Chthonian Nightmare + Eternal Witness + Walk the Aeons

3-card combo · BGU

Verdict

Yes — this 3-card loop locks the table out of the game with infinite extra turns in a Sultai shell.

Cards required: 3
Cheapest stack total: $7.70
Color identity: BGU
Popularity: 7 decks
Format: Commander

Buy required cards on TCGplayer

Chthonian Nightmare's energy-fueled sacrifice engine returns Eternal Witness to the battlefield each loop; Eternal Witness then recovers Walk the Aeons from the graveyard so it can be recast the following turn. The cost is real — Walk the Aeons requires 4UU every iteration — but any Sultai commander that generates mana surplus and a small creature to seed the first sacrifice closes the game on the spot.

Recipe

How it works

Prerequisites

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

Steps

Cast Walk the Aeons 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 Walk the Aeons 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

Regrowth and Noxious Revival can substitute as one-off Walk the Aeons recovery if Eternal Witness is unavailable, but neither loops without a second recursion piece. The combo requires a nontoken creature with mana value 3 or less entering the first activation; Ornithopter or any free or cheap artifact creature minimizes the prerequisite cost. Bird of Paradise and similar mana creatures already in the 99 serve double duty as both ramp and sacrifice fodder.