Battle of wits definitely deserved an honorable mention. The bane of tournament organizers everywhere with people bringing 250 card decks to try and win with it.
On MTGO, people actually play and win with it. Even if the game's having a hard time with 250 cards, not having to shuffle makes the deck much more playable... and it's just packed with good stuff.
The card that forced so many players to up their shuffling game. For a smaller handed individual like myself there could be no wasted time trying to shuffle a 250 card deck in 3 minutes and if you messed up there was hell to pay.
Hellkite tyrant is awesome because it's a dragon that's takes treasure then greedily guards it and if it gets enough treasure it just wins. That's some good lore
MTG is actually really, really good at making super flavorful cards using card game mechanics. Way more than any other card game that I know of. Liliana's Contract is another great one on this video. For anyone unfamiliar with MTG story, Liliana made a contract with four demons to gain power and remain youthful forever, which the card represents by the drawing 4 cards and needing to control 4 demons.
@@RikiazGaming Yugioh telling stories though whole archetype mechanics and Pokemon through types do it way more than Magic self contained cards. They are literally based in mangas, animes and video games.
ah yes, Triskaidekaphobia. such a unique flavored card. for the people who dont know: Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. and now look at the art of the card.... --- 13 tools on the wall 13 screws in the barrel 13 glas shards on the ground 13 logs in the fire place 13......... you get the point...
@@hanahomemadepizza1424 Answering the question you asked 13 days ago: I counted nine. Or 13, if you also count the 13s in the rules text and that each choice consists of exactly 13 non-number words in the original English rules text. Additionally to the mentioned ones, there are 13 wooden panels in the ceiling and 13 wooden panels visible in the outer walls. The oven front is made of 13 smaller stones in the arc and 13 larger ones around (not counting the side). On the wall, there are 13 blood droplets.
Thassa's Oracle's effect is also an enter the battlefield trigger, meaning that unlike Jace or Laboratory Maniac the opponent can't just hold up a removal spell to instantly blow you out.
@@DanTheManCalter No, like a "destroy target creature or planeswalker" effect like hero's downfall. Jace and Laboratory Maniac both use replacement effects that still require you to still draw a card, so even if you immediately activated a draw effect (like Jace's +1), the opponent would be able to destroy the Jace/Lab Maniac with downfall in response, such that when the draw effect resolves, Jace/Lab Maniac is not on the field, meaning that their replacement effect will not occur and you will lose for drawing with no cards in deck as normal. In Thassa's Oracle's case, its ETB effect will go on the stack, and on resolution it will check if you have no cards in deck, then win you the game if you do, even if the opponent destroyed the Oracle with a hero's downfall while the ETB effect was on the stack.
@@DanTheManCalter A counterspell would stop Thassa's Oracle yeah. But only blue gets counterspells, and they only work right before a spell is played. When I say removal, I'm referring to kill spells like fatal push. It doesn't matter if you kill Thassa's Oracle because the ETB trigger will still be on the stack whether or not the creature is still alive.
Fun fact: The incredibly powerful spell Time Walk was an alternative win condition for a brief period of the game's history. For those who don't know, Time Walk is a spell that for two mana says "Take an extra turn after this one." When the first set of magic was being designed Time Walk had a different line of text: "Target player loses next turn." When the card was shown to the original playtesters of Magic, they didn't understand what the card did; they thought it meant that after casting the spell, their opponent only had one turn left before they'd lose! Seeing this confusion, Richard Garfield the creator of Magic changed the wording of the card to a more accurate description of its actual effect.
Yeah, a playtester came up to Garfield and said "every time I resolve this spell, my opponent loses next turn!" Garfield looked at the card and then fixed it to take an extra turn after this one in modern wording, not sure how the wording would have been on the playtest card back then. I think when it said target player loses next turn it was a red card that costed just RR too.
Pairing Hellkite Tyrant (steals all the opponents artifacts) with Mycosynth Lattice (turns everything on the field into artifacts) can be a devastating combo, as a single successful hit with Hellkite steals your opponent's entire board--plus, with Lattice up, the wincon basically just becomes "control at least 20 things" which is far less taxing, especially with that control ability.
@@danielgreenwood793 Magda does this perfectly with Clock of Omens and Liquimetal Torque/Liquimetal Plating, as you get infinite treasures and can use them to search the Hellkite Tyrant to the battlefield.
Even just using the Tyrant to steal mana rocks can be really annoying and set players back a lot. Plus, if you have an artifact-heavy playgroup, the Tyrant can be a terrifying threat. Few things represent a bigger threat than an opponent with a Tyrant against one of my artifact (like Rebbec/Glacian or Osigir) or voltron decks (like Gwyn).
Honorable mentions should definitely go to a few cards. Battle of Wits for all the goofs that'd bring giant 250+ card decks to get meme wins Epic Struggle for Selesnya Tokens, Elves or other spawn decks to have another win condition that isn't "attack with 900 creatures" Helix Pinnacle for giving ramp decks another win condition that isn't "attack with giants" Mortal Combat... because when you play it, it's law that you have to scream "Mortal Kombat!" and then play the theme music Really though... Revel in Riches should have been on this list. Even if nobody cared to win with it, getting Treasure Tokens for killing your opponent's creatures was really good since that's what black decks tend to do anyway.
Totally Revel in riches, I love that it makes treasures so easily in multiplayer games and I almost wish it didn't have the win clause because it gets removed even if I just want to use it for value, but 10 treasure pile up so quickly.
Gates got a pretty nice buff recently. with the Baldur's Gate Commander set adding a bunch of new ones, including one that makes your gates come in untapped.
I won a box when that set was released, in standard made a fog gate land deck, I Rember having 4 different fog effects and I think elixir and blur draws to recycle and see more fogs
Hellkite Tyrant is very useful with artifact generation commander decks. Treasures, Clues and Food can often be made quickly. Academy Manufactor is a 3xmultiplier, Blood Money is a board wipe that gives you a ton of treasure, Doubling Season is a 2x modifier... Ancient Copper Dragon can make you up to 20 at once. Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, and other instants can be done at the end of your opponent's turn. Enchantments like Revel in Riches, Smothering Tithe, Fae Offering and Monologue Tax can net you a lot of treasures off your turn. I'm not saying Hellkite Tyrant is broken or impossible to counter, but it is a little easier to win with than it sounds.
Can I just say, I really appreciate that you both A.) Clearly and carefully explain the text of the card shown on screen and B.) Have captions for your additional commentary. Your videos are just hugely accessible and I really appreciate it
Felidar Sovereign is my favourite by far. I've used it since pretty much I've been playing MtG, and back in those days mythics were kind of difficult to come by in these parts (so long ago that Felidar Sovereign was mythic), so casual decks were a lot slower and the 40 life win was quite possible. Nowadays, thanks to online tabletops, we have access to all the cards we want, and I have a white cat/lifelink deck built around this one. My number two favourite is Jace, Wielder of Mysteries (and his little brother, Laboratory Maniac), combined with Flow of Ideas and all manner of self-milling. Third place goes to Revel in Riches, combined with Grave Pact and Pitiless Plunderer. I don't do tournaments, so I don't really care if my decks are not "optimized," as long as they're fun and have a high enough trolling factor.
I feel like Nicol Bolas shouldn't be on this list, as his win the game ability often isn't the reason you win the game, or even a consideration when playing him. Some alternatives include: Battle of Wits has been mentioned by others as an alternate win condition that does show up in tournaments every once in a while, especially online ones. Revel in Riches would be another excellent choice for the list, as it is fairly easy to accomplish in commander, with the high amount of board wipes that get played. Mechanized Production is fantastic with artifact tokens (treasures mainly). It just needs to be enchanting any artifact you control, and you can win off of making 8 treasures. Hellkite Tyrant is much better than you described, since treasures have become prominent, and even has a commander that makes getting it easy (even easier than Scion of the Ur-Dragon). With Magda, Brazen Outlaw, Liquimetal Torque or Liquimetal Plating, and Clock of Omens, you get infinite tapped treasures, and can sacrifice five of them to search for Hellkite Tyrant to put it onto the battlefield.
Hellkite Tyrant is excellent when paired with Academy Manufacturer, Mechanized Production, and Bloodforged Battleaxe. You can keep creating tokens that are copies of Bloodforged Battleaxe, attach those copies to creatures you control to get more copies when they deal Combat damage to a player, and throw in a few cards that create treasure tokens, clue tokens, and food tokens to push you over the finish line. Add in Sculpting Steel and Replicating Ring and it’ll get even more wild.
Not a "instant win" card but a card that is hilarious if you can pull it off is divine intervention. It's an 8 mana enchantment that causes a draw, and I believe is the only card that can reliably cause a draw. I used to have a commander deck who's sole purpose was to get that card to go off and it did very consistently.
There is no other single card that ends the game in a draw, but there are a few good two-card combinations that achieve the same thing. E.g. Stuffy Doll, naming yourself, then enchanting it with Pariah. The next time you or the Doll get damaged, the game ends in an infinite damage redirection loop. Or turning Caged Sun into a Land that can tap for a color you chose for that Caged Sun. It has a triggered mana ability that will trigger on itself ad infinitum. Because it doesn’t use the stack, no player will receive priority to stop it again.
Back in college I had a friend with a "Goodstuff" GBW control deck that only "won" with Divine Intervention. It was a board wiping control deck that never tried to win. It was frustrating to draw against.
It’s really odd not to put Battle of Wits on here, which has honestly seen more competitive play than most of the cards on this list, even as just a meme deck.
Gotta point out that Battle of Wits has top8’d a GP, and many of these “best” alt win conditions have never done as much! Love the videos :) The GP was 21 years ago though
There are a couple of reasons why oracle is a better win condition over lab maniac or jace. It's a triggered ability and not a static ability, allowing it to function without remaining on the field. It's also the only one that doesn't require drawing a card on top of having an empty deck, making it so you don't have to use an extra card to draw or wait for your next draw step.
Hellkite Tyrant is one of the more likely win conditions for my Dwarves & Dragons build. With Magda, Brazen Outlaw as the commander, you’re producing a ton of tokens on your own and you’re drawing artifacts and dragons rapidly. Pair Hellkite Tyrant with something like Ancient Copper Dragon (where you’re rolling a D20 and gaining that many tokens when you hit a player) and Academy Manufacturer (where one token becomes three), and you end up with tons of tokens quickly. Don’t forget that Treasure Tokens, etc are artifacts too!
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God starts to see play in Pioneer Mono Green because you can cast it with mana of any color using Oath of Nissa or cheat it into play using Storm the Festival. It was less of a win condition and more of a disruption piece.
Triskaidekophile is one of my favorite ways to win and it’s pretty easy to do it. Protect it with counter spells and run a few copies of sea gate restoration and you can win pretty easily!
Triskaidekaphobia has a soft spot for me because a coworker I found out that played had a bunch of decks one with this exact combo. He let me try it out and won without the combo but just by saying we both lose a life. He didn't realize by the time it got back to my upkeep I knocked him to 13.
Approach of the Second Sun is my favorite alternate wincon. I have it in Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign because Yennett's ability often allows me to cast the first Approach for free, as well as Sevinne, the Chronoclasm, which has enough instant/sorcery cost reducers to often make Approach cost significantly less than seven mana.
I think you forgot one of the greatest win conditions on flavor alone. Sure, winning via Thasa's Oracle or Nicol Bolas is fine, but true MTG chads know that the only win condition you'll ever need to be a true master of magic is "The Cheese Stands Alone"
My main deck on MTGA is an explorer-legal Omniscience reanimation deck (with Repair and Recharge), using Approach as the wincon (via Mastermind's Acquisition getting my copy out of the sideboard so it doesn't clunk up the mainboard). It's just really solid on MTGA. If it were offline and I could actually demonstrate and use repeatable loops, I'd use something that's useful in more situations, but due to the contraints of their program having a straight up "I win" card is a great finisher for an infinite mana style combo deck.
I have a Thassa’s Oracle and an Approach win cons in my commander decks and it's so fun to win out of nowhere when your table is expecting one or the other. Also have the Moth/counters combo.
Made a WUBRG deck in Commander that uses all versions of Bolas and Dragon God has always been the win-condition with how often I set up his arrival. Everything pretty much falls into place once I get all 5 man colors. Fun Planeswalker :3
I played Dragon-God in a Grixis Chandra deck during core 20 standard. He was somewhat deceptive, since he'd draw attention, then the Chandra, Bold Pyromancer that nobody watched would clap you for 20 out of nowhere with Chandra's regulator. I also ran Chandra, Acolyte of Flame to give all red (he has red) walkers free loyalty counters
Maze end mixes well with Turbo fog oriented play. Add some draw speed to turbo fog, and cards that allow extra lands to be played on same turn, get multiple of each dual color gates in deck. Fog-Effect style cards are cheap, tapped land isn't going to bother you much unless you are in a hurry. Key... Don't hurry, Use fog cards. "Maze-End-Turbo-fog" can be pulled off with ZERO Creatures if you throw in a splash of control. You'll have five colors, Use them to your advantage. Use green for Fogs and land search, Use white for fogs and life, Use blue for denial and draw speed, use black to remove threats, and seek specific cards, Use red to burn away smaller threats (with perhaps some "X"-Burn to Face cards for opponent if you cant seem to find Maze, before long). Use cheap to cast card options only, nothing above say 3-Cost (keeping most cards at 1-2), the only cards that should be more expensive would be some good land search/play from green, and the X-Burn coming from red.
Thassa's Oracle is quite infuriating in Commander. It doesn't matter it you got 99 cards. See it played, it's pretty much an instant win right there. The deck would be made in a similar approach as other formats. It's salt inducing enough that there's those who want it banned in Commander.
It should be banned for the same reason as Coalition Victory: "If your opponent doesn't know you have it and doesn't have a turn to respond to you playing it, then it ends the game too fast and needs to be banned."
@@vDeadbolt Kinda hard to rule 0 some stuff because you don't exactly want to give away the fact that you're ramping to play an "I win" button as opposed to ramping to play a big creature.
Maze's End in Commander benefited greately from Baldur's Gate set, since we got Gond Gate there. It's a Gate that can give you mana of any color that a Gate you control could give, ETBs untapped and, most importantly, makes all other Gates also ETB untapped. Since it's fetchable with all the cards that could fetch you any Gate, it basically becomes the first one you'd usually get, and then Gates would stop entering tapped. It's also funny that Laboratory Maniac, the proto-Oracle, wasn't even mentioned in either of the videos. So it's neither good OR bad alternate win condition by today's standards.
Tip on #8: If you run Maze's End, also run Reshape the Earth. That way, if you play one of the 11 lands needed for the wincon before you cast Reshape the Earth, then casting Reshape the Earth effectively means you win! Also, Gond Gate is very deece, as it makes guildgates etb untapped like stripe duals lol
There was a pact combo in modern at the birth of summer bloom which had an enchartment that forced your opponent to cast a copy of each of you spells so u just played a pact which wasn't in their colours and auto won. Surprised pacts weren't on here in general but especially considering this combo
As a person who played a control spirits deck in standard until the very recent rotation (still might depending on how it shapes up), Faithbound Judge does very well against other control decks if you're playing with it in mind. It forces your opponent to keep mana open and to save a counterspell if they aren't winning soon and they haven't yet drawn enchantment removal. That being said, the power level of where I play standard is somewhat low, with no one playing the top top tier decks, and against those who are playing higher tier decks, its main threat is actually as an attacker after stalling for time, especially after disturbing Twinblade Geist onto it, giving it double strike. I am also a person who doesn't buy cards, which is why the more convenient and powerful options aren't available to me.
In War of the Spark standard I played a 4 color Bolas superfriends deck that could easily win off his Ult. I didn't see a lot of other people playing it, but it was the only deck I ever made it to Mythic in Arena with.
Special mention for the Amulet of Quoz from back in Ice Age. A largely forgotten card that was from back when Magic still incorporated the ante mechanic, but it does hold the distinction of begin the first alternative win condition card in the history of Magic.
It's fun how many mtg youtuber are like "I am excluding Commander" while commander is the most played Magic format, and almost singlehandedly keeping mtg alive...
I had a deck in Arena with Nine lives and the key was to switch it to the enemy, either had an combo to destroy it then or had a lot of damage sources to make the counters on it
I play a deck in historic ranked on Arena that has no creatures and is built specifically to stall and board wipe until I can use Approach of the Second Sun to win the game. It's actually fairly consistent, unless my opponent is running a lot of artifact and enchantment removal or counterspells.
hellkite tyrant has an alternate, alternate win condition. play Mycosynth Lattice, hit opponent with tyrant, steal their entire field (including land), opponent scoops as if done right you now have a +6 mana advantage, a 6/5 flying beat stick and anything they play will just push you towards triggering win condition if you don't kill them first
Nicol Bolas was in a Standart format with fires of invention making it insanely easy to be cast and the elderspell, that was in some situations able to give it enough loyalty by targeting your own planeswakers. The deck was not incredibly good, bit really fun to play
I'm surprised that Angel of Destiny isn't in here. In a lifelink deck, she's fairly easy to win with, and because she's not legendary, you can put more than one of her out (in case you opponent takes one out). Flying and double-strike make her more threatening.
I was looking through the comments to see whether someone mentioned Angel of Destiny or not. My favorite card. Now the meta changed, I don't have a proper deck and miss Angel of Destiny
Maze's End was a great deck in Block Constructed (RIP) and Standard (also RIP), because you could run a blue-white control deck with worse mana that would automatically win against other blue white control decks (there was no relevant land destruction in RTR).
Surprised that Poison didn't come up in either of these videos, easily my least favorite alternative win condition. ("Players with 10 poison counters lose", a mechanic that you have to specifically focus on countering, deals permanent debuffs to creatures, and bypasses the life system.)
Mill wins are so good lab and Jace should have just been second and third. Also spending 7 mana on two separate turns with your opponent having time to prepare isn’t that good.
Approach saw play in Standard when it released and still sees play in Commander, including in CEDH decks. Yeah 7 mana is a lot, but in slow, grindy control decks it can be done, and the card is very consistent as it doesn't require any other combos or cards to win with, just itself. Its the go to win condition of Narset decks, which can easily rip it off the top of the library and cast it for free.
@@setharoth114 Rainbow Lich even played it sometimes, as you immediately drew the card again, as the lifegain caused you to draw cards with Lich's Mastery.
@@setharoth114 It's a pretty common finisher in combo decks running white in commander right now for sure. New guy from the DND set, Elminster loves it too.
It's way better than most alt win cards by far. Could be #1 if doomsday didn't exist to abuse oracle. Gaining 7 life is a lot of life to get you to the next casting of the card in a few turns assuming you're in blue to have card draw to shorten the clock for casting it again. It also is ridiculous when you draw multiple's because you can just cast them on back to back turns with the 7 life being a great cushion to stop dying before you win.
I'm shocked Simic Ascendancy didn't make it on this list. +1/+1s are really easy to spam out, and there are multiple enchantments that increase the amounts assigned. Heck, you can win off this with just Hydra's Growth.
Test of Endurance is better than Sovereign actually, yeah it requires 10 more life but it's 4 mana instead of 6 and it's on an enchantment which is the second hardest permanent type to deal with so it's more likely to stick around until your upkeep to win you the game when you get 50+ life. In the grand scheme of things, both requires to be in dedicated life gain decks and the difference of 10 life in a dedicated life gain deck is actually nothing. The only thing that Sovereign has is that you technically meet the conditions automatically in commander but at 6 mana you'd probably had already lost some life before you brought it out (unless you're a dedicated life gain deck) and it's a creature which is the easiest kind of permanent to deal with.
I think Thoracles mana value is only a small part of why it’s so much better than Lab Man or Jace. Both of those cards require you to draw a card to win with an empty library but Thassa’s Oracle wins as soon as it enters the battlefield.
revel in riches is pretty good with ancient copper dragon because it generates its own treasures on top of its win con and you can get up to 20 treasures in one turn
I was waiting for Dragon God to show up. I got a Bolas deck that is just so much fucking fun. I tend to fish it out of my library, play it, and use the ultimate in the same turn. The deck is also almost 100% war of the spark cards. It's super damn fun to play, and annoying as hell to play against. (eit: Approach of the Second Sun is also in the bolas deck, in spite of not being a WotS card. I rarely case it, though, as it's not my preferred method of winning. The deck is mostly creatureless, but has many, many different ways to win. Bolas victory is just my favorite way.
Back in standard gatecrash or dragon's maze I ran a five color fog deck which Had vraska as a win con with a land that made creatures unblockable. It did surprisingly well only time I ever went 5 and oh at a Friday night magic. Unfortunately I was with a group of friends and we were trying to go to the pro tour and they didn't like my deck and I trusted them. So we basically completely deconstructed the deck turned into esper control I did Did absolutely God-awful at the pro tour qualifier? And I kind of never forget my friends for f****** me over like that. Especially because the main dexter beat me at the pro tour would have been great against my five colors stall
I am a little surprised to not see Triskaidekaphile on here. It seems stronger to me than most of the bottom of the list. Of course, I only play commander.
No mention of Battle of Wits? XD It was fun to watch players piloting that deck... the thought of how they'd win with an inconsistent and bulky 250 card deck is hilarious... and I HAVE seen some players win with it... which gives that player mad respect from everyone else xD Watching them shuffle the deck, tho, is about as interesting as watching paint dry... O.O Test of Endurance is actually relatively easy to fulfill: it wins you the game if you have 50 or more life during your upkeep. Most lifegain decks can reach that with little effort. Of course, since it checks you during your upkeep, your opponent still has 1 whole turn to do something about it. Amulet of Quoz is a funny card and deserves a mention too. It isnt legal anywhere due to being an Ante type card, but its ability is simple: Sacrifice this card: your opponent may then negate this effect by ante-ing the top card of their deck. If they do not: flip a coin and call heads or tails. If you win the coin toss, you win the game. If you lose the coin toss, you lose the game. I love how balls-to-wall the effect is: and reminds me of that line: You feeling lucky, punk? >:) I do have one question tho: when Proliferate became a mechanic, I thought Darksteel Reactor would have a chance on becoming relevant. Darksteel Reactor is an Indestructible artifact that gains a charge counter per upkeep. Then, if there are 20 or more charge counters on it at any time, you win the game. With Proliferate, this basically halves the time (assuming you're not using other cards that puts charge counters in it). Is the fact that it does nothing on its own other than charge to win a huge detriment to it?
Hellkite tyrant has a stupidly broken combo. Have Scion, play mycosynth lattice, all permanents are now artifacts, have Scion copy hellkite on the attack and then take all your opponents permanents. Yes that includes lands, if you deal even 1 point of damage, that's game over.
Battle of wits definitely deserved an honorable mention. The bane of tournament organizers everywhere with people bringing 250 card decks to try and win with it.
On MTGO, people actually play and win with it. Even if the game's having a hard time with 250 cards, not having to shuffle makes the deck much more playable... and it's just packed with good stuff.
The card that forced so many players to up their shuffling game. For a smaller handed individual like myself there could be no wasted time trying to shuffle a 250 card deck in 3 minutes and if you messed up there was hell to pay.
BOW player here hello!! on mtgo anyways. ImpurestStewart
hell yeah deserve to be on this list
Ok many people do it, but, has anyone win with that and if they had was it most of them or most of the time it didnt work?
Hellkite tyrant is awesome because it's a dragon that's takes treasure then greedily guards it and if it gets enough treasure it just wins. That's some good lore
Its also easy to pump it up with treasure tokens you hoard, so normally even more flavor points in that regard
MTG is actually really, really good at making super flavorful cards using card game mechanics. Way more than any other card game that I know of. Liliana's Contract is another great one on this video. For anyone unfamiliar with MTG story, Liliana made a contract with four demons to gain power and remain youthful forever, which the card represents by the drawing 4 cards and needing to control 4 demons.
Also with Treasure spam being so easy to pull off, not all that difficult a win condition to pull off these days.
@@RikiazGaming Yugioh telling stories though whole archetype mechanics and Pokemon through types do it way more than Magic self contained cards. They are literally based in mangas, animes and video games.
@@RikiazGaming And by becoming powerfully immortal, she can't lose which is why you win if any 4 demons are out to grant her immortality?
ah yes, Triskaidekaphobia. such a unique flavored card.
for the people who dont know:
Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13.
and now look at the art of the card....
---
13 tools on the wall
13 screws in the barrel
13 glas shards on the ground
13 logs in the fire place
13......... you get the point...
This comment has more than 13 likes. Come on people, get with the program...
Does it have 13 things that it has 13 of?
@@hanahomemadepizza1424 Answering the question you asked 13 days ago: I counted nine. Or 13, if you also count the 13s in the rules text and that each choice consists of exactly 13 non-number words in the original English rules text.
Additionally to the mentioned ones, there are 13 wooden panels in the ceiling and 13 wooden panels visible in the outer walls. The oven front is made of 13 smaller stones in the arc and 13 larger ones around (not counting the side). On the wall, there are 13 blood droplets.
the mana cost is just the number reversed: 3 mana cost and 1 black mana cost.
I love that it says choose one but they both say lose the game , so it's just do you want a life or not
Thassa's Oracle's effect is also an enter the battlefield trigger, meaning that unlike Jace or Laboratory Maniac the opponent can't just hold up a removal spell to instantly blow you out.
What, like a counterspell? I thought spells that would counter or otherwise stop the summon happen before ETB effects due to stack order?
@@DanTheManCalter No, like a "destroy target creature or planeswalker" effect like hero's downfall.
Jace and Laboratory Maniac both use replacement effects that still require you to still draw a card, so even if you immediately activated a draw effect (like Jace's +1), the opponent would be able to destroy the Jace/Lab Maniac with downfall in response, such that when the draw effect resolves, Jace/Lab Maniac is not on the field, meaning that their replacement effect will not occur and you will lose for drawing with no cards in deck as normal.
In Thassa's Oracle's case, its ETB effect will go on the stack, and on resolution it will check if you have no cards in deck, then win you the game if you do, even if the opponent destroyed the Oracle with a hero's downfall while the ETB effect was on the stack.
@@DanTheManCalter A counterspell would stop Thassa's Oracle yeah. But only blue gets counterspells, and they only work right before a spell is played. When I say removal, I'm referring to kill spells like fatal push. It doesn't matter if you kill Thassa's Oracle because the ETB trigger will still be on the stack whether or not the creature is still alive.
The best answer to thassa’s orcle is stifle affects the best of which is trickbind because it itself is nearly uncountnterable.
@@Playingwithproxies This is true, but stifle effects are usually a sideboard card.
Love the addition of legality. I didn’t even know I needed it but having just a list down there while you focus on the topic was a brilliant move!
Fun fact: The incredibly powerful spell Time Walk was an alternative win condition for a brief period of the game's history.
For those who don't know, Time Walk is a spell that for two mana says "Take an extra turn after this one." When the first set of magic was being designed Time Walk had a different line of text: "Target player loses next turn."
When the card was shown to the original playtesters of Magic, they didn't understand what the card did; they thought it meant that after casting the spell, their opponent only had one turn left before they'd lose! Seeing this confusion, Richard Garfield the creator of Magic changed the wording of the card to a more accurate description of its actual effect.
Took me a second. That was some unfortunate wording
That's fun to combine with R&D's Secret Lair, which says you ignore all errata and play cards as written.
Yeah, a playtester came up to Garfield and said "every time I resolve this spell, my opponent loses next turn!" Garfield looked at the card and then fixed it to take an extra turn after this one in modern wording, not sure how the wording would have been on the playtest card back then. I think when it said target player loses next turn it was a red card that costed just RR too.
Pairing Hellkite Tyrant (steals all the opponents artifacts) with Mycosynth Lattice (turns everything on the field into artifacts) can be a devastating combo, as a single successful hit with Hellkite steals your opponent's entire board--plus, with Lattice up, the wincon basically just becomes "control at least 20 things" which is far less taxing, especially with that control ability.
probably easier to create an infinate artifact token combo, except once you have infinite hellkite tyrant is just win more
@@danielgreenwood793 Perhaps, but I personally use this combo in my Daretti, Scrap Savant EDH deck and it wins me more games than it doesn’t.
@@danielgreenwood793 Magda does this perfectly with Clock of Omens and Liquimetal Torque/Liquimetal Plating, as you get infinite treasures and can use them to search the Hellkite Tyrant to the battlefield.
Even just using the Tyrant to steal mana rocks can be really annoying and set players back a lot. Plus, if you have an artifact-heavy playgroup, the Tyrant can be a terrifying threat. Few things represent a bigger threat than an opponent with a Tyrant against one of my artifact (like Rebbec/Glacian or Osigir) or voltron decks (like Gwyn).
That's why mycosinth lattice is banned almost everywhere. Too many unusual things can happen if everything turns into artefacts.
Honorable mentions should definitely go to a few cards.
Battle of Wits for all the goofs that'd bring giant 250+ card decks to get meme wins
Epic Struggle for Selesnya Tokens, Elves or other spawn decks to have another win condition that isn't "attack with 900 creatures"
Helix Pinnacle for giving ramp decks another win condition that isn't "attack with giants"
Mortal Combat... because when you play it, it's law that you have to scream "Mortal Kombat!" and then play the theme music
Really though... Revel in Riches should have been on this list. Even if nobody cared to win with it, getting Treasure Tokens for killing your opponent's creatures was really good since that's what black decks tend to do anyway.
Totally Revel in riches, I love that it makes treasures so easily in multiplayer games and I almost wish it didn't have the win clause because it gets removed even if I just want to use it for value, but 10 treasure pile up so quickly.
Helix was ranked as on of the worst
Gates got a pretty nice buff recently. with the Baldur's Gate Commander set adding a bunch of new ones, including one that makes your gates come in untapped.
I won a box when that set was released, in standard made a fog gate land deck, I Rember having 4 different fog effects and I think elixir and blur draws to recycle and see more fogs
Don’t forget the Baldur’s Gate card itself being essentially a Nykhtos for Gates
First, and for a reason. Great small mtg channel. I'm sad Door to Nothingness wasn't mentioned.
That's a loss condition....
Door is just bad I guess
@@marklehman5272 but half the list are a loss condition.
Hellkite Tyrant is very useful with artifact generation commander decks. Treasures, Clues and Food can often be made quickly. Academy Manufactor is a 3xmultiplier, Blood Money is a board wipe that gives you a ton of treasure, Doubling Season is a 2x modifier... Ancient Copper Dragon can make you up to 20 at once. Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, and other instants can be done at the end of your opponent's turn. Enchantments like Revel in Riches, Smothering Tithe, Fae Offering and Monologue Tax can net you a lot of treasures off your turn.
I'm not saying Hellkite Tyrant is broken or impossible to counter, but it is a little easier to win with than it sounds.
Can I just say, I really appreciate that you both A.) Clearly and carefully explain the text of the card shown on screen and B.) Have captions for your additional commentary.
Your videos are just hugely accessible and I really appreciate it
Felidar Sovereign is my favourite by far. I've used it since pretty much I've been playing MtG, and back in those days mythics were kind of difficult to come by in these parts (so long ago that Felidar Sovereign was mythic), so casual decks were a lot slower and the 40 life win was quite possible. Nowadays, thanks to online tabletops, we have access to all the cards we want, and I have a white cat/lifelink deck built around this one.
My number two favourite is Jace, Wielder of Mysteries (and his little brother, Laboratory Maniac), combined with Flow of Ideas and all manner of self-milling.
Third place goes to Revel in Riches, combined with Grave Pact and Pitiless Plunderer.
I don't do tournaments, so I don't really care if my decks are not "optimized," as long as they're fun and have a high enough trolling factor.
I feel like Nicol Bolas shouldn't be on this list, as his win the game ability often isn't the reason you win the game, or even a consideration when playing him.
Some alternatives include:
Battle of Wits has been mentioned by others as an alternate win condition that does show up in tournaments every once in a while, especially online ones.
Revel in Riches would be another excellent choice for the list, as it is fairly easy to accomplish in commander, with the high amount of board wipes that get played.
Mechanized Production is fantastic with artifact tokens (treasures mainly). It just needs to be enchanting any artifact you control, and you can win off of making 8 treasures.
Hellkite Tyrant is much better than you described, since treasures have become prominent, and even has a commander that makes getting it easy (even easier than Scion of the Ur-Dragon). With Magda, Brazen Outlaw, Liquimetal Torque or Liquimetal Plating, and Clock of Omens, you get infinite tapped treasures, and can sacrifice five of them to search for Hellkite Tyrant to put it onto the battlefield.
Hellkite Tyrant is excellent when paired with Academy Manufacturer, Mechanized Production, and Bloodforged Battleaxe. You can keep creating tokens that are copies of Bloodforged Battleaxe, attach those copies to creatures you control to get more copies when they deal Combat damage to a player, and throw in a few cards that create treasure tokens, clue tokens, and food tokens to push you over the finish line. Add in Sculpting Steel and Replicating Ring and it’ll get even more wild.
Not a "instant win" card but a card that is hilarious if you can pull it off is divine intervention. It's an 8 mana enchantment that causes a draw, and I believe is the only card that can reliably cause a draw. I used to have a commander deck who's sole purpose was to get that card to go off and it did very consistently.
There is no other single card that ends the game in a draw, but there are a few good two-card combinations that achieve the same thing.
E.g. Stuffy Doll, naming yourself, then enchanting it with Pariah. The next time you or the Doll get damaged, the game ends in an infinite damage redirection loop.
Or turning Caged Sun into a Land that can tap for a color you chose for that Caged Sun. It has a triggered mana ability that will trigger on itself ad infinitum. Because it doesn’t use the stack, no player will receive priority to stop it again.
Back in college I had a friend with a "Goodstuff" GBW control deck that only "won" with Divine Intervention. It was a board wiping control deck that never tried to win. It was frustrating to draw against.
I'm glad to see you covering Magic. I stopped playing WoW so now I can watch you break down other things I enjoy. 👍
I showed Maze's End to my step-dad, who has a modified Gates deck. I deeply regret showing him Maze's End.
It seems like someone could create an engine for revel in riches these days with how easy treasure creation has gotten
It’s really odd not to put Battle of Wits on here, which has honestly seen more competitive play than most of the cards on this list, even as just a meme deck.
Gotta point out that Battle of Wits has top8’d a GP, and many of these “best” alt win conditions have never done as much! Love the videos :)
The GP was 21 years ago though
Extremely underrated. Great video!
There are a couple of reasons why oracle is a better win condition over lab maniac or jace. It's a triggered ability and not a static ability, allowing it to function without remaining on the field. It's also the only one that doesn't require drawing a card on top of having an empty deck, making it so you don't have to use an extra card to draw or wait for your next draw step.
Hellkite Tyrant is one of the more likely win conditions for my Dwarves & Dragons build. With Magda, Brazen Outlaw as the commander, you’re producing a ton of tokens on your own and you’re drawing artifacts and dragons rapidly. Pair Hellkite Tyrant with something like Ancient Copper Dragon (where you’re rolling a D20 and gaining that many tokens when you hit a player) and Academy Manufacturer (where one token becomes three), and you end up with tons of tokens quickly. Don’t forget that Treasure Tokens, etc are artifacts too!
Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God starts to see play in Pioneer Mono Green because you can cast it with mana of any color using Oath of Nissa or cheat it into play using Storm the Festival. It was less of a win condition and more of a disruption piece.
Triskaidekophile is one of my favorite ways to win and it’s pretty easy to do it. Protect it with counter spells and run a few copies of sea gate restoration and you can win pretty easily!
Triskaidekaphobia has a soft spot for me because a coworker I found out that played had a bunch of decks one with this exact combo. He let me try it out and won without the combo but just by saying we both lose a life. He didn't realize by the time it got back to my upkeep I knocked him to 13.
Approach of the Second Sun is my favorite alternate wincon. I have it in Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign because Yennett's ability often allows me to cast the first Approach for free, as well as Sevinne, the Chronoclasm, which has enough instant/sorcery cost reducers to often make Approach cost significantly less than seven mana.
I think you forgot one of the greatest win conditions on flavor alone. Sure, winning via Thasa's Oracle or Nicol Bolas is fine, but true MTG chads know that the only win condition you'll ever need to be a true master of magic is "The Cheese Stands Alone"
Liliana's Contract being black so of course you suggest...the blue card instead of the black one that makes everything Demons. Brilliant.
My main deck on MTGA is an explorer-legal Omniscience reanimation deck (with Repair and Recharge), using Approach as the wincon (via Mastermind's Acquisition getting my copy out of the sideboard so it doesn't clunk up the mainboard). It's just really solid on MTGA. If it were offline and I could actually demonstrate and use repeatable loops, I'd use something that's useful in more situations, but due to the contraints of their program having a straight up "I win" card is a great finisher for an infinite mana style combo deck.
For future reference, we say something like Scion of the Ur-Dragon costs WUBRG to cast, which just means one of each of the 5 colors
Hellkite Tyrant combo with Mycosynth Lattice. turn all your opponents cards into artifacts, then give them a one attack board wipe.
I have a Thassa’s Oracle and an Approach win cons in my commander decks and it's so fun to win out of nowhere when your table is expecting one or the other. Also have the Moth/counters combo.
Made a WUBRG deck in Commander that uses all versions of Bolas and Dragon God has always been the win-condition with how often I set up his arrival. Everything pretty much falls into place once I get all 5 man colors. Fun Planeswalker :3
I played Dragon-God in a Grixis Chandra deck during core 20 standard. He was somewhat deceptive, since he'd draw attention, then the Chandra, Bold Pyromancer that nobody watched would clap you for 20 out of nowhere with Chandra's regulator. I also ran Chandra, Acolyte of Flame to give all red (he has red) walkers free loyalty counters
I thought I recognized your voice... good videos lol. I'll watch them no matter what channel or topic xD
Hellkite-Tyrant, Mycosynth Lattice, there you go, it's now easy.
i’d love to see a video about some of the best first turn kill strategies in legacy/vintage! or some of the 2nd turn kills in modern. great vids!
Maze end mixes well with Turbo fog oriented play. Add some draw speed to turbo fog, and cards that allow extra lands to be played on same turn, get multiple of each dual color gates in deck. Fog-Effect style cards are cheap, tapped land isn't going to bother you much unless you are in a hurry. Key... Don't hurry, Use fog cards.
"Maze-End-Turbo-fog" can be pulled off with ZERO Creatures if you throw in a splash of control. You'll have five colors, Use them to your advantage. Use green for Fogs and land search, Use white for fogs and life, Use blue for denial and draw speed, use black to remove threats, and seek specific cards, Use red to burn away smaller threats (with perhaps some "X"-Burn to Face cards for opponent if you cant seem to find Maze, before long). Use cheap to cast card options only, nothing above say 3-Cost (keeping most cards at 1-2), the only cards that should be more expensive would be some good land search/play from green, and the X-Burn coming from red.
Hellkite Tyrant could potentially combo well with ancient copper dragon, which can potentially make 20 artifacts by itself in one turn.
Thassa's Oracle is quite infuriating in Commander. It doesn't matter it you got 99 cards. See it played, it's pretty much an instant win right there. The deck would be made in a similar approach as other formats. It's salt inducing enough that there's those who want it banned in Commander.
It should be banned for the same reason as Coalition Victory: "If your opponent doesn't know you have it and doesn't have a turn to respond to you playing it, then it ends the game too fast and needs to be banned."
Bans in commander are a joke. The rules committee only bans cards because THEY had a bad experience with it. If it's a problem, just rule 0 it.
@@vDeadbolt Kinda hard to rule 0 some stuff because you don't exactly want to give away the fact that you're ramping to play an "I win" button as opposed to ramping to play a big creature.
@@TaIathar commander is a social format, not a competitive one. Outside of CEDH, you can opt out of playing against instant win cards.
Maze's End in Commander benefited greately from Baldur's Gate set, since we got Gond Gate there. It's a Gate that can give you mana of any color that a Gate you control could give, ETBs untapped and, most importantly, makes all other Gates also ETB untapped. Since it's fetchable with all the cards that could fetch you any Gate, it basically becomes the first one you'd usually get, and then Gates would stop entering tapped.
It's also funny that Laboratory Maniac, the proto-Oracle, wasn't even mentioned in either of the videos. So it's neither good OR bad alternate win condition by today's standards.
Tip on #8: If you run Maze's End, also run Reshape the Earth. That way, if you play one of the 11 lands needed for the wincon before you cast Reshape the Earth, then casting Reshape the Earth effectively means you win! Also, Gond Gate is very deece, as it makes guildgates etb untapped like stripe duals lol
There was a pact combo in modern at the birth of summer bloom which had an enchartment that forced your opponent to cast a copy of each of you spells so u just played a pact which wasn't in their colours and auto won. Surprised pacts weren't on here in general but especially considering this combo
Finally talkin bout cedh, nice
My buddy used to have a combo Deck that was solely focused on Mycosynth Lattice -> Hellkite Tyrant and it was brutal
As a person who played a control spirits deck in standard until the very recent rotation (still might depending on how it shapes up), Faithbound Judge does very well against other control decks if you're playing with it in mind. It forces your opponent to keep mana open and to save a counterspell if they aren't winning soon and they haven't yet drawn enchantment removal. That being said, the power level of where I play standard is somewhat low, with no one playing the top top tier decks, and against those who are playing higher tier decks, its main threat is actually as an attacker after stalling for time, especially after disturbing Twinblade Geist onto it, giving it double strike. I am also a person who doesn't buy cards, which is why the more convenient and powerful options aren't available to me.
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
I ran a turbo fog mazes end deck when it was in standard it actually worked really well and won me game day with it
I love how you pad the length of every video by 5 minutes just reading cards
In War of the Spark standard I played a 4 color Bolas superfriends deck that could easily win off his Ult. I didn't see a lot of other people playing it, but it was the only deck I ever made it to Mythic in Arena with.
I played the same deck! But only 3 color.
When Eldraine came out it got even better with Fires of Invention! It was so fun
Phage the Untouchable is a great one. I remember the good ol' Summoner's Egg combo.
Special mention for the Amulet of Quoz from back in Ice Age. A largely forgotten card that was from back when Magic still incorporated the ante mechanic, but it does hold the distinction of begin the first alternative win condition card in the history of Magic.
I love winning with approach of the second sun in my green white draw and sac deck
It's fun how many mtg youtuber are like "I am excluding Commander" while commander is the most played Magic format, and almost singlehandedly keeping mtg alive...
Hellkite tyrant + nuisance engine + deck full of cheap but useful artifacts. Also combos with mycosynth lattice.
I had a deck in Arena with Nine lives and the key was to switch it to the enemy, either had an combo to destroy it then or had a lot of damage sources to make the counters on it
this is my fav mtg list so far
great job 😍
I play a deck in historic ranked on Arena that has no creatures and is built specifically to stall and board wipe until I can use Approach of the Second Sun to win the game. It's actually fairly consistent, unless my opponent is running a lot of artifact and enchantment removal or counterspells.
Mazes end is my favorite card ever
hellkite tyrant has an alternate, alternate win condition. play Mycosynth Lattice, hit opponent with tyrant, steal their entire field (including land), opponent scoops as if done right you now have a +6 mana advantage, a 6/5 flying beat stick and anything they play will just push you towards triggering win condition if you don't kill them first
Nicol Bolas was in a Standart format with fires of invention making it insanely easy to be cast and the elderspell, that was in some situations able to give it enough loyalty by targeting your own planeswakers. The deck was not incredibly good, bit really fun to play
such a very Bolas thing to do too
I have won several games with Angel of Destiny.
faithbound judge might make my Azors elocuters deck work!!
I'm surprised that Angel of Destiny isn't in here. In a lifelink deck, she's fairly easy to win with, and because she's not legendary, you can put more than one of her out (in case you opponent takes one out). Flying and double-strike make her more threatening.
I was looking through the comments to see whether someone mentioned Angel of Destiny or not. My favorite card. Now the meta changed, I don't have a proper deck and miss Angel of Destiny
Maze's End was a great deck in Block Constructed (RIP) and Standard (also RIP), because you could run a blue-white control deck with worse mana that would automatically win against other blue white control decks (there was no relevant land destruction in RTR).
I think it was called Hedron alignment, which was hilarious, nearly impossible to set up, but if you did it'd be like from an anime.
I'm thinking of Judgement counters with "move counters" effects. Like, build 'em up, move 'em, disturb, move again, win.
Unwieldy, perhaps, but interesting.
Surprised that Poison didn't come up in either of these videos, easily my least favorite alternative win condition. ("Players with 10 poison counters lose", a mechanic that you have to specifically focus on countering, deals permanent debuffs to creatures, and bypasses the life system.)
Mill wins are so good lab and Jace should have just been second and third. Also spending 7 mana on two separate turns with your opponent having time to prepare isn’t that good.
Approach saw play in Standard when it released and still sees play in Commander, including in CEDH decks. Yeah 7 mana is a lot, but in slow, grindy control decks it can be done, and the card is very consistent as it doesn't require any other combos or cards to win with, just itself. Its the go to win condition of Narset decks, which can easily rip it off the top of the library and cast it for free.
@@setharoth114 Rainbow Lich even played it sometimes, as you immediately drew the card again, as the lifegain caused you to draw cards with Lich's Mastery.
@@setharoth114 It's a pretty common finisher in combo decks running white in commander right now for sure. New guy from the DND set, Elminster loves it too.
It's way better than most alt win cards by far. Could be #1 if doomsday didn't exist to abuse oracle. Gaining 7 life is a lot of life to get you to the next casting of the card in a few turns assuming you're in blue to have card draw to shorten the clock for casting it again. It also is ridiculous when you draw multiple's because you can just cast them on back to back turns with the 7 life being a great cushion to stop dying before you win.
I'm shocked Simic Ascendancy didn't make it on this list. +1/+1s are really easy to spam out, and there are multiple enchantments that increase the amounts assigned. Heck, you can win off this with just Hydra's Growth.
Thassa’s oracle is also format warping in cEDH
Test of Endurance is better than Sovereign actually, yeah it requires 10 more life but it's 4 mana instead of 6 and it's on an enchantment which is the second hardest permanent type to deal with so it's more likely to stick around until your upkeep to win you the game when you get 50+ life.
In the grand scheme of things, both requires to be in dedicated life gain decks and the difference of 10 life in a dedicated life gain deck is actually nothing. The only thing that Sovereign has is that you technically meet the conditions automatically in commander but at 6 mana you'd probably had already lost some life before you brought it out (unless you're a dedicated life gain deck) and it's a creature which is the easiest kind of permanent to deal with.
I think Thoracles mana value is only a small part of why it’s so much better than Lab Man or Jace. Both of those cards require you to draw a card to win with an empty library but Thassa’s Oracle wins as soon as it enters the battlefield.
revel in riches is pretty good with ancient copper dragon because it generates its own treasures on top of its win con and you can get up to 20 treasures in one turn
I was waiting for Dragon God to show up. I got a Bolas deck that is just so much fucking fun.
I tend to fish it out of my library, play it, and use the ultimate in the same turn. The deck is also almost 100% war of the spark cards. It's super damn fun to play, and annoying as hell to play against.
(eit: Approach of the Second Sun is also in the bolas deck, in spite of not being a WotS card. I rarely case it, though, as it's not my preferred method of winning. The deck is mostly creatureless, but has many, many different ways to win. Bolas victory is just my favorite way.
Back in standard gatecrash or dragon's maze I ran a five color fog deck which Had vraska as a win con with a land that made creatures unblockable. It did surprisingly well only time I ever went 5 and oh at a Friday night magic. Unfortunately I was with a group of friends and we were trying to go to the pro tour and they didn't like my deck and I trusted them. So we basically completely deconstructed the deck turned into esper control I did Did absolutely God-awful at the pro tour qualifier? And I kind of never forget my friends for f****** me over like that. Especially because the main dexter beat me at the pro tour would have been great against my five colors stall
A note Faithbound Judge is currently standard legal, it was missed in the legality note.
mazes end is fun, won with a fog maze deck in modern, isocron scepter with a fog under it causes just enough trouble
I am surprised Phage the untouchable was not on this list. She basically has two win conditions. One for your opponent and one for you.
Amazing!
Idea for a video:
Board states that result in a draw because of a never ending loop of triggers
Add hellkite tyrant to a blue red deck focused on artifacts and you 'should' win. And with the valdalken Orrery play it at enemy end step
I really think the best win con card was in fact, If your library started with 200 or more cards this game, you win the game.
2 Blue - you win the game.
If you needed an explanation why Blue is by far the best colour in Magic
I feel like Simic accendancy is better than plenty of stuff on a list here
Idk if this has been pointed out already, but Faithbound Judge has defender. I think you may have missed this haha cheers though!!
I am a little surprised to not see Triskaidekaphile on here. It seems stronger to me than most of the bottom of the list. Of course, I only play commander.
Oh man Revel In Riches has gotta be on this list
Felidar Sovereign doesn't sound that bad in lifegain decks. I could definitely put this card in my old angel deck.
No mention of Battle of Wits? XD It was fun to watch players piloting that deck... the thought of how they'd win with an inconsistent and bulky 250 card deck is hilarious... and I HAVE seen some players win with it... which gives that player mad respect from everyone else xD Watching them shuffle the deck, tho, is about as interesting as watching paint dry... O.O
Test of Endurance is actually relatively easy to fulfill: it wins you the game if you have 50 or more life during your upkeep. Most lifegain decks can reach that with little effort. Of course, since it checks you during your upkeep, your opponent still has 1 whole turn to do something about it.
Amulet of Quoz is a funny card and deserves a mention too. It isnt legal anywhere due to being an Ante type card, but its ability is simple: Sacrifice this card: your opponent may then negate this effect by ante-ing the top card of their deck. If they do not: flip a coin and call heads or tails. If you win the coin toss, you win the game. If you lose the coin toss, you lose the game. I love how balls-to-wall the effect is: and reminds me of that line: You feeling lucky, punk? >:)
I do have one question tho: when Proliferate became a mechanic, I thought Darksteel Reactor would have a chance on becoming relevant. Darksteel Reactor is an Indestructible artifact that gains a charge counter per upkeep. Then, if there are 20 or more charge counters on it at any time, you win the game. With Proliferate, this basically halves the time (assuming you're not using other cards that puts charge counters in it). Is the fact that it does nothing on its own other than charge to win a huge detriment to it?
Can you do, 1. Top sphinxes, 2. Top dragons 3. Top modal cards 4. Top control finishers
I regularly won in modern with Demonic Pact.
0:50 if you run artifact lands and a bunch of cheap artifacts, you could get to 20 artifacts pretty easily I would think.
Hellkite tyrant has a stupidly broken combo.
Have Scion, play mycosynth lattice, all permanents are now artifacts, have Scion copy hellkite on the attack and then take all your opponents permanents. Yes that includes lands, if you deal even 1 point of damage, that's game over.
Demonic pact+Harmless offering=Ooooh mah gosh.
I love felidar sovereign in my oloro edh deck
my friend made an aproach deck in pioner and ALLWAYS pulls the combo constantly
I knew APPROACH OF THE SECOND SUN will be there near the top.