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Ten Cool Combos from Commander Legends

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Hello folks! I hope you are doing well and keeping yourself safe in our modern COVID-19 world!

I've spend time reviewing a lot of articles and more about cards from Commander Legends, and there are some cool combos I saw that weren't getting talked about, so I wanted to take some time and space to do precisely that for you!

Here we go!

10. Commander's Plate and Isamaru, Hound of Konda

Commander's Plate
Isamaru, Hound of Konda

This cool combo works best with our good friend the Hound of Konda as your Commander. This could be a nice-looking Voltron option if you want to give your Dog some pants for the holidays. I got the Hound on a random challenge last year which you can see here. Now imagine these turns: Turn one - land, drop Isamaru. Turn two - land, drop Commander's Plate. Turn three - Equip Commander and swing with a 5/5 Hound of Konda and with protection from every color save one of the least played - White. That's pretty kickin'!

9. Tormod, the Desecrator

9a. Tormod, the Desecrator and Reanimation

Tormod, the Desecrator
Doomed Necromancer

The obvious partner for Tormod is to run him with reanimation effects like Doomed Necromancer. You can recur a key critter and then net a Tormod Trigger for a tapped Zombie token. You can also get this trigger for recursion that's not reanimation, such as Regrowth and Eternal Witness. Good stuff!

9b. Tormod, the Desecrator and Self-Exiling Effects

Bojuka Bog
Tormod's Crypt

Most Commander decks run graveyard answers like Tormod's Crypt and Bojuka Bog given how prolific graveyard abuse is in the format. Anytime your stuff is exiled by a foe, you net that trigger. Note that Tormod only triggers once, no matter how many cards are removed, so a Crypt will just get you one Zombie token. Feel free to turn cards like Bojuka Bog on yourself to get that trigger of Tormod if there is nothing else out there.

9c. Tormod, the Desecrator and Tuck Effects

Junktroller
Soldevi Digger

The obvious combos for Tormod, the Desecrator were either reanimation/recursion (pulling a card from your graveyard with something like Obzedat's Will) or exiling (like the self-named Tormod's Crypt...) But don't sleep on the tuck cards that will send one of the cards to your library from your graveyard, and then get a Tormod Trigger. Junktroller will tap and let you reload a key spell that you might want to redraw, or a land you don't care about and collect a juicy Tormod'ing, which is now a verb I guess. You can also put a problem card or something about to be recurred by Eternal Witness back into a foe's library so it has multiple uses. Don't sleep on these effects!

9d. Tormod, the Desecrator and Flashback

Chainer's Edict
Dread Return

If you really want to push Tormod to the next level, you need to run flashback support cards. They'll net you card advantage with the two spells, but more importantly, they'll be exiled from your graveyard, which will trigger Tormod for a 2/2 Zombie token! Shout out to JumpStart which not only will give you a similar effect but will discard a card to fill up the graveyard as well!

8. Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools and Doubling Season et all

Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Doubling Season

I know that Doubling Season may seem like an obvious call out for any planeswalker, but Tevesh Szat takes it really up. Have you seen his ultimate? All Commanders from the battlefield and Command Zones are now yours? That's just... nasty... It shuts down a whole lot of decks as most modern Commander decks are severely built around their leader(s). Grabbing them until they are answered is just nasty good, but hey, he's a 5-drop with just four loyalty who's three +2 activations and then a full turn to ultimate, so he's safe! No, he isn't. See that partner? Give him Green for Doubling Season and Blue for proliferate and you devastate easily on arrival to the battlefield, and then just blow a table out of the water, but without the privilege of doing it quickly.

7. Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist, Donate, and Conspiracy Effects

Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist
Conspiracy
Xenograft
Donate

Gor Muldrok is a force of Salamander-hating fun times. As you can see, the good Gor will give protection from Salamanders to your entire force, including not just creatures, but everything else, which is pretty powerful and rare. The problem is that Salamanders are also pretty rare... enter a card like Xenograft or Conspiracy. Just name Salamanders when they arrive and then your stuff will all be Salamanders. But we still need to give it to our foes, so you can run Donate and similar effects to do just that! Enjoy this cool combo. Note that Xenograft and Donate are both in the colors of Gor Muldrak, so you can do so in a combo deck with him.

6. Prava of the Steel Legion

6a. Prava of the Steel Legion and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper

Prava of the Steel Legion
Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper

By pumping up the butts of tokens on your turn that much, Prava leans into effects like toughness matters, but the problem with Prava is that the effect is only on your turn. How is this a problem? When your foes swing at you your stuff will be a normal sized dork. A humble 1/1 White Soldier like Prava can make won't be a great 2/5 blocker, but just a 1/1. It's only big on your turn. However, it will be big enough for Ikra Shidiqi, as punching with your token will now net you four more life per hit of a token. It also opens up the other two colors for tokens, and uses cards like Army of the Damned and Grizzly Fate nicely together.

6b. Prava of the Steel Legion and Wildfire Effects

Prava of the Steel Legion
Wildfire

Hello folks! Did you forget about the power of Wildfire? You shouldn't have! I built a deck around it! (In real life) You can read about it here. Wildfire was often played in Standard with mana rocks and dorks that would survive the Fires. Like Prava's dorks. Even a 1/1 token is big enough to survive the damage from the Wildfire (although not for long without some help, because if Prava dies with her 4 toughness than your dorks will die as well after she leaves). You could also add in damage based removal like Wave of Reckoning, or damage sweeping that does fewer than four damage like Pyroclasm or a Black mass -X/-X effect like Massacre. These sweeping effects will let you go wide with tokens and then sweep away any problems that might want to block them or swing your way. Good stuff!

5. Bladegriff Prototype and Damage Redirection

Bladegriff Prototype
Captain's Maneuver

The coolest thing about Bladegriff Prototype is that you and a foe can gang up and destroy any nonland permanent that a mutual foe is using to abuse or shutdown the board, from Stasis to Consecrated Sphinx to The Immortal Sun. However, wouldn't it be great if you could make the decision as to what to blow up without leaning on politics? It's too bad that Prototype won't trigger off any damage or else you could use something like Fire Whip to shoot yourself for damage. But it does read combat damage so you'll need to dig deeper into the canon of cards. Enter something like Captain's Maneuver. You can swing at someone with the Protoype and then use the Maneuver to redirect one damage to... you! The damaged foe has to destroy something. While it's unlikely to be their own permanent, you won't have to be as limited in your Vindicating. If it's not a land, you can destroy it! Pretty cool, right? Right!

4. Hullbreacher

4a. Hullbreacher and Prosperity

Hullbreacher
Prosperity

Hullbreacher looks a pretty sexy card, right? Right! I like the look of it with its free Treasures that are from your foe's card draws. It converts draws into Treasure. There was a card that used to be pretty heavy played in metagames called Prosperity that let everyone draw X cards and it was beloved by a bunch of folks out there. I haven't seen anyone (other than me) run one for a while though. Why not dust it off and give it another run in the sun?

4b. Hullbreacher and Tezzeret, Master of Metal and Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge
Tezzeret, Master of Metal

Hello fans of a certain Tezzeret planeswalker! Or artifacts I suppose! Have you made a lot of Lotus Petals with your Hullbreacher? Awesome! Now win the game from Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge's +2 ability! It's repeatable, gains you some life while you use it, and will net you some cool life as well. If you have made just 9 Lotus Petals with something like Prosperity for 3, you could be winning in a turn or two. Just 6 mana is needed for a Prosperity for 5, 15 artifacts, plus whatever else you control, and you can drain 15+ life from everyone? That's just nasty...

3. Archon of Coronation

3a. Archon of Coronation and Earthquake Effects

Archon of Coronation
Earthquake

Hello fun folks! I hope your day is going really nicely! Take another look at Archon of Coronation... you drop it, and then you immediately become the monarch and will draw the card, which is good for the color White. And when folks swing at you to take back the crown, you won't have to worry about taking that damage! But combat damage isn't the only thing being protected. The Archon reminds me of Iroas, God of Victory, who prevents all damage to your attackers, not just combat damage. Use that to keep yourself from taking damage by dropping a sweeper like Earthquake post-Archon. Not only can you wipe up all of the dorks that might have attacked you to regain the Crown, but you also won't take that damage, only your foes will. Good stuff!

3b. Archon of Coronation and Pestilence and Pyrohemia Effects

Pestilence
Pyrohemia

If you liked the Earthquake combo then you'll love this one! Unlike the Earthquake this one will deal damage to all creatures, and as long as someone is still on the battlefield, you'll keep your damage-based sweeper out there. If you only control your Archon, you can deal up to four damage each turn with these out and you'll be fine. You can kill very quickly with them as you can activate up to four on your turn and then up to four on each other opponent's turn, as long as you have that sweet sweet mana.

2. Tuya Bearclaw, Phyrexian Dreadnought and Illusionary Mask

Tuya Bearclaw
Phyrexian Dreadnought
Illusionary Mask

The Phyrexian Dreadnought is a nasty powerful 1-drop that can break faces. But it has a cost. On arrival to the battlefield, you have to pay at least 12 power of dork(s) before it'll party for you. But what if you could remove that cost? You can with Illusionary Mask! This 2-drop can be activated on your turn to drop a dork onto the battlefield face down. For just a colorless mana, the Dreadnought arrives to the party. This combo made a big appearance in older formats like Legacy and Vintage. It'll break Tuya Bearclaw in half as a Commander...here's how it works. Drop the Mask and activate it for one generic mana. You have a 2/2 face down dork. Now drop Tuya, and swing with both. You have a 14/14 Tuya with her Commander damage and a 12/12 trampler before most can summon a defense while they are still mucking about with Cultivate and getting their mana base ready. You can kill with two Commander hits with a 14/14 Tuya. It's so nasty that I built a deck around it after being inspired to do so, which you can check out here.

1. Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

Those combos were nasty, but get ready... When I found this combo when writing a Commander deck over here. Dark Mike didn't appear on Lord Larry Niven's EDHREC page, but a couple of weeks later, he does, so this may not be as much of a hidden combo as it used to be. But hey... it's nasty... so we'll finish with it just like I intended when I created this article. Nevinyrral wants to do one of two things: sweep the board, or arrive and make a ton of Zombie tokens after something else swept the board. You can do both on the same turn, sacrifice your Urborg Tyrant and then invest the mana for his death trigger and then recast him from the Commander Zone with the given tax... but that's a lot of mana and for a non-repeatable phenomenon. But when you control Dark Mike? Now he'll have undying, so you sacrifice him, pay a mana, and he'll pop right back onto the battlefield! (and Mike will die, adding to your dork count). Now when he comes back with a counter to make him 4/7 and he'll trigger his enters-the-battlefield trigger and you'll net a ton of 2/2 Zombies! Don't forget to include Nevinyrral's death in that number! Good stuff!

And there we are! What did you think of my stuff? Anything in here that stood out to you or that you'd like to dig into? Just let me know!

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