Chthonian Nightmare + Eternal Witness + Time Warp

3-card combo · BGU

Verdict

Yes — this 3-card loop locks the table out of the game with infinite extra turns in any Sultai shell that can assemble the pieces.

Cards required: 3
Cheapest stack total: $17.82
Color identity: BGU
Popularity: 28 decks
Format: Commander

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Chthonian Nightmare bounces itself and recurs Eternal Witness from the graveyard; Eternal Witness returns Time Warp to hand, and the extra turn restarts the loop from scratch. The energy cost resets each time Chthonian Nightmare re-enters, so the engine is self-sustaining as long as a creature with mana value 3 or less feeds the sacrifice each cycle — the initial nontoken requirement means the loop needs one sacrifice target already in play before the first Nightmare resolves.

Recipe

How it works

Prerequisites

You control a nontoken creature with mana value 3 or less.

Steps

Cast Time Warp by paying , causing you to take an extra turn after this one.
Move to your next turn.
Cast Chthonian Nightmare by paying .
When Chthonian Nightmare enters the battlefield, it triggers, causing you to get .
Activate Chthonian Nightmare by paying , sacrificing a creature with mana value 3 or less, and returning Chthonian Nightmare from the battlefield to your hand, returning Eternal Witness from your graveyard to the battlefield.
When Eternal Witness enters the battlefield, it triggers, returning Time Warp from your graveyard to your hand.
Cast Chthonian Nightmare by paying .
When Chthonian Nightmare enters the battlefield, it triggers, causing you to get .
Activate Chthonian Nightmare by paying at most , sacrificing Eternal Witness, and returning Chthonian Nightmare from the battlefield to your hand, returning a creature with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Repeat.

Result

Infinite turns; Lock

Variations

Cheaper, tighter, alternate lines

Any creature with mana value 3 or less that can recur itself or sit conveniently in the graveyard works as the sacrifice fodder — Wall of Blossoms or Elvish Visionary double as draw on the way in. Sultai commanders with built-in recursion access, like Muldrotha, the Gravetide or Lathril variants splashing blue, find Eternal Witness redundantly; the real bottleneck is assembling Chthonian Nightmare alongside Time Warp, so Mystical Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are the first includes.