The Combos (In Phases):
#1
Draw your deck:
Once you have the basic combo pieces set up, the first step is to draw your deck. There are two different loops described here, one to use if you need to play the combo out manually and the other for when you can shortcut it. The reason for this is that the Manual Loop is not quite deternimistic, so it cannot be shortcut, but the Shortcut Loop, while it is deterministic sacrifices some of the combo protection that the Manual Loop provides. I recommend explaining the Shortcut Loop and asking if people are okay with you moving to the end state of that loop (entire deck in hand) and if they want to interact with the loop at some point or want you to play it out, just explain that you are manually going to use a slightly different loop.
NOTE: If Gaea's Blessing is your ONLY discard outlet, you cannot use the Shortcut Loop because you might draw it and lose the ability to shuffle.
Required Cards:
TGM ( The Gitrog Monster )
Dakmor ( Dakmor Salvage )
Shuffle Effect ( Kozilek, Butcher of Truth or Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or Gaea's Blessing )
Discard Outlet ( Putrid Imp , Wild Mongrel , Oblivion Crown , Skirge Familiar )
At least 1 land in the library
#2
Infinite Draw Triggers:
If you have made it here to phase two, it is incredibly difficult for anyone to stop you regardless of what they have. Like most combo decks, if you have drawn your deck, its simply a matter of correct sequencing from there.
NOTE: You can skip this phase if you plan to use a sorcery speed loop to generate infinite black mana. The sorcery speed loops don't require infinite draw triggers as they generate the triggers as part of the loop so they can maintain an empty stack.
Required Cards:
TGM
Dakmor
Shuffle Effect
Discard Outlet ( Putrid Imp , Wild Mongrel , Oblivion Crown , Skirge Familiar )
Any non-Dakmor land
NOTE: Gaea's Blessing doesn't work as a Shuffle Effect for this part because it only triggers on going from library to graveyard and not when discarded.
#3
Infinite Black Mana:
Easy mode: If you have Skirge Familiar as your discard outlet, you already have "infinite" black mana on accident just from creating "infinite" draw triggers.
Required Cards:
TGM
Dakmor
Shuffle Effect
Discard Outlet ( Putrid Imp , Wild Mongrel , Oblivion Crown , Skirge Familiar )
Mana Source
Instant Speed Mana Sources:
1. Dark Ritual
2. Cabal Ritual
Sorcery Speed Mana Sources:
1. Lotus Petal
2. Culling the Weak +( Deathrite Shaman , Putrid Imp , or Dark Confidant )
3. Lion's Eye Diamond
NOTE: Putrid Imp can not be both your Discard Outlet AND part of your mana source, but if you have another outlet in play you can use it for Culling the Weak .
#4
Infinite Green Mana
NOTE: You can skip this phase if you intend to win at sorcery speed with Praetor's Grasp, as it does not require any green mana.
There are three ways to do this depending on which cards you have available. Two are instant speed and one is sorcery speed. Use whichever you prefer if both instant speed options are available. One method uses Elvish Spirit Guide to make the mana, the other uses lands to do it. If those are unavailable the sorcery speed method is there as a backup.
Option 1:
Elvish Spirit: This is the simplest loop to generate "infinite" green mana. It converts five draw triggers and four black mana to one green mana and four black mana allowing you to turn "infinite" draw triggers into "infinite" green mana.
Required Cards:
ESG
Riftsweeper
Necromancy
Culling the Weak
Shuffle Effect
Option 2:
Crop Rotation:
This loop provides another option if you are missing a piece of the Elvish Spirit Guide Loop, but requires a single green mana to start. This loop converts two draw triggers, one green mana and (with Twilight Mire) one black mana to two green mana allowing you to convert your "infinite" draw triggers and "infinite" black mana to "infinite" green mana at instant speed.
Required Cards:
Crop Rotation
Double-green Land ( Twilight Mire or Gaea's Cradle + Two or more creatures in play)
Shuffle Effect
Option 3:
Sorcery Speed:
You only need to use one of these loops if you are forced to go off at sorcery speed but don't have Praetor's Grasp for the black mana only combo (described in Phase 5), or if you don't have access to the necessary pieces for either the Crop Rotation Loop or the ESG loop.
Use the exact loops described in Phase 3 under "Sorcery Speed Loops". The loops that utilize the mana sources Lotus Petal or Lion's Eye Diamond can both be used to create green mana in addition to black.
#5
Winning the game:
There are two "wincons" in this deck, one aimed for a sorcery speed win and the other capable of working at instant speed. They both use "infinite" loops to kill all your enemies at once, one by exiling all of their decks, the other by dealing damage to them.
First "Wincon":
Instant Speed Loop:
This is the optimal loop for winning the game. Having an instant speed wincon means you can do things like win in your endstep or in response to removal on one of your combo pieces.
Required Cards:
Rath's Edge
Crop Rotation
Dryad Arbor
Necromancy
TGM
Shuffle Effect
Discard Outlet ( Putrid Imp , Wild Mongrel , Oblivion Crown , Skirge Familiar )
Second "Wincon":
If you have the luxury of doing your combo at sorcery speed (or are forced to because you don't have the pieces necessary for the instant speed win), you can win directly after producing infinite black mana by simply using the same loop as you did for the sorcery speed mana but with Praetor's Grasp instead. This will allow you to exile all your opponents decks face down so that they lose as soon as they draw for their next turn.
Required Cards:
Praetor's Grasp
TGM
Dakmor
Shuffle Effect
Discard Outlet ( Putrid Imp , Wild Mongrel , Oblivion Crown , Skirge Familiar )
TIPS AND TRICKS:
Trick: Land Swapping
This trick helps you get the combo piece lands into play in order to set up their respective "infinite" loops. It is most often used to put Twilight Mire, Gaea's Cradle or Rath's Edge into play, but you could use it to swap any two lands between your hand and the battlefield.
Required cards:
Desired Land (usually Twilight Mire , Gaea's Cradle or Rath's Edge )
Crop Rotation
TGM
Shuffle Effect
Discard Outlet ( Putrid Imp , Wild Mongrel , Oblivion Crown , Skirge Familiar )
Any other non-land card
Tip: "But I already used my Necromancy!"
If your Necromancy is already in play enchanting your Discard Outlet , but you need it to put a land into play for the instant speed win combo because all your lands got Armageddoned away, or more likely, because you sacrificed them all to get to this point, you can use this simple trick to get access to Necromancy once more.
1 - Cast Nature's Claim (or anything similar) on Necromancy
2 - In response to the Necromancy trigger, use your extensive loop knowledge to generate "infinite" draws and "infinite" mana again, and finish off all the combos with the Necromancy trigger still on the stack.
NOTE: This does not work for the sorcery speed loops, but you don't need lands in play for the sorcery speed loops, so don't worry about it.
Trick: Using your Cleanup Step as a Discard Outlet:
Your endstep can be used as a discard outlet to filter through your deck and set up your instant speed combo. We will look at two different loops you can use in your endstep to filter to a winning hand.
NOTE: These loops work even through Necropotence (perhaps the most common way to end the turn with more than seven cards in hand) by simply putting the Necropotence trigger on the stack first and resolving the draw (dredge actually) first so Dakmor or the Dredger never get exiled. Be extra careful using the Dredge Tutoring loop with Necropotence out though because you will lose anything you discard that is not a Dredger. Don't discard anything you will need later.
First lets look at how you get Dakmor Salvage to your hand if you don't have it already. This loop filters through your deck and allows you to replace any lands in your hand with non-lands from your deck as well as potentially putting Dakmor Salvage into your graveyard (and then to hand). It is not infinite in any sense as it only works once for each land you have to be able to discard and can fizzle if you ever don't hit a land on your dredge.
Trick: Dredge Tutoring:
Next we will look at the loop once you have Dakmor Salvage in your hand. This loop allows you to actually filter through your entire library and choose the hand you want. While you can do this and just pass with the "perfect" hand, the next section will look at what hands can win immediately in the endstep so you don't have to pass the turn.
NOTE: This has to be done manually and can take a while but should not be considered slow play because you are continually changing the cards in your hand.
Tip: Nine Card Instant-speed Winning Hand
NOTE: First you may be wondering why these are nine card hands. This is because the way you get to these hands is the Dakmor Filtering Loop above. While it starts with 8 cards (so you can discard Dakmor), when you hit a land with Dakmor it gives you another draw bumping your hand size to 9 which is why you are able to filter while still discarding Dakmor over and over. Each of the play instructions in this section will start with which two cards you discard and then a response to those discards so that you can combo in that end step. Don't forget to respond to the triggers because if your opponents pass priority and the stack clears your turn will end and you can't do anything about it.
When filtering your hand in your endstep or looking to win at instant speed via an Ad Nauseam or something, you have to know what you actually want in your hand to set up the win. You can use the Dakmor Filtering Loop above to set up your hand in the following ways to enable a win. All of these assume you have Dakmor Salvage in hand and The Gitrog Monster in play. They are instant speed so you can use them even in your cleanup step right after filtering the hand.
Most of your options depend on how much available mana you have. We will start assuming you have zero available mana and work up from there to show some more options with more available resources.
NOTE: Remember that you can't float mana into the cleanup step so these must be untapped land/creature/artifact sources
Hand 1: No mana available
Elvish Spirit Guide (ESG)
Crop Rotation
Dark Ritual
Cabal Ritual
Necromancy
Discard Outlet (preferably Skirge Familiar)
Oblivion Crown
Non-dakmor Land
Dakmor Salvage
How to play:
Discard your Discard Outlet and the Non-dakmor Land
In response to the TGM trigger, exile ESG for and cast Crop Rotation.
Tutor for an untapped black land and tap it to add .
Cast Dark Ritual to go to .
Cast Cabal Ritual to get .
Cast Necromancy targeting you Discard Outlet.
Now you have all the pieces to combo out using the Manual Loop in Phase 1.
NOTE: This hand "loses" to counterspells but can play around a single removal spell if they cast the removal any time after you cast your rituals. If someone uses removal on TGM in response to Necromancy, cast Oblivion Crown and go off in response. This hand also protects Dakmor by not discarding it until you have your combo ready.
Hand 2: Green available
Elvish Spirit Guide (ESG)
Crop Rotation
Dark Ritual
Necromancy
Discard Outlet (preferably Skirge Familiar)
Oblivion Crown
Dakmor Salvage
Choose 2: Autumn's Veil, Cabal Ritual, Non-dakmor land
How to play:
Same as above except now you get to choose two of the three protections based on what you think your opponents have. Autumn Veil protects you against blue/black counterspells and removal, non-dakmor land protects you against graveyard hate, Cabal Ritual gives you the mana to use the backup Discard Outlet.
Other Hands - More mana available
Starting with black mana allows you to remove ESG and Crop Rotation from the hand freeing up more space. Enough mana give you the ability to take out Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual as well. There are a variety of different things you can do with those extra spaces depending on what you need or what kind of interaction you are expecting.
You can use Necromancy to put Sylvan Safekeeper or Dosan the Falling Leaf into play first to protect your combo and then use Oblivion Crown as the outlet. *Careful you don't give shroud to the creature you wanted to put Oblivion Crown on!
You can use Noxious Revival with Entomb (or Crop Rotation or even Culling the Weak if you have Dryad Arbor out) to return a spell to your hand after it gets countered. Entomb first and respond to the TGM trigger with Noxious Revival.
You can add removal if there is something stopping a later part of your combo.
If you aren't sure what you need to defend against, you can put Vampiric Tutor and Entomb to be able to grab anything you missed.