Combo deck is a Magic: The Gathering term for a deck of (usually sixty) Magic: The Gathering cards that aims to win the game using a relatively small number of "killer" cards. Because of this win strategy, a common motif among combo decks is an emphasis put on the ability to find specific cards quickly and win as fast as possible.

Combo history

Early combo decks generally had a one-shot strategy that resulted in a win under most game conditions.

Channelball

Channelball is the classic example of early combo strategies because it deals exactly twenty damage, the amount required to win a game, and is playable on the first turn if the right cards are drawn in an opening hand. The basic strategy was to drop quick mana, including Black Lotus or Mox artifacts, cast a Channel and a Fireball, using excess mana to pump the Fireball up one or two damage, and using Channel to fuel the Fireball for the rest of the damage necessary to kill one's opponent. The ensuing 20-point Fireball would kill one's opponent, and leave the caster usually between 1-5 life. Because Channelball was quite vulnerable to essentially fatal disruption (e.g. a Counterspell, or retaliatory Lightning Bolt) it was superseded by more robust, fast, and powerful combo decks.

Prosperous Bloom (Bloom-Drain)

The first modern combo deck, it utilized Squandered Resources to cast an early Cadaverous Bloom. Prosperity is cast, and one's hand discarded to gain a large number of cards. Successive Prosperities then increase your hand size dramatically. A card is thrown to cast a Drain Life, and ten cards are thrown to fuel the Drain for 20 points. [644]

TurboZvi

A type of blue control/deck destruction, TurboZvi used Dream Halls and massive card drawing to create a combo. The player would pitch a blue card to cast a blue card drawing spell for a net gain of cards. Mana Severance would be used to remove land cards from the deck to improve the efficiency of card drawing, while Gaea's Blessing would be used to cycle one's graveyand back into their deck. The win was through destruction of the opponent's deck with cards like Intuition or Lobotomy.[645][646]

Fruity Pebbles

Fruity Pebbles used a card called Goblin Bombardment to deal massive amounts of damage using a "loop", in which one play could be repeated many times to the player's advantage. A creature that can be played at no cost, which was printed in order to be a cheap and expendable blocker, was combined with a card that allows dying creatures to be automatically returned to their owner's hand. This, combined with Goblin Bombardment's ability to "throw" creatures at the opponent in order to deal damage, created a card combo that could be used to win the game. This combo was stronger than previous ones because its game pieces could be used to some effect even outside its combo. This principle, which suggests that combo pieces should be useful in as many contexts as possible, is a fundamental guiding principle in the construction of contemporary combo decks.

Reaplace (Reap-Lace Combo)

Reaplace marked another deck-design breakthrough that is still very relevant to today's combo decks: complexity and versatility. Whereas many other previous combo decks relied on one card combo without which it was dead, reap-lace players were highly innovative and built multiple win conditions into their decks. The combo itself is considered somewhat silly by today's standards because it involves cards that are highly situational outside of the combo and have little synergy unless all of the combo cards are present. However, the idea that a combo player can win more games by his play skill than by his luck started largely with this deck and is one of the greatest considerations in deck design today.

Later combo decks

Because the actual deck combos are hard to understand without a detailed knowledge of Magic: The Gathering rules and actual decklists vary greatly, there is no easy and encyclopedic way to present information regarding specific combo decks. However, for reference, here is a list of combo decks that have been prominent in Magic: The Gathering history.

Trix/Rector Trix/Rectal Agony

Academy, Neo-Academy

Replenish Combo

Belcher Combo

TPS (The Perfect Storm)

Long.dec, LongDeath/Death Long

Dragon Combo

Oath Combo

Goblin Food Chain/Skullclamp Goblins

Tinker Combo

FEB (Full English Breakfast)

Angry Hermit

Doomsday Combo

Cephalid Breakfast

Life.dec

Bringer of the White Dawn/Mindslaver Combo

KCI (Ironworks) combo

Some decks are not categorized strictly as combo decks, but still have elements of a combo deck.

Scrap(Featuring all 4 stations of Fifth Dawn)

Psychatog (3 or 4-color)

Miracle Gro/Gro-A-Tog

Affinity Combo

MaskNaught

Yet more combo decks have been developed and built by many people, but are not fast enough or deadly enough to become popular tournament decks.

ElfBall

Squirrel Nest/Earthcraft Combo

Saproling Burst Combo

Stasis/Chronatog Combo

External links

The Mana Drain: Online forum features some of Magic: The Gathering's greatest combo innovators.

Star City Games: Features many decklists and explanations of combo decks of the past, present, and future.

The Source: Your source for Legacy. Includes all the Tier 1 Legacy decks, and discussion on them.