The Best Combo Decks in Premodern

Replenish

Replenish is one of the best decks in Premodern. It revolves around its namesake card, Replenish, to build an unbeatable board of enchantments, with the core combo being Opalescence + Parallax Wave. This way, Parallax Wave is not only a 4/4 creature, but also a way to repeatedly wrath the board by holding priority with its trigger and exiling itself last.

Opalescence is also a strong backup plan, turning your setup enchantments (such as Seal of Cleansing or Attunement) into creatures. The deck also plays a few protection spells, such as Mana Leak and Swords to Plowshares, to make sure it doesn't die in the early game.
Post-sideboard, the deck transforms into more of an UW Tempo deck, replacing some of its combo pieces and interaction with Exalted Angel and Meddling Mage to punish opponents who board in graveyard hate and enchantment removal.

Replenish is a very difficult deck to attack because it has multiple angles of attack, so the best way to beat it is to end the game before Replenish ever resolves. Mono-Red Sligh is probably the best strategy if your goal is to have a favorable matchup against it.
Control decks (check out my latest article on the topic if you want to know more) can also often have the upper hand, since you usually only need to counter eight spells, four Replenish and four Opalescence, to win the game. Post-sideboard, things become trickier because Orim's Chant is a common inclusion. Even then, Control decks can rely on cards like Tormod's Crypt or Cleansing Meditation to stay safe against a big Replenish turn.

Iggy Pop

The name of this deck is a pun based on the card Ill-Gotten Gains, or IGG.
This is the most skill-intensive and rewarding combo deck in the format, and one of the trickiest combo decks I've ever seen in Constructed Magic. That's mostly because cards like Ad Nauseam and Tendrils of Agony aren't legal in Premodern, so you need to get creative to win with a "pure Storm" deck.

The game plan is quite simple: Intuition is your key card, tutoring for three copies of Ill-Gotten Gains (or "Iggy"), which eventually lets you loop Rituals, Lion's Eye Diamond, and additional copies of Ill-Gotten Gains. Eventually, you'll build enough storm to cast Brain Freeze and win the game.
Premodern is full of graveyard hate, countermagic, and discard spells, and after sideboard many decks can also play Gaea's Blessing. You can often beat those cards, but sequencing is the hardest part, and even experienced players don't always see the best line. I personally follow Desolutionist on Twitch, who is probably the best Iggy player around. He regularly streams the Challenges and consistently puts up impressive results.

Beating Iggy is mostly a matter of applying pressure while disrupting its game plan. Decks like Mono-Black Moneyball can be favored thanks to the Withered Wretch plus Duress package, while Burn and Goblins can simply mulligan to a fast, aggressive hand, since the Storm deck has virtually no interaction. Cards like Pillar of Flame are also very impactful, as the deck can't execute its game plan without answering them.
I always feel like Iggy can steal games from incredibly difficult positions. The real skill lies in having a solid plan, recognizing the correct lines, and maximizing your chances while minimizing the impact of your opponent's hate cards.

HFEB (or Hermit Full English Breakfast)

Hermit Full English Breakfast is a combo deck built around Hermit Druid. Once you activate Hermit's ability, you mill your entire library because the deck plays no basic lands. From there, you can stack your graveyard to assemble one of two different kills.

The first involves Volrath's Shapeshifter, which turns into Psychatog and then Akroma to deal lethal damage. The second requires Volrath's Shapeshifter on the battlefield alongside Survival of the Fittest (or four mana plus both Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion in hand). Shapeshifter becomes Phyrexian Devourer, allowing you to stack enough counters before transforming into Triskelion and shooting your opponent for lethal.

Even though the combo sounds incredibly convoluted, the deck is actually very consistent and can win as early as turn two, since it only needs a few specific cards to get going. Survival of the Fittest is the best card in the deck, as it lets you pivot between different combo lines and adapt your game plan depending on the situation. On top of that, once you have Volrath's Shapeshifter in play with two green mana available, it's very difficult for your opponent to interact, since you can execute the combo in response to almost anything.
The rest of the deck is dedicated to making the combo as consistent as possible, with discard spells like Cabal Therapy and reanimation spells such as Unearth and Animate Dead. One of the deck's biggest strengths is that many of its cards can function as either combo pieces or value cards, making it one of the strongest combo decks in the format.

The deck does have a few weaknesses. The mana base is quite painful, since it relies on multiple pain lands and City of Brass to support all of its colors. It also depends heavily on both the graveyard and creatures staying on the battlefield, which makes it vulnerable to decks like Mono-Red Sligh and Mono-Black Moneyball. Before sideboarding, countermagic can also be a real problem, and even after sideboard the matchup isn't always easy. Still, thanks to its speed, consistency, and the incredible value provided by Survival of the Fittest, I'd be more than happy to register HFEB for any competitive tournament.

Aluren

Aluren is one of the most interesting decks in Premodern. The combo has existed in many different versions over the years, but more recently Sam Black refined the archetype, winning a major tournament in the US and effectively creating the new stock list.
Aluren is now a stack-based creature combo deck. Once you have Aluren in play, you cast Cavern Harpy and Raven Familiar. This lets you look at the top three cards of your library as many times as you want, paying one life for each iteration. Once you find Soul Warden and Man-o'-War, you gain infinite life. Against decks that can still beat infinite life, you can use Rishadan Cutpurse to repeatedly reset your opponent's board.

The rest of the deck consists of lands that produce two mana, card selection spells such as Intuition, Flash of Insight, and Impulse, and Chain of Vapor, which serves both as removal and as a way to reset one of your own creatures if you're short on action.
The game plan is straightforward: assemble the combo as quickly as possible. The deck is capable of winning as early as turn two with the right draw, for example a land that produces two green mana, an Island, and Cloud of Faeries. That's the biggest difference from older versions of the deck, which relied more heavily on Survival of the Fittest and played a larger number of one-ofs.
The deck tends to perform well against aggressive and non-interactive strategies such as Goblins, Burn, Elves, and Enchantress. Post-sideboard, the blue matchups also become favorable thanks to four copies of Xantid Swarm, which is a nightmare for Stiflenought and UW Control, as well as multiple copies of Show and Tell to help resolve Aluren through cards like Annul.

The biggest enemy is Mono Black. The deck is very vulnerable to discard spells, and black decks can often safely name Aluren with Cabal Therapy. That said, you can improve the matchup by sideboarding cards like Masticore and Compost.
Another weakness is the combo mirror. Aluren is generally a little slower than the other combo decks in the format, while also being more vulnerable to interaction and having very few ways to disrupt the opponent. Decks like Iggy Pop with four Duress, or a turn one Hermit Druid from HFEB, are definitely not the matchups you're hoping to face.

Conclusion

Here are just some of the many combo decks in Premodern, as my picks for the best decks in the archetype. I also like that all of these decks are very diverse and can win the game in different ways, requiring both a wide range of piloting skills and specific types of hate. I’m curious to hear what you think, and whether you have a favourite combo deck in the format, or if you’re working on something spicy for the upcoming tournaments in this incredible format.