Synergy
"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."
—Aristotle
Matt plays an Island into first-turn
Delver of Secrets .Brian wrinkles his nose; lays his land; studies his hand to ensure that, no, he really doesn't have an answer to this particular 1/1 on this particular first turn; and says "Go."
Matt looks at the top card of his library, smiles, and says, "Oh well, better lucky than good!"
Matt reveals
Mana Leak on the top of his library and flipsDelver of Secrets intoInsectile Aberration .The second turn is only his first attack for 3 damage in a short game that, for Brian, feels very, very long.
Like
If I just played with Forests,
Ideally,
We started this article on synergy with an Aristotle quote. Synergy, the word, comes from a Greek root meaning "working together."
In Magic, synergy is simply the realization and concept that certain cards are more effective when played with certain other cards. The cards, generally speaking, can function all right in and of themselves, but because of this synergy, produce more together than what they could when taken in isolation.
Consider these two different top-performing decks from the Extended portion of the 2006 World Championships:
The undefeated 6–0 Tsapko played a straight RW deck that started on
You'll note that even though his deck was only red and white, Tsapko was willing to play
All of these cards are arguably fine, but they become increasingly compelling in a deck with
If Tsapko played a straight mono-white beatdown deck instead of a red one with
Plus, this is a deck with both
In sum, though, I just wanted to highlight that a straight RW deck—for all the reasons noted—would be happy to play with these seemingly off-color black-, blue-, and green-finding lands in a deck with no black, blue, or green mana-producing lands. Tsapko's RW deck played ten such finders.
Pro Tour Champion Remie only went 5–1 with his RW version, but his deck did something a little more special than Tsapko's. Can you see the extra synergy that would have made 1994 Mike Flores so happy?
Like Tsapko, Remie played
Do you see it yet?
Remie added
It's a "red" creature...right?
Right!
Remie didn't play a lot of green cards in his main deck or anything, he just realized that as long as a RW deck is already willing to play
So as an additional synergy, he added
The upgrade wasn't 100% free, however. Remie would have to pay 3 life when Tsapko would only have to pay 1 life in some scenarios, but the ability to run the powerful
Of course, once you have a little green mana (Remie's access to those two nonbasic Forests actually counted thirteen of his actual lands), you might as well run a sideboard card like
I hope you can see that
Remie:Bloodstained Mire (pay 1) → Mountain,Grim Lavamancer .
Opponent: Forest,Llanowar Elves
Remie:Flooded Strand (pay 1) → (tapped)Sacred Foundry ; tap Mountain for, exile
Bloodstained Mire andFlooded Strand from the game, tapGrim Lavamancer to deal 2 toLlanowar Elves .
All of
Once one of the most feared cards in the history of Standard,
Here, it was just a card:
But the dominant
- 2/2-making machine: With the help of
Scion of Oona ,Bitterblossom 's tokens would be free 2/2 creatures instead of free 1/1 creatures. Volcanic Fallout insurance:Volcanic Fallout was a bane not just to Faeries in general (a deck made up mostly of small creatures), but a well-placedVolcanic Fallout could kill aMistbind Clique in a humiliating fashion. Kill all the Faeries, and champion will fail. Well, not withBitterblossom on the battlefield!Bitterblossom itself was an enchantment, and therefore would not be destroyed byVolcanic Fallout ; soMistbind Clique would still be left with a Faerie (the enchantment itself) to champion.- Permission setup: Invest two mana in a
Bitterblossom on turn two and you'll never have to spend mana on your turn again! The Faeries deck could rely on that initial two-mana investment to produce an army, leaving mana open forMana Leak ,Cryptic Command , orSpellstutter Sprite .
We started this article with a familiar scenario for anyone playing Standard two years ago.
It's not obviously dominating. For one, you have to play it in a deck heavy on instants and sorceries. For example, it wouldn't be very good in Mono-Blue Devotion:
But
But in a deck that was already happy to play
It is important to differentiate synergy—essentially "playable" cards and tools over-performing when played together—from actual combinations of cards.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
In about two weeks, we will explore the idea of two-card combinations, which differ from "mere" synergies in at least two vital ways.
But until then, a firestarter.
This deck was the first of a run of almost a score of Journey into Nyx deck ideas from master deck designer Tomoharu Saito—that immediately started putting players into Top 8 situations.
Synergy is alive and well in this Standard Enchantment Special.
What are some of the synergies you see in this deck that combine one-drop acceleration and so many enchantments?
Love,
Mike