10 Keyforge Combos You May Not Have Heard Of, 5th Edition
With Winds of Exchange coming out, many new combos will be discovered, and we here at Timeshapers will be there to chronicle them for you. With that in mind, I thought it would be a good time to do our first WoE edition of Keyforge Combos.
#1: Brikk Nastee and Friendship
Technically, this combo doesn’t require Brikk Nastee. It can use any big Brobnar creature. However, it’s better if Brikk is at least on the board so that you gain the Æmber for fighting. What you want to do is put Friendship on a small enemy creature, preferably a 1 power token. Then, you start swinging your big Brobnar creatures into that creature. Each Brobnar creature only takes one damage in response, but the damage still gets distributed onto your opponent’s battle line, wrecking their creatures. It can act as an almost one-sided board wipe.
You can also use Friendship to get around Taunt. Let’s say there is a Restringuntus taunted by a Champion Anaphiel, and you really need to kill that Guntus. You can put Friendship on the Anaphiel, and then swing into it, distributing the damage to the Guntus. I want to thank my friend Skunktrain for the above suggestions, as I think they are some neat ways to use Friendship offensively.
#2: Kretchee and Fresh Marks
I think this one will quickly become a classic, as it should be pretty easy to open, given that it’s a combo between a rare and a common in the same house. It’s pretty simple. With Kretchee in play, the effect of Fresh Marks is effectively doubled. You play two cards, lose one friendly creature, and you have put six Æmber on your opponent’s creatures, ripe for the taking. It’s like Blood Money on steroids.
Also, in case you’re curious, Kretchee’s flavor text is a reference to the Will Smith movie Wild Wild West.
#3: Magistrate Crispus and The Æmber Road
I have to give credit for this one to Aembermedes, as I first heard it on his YouTube channel. I think it’s a pretty cool combo, as it gets around the downside on The Æmber Road. Every turn, the value of Æmber Road will increase, but then you will just get it right back. I already think that Crispus will be a witch that a lot of decks will have to kill, and this combo just reinforces my opinion.
#4: Martian Revolution and Prospector
I feel like listing combos with Prospector is almost cheating, as it is going to be the go-to card whenever you need something with a good Destroyed effect. That said, this combo doesn’t work nearly as well with any other token.
In general, I feel like Martian Revolution is going to be a counter-productive card, because in most cases your normal creatures are better than your token creatures, so you are not going to want to trade your traditional creatures for tokens. However, it’s worth noting that any token destroyed by Martian Revolution immediately replaces itself. Thus, if you have a board full of Prospectors, you can play Martian Revolution, draw a whole bunch of cards, and then have a new board full of Prospectors. Too bad Key Abduction isn’t in set…
#5: Recruiting Station and Future Booster
The general consensus seems to be that there aren’t a lot of good Star Alliance cards in this set. However, one good one is definitely Future Booster. As a common artifact, it is going to be central to many Star Alliance decks. The ability to see what’s coming is normally useful in Keyforge, but it’s even more useful when you can do something with that information. Enter Recruiting Station, which lets you use that information to create a token every turn. Also, note that because both artifacts are Omni, I do mean every turn. It’s not quite as efficient as Primordial Vault, but it’s pretty good, and can be used with whatever token you happen to have.
As an aside, the anomaly Near-Future Lens would also be a great combo here, since you would always know the next card of your deck.
#6: Transporter Platform and Any Token
Ever since Transporter Platform first showed up in Worlds Collide, it has been one of the best artifacts in Keyforge. However, in WoE, it takes on a new dimension. One of the major risks of tokens is having a card you absolutely need, such as a board wipe or artifact control, become a token. Now what do you do? Well, with Transporter Platform, the answer is simple. You get it back. There are other cards that do this as well, and of course Strange Shell does it without needing another card, but I decided to feature Transporter Platform here for the sake of its sheer simplicity.
#7: Amphora Captura and Epic Poem
Speaking of cards that have always been good ever since they first showed up, Amphora Captura is amongst the best of the best of Mass Mutation artifacts, and considering how good MM artifacts are, that’s saying something. In MM, you could play the classic load Æmber onto a creature and then Exile it combo. Here, you can benefit yourself a bit more directly. You can use your bonus icons to capture a bunch of Æmber onto a creature, and then use Epic Poem to burst a ton of Æmber. With the right pieces, we’re talking about the kind of burst that could rival Call of the Archons Untamed burst.
Of course, there’s another option as well. If you don’t have Epic Poem, you could use Inspiring Oration. That way you would generate a ton of tokens instead of a ton of Æmber, which is also really good. Of course, the best thing is to have both.
#8: Offering to Kiligog and Revna Starsong
Credit for this one goes to my friend VendettaVXV. Offering to Kiligog lets you save creatures for use later, but they come out as tokens. Thus, it can create a huge token burst. However, there’s only one token that is immediately useful when you play it, and that’s Berserker. The problem is that Berserkers die when they fight, so your token burst won’t last long.
This is where Revna comes in. You hold Revna until the time is right, and then you play her and bust open your Offering to Kiligog. Now you have a bunch of Berserkers ready to fight, and they are going to survive their fights (well, assuming that they don’t die fighting, but if they do, they’re probably happier that way, anyway).
#9: Airlock and Cursed Relic
Cursed Relic is such a mixed blessing. On the one hand, you get six extra Æmber pips in your deck, which is amazing. On the other hand, it’s a dead card that you can’t even discard by normal means. Thus, you need another way to discard it. Airlock not only gives you a way to discard it, but even gives you a benefit for doing so.
#10: Timoti the Dammed and Giltspine School
Timoti is one of many strong Unfathomable cards in this set, and a couple of them trigger off of simply having tokens in play, even if you’re not using them. Thus, getting a lot of tokens can be a good thing, and Giltspine School gives you three tokens simply for playing it. The other Unfathomable card that could benefit from Giltspine School in the same way is Fathom Reaver.
Summary
Well, there you have it, ten combos to look for in Winds of Exchange. I am sure that there will be plenty more to share once the set actually releases. I should note that I wasn’t lucky enough to go to Keyforge Celebration, so I haven’t actually played with the set yet. If you have played with the set (or even if you haven’t) and you have some combo ideas that you want to share, feel free. I would love to feature them in a future edition of Keyforge Combos. I can be reached on most Keyforge Discords as SecondAct or on TCO with the same name. Thanks for reading!
