(Stella Lee, Wild Card | Art by Fajareka Setiawan)

Every Ham Sandwich

Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Bond of Passion is the only spell that can untap a creature and do damage to any target?)

Well, they finally did it. Wizards threw caution to the wind, and knowingly made a card that goes infinite with literally hundreds of cards.

For those not in the know, or that haven't looked at Stella Lee's burgeoning Commander Spellbook page, Stella Lee technically goes infinite with any instant or sorcery that can untap her... At least, in the same way that Basalt Monolith goes infinite with itself.

For those that are confused, here's how it works:

1. Have Stella Lee in play, without summoning sickness.
2. Play three or more spells.
3. Then, play a Twiddle, any Twiddle.
4. Tap Stella Lee to copy your Twiddle.
5. Resolve the copy of your Twiddle, untapping Stella Lee.
6. Tap Stella Lee, copying your original Twiddle again.
7. Repeat from step six, ad infinitum.

Now, does this do anything? Nope! But could it?

Absolutely it could.

Top 10 Spells That Really Go Infinite With Stella Lee

The above steps work for so many different cards in the game of Magic that even I stopped counting. I was not exaggerating when I said it was in the hundreds. With that said, if you want to be doing more than Twiddling yourself, you're going to need spells that do something else in addition to untapping Stella.

Luckily, there's no shortage of those, either!

If we're really looking to abuse Stella Lee in a Commander sense, however, we're probably going to want to stick with the Izzet spells. There are some obvious candidates that have already been spoiled via the cEDH deck that's already starting to place at tournaments, but I wanted to be a bit more thorough for those of us that won't be sleeving her up with Mana Crypts and Underworld Breaches.

So, with that in mind, why don't we find out which spells that actually do something with Stella Lee are already seeing the most play?

Criteria: Izzet instants or sorceries that can untap a creature or permanent you control and have an additional effect that stacks in some fashion beyond the repeated untapping of Stella Lee (get outta here, Insurrection and Song-Mad Treachery!). As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.

10. Reality Spasm

(8,407 Inclusions, 0% of 1,933,563 Decks)

For those that haven't ever done the deep dive into copying spells, copies retain all of their original characteristics, with the exception of the oft-allowed choosing of new targets. What that means for Reality Spasm is two-fold: First, it means that whatever you pay for X the first time, all subsequent copies will also "pay" for X. Second, it means that whatever mode you choose, all copies will choose as well.

In other words, you need an X of at least two to really do anything with Stella Lee, with the "anything" in question being infinitely untapping another permanent. With lands being permanents, this will pretty much by definition mean that you have infinite mana, which isn't too bad a deal.

Still, four mana is pretty steep. I think we can do better.

9. Domineering Will

(9,305 Inclusions, 0% of 1,933,563 Decks)

How about gaining control of every creature on the board and infinitely untapping them? If I'm honest, though, that's kind of a mixed bag. Izzet isn't drowning in mana dorks, so infinite mana isn't guaranteed, and it's likely that many of the creatures you take control of until end of turn will have summoning sickness. What I do like about this particular combo, however? It's fair. If you're looking to not get too stupid with Stella Lee, then this is a great card to play, as it will likely have a huge impact on the table and can win you the game if it's gotten out of hand. If not? Well then you just swing in for a decent chunk on some players, and pass the turn.

8. Hidden Strings

(13,432 Inclusions, 1% of 1,933,563 Decks)

Let's be honest, though, building Stella Lee to not go infinite is kind of a fool's errand. With that in mind, Hidden Strings may be one of the best cards you can go infinite with with Stella Lee. At two mana, it blows Reality Spasm out of the water, and even better, you can cast it early as one of your necessary three spells to turn on Stella Lee's ability, then cast a copy to copy during combat with the Cipher ability later on in the same turn. Put simply, this one's a contender, providing infinite mana with your commander at the drop of a hat.

7. Kari Zev's Expertise

(13,328 Inclusions, 1% of 1,904,511 Decks)

Kari Zev's Expertise, on the other hand, is moving back into fair territory. Infinitely casts of cards that cost two or less from your hand sounds spicy, but in reality it's probably only going to get you three or four spells at most before you run out of cantrips and don't have anything else to do. What it is good at, however? Cheaply getting you three spells cast to turn Stella Lee on. While we're talking a lot about getting there as if it's a foregone conclusion, there are going to be many a Stella Lee deck that struggles to fulfill the basic requirements of their commander on the regular, so I wouldn't throw Kari Zev's Expertise out with the bathwater, even if there are much better options to actually go "infinite" with.

6. Shore Up

(16,755 Inclusions, 1% of 1,707,007 Decks)

One mana is good, there's no question, as is the panic hexproof that you'll undoubtedly want for your commander that will always have a target on its back. Making an infinitely large Stella Lee is a bit underwhelming though, if I'm honest. A single blocker is all your opponent needs, and it's not like you can sneak it in, either--Who isn't going to block your kill 2/4 on sight commander?

Still, I think you play Shore Up. The hexproof is just going to be necessary, and with the likelihood that you'll want to be playing mana dorks in the deck, it will often be a "free" spell to add to your spell count for the turn.

5. Cerulean Wisps

(18,149 Inclusions, 1% of 1,933,563 Decks)

For those that didn't take a look at the cEDH deck, there's not a question here: Cerulean Wisps is the best card to go infinite with Stella Lee. One mana to draw your entire deck means having whatever combo you want available, along with every answer and piece of fast mana in your deck to go along with it. With that said, it's not the only card that can do this, so let's take a look at the other contenders:

Top 10 Izzet Spells That Draw Infinite Cards With Stella Lee

1. Cerulean Wisps
2. Refocus
3. Intellectual Offering
4. Twitch
5. Jolt
6. Infuse
7. ...

All right, so the list isn't that long. Which, if we're being honest, is probably a good thing. This cEDH deck looks legitimate, bringing turbo back into the meta, and it turns out that drawing your entire deck is pretty darn good, even if it takes place on your opponent's upkeep.

4. Savage Beating

(18,920 Inclusions, 1% of 1,904,511 Decks)

Savage Beating showing up on a combo list isn't exactly treading new ground. This combo, however, does not do quite as much as it may appear at first glance. While it does provide infinite untaps and infinite combat steps, it does not do so at the same time. Notably, you'll get to infinitely untap all creatures you control, then once you've done that, you'll get infinite combat steps. In other words, unless you have creatures with vigilance, you won't really be able to attack more than once. Still, this does provide infinite mana in your combat step if you have a mana dork, which isn't nothing.

All in all, however, this is probably easily on the list of worst two-card combos with Stella Lee. Which is impressive, given just how many bad cards we're going to go over in the Honorable Mentions.

3. Turnabout

(18,885 Inclusions, 1% of 1,933,563 Decks)

To be clear here, you have to choose creature to go infinite with Stella Lee, meaning we're once again looking for mana dorks in colors that don't really do mana dorks. With that said, we've talked about this enough that it's clear that we're going to want some, so let's take a look at the options:

Top 10 Izzet Mana Dorks

1. Ornithopter of Paradise
2. Palladium Myr
3. Urza, Lord High Artificer (sort of)
4. Silver Myr
5. Iron Myr
6. Plague Myr
7. Myr Convert (Infinite life loss? What a combo!)
8. Millikin
9. Alloy Myr
10. Hedron Crawler

The clear front-runner here is Ornithopter of Paradise, which could provide infinite mana of any color with any of the spells that can untap two or more creatures. Similarly, Silver Myr and Iron Myr come right afterwards, being only two mana and also providing colored mana. After that, the pickings get slim, quickly. Urza, Lord High Artificer is great, as it provides something to do with the infinite mana you can get from its Construct, but pretty much everything else either has you paying life or only provides colorless mana. Alloy Myr is an exception at three mana, but that whole extra mana means a whole heck of a lot when you're trying to cast four-plus spells a turn. With all that said, I do really like Millikin (and it's cousin, Deranged Assistant) here. It makes colorless, yes, but it also mills when you do so, getting your whole library in your graveyard as you do so. From there, there's tons of different ways to include a Flashback card that will get a win-con out of the graveyard, and you're cooking with gas.

2. Seize the Day

(49,246 Inclusions, 3% of 1,904,511 Decks)

Seize the Day unfortunately comes with all of the caveats that Savage Beating does, only allowing you to win with the infinite combat steps if you have a creature with vigilance (in colors that don't really have vigilance). It does, however, have the benefit of being both cheaper initially and also having Flashback. I still don't think that makes this a primary plan, but if you were going to do something silly like make a deck with every Stella Lee combo card in it, then this one looks pretty good by comparison, especially at the low cost of including an Experimental Synthesizer in your deck.

1. Dramatic Reversal

(117,123 Inclusions, 6% of 1,933,563 Decks)

To see one of the most quintessential combo cards ever printed on this list isn't exactly a surprise. Still, what we're talking about here is infinite untaps of your nonlands for two mana, which has already been outdone by a couple of cards on this list. Hidden Strings will let you untap lands for the same price and can be recast repeatedly. Shore Up can untap creatures infinitely and also make them infinitely large, which is likely to also result in infinite mana since we're going to have to include some mana dorks. Cerulean Wisps and Refocus can draw you your entire deck, almost certainly finding you the mana and another combo that will actually win the game. In fact, in a rarity, I feel like we should go over something I never do here: What I feel like my personal top ten is.

Top 10 Izzet Spells That Go Infinite With Stella Lee (According to Me)

1. Cerulean Wisps
2. Refocus
3. Twisted Fealty
4. Hidden Strings
5. Shore Up
6. Dramatic Reversal
7. Twitch
8. Intellectual Offering
9. Unity of Purpose
10. Furnace Reins

We'll go over these in more detail in the Honorable Mentions, but I did just want to put out there that as good as Dramatic Reversal is, it's really not anywhere near the top here. In fact, if you include the upkeep card draw options that are seeing play in the cEDH deck, then it barely makes the top ten at all.

---

Honorable Mentions

Most of my personal list we've already gone over, but there are some more that bear mentioning. First off, Twisted Fealty didn't make our main list anywhere, but it's actually the primary win-con in the cEDH deck. Once you get into your loop with it, each new Wicked Role knocks off the one before it, dealing one damage to each opponent, meaning you have a nice, clean package that wins the game with no extra steps. In a similar vein, Intellectual Offering is the only card that gives you both infinite mana and infinite card draw, with the significant drawback of giving your opponents some version of it as well. Still, it's got to be one of the most fun ways to go infinite with Stella Lee, which is why I have it so high on my personal list.

Enough with the weirdness of doing a personal list, though. Gives me the heebee-jeebies, having an opinion. Let's instead expand the list out and see every card that goes infinite with Stella Lee, shall we?

Top Izzet Spells That Go Infinite With Stella Lee (Yes, All of Them)

11. Furnace Reins
12. Bloody Betrayal
13. Involuntary Employment
14. Great Train Heist
15. Traitorous Greed
16. Dream's Grip
17. Refocus
18. Intellectual Offering
19. Twitch
20. Harness by Force
21. Malevolent Whispers
22. Twisted Fealty
23. Price of Loyalty
24. Shackles of Treachery
25. Portent of Betrayal
26. Jolt
27. Triton Tactics
28. Sibling Rivalry
29. Infuse
30. Traitorous Instinct
31. Toils of Night and Day
32. Press into Service
33. Mascot Interception
34. Unity of Purpose
35. Unwilling Recruit
36. Bond of Passion

It's rare that I like the very last card on a complete list like this, but I have to admit, I really like the straightforwardness of Bond of Passion. While Twisted Fealty is undoubtedly better, Bond is the only other card on this list that kills outright, and it does it in a much simpler fashion. There's something to be said for a bad, straightforward combo. If you'd rather go a bit more roundabout, however, then might I suggest Furnace Reins? It will give Stella haste if you need it, and then if there's a player to swing in on, the infinite copies will create infinite Treasure triggers, which is just hilarious to me. Lastly, Unity of Purpose is another card I feel never really gets its due, and with Stella Lee will make all your creatures infinitely large, and possibly give you infinite mana as well if you have a mana dork around. What's not to like?

I'll tell you what I like: Making decks with arbitrary deckbuilding restrictions. So, with this here commander that is going to be made up of 99% decks trying to push the limit, and a natural build restriction of "you have to play every possible combo", I did the natural thing.

The deck, as you might expect with a restriction that has more than half of your playable slots claimed, is not what you'd call good. There are just way too many four mana sorceries in the brew for you to be getting to your infinites as early as you'd like to be. Still, that's the fun, isn't it? For every other Stella Lee brew out there that's trying to make it happen on turn two, you'll be the one casting three rituals into a Bloody Betrayal on turn five, wondering if you'll be able to draw into enough mana and cards to actually try to win the game for next turn. Maybe I'm just a Storm-addicted dude, but that sounds like a good time to me!

---

Nuts and Bolts

There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.

---

What Do You Think?

While overall, I think I prefer my "Oops, All Combos!" brew with The Peregrine Dynamo , this was still a blast to brew. What I can't believe is that Stella Lee, Wild Card was ever printed in the first place. When you really get right down to it, purposefully printing a commander that you know will go infinite with 36-200 cards is a heck of a ballsy choice from Wizards.

So... what do you think of the choice?

And finally, what is your favorite card that goes infinite with Stella Lee? Does it win the game? Draw cards? Make infinite mana?

Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table that appears to be doing a reenactment of The Sorceror's Apprentice.

---

Read more: