Finally! The combo everyone has been waiting for! Splinter Twin (not exactly, but close) is back and in Standard. If you’re not familiar with the planeswalker Saheeli Rai, then you should probably check her out before you start building your standard deck. She is a three Converted Mana Cost (CMC) planeswalker that allows you to make a one-turn copy of a creature or artifact as soon as she enters by only using two loyalty. Independently, she is not that exciting, I’ll admit. Then comes Aether Revolt, and with it, Felidar Guardian. When guardian enters the battlefield, he lets you “blink” (exile and return) a permanent you control. This means as soon as turn four, you can curve from Saheeli to Guardian and win the game, pending no interruption (pesky removal spells). How does this work? I am glad you asked.

Guardian enters the battlefield, his ability triggers, and you target Saheeli. When the trigger resolves, Saheeli will be exiled and return as a brand new planeswalker with 3 counters. She then uses her second ability and makes a copy of Guardian. The new artifact-Guardian triggers and targets Saheeli. Saheeli will then “blink” again, and presto! A brand new Saheeli appears ready to start the combo over again. Since the copies of Guardian have haste and you can make an unlimited number of them, your opponent must find a way to reduce each of their power to 0 or kill all of them at instant speed, or they will lose the game that turn. If you want to build some redundancy into your combo, toss in a few copies of Wrangle; if you’re playing the mirror match (a deck with the same cards) you just might steal the win with it, literally. Cast Saheeli, Wrangle their Felidar Guardian and let the shenanigans begin. Remember, once you start the combo you should explain to your opponent what you are doing as you perform the steps one time. After that, you tell your opponent how many times you are repeating the combo and then move forward with the game (unless they have a way to interrupt you!).

How do you stop this if you’re facing it? Well, a simple damage spell like Shock can be cast to damage Saheeli after she removes 2 counters, before she copies the Guardian, or after the first Guardian token trigger goes on the stack, before it blinks Saheeli. This gets rid of Saheeli and they can’t continue the combo. Any spell that can kill the Guardian in response would also work (e.g., Fatal Push with revolt, or Grasp of Darkness).

I hope you enjoyed today’s rules tips, come back tomorrow for Aether Revolt’s second infinite combo!

Today’s Rules Tip written by Daniel Clarke