The 20 Best Grixis Combos in Magic Ranked

Nekusar, the Mindrazer | Illustration by Mark Winters

Combos are the most efficient way to end a game of Commander. You might not like that fact, but it’s true; killing three players at 40 life is a hefty ask for a board full of creatures. Simply tossing a few cards together to get infinite whatever and eliminate three players is the cleanest way to go about it.

And Grixis () has plenty of combos. Not only do combos fit flavorfully within the shard, but they also make good mechanically sense: The color combination of tutors, card draw, and permission has no trouble assembling and defending combos. If your Grixis deck needs a little juice, these combos might just be what you’re looking for.

What Are Grixis Combos in MTG?

Saw in Half | Illustration by Sebastian Giacobino

Grixis () combos use two or more cards with a combined Grixis color identity to generate value that’s greater than the sum of their parts, often by winning the game. Grixis combos dabble in infinite turns, infinite mana, and a few ways to make a player lose the game by dropping their life to 0 or milling them out.

Notably, many of these combos are commander-centric, featuring legendary creatures that best serve you in the command zone; that’s worth considering as you figure out where to stick them. It’s much easier to pull off non-commander combos with two or fewer colors, so you might want to consider mono-black combos or Izzet combos, which slot into decks easier.

Let’s take a moment to talk about Inalla, Archmage Ritualist and Cormela, Glamour Thief. These legends are renowned for enabling tons and tons of different infinite loops—so many that they’d easily overwhelm the rest of the list. I included a handful of the more popular ones rather than all of them to give other cards a chance to shine. If I didn’t list your favorite combo with these commanders, it was to give something else some consideration; on the other hand, if you’re intrigued by what you see with them, there are far more combos for you to explore!

#20. Mishra, Stasis Master

Cards: Mishra, Eminent One + The Stasis Coffin

Prerequisites: You control both permanents and have available each turn.

Result: You gain protection from everything during your opponents’ turns, which includes damage prevention.

Variations: None.

This combo’s use depends heavily on your deck’s power level. The lower the table’s power is, the more likely they are to rely on damage as a win condition, and thus be foiled by protection from everything. But protection doesn’t save you from lots of combos that crop up the higher the power level rises; it does nothing against, say, Thassa's Oracle. Even something that targets like Heliod-Ballista combo can just wait until your upkeep and kill you once protection drops.

#19. The Whorled Conspiracy

Cards: Wick, the Whorled Mind + Conspiracy

Prerequisites: You have a creature you can cast, and you control both permanents.

Result: Infinite enters triggers, infinite Snail tokens, draw the game.

Variations: None.

You really, really need a way to game this combo to avoid drawing the game by taking the same action over and over. In these colors, that role is best served by a sacrifice outlet like Goblin Bombardment to sacrifice your Snail tokens or Impact Tremors to burn them out; you could also create infinite tokens then sacrifice Wick itself to snip the combo.

#18. Ruler of Psychosis

Cards: Kefka, Court Mage / Kefka, Ruler of Ruin + Psychosis Crawler

Prerequisites: You control Psychosis Crawler and have transformed Kefka, Court Mage into Kefka, Ruler of Ruin.

Result: Infinite card draw, infinite life loss.

Variations: You can use anything that makes your opponent lose life when you draw a card in place of Psychosis Crawler, including Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind.

This combo’s big weakness lies in its exorbitant costs. Not only do both combo pieces cost a pretty penny, but you need to transform Kefka, Court Mage for a staggering 8 mana. This wins, but I feel like by the point you assemble this, you could have won another way. This combo’s saving grace lies in the cards’ innate strength: If you built a card-draw-matters deck in Grixis, you’d probably run these cards anyway.

#17. The Age of Pirates

Cards: Edward Kenway + Time Sieve

Prerequisites: You control enough pirates, assassins, and vehicles for Edward Kenway to create five or more Treasure tokens on your end step.

Result: Infinite turns.

Variations: None.

Time Sieve is a card ripe for combos, and this one with Edward Kenway works pretty well if you want to trick out your Assassin’s Creed deck. It’s quite handy that this combo relies on vehicles in addition to assassins and pirates, because you can use the crew abilities to tap the other creatures to enable Edward.

#16. Rite of the Dark Master

Cards: Be'lakor, the Dark Master + Rite of Replication

Prerequisites: Your opponents have a total 150 life or less, or your deck has five times more cards than the number of demons you control.

Result: Loads of damage and card draw.

Variations: You can use Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink instead of Rite of Replication.

This combo hits pretty hard out of Be'lakor, the Dark Master decks, though I’m not sure where else it sees play, which makes it pretty restrictive. It’s also quite mana intensive, so I don’t think you should slip this into your average Grixis deck.

#15. Poison the Mind

Cards: Windfall + Phyresis + Nekusar, the Mindrazer

Prerequisites: A player has 10 or more cards in hand, and Nekusar is enchanted with Phyresis.

Result: Each opponent loses the game due to having 10 poison counters.

Variations: You could use Fate Unraveler instead of Nekusar. You can also use any two draw-sevens instead of just Windfall.

This combo speeds up Nekusar’s innate clock quite a bit. The best part of this combo is that your Nekusar deck already wants to run Windfall, so you only need to add one card. Phyresis works with some of your other cards, so the combo has redundancy.

#14. Nicol Bolas, Victorious

Cards: Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God + Jace, Cunning Castaway + Ichormoon Gauntlet

Prerequisites: Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God needs at least five loyalty counters and all three permanents must be in play.

Result: Infinite activations of planeswalker abilities you control, infinite Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God tokens, infinite turns, infinite proliferate triggers.

Variations: You can use The Chain Veil instead of Ichormoon Gauntlet as long as you have the mana to activate it. This slightly changes the combo’s results, letting you draw your deck and exile all opposing permanents instead of taking infinite turns.

I love the concept of this combo because it effectively shows us the bad ending of War of the Spark: This is the ultimate power Nicol Bolas sought on Ravnica.

As for the combo itself, it looks pretty slick. Superfriends decks in EDH need a little help since they’re at their weakest in the multiplayer format where three opponents can decide to attack them, and this gives Ichormoon Gauntlet a much swifter use than it would otherwise have; in many decks, it seems more like a dream than a meaningful win condition.

#13. Missy, Ruthless Bombardier

Cards: Missy + Goblin Bombardment + Ruthless Ripper

Prerequisites: You control all three permanents and have a black card in your hand.

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

Variations: You can use any free sacrifice outlet instead of Goblin Bombardment, which change the result; infinite mana if you use Ashnod's Altar, infinite mill with Altar of the Brood, and so on. Dragon's Eye Savants or Horde Ambusher work instead of Ruthless Ripper, so long as you have a card of the appropriate color in hand.

This nifty little combo has tons and tons of variants, so your Missy deck won’t have trouble assembling it. And the combo’s pretty unobtrusive since Missy naturally gravitates towards sacrifice themes given how its ability effectively allows you to sacrifice all your creatures twice.

#12. Lord Xander, Collector of Unnecessarily Long Sentences

Cards: Lord Xander, the Collector + Bruvac the Grandiloquent

Prerequisites: You control Bruvac and can attack with Xander.

Result: Target opponent mills their entire deck.

Variations: You can use Fraying Sanity instead of Bruvac, and any effect that makes your opponent mill half their library like Traumatize or Overture instead of Lord Xander.

This handy combo gives you a real win condition off Lord Xander, the Collector’s attack trigger, and you can load your deck up with redundancy. This combo’s especially important for Commander; milling your opponents “fairly” is incredibly difficult on account of the deck size, so some sort of combo is usually necessary to do the deed.

#11. Mishra, Heart Manufacturer

Cards: Mishra, Eminent One + Gonti's Aether Heart + Strionic Resonator

Prerequisites: You have at least available to activate Strionic Resonator.

Result: Infinite turns.

Variations: This combo has a surprising number of variations. Anything that lets you copy Mishra’s triggered ability, including Lithoform Engine and Gogo, Master of Mimicry works instead of Strionic Resonator, and you can even use Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer or something that makes copies of Gonti's Aether Heart once Mishra turns it into a creature. The key is to make at least three copies of Gonti's Aether Heart in your combat step to generate enough energy to exile it each turn.

I have a big soft spot for this combo; any combo that arises because you make a permanent into a different type of permanent really feels like you’re breaking the game. In this case, we exploit Mishra, Eminent One’s ability to create Mishra's Warform to wring infinite turns from Gonti's Aether Heart. The combo takes a lot of mana to set up, but it’s a fine engine once it gets going considering how versatile these cards are.

#10. Inalla, Timestream Researcher

Cards: Timestream Navigator + Riptide Laboratory + Inalla, Archmage Ritualist

Prerequisites: You need the city’s blessing and at least available.

Result: Infinite turns.

Variations: Cards that create hasty token copies of Timestream Navigator like Mirage Phalanx or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker work instead of Inalla and Riptide Laboratory.

This is a pretty simple yet mana-intensive combo that uses Inalla to make token copies of Timestream Navigator so that you never have to shuffle away the real one. It’s a cool combo that uses some niche cards worth playing on their own.

#9. Nekusar, Abyss Watcher

Cards: Nekusar, the Mindrazer + Peer into the Abyss

Prerequisites: You control Nekusar and have the mana to cast Peer into the Abyss.

Result: Target player loses the game.

Variations: You can use anything that damages your opponents for drawing instead of Nekusar; Orcish Bowmasters and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse are two of the better options.

You won’t see the Grixis version of this combo outside of Nekusar-led Commander decks, but it has some spice. Peer into the Abyss can set up wins by letting you draw your deck, so the option to make it a wincon adds some lovely flexibility to your big, expensive spell.

#8. Cormela, Glamour Thief + Storm-Kiln Artist + Twinflame

Cards: Cormela, Glamour Thief + Storm-Kiln Artist + Twinflame

Prerequisites: You have Twinflame in hand, control both creatures, and have available.

Result: Infinite blue and black mana that you can spend on instants and sorceries, infinite death triggers, infinite enters/leaves the battlefield triggers, infinite storm, infinite magecraft.

Variations: You can use Molten Duplication instead of Twinflame.

This is one of the better Cormela combos because it backdoors into Twinflame + Dualcaster Mage, a combo that wins just as quickly but doesn’t rely on your commander or graveyard. That gives you a strong alternate path to victory in the face of, say, Drannith Magistrate or Rest in Peace.

#7. The Reaver Siever

Cards: The Reaver Cleaver + Time Sieve

Prerequisites: The Reaver Cleaver is equipped to a non-summoning sick creature that can deal 5+ damage in combat.

Result: Near-infinite turns.

Variations: You can use Ancient Copper Dragon in place of The Reaver Cleaver. Hoard Hauler also works against decks with tons of artifacts in play.

As long as you can keep connecting with a large enough creature to generate 5+ Treasure with The Reaver Cleaver, you can keep taking extra turns with Time Sieve. The Cleaver's not too bad of a card on its own though, so the equipment still has merit without the full combo in play.

#6. Just One More Round

Cards: Isochron Scepter + Final Fortune + Obeka, Brute Chronologist

Prerequisites: Obeka doesn’t have summoning sickness, Final Fortune is imprinted upon Isochron Scepter, and you have 2 mana.

Result: Infinite turns.

Variations: You can use Warrior's Oath in place of Final Fortune. Any setup that gets instants and sorceries back each turn can recur Final Fortune. You can replace Obeka with Sundial of the Infinite.

This combo’s redundancy makes it quite useful. Each part has potential substitutes, which just makes assembling the whole easier. Isochron Scepter is notably handy as it branches off into about a thousand different combos, allowing you lots of versatility in your win.

#5. Ashnod’s Necromancy

Cards: Inalla, Archmage Ritualist + Bloodline Necromancer + Ashnod's Altar

Prerequisites: You have Bloodline Necromancer in hand and Ashnod's Altar in play.

Result: Infinite colorless mana, infinite enters/sacrifice/leaves the battlefield triggers, infinite hasty creatures.

Variations: You can use Phyrexian Altar instead of Ashnod's Altar, but you won’t receive infinite mana. Warren Soultrader works as well, but it has a cap based on your life total.

Ah yes, Bloodline Necromancer and Inalla, Archmage Ritualist. Can you think of a better combination? The Necromancer really feels like it was printed solely to instill Inalla with additional combos, and it does a great job of it. This one provides abundant mana, plus the potential for many non-Inalla combos given how busted the Altars are in pretty much any context.

#4. Inalla, Ruthless Necromancer

Cards: Inalla, Archmage Ritualist + Bloodline Necromancer + Ruthless Technomancer

Prerequisites: You have Bloodline Necromancer in hand and Ruthless Technomancer in the graveyard. Inalla can be in your command zone or on the battlefield.

Result: Infinite Treasure, infinite mana, infinite sacrifice, enters, and leaves triggers, infinite hasty creature tokens, infinite damage via Inalla’s activated ability.

Variations: None for this loop.

Inalla, Archmage Ritualist demonstrates how broken the eminence mechanic is by functioning as a combo engine you never need to cast, so you can win with something that’s neigh uninhibitable. Bloodline Necromancer is notable here as a recent but powerful addition to the deck.

#3. A Glamourous Saw

Cards: Cormela, Glamour Thief + Saw in Half + Dark Ritual

Prerequisites: You have Saw in Half and Dark Ritual in hand, Cormela in play, and .

Result: Infinite black mana, infinite red and blue mana for instants and sorceries, infinite enters/leaves the battlefield triggers, infinite storm/magecraft triggers, infinite death triggers.

Variations: You can use Cabal Ritual instead of Dark Ritual.

This Grixis combo crops up from time to time in cEDH tables, and it leverages a bunch of really powerful cards. Each of them are powerful in their own right, and they combine to win the game quite easily with infinite… well, basically infinite everything that Grixis could want to win with.

#2. Scholar of Grave Offerings

Cards: Scholar of the Ages + Burnt Offering + Shallow Grave

Prerequisites: You control Scholar of the Ages, have Burnt Offering and Shallow Grave in hand, and can cast the Offering.

Result: Infinite leaves/enters the battlefield triggers, infinite magecraft triggers, infinite storm, infinite black and red mana, infinite sacrifice/death triggers.

Variations: You can use Corpse Dance or Persist instead of Shallow Grave and Sacrifice instead of Burnt Offering. You can also combine a Salvager of Secrets with a Panharmonicon to replace the Scholar, though that adds inconsistency.

Something that quickly stands out about this combo is the lack of a commander; many Grixis combos lean on legends that are best served as your commander, but this fits into any deck with an interest in spellslinging. Burnt Offering in particular stands out as an exceptional strong card with a little work.

#1. Ral, Conduit of Smog

Cards: Ral, Storm Conduit + Chain of Smog

Prerequisites: You control Ral and can cast Chain of Smog.

Result: Infinite damage to your opponents.

Variations: Chain of Smog generates infinite magecraft triggers, so you can mix and match for various effects; use it alongside Archmage Emeritus to draw your deck, Storm-Kiln Artist for infinite mana, Professor Onyx for another instant win, etc.

Though this Chain of Smog combo isn’t as slick as the one with Witherbloom Apprentice given Ral’s much higher mana cost, it’s still a handy combo to keep in your back pocket if you need another win condition for your spellslinger deck. While Chain of Smog doesn’t meaningfully impact the board outside of its combos, it has so many potential partners that it generally does something in a dedicated deck.

Wrap Up

Missy | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

Grixis combos love tinkering around with extra turns and token copiers while they exploit the genius of certain commanders over and over to create a variety of loops. However you leverage them, you’re sure to improve your Commander deck with some of these combos—assuming they’re appropriate for your table, of course.

Which of these combos are your favorite? Do you enjoy playing Cormela or Inalla? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!