(Mind Over Matter | Art by Keith Parkinson)

Water You Waiting For?

Welcome back to Wombo Combo, where we examine the best EDH combo cards in each distinct color identity, with help from EDHREC and Commander Spellbook. Today, we will wrap up our look at the monocolored combo cards with our final color to cover: Mono-blue!

Mono-blue is possibly the most contentious color among Magic fans. Some fans despise blue, including the meme of "T1: Island, scoop", mainly due to its strong control affinity which restricts players from executing their plans. Other fans love blue for its strong, game-defining effects and large pool of solid cards to bolster their decks. While blue can be used to helm an "Oops! All Counterspells!" deck that will inevitably get rule zero banned by your playgroup, it has a large sea of useful combo cards that achieve a real result besides restricting your opponents. Let us sail the seven seas and see what lies underneath. Ahoy!

 

#10: Training Grounds

Number of Combos: 175

Deck Inclusions: 40,878 (2.520%)

Training Grounds servers one simple purpose, and that is to lower the cost of your creatures' activated abilities. Saving up to two mana each iteration allows for significant combo potential with cards like Basalt Monolith, Marneus Calgar and Sliver Queen plus Manaweft Sliver or Gemhide Sliver. Beyond being a combo engine, reducing activated abilities is a positive in most Commander decks, which makes Training Grounds serve a purpose outside of being a part of a combo engine.

 

#9: Mind Over Matter

Number of Combos: 197

Deck Inclusions: 6,520 (0.402%)

Mind Over Matter may have a steep mana cost, especially for multicolor decks, but it has a strong effect. Mind Over Matter serves as a free discard outlet that can untap or tap permanents. This can be perfect for untapping your Archivist to loot your entire library, or untapping your Temple Bell to instead make everyone loot, or to simply untap permanents for mana and use Faerie Mastermind to keep drawing cards. You could also use it to discard your hand in response to an opponent's Thoughtseize if you ever feel so inclined.

 

#8: Deadeye Navigator

Number of Combos: 204

Deck Inclusions: 51,035 (3.147%)

Now you see them, and now you don't, thanks to Deadeye Navigator who can endlessly blink your creatures. Replacing the mana for blinking is simple using cards like the infamous Dockside Extortionist or Peregrine Drake. You can also use Deadeye Navigator to blink a creature such as Corridor Monitor or Pestermite if you have a mana rock who can pay for Deadeye's activation. Beyond combos, you can also easily use Deadeye Navigator to get additional enters-the-battlefield and/or leaves-the battlefield triggers, such as those on Gyruda, Doom of Depths or Reveillark.

 

#7: Arcane Adaptation / Xenograft

Number of Combos: 204 (Arcane Adaptation); 161 (Xenograft)

Deck Inclusions - Arcane Adaptation: 23,662 (1.459%)

Deck Inclusions - Xenograft: 4,613 (0.284%)

Arcane Adaptation and Xenograft are more niche cards that are extremely prominent in typal decks. Both cards are mainly used alongside cards that care about specific creature types, such as Bishop of Wings or Flameshadow Conjuring. Allowing for each card in your library to match the desired creature type can lead to a host of other non-infinite boosts as well from cards such as Coat of Arms or any of the Sliver cards (such as Darkheart Sliver).

 

#6: Encroaching Mycosynth

Number of Combos: 205

Deck Inclusions: 12,313 (1.284%)

Encroaching Mycosynth is a fairly new card, introduced in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, that has already made a prominent impact in EDH combos. Encroaching Mycosynth is a more narrowed version of Mycosynth Lattice, coming at a cheaper cost and only affecting yourself. Cards that affect all players, like Mycosynth Lattice, can sometimes have some drawbacks, and Mycosynth's Lattice's ability to allow all players to spend mana as any color could help your opponents more than you. Encroaching Mycosynth gets around this issue while also allowing combo potential with cards such as Goblin Welder, Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter, and Clock of Omens. And hey, if you want to include it for a cheap Hellkite Tyrant win, I certainly wouldn't judge you.

 

#5: Archaeomancer

Number of Combos: 242

Deck Inclusions: 81,024 (4.996%)

Archaeomancer, as well as other similar cards like Shipwreck Dowser or Salvager of Secrets, are a staple inclusion in many Storm Count and Magecraft-focused decks. The ability to return your favorite instants and sorceries to your hand is always a powerful weapon to have, and enables a host of combos. Cards such as Ghostly Flicker or Essence Flux can be used to blink Archaeomancer, who can then return them to your hand. Cards such as Quasiduplicate or Saw in Half can simply make more Archaeomancers for you, not only returning the cards again but giving you extra creature tokens as a bonus. You could even return your Crow Storm, if your playgroup allows it.

 

#4: Retreat to Coralhelm

Number of Combos: 277

Deck Inclusions: 42,020 (2.591%)

As the backbone of many Landfall-based combos, Retreat to Coralhelm is one of the most powerful combo cards that landfall decks can include. From emptying your hand of lands with cards like Walking Atlas, to untapping Ruin Ghost and endlessly blinking a plains or to tapping Scaretiller for land recursion, Retreat to Coralhelm is a high-value engine that can find a home in every Landfall deck. Even in decks that are not Landfall-focused, Retreat to Coralhelm can provide good value in tapping or untapping creatures and/or allowing you to scry and get to the critical cards you need. After all, each non-Landfall deck is roughly 1/3 lands, so about 1/3 of your deck can always benefit from Retreat to Coralhelm being on the battlefield.

 

#3: Ghostly Flicker

Number of Combos: 449

Deck Inclusions: 89,950 (5.546%)

Ghostly Flicker is another high-value card, especially for decks caring about permanents entering or leaving the battlefield. Ghostly Flicker is an easy combo card when paired with cards such as the aforementioned Archaeomancer, Naru Meha, Master Wizard, or Lumbering Battlement. Reducing Ghostly Flicker's cost using cards such as Mizzix of the Izmagnus or Arcane Melee allows for easier combo potential by blinking an Archaeomancer-style card alongside a basic Island. Ghostly Flicker can also provide benefit for Storm Count players to cast their favorite Storm win condition, or for the Magecraft/Prowess player to get their fix in as well.

 

#2: Freed from the Real / Pemmin's Aura

Number of Combos: 469 (Freed from the Real); 458 (Pemmin's Aura)

Deck Inclusions (Freed from the Real): 40,709 (2.510%)

Deck Inclusions (Pemmin's Aura): 22,069 (1.361%)

Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura are two of the most popular ways to untap a creature on demand. For combo potential, there are plenty of mana dorks who they can make a two-card combo with, such as Arixmethes, Slumbering Isle or Selvala, Heart of the Wilds. Freed from the Real and Pemmin's Aura's cheap activation costs also allow for a cheap way to untap combo engines like Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Weaver of Harmony or Fatestitcher. Pemmin's Aura's ability to give shroud to the creature is also a nice touch of evasion, while Freed from the Real's first ability can create unique opportunities with cards such as Emmara, Soul of the Accord.

 

#1: Intruder Alarm

Number of Combos: 673

Deck Inclusions: 29,625 (1.827%)

Coming in at #1 on our list is a card that has seen a sharp uptick in inclusions with recent commanders - Intruder Alarm! Intruder Alarm has a simple yet powerful effect of untapping every creature whenever a creature enters the battlefield. This is perfect for any creature that can tap to produce a creature token, like Splinter Twin or Godsire. Intruder Alarm is also useful for untapping your mana dorks to cast cards such as Shrieking Drake or Venser, Shaper Savant, or to perhaps activate cards such as Chulane, Teller of Tales or Ant Queen. One thing to be aware of is that Intruder Alarm's effect untaps all creatures, meaning that your opponents could also benefit from your combo. However, with the right lines and the right decks playing against you, Intruder Alarm can easily spell the end of the game for your opponents.

 

Honorable Mentions

If the Top 10 cards don't quite float your boat, perhaps these cards could also be the answer to your combo woes:

1. Displacer Kitten: Another fairly new card, Displacer Kitten allows for easily blinking permanents whenever you cast a noncreature spell.
2. Emry, Lurker of the Loch: Emry allows for easy recursion of artifact cards, perfect for your next artifact based deck.
3. Extra Turn Spells: Extra turn spells such as Time Warp or Temporal Manipulation can buy you the time you need to end the game.
4. Palinchron: Palinchron's ability to untap your lands and bounce itself provide easy combo potential if you have the lands to pay for it.
5. Escape Protocol: A more unique card, Escape Protocol provides interesting combo opportunities for your next cycling deck.
6. Clones: Clones such as Sakashima of a Thousand Faces or Spark Double allow you to double-up on creatures in a normally singleton format, enabling easy combo potential.

This concludes the fifth and final mono-colored edition of Wombo Combo! Be sure to catch the next edition where we will begin looking at the dual-colored color identities, and be sure to check out Commander Spellbook for more EDH combos, or to submit your own!