18 Jan 2011

Pre-Besieged Combo Corner

This week I've spent a bit of time going through some of my boxes of cards, assessing what I've got, what I'm using and seeing if i can replace anything in my decks with stuff I've never used, just to keep things interesting. In doing this I've come across a lot of cards I've just not given any time to, and a few that really should be used somewhere or another.
With ideas overflowing i thought I'd take it upon myself to start a new article that i could run again and again, a space for which i can point out some little pairings that may have been over looked. Also it may be useful fodder for our new magic upstarts.
So here we go, the first Gambit Combo Corner.

I started off looking through what i had from 'Scars of Mirrodin', originally to get some ideas to exploit with the stuff that's coming in 'Besieged', but it's triggered some ideas with stuff that is already available. My first card is 'Tangle Angler'. Now I've used this in my Infect deck, to draw blockers away from bigger hitters, and because of how the ability is structured you can use it multiple times in the same turn, allowing lots of your attackers through.

Something I hadn't thought of is using it as a more prominent combo piece, namely with 'Infiltration Lens'. With an equipped lens, your Angler could catch you multiple additional cards every turn. Your only concern needs to be making sure that you don't over face him and take the blockers power values to 5.

Card drawing gives you a massive advantage in magic but you could always add to this combo by putting out a couple of 'Jace's Erasures'. This is really going to make Tangle Angler a force to be reckoned with.

My Second combo idea uses 'Goblin Tunneler'. I've never really had space in my red decks to include him, but if used right he could be really powerful. The strongest I've thought of is to use him in conjunction with 'Warren Instigator' but I feel that because the Instigator is Mythic Rare and still very pricey we should stick to some cheaper bits. Once again we can use this card to gain us some card advantage, if we used him with 'Scroll Thief', we could also use him with an old card (recently reprinted in the 'Archenemy Theme Decks') 'Skirk Commando'.

Skirk Commando I've not thought of using before as i assumed he would probably get blocked and with his low toughness, you'd never see his ability trigger. But in this situation the commando can be straight in, no hastle.
If only there was a way of making him better, some equipment or enchantment??? How about a 'Quietus Spike'? A rare from the Shards of Alara set, not to pricey now as it's rotated out of standard. This added weaponry to the Commando would mean that when he hit your opponent, making him lose 2 life then Half the remaining life, then Skirk Commando deals damage to a creature your opponent controls, but because the spike gives it Deathtouch what ever creature you choose will die, It's like it was made to fit.

I checked up on the ruling with Goblin Tunneler's ability, and you are aloud to use it on something like Dragon Whelp and then after the ability resolves, trigger the Dragons +1/+0, so there are multiple ways to slot that little goblin into your decks.

Something else i haven't seen, is an Echo Circlet on a Engulfing Slagwurm? If your wurm looked like the one below, you'd be able to destroy 5 opposing creatures! Ouch!


Anyway, think that should probably wrap up this article now. I hope that's got some brains active and I'll see you next time.

If the images are coming up a bit small on your monitor, by all means click on them to enlarge, if thats still not good enough, you can find them all here - http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx

Olly, Team Gambit :D

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6:58 pm

    Nice article Olly.
    I think Tangle Angler is under-rated at the moment so further exploiting this card will be useful.
    For Engulfing Slagwurm you could try enchanting it with Gift of the Deity which would mean all creatures able to block it do so.

    John of Team Gambit

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  2. Hah, yeh thats very true, i hadn't really looked at the lorwyn/shadowmoor block for inspiration, kinda drifted past it.

    I like that Gary still doesn't like Tangle Angler, maybe we should look into building some whole decks around him, see if we can change his mind :D

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