27 cents for infinite life: the Boros combo nobody's watching

How much does infinite life cost in EDH? If your answer is "a stack of thirty-euro rares," it's time to check your sources. All you need is two cards, a few cents — actually, less than that: twenty-seven cents. And it's a real combo, not some random kitchen-table trick: two pieces, a closed loop, life climbing until you decide to stop.

The loop: how 27 cents generate infinite life

The engine is Boros Reckoner: every time it's dealt damage, it sends that exact amount of damage to any target you choose. It's basically a touchy lightning rod — hit it, and it hits back at whoever you want, including itself.

Now for the trigger: Take Up the Shield costs , and it's an instant you cast on Boros Reckoner. It gives it a +1/+1 counter, lifelink, and indestructible until end of turn. Here's the trick: Reckoner becomes able to hurt itself without dying, and that damage nets you life thanks to lifelink.

Here's the sequence:

1. Cast Take Up the Shield on Boros Reckoner.
2. Reckoner now has lifelink and indestructible.
3. You deal damage to it (by targeting it with its own ability, choosing itself as the target).
4. Reckoner takes that damage — but it's indestructible, so it doesn't die — and since it has lifelink, you gain life equal to the damage taken.
5. The damage taken triggers Reckoner's "whenever this creature is dealt damage" ability again, so you can retarget it at itself, repeating step 3.

Every loop iteration nets you life and costs you nothing: Reckoner stays standing, indestructible for the whole turn. The loop repeats as many times as you like, so your life total climbs as high as you want — theoretically infinite, practically "as much as you need to win or survive."

How much it costs and why it's crashing

The core package — just the two combo pieces — currently costs about €0.27: Boros Reckoner at €0.20 and Take Up the Shield at €0.07. Over the last 14 days the total has dropped 34%, and the main culprit is Reckoner: down from €0.34 to €0.20, a 41% plunge in two weeks. Take Up the Shield, meanwhile, has stayed flat at 7 cents — there's not much room left for it to drop further, but it doesn't need to: it's already the cheapest card in the deck.

Why is Reckoner crashing like this? Simply because it's a card that's been printed multiple times, has little demand outside niche combos like this one, and the market is revaluing it downward. Which is great news if you want to put the piece together: you're buying an infinite-life engine for the price of a pack of basic lands.

From setup to combo turn: timing and assembly

You don't need much: three mana for Reckoner (, so it's flexible), two mana for the instant. Play Reckoner calmly, when the table doesn't have instant-speed removal ready, then wait for your main phase or even an opponent's end step to activate the combo — Take Up the Shield is an instant, so you can hold it in hand as insurance until the right moment.

The correct order is: Reckoner needs to already be on the battlefield and have survived at least one turn (or at least not be at risk of dying in the meantime), then you cast the Shield targeting it, and only afterward do you trigger the first bit of damage. Be careful not to waste the Shield if Reckoner is still at risk of being exiled or removed by effects that ignore indestructible: that protection covers "destroy," not everything.

Protecting the core before and during

The weak point of the combo isn't the loop itself, it's the moment before it starts: Reckoner sitting alone on the battlefield is an obvious target. This is where classic Boros pieces come in handy. Spirit Mantle grants protection from creatures, which blocks the most common opposing combat trick. Flicker of Fate is an emergency lifesaver: it exiles Reckoner and returns it to the battlefield, resetting its status and dodging immediate destruction effects (though watch out — it also interrupts the loop if used mid-combo).

Even Akiri, Fearless Voyager — a natural commander for this identity — helps indirectly: her ability to make a creature indestructible by unattaching an equipment can keep Reckoner alive during a critical turn, even outside the loop itself.

Life multipliers: when infinite life isn't enough on its own

Infinite life doesn't win the game by itself — you need to turn it into something else. Voice of the Blessed gains a +1/+1 counter every time you gain life: with an active loop, it becomes huge in just a few iterations and crosses the ten-counter threshold to become indestructible itself. For the "infinite life into infinite damage" variant, the natural synergy points to Stuffy Doll and Chain Reaction: by assigning the loop's damage to a chosen target instead of Reckoner itself, you turn the cycle from defensive into lethal.

The takeaway: you don't need to spend a fortune to have a real combo in EDH. All it takes is two cards worth less than thirty cents combined, a bit of protection around them, and a plan to turn that infinite life into an actual win.