Magic Standard Combo Deck: Flickering Hound and Trumpeting Carnosaur Loop, October 2026
A reported Magic: The Gathering Standard list pairs Flickering Hound with Trumpeting Carnosaur to loop discover and put most of its deck into play. According to the author, it won exactly 50% of its games.
A Magic: The Gathering Standard deck reportedly pairs Flickering Hound with Trumpeting Carnosaur to put almost its whole deck onto the battlefield. According to the author, the list won exactly 50% of its games, and it is rated medium competitive in best-of-one.
This is a community-reported list, not an official publisher product. Everything below comes from the author's own account.
Flickering Hound and Trumpeting Carnosaur combo explained
Whenever the player casts a creature spell, Flickering Hound lets them exile one of their creatures and bring it back onto the battlefield.
Trumpeting Carnosaur discovers 5 when it enters. The player reveals cards from the top of the library until a card with mana value five or less shows up, then casts it without paying its cost.
The loop runs because every discovered creature that gets cast triggers Flickering Hound, which blinks Trumpeting Carnosaur and discovers again. For that reason, the deck cannot contain any card that is neither a creature nor a land.
Decklist shape and payoff
The list is built around two numbers:
- 36 creatures
- 24 lands
Every creature except Trumpeting Carnosaur and Twinmaw Stormbrood costs 5 or less. Twinmaw Stormbrood is there as a removal spell through its omen mode.
When the combo works, around 28 creatures end up on the stack. All of them enter the battlefield once the deck has nothing left to discover.
Supporting cast: ramp, protection and finishers
Several creatures help assemble and defend the engine:
- Formidable Speaker tutors for Trumpeting Carnosaur or Flickering Hound.
- Llanowar Elves, Studious First-Year, Charming Scoundrel and Simulacrum Shaper ramp toward the combo pieces.
- Teyo, Lightshield Expert protects the combo pieces, while Emeritus of Abundance can return them from the graveyard.
Samut, Hazoret's Champion gives every creature haste, so the team can attack for the win right after the combo resolves.
Voice of Victory and Jennifer Walters keep the opponent from casting spells during the player's turn. That shields Samut from removal such as Requiting Hex.
Weaknesses and alternate lines
Flickering Hound is only a 2/2, so removal handles it easily. Without it, the author describes the deck as a weird Naya Midrange deck.
The author sometimes lets the combo fizzle deliberately to land several Flickering Hounds. From there, Charming Scoundrel can create many Treasures or give all creatures a Wicked Role, and Simulacrum Shaper can fetch all the basic lands.
What it means for players
- In best-of-one, the author rates the deck medium competitive.
- In best-of-three, the author calls it risky, because opponents can side in removal to kill Flickering Hound.
- Every non-land slot has to be a creature for the loop to function.
What is still unknown
The sources do not say how many games the 50% record covers, nor do they give a full decklist beyond the cards named above. No official source has commented on the list.
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