pie chart

Aurelia's Universe of Ki(n)-ki Combos [[Primer]]

Commander / EDH* Combo Competitive Goblins Infinite Combo RW (Boros) Twin

StoicLaughter

Upvote 0
0

Land (36)

Wraths (3)

Helm of Obedience + Rest in Piece Combo (2)

Card Filtering (1)

Tutors (12)

Twin Kikki Combo pieces (8)

Card Draw (7)

Recursion (3)

Heliod Ballista Combo (2)

Helm of the Host Combos (2)

Commander (1)

Commander: Aurelia, the Warleader

Ramp (10)

Goblin Package (5)

Protection (3)

Spot Removal (3)

Sword Assault Combo (2)

***PRIMER*** Aurelia's Universe of Ki(n)-Ki Combos- An Angelic Choir of Legendary Goblin Recruits

This is an updated version of Aurelia's Halo of Two Card Combat Combos [Primer] - now includes a Goblin Package, for MOAR COMBOZZ!!!! The deck features 20 combos involving only two cards, at least 7 requiring three or more cards (let me know if I've missed any!), and 15 tutor effects.

To be clear - "combos" here 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. However, the shear number of combos, tutors, and interactions means that piloting this deck gives you quite a bit of flexibility if you need to change your line or be reactive.

As for the subtitle - legendaries, goblin, and recruits (i.e. recruitable creatures, see below) are often the key things we both use to tutor and find with tutors to complete our combos, lead by our only actual legendary goblin recruit, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker .

So how does Aurelia fit into this gameplan? Well it turns out 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 - and conveniently enough Kiki-Jiki also combos with Helm.

For lack of a better term I would call this an 85% deck - it can win on T1-4 with a high enough chance that calling it 75% seems a bit disingenuous (thanks Treasonous Ogre !). However, it lacks the stax pieces and the ramp quantity/quality needed to be CEDH playable.

1/8/20. +1 Walking Ballista , +1 Heliod, Sun-Crowned , -1 Mirage Mirror , -1 Siege-Gang Commander . The new version of Heliod was quickly noted to be an infinite combo with Walking Ballista, which is conveniently recruitable. Heliod is a reasonable tutor target himself as a legendary enchantment. Mirage Mirror, while one of my pet cards, is not actually a combo piece so decided to cut it, as well as Siege Gang.

4/30/18. + 1 Siege-Gang Commander , +1 Skullclamp , -1 Mirror Entity , -1 Knollspine Dragon . Clamp gives us a tutorable form of card draw, since we have so many 1 toughness creatures (and because the opp's often target our creatures as we're trying to go off, so we can try and get some value). SGC helps play into this strategy while also giving us some spot removal and maintaining our Goblin count. While assembling Entity + Commander would be sweet, decided to focus on the combo gameplan of the deck.

Helm of the Host from the Dominaria spoiler, was immediately recognized as being a two-card combo with Godo, Bandit Warlord (check out gtoast99's Waiting for Godo - cEDH primer)...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 brewing the precursor to this deck, Aurelia's Halo of Two Card Combat Combos [Primer], I realized that Kiki-Jiki was the real commander of the deck, due to the number of interactions/combos he enabled, and hence made me look at Goblin Matron as another way to find him. To make Matron playable, I've added several goblins that have utility on their own, key among them being Lightning Crafter , which is an infinite damage combo with KJ and a sac outlet, such as Goblin Chirurgeon . Thus Matron, in conjunction with KJ, can be used to find the remaining pieces and win the game by herself.

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. 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

Matron = Goblin Matron

This deck runs almost every 'simple' two card game-winning combo in our colors. Meaning: 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 conditional two-card combos, and some three card combos due to how well they line up with the available tutor suite. The classic conditional two-card example is Sword of Feast and Famine and Aggravated Assault . In my terms, they don't constitute a simple two-card combo because they require a creature in addition to themselves, as well as lands that can tap for 3.

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

The conditional two card combos are:

  • Splinter Twin + Goblin Sharpshooter . Requires the enchanted Sharpshooter to be untapped, able to tap, and either have a creature die (Case 1) or a creature that can be shot to death (Case 2).
  • Case 1: Creature about to die. Before the lethal damage occurs, copy the sharpshooter. In particular, you'll have to do this in the declare blockers step if it's a combat death you're trying to trigger off of.
  • Case 2: Creature that can be pinged (1 damage) to death. Copy the sharpshooter, and use the clone to shoot the vulnerable creature.

  • In either case, both shooters will untap. From there, you can create another clone with the Twinned original. 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.

  • Aggravated Assault + Sword of Feast and Famine . Potentially infinite combats.Requires 3RR in lands that untap, and a creature that can consistently get through to all your opponents.

The 3+ card combos I'm aware of are:

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.

The big change between this and the initial primer is the cutting of some weaker cards to make room for Goblin Matron and friends. Although Matron's main role is to find KJ, from there she can be cloned to find additional goblins for utility and combos. Of particular note is Lightning Crafter , which comboes with KJ + Goblin Chirurgeon . She can also find Goblin Sharpshooter to pair with Splinter Twin , and even be the first one to be shot and start the chain.

We have 14-15 tutors depending on how you count. They consist of:

Creatures that Tutor (8)

Instants and Sorceries that Tutor (6)

Conditional Tutors

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 18 of our 27 creatures, including Felidar Guardian for an additional search (Imperial only), or KJ for multiple searches (either).

Except for Rector, all the other creature tutors lead to winning lines with sufficient mana (sometimes with Aurelia's help). I've listed them below, as well as the total mana invested (assuming a single cast for Aurelia). The max throughput is the maximum amount of mana needed at one time, not taking into account color requirements. Just to get a feel, hitting all your land drops gives you a total of 6 mana by turn 3, 10 mana by turn 4. If you drop a T1 Mana Crypt and no other ramp, that becomes 12 mana by turn 3, 18 mana by turn 4.

As you can see, although our "headline" combo is Aurelia + HoH, it is quite intensive even in these simple lines, in terms of total mana and mana throughput, and hence difficult to pull off. Thus in practice, it is far easier to execute a KJ combo, usually with Felidar Guardian .

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.

Lightning Crafter - helps turn Goblin Matron into a potential wincon, by comboing with KJ + Chirurgeon. Only has 5 non-KJ targets in the deck, including Treasonous Ogre (a Shaman), and Siege-Gang Commander - can if you're desperate also try and copy someone else Goblin or Shaman with Mirage Mirror .

Goblin Chirurgeon - primarily here so that Goblin Matron + KJ can tutor up a full combo, but also serves as a way to protect our other combo creatures by saccing itself, turning into Angelic Renewal # 2 (no combo with Sun Titan + Bombardment unfortunately - you can't regen a sacrifice).

Goblin Bombardment - tutorable, enables some combos, and on theme. Has synergy with both Academy Rector and Managara of Corondor.

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

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

Academy Rector - More targets makes + sac outlets make this much better in this version of the deck. Double recruitable.

Mangara of Corondor - A piece of spot removal that's double recruitable as well as legendary for Lancers. Can be sacced in response to activation to recur later, and can be abused with Mirage Mirror , Restoration Angel , or HoH.

Siege-Gang Commander - Gives us spot removal, blockers, and clamp targets. Double recruitable and a goblin for Goblin Matron .

Sun Titan - gives us some recursion, great with sac and fetch lands, Enables combos with Angelic Renewal , 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 go for Twin + Goblin Sharpshooter , KJ + Lightning Charger, or one of the combos involving Goblin Bombardment or Outpost Siege in Dragons mode. If we're up against some kind of Glacial Chasm -like effect, we can still use the RIP + Helm of Possession combo to win.

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.

Goblin Matron is intended to fetch KJ, and then, if you don't have any other things to combo with, combine with him to get Lightning Crafter and Goblin Chirurgeon for the win. If you don't have the mana to cast KJ for additional searches, and don't think you'll survive to draw into it, you'll have to carefully evaluate your hand and the board. If you have an enchantment/aura tutor in hand, you can try and set up for Sharpshooter + Twin. If you need blockers, get Siege-Gang Commander . Finally, getting Lightning Crafter by itself can help you stabilize against 3-6 toughness creatures (threaten to block and bolt), while giving you another search if it dies and you've championed the Matron. Notice that Crafter can also champion Treasonous Ogre , as it is a shaman.

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 or 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, Twin (in value mode), Mother of Runes , Goblin Sharpshooter , Lightning Crafter , 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 Plains 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.

Knollspine Dragon - Cut for Skullclamp , which is more tutorable

  • Skirk Prospector - already barely squeezed in the Goblin package, but we don't run enough Goblins (esp tokens) to make it a useful way to ramp, so doesn't do much on its own.

  • 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 Hidetsugu - 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 - Flavorful, and would be good with Grenzo, but unncessary.

  • 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, and has a crap body, unlike Sparring Mummy.

  • 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.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

Casual

99% Competitive