Medomai the Ageless + Idris, Soul of the TARDIS + Karn's Bastion + Thran Forge

4-card combo · URW

Verdict

Yes — this 4-card loop chains infinite extra turns through Idris's vanishing upkeep and Karn's Bastion refueling the time counters each cycle.

Cards required

Cheapest stack total

$8.35

Color identity

URW

Popularity

0 decks

Format

Commander

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Thran Forge turns Medomai the Ageless into an artifact to enable future recursion, but the real engine is Idris, Soul of the TARDIS: when it enters the battlefield, it exiles Medomai, and its own combat damage trigger generates the extra turn that keeps the loop alive. Karn's Bastion replaces the time counter Idris loses each upkeep, preventing Idris from vanishing and keeping the chain unbroken. The combo demands an opponent cannot block, so it lives in evasion-heavy Jeskai shells — anything running Reconnaissance, Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive, or a Levitation effect.

How it works

Prerequisites

An opponent cannot block creatures you control.

Steps

Activate Thran Forge by paying , causing Medomai the Ageless to become an artifact until end of turn and get +1/+0 until end of turn.
Deal combat damage to an opponent using Medomai the Ageless.
Medomai the Ageless triggers, causing you to take an extra turn after this one.
Cast Idris by paying .
When Idris enters the battlefield, it triggers, exiling Medomai the Ageless until Idris leaves the battlefield.
Move to your extra turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, Idris's vanishing ability triggers, removing a time counter from it.
Activate Karn's Bastion's second ability by paying and tapping it, putting a time counter on Idris.
Deal combat damage to an opponent using Idris.
Idris triggers, causing you to take an extra turn after this one.
Repeat from step 6.

Result

Infinite turns; Lock

Cheaper, tighter, alternate lines

The blocking prerequisite is the combo's fragility — without evasion granted before combat, the loop stalls immediately on any chump blocker. Medomai the Ageless can be replaced as the extra-turn seedcard by any unblockable or evasive attacker that generates an extra turn on combat damage, but its interaction with Thran Forge and Idris is load-bearing, so swapping Medomai is effectively a different combo. Any win condition that closes on infinite turns works as a closer — Thassa's Oracle with an empty library drawn across infinite upkeeps is the cleanest.

Medomai the Ageless + Idris, Soul of the TARDIS + Karn's Bastion + Thran Forge

How it works

Cheaper, tighter, alternate lines

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