Combos are one of the most difficult parts of Magic. They're not exactly complex: Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood on the same table loop together and win the game, that part's easy. The difficult part is knowing where the line is for combos being used in casual Commander.

Today, we'll be talking about how I use combos in casual Commander with the help of Breya, Etherium Shaper. While Breya can scale up to higher power, even to the point of cEDH once upon a time, we use very specific methods to keep ourselves in check, so we don't pubstomp the entire table. Don't get it twisted though. This deck can absolutely win games through a grind or completely out of nowhere.

History of Breya

Breya, Etherium Shaper was first printed in the famous Commander 2016 precons, which included Atraxa, Praetors' Voice, Saskia the Unyielding, and Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder. What made this set so good was the introduction of four-color Commanders and Partners, both of which are still seeing play to this day.

Breya was the Artificer of the group and was very quickly tuned toward higher power combo decks thanks to her four colors and Activated Abilities that can funnel infinite mana into winning the game. Being able to play cards like Demonic Tutor, Smothering Tithe, Rhystic Study, and Jeska's Will in the same deck can lead to some incredibly powerful plays.

While the Partners eventually became more popular in the combo space since they didn't rely on Artifacts as much, Breya has remained a go to Commander for players who want to build an Artifact deck with a massive card pool, which is how we got to our deck, Air Raid.

What is Air Raid?

Air Raid is a Breya, Etherium Shaper Commander deck based around Thopters and Artifact Creatures. The combo in this deck that I fell in love with early in my Magic journey is Thopter Blade, which was originally used in sixty card Control decks.

This combo consists of two cards: Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek. The rest of the deck wants to either make Thopters, support Thopters, support Artifacts, or help us find our combo pieces.

Air Raid | Levi Perry | Commander

• Commander (1)
• 1 Breya, Etherium Shaper

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Breya's Apprentice
• 1 Illustrious Wanderglyph
• 1 Iron Spider, Stark Upgrade
• 1 Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain
• 1 Loyal Apprentice
• 1 Master of Etherium
• 1 Ornithopter of Paradise
• 1 Oswald Fiddlebender
• 1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1 Sharding Sphinx
• 1 Spellskite
• 1 Steel Overseer
• 1 Stridehangar Automaton
• 1 Thought Monitor
• 1 Tribute Mage
• 1 Urza, Chief Artificer
• 1 Urza, Lord High Artificer
• 1 Vedalken Archmage

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Daretti, Scrap Savant
• 1 Saheeli, Filigree Master
• 1 Tezzeret, Artifice Master

• Instants (14)
• 1 Access Denied
• 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Desynchronization
• 1 Dovin's Veto
• 1 Fell the Profane
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Pongify
• 1 Reality Shift
• 1 Sink into Stupor
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Whir of Invention

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Lorien Revealed
• 1 Organic Extinction
• 1 Vandalblast

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Efficient Construction
• 1 Smothering Tithe
• 1 Storm the Vault
• 1 Thopter Spy Network
• 1 Warleader's Call

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Dimir Signet
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Orzhov Signet
• 1 Patchwork Banner
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Salvation Engine
• 1 Shorikai, Genesis Engine
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Sword of the Meek
• 1 Thopter Foundry
• 1 Uthros Research Craft

• Battles (1)
• 1 Invasion of Kaladesh

• Lands (36)
• 2 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 3 Plains
• 2 Swamp
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Caves of Koilos
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Raugrin Triome
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Sea of Clouds
• 1 Spectator Seating
• 1 Spire of Industry
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Training Center
• 1 Vault of Champions
• 1 Watery Grave

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How the Combo Works

When Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek are both in play, we can activate Thopter Foundry's ability for one mana, sacrificing Sword of the Meek to make a 1/1 Blue Thopter with Flying in addition to gaining one life. When that Thopter enters, Sword of the Meek returns from the graveyard attached to it.

This Creates a loop where we can pay one mana to make a 1/1 Thopter and gain one life as many times as we can pay for. We can create infinite mana by including Urza, Lord High Artificer or Ashnod's Altar.

Plan A

While this combo can and will end the game, it isn't the only way we can make an impact. Thopter tokens are evasive, expansive, and expendable. Since they can Fly, they block nearly every attacker coming our way, and they can Fly over the top of our opponents when we attack.

While they start as 1/1 tokens, we have multiple cards dedicated to giving our Artifact Creatures buffs and +1/+1 Counters until they're hitting like Dragons.

Notable Cards

Sharding Sphinx is everything this deck wants to do and more. Every time an Artifact Creature connects for combat damage, we make a 1/1 Thopter token. This includes our Artifact tokens, so as long as we can attack someone who can't or won't block, we can effectively double our army every turn.

With all these tokens being created, Stridehangar Automaton becomes a serious threat. Every time we create a token, it's accompanied by an additional 1/1 Thopter. This even includes tokens from cards like Smothering Tithe. The cherry on top is that it also gives our Thopters +1/+1. We can't ask for much more than that.

Invasion of Kaladesh is an underappreciated card for a deck like this. For two mana, we get two Thopter tokens. That's a fantastic rate on such a low curve. We can also attack the battle to flip it into Aetherwing, Golden Scale Flagship, a Flying Vehicle with power equal to the number of Artifacts we control.

With that same idea in mind, we also have Master of Etherium and Urza, Chief Artificer, among others. These Creatures can grow to enormous sizes and offset one of the deck's biggest weaknesses, which is having an army of really small Creatures.

Players are often willing to attack into a board of 1/1s because they assume we'll chump block anyway. When we suddenly have a couple of 12/12 Creatures, attacking us becomes a much less attractive option.

Board wipes like Organic Extinction and Desynchronization can completely wipe an opponent's board while leaving ours relatively untouched. Since we're consistently chipping in for damage with small Flyers, these spells help us push through those last few points of damage by clearing away blockers.

Playing Air Raid

Playing this deck is going to go one of two ways depending on our opening hand. If we have a Tutor or combo piece immediately, we want to play defensively. We'll use our Flying Thopters as blockers and counterattack if anyone overextends into us. We want to buy time until we get our combo online.

If we don't have any combo pieces, we want to establish a board and get a card draw engine going. We should be adding Thopters and Artifact Creatures every turn to keep the pressure on. Getting one of our Anthem effects or +1/+1 Counter engines online is essential for turning our 1/1 attackers into 3/3s or even bigger threats.

At any point in the game, assembling the Thopter Blade combo is usually the correct play, even if we can't produce infinite mana. It's rare that spending one mana on anything else is better than making a 1/1 Thopter and gaining one life. If we can keep that going turn after turn, our opponents will struggle to break through our wall of blockers while we slowly overrun the table.

Conclusion

Combos can be an exciting part of Commander if they're used correctly. There's still a lot of stigma around combos on the casual side of the format, but as I've said before, not all combos are created equal, and not every combo in Magic belongs in Bracket 4 or cEDH.

Combos can be an excellent Plan B and help close out games that have become completely gridlocked in combat. As is the case with Air Raid, this is first and foremost a deck that cares about Thopter tokens and simply has access to a combo when it needs one.

If we want to raise the Power Level further, we can always add something like Time Sieve. But as it stands, Air Raid is designed to play in Bracket 3 pods and performs well in that space.

Of course, with any infinite combo, check with the table to make sure everyone is comfortable playing against it. If they aren't, all these pieces can still be played independently of each other.