The 10 Best Hermit Druid Combos in Magic Ranked

Last updated on November 8, 2024

Hermit Druid | Illustration by Heather Hudson

One of the earliest cEDH wincons, Hermit Druid has fallen a bit out of favor as more powerful and reliable options have come on line. Although it’s solidly in “glass cannon” territory these days, Hermit Druid is still a very powerful green creature that can pop off for the win in a moment if opponents don’t have the right interaction at the ready.

Has it fallen so far that you can safely get through a Rule 0 conversation without disclosing it? That remains to be seen. Let’s explore the combos it enables and answer that question for ourselves.

What Are Hermit Druid Combos?

Beacon of Tomorrows | Illustration by Jeremy Jarvis

Hermit Druid combos use the activated ability on this creature to mill either your entire library, or very large chunks of it at a time.

Back in Stronghold, Hermit Druid worked like Mulch, also printed in that Magic set. You grabbed a basic land from your deck and dumped a few things into the graveyard. That was good for reanimator and dredge decks, especially if you culled your basics count to around eight, guaranteeing a hefty chunk in the ‘yard.

But what if you had no basics and could drop your library into your graveyard on the tap? Could you win?

The answer became an easy “yes” with the printing of Laboratory Maniac in Innistrad. By then Commander was emerging as a multiplayer format and there were enough decent nonbasics to fill out a singleton deck.

There are a handful of other ways to win the game without a Lab Man or Thassa's Oracle style trigger, but the empty library wincons are some of the easiest to pull off. Let’s take a look at the combos and see how they work.

Note that all of these require you to have no basic lands in your library. Generally we just build the decks that way (the easier to fold hard to Blood Moon?), but you can add another piece to all of these by using Mana Severance, which is cute but also just another layer of conditionality.

#10. Yawgmoth’s Will + Infinite Mana

An idea called a meme by its most devoted proponent, this combo requires you to have infinite mana (or at least a ginormous lot of mana) or the pieces for it, a haste enabler, and the original mana to cast them from the graveyard with this black sorcery. It seems like you could win in easier ways with infinite mana, right?

Okay, so you’ve got your infinite mana engine, like Devoted Druid and Quillspike at the ready, and Yawgmoth's Will in hand. Now you just cast everything from your graveyard, especially Genesis Wave or Finale of Devastation.

The good thing I can say about this combo is that if you’re in the Golgari-graveyard-plus-elves infinite mana space (is that a thing for people?), where you might just be playing Yagmoth’s Will for value, tossing a Hermit Druid in there for inevitability kind of makes that deck better.

#9. Beacon of Tomorrows

This combo ranks low because it’s so mana intensive. Beacon of Tomorrows costs 8 mana, plus the additional green to activate Hermit Druid. If you’re building a deck to get there, I think you can do more reliable things than Hermit Druid.

The idea is to Druid your library into the graveyard and then cast Beacon of Tomorrows: This blue sorcery gives you an extra turn and puts the Beacon back as the only card in the library. So you draw it and rinse, repeat.

The trouble is there’s no win there! So you either need to have a win on board, like a flier and tapped-out opponents or a planeswalker, or even The Millennium Calendar to convert this into a win. Never seen this happen in person.

#8. Nexus of Fate

This is a Beacon of Tomorrows win but with Nexus of Fate – this blue instant is 1 whole mana less to cast. Yeah, still not a fan.

#7. Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

4 mana, three of them blue, on a planeswalker that’s harder to reanimate than a creature. This all makes Jace, Wielder of Mysteries the worst “empty library wincon.” It’s still better than our previous options.

#6. Laboratory Maniac

The OG card for the combo, Laboratory Maniac has been eclipsed on mana efficiency by Thassa's Oracle. Thoracle also improves upon this blue creature because Lab Man needs a new turn or something else to get you the card draw trigger, whereas Thoracle just checks your library. This card is still loads better than Jace, primarily because green has tons of creature tutors that can nab both combo pieces.

There’s a more complicated version of this that needs just the Druid on the battlefield.

#5. Laboratory Maniac + Dread Return + Angel of Glory’s Rise

One of the early cEDH builds, a 5-color deck with these pieces that tutored for Druid was a beast back in the day. You Druid the library away. You have the resources to reanimate three creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield (or two plus the tapped Druid) if you don’t already have enough, like Narcomoeba, or unearth or disturb cards, or Reassembling Skeleton kinds of things. You need three to flashback Dread Return. You get back Angel of Glory's Rise along with Laboratory Maniac, a Grand Abolisher for extra safety, and a card like Hapless Researcher to draw a card and trigger the Lab Man.

That sounds like a lot, but it’s not that hard to put together with a 5-color commander shell, especially when all you need in play is the Druid.

#4. Reveillark + Dread Return + Krovikan Horror

It’s easiest to just explain all these graveyard combos in one place. In this case, you do the same steps to Druid the library and sacrifice three creatures for Dread Return. But now instead of a Laboratory Maniac ending, you impress all with your goofy wincon! You Return Reveillark and then get back Karmic Guide and Dimir House Guard (or another appropriate free sac outlet).

With me so far? Karmic Guide gets back Reveillark and you start looping, Reveillark gets back an additional creature with each loop, and if you start looping Wall of Roots, you can start netting mana. When you have enough, say 120+ mana, you use the ‘Lark to grab Krovikan Horror, and make sure you recur enough creatures to ping each opponent to death while sacking and recurring creatures.

I mean, I guess that’s not really that different than our previous combo. Each is pretty disruptable. But I’d rather die to the Horror than Lab Man, myself.

#3. Thassa's Oracle

The top Druid pairing is Thassa's Oracle, itself the best blue ETB card. Lab Man needed a friend to reanimate, but this merfolk wizard doesn’t need friends – just like you if you’re playing these decks!

#2. Thassa's Oracle + Grolnok, the Omnivore/Nethroi, Apex of Death

Grolnok, the Omnivore can be your Simic commander version of Yawgmoth's Will. But all you need to cast is Thassa's Oracle. This is a one-way trip since Grolnok eats your graveyard.

Nethroi, Apex of Death is safer in that way, but having to mutate is sort of a pain.

#1. Thassa's Oracle + Bloodghast + Narcomoeba + Dread Return

The simplest adaptation of the old Lab Man combo. As long as you can drop a land after triggering Hermit Druid to get the two creatures back, all you need is the Druid in play and the finish is a lot simpler!

How Do You Stop Hermit Druid Combos?

It’s pretty easy, which is why these combos have fallen out of favor!

Because the Druid has a tap ability, removal before that can happen is a literal killer. A counterspell or Stifle of any kind at the right time is lights out. And any form of graveyard hate, especially at instant speed, is also a deal-breaker.

Orim's Chant was an interesting reprint in Modern Horizons 3, as that was a classic answer to Druid combo and lots of other combos, and Chant was mocked as something no one played a dozen years ago. Sure, it’s a much worse Silence, but from a Druid perspective, once you’ve binned your library…well, Eminem had a track about having just one shot you MTG boomers might remember.

Wrap Up

Laboratory Maniac | Illustration by Jason Felix

If a combo becomes too janky and fragile to be a part of cEDH anymore, does that mean it’s perfect now for casual Commander tables? I dunno. I could see plenty of play groups getting salty about these combos, especially the mind-numbing horror of the Reveillark thing if someone at the table demands to see it work.

Still, from the perspective of today’s power creep, it seems completely fair to include these in higher-power casual decks. At the very least, I’d enjoy watching peoples’ response in the Rule 0 chat when I demonstrate the, like, nine cards it takes to pull off the Reveillark combo!

Are you a Hermit Druid fan? Do you have a combo I missed, especially one that can win without a Lab Man effect? If so, drop us a note in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord.

Happy deckbuilding, and welcome to #teamnobasics!