Candelabra of TawnosCandelabra of Tawnos | Art by Doug Shuler
Have you ever wanted to flex your disposable income and/or the fact that you have been playing this game since the mid-nineties and never sold out? Then the fine folks over at Commander Spellbook and I have a list for you.
To help celebrate the incredible achievement of hitting 100,000 combos on the website, I thought it would be fun to see just how pay-to-win we could get.
Without further ado, bust out the checkbook and take a second mortgage out on the house, because we are looking at ten of The Most Expensive Combos in EDH.
Money, Money, Money
1: Coil, Fracture, and Twist
Starting off the list is the most expensive combo on Commander Spellbook, and surprisingly, it only uses three cards. For being the most expensive combo, it's surprisingly straightforward and doesn't require much setup. Here is the explanation of the combo.
This is a combo I could see your Esper-obsessed podmate playing as an excuse to finally use the TimetwisterTimetwister they have had since they were slinging spells out on the blacktop during recess.
2: The First Metalbender
Next up is the reason I couldn't structure this as a typical top-ten list.
It all comes down to the card Candelabra of TawnosCandelabra of Tawnos. Not only does this card combo with just about everything, but it's also outrageously expensive and pushes the top end of the most expensive combos. I could have chosen a few different ones to occupy this spot and represent the power of Candelabra, but I chose the one using Toph for a few reasons.
This was a discussed combo upon the reveal of Toph during the ATLA preview season. It uses another well-known and expensive card in Gaea's Cradle. Finally, it has enough variants that all use Toph + Candelabra and a high mana-producing land to achieve a multitude of desired results.
3: Going, Green
I thought I would simplify the monetary massacre and bring it back to something everyone loves: green. Green represents money as well as busted cards. If you ever played Future Sight Limited, you may know that Sprout SwarmSprout Swarm was one of the best, if not the best, things you could do in that format.
Believe it or not, the card is not too shabby in Commander as well. It gets even better when we empty the coffers on it, too.
The reason I like this combo is that it shows a great interaction between cards long in the game's past, such as EarthcraftEarthcraft, and something fairly close to the game's present in Rootpath PurifierRootpath Purifier.
4: To the Moon
The early Kamigawa sets are secretly full of combotastic cards. Time and time again, creatures with the Moonfolk typing have been at the basis of the most convoluted combos out there. While not Moonfolk themselves, Patron of the MoonPatron of the Moon often finds itself involved in these shenanigans.
Luckily, everyone's favorite colorful jellybean, Omnath, Locus of CreationOmnath, Locus of Creation, introduces us to a hilarious way to once again use and abuse Gaea's CradleGaea's Cradle with the moon's help.
You would imagine that a combo requiring fifteen steps and five specific cards on the battlefield would guarantee a win. But that isn't the game we play, and hilariously, money doesn't always guarantee victory.
5: Flowchart Magic
One of the best things to do while playing Magic is to feel as if you are playing the game without actually doing anything. What better way to do that than with a card like Chains of MephistophelesChains of Mephistopheles? A card that often leaves people needing a flowchart to know what they're supposed to do when trying to draw a card.
If you were looking for an extremely expensive way to mill your deck, look no further. Hopefully, the gold buried in your backyard can cover the cost of this combo.
6: Combo Platter
One part Dungeons & Dragons' Displacer KittenDisplacer Kitten + Universes Beyond Kratos, God of WarKratos, God of War + The Reserved List Mox DiamondMox Diamond + a splash of Eldraine Emry, Lurker of the LochEmry, Lurker of the Loch = our next combo on the list.
It's a beautiful combination of truly everything the game has to offer. An elegant combination of using cards for their intended purposes and using their drawbacks to your advantage. This is what combos are all about to me—finding ways to do things that look counterproductive on the surface—in this case, letting your own Mox Diamond die—and turning that to your advantage.
I also have a soft spot for Kratos, God of WarKratos, God of War, so finding this combo did put a smile on my face, aside from the price tag.
7: Two Easy
If a three-card combo was easy to start the list, what about a two-card combo near the end?
So this combo does what it says on the box. You lock all creatures out of attacking for the low cost of almost $1,000.
Is this truly a combo? Is it worth it to play? I will leave the finer questions up to you, dear readers.
8: Red Hot
Red was feeling a bit left out of the combo talk, so it decided to break in hot and heavy.
I would not expect to find this combo outside of the likes of high Bracket 4 or cEDH-level tables. As far as playable combos go, this is on the higher end of the scale compared to the rest of the list.
Just be careful with this combo, since it will constantly refill the entire table's hand; if they can cast anything to stop you, the fault will be yours alone.
9: Just Vile
This entire list could have just been combos involving Candelabra of TawnosCandelabra of Tawnos or Gaea's CradleGaea's Cradle. While I tried my best not to fill the entire list with these cards, I, too, like many, am beholden to the whims of the universe, so you are getting one more combo using the Candelabra. Sorry not sorry.
The good part about this combo is that it uses Karn, Silver GolemKarn, Silver Golem, which automatically makes it cooler than any other Candelabra-based combo that doesn't run it.
Turns out this is one of the only combos on the list where all the results of the combo are actually infinite effects as opposed to near-infinites. Which is pretty neat, all things considered.
10: Win The Game
Are you winning, son? Why, yes, I am indeed winning the game. Finally, a combo that can win the game all on its own and would actually be played in a real deck.
DoomsdayDoomsday, while being a skill-testing card of the highest degree, is by all means a fun card. Often, when this card is cast, it means someone is losing the game, and sometimes that is you, the caster.
Wrap Up
This was a lot of information, which may come across as a bit tasteless. I would say forget all that and embrace the fact that most of these stupidly expensive combos don't actually do anything without help. Most don't win the game, and one even locks out all combat for the entire table.
Sure, you can usually add a single card to most of these combos to truly win the game, such as throwing in an effect like Impact TremorsImpact Tremors to the #6 combo on the list. But you don't need to play a combo if you don't want to.
I find combos fun and somewhat necessary to the game, and often add them to a deck as another way to win outside my main game plan. I am a combo enjoyer, and with that in mind, I thought making a list showing off some combos using some of the bougiest card combinations possible was all in good fun.
What do you think of combos? What is your favorite combo? Have you hit the random combo button on Commander Spellbook today? You totally should because you never know what you might find. Tell me what combo you got over on Bluesky or Instagram @nicnax96. Here is what the site gave me.
Nicholas Lucchesi
Player and lover of all Magic the Gathering formats. Forged in the fires of Oath of the Gatewatch expeditions. Always down to jam games with anyone and everyone. When not playing Magic I am doing something else equally, if not more nerdy.
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