Combo Watch: Infinite Blue Mana at 39 Cents, Down 44%

Breaking market news: the pairing of Empowered Autogenerator + Filigree Sages has dropped from €0.70 to €0.39 in fourteen days. Down 44%. For a mono-blue infinite mana combo, that's a bargain-bin price.

The Mechanism, Plain and Simple

Two pieces, a clean loop:

1. Activate Empowered Autogenerator by tapping it: put a charge counter on it and add for each counter present.
2. With that mana (plus more if needed) you pay to activate Filigree Sages, which untaps Empowered Autogenerator.
3. Repeat. Each cycle the counter grows, so the mana produced increases every loop until the cost of Filigree Sages becomes irrelevant compared to the payoff.

Result: unlimited blue mana. From there you just need an outlet — drawing cards, an X-cost finisher, a life drain — to close out the game.

Color Identity and Where to Slot It In

A mono-blue combo, so it fits anywhere U is part of the color identity. Watch the bracket though: minimum 4, this isn't purely casual-table material.

• Urza, Lord High Artificer — natural synergy with mana-generating artifacts, already has a built-in card draw outlet.
• Talrand, Sky Summoner — pure mono-blue, every instant/sorcery cast with the infinite mana generates an army of illusory dragons.
• Azami, Lady of Scrolls — if you're running lots of wizards, the infinite mana fuels an equally infinite card draw engine.
• Baral, Chief of Compliance — reduces spell costs, making every single turn even more profitable when you've got infinite mana available.
• Kess, Dissident Mage in Izzet, if you're willing to add red as an aggressive outlet (X-cost burn, for example).

Protecting It at the Table

Two low-cost cards, so they're easy to hold in hand until the right moment. Recommended line of play:

• Don't expose both pieces right away. Empowered Autogenerator on its own is harmless, a slow mana rock; it won't attract removal.
• Assemble the combo on a turn where you already have backup mana to protect the stack, or when the table has spent its main answers.
• Against control decks with heavy artifact removal, keep a backup pair on hand if possible — but here the incredibly low cost makes it easy to rebuy through recursion effects rather than something you'd double up on in the list, given the singleton format.
• The outlet is the real weak point: if you only have infinite mana with no way to convert it into a win or advantage, you've merely bought time. Plan the finisher first, then assemble the combo.

Budget vs Premium

Here the discussion is almost academic: the "budget" version is the current version. At €0.39 total, there's no sensible downgrade — you're already at the floor of the market.

The "premium" version isn't about the two combo pieces themselves, but the supporting cast: quality outlets (instant-speed life drain, tutors to find the pieces, protection like targeted counterspells) are where the saved budget should go. With less than a euro for the entire combo package, you have enormous room to build a deck that protects and leverages it well.

My Take

A 44% crash on a functional bracket 4 combo isn't market noise: it's a concrete opportunity. Empowered Autogenerator and Filigree Sages aren't staples everyone's hunting for, so the low price will likely stay put — no buying rush in sight, but that's exactly why it's the right moment to pick them up without hurry and without speculative markup.

What to watch now: if Wizards reprints or bans mono-blue enabler pieces in future Commander products, the price could climb back up due to scarcity of more recent printings. Keep an eye on upcoming restocks at online stores: at these prices, the risk of buying in is nearly zero compared to the potential of the engine they enable.