Last updated on November 9, 2026
Heroic Intervention | Illustration by Carlos C Diaz
Hype for Star Trek is at an all-time low, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t strong cards. The Naked Time has an amusing name and art but the red saga is the real deal—primarily due to the second chapter, which enables infinite combos and has decent synergy potential.
Going Infinite With The Naked Time
The first infinite combo uses The Naked Time, Agatha's Soul Cauldron, and Krenko, Mob Boss. You need to hit the second chapter, have a goblin without summoning sickness, and Krenko in the graveyard.
Exile Krenko with Soul Cauldron (can also start with Krenko under ASC) and put a counter on your goblin. It now has Krenko’s activated ability. Tap your goblin to make a token. That creature enters with a +1/+1 counter, so it has Krenko’s ability, and with haste, so it can use that right away to make two goblins. Since they grow exponentially, you’ll have infinite hasty gobbos to attack with and win.
Want another combo? Creatures entering with +1/+1 counters negates the -1/-1 counter persist puts on cards like Murderous Redcap. If you feed the Redcap to a sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer, it dies, then returns with a -1-/1 counter that is then negated by the +1/+1 counter. Thus, it has no counters, so you can sacrifice it and persist it over and over.
These combos, and others that rely on creatures entering with haste and/or +1/+1 counters, are often perfect for Commander, especially in Bracket 3 since they often require many moving pieces.
The Naked Time vs. First Day of Class
The second chapter of The Naked Time is effectively the text on First Day of Class, commonly used as a combo card in formats like Pauper. If I had to play one, I’m inclined towards First Day of Class unless The Naked Time has specific synergies.
The primary pro of First Day of Class is using it the turn you want to win. The Naked Time takes a turn to enable a combo win since you need the second chapter, which also restricts it to a sorcery-speed win. Depending on the context, it even tells your opponent when to hold up removal and countermagic.
What The Naked Time needs to be a good playable is additional synergy beyond the combo; First Day’s primary weakness is only being a combo card. But if you can sacrifice The Naked Time to something like Beseech the Mirror or Disturbing Mirth, then you get a ramp spell. Or if your deck can exploit putting an extra land into play, then sacrificing it, like Titania, Protector of Argoth. If you can weave The Naked Time into your deck beyond the infinite combos, it could be better than First Day of Class (though I wouldn’t be surprised if many decks run both).
The Naked Time in Standard
The Naked Time even has applications in Standard.
Rottenmouth Viper is a super sick threat from Bloomburrow that never saw more than a smattering of play, and dropped out completely after Hopeless Nightmare got banned. But it’s perfect with The Naked Time: If you play a 1-mana permanent on turn 1 and TNT on turn 2, you can land a turn 3 Viper. Since you’re casting it with the second chapter active, you even get haste and ditch TNT before sacrificing the extra land.
This is maybe overly cute, but Iroh, Tea Master can donate The Naked Time to your opponent after the second chapter resolves, forcing your opponent to sacrifice a land. 2 mana to Stone Rain your opponent while ramping yourself is a pretty sick deal.
The last Standard synergy worth considering here is earthbending. Sacrificing an earthbended land means that you’ve gone up a land overall and TNT represents two landfall triggers, one each for the first and last chapter. That could cause a new landfall variant, which would be an interesting shakeup to the format.
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