(The Locust God | Art by Lius Lasahido)

Magically Electrifying

Welcome back to everyone's favorite combo-based article series Wombo Combo, where we look at the top combo cards in each color identity, which help from EDHREC and Commander Spellbook. In this edition, we will look at the mystifying duo of blue and red, also known as Izzet.

Izzet is one of the top choices for dual-colored combos, and features plenty of heavy hitters to facilitate a combo and to profit off of a combo. Izzet is a key color combination for storm, magecraft and artifacts/artificers. Izzet also has several card draw effects from the likes of Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain. If any of these ignite your spark, then let's delve into the best combo cards Izzet has to conjure!

#10: River Song

Number of Combos: 24

Deck Inclusions: 1,143 as commander (#784), 1,891 as card (.728%)

River Song is a newer card that debuted in Universes Beyond: Doctor Who. It's also a very unique card. River Song causes you to draw cards from the bottom of your library, instead of the top like normal. This works fantastically for cards that put themselves on the bottom of your library, like Timestream Navigator. River Song also has a strong synergy with cards that put other cards on the bottom of your library, like Soldevi Digger or Transplant Theorist. River Song's second ability also punishes opponents for scrying, surveiling and searching their library, which is always a good bonus.

 

#9: Lore Drakkis

Number of Combos: 25

Deck Inclusions: 7,709 decks (.935%)

Lore Drakkis is a mutate creature card from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths that has an Archaeomancer style ability when you mutate it. The mutate ability creates very unique combos by attaching it to a mana-producing creature, like Dockside Extortionist, and then bouncing that creature using cards like Unsummon. You can also use self-bouncing creatures, like Grinning Ignus or Glitterfang, to create a simple extra turn combo with your favorite extra turn spell.

 

#8: Thousand-Year Storm

Number of Combos: 28

Deck Inclusions: 41,454 decks (5.028%)

If you like cards that can get out of control very quickly, then Thousand-Year Storm is a perfect inclusion. Thousand-Year Storm creates a number of copies of any instant or sorcery you cast equal to the number of instants/sorceries you cast before it this turn. Thousand-Year Storm can quickly ramp out of control, and allow combos with cards like Narset's Reversal, Spelljack or Invoke Calamity. Magecraft payoffs can also be massively increased, allowing for easy mana payments using Storm-Kiln Artist. Make sure to keep track of the amount of spells you are casting, though, so you can get the absolute most out of Thousand-Year Storm.

 

#7: Niv-Mizzet, Parun / Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind

Number of Combos: 30 (Parun), 37 (Firemind)

Deck Inclusions (Parun): 11,802 as commander (#33), 71,421 as card (8.662%)

Deck Inclusions (Firemind): 775 as commander (#973), 36,447 as card (4.42%)

Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind share a common ability that deals 1 damage to any target whenever you draw a card. When paired with the counterpart cards like Ophidian Eye or Curiosity, this creates an easy two-card combo with a significant amount of damage. Other combos include using cards like Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator, Flumph and Illusory Ambusher. Niv-Mizzet, Parun is the most popular Izzet commander, and also has a second ability that is a great payoff for storm-heavy decks for easy card draw alongside a bit of damage. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind's activated ability can draw you a card, and combos well with Mind Over Matter.

 

#6: Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer

Number of Combos: 58

Deck Inclusions: 4,609 as commander (#221), 29,568 as card (3.586%)

Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer is a premier token generator that makes a 2/1 Phyrexian Myr token during your combat phase, and allows you to have every token you control become a copy of a particular token. Coupled alongside copy spells like Quasiduplicate, you can easily craft an infinite token combo by making repeating copies of Combat Celebrant, or win the game using Biovisionary, or get infinite turns using Timestream Navigator. Putting it into a Mishra, Eminent One deck also allows for plenty more possibilities with cards like Gonti's Aether Heart.

 

#5: Rootha, Mercurial Artist

Number of Combos: 67

Deck Inclusions: 388 as commander (#1313), 3,898 as card (.473%)

While we can't have Lutri, the Spellchaser due to its companion "restriction" not being a restriction in EDH, we can have Rootha, Mercurial Artist instead. While the effects aren't exactly the same, Rootha has the advantage of being able to use its effect multiple times, by repeatedly casting and bouncing it to copy instants or sorceries. Having this effect in the command zone is also very helpful to ensure you have it when you need it. Rootha is best paired with Increasing Vengeance, Through the Breach and Reverberate.

 

#4: Izzet Boilerworks

Number of Combos: 68

Deck Inclusions: 139,044 decks (16.863%)

Izzet's resident bounceland, Izzet Boilerworks, is just as much of a combo piece as the others we have reviewed, and a great budget mana piece. If you want to use Izzet Boilerworks for an infinite combo, then cards like Retreat to Coralhelm and Walking Atlas will be your best friend. Alternatively, you can simply bounce Izzet Boilerworks for additional landfall triggers over time, especially if you are allowed to play multiple per turn, using cards like Azusa, Lost but Seeking.

 

#3: Izzet Chronarch

Number of Combos: 75

Deck Inclusions: 2,396 decks (.291%)

While Lore Drakkis has a similar effect to Archaeomancer, Izzet Chronarch has the exact same effect, but in Izzet instead. Izzet does cost one more mana than Archaeomancer, but it's a good card to add for redundancy, or if the two blue mana in Archaeomancer's cost deters you when you're playing a multicolored deck. Izzet Chronarch is commonly used with cards like Ghostly Flicker, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker or Twinflame. You can also use it to return your pet card for a second cast if a combo isn't an option.

 

#2: Mizzix of the Izmagnus

Number of Combos: 98

Deck Inclusions: 4,435 as commander (#232), 7,598 as card (.921%)

Mizzix of the Izmagnus has a simple role, and that's to make your instants and sorceries cheaper to cast. While it seems simple and mundane, it opens up a surprisingly large number of possibilities for infinite combos. Mizzix combos typically use a mana-producing card, like Frantic Search or Brass's Bounty, paired with Reiterate, Narset's Reversal or a similar card. Mizzix also easily enables buyback cards to go infinite, especially with Storm-Kiln Artist or Birgi, God of Storytelling. Cost reductions are always handy, and having such a strong one in the command zone is a great advantage.

 

#1: The Locust God

Number of Combos: 194

Deck Inclusions: 5,212 as commander (#177), 46,293 as card (5.614%)

The Locust God is Izzet's #1 combo card by a long shot, and is also one of my personal favorite combo cards. The Locust God has a simple ability, which generates a 1/1 Insect with flying and haste whenever you draw a card. Not only is this extremely powerful value for drawing a card, the combo potential is massive. The simplest combos involve cards like Kindred Discovery or Sage of the Falls to draw cards off the Insects entering. You can also attach Skullclamp to an Insect to kill it, draw two cards, and make two more Insects. You can then add a mana sacrifice outlet like Ashnod's Altar to add the mana to reattach Skullclamp. Some more complicated Locust God lines involve cards like Liliana, Dreadhorde General, Symmetry Matrix and Eligeth, Crossroads Augur. Outside of combos, The Locust God provides very good value for your next card draw deck, and gives you a swarm of reasons to insert it into your next decklist.

 

Honorable Mentions

Need something else to spark your combo? Take a look at some other good combo cards:

1. Mystic Retrieval: An Archaeomancer style effect, but as a sorcery. Works well when paired with other similar cards like Call to Mind.
2. Veyran, Voice of Duality: Doubling magecraft triggers is not only a good combo enabler, but a great payoff effect to help your magecraft or storm deck.
3. Idris, Soul of the TARDIS: A unique way to move artifact abilities onto a common body, especially when you copy Idris' ability.
4. Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph: An easy way to take your 1-damage pings to 3-damage pings and some combo shenanigans involving clones and damage reducers.
5. Nivix Guildmage: Repeatable looting and spell copying on the same card - what's more to say?

Thanks for checking out this edition of Wombo Combo. Don't forget to check out Commander Spellbook for more EDH combos, and join our Discord to vote on the next edition of Wombo Combo. Until next time, happy comboing!

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