MTGNexus

Hello friends,

Wanted to get some outside perspective on the combo of Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond. How good/bad is the combo, how are the pieces on their own, is it one of those "done to death" pairs, and what kind of deck would you build around these pieces?

I usually see it in Oloro, Ageless Ascetic if anywhere, but occasionally in other orzhov lifegain related commanders too. Mostly Oloro, though, it's almost a staple in Esper fort/stax.

Honestly, I feel like it's ubiquitous enough now that people know what to expect and how to break it, so unless you're otherwise running the pieces for synergy I'd look for other options. That's my $0.02, whenever I see one of the pieces land I switch to vigilance mode and move to disrupt ASAP, and if I can survive it you know for sure it's been done.

It's common enough that I'd be suspicious of an otherwise unknown deck running it if I saw either piece. Each individual piece is decent in a deck that supports them. My experience has been that Exquisite Blood draws a lot of attention your way, even if you're not running much or any lifegain synergy. Sanguine Bond is still powerful, but a little more likely to fly under the radar unless you already have some way to gain life on board,

Exquisite blood works with a lot more cards. For example, Pestilence really shines with it. It is a lot easier to trigger.
Sanguine bond requires you to target as well, so even if you do trigger it you do not hit all opponents.

The presence of either card signifies combo and are 'must kill' cards.

Dunharrow wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Exquisite blood works with a lot more cards. For example, Pestilence really shines with it. It is a lot easier to trigger.
Sanguine bond requires you to target as well, so even if you do trigger it you do not hit all opponents.

The presence of either card signifies combo and are 'must kill' cards.

Hmm, Pestilence is another card that I've always wanted to play with...

A rule of thumb I have is, if a card is in a deck, why is it there? Blood/Bond is so easy to do as well. Basically any lifegain deck featuring black (so, basically any lifegain deck) can run it.