Silly “O-Ring” Loop Fuels Infinite Mill Strategy in Standard

Last updated on December 13, 2025

Aang's Iceberg | Illustration by Matteo Bassini

Avatar: The Last Airbender has introduced another infinite combo to Standard, with MTG Creative Combos showcasing a combo-control deck that wins the game by milling its opponents through an infinite combo with Scrabbling Skullcrab and Aang's Iceberg.

Credit: MTG Creative Combos | Source: x.com

Combo-Control in Standard

Scrabbling Skullcrab | Illustration by John Tedrick

The infinite combo requires one copy of Scrabbling Skullcrab and three of Aang's Iceberg.

• Start with Skullcrab and one Iceberg (I1) in play.
• Cast a second copy of Iceberg (I2), and exile I1.
• Cast the third copy (I3), and exile I2.
• When I2 leaves play, I1 re-enters the battlefield. It can then exile I3, which brings I2 back into play to exile I1. This loop results in infinite eerie triggers so Scrabbling Skullcrab can mill the opponent out.

There are a few things to note: Since Aang's Iceberg has flash, this combo can happen at instant speed, on any player’s turn. All three Icebergs don’t need to be cast on one turn. If Iceberg 1 is already in play, Iceberg 2 can be cast on the opponent’s end step to step up a win on the following turn.

Surrounding this combo win condition is a classic blue-white control shell. A suite of countermagic—Three Steps Ahead and No More Lies—work with board wipes like Split Up and Day of Judgment to control the board. The deck doesn’t skimp on card advantage either, with full playsets of Consult the Star Charts and Stock Up, plus two copies of Thundertrap Trainer, digging for the combo.

The two copies of Appa, Steadfast Guardian are particularly clever. They can serve as an alternate win condition, but can also airbend any Icebergs in play to set up the combo, allowing the pilot to use them as removal without hampering their ability to win.

Is Aang’s Infinite Mill Reliable?

Consult the Star Charts | Illustration by Antonio José Manzanedo

This deck has two notable weaknesses: Its reliance on Scrabbling Skullcrab and the combo’s high card count.

While Scrabbling Skullcrab is central to the combo, it is an inherently weak card; having a card that doesn’t assemble the combo, protect the combo, or prevent your opponent from winning is a libailiety. Worse, a timely removal spell leaves kills the combo. Since the deck lacks early targets for removal spells like Get Lost and Combustion Techinque, any copies drawn by the opponent are likely to sit in their hand until the crab hits the field, requiring the pilot to have countermagic up in addition to the mana to cast one or two Icebergs.

THree Steps Ahead

This combo also requires four specific cards to win. This is a lesser issue due to Stock Up and Consult the Star Charts; two of the best blue draw spells that happen to live in the same Standard. Additionally, Three Steps Aheads lets interaction double as card filtration, and Thundertrap Trainer sees plenty of cards—especially if Three Steps Ahead or Appa, Steadfast Guardian flicker or airbend it. This deck exists only because blue has extremely high card quality in the current meta.

The deck’s control elements give it strong outs across the field. Board wipes look especially enticing in a format with decks like Bant Airbending, Temur Otters, and Allies that rely on wide boards to win the game. Countermagic provides broad insurance against a meta with diverse archetypes, from classic Red Deck Wins to combo decks like Superior Reanimator and Kona-Omncience and various flavors of tempo and midrange. Having three of the four combo pieces be a generically powerful removal spell improves the deck’s consistency.

Ultimately, this deck is unlikely to become a key player in Standard. The combo is rather fragile and easily disruptible, assuming all four cards present themselves in the first place. But that this deck can even be considered is a testament to how broad Standard has become. 2025 has been a turbulent year for Standard between a series cards and bans, but the storm might have broken. Avatar: the Last Airbender has built upon Edge of Eternities and Marvel’s Spider-Man to build a format that’s a far cry from Dimir Kaito, Overlord Soup, and Mono-Red Mice. TLA Standard has the potential to be amazing, even if we still need to put up with Izzet.