We continue to explore The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Amalia Benavides Aguirre has found a home in Pioneer in a combo shell that can wrath the board and leave a 20/20 behind as early as turn three! It can do so at instant speed and can even do it multiple times if necessary. Let's take a walk on the Wildgrowth side!
To start off, let's go through the deadly combination in this deck. explores every time you gain life. The creature also destroys every other when its power is exactly 20. To achieve that under ordinary circumstances, you'd need to explore an unrealistic number of times. However, there is a way. gains you life whenever one of your creature explores. It's basically the reverse of what Amalia does. Therefore, when one triggers, so does the other, ad infinitum or at least up to power 20.
Just the two of them are not enough, as you need something to start off the chain, be it life gain or exploring. But when you do pull it off, you end up with a 20/20 Amalia as the only creature on the entire field, threatening a one-shot kill. You also gain more than 50 life, and if you control , you can drain the opponent for 18.
The rest of the deck creates an environment in which the above cards can thrive. is both ramp and a potential source of life, similarly to quadruple . can be deployed on the first turn, setting you up for a turn three combo, and allows you to go off on the third turn when it's played after one of the central two-drops. A single can save one creature of yours from Amalia's wrath or ensure longevity in the face of potential removal targeted at Amalia.
There is a robust green package of spells that find the missing combo pieces whenever you need them. can search out the creature you need with surgical precision, threatening to combo off at instant speed. can even put both Walker and Amalia in at the same time, potentially killing the opponent on the next attack from a nigh-empty board on your side and despite whatever the opponent may have on theirs. Even when everything fails, you've got a playset of to reestablish everything once again, providing unreal resilience.
| Amalia Ranks by Bigatti, 22nd at Pioneer Showcase Challenge, November 19
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