(Emiel the Blessed | Art by Antonio J. Manzanedo)

Walk Towards the Light

Welcome back to Wombo Combo, the episodic series where we explore the best combo cards in EDH in each distinct color identity, according to data from EDHREC and Commander Spellbook. Today, we wrap up our look at two-color combinations by exploring the enterprising combination of Green and White, also known as Selesnya.

Green and White share many common themes, and pairing them together in a Selesnya deck makes for an incredibly strong synergy to build around. Such themes include lifegain, tokens, landfall and counter placement. Selesnya is also a main color combination for popular creature types like Humans and Cats among others. Lets take a gander through the lush Forests and vast Plains of Selesnya, and see what combo potential we can find along our journey.

 

#10: Yenna, Redtooth Regent

Number of Combos: 42

Deck Inclusions: 1,813 as commander (#606); 13,989 as card (3.459%)

Our first card is a fairly recent release from Wilds of Eldraine, but has already made its imprint on the combo world. Yenna, Redtooth Regent allows you to easily and repeatedly generate token copies of enchantments you control. What's even better is when you copy an Aura, you get to untap Yenna and scry 2, meaning you paid two mana to create an Aura copy and scry 2, which is a wildly strong bargain. Yenna untapping itself allows for easy combo potential alongside Ajani's Chosen and Ashnod's Altar. If you don't want to copy Auras, how about Sagas instead with Three Blind Mice and Doubling Season? If you don't want an infinite combo and just want to make your opponents life more difficult, create a copy of Mystic Barrier instead so no creatures can attack.

 

#9: Faeburrow Elder

Number of Combos: 43

Deck Inclusions: 103,266 decks (12.266%)

Mana dorks are a staple in many EDH decks of all color identities, and Faeburrow Elder is widely regarded as one of the stronger dorks out there. Faeburrow Elder will add anywhere from 2 to 5 mana each tap, depending on what permanents you control. It also has vigilance, allowing it to attack and still give you mana that turn for a one-two punch. Some of the simplest combos involve cards like Freed from the Real, Najeela, the Blade-Blossom and Umbral Mantle. While some of these combos may be a bit difficult in a Selesnya deck (due to the amount of colored permanents you may need to control), they are easier to achieve the more colors your deck has.

 

#8: Selesnya Sanctuary

Number of Combos: 43

Deck Inclusions: 123,949 decks (14.705%)

Selesnya Sanctuary is our tenth bounceland we have covered, and the final colored bounceland. Selesnya Sanctuary is the exact same as the others, except adding green and white mana instead. The easiest combo potential involves cards like Walking Atlas and Retreat to Coralhelm. You can also use bouncelands for additional landfall triggers, especially if you have an effect to play multiple lands in a turn. These additional triggers can be beneficial for cards like Scute Swarm or Maja, Bretagard Protector.

 

#7: Wheel of Sun and Moon

Number of Combos: 48

Deck Inclusions: 2,794 decks (0.332%)

Wheel of Sun and Moon is a little seen card in EDH decks, but it is a very interesting cards with strong combo potential. Its effect is simple: any card that would be put into your graveyard is put on the bottom of your library instead. Wheel of Sun and Moon is the ultimate answer for a mill deck, completely thwarting mill and discard strategies. This allows for interesting combos, such as using Leveler to exile your library and getting extra turns using any extra turn spell, since you will now draw it each turn as the only card in your library. If everything goes wrong, you can draw the game using Helm of Obedience or Grist, the Hunger Tide and Doomsday. If you hate your opponent's discard/madness or self-mill focused deck, Wheel of Sun and Moon allows you to enchant them with it, and stop those plans immediately.

 

 

#6: Othelm, Sigardian Outcast

Number of Combos: 51

Deck Inclusions: 3,575 as commander/partner; 2,303 as card (0.274%)

Othelm, Sigardian Outcast allows you to easily recur any creature that died this turn. You can easily recur cards like Village Bell-Ringer or Great Oak Guardian to untap Othelm and every creature you control, and then sacrifice them again to Ashnod's Altar. Alternatively, you can use Intruder Alarm or Thornbite Staff with any creature instead. You can also use mana-neutral or mana-positive creatures, like Cathodion, which then allow you to use any sacrifice outlet. For example, you could run Bjorna, Nightfall Alchemist as Othelm's partner, and have the sacrifice outlet in the command zone.

 

#5: Samwise Gamgee

Number of Combos: 53

Deck Inclusions: 1,830 as commander (#599); 24,206 as card (5.057%)

Samwise Gamgee is another recently released card that has two potential combo abilities. Its triggered ability creates a Food token whenever another one of your nontoken creatures dies. This is perfect for cards like Cauldron Familiar, or to use alongside cards like Peregrin Took. Its second ability allows you to sacrifice three Foods to return a historic card from your graveyard to your hand. This synergizes very well with the first ability, allowing you to infinitely recur cards like Farmer Cotton, Gingerbrute and Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender. Samwise allows you to do something your parents wouldn't - play with your Food, and even win games with it!

 

#4: Emmara, Soul of the Accord

Number of Combos: 56

Deck Inclusions: 3,376 as commander (#334); 8,273 as card (0.983%)

Emmara, Soul of the Accord's ability seems simple - when you tap it, it makes a 1/1 Soldier creature token. This ability is surprisingly strong for infinite creature tokens. The obvious suspect for the combo is Intruder Alarm, with which you can include any way to tap Emmara that you choose. From Earthcraft or Paradise Mantle to get infinite mana, to Viridian Longbow for infinite damage, to more niche cards like Glare of Subdual. Once you have infinite creatures, you can swing with them, or sacrifice them to something like Goblin Bombardment. If you don't wish to keep the creatures, feel free to use Thornbite Staff and any sacrifice outlet instead of Intruder Alarm.

 

#3: Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

Number of Combos: 57

Deck Inclusions: 4,372 as commander (#254); 25,176 as card (2.99%)

Trostani, Selesnya's Voice is one of my personal favorite commanders, and is a great option to helm either a lifegain or a token deck (which mine does both). Trostani causes you to gain life whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control. This effect is not unique, and appears on cards like Angelic Chorus or Verdant Sun's Avatar. However, you can't have those cards in the command zone, and those cards also cannot populate for you either. More life plus more tokens equals a strong board state that gives you a good chance of victory against your opponents. Trostani is also a great combo option, with cards like Treebeard, Gracious Host or Heliod, Sun-Crowned and either Scurry Oak or Herd Baloth.

 

#2: Saffi Eriksdotter

Number of Combos: 69

Deck Inclusions: 527 as commander (#1,219); 17,163 as card (2.039%)

Saffi Eriksdotter is a selfless card that allows you to sacrifice it to save another creature you control from dying. While this is good for saving your creatures from a freak removal spell, it is also a prolific combo engine, especially when paired with other cards that have a similar ability. Using Saffi's ability on creatures like Reveillark or Karmic Guide allows you to recur them, then recur Saffi using their abilities. Other options to fill this slot include Sun Titan, Renegade Rallier and Loyal Retainers. You can use any sacrifice outlet here to get the desired results, or add cards like Impact Tremors to end the game.

 

#1: Emiel the Blessed

Number of Combos: 312

Deck Inclusions: 2,185 as commander (#506); 29,225 as card (3.471%)

Emiel the Blessed gallops right into the #1 spot by an extremely large margin. It turns out that being able to repeatedly get enter-the-battlefield and and leaving-the-battlefield triggers from a creature can lead to combos. Emiel's ability being only three mana with no need to tap makes it very easy to repeat, as it goes infinite with any creature making three or more mana when it enters the battlefield. Such creatures include the infamous Dockside Extortionist, Priest of Urabrask and Priest of Gix. You can also use creatures with alternate methods of making mana. The simplest creatures in this category include Brood Monitor or Village Bell-Ringer, or you can blink any creature to get mana from Mana Echoes as long as it will make enough mana. Token creators can also have their tokens sacrificed to mana sacrifice outlets to make an infinite combo, enabling a combo for cards like Myr Battlesphere or Hornet Queen. No matter how you slice it, Emiel is the easiest, most majestic and best option for combo potential in Selesnya.

 

Honorable Mentions

While these cards didn't meander their way into the top 10, they can still help you gallop to victory in your next Selesnya deck:

1. Conclave Mentor: Increasing the amount of +1/+1 counters you put on creatures is good for ramping, but it's also combo potential when paired with cards like Walking Ballista and Rite of Passage.
2. Murasa Rootgrazer: A great include for a budget landfall deck, and allows for some combo potential with the usual suspects of Retreat to Coralhelm and Meloku the Clouded Mirror.
3. Queen Allenal of Ruadach: If you want more tokens, Queen Allenal is your Selesnya answer. Don't forget the other token doublers, like Anointed Procession and Doubling Season among others.
4. Sam, Loyal Attendant: Cheaper Food activations is a plus, but turning anything into a Food thanks to Brenard, Ginger Sculptor makes for some interesting food combinations.
5. Good-Fortune Unicorn: Putting a +1/+1 counter on a creature that enters the battlefield is a perfect counterpunch to persist cards, like Kitchen Finks.

Thank you very much for reading this edition of Wombo Combo, and don't forget to check out Commander Spellbook for more EDH combos and visit the Commander Spellbook Discord to vote on the next edition of Wombo Combo. Until next time, happy comboing!

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