Combo Watch: The Sword That Unlocks Infinite Time

The table is on its third combat phase. Someone has already stopped counting the damage, someone else is desperately searching for an answer they don't have in hand. The creature that started all this isn't even particularly big: it's just well-equipped, and it's connected twice. Then three times. Then the player controlling it smiles, taps the pile of already-untapped lands, and says "attacking again." That's the exact moment a Commander table realizes the game is over, even if the turn timer still says "combat."

This is the signature of a combo as elegant as it is brutal: Sword of Feast and Famine plus Aggravated Assault.

The mechanism, step by step

Sword of Feast and Famine does two things when the equipped creature deals combat damage to a player: it gives protection from black and green, and — the part we care about — it untaps all the lands you control. Not "draw a card," not "make a Treasure" — it untaps your entire manabase, for free, every single time you connect.

Aggravated Assault costs 3 generic mana plus T to give all your creatures an additional combat phase this turn.

Put them together and the loop closes itself: you attack, the Sword untaps your lands, you use the freshly available mana to activate Aggravated Assault again, you get another combat phase, the equipped creature connects again, the lands untap again. As long as the available mana covers the activation cost (3 mana), the loop is infinite: unlimited combat phases, unlimited damage, game over for anyone without an immediate answer.

The beautiful part — or the terrifying part, depending on which side of the table you're on — is that all it takes is a single creature connecting the first time. No board wide state needed, no complicated setup. All you need is for that initial attack to land.

Where it fits

Color identity: black-green, the classic Sword of Feast and Famine plus a colorless artifact that fits anywhere. This opens quite a few doors:

• Meren of Clan Nel Toth — the value engine from reanimation pairs perfectly with a combo plan B, and at bracket 3, Meren runs without going over the top.
• Korvold, Fae-Cursed King — if you're already playing sacrifice effects and extra lands, the synergy with the untap is almost comical: you keep regenerating resources while killing the table.
• Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver — less immediate, but if your equipped creature is resilient or easy to bring back, the package holds up.
• Ravos, Soultender / Karador, Ghost Chieftain (in an Abzan-ish build if you splash white) — for those who want more resilience against removal aimed at the key creature.

The common denominator: a commander that can tolerate dedicating two slots to a combo package without compromising the main plan, because here the Sword and the Aggravated Assault are almost always "just" excellent cards even outside the loop.

How to protect it in play

The most natural line is: play the Sword early, equip an evasive or hard-to-block creature as soon as you can, connect at least once to start accumulating value, and hold Aggravated Assault in hand until you have enough untappable lands to support the full loop in a single turn.

Weak points to manage:

• The equipped creature is the single point of failure. Instant-speed removal before combat stops everything cold. Prefer targets with protection, indestructible, or ones that easily return to hand/battlefield.
• Aggravated Assault taps itself, so once activated you can't respond with mana used for interaction — plan the turn ahead of time, don't rely on improvisation.
• You need real mana on the table, not just potential mana: if your lands produce little, the loop can stall halfway through. Make sure you have enough sources before attempting the line on a critical turn.

Budget vs Premium

There's almost no distinction to make here: the combo is already, essentially, the budget version of itself. With Aggravated Assault at €13.27 and Sword of Feast and Famine at €24.45, the total comes to just €37.72 — a reasonable price for a two-card package that can close out games on its own. There's no real "premium" alternative to point to here: the Sword is already the pricier end of the Sword cycle, but it remains accessible compared to many other two-piece combos in the format.

My verdict

This is an honest bracket 3 combo: strong enough to win games outright, dependent enough on a single successful attack that it doesn't feel oppressive on the first turn it's live. It's not quiet, it's not sneaky — you can see it coming, and that's what makes it almost elegant in the right context: a table that's playing synergies, not a table that's just playing to survive.

In the end, it's always the same scene: a creature, two hits, a player who stops counting. The difference now is that you know exactly what happens between the first attack and the second — and maybe, next time it's your turn to equip that Sword, you'll also know how to stop it.