Zimone and Dina | Illustration by Lie Setiawan
Sultai () combines two combo-heavy color pairs, green-black and blue-black, with blue-green, which, surprisingly enough, has some combos of its own, too.
Today, we’ll take a look at the exclusive combos that green, blue, and black have at their disposal when combined. A legendary Sultai creature is often directly involved, which makes these combos suitable for Commander, at least at casual tables.
Since we’re talking Sultai, many of these combos use the graveyard in some way, so aside from a few pesky Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void players, it should be smooth sailing from here.
What Are Sultai Combos in MTG?
Muldrotha, the Gravetide | Illustration by Jason Rainville
Sultai () combos in MTG are combos that require all three colors of green, blue, and black mana to produce a result that can go infinite or near-infinite. We can have infinite spells being cast in a turn, which could be a win condition for storm cards, or infinite creatures being cast or sacrificed in a turn, or even infinite mana. We can use lands and colorless cards, as long as they don’t include a white or red color identity. These combos are ranked by playability and how easy they are to pull off.
#12. Emergent Ultimatum
Cards: Emergent Ultimatum in your hand, Thassa's Oracle, Dark Petition, Enter the Infinite, and Omniscience in your library.
Requisites: Cast Emergent Ultimatum with the other cards available in your library.
Effect: You win the game.
Replacements: None.
This one cheats because the win condition is good old Thassa's Oracle, but here it is. First, cast Emergent Ultimatum and present your opponent with these three options: Dark Petition, Enter the Infinite, Omniscience. They’ll get rid of one of them. You only need Enter the Infinite to draw your whole deck and cast Thassa's Oracle, via Omniscience. If they get rid of Enter the Infinite, you’ll Omniscience, then Dark Petition for Thassa's Oracle. This janky combo runs on Pioneer-available cards.
#11. Zaxara’s Free to Generate Infinite Mana
Cards: Zaxara, the Exemplary, Freed from the Real.
Requisites: Cast Freed from the Real on Zaxara, the Exemplary.
Effect: Infinite mana, infinite tap and untap.
Replacements: Pemmin's Aura replaces Freed from the Real.
Cards that tap to produce 2 or more mana easily combo with Freed from the Real. This simple two-card combo generates infinite mana, and you can easily pull it off if Zaxara is your commander. Casting Freed from the Real on Zaxara, the Exemplary is easy enough, and you tap Zaxara to add two mana while spending one to untap it. From there, something like Torment of Hailfire ends games pretty quickly.
#10. Xavier Sal’s Infested Oak
Cards: Xavier Sal, Infested Captain, Scurry Oak, Intruder Alarm
Requisites: You have these three cards in play, and you have a creature to sacrifice and start the chain. Scurry Oak has at least one +1/+1 counter.
Effect: Infinite sacrifice triggers, infinite enter triggers, infinite +1/+1 counters placed.
Replacement: Basking Broodscale also works instead of Scurry Oak.
For this combo, you need Xavier Sal, Infested Captain and Scurry Oak. Sacrifice a creature to proliferate with Xavier, adding another +1/+1 counter on Scurry Oak, which creates a Squirrel token, triggering Intruder Alarm and untapping Xavier. After that, you can tap Xavier to proliferate, sacrificing the token Scurry Oak just created, repeating the combo. Insert your favorite aristocrats card here to win.
#9. Kheru Goldkeeper’s Treasure Trove
Cards: Kheru Goldkeeper, Tortured Existence
Requisites: You have both cards in play, one creature in your hand, one creature in your graveyard, and one black mana.
Effect: Infinite artifact/token sacrifice triggers, infinite discard triggers, infinite leave the battlefield triggers.
Replacements: You can replace Tortured Existence with Gravecrawler and Phyrexian Altar if you control another zombie.
With both cards in play, discard a creature card to Tortured Existence, returning a creature from your graveyard into your hand. This nets you a Treasure token, which you can use to activate Tortured Existence and do it again for infinite mana via infinite Treasure. Disciple of the Vault can be a possible finisher on this board.
#8. Retreat to Coralhelm’s Infinite Lands
Cards: Retreat to Coralhelm, Wight of the Reliquary, Springheart Nantuko, one additional creature.
Requisites: Retreat to Coralhelm, Wight of the Reliquary, and Springheart Nantuko are in play.
Effect: Near infinite land drops, sacrifice triggers.
Replacement: Any card that taps to put a land into play from your hand can replace Wight of the Reliquary and any creature that makes a token on landfall can replace Springheart Nantuko, like Sporemound.
Aside from Retreat to Coralhelm, there’s plenty of redundancy, and the combo parts are fairly interchangeable. You play a land, triggering Retreat to Coralhelm and making a token from Springheart Nantuko. You’ll then sacrifice the token to Wight of the Reliquary, fetching another land into play, thus making another 1/1 token and untapping Wight, so you can repeat the combo as long as you have lands in your deck. You can do the same if your commander is Zimone and Dina. In this setup, cards like Skyshroud Ranger and Golgari Rot Farm can go infinite by playing a bounce land again and again.
#7. Archelos Reaches the Maze’s End
Cards: Archelos, Lagoon Mystic, Scapeshift, Maze's End.
Requisites: You have Archelos, Lagoon Mystic in play, Scapeshift in your hand, and your deck has Maze's End and some other gate cards.
Effect: Win the game via Maze's End.
Replacement: This combo can get a little bit more convoluted with mill and cards like Splendid Reclamation.
The idea here is to use Scapeshift to search for 10 lands that are gates in your deck, and Maze's End. For that, you need to either have some gates in play with non-gate lands to sacrifice, or 11+ lands for Maze's End + gates. Archelos, Lagoon Mystic ensures your lands enter the battlefield untapped so you can activate Maze's End on the same turn for the win.
#6. Muldrotha, the Gravetide Mindslaver Loop
Cards: Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Mindslaver.
Requisites: Muldrotha, the Gravetide is in play, you have at least 10 mana, you cast Mindslaver, and you sacrifice it.
Effect: You’ll control one of your opponents on their next turns.
Replacement: Outside of strictly Sultai, you can set up a blink or recursion engine with cards like Eternal Witness.
This combo works best in 1v1 games as your opponent won’t get another turn. The famous Mindslaver lock: Sacrifice Mindslaver, control your opponent on their next turn, and on your next turn, cast Mindslaver again and sacrifice it. In EDH games, you can use this as a wincon against your last opponent, or, each turn cycle, you can control one player of your choice.
#5. Zimone, Dina, and Bloodghast’s Infinite Land Drops
Cards: Zimone and Dina, Bloodghast, Intruder Alarm, a bounce land.
Requisites: Zimone and Dina and Intruder Alarm are on the battlefield, Bloodghast can be on the battlefield or in the graveyard, and you have a bounce land in your hand.
Effect: Infinite landfall triggers, infinite enter triggers, infinite die/sacrifice triggers, infinite draw.
Replacement: Retreat to Coralhelm can replace Intruder Alarm, so when you play a land, you untap Zimone and Dina.
This combo needs Zimone and Dina (Z&D) and Bloodghast on the battlefield. Sacrifice Bloodghast to Z&D, and play a bounce land from your hand (Dimir Aqueduct, Simic Growth Chamber). Return the bounce land to your hand and get Bloodghast back on the battlefield. Intruder Alarm untaps Z&D on each loop. When Bloodghast enters, you can then untap your sacrifice outlet, repeating the process once more.
#4. Infinite Mana with Yarok and Palinchron
Cards: Yarok, the Desecrated, Palinchron.
Requisites: Yarok, the Desecrated is in play, and you have enough mana to cast Palinchron.
Effect: Infinite mana, infinite cast triggers, infinite enter and leave triggers.
Replacements: Other creatures that enter and untap lands like Peregrine Drake or Cloud of Faeries + Shrieking Drake can do the same thing with Yarok in Sultai colors, except you need a way to bounce and replay them, or flicker them, like Deadeye Navigator.
You need Yarok, the Desecrated in play. When you cast Palinchron, you’ll untap 7 lands twice. That means you can untap seven lands, tap them for 7 mana and untap them. Then pay 4 mana to return Palinchron to your hand. Cast Palinchron again and repeat the process. Each time you repeat this loop, you’ll float 3 mana.
#3. Muldrotha’s Infinite Displacement
Cards: Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Displacer Kitten, Lotus Petal
Requisites: Muldrotha, the Gravetide and Displacer Kitten are on the battlefield, you cast Lotus Petal from your hand (or from the graveyard).
Effect: Infinite mana, infinite cast triggers, infinite enter triggers, infinite artifact sacrifice triggers.
Replacement: You can use Tamiyo, Collector of Tales instead of Muldrotha, and Lion's Eye Diamond in place of Lotus Petal.
Here, it’s all about Displacer Kitten. Each time you cast a noncreature spell, you can blink another nonland permanent, which will be Muldrotha, the Gravetide. Lotus Petal is perfect for this combo because it puts itself in the graveyard to be cast again with Muldrotha, and it generates 1 mana on each loop. Of course, blinking Muldrotha also resets how many times you’ve used its ability that turn.
#2. Muldrotha, the Ghostform
Cards: Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Kaya's Ghostform, Phyrexian Altar.
Requirements: Muldrotha, the Gravetide is on the battlefield enchanted with Kaya's Ghostform, Phyrexian Altar is on the battlefield.
Effect: Infinite cast triggers, infinite sacrifice triggers, infinite enter triggers.
Replacement: You can use Ashnod's Altar and a mana filter like Sultai Devotee or Energy Refractor instead of Phyrexian Altar.
For this combo, enchant Muldrotha, the Gravetide with Kaya's Ghostform and sacrifice it to Phyrexian Altar, generating a black mana. Muldrotha returns to the battlefield, and you can cast Kaya's Ghostform again, enchanting Muldrotha. Each time Muldrotha is sacrificed and enters again, you reset the number of permanents you’re allowed to cast from the graveyard. Considering that Phyrexian Altar is an artifact, and Kaya's Ghostform is an enchantment, you can assemble the combo in a given turn if they’re already in the graveyard.
#1. Teval’s Infinite Reassembling
Cards: Teval, the Balanced Scale, Phyrexian Altar, Reassembling Skeleton.
Requisites: You have all the cards in play and another creature, or Reassembling Skeleton in your graveyard + 2 mana.
Effects: Infinite enter triggers, infinite sacrifice triggers.
Replacements: None.
First, you’ll return Reassembling Skeleton from your graveyard to play. This will make Teval, the Balanced Scale create a 2/2 Zombie Druid token. You’ll then sacrifice the skeleton and token to Phyrexian Altar, getting mana, which is enough to reassemble the combo again. If you already had another creature in play, you can also assemble the combo by casting Reassembling Skeleton. The important part is that you need 2 mana to get Reassembling Skeleton back the first time. Another interesting aspect of this combo is that you can incidentally mill the skeleton with Teval.
Wrap Up
Emergent Ultimatum | Illustration by Zack Stella
So there you have it, folks, the main Sultai () combos I could find. I didn’t account for many of the small variations these combos have, or the combos that include mainly green and black cards and could be played in Sultai.
Interestingly enough, many of the Sultai commanders are very combo-rific; many cards go infinite with Muldrotha, the Gravetide and Teval, the Balanced Scale around. Also, with Muldrotha, sometimes all the pieces are already there in your graveyard, waiting for you to cast them. Or, with a commander such as Yarok the Desecrated, doubling triggers is good enough.
What are your favorite Sultai combos? Are there any that didn’t make the list? Let me know in the comments section below or over in our Draftsim Discord.
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