Whether Najeela plus Derevi is genuinely a two-card infinite
The combo data reports Najeela, the Blade-Blossom plus Derevi, Empyrial Tactician as a two-card infinite and uses it as a driver for this deck's bracket 4 floor. This line was resolved step by step against the Comprehensive Rules and re-audited across three checker passes, and the verdict on that claim is partially accurate - which is worth more to you at the table than a yes would have been.
The loop is real. It is deterministic, it is unbounded, and it kills the table. What it is not is self-contained: Najeela and Derevi produce no mana between them, and mana pools empty at every step change, so each iteration's {W}{U}{B}{R}{G} has to be made again from scratch. The arithmetic that decides whether you can do that is the arithmetic of attackers. Untapping the attackers and adding a combat phase means the next combat declares everything again, and every attacker except Derevi is a Warrior who makes one more token, so attackers follow A' = 2A - 1: three, five, nine, seventeen, thirty-three. Derevi's triggers equal the number of creatures connecting, while Najeela's cost stays fixed at five. Combat 1 therefore yields only three triggers and must be pre-funded from your untapped lands; combat 2 breaks exactly even at five; combat 3 runs away with nine. Damage per combat is A + 3 - six, eight, twelve, twenty - so the first defending player dies during combat 4.
The other correction is worth money. The loop's life cost is 0, not 2. Command Tower covers {B} through Sisay's five-colour identity, and Plaza of Heroes' third mode covers W, U, R and G off the colours Najeela and Derevi already put on the battlefield - five taps needing only three Plaza untaps, which combat 1's three Derevi triggers supply exactly. City of Brass and Mana Confluence never have to be tapped at all, because activating a mana ability is never mandatory. The two life per combat you will see quoted is the price of the naive line that taps all five lands; it is not a floor. Practically: both halves are mana value 3, so both come off a Sisay at power 4 - two colours among your other legends - and Derevi is a three-colour card who gets you most of the way there by herself.
You attack with Najeela and Derevi. (a) In the first combat, how many Warriors are declared as attackers, and how many Najeela triggers result? Do the tokens Najeela creates, which enter tapped and attacking, themselves trigger Najeela? (b) How many separate Derevi untap triggers do you get from first-combat damage, and can they untap enough lands to pay Najeela's {W}{U}{B}{R}{G} a second time? (c) Track the number of attacking creatures and the number of Derevi triggers through the second and third combats. Does the loop become self-sustaining, and if so on which combat? (d) Is the claim that these two cards alone form an infinite combo accurate, or does the loop depend on resources outside those two cards? State precisely what is required.
Result. Najeela + Derevi is a genuine, deterministic, unbounded combat loop, but not a self-contained two-card infinite: it needs a mana base that can produce {W}{U}{B}{R}{G} every combat and at least five creatures connecting with a player. Combat 1: 2 attackers declared, 1 Warrior declared, 1 Najeela trigger, 1 token (tokens put onto the battlefield attacking never 'attacked', so they never re-trigger Najeela in the combat that made them); 3 attackers, 6 damage, 3 Derevi triggers -- 2 short of the 5-mana activation, which is instead paid by the 5 pre-combat untapped lands. Combat 2: 3 declared, 2 Warriors, 2 new tokens, 5 attackers, 8 damage, 5 Derevi triggers = exactly the 5-mana cost -> BREAK-EVEN; the loop becomes self-sustaining on combat 2, via tap -> pass priority -> Derevi untap resolves -> retap inside one damage step. Combat 3: 5 declared, 4 Warriors, 4 new tokens, 9 attackers, 12 damage, 9 triggers -> surplus of 4; runaway from here. Attackers follow A' = 2A - 1 (3, 5, 9, 17, 33 ...) and Derevi triggers equal attacker count, while the cost stays fixed at 5, so the margin only widens. Damage per combat = A + 3 (6, 8, 12, 20, 36 ...): opponent A dies as a state-based action during combat 4's damage step, and because a defending player leaving the game is not one of CR 506.4's removal causes the 17 attackers stay in combat, so that combat's Najeela activation still untaps them and adds combat 5. Each added combat phase has its own beginning of combat and declare attackers step, and Commander's default attack multiple players option makes every opponent a defending player, so the army is legally redirected at opponent B: 17 creatures declared in combat 5, 16 Warrior triggers, 33 attacking for 36, and 68 in combat 6, which kills them. The loop's life cost is 0 per combat at the floor — Command Tower plus Plaza of Heroes cover all five colours with three Plaza untaps, so City of Brass and Mana Confluence never need to be tapped.
Full dossier: Judge's Desk, Case A-002 → ✓ RULES-VERIFIED cleared in 3 review cycle(s)