(Havengul Lich| Art by James Ryman)
Zombies, Pirates and Ninjas – Oh My!
Welcome back to Wombo Combo, the article series where we explore the best EDH combo cards in each distinct color identity, with help from EDHREC and Commander Spellbook! This edition of Wombo Combo marks the starting point for us to cover dual-color color identities, starting off with the combination of blue and black, which is commonly referred to as Dimir.
Dimir is a key color identity for many popular creature types, such as Ninjas, Zombies, Pirates, and Wraiths. Dimir is also the main color pair for mill-type effects, as well as graveyard recursion/interaction. If you are looking to get into the darker side of Magic, then Dimir may fit the bill perfectly. Let’s take a look at the best combo cards to make your opponents black and blue (figuratively, of course).
#10: Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver
Deck Inclusions: 17,727 as commander (#7); 17,365 as card (2.028%)
Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver is one of the Top 10 most used commanders according to EDHREC, and also makes our list of the Top 10 Dimir combo cards. Wilhelt is an extremely strong commander for Zombie-focused decks, allowing you to replenish your horde with more Zombies, and allowing you some card advantage as well. Wilhelt also enables combos by creating additional tokens, which can be used to pay sacrifice costs (such as Sidisi, Undead Vizier‘s Exploit cost) or to create extra mana by sacrificing them to Phyrexian Altar or Ashnod’s Altar.
#9: Possessed Skaab / Vampire Charmseeker
Number of Combos: 20 (Possessed Skaab); 19 (Vampire Charmseeker)
Deck Inclusions: 1,141 (Possessed Skaab – 0.133%); 372 (Vampire Charmseeker – 0.043%)
Possessed Skaab and Vampire Charmseeker allow for easy recursion of instants, sorceries, and/or creature cards to your hand. Possessed Skaab and Vampire Charmseeker are slightly more expensive versions of a card like Archaeomancer, with the added benefit of possibily returning creature cards to your hand, should you need to do so. The most common way to combo with Possessed Skaab and/or Vampire Charmseeker is to utilize cards that make tokens, and use the tokens to return that creature generator. Another easy combo is to make a token copy using Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker to return an extra-turn spell to your hand for easy infinite turns.
#8: Skeleton Ship
Deck Inclusions: 617 as commander (#1,017); 364 as card (0.043%)
One of the oldest and most unique cards on this list, Skeleton Ship has an interesting ability that allows for easy combo potential with Undying cards like Geralf’s Messenger or Butcher Ghoul. To do this, simply sacrifice an undying creature (without a +1/+1 counter on it) to a sacrifice outlet, and return it with its Undying ability. Untap all creatures using Intruder Alarm, or untap Skeleton Ship on the death of the creature using Thornbite Staff, and then tap Skeleton Ship to get rid of the undying creature’s +1/+1 counters. In a worst case scenario, there is also a chance to draw the game with the next card on our Top 10.
#7: Jon Irenicus, Shattered One
Deck Inclusions: 5,461 as commander (#140); 1,714 as card (0.227%)
Jon Irenicus, Shattered One is a unique card for the Wombo Combo series, in that it is not used for infinite combos, but rather to draw the game. Because of Jon Irenicus’ ability, when an opponent gains control of a creature you control, they cannot sacrifice it. Because of that, if there is an ability that forces a sacrifice, and will continue to force the sacrifice, this ends the game in a draw due to creating a sequence of uninterruptible game actions. For example, if you give Skeleton Ship to an opponent that controls no islands, the first ability will trigger. However, Jon Irenicus prevents this sacrifice from taking place, causing the ability to do nothing. Because the opponent will continue to control no islands, Skeleton Ship’s ability triggers again, and the game will eventually end in a draw. There are plenty of other unique cards that do this with Jon Irenicus, such as Dandân, Bronze Bombshell or Seasinger. You may also use Assault Suit in place of Jon Irenicus instead.
#6: Cavern Harpy
Deck Inclusions: 2,868 (0.335%)
If having déjà vu is your business, then Cavern Harpy is a perfect inclusion for your deck. Cavern Harpy allows you to cast it and then simply bounce it back to your hand, either using its first ability or its second ability later on. Being able to repeatedly cast a creature opens up great opportunities with enter-the-battlefield and leave-the-battlefield triggers. The simplest combo involving Cavern Harpy is to use Aluren or Morophon, the Boundless to cast it for free, and then bounce it using its first ability. You may also use enter-the-battlefield token generators, such as Blessed Sanctuary, to create tokens that can be sacrificed to Phyrexian Altar to pay Cavern Harpy’s mana cost.
#5: Venser, Corpse Puppet
Deck Inclusions: 956 as commander (#811); 2,836 as card (0.545%)
Venser, Corpse Puppet is a new commander-eligible card released in Phyrexia: All Will Be One that has a heavy affinity for proliferating, as most Phyrexian cards did during these sets. Whenever you proliferate, Venser allows you to create a legendary 3/3 Golem artifact creature token named The Hollow Sentinel if you don’t control one already, or allowing a creature you control to gain flying or lifelink until end of turn. For combo purposes, the first ability is most important, allowing for combo lines with cards such as Tainted Observer, Throne of Geth and Viral Drake. As proliferating is a popular theme among many commanders, including the #1 commander on EDHREC: Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice, Venser can be an easy slot-in for easy proliferating benefits as well as a potential infinite combo.
#4: Havengul Lich
Deck Inclusions: 16,290 (1.902%)
Havengul Lich is a key recursion card, allowing for you to cast any creature card from your graveyard by simply paying one mana extra. Havengul Lich has strong combo ties with mana-neutral (cards that pay for themselves) or mana-positive (cards that pay for themselves and net additional mana) cards, such as Dockside Extortionist, Myr Moonvessel and Priest of Gix. You can also use token generators, such as Myr Battlesphere, along with Ashnod’s Altar or another mana sacrifice outlet. Another interesting piece of Havengul Lich is that is gains the activated abilities of cards you cast, which can have some combo potential in the same vein as Volrath, the Shapestealer, or just create some unique interactions to make your game more interesting,
#3: Satoru Umezawa
Deck Inclusions: 10,263 as commander (#38); 12,897 as card (1.521%)
If you’re a fan of Ninjas and Ninjutsu, then you probably know about Satoru Umezawa. Satoru is one of the main commanders for Ninja and Ninjutsu decks, alongside the also Dimir Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow. What’s unique about Satoru is that he allows all creatures you own to have ninjutsu. Imagine being on the battlefield and then getting blindsided by a Great Whale, or perhaps a Colossal Dreadmaw. Yikes. Alongside other creatures with cheap ninjutsu costs, such as Silver-Fur Master or Moon-Circuit Hacker, you can alternate between Great Whale or Palinchron and the Ninjutsu creature for an easy infinite mana combo.
#2: Dimir Aqueduct
Deck Inclusions: 152,532 (17.809%)
Dimir Aqueduct is one of the few combo cards that could feasibly find its way into every single deck. While Dimir Aqueduct may not be the best land for Dimir decks, especially comapred to Underground Sea, it is certainly good for budget builds, or as an addition to the peak lands like Underground Sea. Dimir Aqueduct is referred to as a “bounceland” because it bounces a land when it enters the battlefield, and it also has the ability to bounce itself. If you have a repeatable way to play Dimir Aqueduct, using a card like Walking Atlas, you can easily rack up infinite Landfall triggers, for cards such as Retreat to Hagra or Scute Swarm. Even if you don’t look to combo with it, Dimir Aqueduct can be a good inclusion to your next mana base.
#1: Time Sieve
Deck Inclusions: 26,403 (3.083%)
Time Sieve tops off our Dimir list by an extremely wide margin, and is a strong candidate for all the artificers out there. Time Sieve aims to be a more balanced Time Vault, requiring five additional artifacts to activate and give you the extra turn. Thus, if you can create five artifact tokens and/or play five artifacts a turn, you get infinite turns. There are multitudes of ways to accomplish this, using cards such as Thopter Foundry, Dockside Extortionist, Bootleggers’ Stash or Thopter Assembly. If you control a bunch of cheap artifact creatures, you could also use the aforementioned Havengul Lich to recur and cast the five creatures each turn. Even if you can’t go infinite with Time Sieve, you can certainly get several extra turns in an artifact-heavy deck, which could be the difference between defeat and sweet, sweet victory.
Honorable Mentions
While these cards may not have quite made the Top 10, they can still be great additions for your combo achieving needs:
Silas Renn, Seeker Adept: Another solid card for artifact decks, Silas Renn is a great choice for a partner commander. You can then add whatever partner you desire to get up to two extra colors to work with. Don’t forget to add Time Sieve!
Eloise, Nephalia Sleuth: A good commander to helm a creature recursion deck, Eloise can turn your creatures into Clues, and then let you surveil when you sacrifice the Clues.
Grimgrin, Corpse-Born: A free sacrifice outlet in the command zone is always beneficial for combos, and one that can also untap itself is surely a bonus.
Kels, Fight Fixer: Kels allows you to draw a card whenever a creature dies, unlocking combo possibilities with cards such as Nadir Kraken or The Locust God.
Thank you very much for reading this edition of Wombo Combo! Be sure to look out for the next edition, and visit Commander Spellbook for more EDH combos, or to submit your own! Also, feel free to join our Commander Spellbook Discord server for EDH discussion, and to vote on the next edition of Wombo Combo!
Read more:
Myth Realized – What if Any Planeswalker Could Be Your Commander? (Dimir)
Wombo Combo – Mono-Blue Edition
Ethan looks at the best combos in one of EDH’s most popular color pairings. Read More Articles, cavern harpy, combo, Commander Spellbook, dimir, dimir aqueduct, havengul lich, jon irenicus shattered one, possessed skaab, Satoru Umezawa, skeleton ship, time sieve, vampire charmseeker, Venser Corpse Puppet, Wilhelt the Rotcleaver, wombo combo EDHREC
