(Maelstrom Wanderer| Art by Victor Adame Minguez)

Temur-a Battered

Welcome back to Wombo Combo, the article series where we explore the best EDH combo cards in every color identity, using data from EDHREC and Commander Spellbook. This edition, we will take a look at the combination of Green, Blue and Red - most commonly known as Temur.

Temur has a strong affinity for creatures and lands, and is home to some of the most profound landfall and creature-heavy commanders. Temur is also home to some of the most popular commanders, such as Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm (#7 based off EDHREC rankings) and Animar, Soul of Elements (#22).

Let's take a look at Temur, and see what unique ways it offers to infinitely batter your opponents en route to victory.

 

#10: Rattleclaw Mystic

Number of Combos: 11

Deck Inclusions: 18,281 decks (3.682%)

Rattleclaw Mystic is a good mana-dork for Temur decks with the ability to add any of the three colors you would need. Rattleclaw Mystic also has Morph, which allows it to fit well with cards caring about face-down permanents, especially since it adds three mana when you turn it face up.

One such card is Yedora, Grave Gardener which returns Rattleclaw Mystic to the battlefield face-down as a Forest land.

From there, you can tap Rattleclaw Mystic for mana as a Forest, and then turn it face-up with its Morph ability to repeat the combo with ease.

 

#9: Magus Lucea Kane

Number of Combos: 11

Deck Inclusions: 11,102 as commander (#59); 5,435 as card (1.095%)

Magus Lucea Kane comes to us from Warhammer 40,000 to bolster your -cost abilities and spells. Magus taps to add two mana, and copies the next -costed ability you activate or spell you cast this turn.

It's no secret you'll want to use spells or abilities that can be copied by Magus, so how about a different Magus in the form of Magus of the Candelabra?

With Ashaya, Soul of the Wild, you can use Magus of the Candelabra to untap itself and Magus Lucea Kane, and copy the ability for extra mana. Magus Lucea Kane can also copy Goldvein Hydra, allowing you to get two or them for potentially double the Treasures.

 

#8: Riku of Two Reflections

Number of Combos: 14

Deck Inclusions: 4,895 as commander (#256); 2,345 as card (0.472%)

Riku of Two Reflections is a unique commander that can be built two different ways. The first ability can be used for a storm / magecraft style deck, copying instants and sorceries for your benefit.

One such way is to cast an extra turn spell, like Time Warp, and then use Narset's Reversal. You can then copy Narset's Reversal using Riku to return both cards to your hand, and have a copy of Time Warp left over to take an extra turn.

Riku's second ability can be used for a creature heavy deck, such as creating an arbitrarily large amount of tokens using Astral Dragon and a token doubler.

You can also feel free to use both abilities at once, copying Biovisionary, and then casting Double Major and copying it to end with four Biovisionaries, causing you to win the game at the beginning of your next end step.

 

#7: Omnath, Locus of the Roil

Number of Combos: 14

Deck Inclusions: 2,817 as commander (#479); 14,227 as card (2.865%)

Omnath, Locus of the Roil is a great choice for landfall decks, allowing you +1/+1 counters, damage and card advantage all in one. Drawing a card if you control eight or more lands can lead to you drawing more lands, allowing you to play more lands, and repeat the process.

This becomes even easier with Abundance, which will guarantee you another land to play. Pair that with other landfall staples like Walking Atlas and Retreat to Coralhelm, and you have an easy and intuitive way to get all your lands onto the battlefield at once.

Pair that with your favorite landfall payoff, like Ruin Crab, and the game is yours for the taking.

 

#6: Xyris, the Writhing Storm

Number of Combos: 18

Deck Inclusions: 9,935 as commander (#73); 8,934 as card (1.799%)

Xyris, the Writhing Storm is a Grouphug commander, allowing you and an opponent to draw cards, while also giving you some Snake creature tokens in return.

Drawing cards repeatedly is always a great advantage to have in EDH, and creating creature tokens on top of that makes it that much sweeter. Xyris triggers when it deals combat damage, so how about we use its products to get infinite combat phases?

We can use Breath of Fury and a haste enabler, and keep attaching it to a Snake token, so long as Xyris can't be blocked.

We can also use the first ability to turn Lore Broker and Intruder Alarm into an easy infinite combo. If the combo continues, you will also inevitably cause an opponent to lose due to drawing from an empty library, assuming Xyris and your combo pieces survive that long.

 

#5: Mythos of Illuna

Number of Combos: 24

Deck Inclusions: 6,096 decks (1.228%)

Mythos of Illuna is your typical copy spell, allowing you to create a token copy of any permanent. Copy spells are very useful to stack useful effects, and in this case, Mythos of Illuna can also copy an opponent's permanent so you can steal those effects as well.

Mythos of Illuna creates a simple two-card combo with Dualcaster Mage, making a copy of Dualcaster Mage that then copies Mythos of Illuna again to repeat the process.

You can also pair Mythos of Illuna with Radiate to copy everything on the battlefield, which can be useful for cards like Eternal Witness.

It can also give you so many good permanents that it gives you an almost-assured victory, and an easy vessel for any number of payoffs like Impact Tremors or Cosi's Ravager.

 

#3/#4: Temur Ascendancy / Maelstrom Wanderer

Number of Combos: 31 (Temur Ascendacy); 34 (Maelstrom Wanderer)

Deck Inclusions (Maelstrom Wanderer): 5,642 as commander (#204); 32,964 as card (6.639%)

Deck Inclusions (Temur Ascendancy): 75,829 decks (15.272%)

Maelstrom Wanderer and Temur Ascendancy share one key quality, and that's the ability to give creatures you control haste. Haste enablers like these are extremely helpful for getting around summoning sickness, which enables a large quantity of combo opportunities.

These allow Selvala, Heart of the Wilds to tap for mana immediately, and then be bounced to your hand by Temur Sabertooth. Haste enablers also allow for easy infinite combat combos alongside Breath of Fury or cards like Port Razer.

You can also use them to cast Body of Research and swing the same turn to avoid sorcery-speed removal spells. Temur Ascendancy and Maelstrom Wanderer also have additional abilities that make them very useful, with Maelstrom Wanderer allowing you to cascade twice, and Temur Ascendancy giving you card advantage.

It's easy to see why so many decks include one (or likely both) of these cards.

 

#2: Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm

Number of Combos: 41

Deck Inclusions: 20,644 as commander (#7); 31,297 as card (6.291%)

Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm comes to us as a Top 10 most popular EDH commander, and arguably the best choice for a Dragon themed deck. Miirym's ability is very simple, giving you a nonlegendary token copy of any nontoken Dragon that enters under your control.

While this ability is very simple, it is extremely powerful, and there are a large quantity of Dragons who can make the most out of it. For example, Astral Dragon and a token doubler make a really large amount of tokens.

Worldgorger Dragon infinitely blinks itself and all your permanents thanks to the token copy. Ganax, Astral Hunter gives you more Treasures, which is perfect to pay for Deadeye Navigator.

And finally, Bladewing the Risen can be returned to the battlefield thanks to the token.

There are plenty more options to use Miirym that I cannot list without making the article a novel, but if you are looking at making a Dragon deck, Miirym is an auto-include in my opinion.

 

#1: Animar, Soul of Elements

Number of Combos: 46

Deck Inclusions: 15,720 as commander (#22); 21,104 as card (4.25%)

Animar, Soul of Elements doesn't quite make the Top 10 like Miirym, but top 25 is still impressive given the thousands of options for a commander in modern EDH.

Animar can be just as powerful of a commander as Miirym, allowing you to easily cheat big creatures out for next to nothing, and getting a large Animar in the process for an easy commander damage victory. Cheating out colorless creatures gives the most value, allowing you to pay , like with Ancestral Statue.

It can also simply reduce costs to make a combo feasible, like with Palinchron. There are also a plethora of bouncing combos available, with cards like Cloudstone Curio and/or Hullbreaker Horror.

Once Animar has a large quantity of counters on it, you can cast Walking Ballista for a large amount of mana, while paying and end the game.

If your deck centers around playing creatures, then Animar should automatically be considered, either as your commander or in the 99.

 

Honorable Mentions

Still have an appetite for more Temur combo cards? Check out some other honorable mentions below:

1. Song of Creation: Additional land drops are always useful, and so is card advantage. The discard clause can be a drawback though since you can't keep cards.

2. Kalamax, the Stormsire: Copying the first spell you cast allows you to get an easy win from Chandra's Ignition, also taking advantage of Kalamax's other ability.

3. Flubs, the Fool: Similar to Song of Creation, but in the command zone, and on an awkward Frog instead. What's not to like there?

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 for more EDH combo discussions. Until next time, happy comboing!

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