The 17 Best Boros Combos in Magic Ranked

Zirda, the Dawnwaker | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

I love combos in EDH, which seems to put me in a minority. Combos are a testament to Magic’s complexity and depth, not to mention invaluable as a diversity tool that adds to the range of possible strategies.

Every color pair has some number of combos, including Boros (), which takes the rigid order of white and inflames it with red’s passion, leading to a slew of aggressive, often creature-based combos to end the game.

What Are Boros Combos in MTG?

The Jolly Balloon Man | Illustration by Campbell White

Boros combos use two or more cards with a combined Boros color identity, or red and white (). Though they might use mono-colored or colorless cards, the total combo must include red and white to qualify.

They don’t need to be infinite combos (though many of these are). I’m just looking for combinations of cards that provide more value together due to mechanical synergy than they do apart.

Boros combos often focus on creatures, with infinite combats, infinite tokens, and infinite damage all showing up as common payoffs. Of course, we also have a little infinite mana, and since we’re in red, something with Underworld Breach.

#17. Gonti’s Automated Refinery

Cards: Automated Assembly Line + Gonti's Aether Heart + Aether Refinery

Prerequisites: You control all three permanents and have at least 3 energy, or the ability to make an artifact enter play.

Result: Infinite tapped tokens, infinite creature/artifact enters triggers, infinite energy.

Variations: None; these cards are pretty niche.

This combo’s nicheness is its biggest flaw; it’s a no-brainer in any energy deck, but the famously parasitic mechanic forces you to go all or nothing. If you want to juice up your Dr. Madison Li precon or give Satya, Aetherflux Genius a new angle of attack, this is great. Otherwise, I don’t see why or where you’d play it.

#16. Teferi’s Razing

Cards: Teferi's Protection + Obliterate

Prerequisites: You have the mana to cast both spells.

Result: Your opponents lose everything, including their desire to play Commander with you.

Variations: Avacyn, Angel of Hope replaces Teferi's Protection; you can use Jokulhaups or Worldfire instead of Obliterate, though those aren’t uncounterable.

Sometimes the best way to win a game of Magic is to ensure that your opponents can't play. If you subscribe to this school of thought, this might be the ideal combo for your next Boros deck—though it takes a staggering amount of mana, almost enough to consider Mana Geyser an honorary third combo piece.

#15. Emrakul’s Displacer

Cards: Emrakul's Hatcher + Eldrazi Displacer

Prerequisites: You control both creatures and have the mana to activate Eldrazi Displacer.

Result: Infinite enters/leaves the battlefield triggers, infinite sacrifice triggers.

Variations: As is, this combo flickers Emrakul's Hatcher infinitely. If you increase the number of tokens the Hatcher creates (with an enters doubler like Panharmonicon or a token doubler like Anointed Procession), or reduce the cost of the Displacer’s activated ability, you can squeeze infinite mana from the combo.

This combo fits nicely into flicker decks that exploit the abilities of both combo pieces. Finding the colorless mana for Eldrazi Displacer can be tricky, but plenty of mana rocks fill that role. It looks especially promising if you find a way to get infinite mana from the combo.

#14. Ancient Tempest

Cards: Dragon Tempest + Ancient Gold Dragon

Prerequisites: Ancient Gold Dragon can attack without getting blocked.

Result: Unholy amounts of damage.

Variations: Nothing so unholy, but Impact Tremors and similar effects love the tokens AGD creates.

This combo has rather high variance since it relies on a die roll, but the odds are intimately in your favor—so long as your roll is 10 or higher, you create ample dragons to blast your opponents into next Friday. That assumes that your only dragon is Ancient Gold Dragon, and your opponents have taken no damage by turn 8 or whatever, so you probably need less.

#13. Boros Ignition

Cards: Boros Reckoner + Angelfire Ignition

Prerequisites: You can deal damage to Boros Reckoner, and have the mana to cast Angelfire Ignition targeting the Reckoner.

Result: Infinite lifegain.

Variations: You can use any combat trick that gives Boros Reckoner indestructible instead of Angelfire Ignition, though you need an additional piece to give the Reckoner lifelink. Spitemare can replace Boros Reckoner.

Infinite life doesn’t exactly win the game, but it prevents lots of players from killing you and buys all the time you need to find a more convincing closer.

#12. The Ephemeral One

Cards: Dualcaster Mage + Ephemerate

Prerequisites: You have the mana to cast both spells and a legal target for Ephemerate.

Result: Infinite magecraft triggers, infinite enters/leaves the battlefield triggers.

Variations: Any flicker spell can replace Ephemerate; Cloudshift is super efficient, but something like Scrollshift is useful as it draws your deck.

While this combo isn’t as lethal as the classic Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame pairing, Boros () has plenty of ways to turn infinite flicker into a lethal win, like Impact Tremors and… well, about 50 different versions of Impact Tremors. Hey, it gets the job done.

#11. Prideful Balloons

Cards: The Jolly Balloon Man + Ocelot Pride

Prerequisites: You control both permanents and have the city’s blessing (or can obtain it off two Ocelot Pride triggers); your opponents can’t block the flying Ocelot Pride.

Result: An exponentially growing army of Ocelot Prides.

Variations: You can use Nesting Dovehawk instead of Ocelot Pride.

This combo isn’t infinite, but it’s perfect for casual decks. Making token copies of cards that copy tokens nets a ton of value, especially if you can protect them from board wipes. The token army steadily grows while your opponents watch in terror and fear—fitting for a commander from Duskmourn.

#10. Duke of Combat

Cards: Duke Ulder Ravengard + Port Razer

Prerequisites: None.

Result: Infinite combats.

Variations: You can use Éomer, Marshal of Rohan if you have two or more opponents.

I won’t pretend this is the cleverest combo or even the flashiest, but nothing says “Boros” like infinite combats to take your opponent to 0. These are both natural inclusions to an extra combat deck—Port Razer as an enabler, the Duke as a payoff—so I can see plenty of applications for them beyond the obvious Duke Ulder Ravengard Commander deck.

#9. Blazing Boros

Cards: Boros Reckoner + Blazing Sunsteel

Prerequisites: Blazing Sunsteel is equipped to Boros Reckoner, you have a way to make it indestructible, and you can damage the Reckoner.

Result: Infinite damage.

Variations: You can use Spitemare instead of Boros Reckoner, with the same prerequisites; Brash Taunter also works, with indestructible built in. Donna Noble or Fiendlash can replace Blazing Sunsteel.

This combo’s greatest strength comes from the sheer variety of combo pieces you can use. You can mix and match so many pieces that it’s a snap to assemble within a Boros shell dedicated to burning the table to the ground.

#8. The Guilty Taunter

Cards: Brash Taunter + Guilty Conscience

Prerequisites: Brash Taunter is enchanted by Guilty Conscience, and you can deal damage to it.

Result: Infinite damage.

Variations: You can use Stuffy Doll instead of Brash Taunter, though that only kills one player.

Brash Taunter’s just a funny card. I love dropping it and watching my opponents avoid attacking me so they don’t take damage in return. It buys plenty of time to hunt down Guilty Conscience so I can Obliterate the pod, though I wonder how well I’ll sleep at night after resolving it….

#7. Twin Bells

Cards: Splinter Twin + Village Bell-Ringer

Prerequisites: You have the mana to cast Splinter Twin and Village Bell-Ringer doesn’t have summoning sickness.

Result: Infinite hasty tokens, infinite enters/leaves the battlefield triggers, infinite untaps.

Variations: You can use Midnight Guard instead of Village Bell-Ringer, though it only untaps itself.

It wouldn’t be a list of red combos without at least one Splinter Twin entry, would it? This is a little more interesting than the average Splinter Twin combo because the infinite untaps provide more angles of attack than just… attacking. You can produce infinite mana from mana dorks or win without combat by untapping pingers like Thermo-Alchemist over and over.

#6. Aurelia, the Host

Cards: Aurelia, the Warleader + Helm of the Host

Prerequisites: The Helm is equipped to Aurelia.

Result: Infinite combat phases, infinite hasty creature tokens attacking, infinite ETB triggers.

Variations: Helm of the Host goes infinite with a variety of creatures that produce extra combats, with Fear of Missing Out and Combat Celebrant being quite promising. Aurelia can go infinite with Sword of Hearth and Home, presuming it’s attached to another creature that your opponents can’t kill in combat.

This combo shines in decks with Aurelia, the Warleader as their commander, but it has greater applications; many aggressive decks eye Aurelia as a closer when they don’t have access to Craterhoof Behemoth, so the combo slips in pretty easily from there.

#5. The Jolly Bells

Cards: The Jolly Balloon Man + Village Bell-Ringer

Prerequisites: You control both permanents and have an additional creature that taps for at least 1 mana.

Result: Infinite hasty creature tokens, infinite enters/leaves the battlefield triggers, infinite sacrifice triggers.

Variations: The most notable variation of this leans on Mana Echoes; if you use that instead of the creature that taps for 1 mana, you can swap Village Bell-Ringer for anything that flickers or untaps solely The Jolly Balloon Man.

I really like this combo; I think The Jolly Balloon Man has incredible potential as a fun commander, and turning it into a combo engine gives it plenty of power. Village Bell-Ringer is already a reasonable card in the deck; making an aggressive 1/1 for each mana you have does a lot of work once you start stacking Impact Tremors and Mentor of the Meek triggers.

#4. Guardian of the Mirror Breaker

Cards: Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Felidar Guardian

Prerequisites: You control both creatures.

Result: Infinite ETB triggers, infinite hasty attackers, infinite sacrifice tokens.

Variations: Any creature that flickers or untaps Kiki-Jiki on ETB works in place of Felidar Guardian; a couple of prominent choices include Restoration Angel, Village Bell-Ringer, and Zealous Conscripts.

There’s not much to say here; it’s an infinite combo with Kiki-Jiki that does the thing where Kiki-Jiki goes infinite.

If you run this combo, I recommend adding Recruiter of the Guard to your deck because it finds the entire thing at once; if you use Recruiter to find Kiki-Jiki, the legendary goblin can then make a token copy of Recruiter to fetch Felidar Guardian, streamlining the entire combo into one card.

#3. Zirda, Breaker of Monoliths

Cards: Zirda, the Dawnwaker + Basalt Monolith

Prerequisites: You control both permanents and Basalt Monolith is untapped.

Result: Infinite colorless mana, infinite untap triggers.

Variations: You can use Grim Monolith instead of Basalt Monolith.

Legacy players recognize this combo and shiver at the sight. It absolutely works best with Zirda, the Dawnwaker as your companion for ease of assembly, but it’s still worth playing with the pet in the 99.

#2. Karmic Bombardment

Cards: Karmic Guide + Reveillark + Goblin Bombardment

Prerequisites: You have access to all three permanents, with Goblin Bombardment in play and the means to get both creatures onto the battlefield (since Karmic Guide and Reveillark reanimate each other, there are many means of assembly).

Result: Infinite enters/leaves the battlefield triggers, infinite death triggers, infinite damage, infinite sacrifice triggers.

Variations: You can use Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker in place of Reveillark. Any free sacrifice outlet can replace Goblin Bombardment, which changes your result; for example, Phyrexian Altar nets infinite colored mana rather than infinite damage.

This combo’s the height of simplicity, and it’s pretty common to come across it in white+ sacrifice decks. Churning through opposing life totals provides a clean end to the game, and it’s not like these cards are useless on their own; I can see a token deck breaking this out as a finisher.

#1. Smothering Fortune

Cards: Smothering Tithe + Underworld Breach + Wheel of Fortune.

Prerequisites: You need to control both enchantments, have the mana to cast Wheel of Fortune, have at least three cards in your hand (plus in your graveyard, if you’re casting Wheel of Fortune with escape to kickstart things). At least one of your opponents can’t pay for Smothering Tithe.

Result: Draw your deck, create a ludicrous amount of mana, generate obscene discard/draw triggers for all players.

Variations: None.

Oh no, we broke Underworld Breach! Who could have guessed it? Wheel of Fortune and Smothering Tithe is at least a novel way to turn it into a mana and card draw engine. Once you have access to your entire deck and an unholy amount of Treasure tokens, you can win any number of ways, even if it's as simple as a massive Crackle with Power. A huge win for this combo is its construction of three of the most powerful spells in the format.

Wrap Up

Boros Reckoner | Illustration by Howard Lyon

Boros combos have a comfortable familiarity given how often they lean on cards like Splinter Twin, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and Underworld Breach. But there are also a few spicy includes, and you might bring a combo nobody’s seen yet to your next Commander game night.

Which of these combos are you most likely to play? Did I miss any cool Boros combos? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!