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Aurelia's Halo of Two Card Combat Combos [Primer]

Commander / EDH*

StoicLaughter

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Land (36)

Sword + Assault Combo (3)

Rest in Peace Combo (2)

Tutors (12)

Twin/Kiki Combo pieces (9)

Utility (4)

Protection (3)

Spot Removal (3)

Wraths (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: Aurelia, the Warleader

Ramp (10)

Card Draw (7)

Recursion (3)

Helm of the Host Combo (2)

Card Filtering (1)

***PRIMER*** Make Boros Great Again- Aurelia's Halo of Two Card Combat Combos

4/8/17: Update 1. Made some straightforward substitutions. See change log.

First, a note on terminology. The "combos" in the title are really short for "game-winning combos". Not sweet synergies, or interactions that generate long-term value. We are talking all the opponents scoop it up, at the same time. So if that ain't what you're looking to do, this ain't the deck for you. Also, we do have some non-combat combos - I just liked the alliteration.

Now, you may ask yourself "Why Aurelia?"

Because she's the only fully Boros () commander that's part of a game winning two-card combo, in this case with Helm of the Host. Simple as that.

What? You wanted a proper...

The original genesis for this deck was to try and see if there was any way to make Firesong and Sunspeaker, spoiled in the early Dominaria leak, into a somewhat competitive combo deck, by abusing a potential interaction with the previously unnoteworthy card Spiritualize. That combo turned out to not work within the rules, but the exercise made me look more closely at the tutor suite in Boros, as well as the other available combos I could run as backups, particularly those surrounding Kiki-Jkki and Splinter Twin. Helm of the Host, another card from the spoiler, was immediately recognized as being a two-card combo with Godo, Bandit Warlord...but it also works quite well with many other cards, including our girl, Aurelia, the Warleader. Thus this deck was born.

The text of Helm of the Host reads:

Helm of the Host - 4

Legendary Artifact - Equipment

At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a token that is a copy of equipped creature, except the token isn't legendary if equipped creature is legendary. That token gains haste.

Equip 5

With any creature that grants additional combats, such as Aurelia, Godo, Bandit Warlord, or Combat Celebrant, the Helm will allow us to generate infinite attack steps. Note the token will have haste even if Godo and Combat Celebrant do not. Thus, as long as the opponents do not have an indestructible blocker, they will die even from an infinite life total and/or with an infinitely large army in front of them. But to get there, we have to spend at least 9 mana. Fortunately, we can build our deck such that this is only one of many ways of comboing off in combat.

The style of this deck is influenced by a mind towards Cockatrice (so no budget), as well a style I call 'casually competitive', though this is definitely at the top end of that description. Casually competitive means your deck will stomp a standard kitchen table, generally because your deck ramps and executes a consistent hard-hitting strategy, but be crushed by an actual CEDH deck - in particular, it neither runs nor can generally beat stax effects. I've attempted to make a more CEDH oriented version of this list, but I'm pretty sure our colors prelude it being strong enough. In any case, while there are a few god hands that win on turn 1 (!), and a few more that win on turns 2-3, we more often go off on turn 5-6 with a decent keep.

A --> B --> C = Cast A to tutor for B, then cast B, and tutor for and cast C. This is because either B is itself a tutor, or because it allows you to blink A for another search.

HoH = Helm of the Host

KJ= Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Twin= Splinter Twin

Recruiters = Imperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard

  • recruitable = fetchable by at least one of the recruiters. Note that since each recruiter can find the other, if your target can't be found by the recruiter you currently have, you can just search for the recruiter you need instead.

  • double recruitable = Creatures with both power and toughness less than or equal to two, and hence fetchable by both of the recruiters.

Hammer= Hammer of Nazahn

RIP= Rest in Peace

Lancers = Thalia's Lancers

RestO= Restoration Angel

This deck runs almost every two card game-winning combat combo in our colors. By two-card, I mean just that. If those two cards are on the battlefield together as you begin combat (potentially attached), unopposed and undisrupted, you can win on the spot (or in a few cycles in the case of Helm of Posession and Rest in Peace).

We also run some three card combos due to how well they line up with the available tutor suite. The classic three-card example is Sword of Feast and Famine and Aggravated Assault. In my terms, they don't constitute a two-card combo because they require a creature in addition to themselves (as well as lands that can tap for 3RR).

The 14 (by my count) two card combos are:

The harder to pull of combos I'm aware of (sure I've missed some) are:

  • Splinter Twin + Goblin Sharpshooter . Requires the enchanted Sharpshooter to be untapped, and a creature die or a creature with 1 toughness on board. Twin the sharpshooter, and use the clone to shoot the creature if needed. With two untapped shooters, you can use create another clone. The second clone can shoot any target, be killed by the first clone, and leave you where you started with 2 untapped shooters. Repeat until everyone is dead.

  • Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Helm of the Host. Our two most common combo pieces do work together, but in a slow manner. The first combat on your turn with a Helmed KJ, you'll get a non-legendary copy with HoH's triggered ability. On the endstep before your following turn, or before an untap and additional combat trigger resolves, use the original to copy the clone, the old clone can tap to copy the new clone, and so on, and thus create infinite tapped non-legendary KJ's. You'll be able to attack with them in your second turn/combat for the win. Your attackers will be: the original KJ, 2 permanent non-legendary KJs from HoH, and an infinite number of non-legendary KJs that will go away at the beginning of your end step.

  • Hammer of Nazahn + Godo, Bandit Warlord . Requires Hammer to be already on the field when Godo enters, and HoH to be in your library. If Hammer is still in play when Godo's trigger resolves, HoH will auto-equip and it's hopefully gg.

  • Neheb, the Eternal + Aggravated Assault (need to make your opponents lose 5+ life with first swing only, and after that have creature that can keep dealing damage and survive combat)

  • Sword of Feast and Famine + Aggravated Assault/Hellkite Charger (requires creature and/or lands)

  • Felidar Guardian + Restoration Angel + Outpost Siege (Dragons Mode). This is a novel one I noticed in testing. You can use infinite blinks to kill the table! Not worth running Purphoros just for this, but still hilarious.

  • Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Helm of the Host + Outpost Siege (Dragons Mode). Similar to the above- remember how we had to wait for a second combat to make KJ and HoH into a two card combo? Well, with Outpost Siege in Dragons mode, we can make an infinite army of tapped clones, that will kill the table when they go away!

Although our "headline" combo is Aurelia + HoH, it is quite mana intensive and difficult to pull off. Thus in practice, it is far easier to execute a KJ combo, usually with Felidar Guardian.

The tutor suite weaves all the combos together, and the cards in supporting roles have been selected with them in mind. Of particular note is Thalia's Lancers, which can find us any legendary card, including lands, planeswalkers (since the Ixalan rules change), or even the new legendary sorceries in Dominaria (though we're currently not running any). Most importantly, HoH and KJ are both legendary. Lancers pushes us to have a mild preference for legendary cards, while KJ can only copy non-legendaries. In testing, this tension has generally not been an issue.

We have 12-14 tutors depending on how you count. They consist of:

Creatures that Tutor (6)

Instants and Sorceries that Tutor (6)

Conditional Tutors (2)

As discussed below, the Recruiters are powerful and cheap enough that you often keep hands based on their presence. Each can find the other, and together can find 15 of our 25 creatures, including Felidar Guardian for an additional search (Imperial only), or KJ for multiple searches (either).

Hammer of Nazahn - tutorable by Lancers, protects our creature-based combos, and helps cheat on the equip for HoH. Also good to get with Godo if HoH is unavailable (say, in your hand).

Outpost Siege - gives a card advantage target for our enchantment tutors. Also can be an unlikely combo piece if put into 'Dragons' mode.

Nahiri, the Harbinger - playing a flex role as rummager, removal, and a tutor for any non-enchantment combo piece. The 'tapped' clause can be a major frustration, esp. for artifacts. Can be tutored by Lancers with the new rules change.

Mirage Mirror - Our Clever Impersonator, which also allows us to potentially copy a combo piece in the face of removal.

Knollspine Dragon - I've found that with decks that get behind or burn through cards, it's generally better to go big. Also with Aurelia as our commander, it's not that difficult to wrack up damage.

Plea for Guidance - the inclusion of Outpost Siege pushes this over the line, since it can now get us three combo pieces (RIP, Twin, and Aggravated Assault), as well as a source of card advantage.

Academy Rector - we have no sac outlets to abuse it, but again I think that the additional combos + Outpost Siege helps push if over into playable. Double recruitable.

Mangara of Corondor- A piece of spot removal that's double recruitable as well as legendary for Lancers. Can be abused with Mirage Mirror, Restoration Angel, or HoH.

Angelic Renewal - gives protection and combo potential.

Sun Titan - gives us some recursion, great with sac and fetch lands, and works well with KJ, Twin, or HoH. Also just a decent beater with an attack trigger to go with Aurelia.

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 still use the RIP + Helm of Possession combo to win, or try and set up one of the combos involving Outpost Siege in Dragons mode. Note that Felidar Guardian can reset the mode on Siege if needed.

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.

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, a Nahiri to get two activations in a turn, or even 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, Sharpshooter, Twin, and Mother of Runes, 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 Plans 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.

Most of the cards have been selected so that they have some utility on their own, or have non-combo synergies. However sometime you do end up with hands that are pieces that don't do much together. If you have a tutor, try and find some source of card draw or filtering, keeping in mind what cards you can recur and which you can't. At worst, you can try and cast Aurelia as a distraction while you set up and dig.

The following are frequently played cards that prevents our combat combos from working, or generally make our lives difficult. Ideally save your removal for them.

  • Boros Charm - card that just missed the cut.

  • Grand Abolisher - would love to run, and double recruitable.

  • Path to Exile//Return to Dust - prioritized wraths over spot removal, and running Mangara of Corondor as our catchall solution.

  • Sculpting Steel - a painful cut, but couldn't squeeze it, Mirage Mirror, and spot removal. Mirror's extra flexibility won out.

  • Terminus//Hour of Revelation- decided the flexibility of Austere Command was too important, since can potentially let us keep our combo pieces while removing obstacles.

  • Apostle's Blessing - one of my pet cards, which I find often functions as a colorless counterspell. Decided spot removal was more important.

  • Chaos Warp- used to be in the deck, cut for Mangara of Corondor since the later is more tutorable.

  • Mind's Eye - there's just enough tutors, card draw, and smoothing (as well as big mana plays) that I haven't felt desparate for this.

  • Sanctum Gargoyle- considered for a recursion slot, tutorable by Imperial Recruiter, Enlightened Tutor, and Inventors's Fair.

  • Mind Stone//Fellwar Stone/Grim Monolith/Basalt Monolith - we often have intensive enough color requirments (and are running enough colorless utility lands) that these can be a liability. Possible one of these should be in Commander's Sphere slot.

  • Goblin Bombardment - tutorable sac outlet, would be good with Rector, and can turn infinite tokens into a win even if they can't attack or deal damage for some reason.

  • Elixir of Immortality - helps us if too many critical combo and recursion pieces have been either milled or destroyed.

  • Sunforger - my earlier brews with FSSS were built around this, but currently doesn't have that many targets, and generally doesn't help us combo off. The main benefit would be allowing us to turn any of our Equipment tutors into an Enlightened Tutor, but that is too slow to be worth warping the deck around imo.

  • Gisela, Blade of Goldnight + Heartless Hidestugu - used to be in the deck, until it was pointed out to me that this only kills opponents at an even life total, which was against the spirit of the deck.

  • Expedition Map - I think the only playable non-goblin based tutor we're not running. In most cases would probably get Ancient Tomb or Buried Ruin. Don't think it's worth it.

  • Lightning Greaves - most of our combos already grant haste, and many require targeting or attaching. Part of the power of running so many combos is that we're not as dependent on any given piece surviving, especially with one piece in the command zone.

  • Hall of the Bandit Lord - same issue as greaves, we already have enough tap and colorless lands, as well as often losing a lot of life to out permanents.

  • Spine of Ish Sah - Pros: tutorable and recurs itself. Cons: Expensive, sorcery speed, and no synergies to support it.

  • Remember the Fallen - considered for a recursion slot, but we have no way to tutor for it.

  • The Immortal Sun - lost out on a flex slot to Nahiri, due to her tutoring potential.

  • Goblin War Drums - in consideration for Key to the City's spot, since it's easier to tutor, but has limited utility and a huge downside when behind.

  • Sigarda's Aid - We run barely enough equipment (4) to justify our tutor suite, so I don't think this would carry it's weight, sweet as it would be to curve out with this, into HoH, into Aurelia.

  • Sword of Fire and Ice/Mask of Memories - although we have the tutors to support them, people are so likely to be gunning for our creature I don't want to rely on equipment to draw cards.

  • Faithless Looting/Tormenting Voice//Cathartic Reunion - leary of anything that puts us down or even on cards, since we're so handicapped in that department, and have limited recursion.

  • Midnight Guard- Only works with Twin, not KJ, and has no use on it's own, in contrast to Village Bell Ringer.

  • Flameshadow Conjuring - goes infinite with Felidar Guardian, tutorable. and synergizes with our ETBs and tappers. It's nonbo with legendaries means it runs too much risk of doing nothing.

Update 1:+1 Angelic Renewal, -1 Anarchist. More relevant recursion with combo potential.

+1 Sparring Zombie, -1 Wispweaver Angel. Zombie works with both KJ and Twin and is cheaper to boot.

+1 Goblin Sharpshooter, -1 Shielded by Faith. A recruitable combo piece.

+1 Grenzo Havoc Raiser, -1 Azor's Gateway. A legendary and recruitable source of cards and/or de-facto lifegain.

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