Wombo Combo - Best EDH Combo Cards Released in 2024
(Warren Soultrader | Art by Pete Venters)
Ten...Nine...Eight
Welcome back to Wombo Combo, the series where we look at the best EDH combo cards available using data from EDHREC and Commander Spellbook. Last edition, we finished our long look into each color identity in Magic to find their best combo cards.
Before we start into another themed set of articles, with the New Year right around the corner, I thought it would be good to reminisce on the new cards of 2024 and see what ones have the most combo potential.
2024 was home to many great Magic sets, including Duskmourn:House of Horrors, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, Bloomburrow, and Modern Horizons 3 among others. 2024 also included several Universes Beyond inclusions, such as the Fallout set. With a wide plethora of different sets and intellectual properties to choose from, lets see what 2024 provided us in terms of creating EDH combos!
#10: Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds
Deck Inclusions: 2,439 as commander (#593); 3,365 as card (1.135%)
Ghired, Mirror of the Wilds was released in Outlaws of Thunder Junction and was also previously featured in our Naya themed article. Ghired allows your nontoken creatures to tap to create a copy of a token you created this turn. This can be a great way to get large quantities of advantageous tokens, like Treasures or Clues.
There are also specific tokens, such as the Smaug token created by There and Back Again, which take this to a new extreme of utility. Ghired combos easily with cards like Intruder Alarm, Midnight Guard and Battered Golem with the applicable token created. Thornbite Staff also works perfectly with either a legendary creature token (like Smaug) or by including a sacrifice outlet alongside it.
#9: Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero
Deck Inclusions: 561 as commander (#1,387); 4,028 as card (0.767%)
Wylie Duke, Atiin Hero is a simple card with a simple ability - whenever you tap it, you gain 1 life and draw a card. To combo with Wylie, you need a way to tap and untap it at a neutral cost. Some methods can include pairing Pemmin's Aura with Cryptolith Rite or Earthcraft, allowing Wylie to tap for mana, get the effect and then untap.
You can also give Wylie the ability of Pili-Pala or a similar card thanks to Agatha's Soul Cauldron, giving it another convenient way to untap itself. Mind Over Matter is also a great way to untap Wylie using its own card draw to facilitate it.
#8: Basking Broodscale
Deck Inclusions: 17,372 decks (1.733%)
Basking Broodscale is a variant to the cards Scurry Oak and Herd Baloth that was designed for Eldrazi. All three of these cards can generally be used interchangeably, along with ways to continually put +1/+1 counters on them. Cards like Cathars' Crusade, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest and Rosie Cotton of South Lane do the job perfectly to facilitate an infinite combo.
The advantage Basking Broodscale has over the others is that the tokens can sacrifice themselves to add . Allowing the tokens to sacrifice themselves can forego the need for a sacrifice outlet in many combos, such as with Mazirek as mentioned earlier, making them much easier to execute.
Adding mana is also a massive upside which can be pumped into your favorite spell to end the game with, like Crackle with Power.
#7: Springheart Nantuko
Deck Inclusions: 46,715 decks (4.75%)
Springheart Nantuko is one of several cards that has a landfall ability creating a creature token, but Nantuko's ability is unique in the fact that it can create token copies of creatures instead. Making tokens is a great way to trigger Kodama of the East Tree into putting a land onto the battlefield to easily facilitate a combo. The tokens can also be used to activate Perilous Forays to fetch lands easily.
With Nantuko's cloning capibalities, you can animate a land like Blinkmoth Nexus, attach Nantuko to it, and then create a copy of it to trigger Nantuko again. You can also use the illustrious Dryad Arbor to easily fulfill this purpose.
#6: Skittering Precursor
Deck Inclusions: 2,716 decks (0.267%)
Skittering Precursor is the successor to previous favorites Sifter of Skulls and Pawn of Ulamog, making an Eldrazi Spawn whenever you sacrifice a nontoken permanent. Precursor can be used as redundancy for Pawn of Ulamog and/or Sifter of Skulls, working well for combos using Nether Traitor and Ozox, the Clattering King to easily add an additional token and mana for furthering a combo.
Skittering Precursor also has a unique quality over the others by triggering for a permanent. This can allow for some jank Sword of the Meek interactions, as long as you can buff the Eldrazi Spawns to being 1/1s using a card like Raiders' Spoils.
#5: Chthonian Nightmare
Deck Inclusions: 22,354 decks (1.989%)
Chthonian Nightmare is a new card meant to take inspiration from the EDH banned Recurring Nightmare, but using energy to instead make it more balanced for EDH and other formats. Chthonian Nightmare is the perfect card for returning smaller creature cards repeatedly, especially those that can pay for Chthonian Nightmare's casting cost.
Cards like Priest of Gix and Flamecache Gecko work well for this. Chthonian Nightmare can also be used for infinite turn combos, by recurring a card like Eternal Witness to grab an extra turn spell each turn. If you want an infinite combo, return Songs of the Damned instead to cover the neeeded mana each iteration.
#4: Overlord of the Hauntwooods
Deck Inclusions: 14,864 decks (1.691%)
Overlord of the Hauntwoods creates an Everywhere land token (which is every basic land type) whenever it enters the battlefield or attacks. An ability to create any land token infinitely is always massively useful, but one that is every land type is a peak dream of mana fixers and five color decks.
While the tokens do enter tapped, you can get around this with cards like Spelunking and Tiller Engine. From here you just need ways to either copy Overlord of the Hauntwoods (such as Springheart Nantuko, which we talked about earlier) or to recur/blink it using an Emiel the Blessed style card.
#3: Warren Soultrader
Deck Inclusions: 55,478 decks (5.215%)
Warren Soultrader is a card reminiscent of one of the best sacrifice outlets - Phyrexian Altar. Warren Soultrader allows you to pay 1 life and sacrifice a creature to create a Treasure token. This can serve the same purpose as Phyrexian Altar, given of course you have a way to cover the lifeloss each iteration.
Simple cards to achieve this include soul sister effects (like Soul Warden) and Blood Artist effects. Because Warren Soultrader makes Treasures, it benefits from other cards like Academy Manufactor and Chatterfang, Squirrel General as well as other token doublers. Don't forget the ever beloved Gravecrawler either!
#2: Lotus Ring
Deck Inclusions: 3,086 decks (0.126%)
Lotus Ring allows you to turn any of your creatures into a Black Lotus. While it seems like a niche card in terms of usefulness, getting the Ring to equip to a creature for cheap can lead to some easy infinite mana combos. Puresteel Paladin can allow Lotus Ring to equip any creature for , and some creatures like Fervent Champion reduce the cost for themselves to .
Now you just need a way to recur or replace the creature that you sacrificed. The best option is Koll, the Forgemaster which will return the creature to your hand so that you can cast it using the mana you just made. Other options include Luminarch Ascension, which will create a new token that you can attach Lotus Ring to for easy mana provided a haste enabler is handy.
#1: Rakdos, the Muscle
Deck Inclusions: 2,825 as commander (#519); 9,384 as card (1.662%)
The best combo card of #1 comes in the form of the beloved Rakdos, the Muscle! Rakdos has an ability that allows you to exile cards from your library with the ability to play them until your next end step whenever you sacrifice a creature. This can be used outside combos to fetch new cards or important missing combo pieces.
In a combo, it can be used to grab the same card over and over again, with the ability to then cast it from exile. This can be a card able to topdeck itself, like Golgari Thug, or you can instead use Mortuary which can then do it for any card. You can sacrifice a creature to a sacrifice outlet, put it on top of your library, exile it, and then cast it from exile.
The mana can come from the sacrifice outlet, the creature you sacrifice (think Priest of Gix and similar cards), and/or other battlefield effects like Pitiless Plunderer, You can also commit crimes with Rakdos (shocking, I know) to return Forsaken Miner and exile your library at the same time. If you are looking for 2024's best combo card, then Rakdos is the muscle your deck desires.
Honorable Mentions
Since we are looking at 2024's best combo cards, here's a list of 14 more combo cards, taking us to a cool 24 combo cards in this article!
- Shilgengar, Sire of Famine
- Lonis, Genetics Expert
- Six
- Marvin, Murderous Mimic
- Mirror Room // Fractured Realm
- Aftermath Analyst
- Evolution Witness
- Leyline of Transformation
- The Jolly Balloon Man
- Delney, Streetwise Lookout
- Wick, the Whorled Mind
- Automated Assembly Line
- Disa the Restless
- Oltec Matterweaver
Thank you very much for reading this edition of Wombo Combo, and don't forget to check out Commander Spellbook for more EDH combos and visit the Commander Spellbook Discord for more EDH combo discussion and to submit your own EDH combos. Until next time, happy comboing!
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