If you’ve ever sat down for a game and thought, “You know what I need today? An infinitely large, death-dealing construct that also happens to solve all my other problems.” Do we have a combo for you.
Of course, we’ve seen powerful combos, but there’s something so satisfying about one that’s both simple and brutally efficient. Today, we’re diving into a synergy that turns your Walking Ballista into an unstoppable engine of destruction and value.
The Core Combo: A Machine That Feeds Itself
This combo doesn’t require a dozen pieces. With just a few key cards on the battlefield, you can create a loop that ends the game on the spot.
What You Need:
- Walking Ballista with at least two +1/+1 counters on it.
- Hardened Scales on the battlefield.
- Access to one green and one colorless mana.
The Infinite Loop:
- Cast the Enabler: With your mana open, cast Strength of Will, targeting your own Walking Ballista. This uses up your one green and one colorless mana, but the payoff is immense.
- Pull the Trigger: Activate Walking Ballista’s ability by removing a +1/+1 counter from it to deal 1 damage. Here’s the clever part: target your own Walking Ballista.
- The Magic Happens: Two triggered abilities go on the stack:
- Walking Ballista‘s ability to deal 1 damage to itself.
- Strength of Will‘s ability, which gives the Ballista indestructible and puts a +1/+1 counter on it for being dealt damage.
- Replacement Effect Kicks In: The Ballista is now indestructible, so it survives the 1 damage. Then, as Strength of Will tries to put one +1/+1 counter on it, Hardened Scales replaces that with two +1/+1 counters instead.
- Profit and Repeat: You started by removing one counter, but you ended up with two. That’s a net gain of one +1/+1 counter. You can now repeat this process. For each loop, you gain an additional counter.
Before you know it, your Walking Ballista has an astronomical number of counters. From here, you can simply remove all of them to deal lethal damage to every creature, planeswalker, and player on the board. It’s a clean, infinite-damage combo that demoralizes before it demolishes.
But Wait, There’s More! (The Value Engine Upgrade)
An infinitely large death machine isn’t enough for you? It isn’t for us either. Let’s turn this combo into a full-blown value engine that solves every possible problem.
Let’s add a few more pieces to the mix:
- Basilisk Collar: Equip this to your now-infinite Walking Ballista. It gains lifelink, and since it’s dealing infinite damage, you gain infinite life. Your opponent’s aggro deck just became irrelevant.
- Snake Umbra: Enchant your massive Ballista with this. Now, whenever it deals damage (which it will, infinitely), you get a “draw a card” trigger. You can draw your entire library, or at least as many cards as your opponents have life. Good luck losing with your entire deck in hand.
- Selvala, Heart of the Wilds: With your Walking Ballista‘s enormous power, tapping Selvala will generate a massive amount of green mana. How much? Oh, you know… infinite mana. This allows you to cast whatever you just drew with Snake Umbra.
At this point, you have infinite damage, infinite life, infinite card draw, and infinite mana. I could keep going, but for the sake of your opponent’s sanity (and their will to ever play Magic again), we’ll stop here.
End Step
This Walking Ballista combo is a fantastic example of how a few synergistic cards can create an unstoppable loop. It’s powerful and incredibly satisfying to pull off.
So, sleeve up these cards, and get ready to walk right into your next victory with the most intimidating construct on the battlefield. What’s your favorite way to go infinite? Share your most brutal combos on our social media!