Second Sun without use of the Aetherworks Marvel. It worked brilliantly, an above 80% win-rate.

And right now, we're back at it prying for another weird, wicked win-con...:Bellowing Aegisaur + Walking Ballista. Shoot that Aegisaur, get a counter on all your creatures INCLUDING your own ballista again, refueling it as it shoots.

So, let's try build this deck then. Firstly, we need to decide what colors we're going to use! White will be mandatory, either as splash or base. Blue comes in next because blue is crucial if we want to stall long enough and dig deep enough.

Now comes the dilemma; two colors as it is now is NOT enough. We need a third. We have two options: Green, for some extra ramp and other dummies to let our Ballista beat up: Ripjaw Raptor and/or Ranging Raptors. Especially the latter is beautiful when it's being abused with a ballista, it lets us ramp incredibly much for no mana cost at all.

Red on the other hand will give us more consistency, and lets us play a very strong walker for this deck: Saheeli Rai. Nonetheless, if we play little creatures, we can sneak in that Indomitable Creativity because we have something amazing: TREASURE TOKENS! If we play the following five creatures: 2x Bellowing Aegisaur, 2x Walking Ballista, 1x Chief of the Foundry, we only need to munch our Spell Swindle on a 5-mana spell and our combo is live.

Decisions decisions...

One thing is for sure: Dovin Baan will return! He is just too good. He nerfs, he draws and gains life, delaying aggro. What I have also liked is one or two copies of Commit/Memory . Vastly underestimated, in my opinion. It's not a counterspell, so it affects Carnage Tyrant, and we can use it post-casting too, putting our opponent in a suspended time-warp effect.

But now, how do we stall time? We need answers. White/Blue/Red is the theme, and red is beautiful with removal.Lightning Strike - Shock - Farm/Market - Perilous Voyage - Depths of Desire - Cast Out - Harnessed Lightning - Sweltering Suns - Abrade.

How do we draw into our combo? For one, Perilous Voyage already does a great job scrying and removing at the same time. Chart A Course and Catharic Reunion lets us dig deep for cheap, but an all-classic is Glimmer of Genius. some Supreme Will and Censor gives us some versatility and takes out threats for us.

This at the moment are some cards I have in mind for this deck, but I'd love to hear from other players what they think of this. Know some cards I forgot, or know some other methods of digging into our combo? Go ahead, share!

Gidgetimer says... #2

As a player that loves combo I am completely on board. I do have a few questions though. How do you propose keeping Bellowing Aegisaur from dying after 5 pumps without needing a second and making the combo much less consistent? Or are we just doing 4 pumps a turn for inevitability?

October 15, 2017 8:23 a.m.

Uri says... #3

We have two cards to assure his survival from a walking ballista:

Saheeli Rai's -2 ability, and Sheltering Light

October 15, 2017 8:54 a.m.

Ever thought of going Bant with the deck? Blue offers counter magic, white has removal, and green has a few fog effects; if you want to stall Bant can definitely do just that.

October 16, 2017 5:08 p.m.

Uri says... #5

It's true that Bant will have enough time-stalling features in it. It's still a debate on what third color should be added; red or green. Red has more answers against opposing threats, and green has more creatures and means to stall time.

October 17, 2017 11:13 a.m.

I'm sorry to say this, but this isn't an infinite combo. If you look carefully at the text on the sink, it says each "other" creature. Yes it is a combo if you have two of those Dinos, but not with just one. I generally think of an infinite combo as something you can do infinite in one turn. This would only allow you to do it 4 times a turn

October 18, 2017 2:47 a.m.

Argy says... #7

I would make your third colour , as I think Fight cards are the best way to gain advantage with Enrage Creatures, without any real downside.

It gives you a way to remove other Creatures, while sticking to your Enrage plan.

You would run cards like:

As far as cards for digging to your combo, you would definitely want Search for Azcanta  Flip. Maybe also some Disallow, to stop the Opponent getting rid of it with Field of Ruin.

I would also suggest only running 20 lands, heavily weighted toward , then add 4x Attune with Aether to the deck. That lets you get an extra card out of your deck, on the turn you cast it, as well as helping with colour fixing.

October 19, 2017 8:54 a.m.

Uri says... #8

Tbh, I'd rather want to run an Renegade Map. Reason being; it's still a permanent I can crack anytime, and it's independent of color (Which is a big pro if you're running 3 colors). Plus, it lets me control shuffling.

October 19, 2017 6:28 p.m.

Uri says... #9

TheGuyWhoNeverGoes4o If you've taken a look at the post, I never said it's a two-card combo. It's a three-card one. You need either a copy, or make it indestructible with Sheltering Light or Heroic Intervention

October 19, 2017 8 p.m.

Argy says... #10

Uri Attune with Aether does everything that Renegade Map does, but better.

You can use it straight away, plus it doesn't die to Abrade.

October 19, 2017 10:13 p.m.

Uri says... #11

If I were to play red, then it'd be useful with its energy because of harnessed lightning. But we don't have that.

I don't know though who uses abrade Onan Expedition map tho. In the same logic you can negate an attune with Aether.

October 20, 2017 4:44 a.m.

Argy says... #12

You can Negate AND Abrade Renegade Map.

Just because you HAVE doesn't mean you need to use it.

Plenty of decks out there which play Glimmer of Genius just because it's a good draw card, and don't use the .

October 20, 2017 4:54 a.m.

Uri says... #13

That's because Glimmer is the best 4-mana card draw available, it digs 4 deep ;).

But what I find important is two things; with Search of Acantza, if I spot a card really early on that I can use 'later', but need a different draw, I don't want to dunk it in my graveyard. Controlling shuffling helps a lot to dig this card away without loss of card gain. As well, is that Renegade map still is colorless. This means I don't 'have' to have a forest in my opening hand.

Abrade and Negate are no fears. You play this thing turn-1, and to throw an abrade on a renegade map is something rather unusual. A bigger fear would be Duress, as our opponent can not only discard the attune, but can also immediately see how valuable that attune is.

October 20, 2017 11:58 a.m.

Please login to comment