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Lab Report 053 – This Combo Shouldn’t Work—But It Does

 

🧨 This Combo Shouldn’t Work—But It Does

"It looked like a meme. It felt like a joke. But when the dust cleared, I was the only one left smiling."

Magic is full of wild combos. Some are fast, brutal, and consistent. Others… feel like a drunk dare at a Friday night draft. Today we’re talking about the second kind—the kind of combo that makes people read your cards twice, and then cry inside when it actually works.

🔮 The Combo: Island Sanctuary + Mystic Decree

Yes, it’s real. Yes, it locks down the board. No, it doesn’t care if you’re winning ‘fair.’

  • Island Sanctuary – Skip your draw step to make creatures without flying or islandwalk unable to attack you.

  • Mystic Decree – All creatures lose flying and islandwalk. (Read that again.)
    → So now nothing can attack you. At all. Ever.

Bonus Spice: Add Pariah + Stuffy Doll or Scroll Rack + Aminatou to go from “you can’t hit me” to “you can’t win.”

💡 Why It Shouldn’t Work

  • Island Sanctuary is an obscure old-school card with a weird drawback.

  • Mystic Decree literally does nothing without synergy.

  • It’s slow and doesn’t win the game directly.

🧠 Why It Does Work

  • Once it’s live, you’re untouchable—perfect for a control player.

  • It flies under the radar until it’s too late.

  • It buys you time to set up your actual wincon—and frustrates every aggro or Voltron player at the table.

  

🪦 Final Thoughts

This combo is janky. It’s fragile. It’s hilariously off-meta. And that’s why I love it.

Magic is a game, not a math problem. So sometimes, you just need to skip your draw step and remind people that flying isn’t real.

💬 Got a cursed combo of your own?

Drop it in the comments. I might just run it at the next LGS night—and blog about it here.

🧰 The Lock in Action — Full Decklist (Aminatou Control)

Commander:
1 Aminatou, the Fateshifter

Creatures:
1 Angel of the Ruins
1 Archetype of Imagination
1 Belisarius Cawl
1 Cataclysmic Gearhulk
1 Clone
1 Emperor of Bones
1 Felidar Guardian
1 Mulldrifter
1 Pariah
1 Peregrine Drake
1 Psychosis Crawler
1 Sister Repentia
1 Soul of New Phyrexia
1 Stuffy Doll

Instants:
1 Brainstorm
1 Dawn Charm
1 Devastation Tide
1 Entrapment Maneuver
1 Fracture
1 Generous Gift
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Path to Exile
1 Pull from Tomorrow
1 Terminus
1 Time Stop
1 Unexplained Absence
1 Utter End
1 Void Rend

Sorceries:
1 Beacon of Immortality
1 Depopulate
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Expel the Interlopers
1 Expropriate
1 Exterminatus
1 Farewell
1 Finale of Glory
1 Long-Term Plans
1 Martial Coup
1 Mastermind's Acquisition
1 Ponder
1 Phyrexian Rebirth
1 Time Wipe
1 Yawgmoth's Vile Offering

Artifacts:
1 Arcane Signet
1 Codex Shredder
1 Mind Stone
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Scroll Rack
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Hierarchy
1 Wayfarer's Bauble

Enchantments:
1 Blind Obedience
1 Cunning Rhetoric
1 Frozen Aether
1 Island Sanctuary
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Mystic Decree
1 Smothering Tithe
1 Soothsaying
1 Tainted Remedy

Lands:
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Ash Barrens
1 Castle Ardenvale
1 Command Tower
1 Contaminated Aquifer
1 Darkwater Catacombs
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Halimar Depths
1 Island x4
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Path of Ancestry
1 Plains x8
1 Prairie Stream
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Skycloud Expanse
1 Spire of Industry
1 Sunken Hollow
1 Swamp x3
1 Tainted Field
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Vault of the Archangel
 


Lab Report 053 –

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