I Played 3 Rounds with ForceofPhil's Immortal Magician Combo

Sorcery: Contested Realm · by Hips_dont_lijah · April 30, 2026

ForceofPhil has written about his recent success with Immortal Magician Combo. I built the list and played it to a 1-2 finish across three rounds against [air] {Magician} (win), [air][water] {Necromancer} (loss), and mostly [earth] {Geomancer} (loss).

DECKLIST_START

Aura (1)

1 {Atlantean Fate} [5][water][water]

Artifacts (19)

1 {Amethyst Core} [1]
1 {Aquamarine Core} [1]
1 {Ruby Core} [1]
1 {Onyx Core} [1]
1 {Kythera Mechanism} [1]
1 {Ring of Morrigan} [1]
1 {Four Waters of Paradise} [2]
1 {Shrine of the Dragonlord} [2]
2 {Silver Bullet} [2]
4 {Wiccan Tools} [2]
3 {Sunken Treasure} [3]
1 {The Immortal Throne} [4]
1 {13 Treasures of Britain} [4]

Minion (8)

1 {Highland Princess} [2][air][air]
2 {Fey Changeling} [3][water]
1 {Lady of the Lake} [3][water][water][water]
1 {Morgana le Fey} [3][fire][fire][fire]
1 {Maiden, Mother, Crone} [5][water][water][water]
2 {Grandmaster Wizard} [6][air][air]

Magics (14)

1 {Browse} [1][air][air][air]
1 {Pendragon Legacy} [1][earth][earth]
1 {Plague of Frogs} [1][water][water][water]
1 {Occult Ritual} [2][air]
2 {Common Sense} [2][earth]
2 {Return to Nature} [2][water]
2 {Apply Alkahest} [4][air][water][fire][earth]
1 {Pact with the Devil} [4][fire][fire]
2 {Dhol Chants} [5][air][air]
1 {Chaoswish} [6][water][water][air][air]

Collection (10)

1 {Ferryman's Coin} [1]
1 {Dredge} [2][water]
1 {Exhume} [2][earth]
1 {Poisonous Dagger} [2]
1 {Fey Changeling} [3][water]
1 {Swap} [3][water][water]
1 {Frost Nova} [4][water][water]
1 {Raze} [4][fire][fire]
1 {Scavenging Fiend} [4][fire]
1 {Poison Nova} [5][fire]

DECKLIST_END

Takeaways

I need to play more Sorcery: Contested Realm (SCR). This was my first official event, so I was also unfamiliar with some cards and strategies. {Disenchant} or {Dispel} blew me out when I could have played differently.

For example, I should have given my Cores to submerged Frogs or moved my Magician when I didn't need to deploy a site. I don't think meta knowledge would have affected my mulligan decisions much, but I had no inkling whether an opposing avatar was likely to be minion-based aggro or not.

Pros

Magician is definitely my deckbuilding style. I come from Magic: The Gathering, which I still play frequently, so {Magician} feels like a natural progression into SCR. I played a casual event the prior Saturday, talking about how I would build Magician.

Simple things like playing all the Cores, since {Magician} can utilize them without 'giving up' a spell, made sense to me. Being extremely greedy with the generous mulligan rule SCR has is beneficial for {Magician}, which is why it felt like so few sites/mana sources could work.

I think combo can exist, but the tools for a turbo variant don't seem to exist yet, which is good, since everything is sorcery speed.

I really liked casting {Common Sense} to tutor for sites, which only {Magician} can access. I may expand the {Common Sense} package to include general removal.

Cons (or things I executed poorly)

I could not kill things to save my life, and it depended on it. In round two against {Necromancer}, I was constantly beaten down by Skeletons and {Ludbog Cat}. It didn't help me that I was effectively stone-rained by a couple of {Swap}s early on.

I had an opportunity to {Silver Bullet} {Poison Nova}, but they had a {Failed Mutation} that I couldn't get rid of, which put me to Death's Door the following turn.

In the third round against {Geomancer}, my {Atlantean Fate} was in hand since the beginning of the game, but every site with a minion on it was Ordinary, including my Tower.

The mini-combo of {Croaking Swamp} and {Sunken Treasure} is cute, but is a combo to draw two cards where card advantage is for SCR? It was difficult to mulligan for the combo and the early card advantage combo.

{Sunken Treasure} felt awful anytime I couldn't make a Frog token and/or after turn three. The Frogs had a higher floor as a mana source, a means to spread out where carriable artifacts were deployed, and a way to enable {Dhol Chants}.

I may see what other {Magician} options exist since the threshold restrictions are tight without {Wiccan Tools}.

The lynchpin for both combos is {Kythera Mechanism}, which is fine and makes some cards absurd. I had a game where {The Immortal Throne} was ticking up, and I couldn't see an avenue to get to the [7]-mana spell without access to {Chaoswish}.

I did not like {Silver Bullet} because of the tap restriction. Not sure what the power difference is for Collection targets, but I may look at a {Toolbox} or {Ersatz Platz} package.

I may have been able to squeeze a different outcome from round three against {Geomancer}, but I had spent my {Browse} for {Morgana le Fey} before they cast {King of the Realm}. I drew {Grandmaster Wizard} the turn after that, so it wasn't meant to be.

Submit Your Article To Eternal Durdles!

Hit the 'Submit Article' Button in the header!

Or message @ForceofPhil on Discord, Twitter, BlueSky, or Reddit.

Subscribe to Eternal Durdles on YouTube!

Subscribe to Common Sense: Sorcery podcast on YouTube!

Featured image: {13 Treaures of Britain} by Jeff A. Menges