Tired of the unstoppable tide of RED?

Want to make your opponent wish he was never born?

Look no futher than Dem Famished Bois.

This deck features one of, if not the, simplest infinite combo in standard. Catch your opponent off guard and then utterly destroy him in a single turn. Here, the combo is simple and only requires two set cards + one of three trigger cards.

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These are the cards that work together to, with a little help, start a controlled infinite combo.

Here's How:

Famished Paladin has the nifty ability that makes him untap whenever you gain life. However, He cant untap normally during your untap step. In order to allow him to untap he's going to need some upgrades.

The primary upgrade is the Sorcerer's Wand, this artifact equipment has a low cost of 1 colorless mana, yet an equip cost of 3.. Now in any other circumstance this would widely be considered a poor card. For us its just what we need.

It gives whatever creature its equipped to an ability: tap to have the equipped creature deal 1 damage to target player or planeswalker. Equipped to our starving Paladin gives him the ability to tap in order to do 1 point of direct damage.

Now you think, but sir, the paladin still cant untap on its own. Whats the point of losing a potentail blocker for just one "measely" point of damage. Well buckle in buckaroo cause this paladin is training for something far more impressive, all he needs is one of three spells. 

Yep, all we have to do is give this poor starving vampire the ability of Lifelink. With lifelink, every time you tap to do 1 "measely" point of damage to your opponent you also gain 1 "measely" life. I think we both no that means that Famished Paladin immediately untaps itself to repeat the process anew and kill that sorry, frustrated, helpless opponent. 

However its not so easy as 1, 2, 3 BAM! you win. You have to survive long enough to assemble the juggernaught. This means putting up a solid defense in the event the combo doesn't appear in your oppening hand. Keep in mind that there's only a 39% chance of having just one of the two set cards (Famished Paladin or Sorcerer's Wand), and a 23% chance of having both. On top of that the catalyst of the combo (any of the auras that give Famished Paladin lifelink) takes up a whole 13% of your decks space. This doesnt leave alot of room to defend yourself. 

Now there are several cards meant to protect your played pieces of the combo while you're waiting for the final spells. First, we have the Dauntless Bodyguard, When you have your Paladin its a good move to play his ability to temporarily give Famished Paladin indestructible in the event of a board wipe or removal spell. 

Second, we have Shalai, Voice of Plenty, this gives all other creatures (primarily Famished Paladin) and yourself, Hexproof. Now the only way your opponent can target is if they are able to remove Shalai from play. Now if you have a spare bodyguard its a solid plan to have him protect Shalai in order to buy you that one extra turn.

Furthermore, if you are having trouble finding the Paladin you can rely on the Forerunner of the Legion. When our Forerunner hits the field we can search our library and reveal that sneaky Paladin and put him right on top ready for next turn. On top of this whenever a vampire enters the field under our control the Forerunner can buff one of our guys by +1/+1.

Now that our Paladin has some safeguards doesnt mean we're out of the clear. We need to be able to block some damage and hold our ground so we live long enough to end the enemy. I recommend running an emergency Settle the Wreckage in case you're getting overrun and need an out. Other good cards to run are Revitalize which gives you both a cheap draw for pulling the combo, as well as 3 extra life. Getting early life can be the difference between pulling of the Hail Mary... or getting sent down in flames.

As far as creatures go, you want to either be able to hit hard first, or last through any brutes headed your way. For this I like Benalish Marshal and Knight of Grace. They're both low CMC (so you have mana to put the combo together), Marshal buffs all your other creatures by +1/+1, and the Knight has first strike, allowing that buff to go to use in dealing with possible attackers. On top of that Knight of Grace has Hexproof from black (very useful in the control meta) and gets +1/+0 so long as you're opponent has a black permanent (boosting its quick kills even further). One more thing you can do to slow down your opponent is to throw in Tithe Taker, in order to make it more expensive for our opponent to react to our shenanigas.

Now your only worry is piecing together the combo so here are some tips I've learned from my experiences.

Everything in deck fits on a curve of 4 (the majority is at 2) so dont be afraid of running 20-22 lands. The cost of prepping the combo can be done within 4 turns if you have the combo in your starting hand (I've had this happen 4 times during a 25 game trial). The order is simple:

Sorcerer's Wand¹ -> Famished Paladin² -> Equip Wand³ -> Sentinel's Mark/Squire's Devotion⁴ = GG

This can be pulled achieved so long you have these cards + 3 lands in your opening hand, however it leaves you open and with no mana or defenses to respond to threats. So think carefully and victory can be yours.

Have Fun!

-MagnificentMojo