Table of Contents
Hello everybody, I hope you’re enjoying new Magic cards as much as I have been. I’ve been working on a brew that I think will completely shake Alchemy to its core, as well as introducing a new high tier-2 deck to Historic. This is the logical conclusion to a deck I posted a few months ago here.
The deck revolves around a two card combo: Racketeer Boss and Grinning Ignus. When paired together, Ignus offers you infinite enter the battlefield triggers, and if you hit it with two instances, makes infinite mana.
The combo is so potent that I have to warn you, I do not see a timeline that doesn’t end with this getting nerfed as it is simply too powerful for Alchemy. So without further ado, let’s get to the lists. In fact, we already have players making results with it and refining the deck in the Alchemy Metagame Challenge!
Alchemy Gruul Treasure Storm
Here’s Alchemy first:
Creatures (32)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (19)
60 Cards
$223.85
Card Selection
Racketeer Boss // Grinning Ignus: This is the bread and butter of the deck. You will want to prioritize opening hands with one of these, and if you have both you should consider keeping, even if its a one land hand. It’s that easy to win with both of these cards in hand.
Prosperous Innkeeper: With the combo, this allows us to gain infinite life, and that gives us infinite time to find the win condition. But beware, this may draw salty ropers. For any new MTG players, the etiquette, which comes from MTGO, is to concede to an infinite combo. You aren’t winning; move on to the next one. Don’t hold people hostage for playing a deck that beat you.
Birgi, God of Storytelling: This is a second, more fragile way to go infinite. I’ve never needed to cast the back side, but I suppose you could if things got dire enough.
Witty Roastmaster: One of our kill cards. Not quite as good as Dina in terms of being a combo piece because we can’t seek it off of Revels, but its easier to hard cast, and can seek two drops with Revels.
Professional Face-Breaker: This has added so much to this deck. With infinite reasure tokens you can play your entire deck. It is also a nice outlet if you’re one mana or card short to let you get another treasure. A cheeky play I’ve made is to have a Face-Breaker out, and then seek out a Reinforced Ronin to get a treasure token.
Adventure Awaits: This late addition to the deck is all about consistency. Digging 5 cards deep to find your combo piece can be huge, and I love the insurance that if I somehow whiff, I didn’t just minus-one myself.
Forceful Cultivator // Jaxis, the Troublemaker: These are in here because they are four mana value creatures that can be cast for two mana. With a Revels out, if you get lucky you can pull out and Ignus then either start the combo, or bring it back to hand for safe keeping.
Jaxis is nice because she can make a copy of Racketeer Boss, which will make infinite mana with Ignus. Cultivator let’s us play less lands and still maintain decent consistency.
Reinforced Ronin: This is our lone one-drop. Its nice to have something that our two-drops can grab from Cabaretti Revels, and Ronin will come back to hand at end of turn, so that we can channel him for a card draw or put a Boss trigger on him to make a treasure every turn.
Bala Ged Recovery: Its nice to have a way to get lost combo pieces back, and BGR let’s us do that out of the land slot.
Lair of the Hydra: Speaking of good utility out of the land slots, this creature land gives us an outlet on which to use our infinite treasures, should we get them.
Matchups and Sideboard Guide
| Deck | Difficulty (1 easy to 5 hard) | Win Rate* | Tips |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mono White | 1 | 100% | They just don’t pack the tools they need to disrupt our combo. I won 1 game where I had to mulligan down to 4 against it. |
| Rakdos | 2 | 76% | They need to get lucky to beat us. Try to hold your 4 mana spells in hand rather than cast them, so our Grinning Ignus don’t get discarded to Citystalker Connoisseur. |
| Gruul Werewolves | 3 | 55% | On my first climb (started pretty close already though), this was the only deck I lost to. They can get under us, so do what you can to preserve your life total. Chump block where needed. Aggressively mulligan, because slow hands will lose. |
| Enchantments/Runes | 1 | 100% | Didn’t see that much of this, but when I did they also don’t pack the tools in their 60 to handle the combo. |
| Control | 2 | 95% | This is a waiting game. Set up the combo, let them think you’re pinned into a corner, wait for them to tap out, then kill them in one turn. They won’t pressure you, so don’t force it. |
Adding a Sideboard
I tried best of one for the first time playing Alchemy to test this deck out as a way to play the format the way most people do, but I still like to provide a sideboard because deep in my heart that’s how I truly believe Magic: The Gathering should be played.
4 Curse of Shaken Faith: This is for the mirror match, which by the day I wanted to publish was already getting common.
4 Strangle: Low cost removal is a smart thing to have access to…
2 Abrade: .. Eespecially if it has modes to remove artifacts too.
2 Unlicensed Hearse: This is not only excellent against graveyard combos and cheaters, but also just very strong against decks that durdle. Over time it gets huge.
2 Tamiyo's Safekeeping: Protects your combo against decks that try to interact. As time goes on and this deck picks up popularity, people will learn how to disrupt you, so pack cards for that.
1 Dragonspark Reactor: An extra win-con for slow, controlly decks.
Tips and Tricks
This deck is so much fun to play, and piloting it is not that difficult. However, mastering it might be, so here are some tips and tricks to common problems that arose while I was optimizing the final list.
Don’t be afraid to try to combo off even if you don’t have the combo in hand: Often times you will have a Revels and Ignus out, but not what you need to go infinite. Its possible to find what you need off of Revel’s seeks, but its also just great value. Even if you can’t kill them infinitely, you can often get enough creatures out to attack for the win off of Goro-Goro’s haste ability.
Identify your opponents’ win conditions: This will let you know how much pressure you need to apply. Are they aggressively playing creatures? Their plan is to overwhelm you, so you are on a clock. Are they just playing lands and ending their turn? Wait them out. They will tap out eventually and that is when you make your move and win. A big part of piloting this deck is knowing when to hold and when to slam your foot on the gas. Practice and you will get it. Sparky is great for learning the combos, for if you’re new to combo decks.
Historic Gruul Treasure Storm
There are just so many different ways to play this deck in Historic. Because the two card combo boils down to “have the combo, then pick your Enter-the-Battlefield-effect of choice to win with” we are able to look in many directions. In fact, over at the MTGA:Eternal discord, I counted over 8 different versions that we brewed up, including one that flips infinite coins with Mirror March. Okay, maybe that one was me just memeing.
But the point is, there are so many different ways to take this, that I don’t want to show you just one! So I am going to show you several, then explain what makes them different than the others. Let’s start with the most basic one, final list is by me based off additions/ideas from Binary Soloist:
Creatures (26)
Sorceries (10)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$329.02
Sideboard
15 Cards
$11.99
The biggest upgrade this version gets over the alchemy one, aside from the obvious like a real mana base, is the ability to combo off in-color from Revels thanks to Reckless Fireweaver and Lonis, Cryptozoologist.
We also get some excellent tutoring effects from Finale of Devastation, which can also nab from the graveyard and Fauna Shaman, which can come out off revels.
Creatures (20)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (22)
60 Cards
$445.6
Sideboard
15 Cards
$12.83
This version comes from the discords resident Underworld Breach player, so go check her Twitch out if you like this list!
Rather than use the Revels combo, this list leans harder into the storm package. It has the potential for an ultimate curve of Thoughtseize into Racketeer Boss into Grinning Ignus into Grapeshot for the turn 3 win.
Thoughtseize is great at protecting your combo, and Wishclaw Talisman with Fauna Shaman allows for some potent tutoring. It borrows the Hazoret's Monument idea from breach decks, which will let you filter through your entire deck with Ignus.
Creatures (31)
Instants (4)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$471.42
Sideboard
15 Cards
$11.63
This version is from me and is a more creature focused deck that has the option to win with the combo or with an aggro game plan. It can apply early pressure with its smaller creatures, quickly overwhelm with a Collected Company, or combo off should the need arise.
The addition of Spectral Sailor can let infinite mana turn into drawing your whole deck, and Revels will always pull him out if you cast a two mana value creature.
Companion
Creatures (30)
Instants (4)
Sorceries (1)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (21)
60 Cards
$381.16
Sideboard
15 Cards
$11.92
This variant uses an Elementals package. Ignus is an elemental, so he can combo off with Risen Reef to make you play out your entire deck. This version also leverages powerful Evoke creatures in Mulldrifter and Wavesifter, who can bring out higher cost creatures with Revels when combined with their Evoke costs.
This is a high value deck that also has a combo finish, which is nice because it is less “all-in” on the combo, so to speak. You can easily take games just by playing a strong value-engine driven game plan that can recover even if set back. This also has the extremely satisfying potential to finish someone off with a Huge Omnath Locus of the Roil after spitting out your entire deck, and that is always fun.
Creatures (32)
Enchantments (4)
Lands (20)
60 Cards
$386.36
Sideboard
15 Cards
$11.99
Here we have a Naya version that capitalizes on Rope Line Attendant as a way to add a go-wide element to the deck. In combination with Birgi or Boss, it can let ignus make infinite citizens, which can lead to inifnite life with Soul Warden, or just a massive alpha strike with Jetmir and/or Goro-Goro.
This is another version that sacrifices consistency of the combo in exchange for a solid plan B in creature aggro. This variant could also most likely be adapted to add the Helioak combo, since it already has an infinite life gain loop built into it.
Conclusion
There are so many different ways you can take this list, and I have already seen it starting to catch on on the ladder. In fact, several streamers have found the deck, which is exciting, but also likely puts a clock on how long the deck will be around. Be sure to try it out before it gets nerfed.
If it does get nerfed, I think the most likely solution is to ban Grinning Ignus in Alchemy. Historic has plenty of answers, but the Alchemy bo1 queue is not equipped to handle this list. Go get your wins in while you still can, and if you’re staying in bo1, consider main decking a Curse of Shaken Faith for the mirror match.
Good luck, and I’ll see you next time!
