The Hobbit set has delivered a new two-card infinite combo for Magic: The Gathering’s Historic format. The engine pairs Gilt-Leaf Alchemist with Elven Raft-Steerer to generate unlimited green mana at instant speed.
The combo appeared in Episode 90 of the deck-building series Fun & Jank. It combines Elves with a loop that creates endless Forests on the battlefield.
The Two Cards That Make It Work
Gilt-Leaf Alchemist is a one-mana 1/1 with Deathtouch. Its tap ability brings a card named Forest to the battlefield, but only if you have two or more Elf cards in your graveyard.
Elven Raft-Steerer is a three-mana 3/2 Elf with a Landfall trigger. Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you choose one: tap a target creature an opponent controls, or untap a creature you control.
The loop works in four steps. Tap Gilt-Leaf Alchemist to create a Forest. The Forest triggers Elven Raft-Steerer’s Landfall ability. Target Gilt-Leaf Alchemist with that trigger to untap it. Repeat.
The result is an endless count of Forests entering the battlefield. Because those Forests enter untapped, you generate infinite green mana at instant speed.
If you have more than one Elven Raft-Steerer, you can also use the alternative trigger to tap down every blocker your opponent controls during their turn.
Building Around the Combo
The combo is cheap at just two cards, but the deck has problems. Gilt-Leaf Alchemist does nothing without two Elves in your graveyard.
A standard go-wide plan keeps creatures on the battlefield, not in the bin. Relying on an opponent’s removal spells to turn on your combo key is unreliable against fast decks that do not fight back. The deck must sacrifice, discard, or mill its own Elves into the graveyard without giving up card advantage.
As a creature-based combo, drawing the wrong half of the deck leaves you with either a small 1/1 Deathtoucher or a fragile 3/2 with no land triggers to exploit. The deck needs strong search effects to pull key creatures into play or directly to hand.
Those problems led the deck builder to the simplest home for this combo: Elves.
Elves naturally runs cards like Elvish Warmaster, which pumps the team, and Craterhoof Behemoth, which ends the game against most opponents. Having infinite mana turns these into a win in most cases. If your opponent loads up on answers, you can pivot cleanly to standard Elvish swarm tactics.
Testing Notes and Early Wins
The original list ran standard one-mana Elves including Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic. It also included Priest of Titania for large mana scaling, Elvish Warmaster as a token maker and mana sink, and Formidable Speaker to put Elves into the yard while searching for combo pieces.
The builder also tested whether access to eight Fetches made Deathrite Shaman worth running. Malevolent Rumble served as a support card, digging for Elves while putting some into the yard for Alchemist’s ability.
Initial testing surfaced three notes. Sweepers like Wrath of the Skies, Divine Purge, and Toxic Deluge tore through the first board setups. Sideboard answers like Heroic Intervention helped, but holding up spell mana hurt the curve.
Deathrite Shaman was easy to turn on as a mana source, but the list missed access to more utility lands. Formidable Speaker proved to be an absolute MVP.
Weighing the Search Options
The builder looked at several ways to assemble the combo more easily. One is an instant-speed spell that uses Convoke with the deck’s go-wide creature token generation, putting pieces directly on the battlefield. Its cost is high mana when the board is weak or after a sweeper.
Formidable Speaker is an Elf itself, fills the graveyard limit via its discard trigger, and finds Raft-Steerer or Craterhoof directly. It also untaps Priest of Titania for big mana. Its cost is steep mana to chain, and it puts the card into hand rather than play.
Birthing Ritual provides steady end-step selection by converting low-end Elves into combo pieces.
The deck felt promising based on the first version. The builder wanted to step back and look at other ways to find the pieces and put the combo together.
| Card | Role | Key Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Gilt-Leaf Alchemist | Combo piece | Creates Forests with two Elves in graveyard |
| Elven Raft-Steerer | Combo piece | Untaps Alchemist via Landfall |
| Formidable Speaker | Search | Discards Elf, finds combo pieces |
| Malevolent Rumble | Dig | Finds Elves, fills graveyard |
| Craterhoof Behemoth | Win condition | Ends game with infinite mana |
The combo turns a standard creature core into an infinite engine. It gives Elves a second way to attack that forces an answer from the opponent.
Source: mtgazone.com
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