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[PRIMER] Combo, er no? (ECL updated!)

Pioneer BG (Golgari) Combo Midrange

Esper879

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Land (24)

Creature (32)

Sorcery (4)

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Instant (9)

Creature (2)

Sorcery (2)

Maybeboard

Artifact (2)

Combo, ’Er No

It doesn't look lethal… and that’s the lie.

This deck does not win quickly. This deck wins forever.

Bloodthirsty Conqueror pairs with a small army of life-gain punishers to form a closed-loop life economy that turns Pioneer into a graduate seminar on mandatory triggers. One half of the engine converts opponent life loss into life gain. The other half converts your life gain right back into opponent life loss. Once the loop begins, the stack grows, the table sighs, and someone starts Googling “can I concede at instant speed.”

This isn’t a combo that explodes — it grinds. Life totals balloon into nonsense, opponents are drained one trigger at a time, and everyone learns the hard way that “non-may” abilities were a mistake. If the judge is watching, it’s not to stop you — it’s to make sure you don’t miss a trigger and accidentally end the suffering early.

Pioneer is a format built on hope: hope that your opponent is doing something reasonable, hope that life totals still matter, hope that games eventually end. This deck exists to methodically remove that hope.

At its core, this is a life-drain combo deck that pretends to be midrange until it absolutely refuses to be. With Bloodthirsty Conqueror on the battlefield and any effect that turns your life gain into opponent life loss — Enduring Tenacity, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, or Starscape Cleric — a single life-gain event is enough to start a deterministic loop of mandatory triggers.

You gain life. They lose life. That life loss causes you to gain life again. That life gain causes more life loss. The loop feeds itself until the game state changes or someone runs out of life — usually the opponent.

This deck is a carefully calibrated act of aggression disguised as a value pile.

The mana base prioritizes painless access to both colors with lands like Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Overgrown Tomb, and Wastewood Verge, because nothing says “fair Magic” like casting double-pipped spells on turn three. Early acceleration from Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic ensures you’re always one turn ahead of interaction — the most irritating place to be in Pioneer.

Formidable Speaker and Virulent Emissary smooth development while quietly setting up truly offensive Eldritch Evolution lines. Deathrite Shaman adds mana fixing, incidental drain, and the gentle reminder that graveyards are also off-limits.

The top end is where decorum fully collapses. Overlord of the Balemurk digs for combo pieces while threatening to end the game the “honest” way, and Overlord of the Hauntwoods ramps you directly into “why is this allowed” territory. Every card either advances the combo, finds the combo, or dares the opponent to answer it immediately.

This deck wins by creating a rules problem, not a board state.

The primary line is assembling Bloodthirsty Conqueror plus any one of Enduring Tenacity, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, or Starscape Cleric, then initiating a life-gain event.

  • You gain life → Tenacity / Vito / Cleric causes opponent life loss.
  • Opponent loses life → Bloodthirsty Conqueror causes you to gain life.
  • That life gain retriggers the life-loss effect.
  • The loop continues deterministically.

One of the deck’s most infamous lines involves sacrificing Enduring Tenacity to Eldritch Evolution to tutor directly into Bloodthirsty Conqueror, thanks to Evolution’s “mana value X or less” clause. Making this play on turn four — especially with Virulent Emissary already on the battlefield — is an excellent way to ensure your opponent remembers your name.

This deck does not care about combat. It does not care about blockers. It cares about one thing: that the triggers keep happening.

  • Q: Is this actually infinite?
    Yes. Once a life-gain event occurs with Bloodthirsty Conqueror and a life-gain→life-loss effect in play, the triggered abilities form a deterministic loop. Neither trigger is optional.
  • Q: Does the loop start automatically?
    No. A life-gain event must occur to start the chain. Once it starts, no further player actions are required.
  • Q: Can opponents respond during the loop?
    Players receive priority as normal, but unless interaction removes a combo piece or prevents life gain or loss, responding does not stop the loop.
  • Q: Can this result in a draw?
    No. The loop changes the game state in a meaningful way and deterministically reduces an opponent’s life total to zero.
  • Q: Does Eldritch Evolution work the way you say it does?
    Yes. Eldritch Evolution allows you to search for a creature with mana value X or less, where X is the sacrificed creature’s mana value plus two. Sacrificing Enduring Tenacity can legally find Bloodthirsty Conqueror.
  • Q: Why does this deck exist?
    To educate the table about mandatory triggers, inevitability, and the importance of reading the card before saying “are you sure?”

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    Casual

    92% Competitive