(Jolene, the Plunder Queen | Art by Caroline Gariba)

Bunches o' Punches

Welcome back to the hard-hitting article series Wombo Combo, where we look at the best EDH combo cards in each unique color identity, according to data from EDHREC and Commander Spellbook. This edition, we'll punch our tickets to look at the hard-hitting combination of Red and Green, also known as Gruul.

Gruul takes key themes from both Red and Green and combines them together, with main focuses on combat, landfall, and token creation. Gruul is home to several unique commanders, such as Kibo, Uktabi Prince and Stangg, Echo Warrior. It's also the main home for several creature types, like Werewolves. With a wide variety of effects and deck designs to choose from, let's examine the top Gruul combo cards to help you trample your opponents.

 

#10: Black Market Tycoon

Number of Combos: 22

Deck Inclusions: 7,052 decks (0.942%)

Creatures that can tap for mana (known as "mana dorks") are a staple in most EDH decks, but Black Market Tycoon is a different breed. Black Market Tycoon allows you to tap it to create a Treasure token instead of adding mana outright. The reason this has more combo potential than something like Birds of Paradise is that there are plenty of cards to double mana from the Treasure, such as Xorn to create another Treasure, or Goldspan Dragon to add more mana. You can then untap Black Market Tycoon via Pemmin's Aura or another untapper.

 

#9: Horned Kavu

Number of Combos: 23

Deck Inclusions: 584 decks (0.076%)

Horned Kavu is a sleeper combo card for storm decks, or decks that want large amounts of enter-the-battlefield (ETB) or leave-the-battlefield (LTB) triggers. Horned Kavu may be in less than 600 decks, but its combo potential can be strong in the correct deck. Horned Kavu is a self-bouncing creature that returns a creature to your hand when it enters the battlefield. For an infinite combo, you can return Horned Kavu to your hand to cast it again. Throwing Horned Kavu in a Morophon, the Boundless deck makes a quick and easy two-card infinite combo. To stay in Gruul, you can use Aluren instead, or create some combo lines using Malachite Talisman.

 

#8: Phylath, World Sculptor

Number of Combos: 24

Deck Inclusions:1,521 decks as commander (#636); 18,775 decks as card (2.428%)

Phylath, World Sculptor is Gruul's commander eligible version of Avenger of Zendikar, and creates a number of Plant creature tokens equal to the number of basic lands you control when it enters the battlefield. If you have a budget mana base and/or run significant amounts of basic lands, Phylath can create an easy combo using cards like Nim Deathmantle, Dino DNA or Kenrith, the Returned King. If you run a heavy landfall deck, you can also use Phylath's second ability to beef up your Plants, made by Phylath, Avenger of Zendikar and/or other cards.

 

#7: Jolene, the Plunder Queen

Number of Combos: 25

Deck Inclusions: 2,900 decks as commander (#352); 19,691 decks as card (2.673%)

Speaking of cards that can increase the amount of Treasures created, look no further than Jolene, the Plunder Queen. Jolene can make more Treasures for you, and then convert those Treasures into +1/+1 counters for herself to easily smack an opponent with lethal commander damage. Jolene is typically accompanied by cards such as Goldspan Dragon, Hellkite Charger and Aggravated Assault for infinite combat phases. You can also use Nim Deathmantle or Boxing Ring to end up with infinite Treasures.

 

#6: Ulasht, the Hate Seed

Number of Combos: 32

Deck Inclusions: 410 decks as commander (#1,265); 5,925 decks as card (0.766%)

Ulasht, the Hate Seed is one of my personal favorites, and is also a solid combo card. Ulasht's ability allows you to remove +1/+1 counters from it and pay mana to create Saproling creature tokens. Counteracting both of the payments makes for an easy combo. Adding creatures is easily achieved with cards such as Ivy Lane Denizen or Cathars' Crusade. For the mana, you can use a sac outlet like Phyrexian Altar, or a Mana Echoes style effect.

 

#5: Burning-Tree Emissary

Number of Combos: 35

Deck Inclusions: 3,005 decks (0.389%)

Burning-Tree Emissary is known as a mana-neutral creature, which is a creature that pays for itself thanks to its ETB ability. Similar to Horned Kavu, this allows Burning-Tree Emissary to be a great candidate for storm, ETB or LTB centered decks. To accomplish this, you will need a card to bounce Burning-Tree Emissary to your hand, such as Cloudstone Curio, Temur Sabertooth or Meticulous Excavation. Alternatively, you can use a recursion piece like Slimefoot and Squee to return it from your graveyard. If you need additional mana, a simple trigger doubler like Panharmonicon can solve that problem.

 

#4: Borborygmos Enraged

Number of Combos: 35

Deck Inclusions: 2,050 decks as commander (#493); 3,590 decks as card (0.464%)

Borborygmos Enraged allows you to easily discard land cards to deal 3 damage to any target. Borborygmos may be a mouthful to say, but it's also a handful for your opponents to deal with when included in your discard or landfall deck. A perfect card for this is Dakmor Salvage, which you can discard via Borborygmos and then return using its own dredge abilities. You can also use Life from the Loam in a similar vein while keeping the Gruul theme. Pair these with cards like Surly Badgersaur or Bone Miser and you have an easy and unique combo line.

 

#3: Gruul Turf

Number of Combos: 46

Deck Inclusions: 129,628 decks (16.761%)

If you've read the last several editions of Wombo Combo, you've seen me talk about bouncelands in each one of them. The Gruul edition is no exception with its resident bounceland Gruul Turf. However, this is the first edition thus far that has included Green, the main color for landfall cards and land synergies. Gruul Turf is a great option for the typical Walking Atlas and Retreat to Coralhelm combo, but is also a solid land for landfall commanders like Omnath, Locus of Rage or Strider, Ranger of the North.

 

#2: Chishiro, the Shattered Blade

Number of Combos: 61

Deck Inclusions: 6,364 decks as commander (#111); 7,839 decks as card (1.014%)

Chishiro, the Shattered Blade is a unique card for this list that focuses on Auras and Equipment by creating a 2/2 Spirit creature token whenever one enters the battlefield under your control. Cheap Auras and Equipment work well with Chishiro, especially ones with recursion potential. Such examples include Rancor, Crown of Flames and Reins of the Vinesteed. You could also throw it into a Mazzy, Truesword Paladin deck, and let Mazzy turn any Aura into a suitable one for your Chishiro combo.

 

#1: Agatha of the Vile Cauldron

Number of Combos: 88

Deck Inclusions: 1,998 decks as commander (#506); 4,329 decks as card (1.666%)

Our #1 spot goes to Agatha of the Vile Cauldron, a newer card released in Wilds of Eldraine that has insane combo potential. Agatha has the ability to reduce activated creature abilities by extremely large amounts, much moreso than was possible by the likes to Training Grounds. The ability to drop any activated creature ability's generic cost to one creates a plethora of cheap and strong combo options. From untapping lands wih Silvanus's Invoker or Magus of the Candelabra, to creating large amounts of tokens with Spawnsire of Ulamog or Cogwork Assembler, Agatha is arguably the best choice for combo-ing in Gruul for creature heavy decks.

 

Honorable Mentions

These cards didn't quite make the Top 10, but can still be instrumental in your Gruul combo success:

1. Living Twister: A great way to make any land into a bounceland, or to discard land cards.
2. Omnath, Locus of Rage: A perfect inclusion to landfall decks and enabling landfall combos.
3. Etali, Primal Conqueror: A Dinosaur that helps you enable recursion and storm counters - what's not to love?
4. Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss: The perfect answer to untapping your large mana dorks.
5. Grumgully, the Generous: Easily counters persist effects from cards like Aerie Ouphes.

This concludes this edition of Wombo Combo! Thanks so much for reading, and be sure to visit Commander Spellbook for more EDH combos, and the Commander Spellbook Discord to vote on the next edition of Wombo Combo. Take a look at EDHREC to find the best Gruul commanders for these combos. Until then, happy combo-ing!

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