So... You get out Leyline of Anticipation ahead of time? That's about all I can think of for making this work (You then pull lab man, runic the morgue theftDread Return, return lab man, and draw with Think Twice.
Yeah, Dread Return is better for the Labman win. I needed Morgue Theft for the Walking Ballista one because it's .
I hadn't thought about that, actually. You can get around it if you don't cast it and use Runic to put it in hand. That might work for the Ballista, too, I'll have to work through it when I get some more time.
This problem is actually pretty hard even if you allow X spells that aren't Increasing Confusion. Unlike Gifts Ungiven, the cards in the other pile are stuck in exile instead of the graveyard, so you can't use Regrowth effects to eventually gain access to the key cards. Manipulating cards in exile is a lot more limited than manipulating cards in the graveyard. On top of that, there is the complication that X spells are the easiest cards to kill with if you can somehow get them in your hand, but totally useless if they're casted for free with Brilliant Ultimatum, or in the pile that you didn't choose.
The trivial solutions are individual cards that win you the game by themselves, so you just make a Doomsday pile with any 4 other cards and pick the pile containing the game-winner. Brush with Death was mentioned, as was Increasing Confusion. Some others are Magma Mine and Goblin Cannon.
I think the best way to approach this problem is to find an A+B combo and make a pile of one A + four different Bs, and somehow have the four Bs be capable of killing together (in case your opponent splits A in one pile, 4 Bs in the other pile). Finding the right As and Bs is easier said than done though. The closest I got was this (Walking Ballista is A), which requires a third piece on the field before comboing:
If there's a pile with Ballista and at least one other card, you pick that. If the Ballista is by itself, pick the other 4-card pile and go infinite with Enduring Renewal. Depending on what your third piece is, the combo can change: for example if your third piece is a card that triggers off creature death/ETB (e.g. Blood Artist) then you can play and sac Restoration Specialist continuously. If your third piece is a sac outlet (e.g. Viscera Seer) then you can play Shredder, mill your opponent, play Venser, bounce Shredder, sac Venser, return Venser to hand with Renewal, and repeat.
Conjurer's Bauble is an odd one. It works as Regrowth if your library has 0 cards. Note that you can't sac Bauble, choose to put Bauble back in your library, draw Bauble.
Another A+B combo that I found is Mortus Strider/Endless Cockroaches + sac outlet that kills your opponent (e.g. Blasting Station, Mortarpod). The problem with that one is finding 4 Bs which can kill together. If your commander is Sharuum the Hegemon, you can just pick the pile with Blasting Station and sac Sharuum over and over, which works, but feels unsatisfying since it's basically another trivial solution.
I was trying to come up with a pile using Mirror of Fate but I couldn't figure out why you would bother using Brilliant Ultimatum to cast it instead of just hardcasting Mirror for 5 and using the extra mana to cast Ideas Unbound or another draw spell.
This seems only feasible in Commander, so let's limit the color identity of the cards to Esper. And just to make things interesting, let's also say no X cost cards, like Blue Sun or Exsanguinate - because those are lame, predictable, and obvious.
It's not that obvious because X is 0 when cast off Brilliant Ultimatum. The only obvious X spell is Increasing Confusion: just pick the pile with IC, cast it for free, then flash it back for X>0.
Okay, fair RE: Exsanguinate, but if you have infinite mana and Blue Sun for 0, you just draw it next turn and kill everyone else off a turn at a time.
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Cast a cantrip into Meditate, cast Meditate and draw Thopter/Sword + Akroma's Memorial + Pact
Cast Memorial, cast the thopter/sword combo, sacrifice the sword.... I'm sure you know the rest.
It just seems like it defeats the purpose of the exercise since you can go Ultimatum -> Mirror -> Meditate -> Any win con with 4 cards or less. Or you could have just cast Doomsday for the meditate+winning combo to begin with.
(That isn't to say I don't think Mirror is "fair," but I don't think using it this way is in the spirit of the exercise.)
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I hadn't thought about that, actually. You can get around it if you don't cast it and use Runic to put it in hand. That might work for the Ballista, too, I'll have to work through it when I get some more time.
The trivial solutions are individual cards that win you the game by themselves, so you just make a Doomsday pile with any 4 other cards and pick the pile containing the game-winner. Brush with Death was mentioned, as was Increasing Confusion. Some others are Magma Mine and Goblin Cannon.
I think the best way to approach this problem is to find an A+B combo and make a pile of one A + four different Bs, and somehow have the four Bs be capable of killing together (in case your opponent splits A in one pile, 4 Bs in the other pile). Finding the right As and Bs is easier said than done though. The closest I got was this (Walking Ballista is A), which requires a third piece on the field before comboing:
- Walking Ballista
- Restoration Specialist
- Enduring Renewal
- Codex Shredder
- Venser, Shaper Savant
If there's a pile with Ballista and at least one other card, you pick that. If the Ballista is by itself, pick the other 4-card pile and go infinite with Enduring Renewal. Depending on what your third piece is, the combo can change: for example if your third piece is a card that triggers off creature death/ETB (e.g. Blood Artist) then you can play and sac Restoration Specialist continuously. If your third piece is a sac outlet (e.g. Viscera Seer) then you can play Shredder, mill your opponent, play Venser, bounce Shredder, sac Venser, return Venser to hand with Renewal, and repeat.Some other B cards for that combo:
- Conjurer's Bauble
- Unsubstantiate
- Font of Return
- No Rest for the Wicked
- Salvage Scout
- Learn from the Past
- Cranial Archive
Conjurer's Bauble is an odd one. It works as Regrowth if your library has 0 cards. Note that you can't sac Bauble, choose to put Bauble back in your library, draw Bauble.Another A+B combo that I found is Mortus Strider/Endless Cockroaches + sac outlet that kills your opponent (e.g. Blasting Station, Mortarpod). The problem with that one is finding 4 Bs which can kill together. If your commander is Sharuum the Hegemon, you can just pick the pile with Blasting Station and sac Sharuum over and over, which works, but feels unsatisfying since it's basically another trivial solution.
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Okay, fair RE: Exsanguinate, but if you have infinite mana and Blue Sun for 0, you just draw it next turn and kill everyone else off a turn at a time.
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Top
----
Meditate
Thopter Foundry
Sword of the Meek
Akroma's Memorial
Pact of Negation
Island
Island
----
Bottom
Cast a cantrip into Meditate, cast Meditate and draw Thopter/Sword + Akroma's Memorial + Pact
Cast Memorial, cast the thopter/sword combo, sacrifice the sword.... I'm sure you know the rest.
It just seems like it defeats the purpose of the exercise since you can go Ultimatum -> Mirror -> Meditate -> Any win con with 4 cards or less. Or you could have just cast Doomsday for the meditate+winning combo to begin with.
(That isn't to say I don't think Mirror is "fair," but I don't think using it this way is in the spirit of the exercise.)