Terra, Herald of Hope
The last article was all about Cloud, who grabs a massive sword and hopes to end the game in a massive Limit Breaking attack.
But not every player likes the Voltron “Unga Bunga” style of play. Others like the long, drawn out, Combo deck.
Well, I’d like to introduce you to “Terra, Herald of Hope”. A Mardu Commander who Mills the top 2 cards of your deck, then on attack, by paying 2, can reanimate a Power 3 or lower Creature from your Graveyard
Both Commanders, lend themselves to reanimator strategies, only Terra has the added bonus of having a built-in mill in her effects. So, going into build decks like these having massive creatures with powerful effects to reborn and cheat onto the battlefield is the way to go.
Cards that protect your aggressive pushes like Avacyn, Angel of Hope. Avacyn has a powerful effect that makes your other permanents Indestructible. Which means any “destroy” effects and lethal battle damage your creatures would take, wouldn’t destroy them. So, swing away to your little aggro Mardu hearts content.
Terra lends herself to the strong “Reanimator” strategy. Which is sending big things to the grave, in order to bring them back out with cheaper cards than their natural costs.
It allows you to do the very thing you want: revive a big value creature for cheap as possible.
Even though Terra lends her powers to this strategy, mostly in her first ability, the second ability has a lot of potential for combos.
One of my favorites to use any “sac outlet” + “Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit”+ “Murderous Redcap”. The way it works is: You have a sacrifice outlet, Terra, and Anafenza out on the board already and Murderous Redcap in grave. Attack with Terra and activate her effect to summon from the grave Redcap, Redcap activates and burns your opponent for his power. Then before blockers are declared, sacrifice the Redcap to the sacrifice outlet. Redcap skill activates his Undying skill to summon himself back with a –1/-1 counter on him. Redcaps burn effect activates again and deals 1 damage to your opponent. Anafenze now activates to give a creature with less power a +1/+1, which goes onto Redcap who’s now a 1/1 (and in Magic, +1/+1 and –1/-1 counters nullify each other, removing the counter from Redcap, allowing his Undying skill to activate again). You then sacrifice Redcap again and repeat the process burning the table out of the game. You’ll probably get away with this combo once....before the table sees Redcap hit the grave and then turns you into Public Enemy Number 1 the next few games.
