The idea of this deck is simple:
Exile all but 7 or 8 cards from your deck, one of those needs to be the Mirror.
The rest consist of mana ramp, a way to force yourself to lose the game (usually a card draw works) and a kill spell.
The loop usually works as follows: Play mana ramp, usually Lotus Petal, Mana crypt, Mana Vault, Dark Ritual and/or Seething Song then Lich's Mirror.
Follow up with something that makes you lose such as Faithless Looting or cycling Street Wraith to trigger the Mirror. Shuffle your 7 (or more) cards and draw your 7.
Rinse and repeat as needed. You win by either infinite mana and a big X kill spell, A big storm spell, or make your opponents draw out with Wheel of Fortune
That part is simple enough, the hard part is getting there.
So lets take a look at what I've been testing. Disclaimer: The deck needs work and any advice is appreciated.
At first glance I'm sure it looks like a random jumble of cantrips, tutors and mana ramp.
Well, ya gotta start somewhere right? I wont explain every card in the deck but I will try to shed enough light to make sense.
Starting off, my choice in general. It was an easy choice for three reasons:
First reason for Mogis, God of Slaughter is that it puts pressure on opponents to sac creatures or take damage.
I will never have enough devotion to get him to become a creature, but his CMC is only a 4 so that's a plus.
Second, Kaervek the Merciless is a hate magnet. The rest of the deck could be all land and he'll still get you killed first and he offers no synergy with the deck.
Third, I thought I had a Tor Wauki but I was mistaken. I suppose I soled or traded it so I'll have to wait till I can pick another up.
Next up, Land choice.
I'm sure at first glance it makes little sense to only have 6 basic land (and 2 snow-covered at that) but I assure you, there is madness to my methods.
Part of it is card access, but the reason for only 2 mountains and 2 swamps is this: Tainted Pact
This card virtually becomes "Exile the top card of your library until you reach the card you want". Basically another Demonnic Consultation with no risk and you can change your mind as you see cards fly past.
In reality I can exile every card in my deck besides the Mirror of Fate (and the mana to play it) and more or less I'll be in good shape.
Hence the Orcish Librarian. He exiles for me, stacks my next draw or two, and can block non-trampling creatures to boot!
On the topic of creatures, I'm trying to stick with ones that self sacrifice (preferably for mana) or have some other use that makes them worth using. Simian Spirit Guide, Street Wraith and Blood Pet have obvious uses. Greater Gargadon is often suspended on or just before the combo turn. It, Claws of Gix and Rain of Filth are my best ways of removing permanents from play.
Everything else is either mana ramp, card advantage/exile, a kill spell or cantripping removal.
Some of you may be wondering "Why not run Worldgorger Dragon?" and that's a fair question. My answer is because when I started this project I didn't realize it was commander legal. I had tested the deck with it, but I feel it warps the entire deck to something else entirely. It works, but it didn't feel as fun so I'm not using it.
After several games, I've found three main flaws with the deck that I'm trying to weed out.
First is consistency: In theory, at any point in the game this deck could potentially combo out. I've had one card in hand with four land in play and pulled the combo off. Other times it just flops face first, slowly clawing at itself hoping to do something useful.
Second is vulnerability to hate and/or aggro. When the deck runs quick sometimes it's a non-factor but more often than not I'm flailing to survive as key pieces are stripped out of reach when I need them.
Third is after a while this deck gives you a headache trying to keep track of what is where (exiled, hand, graveyard, deck, in play) mana needed vs. what you have, and risk vs reward of most cards played.
While I know this deck will always wrack the brain, I am hoping to make it more playable, especially if someone at the table has seen it before.
Copy Enchantment targeting nothing
Each Copy Enchantment coming into play via Dual Nature should copy a Doubling season/Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor card, until the last Dual Nature trigger batch copys Dual Nature.
This sequence will be used repeatedly until the very last cycle.
Monk Idealist. In response to it's ETB trigger, Tap Copy Enchantment to untap your land (when Earthcraft is in play),
and sacrifice it to Goblin Chirurgeon to regenerate a Boros Reckoner (if they are in play. If not, then anything).
The ETB trigger resolves, getting back Copy Enchantment that you then play as an instant repeating step 4.
Repeat this process for every ETB trigger of Monk Idealist tokens.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. In response to anything else on the stack, tap to copy Monk Idealist and repeat step 6.
Repeat for every Kiki-Jiki token and or card as soon as they ETB.
Same for the Clones that will copy kiki.
(Or would it be better to have the clones copy nothing and die being a 0/0 to be replayed later?)
Krenko, Mob Boss. Unlike Kiki-Jiki, Krenko is happy to wait until all other Krenko's are in play before tapping to produce tokens.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. In response to it's EBT effect, tap all non-Kiki-Krenko creatures to untap your land to produce R and G mana in even amounts.
(all Kiki's and Krenko's should already have been used as listed in steps 7 and 9.)
After each untap, repeat steps 7 and 9.
The very last cycle of step 4, Copy enchantment should copy Furnace of Rath.
Cast Fireball using flashback and all of your mana, targeting a Reckoner. Sacrifice a goblin token to Goblin Chirurgeon to regenerate that Reckoner.
Target another Reckoner and repeat sacing goblins (tokens first, then creatures that no longer have a use) to keep rengenerating and retargeting to Recokners.
Found a few more cards I didn't know about (Felhide Spiritbinder for one), so I'll be back later in the week when I have time to browse and revamp the list and play order.
Noted. I had no idea Mana Reflection existed, so I'll re-vamp my list with this information replacing Mana Flare.
In addition I'll remove one of each doubling enchantment to add 3 Dual Natures.
Every time I think of posting this to the forums, I think of something else to change that makes the previous amount of damage seem insignificant by comparison, though I think I'm at the end of the road.
I am sad though that my math skills cannot find the proper equation to represent the amount of damage produced.
Also, I apologize for any typo's and general errors in posting this.
Without further delay, my attempt at the most damage on turn 1 in a 60 card Vintage legal list, no sideboard, perfect opening hand.
Step 1:
Mana crypt, Island, Show and Tell, putting Omniscience into play.
Step 2:
Next Opalescence, and Dual Nature.
Follow with Enter the Infinite, drawing the rest of the deck.
Step 3:
Cast Doubling Season, triggering Dual nature's. Play three more, followed by four Parallel Lives, four Primal Vigor, and finally four Copy Enchantment copying any of these three.
I'll try to re-work out some math later. I missed Dual Nature triggering itself due to Opalescence the first few times.
I do know the 2nd Doubling Season played will result in giving you a total of 4108+2^4108 Doubling Seasons in play.
(at least I think that's how you represent 2 to the 4108th power on forums and stuff)
Step 4:
Mirror Gallery
Step 5:
Followed by Kiki-Jiki.
One at a time tap each Kiki to copy one of the doubling enchantment-creatures before playing your next Kiki.
Repeat through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Kiki card.
Step 6:
The Furnace of Rath, Boros Reckoner, Ink-Treader Nephilm, Djinn Illuminatus, Earthcraft, Manaflare, Realmwright (naming mountians), Goblin Chieftain, Goblin Chirurgeon, Conspiracy (naiming goblins) and the four Krenko, Mob Boss.
At this point all of your island-mountian will tap for an incredible amount of mana due to the crazy amount manaflare's in play.
The Conspiracy is so Krenko can make more creatures per activation, and marshal to give him haste. Can't forget the Chirurgeon. He's a big player in this too, but his part wait's till the end.
Step 7:
Tap each Krenko, one at a time to increase your creature count.
Using Earthcraft, tap each non-Kiki-Krenko creature to untap your island-mountian for U each time.
Step 8:
Cast Turnabout untapping all creatures, replicating it with all of your mana.
Between each resolution use every Kiki to produce more doubling enchantment-creatures, then every Krenko to produce more goblins, and finally every non-Kiki-Krenko to untap your island-mountian to produce R mana.
Step 9:
Cast Rite of Replication, kicked targeting your Ink-Treader.
Since replicating Rite of Replication won't trigger the Ink-Treader, cast Radiate on Rite, using all of your mana to replicate it.
Between each resolution tap all new Kiki's to copy doubling enchantment-creatures, then all Krenko's to make more goblins.
Repeat from Steps 5, and 7 to 9 three more times.
Step 10:
Cast Praetor's Counsel, then repeat from Steps 5, and 7 to 10 three more times.
Step 11:
Cast Fireball for zero, then cast Past in Flames.
Step 12:
Repeat steps 5, and 7 to 9 using flashback granted from Past in Flames.
This time however the last untapped Kiki should copy Furnace of Rath.
Step 14:
Tap all non-Kiki-Krenko creatures (all Kiki-Krenko's should already be tapped) for Earthcraft making at least one R mana.
Cast Fireball using flashback and all of your mana, targeting a Reckoner. Sacrifice a goblin from Krenko to Goblin Chirurgeon to regenerate that Reckoner. Target another Reckoner and repeat sacing goblins (tokens first, then creatures that no longer have a use) to keep rengenerating and retargeting to Recokners.
Eventually you can sac almost everything to keep one Reckoner alive, but you will also need at least one furnace or there is no point.
The last Reckoner (card) will target opponent.
I have no idea how the math would look for this (as I get lost around the Kiki's,) but I would very much like to see it if someone figures out the equation.
Good point on the lyre.
The everglades are there to help keep my hand full.
I'd love to use the sheets but I don't have one yet. I also lack a Cabal Coffers.
I've thought about using Imp's Mischief, but in my experience I feel I'd be better with Praetor's Grasp.
Yeah I was replying to your post before you had edited it. I had forgotten about Rhystic Tutor and completely overlooked Diabolic Intent. I was unaware of the printing of Dark Petition and I don't have the $$ for Grim Tutor or Cruel Tutor.
I would use Beseech the Queen but 6 life off nauseam is too much with the other two 5 cost in the deck.
I don't have any of those either so that's probably why lol.
Still, I'm going to build the deck to be more durable and reliable rather than try to go infinite.
My group runs unglued cards freely, so it wouldn't be an issue.
You are also forgetting Lotus Petal for another mana and Jet Medallion making all black spells cost 1 less.
This would work except I'm pretty sure you would need a 2nd tutor. Diabolic Tutor is the next best tutor (that I have anyway)
This would leave you 1 mana short. You could add Overeager Apprentice, since he would drop from 3 mana to 2.
However now the problem lies in the loss of life.
Using Organ Harvest and Claws of Gix instead would fix that issue by being able to get all the mana I need while also sacing zombies for life.
However, I myself am trying to lean away from an infinite combo. People tend to paint a bigger targets on your head when your deck does things like that.
My original plans for the deck had Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Mana Crypt, Grim Monolith and Basalt Monolith.
The Vault and Crypt however, are key in another deck based on an absurd Lich's Mirror combo, and the ring found it's way to my Dragon EDH.
I swapped the Grim Monolith with the Ring, and I think it will help make the dragons more consistent as well.
I lack an Everflowing Chalice so that's out for now.
It would be so easy to throw in a Skirge Familiar, but then the deck would likely draw far more attention to itself than it already does.
Plus it would lose the "lol wtf?" factor it has now.
I'm thinking of removing Sickening Dreams for that reason, but it's proved wonderful at clearing the path for a lethal Kagemaro hit.
I'm thinking of adding Praetor's Grasp. If they can deal with my initial wave of zombie, people start to aim to kill/mill my Elixir of Immortality so I can't do it again. Almost everyone here runs there own Elixir.
Casting Ad Nauseam doesn't mean auto-win, so it's good to be able to sustain the abilities of the deck though various disruptions, board wipes and counter spells.
Goblin Lyre is in here partially as comedy, partially as a kill condition for when I throw out 30+- zombies from zombie infestation.
I've yet to have it do more than 2 damage to me but the look on people's faces is priceless.
Grim Monolith is coming out to in favor of Sol Ring for various reasons, but mostly because the monolith feels a little 'clunky' by comparison.
I've been pondering about making an turn 3 deck based on Ad Nauseam for a while, using Maralen of the Mornsong as a general. Then I came across Kagemaro, First to Suffer. I also got bored with the idea of instant win so I altered the list to be more amusing. After my first few games I found it amusing enough that I felt it worth sharing my first draft of the deck.
I was amazed at how consistently I was able to get Ad Nauseam, and how well the deck survived off Kagemaro alone when I didn't.
A few changes that may be worth looking into though, would be adding 0 cost creatures like Ornithropter.
More/better mana acceleration may be useful too. 'Man lands' such as Spawning Pool would be something else to include.
I've also thought about adding Emmessi Tome as well for some card draw.
Edit: I do wish I could edit the title to fix the typos in spelling. -shrugs-
It may sound crazy, but maybe cutting 1 Ironworks for a fabricate? I've still got a long way to go to make my list more reliable, but I know every time I draw a 2nd or 3rd KCI I facepalm a little inside.
However its nothing compared to my problems with land. I'm currently only running 16 lands, and I either get stuck on 2 lands (with no mox to help balance out) or I draw half the land in the deck and stall out. However looking over my list again, I guess it makes sense with only 2 Roar of reclamation's and 1 Open the vault.
Then again, 4:30ish am isn't really the best time to be editing a deck list heh.
I'm actually working a UW list myself to add Mana Tithe, and Momentary Blink. The blink has proven itself amazingly useful, and the tithe can catch people off guard at times. The removal options white adds is also nice, but i need to find the right card for it. Plus lacking shocklands atm is killing my mana base
I pondered modern land kill for a while, but soon gave up after I realized i wont be able to get the key cards for quite some time.
Anyhow, here is what I came up to hopefully give some ideas.
It' far from refined, but it was a nice start. Sadly it will be quite some time before I can get any fetch land, the shaman or even the pyromancers,
so I have returned my attention back to my modern Death cloud and legacy pox.
I managed to make it to FNM at my local store, and placed 7th out of 14. While I'm not happy with placing mid field, I learned a good deal about the weakness in my own deck list, and things I need to work on.
I ran the same list I posted earlier with some changes-
My opponent came ready for standard, so he had to quickly adjust it for modern 30 minutes before we started.
Long story short, for both rounds his mana base can't hold up to the constant small pox and death clouds. The rats destroyed his hand, and when Path to Exile would hit a vampire nighthawk, it would only fuel Death cloud.
I've never played against tron before, and wasn't sure what to expect.
The first game I was busy trying to figure out how to deal with a 2nd Wurmcoil Engine and the tokens from the first one I killed, when Emrakul, the Aeons Torn showed up to end game 1.
Game 2, I pulled out duress and added extirpate and chalice. I did nothing but mis-plays, and gave an easy win for my opponent.
Game 1, I was on the draw and kept a risky hand of 1 swamp, 2 Duress, Bauble, Ravenous Rats, Smallpox and Underworld dreams.
His first turn inquisition, pulling smallpox. I draw a 2nd bauble, duress and see 2Kitchen Finks, Wilt-Leaf Liege, land, and 1 spell I don't even remember what it was now.
The game goes on to my 5th turn before I see a 2nd land, and by then it's too late.
Lesson Learned.
Game 2. Out with duress again, and in with gatekeepers.
Turn 2 I play a rat, only to see the Liege enter play from it, and more finks soon after. I never drew a good answer, and soon got overrun.
Game 1, my opponent takes the lead with 2 soul wardens, 2 Suture Priest and a Serra Ascendant. I only have a Chittering rat, Mimic Vat and vampire Nighthawk. The hawk get's pathed, Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant lands and flips. His following attack leaves me at 8, him over 36. I topdeck my 4th land in a row, and proceed to death cloud for 5 leaving him only Rune-Tail's Essence in play with no hand. I meanwhile have 3 mana and a Vat with an imprinted rat. He doesnt draw a land, so the game ends in my win.
Game 2 shows another swarm of creatures again including Ajani's Pridemate this time, but an early death cloud followed by more rodent's keeping his hand empty gives me the win again.
Over all, I learned 3 important things-
1: While I love Underworld Dreams, it's just not as good in modern as it is in Legacy. There aren't enough draw effects for it.
2:Duress doesn't fit my needs for the deck. Too many times it's failed to hit anything, or been a dead card in my hand. Not having a turn 1 play other than bauble isn't so bad when it leads to a more consistent deck over all.
3:Extirpate doesn't need to hit the card I am going to have trouble with if I can disrupt my opponents ability to find it.
I would like to try 2 Phyrexian Obliterator but I don't have any yet, so that's gonna have to wait. The Rack will be replacing Underworld Dreams, and with that change Phyrexian Arena's seem like a good fit to replace for sign in blood
Crucible of Worlds might also be something to look at too, but for now I'm going to work on tracking down 2 more Phyrexian Arena's.
Exile all but 7 or 8 cards from your deck, one of those needs to be the Mirror.
The rest consist of mana ramp, a way to force yourself to lose the game (usually a card draw works) and a kill spell.
The loop usually works as follows: Play mana ramp, usually Lotus Petal, Mana crypt, Mana Vault, Dark Ritual and/or Seething Song then Lich's Mirror.
Follow up with something that makes you lose such as Faithless Looting or cycling Street Wraith to trigger the Mirror. Shuffle your 7 (or more) cards and draw your 7.
Rinse and repeat as needed. You win by either infinite mana and a big X kill spell, A big storm spell, or make your opponents draw out with Wheel of Fortune
That part is simple enough, the hard part is getting there.
So lets take a look at what I've been testing.
Disclaimer: The deck needs work and any advice is appreciated.
1 Mogis, God of Slaughter
Artifact
1 Chromatic Star
1 Chromatic Sphere
1 Claws of Gix
1 Conch Horn
1 Conjurer's Bauble
1 Eixar of Immortality
1 Feldon's Cane
1 Implements of Sacrifice
1 Lich's Mirror
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mirror of Fate
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Terrarion
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
Black
1 Blood Pet
1 Blood Vassal
1 Contagion
1 Cremate
1 Curse of the Cabal
1 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Collusion
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Dimir Mechinations
1 Doomsday
1 Exsanguinate
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Infernal Contract
1 Night's Whisper
1 Overager Apprentice
1 Plunge into Darkness
1 Rain of Filth
1 Shred Memory
1 Shrouded Lore
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Street Wraith
1 Tainted Pact
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Browbeat
1 Dangerous Wager
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Earthquake
1 Faithless Looting
1 Final Fortune
1 Grapeshot
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Lava Spike
1 Mana Geyser
1 Orcish Librarian
1 Pyrokinesis
1 Recoup
1 Rite of Flame
1 Scrap
1 Seething Song
1 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Slice and Dice
1 Wheel of Fortune
Land
1 Archaeological Dig
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Bog Wreckage
1 Cabal Pit
1 City of Brass
1 Crystal Vein
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Dormant Volcano
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Dwarven Ruins
1 Everglades
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Great Furnace
1 Lantern-lit Graveyard
1 Lotus Vale
1 Mirrodin's Core
1 Molten Slagheap
2 Mountain
1 Polluted Mire
1 Rackdos Carnarium
1 Rainbow Vale
1 Ravaged Highlands
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Smoldering Crater
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Strip Mine
2 Swamp
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Tresserhorn Sinks
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Vault of Whispers
At first glance I'm sure it looks like a random jumble of cantrips, tutors and mana ramp.
Well, ya gotta start somewhere right? I wont explain every card in the deck but I will try to shed enough light to make sense.
Starting off, my choice in general. It was an easy choice for three reasons:
First reason for Mogis, God of Slaughter is that it puts pressure on opponents to sac creatures or take damage.
I will never have enough devotion to get him to become a creature, but his CMC is only a 4 so that's a plus.
Second, Kaervek the Merciless is a hate magnet. The rest of the deck could be all land and he'll still get you killed first and he offers no synergy with the deck.
Third, I thought I had a Tor Wauki but I was mistaken. I suppose I soled or traded it so I'll have to wait till I can pick another up.
Next up, Land choice.
I'm sure at first glance it makes little sense to only have 6 basic land (and 2 snow-covered at that) but I assure you, there is madness to my methods.
Part of it is card access, but the reason for only 2 mountains and 2 swamps is this: Tainted Pact
This card virtually becomes "Exile the top card of your library until you reach the card you want". Basically another Demonnic Consultation with no risk and you can change your mind as you see cards fly past.
In reality I can exile every card in my deck besides the Mirror of Fate (and the mana to play it) and more or less I'll be in good shape.
Hence the Orcish Librarian. He exiles for me, stacks my next draw or two, and can block non-trampling creatures to boot!
On the topic of creatures, I'm trying to stick with ones that self sacrifice (preferably for mana) or have some other use that makes them worth using.
Simian Spirit Guide, Street Wraith and Blood Pet have obvious uses.
Greater Gargadon is often suspended on or just before the combo turn. It, Claws of Gix and Rain of Filth are my best ways of removing permanents from play.
Everything else is either mana ramp, card advantage/exile, a kill spell or cantripping removal.
Some of you may be wondering "Why not run Worldgorger Dragon?" and that's a fair question. My answer is because when I started this project I didn't realize it was commander legal. I had tested the deck with it, but I feel it warps the entire deck to something else entirely. It works, but it didn't feel as fun so I'm not using it.
After several games, I've found three main flaws with the deck that I'm trying to weed out.
First is consistency: In theory, at any point in the game this deck could potentially combo out. I've had one card in hand with four land in play and pulled the combo off. Other times it just flops face first, slowly clawing at itself hoping to do something useful.
Second is vulnerability to hate and/or aggro. When the deck runs quick sometimes it's a non-factor but more often than not I'm flailing to survive as key pieces are stripped out of reach when I need them.
Third is after a while this deck gives you a headache trying to keep track of what is where (exiled, hand, graveyard, deck, in play) mana needed vs. what you have, and risk vs reward of most cards played.
While I know this deck will always wrack the brain, I am hoping to make it more playable, especially if someone at the table has seen it before.
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
4 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Boros Reckoner
1 Djinn Illuminatus
1 Realmwright
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Goblin Chirurgeon
1 Monk Idealist
3 Clone
Artifact: 2
1 Mirror Gallery
1 Mana Crypt
1 Xenograft
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Opalescence
1 Omniscience
4 Copy Enchantment
4 Primal Vigor
4 Doubeling Season
4 Parallel Lives
4 Dual Nature
1 Earthcraft
1 Mana Reflection
1 Leyline of Anticipation
4 Radiate
Sorcery: 12
4 Rite of Replication
4 Praetor's Counsel
1 Enter the Infinite
1 Show and Tell
1 Past in Flames
1 Fireball
Land: 1
1 Island
Mana crypt, Island, Show and Tell, putting Omniscience into play.
Next Opalescence, and Mirror Gallery.
Follow with Enter the Infinite, drawing the rest of the deck.
In this order (there about's)
Dual Nature, Doubling Season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor),
Dual Nature, Doubling Season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor),
Dual Nature, Doubling Season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor),
Dual Nature, Doubling Season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor),
Copy Enchantment targeting Dual Nature, Doubling Season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor),
Copy Enchantment targeting Dual Nature, Doubling Season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor),
Copy Enchantment targeting Dual Nature, Doubling Season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor),
Doubling Season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor)
Copy Enchantment targeting nothing
Each Copy Enchantment coming into play via Dual Nature should copy a Doubling season/Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor card, until the last Dual Nature trigger batch copys Dual Nature.
This sequence will be used repeatedly until the very last cycle.
The last Doubling season (or Parallel Lives/Primal Vigor),
Xenograft (Goblins and Dragons), Goblin Chirurgeon, Leyline of Anticipation.
Monk Idealist. In response to it's ETB trigger, Tap Copy Enchantment to untap your land (when Earthcraft is in play),
and sacrifice it to Goblin Chirurgeon to regenerate a Boros Reckoner (if they are in play. If not, then anything).
The ETB trigger resolves, getting back Copy Enchantment that you then play as an instant repeating step 4.
Repeat this process for every ETB trigger of Monk Idealist tokens.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. In response to anything else on the stack, tap to copy Monk Idealist and repeat step 6.
Repeat for every Kiki-Jiki token and or card as soon as they ETB.
Same for the Clones that will copy kiki.
(Or would it be better to have the clones copy nothing and die being a 0/0 to be replayed later?)
Earthcraft, Mana Reflection, Realmwright (naming Mountian and Forest), Djinn Illuminatus, Boros Reckoner, Furnace of Rath.
Krenko, Mob Boss. Unlike Kiki-Jiki, Krenko is happy to wait until all other Krenko's are in play before tapping to produce tokens.
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. In response to it's EBT effect, tap all non-Kiki-Krenko creatures to untap your land to produce R and G mana in even amounts.
(all Kiki's and Krenko's should already have been used as listed in steps 7 and 9.)
After each untap, repeat steps 7 and 9.
Cast Rite of Replication, kicked targeting one of the following:
Earthcraft, Realmwright, Djinn Illuminatus, Xenograft, Goblin Chirurgeon, Opalescence, Omniscience or Leyline of Anticipation.
Cast Radiate on Rite, using all of your mana to replicate it.
Between each resolution, repeat step 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10.
Repeat three more times.
Praetor's Counsel, replecated with all mana.
Between each resolution, repeat step 11.
(the first round wont get replecated but following ones will)
Cast Fireball for zero, then cast Past in Flames.
Using flashback, repeat step 11.
The very last cycle of step 4, Copy enchantment should copy Furnace of Rath.
Cast Fireball using flashback and all of your mana, targeting a Reckoner. Sacrifice a goblin token to Goblin Chirurgeon to regenerate that Reckoner.
Target another Reckoner and repeat sacing goblins (tokens first, then creatures that no longer have a use) to keep rengenerating and retargeting to Recokners.
In addition I'll remove one of each doubling enchantment to add 3 Dual Natures.
Also I will be removing Conspiracy for Xenograft, Goblin Chieftain for Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
and lastly, Ink-Treader Nephilim with Leyline of Anticipation.
This will result in MUCH higher mana generation, far more creature untappings, and as suggested instant response between replicating Praetor's Counsel with Doubling/Kiki/Rite-Radiate/Replicate/Turnabout fun.
I am sad though that my math skills cannot find the proper equation to represent the amount of damage produced.
Also, I apologize for any typo's and general errors in posting this.
Without further delay, my attempt at the most damage on turn 1 in a 60 card Vintage legal list, no sideboard, perfect opening hand.
Creatures: 14
1 Goblin Chieftain
4 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Boros Reckoner
1 Djinn Illuminatus
1 Ink-Treader Nephilim
1 Realmwright
4 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Goblin Chirurgeon
Artifact: 2
1 Mirror Gallery
1 Mana Crypt
Enchantment: 23
1 Conspiracy
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Opalescence
1 Omniscience
4 Copy Enchantment
4 Primal Vigor
4 Doubling Season
4 Parallel Lives
1 Dual Nature
1 Earthcraft
1 Mana Flare
Instant: 8
4 Radiate
4 Turnabout
Sorcery: 12
4 Rite of Replication
4 Praetor's Counsel
1 Enter the Infinite
1 Show and Tell
1 Past in Flames
1 Fireball
Land: 1
1 Island
Step 1:
Mana crypt, Island, Show and Tell, putting Omniscience into play.
Step 2:
Next Opalescence, and Dual Nature.
Follow with Enter the Infinite, drawing the rest of the deck.
Step 3:
Cast Doubling Season, triggering Dual nature's. Play three more, followed by four Parallel Lives, four Primal Vigor, and finally four Copy Enchantment copying any of these three.
I'll try to re-work out some math later. I missed Dual Nature triggering itself due to Opalescence the first few times.
I do know the 2nd Doubling Season played will result in giving you a total of 4108+2^4108 Doubling Seasons in play.
(at least I think that's how you represent 2 to the 4108th power on forums and stuff)
Step 4:
Mirror Gallery
Step 5:
Followed by Kiki-Jiki.
One at a time tap each Kiki to copy one of the doubling enchantment-creatures before playing your next Kiki.
Repeat through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Kiki card.
Step 6:
The Furnace of Rath, Boros Reckoner, Ink-Treader Nephilm, Djinn Illuminatus, Earthcraft, Manaflare, Realmwright (naming mountians), Goblin Chieftain, Goblin Chirurgeon, Conspiracy (naiming goblins) and the four Krenko, Mob Boss.
At this point all of your island-mountian will tap for an incredible amount of mana due to the crazy amount manaflare's in play.
The Conspiracy is so Krenko can make more creatures per activation, and marshal to give him haste. Can't forget the Chirurgeon. He's a big player in this too, but his part wait's till the end.
Step 7:
Tap each Krenko, one at a time to increase your creature count.
Using Earthcraft, tap each non-Kiki-Krenko creature to untap your island-mountian for U each time.
Step 8:
Cast Turnabout untapping all creatures, replicating it with all of your mana.
Between each resolution use every Kiki to produce more doubling enchantment-creatures, then every Krenko to produce more goblins, and finally every non-Kiki-Krenko to untap your island-mountian to produce R mana.
Step 9:
Cast Rite of Replication, kicked targeting your Ink-Treader.
Since replicating Rite of Replication won't trigger the Ink-Treader, cast Radiate on Rite, using all of your mana to replicate it.
Between each resolution tap all new Kiki's to copy doubling enchantment-creatures, then all Krenko's to make more goblins.
Repeat from Steps 5, and 7 to 9 three more times.
Step 10:
Cast Praetor's Counsel, then repeat from Steps 5, and 7 to 10 three more times.
Step 11:
Cast Fireball for zero, then cast Past in Flames.
Step 12:
Repeat steps 5, and 7 to 9 using flashback granted from Past in Flames.
This time however the last untapped Kiki should copy Furnace of Rath.
Step 14:
Tap all non-Kiki-Krenko creatures (all Kiki-Krenko's should already be tapped) for Earthcraft making at least one R mana.
Cast Fireball using flashback and all of your mana, targeting a Reckoner. Sacrifice a goblin from Krenko to Goblin Chirurgeon to regenerate that Reckoner. Target another Reckoner and repeat sacing goblins (tokens first, then creatures that no longer have a use) to keep rengenerating and retargeting to Recokners.
Eventually you can sac almost everything to keep one Reckoner alive, but you will also need at least one furnace or there is no point.
The last Reckoner (card) will target opponent.
I have no idea how the math would look for this (as I get lost around the Kiki's,) but I would very much like to see it if someone figures out the equation.
The everglades are there to help keep my hand full.
I'd love to use the sheets but I don't have one yet. I also lack a Cabal Coffers.
I've thought about using Imp's Mischief, but in my experience I feel I'd be better with Praetor's Grasp.
It will be a dead card less often.
I would use Beseech the Queen but 6 life off nauseam is too much with the other two 5 cost in the deck.
I don't have any of those either so that's probably why lol.
Still, I'm going to build the deck to be more durable and reliable rather than try to go infinite.
I think if I were to change anything besides swapping in the ring, it would be to add Everglades Lake of the Dead Polluted Mire Spawning Pool, and possibly remove the Goblin Lyre for Emmessi Tome for now.
You are also forgetting Lotus Petal for another mana and Jet Medallion making all black spells cost 1 less.
This would work except I'm pretty sure you would need a 2nd tutor. Diabolic Tutor is the next best tutor (that I have anyway)
This would leave you 1 mana short. You could add Overeager Apprentice, since he would drop from 3 mana to 2.
However now the problem lies in the loss of life.
Using Organ Harvest and Claws of Gix instead would fix that issue by being able to get all the mana I need while also sacing zombies for life.
However, I myself am trying to lean away from an infinite combo. People tend to paint a bigger targets on your head when your deck does things like that.
The Vault and Crypt however, are key in another deck based on an absurd Lich's Mirror combo, and the ring found it's way to my Dragon EDH.
I swapped the Grim Monolith with the Ring, and I think it will help make the dragons more consistent as well.
I lack an Everflowing Chalice so that's out for now.
It would be so easy to throw in a Skirge Familiar, but then the deck would likely draw far more attention to itself than it already does.
Plus it would lose the "lol wtf?" factor it has now.
I'm thinking of removing Sickening Dreams for that reason, but it's proved wonderful at clearing the path for a lethal Kagemaro hit.
I'm thinking of adding Praetor's Grasp. If they can deal with my initial wave of zombie, people start to aim to kill/mill my Elixir of Immortality so I can't do it again. Almost everyone here runs there own Elixir.
Casting Ad Nauseam doesn't mean auto-win, so it's good to be able to sustain the abilities of the deck though various disruptions, board wipes and counter spells.
All good suggestions for additions to the deck. I've thought of adding Everglades and Polluted Mire as well.
I would try Scrying Sheets and switch all my land to Snow-Covered Swamps if I had it (and enough snow swamps).
Goblin Lyre is in here partially as comedy, partially as a kill condition for when I throw out 30+- zombies from zombie infestation.
I've yet to have it do more than 2 damage to me but the look on people's faces is priceless.
Grim Monolith is coming out to in favor of Sol Ring for various reasons, but mostly because the monolith feels a little 'clunky' by comparison.
General
- Kagemaro, First to Suffer
Artifacts
- Elixir of Immortality
- Grim Monolith
- Goblin Lyre
- Ivory Tower
- Jet Medallion
- Library of Leng
- Lotus Petal
Black Spells
- Ad Nauseam
- Brainspoil
- Cabal Ritual
- Dark Ritual
- Demonic Collusion
- Demonic Tutor
- Diabolic Tutor
- Vampiric Tutor
- Sickening Dreams
- Zombie Infestation
Land
- 82 Swamp
I was amazed at how consistently I was able to get Ad Nauseam, and how well the deck survived off Kagemaro alone when I didn't.
A few changes that may be worth looking into though, would be adding 0 cost creatures like Ornithropter.
More/better mana acceleration may be useful too. 'Man lands' such as Spawning Pool would be something else to include.
I've also thought about adding Emmessi Tome as well for some card draw.
Edit: I do wish I could edit the title to fix the typos in spelling. -shrugs-
However its nothing compared to my problems with land. I'm currently only running 16 lands, and I either get stuck on 2 lands (with no mox to help balance out) or I draw half the land in the deck and stall out. However looking over my list again, I guess it makes sense with only 2 Roar of reclamation's and 1 Open the vault.
Then again, 4:30ish am isn't really the best time to be editing a deck list heh.
Anyhow, here is what I came up to hopefully give some ideas.
4 Inquisition of Kozalek
4 Molten Rain
2 Plunder
4 Roiling Terrain
4 Smallpox
2 Sowing Salt
3 Wrecking Ball
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Blood Crypt
3 Dragonskull Summit
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Ghost Quarter
5 Mountian
4 Swamp
It' far from refined, but it was a nice start. Sadly it will be quite some time before I can get any fetch land, the shaman or even the pyromancers,
so I have returned my attention back to my modern Death cloud and legacy pox.
I ran the same list I posted earlier with some changes-
4 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Chittering Rats
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Damnation
3 Death Cloud
3 Duress
4 Smallpox
3 Sign in Blood
2 Syphon Life
3 Underworld Dreams
18 Swamp
2 Pithing Needle
2 Extirpate
1 Death cloud
4 Gatekeeper of Malark
4 Victim of Night
My opponent came ready for standard, so he had to quickly adjust it for modern 30 minutes before we started.
Long story short, for both rounds his mana base can't hold up to the constant small pox and death clouds. The rats destroyed his hand, and when Path to Exile would hit a vampire nighthawk, it would only fuel Death cloud.
I've never played against tron before, and wasn't sure what to expect.
The first game I was busy trying to figure out how to deal with a 2nd Wurmcoil Engine and the tokens from the first one I killed, when Emrakul, the Aeons Torn showed up to end game 1.
Game 2, I pulled out duress and added extirpate and chalice. I did nothing but mis-plays, and gave an easy win for my opponent.
Game 1, I was on the draw and kept a risky hand of 1 swamp, 2 Duress, Bauble, Ravenous Rats, Smallpox and Underworld dreams.
His first turn inquisition, pulling smallpox. I draw a 2nd bauble, duress and see 2Kitchen Finks, Wilt-Leaf Liege, land, and 1 spell I don't even remember what it was now.
The game goes on to my 5th turn before I see a 2nd land, and by then it's too late.
Lesson Learned.
Game 2. Out with duress again, and in with gatekeepers.
Turn 2 I play a rat, only to see the Liege enter play from it, and more finks soon after. I never drew a good answer, and soon got overrun.
Game 1, my opponent takes the lead with 2 soul wardens, 2 Suture Priest and a Serra Ascendant. I only have a Chittering rat, Mimic Vat and vampire Nighthawk. The hawk get's pathed, Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant lands and flips. His following attack leaves me at 8, him over 36. I topdeck my 4th land in a row, and proceed to death cloud for 5 leaving him only Rune-Tail's Essence in play with no hand. I meanwhile have 3 mana and a Vat with an imprinted rat. He doesnt draw a land, so the game ends in my win.
Game 2 shows another swarm of creatures again including Ajani's Pridemate this time, but an early death cloud followed by more rodent's keeping his hand empty gives me the win again.
Over all, I learned 3 important things-
1: While I love Underworld Dreams, it's just not as good in modern as it is in Legacy. There aren't enough draw effects for it.
2: Duress doesn't fit my needs for the deck. Too many times it's failed to hit anything, or been a dead card in my hand. Not having a turn 1 play other than bauble isn't so bad when it leads to a more consistent deck over all.
3: Extirpate doesn't need to hit the card I am going to have trouble with if I can disrupt my opponents ability to find it.
I would like to try 2 Phyrexian Obliterator but I don't have any yet, so that's gonna have to wait. The Rack will be replacing Underworld Dreams, and with that change Phyrexian Arena's seem like a good fit to replace for sign in blood
Crucible of Worlds might also be something to look at too, but for now I'm going to work on tracking down 2 more Phyrexian Arena's.