Door to Nothingness was actually first printed in Fifth Dawn, almost 10 years before M13. Battle of Wits was also MUCH older than M13, it was first printed in Odyssey, which was out in 2001...
Dreznin YES PRECISELY it makes me petty dang sad how much of magic is forfeit, unless a card was seen in the last 5 years it might as well be as rare as a Mirage. I mean, FOR FUCK'S SAKE if you're going to list Battle of Wits THEN LIST THE OTHER ALT WIN CONDITION CYCLE CARDS. EPIC STRUGGLE ELF/SQUIRREL TOKEN GENERATION DECK PLEASE
im wondering the same as yes it might be too slow for a competitive game but in a casual game this would not be too hard to pull off. theres also 4 or 5 more cards that could easily be on this list.
+Will lowry prismatic omen causes all lands you control to count as all basic land types, so it will work with coalition victory. that's why you're able to pull it off so quick.
I actually won a 5 player Commander game with Mayael's Aria from Alara Reborn. An enchantment for WRG, it goes like tbis: At he beginning of your upkeep, if you control a creature with power 5 or greater, all creatures you control get a +1/+1 counter. Then if you control a creature with power 10 or greater, you gain 10 life. Then if you control a creature with power 20 or greater, you win the game.
I remember someone that had a battle of wits deck that used "bring card from outside of the game into your hand" and "discard cards to top of library instead of graveyard" along with an infinite mana trick to get it to work. It was a while ago, and even then used cards that were only allowed in a casual setting.
Coming up on the 10th anniversary of my favorite alt win card - Mayael's Aria. Whether you get to use its alt win or not, it has a lot of nice little features for a creature-heavy deck. Recently, it's found a good home in a fun infinite life deck that pairs Archangel of Thune with Spike Feeder. If, for some reason, infinite life and infinitely powerful creatures aren't enough to win out-right, sing the aria to finish the game.
Been on the receiving end of a Divine Intervention when I had advantage but the other player had defense (Circle of Protection comes to mind). Interesting the first time, but it would be boring to have it resolve again and again.
The only time I have ever seen someone win with Barren Glory was when they exiled it with Oblivion Ring and then casted Worldfire. That's almost the only way I can really see how you can easily pull it off.
I run kaerveks spite and academy rector, to win with barren glory in edh Have academy rector out, play kaerveks spite during end phase of turn before yours sacrifice rector and everything else, search for glory, win
Huh. I actually use two of those. Azor's Elocutors in a Oriss, Samite Guardian lockdown deck, and the Laboratory Maniac in a Patron of the Moon Commander deck.
4:26 not exactly what you could do is use some cards that first give you more than 1 mana, tap almost all your manna toward this every turn, if you pay like 10 mana per turn on average you win in 10 turns yes this is a long time but it would work really well in an elves deck. where you can use low cost creatures and land, making you able to place more mana per turn. (Edit: I'm not trying to be the know-it-all in the comments I just saw a good use for the card.)
I thought a rule said "there are no deck size, but you have to be able to shuffle the deck yourself without assistance".... How the blurp do one shuffle a sleeved 200 card deck? How large do your hands have to be to do this?
Typically you split it into a couple piles, shuffle the piles, and then awkwardly mash them together a bit. It's been played at Grand Prix and Jon Finkel even played it at the 2002 Magic Invitational (the old tournaments where the winner got immortalized on a card, Jens Thoren won that year and became Solemn Simulacrum).
Yeah the final awkward shuffling of the entire pile counts, it doesn't matter if part of your shuffle is working the deck in smaller parts, so long as some amount of the shuffling is the entire deck. As long you can do the whole thing in a reasonable time you're all good. Source: Am a judge
Oh, there's also a really fun Battle of Wits deck courtesy of M14. You throw in 4x Battle of Wits, as much blue and black card draw as you can get in your preferred format, 4x Runescarred Demons... and then 100-something Shadowborn Apostles and lands as appropriate. The idea is to just throw Shadowborn Apostles at every threat until you've built up 6 of them and the mana for Battle of Wits. Sac the Apostles to grab Runescarred Demon, Runescarred Demon fetches Battle of Wits. You can throw in some basic blue and black control to keep your opponent off your back while your ridiculous plan goes off too.
Play Wild Pair. Play Biovisionary. Play Clone Legion. Win. 6 for Wild Pair (2 green, 4 of any), 3 for Biovisionary (1 green, 1 blue, 1 any), and 9 for Clone Legion (2 blue, 7 any), so you can pull it off with 16 mana... I'd say pretty cheap for a 1 turn win, and it's just a 2 colored deck that it requires :D
Near-Death Experience is probably best used if you have a way to both gain life and lose life in your own deck. If you can control what your life total is at the end of your opponents turn, you can take your own life total to 1. The life gain would be there to protect against any sort of burn action in response to you taking yourself down to 1.
One of many alternate win-cons in an old Child of Alara commander deck I had. Definitely the most fun to resolve. That whole deck was fun, I should make it again some time.
For #2 use a black and blue deck, because some black cards have you exile stuff from ur hand (or add red for nicol bolas the god-pharaoh). And use “looters” (creature that have tap: target player draws (insert # here) cards and discard (insert same #here), such as merfolk looter. And you know the rest.
I actually found and watched this while tuning a battle of wits deck! When I saw it, I thought "well, I know what my number one is..." And actually thought it was what you were going to say for the honorable mention because of shuffling rules in turnements now.
(i know this is from a few years ago but I still want to comment) I have run a Laboratory Maniac (self-mill) deck and won quite often, the downside is I could only do it once per opponent. i would run a simple blue deck with scab cards that milled my deck fast, I also had a few copies of Codex Shredder that helped me Mill my deck AND help me find a Laboratory Maniac. Also kept a few revival cards in case. my downside is while i had scabs, there gennerally weak and can easly be rolled over if the opponate knows im running it.
I heard a funny Battle of Wits deck idea a long time ago. It was based on the ruling that states, "In a casual game, the cards you cast from outside the game come from your personal collection." It was a Spawnsire of Ulamog deck, and a shoebox with 200 copies of the original big three Eldrazi. Mana ramp, Spawnsire of Ulamog, Eldrazi shoebox, Legend rule, Eldrazi to the graveyard, Eldrazi to your library, Battle of Wits. Bewilder your opponent while you filter out your deck again.
There's actually a combo deck I've seen with Battle of Wits. You run four copies of it of course, as well as 200+ copies of Shadowborn Apostle. Then you run four of this one demon card that adds any card from your deck to your hand when you play it. I think it's like "Rune-Scarred Demon" I think. Search for Battle of Wits and play it on turn five for game
I absolutely love alternate win condition cards. I have played a Battle of Wits deck (in paper, no less!), and it is a: impossible to shuffle, but b: so much fun. My personal favorite is Mortal Combat. Toss in some cycling creatures, Avatar of Discord, and a few things that take advantage of a fat graveyard *cough*Cairn Wanderer*cough*, and you have one fun deck. Weirdly, it is better if it is over 60 cards - mine is 100. Also, I am now interested in making a standard alternate win condition deck with both Mechanized Production and Revel in Riches.
For barren glory If you use dimensional breech it gets rid of all permanents and you get to bring one back each upkeep so if you had no cards in hand after that you win.
Limon Tree had a buddy that used lab man with several of those cards "name a card reveal cards until you reveal name card" and out them in graveyard....and the merfolk that tap to draw 😒
I've seen some modern Helix Pinnacle decks win by locking the board, neither opponent can cast a spell, but you can still (slowly) tick up helix pinnacle. It's not a full lock since you still advance the game state, but basically the opponent is likely to concede before you actually tick up Helix.
I think I remember one guy playing Battle of Wits. Saw him shuffle it and it was in 3 separate piles at all times. With all the sleeves it would fall over if he tried to stack them all together. It was quite amazing and won one or two games.
About Barren Glory.. One way to pull it off is put in O-Ring or something else like that. The use Apocalypse. Exiles everything on the field (except barren glory) and you'll have to discard your hand.
I made a legacy deck that is based on the elves shell that can (with minimal sacrifices from the original list) win with Hedron Allignment on turn two or three with the usual elves engine. It'll draw your entire deck so you can guarantee you'll have all the Hedron Allignments. You use Scavenging ooze and careful study to dump your two excess Hedron Alignments, exile one with scavenging ooze, use your ridiculous amounts of free mana to cast one, then use Savor the Moment to take your extra turn for the upkeep trigger to win!
Door to nothingness was originally printed in the Mirrodin block. Can't remember if it was Mirrodin itself or Fifth Dawn, but it's earlier than M13 for sure.
I had a deck I called "The Big deck of Ooh Shiny!" It had 300+ cards in it. It was 4 colors (Everything but Black) 4 Darksteel ingots, Mana-generators of all sorts, dual lands, a Platinum Angel, a Memnarch, Four of the "Bringers of the (X) Sun" from Mirrodin, Wonder, Valor, The Red and Green Incarnations that I can't remember, and every alternate win condition card I could get my hands on. (Darksteel Reactor, That Lion Monster that let you win at 40 life "R-something", Near-death Experience, and Battle of Wits among them) It started as Starter Deck from Mirrodin called "Spare Parts" I think? It was the starter deck that was based entirely on the Modular ability. And I just started adding cards into it that I thought were cool looking or neat effects, occasionally adding land cards to attempt to balance it out. At first it was to attempt to make a Modular counter generator, but it just grew. Yes, the deck was inefficient as hell, and yes, I didn't win with it all that often, but man was it a blast to play. No two games with it were ever the same! And one of my fellow players tore his hair out when I shut down his Hedron Crab Allies mill deck with the simple addition of the Eldrazi Legendaries into it. I actually kind of miss it now, as it was dismantled to build a green mana-ramp Eldrazi deck that can use Spawnsire of Ulamog for a 200+ damage/~93 Annihilator Beatstick-win (Spawnsire, 20 mana ability, cast for free a special side-deck of all Eldrazi cards, including "Emrakul, The Aeons Torn" so that my turn restarts once I end Turn and I can immediately swing with everything I just cast, wiping the field with annihilator and trampling anything left into dust.) Again, hard as shit to actually win with, but sooooo satisfying the few times I actually pulled it off.
I have a friend that actually has a Barren Glory deck. He had been working on it for a long time and it's actually pretty dangerous if you aren't prepared for it. Been a while since my friends and I have played magic (since the end of Lorwyn block I think) so I can't remember exactly how he pulls it off but he has beaten all of us multiple times with the deck. Edit: Just seen your #1 and I was hoping Battle of Wits was here. I tried a bunch to win with it back in the day. Once I finally won with it I deconstructed the deck and never played it again lol. It was like something on my magic bucket list.
I had a helix tower standard deck that got me first place every friday night at my local card shop. I ran it as the primary win condition in a turbo fog deck utilizing Reliquary Tower, howling mines, mana reflections, and idyllic tutors.
My favorite is Myael's Aria in my Myael EDH deck. It is a bit clunky, but it gives the deck a fun way to win that also aids in the standard "attack with creatures, do damage" plan. Plus, when some stalls out with Island Sanctuary and its ilk, my creature deck is still heading towards victory. (:
Barren Glory actually has a *really* significant change from The Cheese Stands Alone - it only triggers on your upkeep. The Cheese Stands Alone triggers any time you don't have a hand or other permanents, and instantly wins the game. Barren Glory you have to survive to the start of your own upkeep for it to work.
Oh god "Near Death Experience" plus the enchantment "Worship" which makes it so you can't go below 1 life so long as you control a creature O.o I'm glad a certain someone I know doesn't know this card exists Azor's Elecutors is a card I've physically seen but don't own yet, but I want it. There are cards that manipulate counters and have texts like "choose a card with counters on it, add 1 counter to it of each counter type it has." Throw the Elecutors down and spam counter advancement like that for an easy win
Maze's End, Chance Encounter, Mortal Combat, Epic Struggle, Test of Endurance Hive Mind + Future Sight Pact, Felidar Sovereign, and Darksteel Reactor. Odyssey came out with three you win the game cards, and judgement had the missing colors. All of which cost 4 mana, with the exception of Battle of Wits.
The correct way to win with Helix Pinnacle is in an EDH deck with Omnath as the commander. You can pump up Omnath over a few turns with things like Nissa's ult to get a bunch of Elves on the field, get them worried over things like Multikicking Wolfbriar Elemental or other token generators or Trample or something... and then, when you have 101 Green Mana, pop this down for 1 and pay X as 100 for an instant victory they may well not be able to stop because of Shroud. Even if you do fail because, I don't know, a counterspell or a boardwipe, you still have all that mana and can likely just recover from anything they pull. You'll pop the Omnath back out for a few mana, no matter what happens. Then pop Helix back out of the grave (Elixir of Immortality is nice as a backup in case they boardwipe you, or keeping a spare "if this gets into the grave shuffle it back into the library" guy around) and continue. I used to play a lot of casual multiplayer EDH where people used a lot of really silly decks, and one of them was an Omnath deck built around a lot of the sillier things as opposed to massed Eldrazi or the obvious and more dull uses, and that one always sticks out.
Last time I played a lot was when Near-Death Experience was legal. I had a deck that could reliably win about a third of the time in casual games with it. It's trickier than you make it sound because it's at the beginning of your upkeep. So you have to survive a full turn from your opponent with it on the board if you were already at 1 or you had to manipulate it on their turn. I went with Red-Blue-White and used a bunch of survivable blocking minions that could mitigate single points of damage with effects and red to burn myself for assorted values. Also Armillary SPhere to hunt for the three plains needed to play the enchantment.
I've won many edh games with paradigm shift+ lab maniac... Hexil Pinnacle + a basalt monolith and power artifact also in edh... I have also won a few matches with a flicker battle or wits deck, but most of the games with the 400 card deck were long over before getting battle of wits (omniscience is a wonderful combo enabler in huge decks. My turns easily took 10 plus minutes due to multiple triggers and responses)
I run 4x Scour, Twincast, Auramancer, Pull from Eternity, and Call to Mind in order to fetch then align the Hedrons. The other 40 some cards are control.
I've won with Helix pinnacle on turn 7. It was a perfect storm of elvish archdruids, mana ramping, two rites of reflection, one primeval titan and one prophet of kruphix. It was fantastic. Although, it has never happened again as my friends now know what to expect.
Felidar Sovereign is a good alternate win condition. Getting up to 40 live is quite achievable in White & Green especially with the tools that Modern gives you.
Phage counts as an alternate win condition. Why wouldn't she? If you can meet her requirements, all the other usual things that would normally keep your opponent alive no longer matter. Yes, if Phage deals combat damage to a player, she kills them but that's still an alternate win condition because the amount of damage she inflicts is irrelevant. ANY combat damage dealt to a player is enough to kill them. Your opponent could have 150 life and Phage could only deal 1 combat damage to them and she'd still win you the game.
In unglued : You can use Frankie Peanuts to ask a yes or no question at the beginning of your upkeed to your oponnent who have to answer and abide by his answer if possible until end of turn. You ask "Are you going to answer yes or no to my next question?" then in your turn you play Topsy Turvy that reverse the order of the phases of a turn which allow you to get back to your upkeep without hitting any end of turn. So you get to ask a second question. If he said "yes" to your first question then you ask "Are you going to forfeit the game" to which he must answer "yes" again since he already said he would and per the effect of Frankie Peanuts he also must then really forfeit the game since he now said he would. If he said "no" to the first question, then you ask "Do you want to keep pretending you can win and continue playing against me?"
Biovisionary definitely has a place in EDH, despite the singleton requirement. I run it in Riku of the Two Reflections, because that deck wants creatures that you get a lot of value out of copying, and then runs a bunch of clone, blink, and bounce effects to get as many of those copies as possible.
Hedron alignment victory: build a deck with at least 40 lands, have mana severance to exile them all (except for 3/4 that you probably have in hand), you now have only 15ish card in your deck, 4 of them are alignments, 3 are mana severances, you now have just 8 cards to exile an alignment and discarding one (obsessive research makes you draw 2 and discard 2, 4 card remained to exile an alignment). If you want to be sure to have mana severance in hand place a couple of tutors and you've done an hedron alignment deck
Back when Unglued was still fun to play in my playgroup, I actually won a few games with The Cheese Stands Alone (and no, Barren Glory does NOT cut it) by combining it with Island Sanctuary (to keep my opponents off my back), various burn burns, and then, when I had enough mana, firing off a Jokulhaups or Obliterate with enough mana left over to kill the Sanctuary and leave the Cheese all by itself. The first time I pulled this off, my friends looked at me first with disgust, then amazement as they were beaten by an Unglued card. Totally fun, give it a try sometime. If your friends make you use Barren Glory.... eh, I'll allow it. Happy deck building!
I play a 5 color superfriends commander deck that just happens to feature progenitus (I know it's weird but it works) Door to nothingness would fit in fine, especially since there are plainswalkers that lets you untap target permanent.
My favorite is Mortal Combat (Torment, upkeep: Twenty or more creature cards in graveyard, you win) combined with Iname, Death Aspect (Champs of Kamigawa: Upon play, discard from your deck as many Spirit cards as you wish).
Hmmm, I think Maze's End would also be a quite interesting addition to this list. You build the deck with tons of land and many large artifact creatures and walls. Drawing Maze's end at the beginning of the game guarentees a win in 14 rounds or less, but can become as low as 7 rounds.
My favorite win condition is having Felidar sovereign and truce conviction out. A good way to get alot of health and then you win once you hit 40 or more.
I'm pretty sure there are cards that allow you to "untap target artifact" or target card. Use one of those with Door To Nothingness and you could win on the turn you play it.
Nice vid. Just dont agree with number 1 since you can argue if that deck is even legal due to shuffle timing conditions.so for me doesnt make much sense to put such a huge deck in play.
+Umpalumpa Boda Check out Hall of Famer Jon Finkel's deck, it's definitely been played in top level events :) www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/mi02/stdecks There's also a video available from an SCG Legacy event of Show & Tell vs Battle of Wits.
I run helix pinnacle in a commander deck and it works as a nice win through Sasya. I've seen it work with Rhys the Redeemed and Llanowar Mentor as well... Playing it turn one really sends a message, even if the message is "warning, very janky combo coming"... Biovisionary has won me a bunch of commander games too, there's just so much creature search from green and clone from blue that it's surprisingly easy to pull off... There's also spy kit to get some more fake copies. :)
CHeese stands alone does remind me of my childhood games. Biggest issue was understanding what a permanent was as it wasn't common terms back then, and manuals didn't seem to explain it. Which allowed me to play it and win with it while still having lands I believe. Ignorance is bliss.
I have and have won with both a maze's end and Azorzs elloqutors decks. Love battle of wits too. Alt win conditions are fun. Trying to figure out Hedron Allingnment in my starfield of nix deck.
I was about to say: "Because it's possible, to get there", but he included the maniac in this deck, and there are competitive decks using the maniac... So, i agree with you: Should be on the list!
my white green life gain evolves mostly around Felidar. Of course the sub population is an alternative win condition as well. If i have plans on going all out that deck is my trump card.
My first draft ever I first picked Azor's Elocutors because I thought if it was a rare it must be good right? I proceeded to draft a weird three color deck of only fogs defenders and anything with more toughness than power. I 2-0'd my first two matches and then lost to a flier deck in the finals. Several of the local draft grinders told me they'd never seen anyone win a single match using the card so even though I went 2-1 I was pretty proud of myself haha
I've got Helix Pinacle in a Very Rampy Tiny Leaders brew I am working on. Epic Struggle fits into Rhys the Reedmed EDH I've always wanted to win with Azors Elocutors which shouldn't be hard if you had a format with enough Proliforate... But I would say my Favorite Alternate win condition is indeed Labnoratory Maniac. I played the heck out of him when he was in standard and even won a few games.
While not a win condition, I'm quite the fan of managing to play Enter the Infinite and Omniscience. If you've got cards that recycle your graveyard into your deck, and cards that grant extra turns, and tons and tons of stall/draw, you basically win... If you can play it.
I actually tried to come up with an alternate win condition card that was a creature that came in under an opponent's control and had to attack its owner, but if it would kill that owner then they actually would win the game. Not sure exactly what colors it would have to be though. I had it as a Rakdos thing but Grixis has been looking more accepting lately.
My favorite is Felidar Soverign, as I made a fun deck for my partner that focused on lifegain and counters, and it's a good alternate win condition. By the way, I wanted to mention that number two on this list is marked as #1.
plus Test of Endurance :) imma build a alternate win-con deck in commander with those and Azor's Elocutors + Solitary Confinement etc. :) Ideas welcome, beacon of immortality with a rhox faithmender + rite of replication kicked gets you like 33K life... here we go! Imma call the deck Gandhi's revenge!
You didn't include Phage the Untouchable. That was a badass card, and the combo with Lightning Greaves, Dark Ritual and Cabal Coffers was super annoying to face.
Door to Nothingness was actually first printed in Fifth Dawn, almost 10 years before M13. Battle of Wits was also MUCH older than M13, it was first printed in Odyssey, which was out in 2001...
Dreznin YES
PRECISELY
it makes me petty dang sad how much of magic is forfeit, unless a card was seen in the last 5 years it might as well be as rare as a Mirage.
I mean, FOR FUCK'S SAKE if you're going to list Battle of Wits THEN LIST THE OTHER ALT WIN CONDITION CYCLE CARDS.
EPIC STRUGGLE ELF/SQUIRREL TOKEN GENERATION DECK PLEASE
Actually Battle of Wits was printed in 9th edition. At least according to MTG Gatherer. I really thought it was even older than that. P
it is older than that... as stated, it was printed in odyssey in 2001. and i remember discussing the card back then, even.
Liliana’s Contract “At the beginning of your turn if you control four or more demons with different names, you win the game.”
I love Azor's Elocutors! It fits so perfectly with the flavor of the bureaucratic Azorius.
Easily the easiest win condition is approach of the second sun.
thats not even an alternate win condition at that point its just a win condition
Barren Glory is slightly worse because it checks on upkeep. The Cheese Stands Alone is a state-based check so it can win at instant speed.
How about Coalition Victory? Easily the most fun Alternate Win card. Though I know why, I wish it weren't banned in commander.
im wondering the same as yes it might be too slow for a competitive game but in a casual game this would not be too hard to pull off. theres also 4 or 5 more cards that could easily be on this list.
turn 4 Coalition Victory win...
Turn 1: forest, bird of paradise
Turn 2: mountain, bird of paradise, prismatic omen
Turn 3: any basic land, Maelstrom Archangel
Turn 4: attack with Archangel, cast Coalition Victory for free with creature ability
Still need 3 more mana. Its in my cube.
+Will lowry prismatic omen causes all lands you control to count as all basic land types, so it will work with coalition victory. that's why you're able to pull it off so quick.
+Will lowry also, turn three drop any basic land... I missed that part.
The creature that makes you win if you have 40 lives, hilarious with Nissa in two headed giant
Permanent Cloak or just in commander
it's called felidar sovereign
Permanent Cloak a friend of mine won a comander game with that and his deck was just a giant NO to damage to him
It's a star in my Atalya commander deck
Permanent Cloak I have a soul sisters deck with Felidar and it’s just a great time
I actually won a 5 player Commander game with Mayael's Aria from Alara Reborn. An enchantment for WRG, it goes like tbis:
At he beginning of your upkeep, if you control a creature with power 5 or greater, all creatures you control get a +1/+1 counter. Then if you control a creature with power 10 or greater, you gain 10 life. Then if you control a creature with power 20 or greater, you win the game.
love this in my hydra deck. primordial hydra, doubles every turn, and kalonian hydra which doubles all your counters every time you attack.
I can pull off the aria consistently in my deck very fun
I remember someone that had a battle of wits deck that used "bring card from outside of the game into your hand" and "discard cards to top of library instead of graveyard" along with an infinite mana trick to get it to work. It was a while ago, and even then used cards that were only allowed in a casual setting.
Where is felidar sovriegn? Ive won games with it.
It's not as flashy or silly as these ones. That's just imp though, feel free to disagree
it's in the 'top 10 other alternate win conditions' video now
Test of Endurance?
Alex Vraa Seriously. I play it in a soul sisters deck and it kicks ass
Its not weird enough for this list I guess but man I love felidar
I won with door to nothingness on turn 4 in modern. Tron lands turn 3. Myosynth lattice. Turn 4 tower unwinding clock and door equals win
Coming up on the 10th anniversary of my favorite alt win card - Mayael's Aria. Whether you get to use its alt win or not, it has a lot of nice little features for a creature-heavy deck.
Recently, it's found a good home in a fun infinite life deck that pairs Archangel of Thune with Spike Feeder. If, for some reason, infinite life and infinitely powerful creatures aren't enough to win out-right, sing the aria to finish the game.
Special shout out to Divine Intervention? That card will frustrate your opponent beyond comprehension.
@quinn and then infect killed you on turn 2.
Been on the receiving end of a Divine Intervention when I had advantage but the other player had defense (Circle of Protection comes to mind). Interesting the first time, but it would be boring to have it resolve again and again.
Biovisionary+helm of the host+a token doubler(doubling season/parallel lives/primal vigor/annointed procession)
Mechanized production from aether revolt? If you have 7 clones of any artifact you win.
biovisionary + mirrorweave is a great combo, as long as your opponent doesn't have 4 creatures (they win first!)
or use rites of replication and get 5 more copies. Maybe throw in reanimate to bring it back for 1 black.
over a year late, but you could easily track "Now I Know My ABC's" with scrabble tiles
Barren glory + obliterate
Also wheres coalition victory?
The only time I have ever seen someone win with Barren Glory was when they exiled it with Oblivion Ring and then casted Worldfire. That's almost the only way I can really see how you can easily pull it off.
I run kaerveks spite and academy rector, to win with barren glory in edh
Have academy rector out, play kaerveks spite during end phase of turn before yours sacrifice rector and everything else, search for glory, win
I once top 8’d a RTR draft tournament with Azor’s Elocutors and filibustered for the win twice. That was hilarious.
Little 1/1 dude.
"If it hit a player, that player lose the game."
Vraska the Unseen?
Battle of wits: the only card that reveals the strategy your opponent is running at the start of the match
Huh. I actually use two of those. Azor's Elocutors in a Oriss, Samite Guardian lockdown deck, and the Laboratory Maniac in a Patron of the Moon Commander deck.
Felidar's Sovereign (4/6)
At the begiBing of your upkeep if you have 45+ life you win the game
4:26 not exactly what you could do is use some cards that first give you more than 1 mana, tap almost all your manna toward this every turn, if you pay like 10 mana per turn on average you win in 10 turns yes this is a long time but it would work really well in an elves deck. where you can use low cost creatures and land, making you able to place more mana per turn.
(Edit: I'm not trying to be the know-it-all in the comments I just saw a good use for the card.)
I thought a rule said "there are no deck size, but you have to be able to shuffle the deck yourself without assistance"....
How the blurp do one shuffle a sleeved 200 card deck? How large do your hands have to be to do this?
Typically you split it into a couple piles, shuffle the piles, and then awkwardly mash them together a bit.
It's been played at Grand Prix and Jon Finkel even played it at the 2002 Magic Invitational (the old tournaments where the winner got immortalized on a card, Jens Thoren won that year and became Solemn Simulacrum).
I thought you had to shuffle it as a whole? Lol
Yeah the final awkward shuffling of the entire pile counts, it doesn't matter if part of your shuffle is working the deck in smaller parts, so long as some amount of the shuffling is the entire deck. As long you can do the whole thing in a reasonable time you're all good.
Source: Am a judge
You can also go the 60 card route with a lot of ramp + Spawnsire of Ulamog and Hallowed Burial
That is actually the main issue with a battle of wits deck
By far, Coalition Victory. Mostly because it's a sorcery while most of these types of cards are usually permanents. And it's 5 colors to cast. :)
Biovisionary + kicked Rite of Replication (or clones) is how you do it in commander
Oh, there's also a really fun Battle of Wits deck courtesy of M14. You throw in 4x Battle of Wits, as much blue and black card draw as you can get in your preferred format, 4x Runescarred Demons... and then 100-something Shadowborn Apostles and lands as appropriate. The idea is to just throw Shadowborn Apostles at every threat until you've built up 6 of them and the mana for Battle of Wits. Sac the Apostles to grab Runescarred Demon, Runescarred Demon fetches Battle of Wits. You can throw in some basic blue and black control to keep your opponent off your back while your ridiculous plan goes off too.
I love phage as an alternate win condition.
Play Wild Pair. Play Biovisionary. Play Clone Legion. Win.
6 for Wild Pair (2 green, 4 of any), 3 for Biovisionary (1 green, 1 blue, 1 any), and 9 for Clone Legion (2 blue, 7 any), so you can pull it off with 16 mana... I'd say pretty cheap for a 1 turn win, and it's just a 2 colored deck that it requires :D
Near-Death Experience is probably best used if you have a way to both gain life and lose life in your own deck. If you can control what your life total is at the end of your opponents turn, you can take your own life total to 1. The life gain would be there to protect against any sort of burn action in response to you taking yourself down to 1.
mazes end is the best
One of many alternate win-cons in an old Child of Alara commander deck I had. Definitely the most fun to resolve. That whole deck was fun, I should make it again some time.
Forrest Carroll and it cannot be countered theg need land kill
Run it with scapeshift for maximum effect 😉
*gives haste*
For #2 use a black and blue deck, because some black cards have you exile stuff from ur hand (or add red for nicol bolas the god-pharaoh). And use “looters” (creature that have tap: target player draws (insert # here) cards and discard (insert same #here), such as merfolk looter. And you know the rest.
I actually found and watched this while tuning a battle of wits deck! When I saw it, I thought "well, I know what my number one is..." And actually thought it was what you were going to say for the honorable mention because of shuffling rules in turnements now.
(i know this is from a few years ago but I still want to comment)
I have run a Laboratory Maniac (self-mill) deck and won quite often, the downside is I could only do it once per opponent.
i would run a simple blue deck with scab cards that milled my deck fast, I also had a few copies of Codex Shredder that helped me Mill my deck AND help me find a Laboratory Maniac. Also kept a few revival cards in case.
my downside is while i had scabs, there gennerally weak and can easly be rolled over if the opponate knows im running it.
Sneak Attacking with an unblockable Phage without her killing me first.
I heard a funny Battle of Wits deck idea a long time ago. It was based on the ruling that states, "In a casual game, the cards you cast from outside the game come from your personal collection." It was a Spawnsire of Ulamog deck, and a shoebox with 200 copies of the original big three Eldrazi.
Mana ramp, Spawnsire of Ulamog, Eldrazi shoebox, Legend rule, Eldrazi to the graveyard, Eldrazi to your library, Battle of Wits. Bewilder your opponent while you filter out your deck again.
There's actually a combo deck I've seen with Battle of Wits. You run four copies of it of course, as well as 200+ copies of Shadowborn Apostle. Then you run four of this one demon card that adds any card from your deck to your hand when you play it. I think it's like "Rune-Scarred Demon" I think. Search for Battle of Wits and play it on turn five for game
Of course, it's so obvious, why didn't i think about that myself? :D
I absolutely love alternate win condition cards. I have played a Battle of Wits deck (in paper, no less!), and it is a: impossible to shuffle, but b: so much fun. My personal favorite is Mortal Combat. Toss in some cycling creatures, Avatar of Discord, and a few things that take advantage of a fat graveyard *cough*Cairn Wanderer*cough*, and you have one fun deck. Weirdly, it is better if it is over 60 cards - mine is 100. Also, I am now interested in making a standard alternate win condition deck with both Mechanized Production and Revel in Riches.
Phage the Untouchable! (if you consider auto-lose essentially the same as auto-win)
For barren glory If you use dimensional breech it gets rid of all permanents and you get to bring one back each upkeep so if you had no cards in hand after that you win.
I played a game against my brother where he played lab maniac the turn before he milled out. then I used bolt.
Limon Tree had a buddy that used lab man with several of those cards "name a card reveal cards until you reveal name card" and out them in graveyard....and the merfolk that tap to draw 😒
I've seen some modern Helix Pinnacle decks win by locking the board, neither opponent can cast a spell, but you can still (slowly) tick up helix pinnacle. It's not a full lock since you still advance the game state, but basically the opponent is likely to concede before you actually tick up Helix.
Side boarded laboratory maniac in my skaab deck. So much fun. If I get back in magic I'm gonna start with new phyrexia or innistrad blocks.
Goblin's game plus near death experience? Just hide 19 things and then profit
I think I remember one guy playing Battle of Wits. Saw him shuffle it and it was in 3 separate piles at all times. With all the sleeves it would fall over if he tried to stack them all together. It was quite amazing and won one or two games.
Yeah now you got me wanting to build a win con deck have like 3-4 win con cards and a way to trigger all of them
About Barren Glory.. One way to pull it off is put in O-Ring or something else like that. The use Apocalypse. Exiles everything on the field (except barren glory) and you'll have to discard your hand.
I am a huge fan of Maze's End. I once played a deck with both it and Door to Nothingness when they were in standard.
I made a legacy deck that is based on the elves shell that can (with minimal sacrifices from the original list) win with Hedron Allignment on turn two or three with the usual elves engine. It'll draw your entire deck so you can guarantee you'll have all the Hedron Allignments. You use Scavenging ooze and careful study to dump your two excess Hedron Alignments, exile one with scavenging ooze, use your ridiculous amounts of free mana to cast one, then use Savor the Moment to take your extra turn for the upkeep trigger to win!
I went to GP Charollette 2 years ago and battle of wits was played, it's all anyone was talking about. it was so cool to see.
Door to nothingness was originally printed in the Mirrodin block. Can't remember if it was Mirrodin itself or Fifth Dawn, but it's earlier than M13 for sure.
Actually, there was a cool combo with Composite Golem, so it comes probably from Fifth Dawn.
Diego Jiménez Tamame fifth dawn, I have a sweet door deck, its an annoying spawn of Satan that makes people lose friends upon playing it
Guessing someone else said it, but Door to Nothingness first released in Mirrodin block.
haphazardninja I take it ya did not actually watch?
I had a deck I called "The Big deck of Ooh Shiny!" It had 300+ cards in it. It was 4 colors (Everything but Black) 4 Darksteel ingots, Mana-generators of all sorts, dual lands, a Platinum Angel, a Memnarch, Four of the "Bringers of the (X) Sun" from Mirrodin, Wonder, Valor, The Red and Green Incarnations that I can't remember, and every alternate win condition card I could get my hands on. (Darksteel Reactor, That Lion Monster that let you win at 40 life "R-something", Near-death Experience, and Battle of Wits among them)
It started as Starter Deck from Mirrodin called "Spare Parts" I think? It was the starter deck that was based entirely on the Modular ability. And I just started adding cards into it that I thought were cool looking or neat effects, occasionally adding land cards to attempt to balance it out. At first it was to attempt to make a Modular counter generator, but it just grew.
Yes, the deck was inefficient as hell, and yes, I didn't win with it all that often, but man was it a blast to play. No two games with it were ever the same! And one of my fellow players tore his hair out when I shut down his Hedron Crab Allies mill deck with the simple addition of the Eldrazi Legendaries into it.
I actually kind of miss it now, as it was dismantled to build a green mana-ramp Eldrazi deck that can use Spawnsire of Ulamog for a 200+ damage/~93 Annihilator Beatstick-win (Spawnsire, 20 mana ability, cast for free a special side-deck of all Eldrazi cards, including "Emrakul, The Aeons Torn" so that my turn restarts once I end Turn and I can immediately swing with everything I just cast, wiping the field with annihilator and trampling anything left into dust.) Again, hard as shit to actually win with, but sooooo satisfying the few times I actually pulled it off.
I have a friend that actually has a Barren Glory deck. He had been working on it for a long time and it's actually pretty dangerous if you aren't prepared for it. Been a while since my friends and I have played magic (since the end of Lorwyn block I think) so I can't remember exactly how he pulls it off but he has beaten all of us multiple times with the deck.
Edit: Just seen your #1 and I was hoping Battle of Wits was here. I tried a bunch to win with it back in the day. Once I finally won with it I deconstructed the deck and never played it again lol. It was like something on my magic bucket list.
I had a helix tower standard deck that got me first place every friday night at my local card shop. I ran it as the primary win condition in a turbo fog deck utilizing Reliquary Tower, howling mines, mana reflections, and idyllic tutors.
Against the only two control players at the shop I would just mulligan until I got helix in my opening hand.
My favorite is Myael's Aria in my Myael EDH deck. It is a bit clunky, but it gives the deck a fun way to win that also aids in the standard "attack with creatures, do damage" plan. Plus, when some stalls out with Island Sanctuary and its ilk, my creature deck is still heading towards victory. (:
Barren Glory actually has a *really* significant change from The Cheese Stands Alone - it only triggers on your upkeep. The Cheese Stands Alone triggers any time you don't have a hand or other permanents, and instantly wins the game. Barren Glory you have to survive to the start of your own upkeep for it to work.
Maze's End. Won so many games with that deck in standard, so fun.
Oh god "Near Death Experience" plus the enchantment "Worship" which makes it so you can't go below 1 life so long as you control a creature O.o I'm glad a certain someone I know doesn't know this card exists
Azor's Elecutors is a card I've physically seen but don't own yet, but I want it. There are cards that manipulate counters and have texts like "choose a card with counters on it, add 1 counter to it of each counter type it has." Throw the Elecutors down and spam counter advancement like that for an easy win
Maze's End, Chance Encounter, Mortal Combat, Epic Struggle, Test of Endurance Hive Mind + Future Sight Pact, Felidar Sovereign, and Darksteel Reactor.
Odyssey came out with three you win the game cards, and judgement had the missing colors. All of which cost 4 mana, with the exception of Battle of Wits.
The correct way to win with Helix Pinnacle is in an EDH deck with Omnath as the commander. You can pump up Omnath over a few turns with things like Nissa's ult to get a bunch of Elves on the field, get them worried over things like Multikicking Wolfbriar Elemental or other token generators or Trample or something... and then, when you have 101 Green Mana, pop this down for 1 and pay X as 100 for an instant victory they may well not be able to stop because of Shroud.
Even if you do fail because, I don't know, a counterspell or a boardwipe, you still have all that mana and can likely just recover from anything they pull. You'll pop the Omnath back out for a few mana, no matter what happens. Then pop Helix back out of the grave (Elixir of Immortality is nice as a backup in case they boardwipe you, or keeping a spare "if this gets into the grave shuffle it back into the library" guy around) and continue.
I used to play a lot of casual multiplayer EDH where people used a lot of really silly decks, and one of them was an Omnath deck built around a lot of the sillier things as opposed to massed Eldrazi or the obvious and more dull uses, and that one always sticks out.
...well, that or Twelvepost. Turns out when your lands can make upwards of 50 mana a turn, you can in fact power out a Helix Pinnacle win.
Last time I played a lot was when Near-Death Experience was legal. I had a deck that could reliably win about a third of the time in casual games with it. It's trickier than you make it sound because it's at the beginning of your upkeep. So you have to survive a full turn from your opponent with it on the board if you were already at 1 or you had to manipulate it on their turn.
I went with Red-Blue-White and used a bunch of survivable blocking minions that could mitigate single points of damage with effects and red to burn myself for assorted values. Also Armillary SPhere to hunt for the three plains needed to play the enchantment.
I've won many edh games with paradigm shift+ lab maniac... Hexil Pinnacle + a basalt monolith and power artifact also in edh... I have also won a few matches with a flicker battle or wits deck, but most of the games with the 400 card deck were long over before getting battle of wits (omniscience is a wonderful combo enabler in huge decks. My turns easily took 10 plus minutes due to multiple triggers and responses)
I run 4x Scour, Twincast, Auramancer, Pull from Eternity, and Call to Mind in order to fetch then align the Hedrons. The other 40 some cards are control.
I've won with Helix pinnacle on turn 7. It was a perfect storm of elvish archdruids, mana ramping, two rites of reflection, one primeval titan and one prophet of kruphix. It was fantastic. Although, it has never happened again as my friends now know what to expect.
Felidar Sovereign is a good alternate win condition. Getting up to 40 live is quite achievable in White & Green especially with the tools that Modern gives you.
im surprised you didnt include Felidar Sovereign.. probably one of the most eligible win conditions.
no phage
WHAT?!
phage is bae
Actually, Phage kills players, not directly an _altered win condition_
So does door to nothingness
LegendaryMotorist
true
Phage counts as an alternate win condition. Why wouldn't she? If you can meet her requirements, all the other usual things that would normally keep your opponent alive no longer matter. Yes, if Phage deals combat damage to a player, she kills them but that's still an alternate win condition because the amount of damage she inflicts is irrelevant. ANY combat damage dealt to a player is enough to kill them. Your opponent could have 150 life and Phage could only deal 1 combat damage to them and she'd still win you the game.
So many of my friends have Lab Maniac decks! It's probably one of the most popular to pull off.
In unglued : You can use Frankie Peanuts to ask a yes or no question at the beginning of your upkeed to your oponnent who have to answer and abide by his answer if possible until end of turn.
You ask "Are you going to answer yes or no to my next question?" then in your turn you play Topsy Turvy that reverse the order of the phases of a turn which allow you to get back to your upkeep without hitting any end of turn.
So you get to ask a second question. If he said "yes" to your first question then you ask "Are you going to forfeit the game" to which he must answer "yes" again since he already said he would and per the effect of Frankie Peanuts he also must then really forfeit the game since he now said he would.
If he said "no" to the first question, then you ask "Do you want to keep pretending you can win and continue playing against me?"
Biovisionary definitely has a place in EDH, despite the singleton requirement. I run it in Riku of the Two Reflections, because that deck wants creatures that you get a lot of value out of copying, and then runs a bunch of clone, blink, and bounce effects to get as many of those copies as possible.
Hedron alignment victory: build a deck with at least 40 lands, have mana severance to exile them all (except for 3/4 that you probably have in hand), you now have only 15ish card in your deck, 4 of them are alignments, 3 are mana severances, you now have just 8 cards to exile an alignment and discarding one (obsessive research makes you draw 2 and discard 2, 4 card remained to exile an alignment).
If you want to be sure to have mana severance in hand place a couple of tutors and you've done an hedron alignment deck
Back when Unglued was still fun to play in my playgroup, I actually won a few games with The Cheese Stands Alone (and no, Barren Glory does NOT cut it) by combining it with Island Sanctuary (to keep my opponents off my back), various burn burns, and then, when I had enough mana, firing off a Jokulhaups or Obliterate with enough mana left over to kill the Sanctuary and leave the Cheese all by itself. The first time I pulled this off, my friends looked at me first with disgust, then amazement as they were beaten by an Unglued card. Totally fun, give it a try sometime. If your friends make you use Barren Glory.... eh, I'll allow it. Happy deck building!
9:47 ____________________ would also work here.
Shared fate is my favorite wincon
So true! And it actually is somewhat viable in modern as well in a very specific control shell, as a 'handle this or lose'-card.
I play a 5 color superfriends commander deck that just happens to feature progenitus (I know it's weird but it works) Door to nothingness would fit in fine, especially since there are plainswalkers that lets you untap target permanent.
My favorite is Mortal Combat (Torment, upkeep: Twenty or more creature cards in graveyard, you win) combined with Iname, Death Aspect (Champs of Kamigawa: Upon play, discard from your deck as many Spirit cards as you wish).
Hmmm, I think Maze's End would also be a quite interesting addition to this list. You build the deck with tons of land and many large artifact creatures and walls. Drawing Maze's end at the beginning of the game guarentees a win in 14 rounds or less, but can become as low as 7 rounds.
In the 2017 Unstable unset, there is a card called Baron Von Count with the effect "destroy target player"
It'll definitely make the list when I make my third video on Alternate Win Conditions!
I just realized that you could pull of biovisionary with deceiver of form. Wow.
John Corcoran biovisionary with kicked rite of replication. Or alternatively bio with a slow grow progenitor mimic
Because simic is the best colors for combo.
My favorite win condition is having Felidar sovereign and truce conviction out. A good way to get alot of health and then you win once you hit 40 or more.
I'm pretty sure there are cards that allow you to "untap target artifact" or target card. Use one of those with Door To Nothingness and you could win on the turn you play it.
Nice vid. Just dont agree with number 1 since you can argue if that deck is even legal due to shuffle timing conditions.so for me doesnt make much sense to put such a huge deck in play.
+Umpalumpa Boda Check out Hall of Famer Jon Finkel's deck, it's definitely been played in top level events :) www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/mi02/stdecks
There's also a video available from an SCG Legacy event of Show & Tell vs Battle of Wits.
I run helix pinnacle in a commander deck and it works as a nice win through Sasya. I've seen it work with Rhys the Redeemed and Llanowar Mentor as well... Playing it turn one really sends a message, even if the message is "warning, very janky combo coming"... Biovisionary has won me a bunch of commander games too, there's just so much creature search from green and clone from blue that it's surprisingly easy to pull off... There's also spy kit to get some more fake copies. :)
CHeese stands alone does remind me of my childhood games. Biggest issue was understanding what a permanent was as it wasn't common terms back then, and manuals didn't seem to explain it. Which allowed me to play it and win with it while still having lands I believe. Ignorance is bliss.
I have and have won with both a maze's end and Azorzs elloqutors decks. Love battle of wits too. Alt win conditions are fun. Trying to figure out Hedron Allingnment in my starfield of nix deck.
Apparently I'm too old. I remember when Phage and Platinum Angel made people's heads explode.
Door to nothingness in mono green? Of course! Prismatic Omen FTW.
slade bonge Do you mean chromatic lantern? That would work too, but I still prefer prismatic omen 😅
What about felidar sovereign 40 or more life at your upkeep you win the game
I was about to say: "Because it's possible, to get there", but he included the maniac in this deck, and there are competitive decks using the maniac... So, i agree with you: Should be on the list!
my white green life gain evolves mostly around Felidar. Of course the sub population is an alternative win condition as well. If i have plans on going all out that deck is my trump card.
Three words, Phage the Untouchable.
My first draft ever I first picked Azor's Elocutors because I thought if it was a rare it must be good right? I proceeded to draft a weird three color deck of only fogs defenders and anything with more toughness than power. I 2-0'd my first two matches and then lost to a flier deck in the finals. Several of the local draft grinders told me they'd never seen anyone win a single match using the card so even though I went 2-1 I was pretty proud of myself haha
I've got Helix Pinacle in a Very Rampy Tiny Leaders brew I am working on.
Epic Struggle fits into Rhys the Reedmed EDH
I've always wanted to win with Azors Elocutors which shouldn't be hard if you had a format with enough Proliforate...
But I would say my Favorite Alternate win condition is indeed Labnoratory Maniac. I played the heck out of him when he was in standard and even won a few games.
While not a win condition, I'm quite the fan of managing to play Enter the Infinite and Omniscience. If you've got cards that recycle your graveyard into your deck, and cards that grant extra turns, and tons and tons of stall/draw, you basically win...
If you can play it.
I actually tried to come up with an alternate win condition card that was a creature that came in under an opponent's control and had to attack its owner, but if it would kill that owner then they actually would win the game. Not sure exactly what colors it would have to be though. I had it as a Rakdos thing but Grixis has been looking more accepting lately.
You can use Secret Salvage as a relatively easy way to get Hedron Alignment going. Just discard one then Secret Salvage and you're half way there.
My favorite is Felidar Soverign, as I made a fun deck for my partner that focused on lifegain and counters, and it's a good alternate win condition.
By the way, I wanted to mention that number two on this list is marked as #1.
plus Test of Endurance :) imma build a alternate win-con deck in commander with those and Azor's Elocutors + Solitary Confinement etc. :) Ideas welcome, beacon of immortality with a rhox faithmender + rite of replication kicked gets you like 33K life... here we go! Imma call the deck Gandhi's revenge!
For Biovisionary, there's that one sorcery that makes a clone token and has a kicker that makes 5 clone tokens instead.
You didn't include Phage the Untouchable. That was a badass card, and the combo with Lightning Greaves, Dark Ritual and Cabal Coffers was super annoying to face.
I mean, of course I'm talking about old Extended, so that's like, I just realized, ancient stuff, lol