In Core Set 2020 Limited, there are a lot of sweet combos to assemble, decks to draft, or plays to make. Here are 20 of them (in arbitrary order).
My Core Set 2020 Limited Bucket List
1. Deal nearly infinite damage
While controlling Yarok, cast Brought Back to return Scholar of the Ages and Rapacious Dragon. Their doubled enters-the-battlefield abilities will return Brought Back and generate 4 Treasures, and then you sacrifice both creatures to Mask of Immolation. You then cast Brought Back and keep the loop going. It’s not quite infinite because every loop costs you two mana, but it’s an easy path to victory.
2. Abuse Act of Treason
The obvious way to abuse Act of Treason is by stealing a creature and then sacrificing it to Bone Splinters or Bloodsoaked Altar.
Other unusual options are untapping your own creature after it was inflicted by Sleep Paralysis or giving a topdecked high-power creature haste.
3. Trigger Agent of Treachery
It’s not easy to trigger the Agent, but you can live the dream by continually bouncing it with Portal of Sanctuary. In fact, that’s exactly what Peter Ward did with his 9-0 Sealed Deck at Grand Prix Krakow last weekend.
4. Don’t reveal a land to Risen Reef
Risen Reef was most frequently named as the #1 uncommon at GP Krakow, and it’s very powerful in an Elemental deck.
One nice trick is that if you see a land on top and have not yet played a land for your turn, you can choose not to reveal the land so you can play it untapped.
5. Make infinite mana
With three copies of Leyline of Abundance on the battlefield, Scuttlemutt taps for four mana. Adding Gauntlets of Light yields an arbitrarily large amount of mana. Afterwards, you can activate Leyline of Abundance to dish out as many +1/+1 counters as you want.
6. Exploit Scuttlemutt’s color-changing ability
Scuttlemutt’s ability can enable a color-hoser like Devout Decree or aid a protection creature like Apostle of Purifying Light.
7. Draft a flash deck
Simic Flash has been impressive in Standard, but a watered-down version is also possible in draft. For example, look at this 3-0 draft deck from Day 2 of GP Krakow. Filip Tetera had 3 Brineborn Cutthroat and 6 instants!
8. Go nuts with Bloodsoaked Altar
The dream is to activate Bloodsoaked Altar by sacrificing one Sanitarium Skeleton and discarding another. Even better if you ramped into the powerful artifact on turn 4 via Renowned Weaponsmith.
9. Neutralize an opposing Rotting Regisaur
The evilest answers to Rotting Regisaur are Pacifism and Sleep Paralysis.
Alternatively, if your opponent is empty-handed, you could Unsummon their Zombie Dinosaur in response to the upkeep trigger.
10. Pump another Golem with Master Splicer
There are actually a bunch of Golems in the set: Prismite, Pattern Matcher, Stone Golem, Masterful Replication, and Meteor Golem.
Even if you don’t have a Golem in your deck, you might receive a free surprise from your opponent via Cavalier of Dawn.
11. Draft Affinity
With modern PT in my mind I drafted powerful Affinity and 2-1d my pod, now with x-2 total I need 3-0 (maybe the 2-0-1) to top8 #gpkrakow! pic.twitter.com/UTqIOey8uh
— Grzegorz 'Urlich' Kowalski (@urlichmtg) July 14, 2019
Yes, that is 2 Steel Overseer and 6 other artifact creatures. Polish MPL member Grzegorz ‘Urlich’ Kowalski showed us how it’s done at GP Krakow.
12. Draft a sweet deck with 5+ Undead Servant
At Grand Prix Krakow, Sean Goddard set the record with 6 Undead Servants and a Pattern Matcher. Then, in the Top 8, Peter Ward drafted 5 Undead Servant along with two Gorging Vulture to set up the graveyard.
Unfortunately, neither of them did well. Goddard ran into Flame Sweep, which is pretty good against a horde of Zombies. And Ward lost to Sveinung Bjornerud’s double Apostle of Purifying Light deck in the quarterfinals.
13. Trigger a life gain card with Loxodon Lifechanter
Weird as it may sound, if its enters-the-battlefield ability adjusts your life total upwards, then this counts as life gain.
14. Turn-4 Vilis or Drakuseth
These creatures are off the charts in terms of raw power, but they’re even better when they arrive early. With Gorging Vulture or Tomebound Lich on turn 3 and Blood for Bones on turn 4, you could have a lot of fun.
Tobias Maurer’s Top 8 draft deck from Grand Prix Krakow, for example, was capable of this insane start.
15. Attack with a 3/4 Elvish Reclaimer on turn 3
Sticking with Tobias Maurer’s Top 8 draft deck, all it takes is activating Elvish Reclaimer on turn two and then playing Lotus Field on turn three.
16. Control multiple Chandras
This is a Chandra set after all. The dream is to put a loyalty counter on another Chandra with Chandra, Acolyte of Flame, which is something that Grzegorz Kowalski was capable of doing with his Top 8 draft deck in Warsaw.
Another bucket list item related to Chandra, Acolyte of Flame is to trigger Overgrowth Elemental twice per turn with the dying Elementals.
17. Show the power of Goblin Smuggler
For ideas on good targets for Goblin Smuggler, look no further than Vincent Reiter’s Top 8 draft deck.
Goblin Smuggler is also quite decent with Blood Burglar and Audacious Thief in red-black. Enchanting those creatures with Angelic Gift can be quite appealing as well, by the way.
18. Pull of an Uncaged Fury combo
Vincent Reiter’s Top 8 draft deck featured this two-card combo, and he wasn’t the only one putting it together. Grzegorz Kowalski locked Top 8 when his opponent didn’t block his 5/4 at 18 life and suddenly took 18.
19. Trigger Dragon Mage while controlling Bag of Holding
Ultimate value.
20. Draft five-color Golos
The real dream is to fetch and trigger Field of the Dead, but even without the rare land, 5-color Golos is a sweet archetype. For example, check out the second draft deck by GP Krakow Top 8 competitor Tadej Kadunc.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed this collection and were able to derive some inspiration. If you have any additions or Core Set 2020 stories of your own, then please share them in the comment section below.
