How does Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero work?
Let's start simple. Gerrard is a 4 CMC Legendary Human Soldier. He has a strong 3/3 body with First Strike. Doesn't seem all that great so far, so what's the selling point? He has a mass resurrection effect. When Gerrard dies, you may then exile him to return all creatures and artifacts that were put into your graveyard this turn back to the battlefield. This leans in to two very powerful interactions. First, you are resistant to board wipes and any of your own board wipes become asymmetrical. Second, if you have ways to sacrifice your creatures and artifacts, Gerrard can put them right back for you in order to generate even more value. Sounds pretty good right? But that's not even the best part. By abusing how the stack works, we can take Gerrard out of our graveyard before he exiles himself and still get his incredible mass resurrection effect. My goal is to use that interaction in order to create some clever loops and combos by utilizing sacrifice outlets, recursion spells, and a special archetype of card called "Eggs."
What are "Eggs"?
Eggs are something that you lay down and then they hatch to give a bonus effect when sacrificed. A very simple to understand "egg" card is Lotus Petal. You lay it down, and it hatches into mana for you when you need it. Eggs come in all shapes and sizes, some deal damage, some draw cards, some make mana, some gain life, you name it. The common things that eggs do are they generate some kind of value when they enter the battlefield or when they are sacrificed. Our hero Gerrard is going to ensure that we get to bring our eggs back to get tons of value.
Why play Gerrard?
- You like to play combo decks.
- You like intricate loops.
- You like generating value.
- You like returning cards from the graveyard.
- You were born to be a hero.
Aurelia, the Warleader
You like the idea of Boros and doing damage, but you prefer a more straight forward route to victory. Aurelia aims to kill everyone through additional combat steps and swinging out with powerful creatures.
Firesong and Sunspeaker
You like the idea of Boros and wiping the board, but you prefer a more heavy control style of deck. Firesong and Sunspeaker aim to gain a ton of life and kill everyone through powerful burn effects.
Feather, the Redeemed
You like the idea of Boros and resilient threats, but you prefer casting tons of spells every turn. Feather aims to cast protections spells to generate value while building a massive board state to swarm enemies with.
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
You like the idea of Eggs and graveyard recursion, but prefer casting spells to create loops instead of effects. Teshar aims to bring eggs back one at a time by casting new spells form hand to get repeatable value.
Breya, Etherium Shaper
You like the idea of Eggs and big combos, but don't want to give up all the safety blue provides through interaction. Breya aims to control the board while searching for the specific eggs she needs to generate enough mana to combo off.
The Deck
Decklist
Approximate Total Cost:
How to Play
This is a combo deck. The typical combo play style involves assembling your combo pieces by digging through your deck and then finding the opportunity to unleash it. There are three very important aspects to any combo deck: Your combo pieces, your tutor and draw effects, and your finishers. I will briefly explain how each combo piece works and provide a sample combo line, but there are tons of different ways to assemble these combos so feel free to get clever about it after you know the basics. Most of the combos in this deck involve a sacrifice outlet and a recursion spell.
Combos
Loyal Retainers
This is a very straight forward card and is exactly what we need. By sacrificing Gerrard, and then sacrificing Loyal Retainers to return Gerrard to the battlefield, Gerrard's ability will return the Loyal Retainers. This is a very simple loop, and only requires you to have a sacrifice outlet, Loyal Retainers and Gerrard. With Altar of Dementia or Goblin Bombardment as your sacrifice outlet, you can win the game with those three cards alone.
Gerrard + Loyal Retainers + Sac Outlet = Infinite Gerrard Triggers
1. Sacrifice Gerrard.
2. With Gerrard's trigger on the stack, sacrifice Loyal Retainers to return Gerrard to the battlefield.
3. Resolve Gerrard's trigger to return Loyal Retainers, and anything else.
4. Loop as necessary.
5. Add damage, mill, or mana and card draw to win.
Nim Deathmantle
This loop involves making four mana while sacrificing Gerrard in order to return him to the battlefield. Ways to do this include Lotus Petal and Lotus Bloom, Ashnod's Altar, Krark-Clan Ironworks, and more.
Gerrard + Nim Deathmantle + Sac Outlet + 4 Mana per loop = Infinite Gerrard Triggers
1. Sacrifice Eggs/Artifacts/Creatures to generate necessary mana.
2. Sacrifice Gerrard.
3. With Gerrard's trigger on the stack, pay Nim Deathmantle to return Gerrard to the battlefield.
4. Resolve Gerrard's trigger to return sacrificed mana generation to the battlefield.
5. Loop as necessary.
6. Add damage, mill, or mana and card draw to win.
Flameshadow Conjuring
This loop is unique in that it doesn't require a form of recursion. It requires you to cast Gerrard and then make a token copy of him. The legend rule will apply, killing your original Gerrard. You then sacrifice the token to return him, and anything else as well. Phyrexian Altar is the best way to make this happen, because it will generate the one red mana you need to repeat the loop on its own, but Lotus Petal is another easy way to set it up.
Gerrard + Flameshadow Conjuring + Sac Outlet + 1 Red Mana per loop = Infinite Gerrard Triggers
1. Sacrifice Eggs/Artifacts/Creatures to generate necessary mana.
2. Play Gerrard, paying for Flameshadow Conjuring.
3. Sacrifice the real Gerrard to legend rule.
4. With real Gerrard's trigger on the stack, sacrifice token Gerrard.
5. Resolve token Gerrard's trigger to return real Gerrard to the battlefield.
6. Loop as necessary.
7. Add damage, mill, or mana and card draw to win.
Heat Shimmer and Twinflame
These spells will make a copy of Gerrard, but that isn't quite enough to make a loop. We will also need to flash in Dualcaster Mage and make a copy of the spells. If you sacrifice the Dualcaster Mage, then Gerrard will return it after the copied Heat Shimmer resolves, creating another Heat Shimmer. This leads to infinite loop, so to end it all you need to do is not sacrifice your Dualcaster Mage. A more simple and famous combo is Dualcaster Mage and Heat Shimmer to copy the Dualcaster Mage, then having the duplicate Heat Shimmer copy a Dualcaster, then repeating to make infinite Dualcaster Mages, then swinging out. It's a straight forward and powerful combo, but sometimes your creatures will be entering tapped or unable to attach due to enemy stax pieces and it's nice to have this variation to draw through your deck or deal direct damage when you need it.
Gerrard + Dualcaster Mage + Heat Shimmer/Twinflame + Sac Outlet = Infinite Gerrard Triggers
1. Cast Heat Shimmer/Twinflame targeting Gerrard.
2. Flash in Dualcaster Mage, copying Heat Shimmer/Twinflame targeting Gerrard again.
3. Sacrifice Dualcaster Mage.
4. Resolve the copied Heat Shimmer/Twinflame, then sacrifice the Gerrard token to the legend rule.
5. Resolve the Gerrard trigger to return Dualcaster Mage, copying Heat Shimmer/Twinflame targeting Gerrard again.
6. Loop as necessary.
7. Add damage, mill or mana and card draw to win.
Second Sunrise and Faith's Reward
There are two ways to do this combo. One involves using Dualcaster Mage to duplicate Second Sunrise then sacrificing Dualcaster Mage before the duplicate resolves, similar to the Heat Shimmer and Twinflame combo. Another way to do this combo is with Codex Shredder and a lot of mana. The short version is you sacrifice Codex Shredder to return Second Sunrise to your hand, then cast it to bring Codex Shredder back to do it again. The Dualcaster Mage method is much mana intensive than the Codex Shredder method, but I wanted to provide a sample that explains the power of versatility of Codex Shredder as well.
Codex Shredder + Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward + Sac Outlet + 8/9 Mana per loop = Infinite "Gerrard" Triggers
1. Sacrifice Eggs/Artifacts/Creatures to generate necessary mana.
2. Cast Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward to return sacrificed mana generation to the battlefield.
3. Activate Codex Shredder to return Second Sunrise/Faith's Reward to your hand.
4. Loop as necessary.
5. Add damage, mill, or card draw and mana to win.
Bomberman
This is a pretty famous and simple combo. It's simply Auriok Salvagers and Lion's Eye Diamond. Together they create infinite mana and recursions of any 1CMC artifact. Making any of these into an egg that draws means you will draw as much of your deck as you need, and if you have an egg that does damage it means you have infinite damage.
Auriok Salvagers + Lion's Eye Diamond = Infinite Mana
1. Sacrifice Lion's Eye Diamond.
2. Activated Auriok Salvagers to return Lion's Eye Diamond to your hand.
3. Recast Lion's Eye Diamond.
4. Loop as necessary.
5. Add damage or card draw to win.
Krark-Clan Ironworks
This is one of the most powerful artifacts ever made, and had taken over the Modern format for a while. There are so many "freestyle" combos with this card that it deserves its own primer. If you aren't familiar with KCI, TCGPlayer and Star City Games both have some great videos and articles about it. I'm just going to list a simple combo as an example.
Krark-Clan Ironworks + Myr Retriever + Scrap Trawler + Mox Opal + Chromatic Star = Infinite Draw
1. Tap Mox Opal for mana.
2. Activate Chromatic Star, sacrifice Mox Opal, Myr Retriever and KCI.
3. Myr Retriever's trigger returns KCI to your hand.
4. Scrap Trawler's triggers return everything else to your hand. Myr Retriever from KCI, Chromatic Star from Myr Retriever and Mox Opal from Chromatic Star.
5. Resolve Chromatic Star's triggered ability to draw a card.
6. Replay everything.
7. Loop as Necessary.
8. Add damage, mill, or mana to win.
Finishers
Every combo needs some way to actually win the game. Here is a list of the different pieces that can be assembled into a game winning formula.
Infinite Damage: Goblin Bombardment, Makeshift Munitions, Mogg Fanatic, Pyrite Spellbomb, Scorched Rusalka
Infinite Draw: Chromatic Sphere, Chromatic Star, Conjurer's Bauble, Ichor Wellspring, Implement of Combustion, Implement of Improvement, Memory Jar, Mind Stone, Pyrite Spellbomb, Sunbeam Spellbomb
Infinite Mill: Altar of Dementia, Codex Shredder
Infinite Mana: Ashnod's Altar, Dockside Extortionist, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, Priest of Urabrask, Skirk Prospector
Artifact Sac Outlets: Claws of Gix, Krark-Clan Ironworks, Krark-Clan Shaman, Makeshift Munitions
Creature Sac Outlets: Altar of Dementia, Ashnod's Altar, Claws of Gix, Goblin Bombardment, Makeshift Munitions, Scorched Rusalka
Other Cards
Looking for some feed back, just in case there are more efficient ways to do what I want or in case I missed something obvious. General game plan is to play your eggs to dig through your deck to assemble combo pieces. When you manage to assemble a combo that creatures infinite Gerrard triggers, you can often win by drawing your deck with only a few eggs to recur. I have a list of other options I considered at the bottom as well. I apologize for the poor formatting, first time using the site. I plan to work on this and keep it updated, maybe I'll learn to format better at some point and turn it into a real primer. Consider this a work in progress.
