Theros: Beyond Death has given us some very interesting cards to build around, this time we’re looking at Underworld Breach to see how many ways we can break it.
When dealing with the Storm mechanic it becomes tedious but necessary to count all the spells cast during the turn, especially in this case where we’ll be playing it multiple times. To get a better idea of this combo let’s run through it first.
- Cast Lotus Petal.
- Cast Underworld Breach.
- Cast Brain Freeze, triggering Storm, adding 2 copies to the stack.
- Mill yourself 9.
- Sacrifice Lotus Petal for mana.
- Escape to cast Lotus Petal and sacrifice it for mana.
- Do it again, make blue mana.
- Escape to cast Brain Freeze, triggering Storm, adding 5 copies to the stack.
- Repeat until you’ve emptied your deck.
- Escape for your win condition.
Underworld Breach is more of an enabler than a finisher, case in point with this next option where you will do well to also have a few cards in your graveyard when starting.
- Cast Mana Crypt.
- Cast Grinding Station.
- Cast Underworld Breach.
- Sacrifice Mana Crypt to Grinding Station to mill 3.
- Escape to cast Mana Crypt, trigger Grinding Station to untap.
- Tap Mana Crypt for 2 colourless mana then sacrifice it to mill 3.
- Repeat for large pool of mana or to empty your deck.
- Cast or Escape your win condition.
Now in Commander I’d expect to generate anywhere between 20 to 40 mana which can sink quite well into something like Torment of Hailfire or to keep it mono-red something as simple as a Fireball, maybe Banefire. You can always sacrifice Grinding Station to itself if need be and there are a number of cards that could be used depending on colours and number of artifacts you can bring into play and sacrifice. We’re getting the hang of milling ourselves to fuel our Escape so let’s keep it going.
- Cast Phyrexian Altar or have it in play.
- Cast Stitcher’s Supplier, enter the battlefield trigger, mill 3.
- Cast Underworld Breach.
- Sacrifice Stitcher’s Supplier to Phyrexian Altar for 1 black mana.
- Stitcher’s Suppliers die trigger, mill 3.
- Escape Stitcher’s Supplier, trigger mill 3, sacrifice mill 4, repeat.
- Escape win condition.
Due to the way the Escape works we need to end up with at least 3 cards in the graveyard to allow you to cast the spell again. Considering the exiled cards are part of the cost it is a combo limited by the number of cards in your deck for repetition. These combo options are quite consistent in being able to mill out your entire deck though. Let’s do one more for fun.
- Cast or have Palinchron in play.
- Cast Altar of Dementia.
- Cast Underworld Breach
- Sacrifice Palinchron to Altar of Dementia and mill 4.
- Escape Palinchron, enter the battlefield trigger, untap 7 lands, repeat.
Palinchron can repeatedly pay for itself, being sacrificed to Altar of Dementia mills you 4 letting you increase your options of what to exile to Escape, and Palinchron has so many combo options you can find to go infinite. Every Clone effect will net you mana especially if you have lands that generate more than 1 mana. Phantasmal Image in particular is a combo piece that nets you infinite mana assuming you have 7 lands which is typically the case if you’re casting Palinchron. Palinchron is a combo piece that has a large start up cost but the payoff of infinite mana is huge especially if you get to filter your whole deck for a win condition to sink that mana into. That’s enough gushing about my favorite combo piece though.
What do you think of Underworld Breach? What about these combos? Are they viable in the decks you play? Which Commander would Underworld Breach fit in best? Let me know in the comments if you have an Underworld Breach combo I should add.
