Duel Commander: Guide - Combo Metagame

This article is the third in a series of 3 articles covering the Duel Commander meta.

You can check out the first article, centered around aggros, by clicking here. Click here if you'd like to check out the control meta.

Now, let's finally discuss some of the most beloved (and hated) combo decks in the format!

What is a Combo Deck in Duel Commander

All MTG cards are available in Duel Commander, but the banlist is still extensive. Many synergies have come up throughout the years nonetheless. We can't use more than one copy of each card as per the rules of the format, but many tutors and redundant effects see play. Some are clearly better than others in terms of power level, of course.

Combo decks in this format can usually win in many ways. Some of them win the game on the spot (in the sense that a certain combination of cards will simply deal infinite damage or similar), while others need to be executed several times to "resolve" the game.

There are many different options, but I'll only go over the most popular and fun ones, as well as the ones that best exemplify how a certain deck works.

Some decks fit this category simply because there are no better options, particularly Tifa Lockhart and Azusa, Lost but Seeking. These decks don't fit the definition of combo exactly, but, considering the meta, I believe this is the most accurate way to describe them.

Lumra is one of the "newest" combos, as well as the most popular and the combo that has performed the best lately. It is a great example of a "Duel Commander combo" simply because its game plan is quite confusing. It's so confusing that I can't explain it that clearly.

There are many synergies in this list that can give you the win. The "ideal" one, if I had to describe one, is Amulet of Vigor (or Spelunking/Tiller Engine) with Mirrorpool. With your "sacrificeable" lands (or Zuran Orb), you'll be able to put in play as many Lumras as you want. Eventually, you'll return a Shifting Woodland from your graveyard that can then turn into a copy of Lumra (to do that, you'll have to sacrifice your original commander). A Rogue's Passage will make sure she won't be blocked (even though she'll still have summoning sickness at this point).

Obviously, you can also use Six to retrace an Emrakul, the Promised End, or simply cast a Finale of Devastation (creating mana with your Lotus Cobra/Tireless Provisioner...), considering that, once the Lumra loops start, you've already won. But, if your opponent isn't familiar with this list, they'll probably see you playing for a while before they understand what happened.

An interesting detail about this deck is that it plays super strong cards like Primeval Titan, which interacts really well with the rest of the deck. It also plays Glacial Chasm, which is probably the best card to face aggro decks in the entire format. We've been getting more and more options to deal with Chasm's effect, like Spider-Punk and Frenzied Baloth, but still.

Acererak the Archlich is a very funny card. If you never go into "its" dungeon (Tomb of Annihilation), it will never stay in the battlefield. Whenever you go through all of Lost Mine of Phandelver, you'll drain 1 life point and draw a card. Like so, with cards that discount costs like Relic of Legends and Heartless Summoning, you may play your Acererak as many times as you want. This deck actually wants to reach a game state that lets you play Acererak for "0 cost".

Other ways to do that without Relic of Legends includes Carnival of Souls, but as this option costs 1 life point for each Acererak, you'll need a Prism Ring or a Bontu's Monument. There are other cards that discount costs as well, like Urza's Incubator and Jet Medallion. You know what's even cooler? Sometimes you have a lot of mana, and, even if your Acererak costs 1 (instead of 0), you can simply explore the Mad Mage dungeon and draw cards to try to complete your combo. You can even try to find a Tendrils of Agony to finish all at once.

This deck is quite consistent. You can win games even without playing the combo per se, and it plays lots of discards and removals to make sure you survive. But don't be mistaken. It is slow and quite difficult to play!

There are many decks that use this same combo line. Emet-Selch, Unsundered is only the most popular commander for it right now, but Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator was the choice before. This deck tries to win with a loop that starts with a Hoarding Broodlord coming into play.

Once Broodlord is in play, you'll Saw in Half it, tutor Sacrifice (to get mana) and some spell that can reanimate the original Broodlord. Play Yawgmoth's Will, get more mana, tutor Tendrils, and win.

Broodlord combos can usually win in other ways or are "turbo" decks. Emet-Selch is a reanimator-flavored Broodlord combo. At the end of the day, an Archon of Cruelty on the battlefield in turns 3 or 4 will win either way, but it will be less flashy. This combo also shows up in some Aminatou, the Fateshifter decks.

Now that Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh is banned, this is the main storm list in Duel Commander.

Playing a format like Commander and having to rely on a single card to win is not ideal. Lier, Disciple of the Drowned lists play many cards to find High Tide...

Of course, they also play lots of card draw (and some counters to buy time!). As they rely heavily on a few cards, you'll have to find the right time to combo, and Mana Short and Gigadrowse are excellent ways of doing that.

This deck wins with Brain Freeze and other cards that create extra mana with Extraplanar Lens or even Sapphire Medallion. You'll often float over 30 blue mana (Lier lets you play a second High Tide on the same turn and all your cantrips again). This is also a very popular "pure" combo list, particularly because it's super cheap.

You may call me crazy for calling this a combo list when it is clearly an aggro list. My honest answer to that is that it usually plays like an aggro list simply because players always interact with each other in Duel Commander.

The idea behind it is simple: play a Tifa, pump her, and take advantage of Landfall. A fetchland and a Crop Rotation triple her power. A simple Rancor is enough to get her to 18 power. A fetchland and a simple Might of Old Krosa set her power to 20. Seriously, it's that easy.

However, there are so many removals in the meta that this deck actually uses other creatures. Many others. Many of them create mana, interact with Landfall, and protect Tifa herself. This deck might play out like an aggro list, but that only happens because its main combo is easy to interact with.

Out of all the decks in this article, this is the least "combo" of them. I like calling it a combo list because it usually wins in two ways: the good old Dark Depths + Thespian's Stage or an Eye of Ugin tutoring our good friends:

These are usually the only Eldrazi cards that see play in this deck as finishers. Other lists sometimes play "small" Eldrazi.

The list above plays a few other interesting ways to win. Either by locking down the game with Glacial Chasm to make sure you survive or locking it down with Dust Bowl and something that can get lands back from the graveyard (Life from the Loam or Icetill Explorer, for instance)... These synergies are a lot like combos, resolve the game, and very few cards answer them.

Nonetheless, we must say this deck doesn't interact much. The main reason behind this is that there aren't that many interactions to play. Aside from Eldrazi Confluence, Kozilek's Command, and an occasional Spatial Contortion, what else can you even use? The cool part is that all of these cards are super effective because your opponents often don't expect them at all.

Before Rograhk was banned, this was a Rakdos list that played Rograhk and Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools. Once they banned Dark Ritual and Underworld Breach, this deck abandoned the Culling the Weak + Stitcher’s Supplier loop and started playing green to get more mana with cards like Squandered Resources and Tinder Wall. It also started playing classic powerhouses for this archetype like Manamorphose.

This deck leans on natural storm counters, no loops. Yawgmoth's Will is what it uses to replay rituals and get the counters it needs to win.

It's hard to understand what allows it to exist. I'm sure the fact it can no longer play its main 0-cost commander, which gave you more storm counters and enabled sacrifice rituals, is a deadly blow. Nonetheless, "BRx Turbo Storm" is not exactly new. Dihada, Binder of Wills has already been banned, but I believe that knowing this deck, even though it isn't valid today, is critical. Sooner or later someone will get to a new list that can make this strategy work with other commanders.

Combo lists are much more popular in Europe (France, Italy, and Spain) than in other Duel Commander centers (China and Brazil). In Europe, combo and tempo lists dominate the meta, but in China and Brazil, aggro and control are more popular. Nonetheless, combo decks are healthy for the format, particularly as many cards were banned to keep them fair. The banlist is extensive, but it includes a few obvious cards like Thassa's Oracle and a few that may look harmless, like Lotus Petal.

One thing that makes the DC meta super wide and fun is that different combos attack through different angles. Removing Hoarding Broodlord as an answer to Saw in Half usually wins the game on the spot, but, on the other side, removals are bad against Lumra. Counters usually don't work against Tifa Lockhart or Azusa. And, even if your deck can't delay the opponent or play a combo, you can still just attack them, and that often wins the game as well.

There are many decks we could have listed when we went over aggro, control, and combo in DC. Which one do you think we missed?

Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!