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While I know I typically am the writer who looks at MTG Finance from the macro level, I do like to jump into the micro level stuff from time to time and War of the Spark has got me excited. This is the first set in a long time that I've actually pre-ordered more than one box and I've also purchased quite a few Feather, the Redeemer specs, many of which have already turned solid profits.
Plenty of other writers have already discussed the Feather, the Redeemed specs and we have seen some other interesting combo's including Celestial Kirin + Ugin's Construct which when you cast the construct for 0 destroys all lands. Though we don't know if that is a viable combo or not.
Some other potential specs I haven't heard people talking about:
Standard
With regards to Feather, the Redeemed, there aren't any standard infinite 2-card combos, simply some interesting synergies.
Feather, the Redeemed
+
Essence Capture
This provides you with an Essence Scatter every turn while making a creature bigger each time. While this combo is very color heavy and it won't be online until likely turn 4 if you have the colors it would lock out a lot of midrange style decks. Unfortunately, Essence Capture is only an uncommon so the price ceiling is very low, thus the potential ROI (Return on Investment) is also not that great.
There was an error retrieving a chart for Essence Capture
+
Ajani's Influence
This combo will add +2/+2 to a creature every one of your turns and digs you for another white card within the top 5. While it may not be as impressive it does provide repeatable card advantage within an RWx deck. I like this option enough to pick up a playset myself, though admittedly when I bought them I was actually thinking of it more for Commander. This spec does have some legs on it though, as you can only get a single copy in the Ajani planeswalker decks, which don't tend to be extremely popular and thus not a lot of copies enter the market. That being said it isn't absurdly powerful and I do fear this one may end up in the old "box of shame specs."
There was an error retrieving a chart for Ajani's Influence
+
Ancient Animus
While this combo requires you to be at least Naya colors, it does provide a slow continual growth of your Feather. She's also a legendary that keeps fighting opposing creatures, meaning you could lock your opponent out of playing creatures for the rest of the game. Sadly this one is a common so any potential ROI on this is basically nothing.
There was an error retrieving a chart for Ancient Animus
+
Jaya's Immolating Inferno
While you have to keep the X in this spell to under 4, unless you can grow Feather's toughness; this does allow you to burn an opponents creature for 3 and your opponent for 3 every single turn, which against some decks would likely prove unbeatable.
There was an error retrieving a chart for Jaya's Immolating Inferno
Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
+
Planewide Celebration
While this doesn't come off as the most impressive combo, Tamiyo allows you to return a card from your graveyard to your hand, and because Planewide Celebration allows you to proliferate three times and then use one of its other modes, you can keep casting Celebration every turn while still getting one other mode on it. This is obviously quite mana intensive, however, with something like Nissa, Who Shakes the World you can get this going as quickly as turn 5. I don't know how powerful this combo could be, but it's important to note that it can be done with just green mana. If you throw in something like Magistrate's Scepter you could easily take infinite turns. I haven't heard anyone mention this interaction before and my love of homebrews makes me really want to build something around this. If you come up with any "must includes" please comment below or message me on QS discord.
There was an error retrieving a chart for Magistrate's Scepter
Doom Whisperer
+
Bolas' Citadel
While this one obviously requires a lot of life, you can use the Doom Whisperer to sculpt the top of your deck and remove lands you don't need. Now the rest of your deck will likely need to be made up of spells that gain you some amount of life to keep this gravy train rolling. However, if you can resolve both these cards with a high life total you can dig through a lot of your deck. The fact that this interaction is entirely possible in Mono-Black means that it could fit into a multitude of potential shells. The most obvious pairing is with white thanks to cards like Revitalize and Ritual of Rejuvenation, which thanks to gaining more life than they cost, come off as free spells with added benefits.
There was an error retrieving a chart for Doom Whisperer
Ral, Storm Conduit
+2x Expansion//Explosion
+ any instant or sorcery that costs 4 or less.
This one has been discussed before but it's still worth noting. While it seems somewhat convoluted, the basic idea is that you cast your cheap instant or sorcery with a Ral in play and then Expansion it, and then Expansion the Expansion. This creates an infinite loop of copies that then trigger Ral's static ability, pinging the opponent to death. It's not even that mana intensive, as if the Ral is already in play you can go off with only 5 mana at instant speed. However, it does require three specific cards and then one that could be one of many, so it may not be all that consistent. It is important to note that Ral's first ability can help you dig towards a missing piece and his second is pretty powerful on its own.
Conclusion
While none of these appear to be anywhere near as broken as Deceiver Exarch + Splinter Twin, whenever you have any type of powerful combos in standard it's important to take notice, especially given that the Standard card pool is so much smaller than eternal formats, so the ability to interact with these types of combos is far more limited.
While I didn't find anything that screams "perfect speculation target" while looking for these combos, I think it's important to make people aware of them as once the Magic hivemind gets its wheels turning we can very quickly come to an optimized build. If you felt like I missed any standard combos that we now have thanks to War of the Spark, please let me know below.
I’m going to try the Planewide Celebration/Magistrate’s Scepter combo in a Turbo Fog build. Tamiyo, Collector of Tales allows it to go infinite.
https://twitter.com/MTGA7510/status/1124523138904…