(Aurelia, the Warleader | Illustrated by Paul Scott Caravan)

Extra, extra! We have breaking news from the streets of Ravnica! Mechanical Memories is here to educate you about the future of Magic by looking to the past! Today, we’re examining the go-wide player’s go-to, the aggro accoutrement, it’s time to learn about the history of extra combats! 

With Ravnica Remastered and Murders at Karlov Manor on the horizon, I’ve been looking back through some of my favorite commanders from this ecumenopolis. Aurelia, the Warleader is one of the standouts, helming 2,399 decks here on EDHREC. Aurelia’s longevity is surprising, especially considering she’s one of the oldest commanders at the top of the Boros charts. A six-mana, pip-heavy Angel? That certainly sounds before my time. However, one look at her text box shows you why people can’t get enough. There’s something alluring about fundamentally altering the structure of the turn. If your opponents can barely stave off one alpha strike, the second will do them in. She’s everything players love in Commander.

In an era of Isshins and Karlachs, it's easy to assume Aurelia was the start of this phenomenon. But that’s far from the case! Magic design had been restructuring and repeating steps and phases of a turn long before the Boros Legion appeared. Let’s look at how extra combats gave aggro decks the boost they needed while also allowing another type of combat deck to emerge. Today, we’re examining the history of extra combats and how they lead to diverging Magic design styles.

Extra Turns at Home

Before we talk extra combats, we’ll look at their rules-adjacent cousin in extra turns. First seen in the busted Time Walk, Mark Rosewater has these effects as primarily in blue and tertiarily in red. Red extra turn effects tend to look like Last Chance, giving you one more opportunity to swing for the win before you die by your own hubris.

But why does red need those caveats? The truth of the matter is that a normal extra turn would go against the primary philosophy of red. The resources gained in an extra turn are far more than just untapping and drawing. Extra turns provide a major tempo swing, allowing you to stabilize your boardstate and initiate counterplay against your opponents. Standard players who remember Alrund's Epiphany can vouch for that. That kind of preparation is very anti-red. The designers for Visions saw this dilemma and found a solution. 

The first extra combat card printed was Relentless Assault in 1997. The card’s art depicts a horde of Goblins overwhelming the Zhalfiran forces, an image that mirrors how the card is often played. Relentless Assault, funnily enough, behaves like a proto-double strike. The simplistic designs of early aggro decks like Goblins meant this would often be used to break through blockers, then swing for lethal. By removing some of the major resources advantages that Time Warps provide, Relentless Assault speaks to the red mage’s reckless gameplay. Sure, the effect is powerful, but you still need to build a board that can take advantage of it. It seems like a simple way to give creature-based decks an advantage.

After Seize the Day in Odyssey, we’d encounter another extra combat card in the form of Aggravated Assault. Here’s where extra combats as you likely know them emerge. Remember how I said extra combats didn’t exploit resources like extra turns? That kind of falls apart when you allow the effect to be repeated. There’s over 100 ways for this card to go infinite on Commander Spellbook, with more and more emerging every year. This isn’t to say Aggravated Assault is a bad design, far from it! But there’s a stark difference between Relentless Assault’s aggro support and Aggravated Assault’s exploitation of basic turn structures. These two breeds of extra combat would go on to define future designs. 

Trial by Combats

When looking at extra combats as a whole, most of these can be divided into one of two categories. “Relentless” effects like Savage Beating are meant to be the last spell that a player casts, providing their boardstate a way to break through defenses and finish off opponents. The second, which I’ll call “Aggravated” effects are the combo prone variations. These tend to be on creatures or enchantments, things that stick on the battlefield. 

Early extra combats tended to veer on the side of Relentless effects. I’ll pick a random one, Waves of Aggression, as an example. The top commanders for Waves of Aggression tend towards wide board states and attack triggers. Aggressive decks run the risk of petering out after multiple turns of swinging into opposing board states. Especially in Commander, it can be hard for strictly aggro decks to match up against less vulnerable strategies. Every turn cycle is another chance for someone to cast Wrath of God, and it can be hard for combat damage to beat that clock. An extra combat phase speeds up the process of death-by-creatures. Rather than forcing creature decks to operate on a different axis, these spells help adjust these strategies for multiplayer games.

Now, let’s look at Aggravated effects. After the eponymous Aggravated Assault, the infamous Godo, Bandit Warlord was printed in Champions of Kamigawa. His ability most effectively combos with Helm of the Host, a theme that can be seen with other Aggravated effects. These tend to be two-to-three card combos that allow players to infinitely attack or untap their creatures, often creating an effectively infinite loop to demolish opposing board states. However, the biggest problem that cEDH Godo decks run into is the amount of mana that these combos require. Godo himself costs six mana, then equipping the Helm of the Host costs another five mana. Even with plenty of fast mana, pulling this off is risky. Other infinite combat combos like Hellkite Charger and Bear Umbra need you to play a massive creature, enchant it, then have enough lands to untap and pay for its ability. Yes, it likely wins the game if you pull it off, but can you?

If these cards are creating huge swings in value when efficiently exploited, does that mean they’re a color pie break? My earlier example of the problem with red extra turns might lead one to say yes. Extra turns provide both mana and card advantage, can be easily looped, and can be protected with a suite of countermagic. These Aggravated extra combats look similar at a glance. The idea of creating an infinitely large boardstate during combat and swinging it seems antithetical to red. Rather than playing out aggressive creatures and smashing through opponents, they create a situation where the prospect of blocking doesn’t matter. Ten thousand Combat Celebrants feels the same as one hundred billon million zillion Combat Celebrants.

Some extra combat effects seem to agree with this, adding criteria to these effects that make comboing off harder. Karlach, Fury of Avernus only triggers on the first combat of the turn, no matter which clone of Karlach is attacking. Bloodthirster from Warhammer 40,000 only untapped itself in stark contrast to its brethren. Again, this all seems to point to design saying that Aggravated Assault is a mistake. I’d likely agree with you… if it weren’t for one thing. See, since I’m claiming that there are two types of extra combat effects, it’s got me thinking about how these Aggravated combos behave in-game. These effects rely on window theory and it’s role in the gameplay of red-based decks.

To the Window, to the Wall

Window theory was introduced to me by RebellSon, whose Magic content really gets me thinking about the inner workings of my strategies. She argues that cEDH (and all of Commander by extension) has windows in the game where you’re able to avoid opponent’s counterplay. Whenever you go for the win, you should do so when you believe you have the highest chance of winning. Seems obvious, right? Not so fast.

Rebell uses the example of Ad Nauseam decks in her video. A person’s impetus might be to cast Ad Nauseam as soon as they are able, but doing so risks getting your vital spell hit by Force of Negation. Instead, observing the board and other players gives you insight into what the optimal window to strike is. As Rebell argues, decks like RogSi have explosive tools like tutors, free countermagic, and rituals that can seize these windows as soon as they are able. That means that when that window approaches, you’ll be able to act upon it before it closes. Imagine a fencer with a rapier, able to strike at the weak points of an opponent at the slightest indication of an opening. That’s RogSi, feinting and striking.

Extra combat combos are like trying to feint with a greataxe. If you’re waiting for a window where you can resolve a six mana creature and a five mana enchantment, that’s less of a window and more of an entrance to an Apple store. Instead, these kinds of combos rely on the brazen demeanor that red decks are known for. Rather than tactically planning for when would be best to go for the win, Aggravated Assault asks you to just do it. Sure, you’re risking getting blown out. But the color red wouldn’t have it any other way.

There are ways of minimizing this, specifically by playing into red’s own strategies. Aggressive decks can refuel and keep swinging amidst a deluge of removal, allowing you to survive while other decks burn up their resources. In addition, pressuring opponent’s life totals can make their windows smaller.

Red's "think second, act first" philosophy applies to extra combat combos. Rather than using long-term resource accumulation that locks out opponents, it asks you to go all in on your gameplan. Early Magic struggled to make these creature decks effective with the litany of busted strategies that were available. Rather than giving up on making aggressive decks work, design pivoted to ideas like extra combats to improve these strategies.

The same goes for Relentless extra combat effects. Even though they don’t offer the same combo potential, it hits upon core aspects of Magic design that make players resonate with creature combat. Picture the tactile feeling of casting an extra combat spell. You untap your board, then immediately turn all of your creatures and tokens sideways again, often growing the board in the process. It’s a subtle thing, but there’s a reason these cards aren’t just double strike. The experience of charging in for a second time clearly strikes a chord with players, and it is easy to see why.

Extra Kombatttt!

To accompany this exploration of red aggro design, I’ve brewed up an Aurelia, the Warleader deck that utilizes many extra combat cards, both combo and classic varieties. Cards like Combat Celebrant have a tendency of going infinite quite easily, so it’s certainly a deck you’d want to clear with your playgroup. If they aren’t feeling the call of combo, then pivoting to a Goblin typal build is another option.

Thanks for joining me on another trip through Magic history. It’s always fun to examine these cards within their historical contexts (as dorky as that makes me sound). Join me next time for a special holly jolly episode where we explore the holidays through a certain Imp. See you next time.

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