Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Life in the Fast Lane, Part 2



PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!

 itty bitty living space 


When last we left off, a shell based on the following deck was suggested as a good place to start for building ultra-slow combos:


“Simo Häyhä” (14 cards)
Grove of the Burnwillows
Vesuva
Hidden Path
Serra's Sanctum
Celestial Dawn
Golden Urn
Nuisance Engine
Goblin Sharpshooter
Murderous Betrayal


A quick recap of the key ideas behind this shell:


  • Murderous Betrayal, an essential piece of the kill combo, requires black mana, which the deck doesn't have access to.
  • Celestial Dawn can get around that restriction, but the deck doesn't have easy access to white mana, either.
  • Serra's Sanctum can provide the needed to cast Celestial Dawn, but only if there are enchantments in play.
  • The only enchantments are two copies of Hidden Path, which have hefty green mana requirements.
  • The only sources of green mana are (effectively) six copies of Grove of the Burnwillows.
  • Tapping Grove of the Burnwillows for gains the opponent life, each point of which causes the kill combo to take exponentially longer to finish, since you then need to gain twice as much life from Golden Urn to feed Murderous Betrayal.


Fortunately, Serra's Sanctum isn't the only land of its kind. Just as Serra's Sanctum requires enchantments to make mana, Tolarian Academy needs artifacts, and Gaea's Cradle needs creatures. Armed with those lands and some fancy footwork, it might just to be possible to make the Celestial Dawn bootstrapping process considerably more circuitous, all the while gaining the opponent even more ridiculous sums of life.

With that goal in mind, surely one of the most interesting things a slow deck can do is power up Gaea's Cradle with Walls of Shards. A disappointingly small number of Walls would suffice to cast Hidden Path, but if Mind Over Matter is substituted as the Serra's Sanctum-enabling enchantment, we can set a much higher bar for Gaea's Cradle mana by being forced to cast expensive artifacts with it. (In essence, inefficiently filtering green mana into blue mana via Tolarian Academy and Mind Over Matter.)

In a stroke of truly phenomenal luck, not only is the most expensive card in the game an artifact, it has a prohibitively expensive upkeep! With almost any artifact other than Draco, you only need to accrue enough mana to cast one per turn. Draco's upkeep ensures that's not an option, and also ensures attacking with Draco isn't a viable game plan.

The only source of mana rich enough to pay the upkeep on Draco is Gaea's Cradle. But the Cradle can only be tapped once per turn, and mana empties from mana pools between the upkeep phase and the first main phase. For there to be any possibility of Tolarian Academy generating enough blue mana to cast Mind Over Matter, four copies of Draco have to be cast on the same turn, all at once, while leaving Tolarian Academy untapped.

There are a few more subtleties to iron out in order to turn this kernel of an idea into a full-fledged, working concept, but here's a list that manages to do just that:


“Mostly Shardless” (23 cards)

Lands
Ancient Ziggurat
Gaea's Cradle
Glimmervoid
Halls of Mist
Serra's Sanctum
Tolarian Academy

Creatures
Draco
Wall of Shards

Spells
Boggart Shenanigans
Breeding Pit
Celestial Dawn
Conspiracy
Followed Footsteps
Mind Over Matter
Murderous Betrayal
Rejuvenation Chamber
War Report


Even with the complete deck list, and knowing how the cards are supposed to interact, it's certainly not trivial to figure out how to fit all the pieces together into a functioning whole. If you're up for a bit of a challenge, try to work out for yourself how long the deck takes to win (or how it wins at all, for that matter), then read on for my own turn-by-turn analysis.


+ Turn 1
Main
  • Play Ancient Ziggurat
  • Available mana —
Notes — Nothing else to do here, as there are no 1-mana spells in the deck.
+ Turn 2
Main
  • Play Glimmervoid
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Wall of Shards 1
End Step
  • Sacrifice Glimmervoid
Notes — The sacrificial Glimmervoid is unavoidable. Using it to cast Wall of Shards is the only way to get a creature onto the battlefield to bootstrap Gaea's Cradle.
+ Turn 3
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 1 life (20 → 21) from the Wall of Shards trigger
Main
  • Play Gaea's Cradle
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Wall of Shards 2
+ Turn 4
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 2+1=3 life (21 → 24)
Main
  • Play Tolarian Academy
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Wall of Shards 3
+ Turn 5
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 3+2+1=6 life (24 → 30)
Main
  • Play Serra's Sanctum
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Rejuvenation Chamber 1
  • Gain 2 life from Rejuvenation Chamber 1 (20 → 22)
NotesRejuvenation Chamber couldn't be played until now, since Ancient Ziggurat mana can't be used to cast it.
+ Turn 6
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 4+3+2=9 life (30 → 39)
  • Remove a counter from Rejuvenation Chamber 1 (2 → 1)
Main
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Rejuvenation Chamber 2
  • Gain 4 life (22 → 26)
Notes — The Rejuvenation Chambers are essential as a temporary source of blue mana for Followed Footsteps that don't stick around long enough to help with Mind Over Matter.
+ Turn 7
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 5+4+3=12 life (39 → 51)
  • Gain 4 life (26 → 30)
  • Remove a counter from Rejuvenation Chamber 1 (1 → 0)
  • Remove a counter from Rejuvenation Chamber 2 (2 → 1)
Main
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Followed Footsteps targeting Wall of Shards
Notes — Many turns from now, the Walls of Shards will all be sacrificed on the same turn, so it doesn't matter which one is enchanted.
+ Turn 8
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 6+5+4=15 life (51 → 66)
  • Gain 4 life (30 → 34)
  • Sacrifice Rejuvenation Chamber 1
  • Remove a counter from Rejuvenation Chamber 2 (1 → 0)
  • Followed Footsteps creates a token copy (4) of Wall of Shards
Main
  • Available mana —
+ Turn 9
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 7+6+5+1=19 life (66 → 85)
  • Gain 2 life (34 → 36)
  • Sacrifice Rejuvenation Chamber 2
  • Wall of Shards 5 enters the battlefield
Main
  • Available mana —
+ Turn 10
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 8+7+6+2+1=24 life (85 → 109)
  • Wall of Shards 6 enters the battlefield
Main
  • Available mana —
Notes — At this point, there isn't anything to do until Gaea's Cradle can generate enough mana to cast four copies of Draco ... at the same time.

+ Turn 68
Upkeep
  • Opponent gains 2025 life (42251 → 44276)
  • Wall of Shards 64 enters the battlefield
Main
  • Available mana — , 64×,
  • Cast 4× Draco
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Mind Over Matter
Notes — At last! Gaea's Cradle can produce enough mana to cast 4× Draco, which allows the still untapped Tolarian Academy to produce the necessary to cast Mind Over Matter (together with from Serra's Sanctum and a surplus from Gaea's Cradle, as was used for one of the Dracos.)
+ Turn 69
Upkeep
  • Wall of Shards 65 enters the battlefield
  • Tap Gaea's Cradle to pay Draco upkeeps
  • Sacrifice Walls of Shards 1-64
  • Opponent gains 0 life!
Main
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Celestial Dawn
  • Play Halls of Mist
  • Cast Conspiracy, naming Goblin
Combat
  • Attack for 36 (44276 → 44240)
Notes — It's not actually necessary to pay upkeep on the Dracos and attack for 36, but it is the optimal way to play the deck. This can only be done once, however, because the Dracos can't possibly outpace the lifegain from the Walls of Shards, so the walls can't be allowed to live to continue to pay upkeep costs.
+ Turn 70
Upkeep
  • Sacrifice all four Dracos
  • Sacrifice the residual Wall of Shards
Main
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Breeding Pit
End Step
  • Thrull token 1 enters the battlefield
Notes — The tokens are Thrull in name only, as they are white due to Celestial Dawn and Goblins due to Conspiracy.
+ Turn 71
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
Main
  • Available mana —
  • Cast Murderous Betrayal
End Step
  • Thrull token 2 enters the battlefield
Notes — From this point forward, at the start of each turn, available mana will always be , and it may be spent as though it were mana of any color.
+ Turn 72
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
Main
  • Cast Boggart Shenanigans
End Step
  • Thrull token 3 enters the battlefield
+ Turn 73
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
Main
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal targeting Thrull token 1
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (36 → 18)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (44240 → 44239) with Boggart Shenanigans
End Step
  • Thrull token 4 enters the battlefield (3 total remaining)
+ Turn 74
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
Main
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal targeting Thrull token 2
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (18 → 9)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (44239 → 44238) with Boggart Shenanigans
End Step
  • Thrull token 5 enters the battlefield (3 total remaining)
+ Turn 75
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
Main
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal targeting Thrull token 3
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (9 → 4)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (44238 → 44237) with Boggart Shenanigans
End Step
  • Thrull token 6 enters the battlefield (3 total remaining)
+ Turn 76
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
Main
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal targeting Thrull token 4
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (4 → 2)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (44237 → 44236) with Boggart Shenanigans
End Step
  • Thrull token 7 enters the battlefield (3 total remaining)
+ Turn 77
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
Main
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal targeting Thrull token 5
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (2 → 1)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (44236 → 44235) with Boggart Shenanigans
End Step
  • Thrull token 8 enters the battlefield (3 total remaining)
Notes — The initial life pool now exhausted, the real waiting begins ...
+ Turn 78
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
End Step
  • Thrull token 9 enters the battlefield (4 total remaining)

+ Turn 244235+73
Upkeep
  • Pay for Breeding Pit
End Step
  • Thrull token 244235+4 enters the battlefield (244235-1 total remaining)
+ Turn 244235+74
Upkeep
  • Sacrifice Breeding Pit
Main
  • Cast War Report
  • Gain 244235-1 life (1 → 244235)
+ Turn 244235+75
Main
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (244235 → 244235/21)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (44235 → 44234)
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (244235/21 → 244235/22)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (44234 → 44233)

+ Turn 244235+22191
Main
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (244235/244232 → 244235/244233)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (3 → 2)
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (244235/244233 → 244235/244234)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (2 → 1)
+ Turn 244235+22192
Main
  • Activate Murderous Betrayal
  • Pay half your life, rounded up (244235/244234 → 244235/244235)
  • Deal 1 damage to opponent (1 → 0)


Victory! But can we do better? Continue on to Part 3 for a deck that makes this one look downright speedy.

2 comments:

  1. Hey, I love the deck, but I think your enchantment count is wrong for Serra's Sanctum. On Turn 70 I count a Mind over Matter, a Celestial Dawn, and a Conspiracy in play. Gaea's Cradle produces 0, as you have sacrificed all your creatures. Tolarian Academy produces 0, as you have no artifacts. Halls of Mist you never mention paying the upkeep for, and doesn't tap for mana anyway. Glimmervoid was sacrificed at the beginning. Ancient Ziggurat mana must still be spent on creatures.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Lands you control are Plains."
      Celestial Dawn (Cast on turn 69)

      "A land with a basic land type has the intrinsic ability “{T}: Add [mana symbol] to your mana pool,” even if the text box doesn’t actually contain that text or the object has no text box."
      Magic Comprehensive Rules, 305.6

      "If an effect sets a land’s subtype to one or more of the basic land types, the land no longer has its old land type. It loses all abilities generated from its rules text and its old land types, and it gains the appropriate mana ability for each new basic land type."
      Magic Comprehensive Rules, 305.7

      Delete