This is a casual EDH deck which aims to end the game in a draw. This began as a deck-building exercise, but to my surprise and delight it is quite playable and fun. I still often bring it to my regular game, and it has not seemed to wear out its welcome. The group game dynamic of this deck is surprisingly ordinary, given its goals. It plays out like any other two-card monte combo deck. I try to hide behind my pillowfort, and sometimes I manage to assemble a combo and the game ends. My "victory" condition is weird, but the play pattern feels ordinary.
Design constraints
I have made two design choices that I think are important to this deck's character.
First, there are no nods to consistency in this deck. I avoid tutors and graveyard recursion, and have very little card draw. Once I draw into a combo, I can use cards like
Silence
or
Counterspell
to try to land it, but I need to draw into it naturally. This deck could be made a lot stronger by abandoning this, but the constraint keeps the success rate of the deck low, which I believe helps it not wear out its welcome. (The exception to this rule is the mana base: this five color deck uses a healthy amount of ramp and fixing to function.)
Second, I avoided infinite mana combos. Infinite mana allows you to deal 1000 damage to each player, or (more entertainingly) have each player draw 1000 cards. Either effect would end the game in a draw. This could be made very consistent, but it would play out like an ordinary infinite mana deck, with a mildly odd payoff. Instead, I aim for a wide variety of unique draws.
Playing the deck
The role of
Child of Alara
in this deck is to block and to stall. If one player is far ahead, the rest of the table will be hoping for a board wipe, and often someone will be willing and able to kill your commander. Note that after a recent rules change, you cannot prevent Child of Alara's death trigger by sending it back to the command zone. This makes your commander a liability when attempting to combo off.
Many of the combo pieces in this deck affect the board state in weird ways. Playing a card like
AEther Flash
or
Life and Limb
when you haven't found the other half of the combo can still inject some chaos into the game. It's sub-optimal, but fun.
The combos
Divine Intervention
Divine Intervention
(explicit effect)
Divine Intervention is expensive and slow, but it would be criminal not to include this card in a "draw the game" deck. It can draw the game entirely on its own, but it makes you the immediate problem at the table and will draw incredible amounts of hate.
If you don't think you can survive this hate, it's better to wait, and try to combo off with
Vampire Hexmage
or
Hex Parasite
. Divine Intervention ends the game in a draw if any ability you control removes the last counter from it.
Rain of Gore
Rain of Gore + Transcendence
(trigger loop)
Whenever you lose life,
Transcendence
's triggered ability causes you to gain life, with
Rain of Gore
replaces with a loss of life. Transcendence's static ability prevents this life loss from killing you. This will repeat indefinitely unless interrupted.
Day of the Dragons
Day of the Dragons + Opalescence
(trigger loop)
With an
Opalescence
in play, when
Day of the Dragons
enters the battlefield, its first trigger will exile itself along with any other creatures you control. This will cause the second trigger to fire, returning Day of the Dragons to the battlefield. This will repeat indefinitely unless interrupted.
Polyraptor
AEther Flash + Polyraptor
(trigger loop)
With an
AEther Flash
in play, when
Polyraptor
enters the battlefield, Aether Flash will trigger and deal it damage. This will create a token copy of Polyraptor, restarting the process. This will repeat indefinitely unless interrupted.
Marauding Raptor
is a backup Aether Flash.
Ajani's Chosen
Ajani's Chosen + Enchanted Evening
(trigger loop)
With
Enchanted Evening
in play, when
Ajani's Chosen
enters the battlefield, it sees itself enter as an enchantment, and its trigger fires. The trigger creates a cat token which is also an enchantment, repeating the process. This will repeat indefinitely unless interrupted. Unlike most creature-based combos in this deck, this combo is not fragile to creature removal.
Pitiless Plunderer draww
Pitiless Plunderer
plus either
March of the Machines
or
Titania's Song
(trigger loop)
Pitiless Plunderer
causes you to create treasure tokens whenever a creature you control dies. These treasures have a mana value of 0. With either
March of the Machines
or
Titania's Song
in play, all artifacts with mana value 0 are 0/0 creatures, and die immediately. If a creature you control dies with this combo in play, this causes an endless loop of triggers creating 0/0 creatures, unless interrupted.
The safest way to kick this combo off is to have a mana value 0 artifact in play already. This deck already has a few, but I'm considering adding some treasure-based fixing to my deck to improve the chances. (
Smothering Tithe
is a strong consideration.)
Sporemound
Life and Limb + Sporemound
(trigger loop)
This is almost identical to the Ajani's Chosen combo. If you have both
Life and Limb
and
Sporemound
out, playing any land will cause Sporemound to trigger, creating a Saproling. Life and Limb causes that token to enter as a Forest, repeating the combo. This will repeat indefinitely unless interrupted.
It helps to have fetchlands open when attempting to combo off; if a player takes an action to interrupt the combo, you can crack a fetchland in response to begin a new combo.
Stuffy Doll
Pariah + Stuffy Doll
(trigger loop)
Cast
Stuffy Doll
naming yourself. Then enchant it with Pariah. If any source deals you damage, that damage is instead dealt to Stuffy Doll. Stuffy Doll will trigger, dealing that much damage to you, repeating the process.
Pariah's Shield
is an alternate Pariah.
Naming yourself with Stuffy Doll is a suspicious action, and always puts the table on high alert. Be careful picking your moment to attempt this combo. Having counter backup certainly helps. Don't forget that
City of Brass
can be used to deal yourself damage to start or restart this combo.
Helm of Obedience Draw
Helm of Obedience + Wheel of Sun and Moon
(looping ability)
With
Wheel of Sun and Moon
attached to an opponent, activate
Helm of Obedience
targeting that opponent. This ability makes the opponent mill cards until X cards have entered the graveyard. Wheel of Sun and Moon's replacement effect prevents any cards from entering the graveyard, and also prevents the opponent from running out of cards.
The opponent you target is of course free to concede in response to the Helm activation, so choose carefully. You want someone who enjoys shenanigans, not someone who is competitive enough to scoop to your draw out of spite.
Assault Suit
Assault Suit
+ various creatures (looping state triggers)
This is a weird card, and it inspired me to make this deck! Many creatures have state triggers that require you to sacrifice them. A state trigger (rule 603.8) is one that triggers when some condition is true, rather than when some event happens. They'll normally only resolve once, because the trigger's effect always removes the trigger or triggering condition. However, unusual game states can result in a state-triggered ability that survives the trigger. If this happens and the condition is still met, the trigger fires again immediately. This can cause for some unusual game loops.
Assault Suit says that the equipped creature can't be sacrificed. These combos take advantage of that.
Assault Suit +
Bronze Bombshell
is the simplest version. Equip the Bombshell and pass. Have the next player gain control of Bronze Bombshell. Its state trigger will immediately fire, but your opponent won't be able to sacrifice it, so the state trigger will keep firing unless interrupted.
Assault Suit +
Phylactery Lich
is almost as simple. Normally the phylactery counter goes on the Assault Suit itself. When your opponent gains control of your Lich, you still control the Suit, so your opponent controls no permanent with a phylactery counter, starting the state trigger loop.
Assault Suit +
Phyrexian Devourer
wins on your turn. Equip the Devourer, and then start activating its {0}-cost ability until it grows large enough that you activate the state trigger loop.
Platinum Angel effects
Platinum Angel
or
Angel's Grace
comboing with
Immortal Coil
or
Transcendence
While Platinum Angel often serves as a defensive card in this deck, there are state trigger combos around ending the game.
Both
Immortal Coil
and
Transcendence
have state triggers that cause you to lose the game. If you can arrange to have one of these conditions be met while you have a
Platinum Angel
or
Angel's Grace
shield online, the game will end in a state trigger loop.
Be careful with
Angel's Grace
, as the shield only lasts for the turn. If trying to go off with
Angel's Grace
and
Immortal Coil
, be sure to count the Angel's Grace itself as one of the graveyard cards that needs to be removed. Casting it in response to the state trigger doesn't work, as it puts a card in the graveyard.
Garruk Relentless Draw
Garruk Relentless + Spark Double
(looping state triggers)
A fragile but funny combo. If you can have
Spark Double
enter the battlefield as a copy of
Garruk Relentless
, and activate its first loyalty ability to get it down to 2 or 1 loyalty, its state trigger will fire, instructing you to transform it. But, since Spark Double is not a double-faced card, when the trigger resolves, nothing happens. As with the Assault Suit combo, this ability will keep being placed on the stack unless interrupted, causing a draw.
Permanent Armageddon (accidental combo)
Enchanted Evening + Opalescence
This is NOT a draw. The combo is accidentally in the deck, as each piece of it is part of an actual draw-the-game combo. But if you draw it and decide to play it, I won't hold it against you. It's too funny.
If you play both of these cards, all lands become 0/0 creatures and are removed from the battlefield. This also happens to any new land that enters the battlefield.
