When it comes to winning, what comes to mind? Akroma is a good win condition. So is Tombstalker. Perhaps you like clogging up the board with lots of little creatures. Or maybe you like to throw 15 Elves into play, attack with one Scryb Sprite and have a Timberwatch Elf turn that 1/1 Sprite into a 16/16 creature and bulldoze your opponent into oblivion!

You could be a control player. A control player loves to make the board clear of any debris and attack with a nasty finisher like Aeon Chronicler. What about combos? Anyone like 1,204,500,129 point Fireballs split between three opponents?

What do they all have in common?

They are all not winning the game the same way that the following writers are going to show you. As they are going to show you that there is more to winning than dealing 20 points of damage.

BLISTERING FIRECAT! Oh, hey didn’t see you there. I was too busy looking at this blistering firecat. Powerful right? Good way to deal a lot of damage, of course there’s more to winning than 0 life. There are other ways to win in a game besides getting them down to 0 life.

For alternate win-decks you have your standard Battle of Wits, and your Test of Endurance decks, but I feel like something else…something like Darksteel Reactor.

Darksteel reactor seems like a stretch though, 20 counters? That’s 20 turns! In the same amount of time it takes for this to go off and win the game by itself, a guy like Tynion would have done 20 turns of water-torture to some poor person! How can we speed up a card like that?

Well, from the Magic Deck Vortex Combo Pages we find Dismantle works magic in a reactor deck. Simply “destroy” your indestructible reactor with say 5 counters on it, and before you know it; it now has 10 charge counters! Now that's speed! You don’t have to use dismantle if you want to be different. There are lock-down decks in the Deck Database which use Reactor as a slow win-condition. The deck I’m about to show you doesn’t use Doubling Season just in case some of you guessed it would. Instead, it uses cheap simple library manipulation; some draw, and getting charge counters. I named it “React to Tynion” because well…you have a schedule, and a deadline you need to follow. If you don’t write and keep your stuff on time, you better be prepared to React to Tynion. He even threatened to lynch me if I didn’t write this article in a day! Tying a noose and everything, he looked rather serious about it…well here it is. Someone hide me, I think I hear him again....

Turn 1: Usually for a Serum Visions or Mystical Speculation to set up Turn 2.

Turn 2: Izzet Signet, Coretapper, or Energy Chamber.

Turn 3: Magistrate’s Scepter, Darksteel Reactor.

From here on out, it’s setting you up for some land, and a Reactor. Once the Reactor is in play, it’s just drawing another card that helps. A Twincast here, a Reiterate there, and you even copy a few cards that your opponent is using. Dismantle is a key card, used to double the number of counters on the Reactor. Dismantle can even be used if a certain artifact is hurting you more than you’d like it too.

The Magistrate’s Scepter is there to gain extra turns; I can set myself up for infinite turns, with an energy Chamber/Coretapper/Clockspinning. Than after that you’ve basically won the game. Clockspinning is here because I like the art, the name, and the non-existent flavor-text. It messes with any counters, if your opponent is using some sort of counters, than Clockspinning can take them away. Also helps get the last one-two charge counters on the reactor.

The deck is simple, and easy to use. Draw into that Reactor, some land, and start adding counters like there’s no tomorrow!

This deck can win pretty fast, if you have some Izzet signets you can set up a Reactor, some Coretappers/Energy Chambers and go into a Dismantle[ing] frenzy!

You should be able to set up the Reactor to win before most decks do anything to you. If you can get a Reactor, mill will take too long, Aggro might get close, but if that’s the case, switch out some Coretappers for some Pyroclasm or other creature-removal.

I’ve said all I need to. Now go out there and try to build your own alternate-win decks. If you’re stuck on an idea, check out the Deck Database for a head start.

This is Ryuzaki, signin- oh my clothes are on fire, firecat…FIRECAT!

It appears Ryuzaki is a little preoccupied, no matter, continue to Tynion’s article. I’m sure he’ll be fine. (Someone call an ambulance…this really hurts...)

A Ravaging Mind

When sitting down to begin construction of your deck, the first thing that you never think about is, “How am I going to win?” It is just assumed that eventually I will take your last remaining hit point, and you will lose and I will win and be declared the grand champion of the universe!

As the title of this article indicates, we are not allowed to kill via hit points, so how do we do this? Possibly the most popular way is by the old fashion ‘Mill’ method. What this consists of is finding a way to get rid of your opponent’s library, and make him draw a card from an empty library, which results in a game loss.

There are a lot of ways to do this. You can make your opponent draw 90 cards with a spell like Braingeyser. You could set up a nasty control deck and use an artifact like Millstone to slowly grind away at their library. You could even set up a Prison-style deck and make your opponent draw every last card, one at a time.

However, the most widely known way to do this was the ancient, and dare I say classic, deck called Stasis. 

Stasis crystallized the game field in a state of tapped beauty and held it like that. There would be a plethora of Howling Mines humming, and cards being drawn, until finally your opponent would draw his sixth card for a turn and be saddened by the fact that next turn he only has two cards left in his library and is due to draw six more cards.

Editor Note: Check out this article for more information about Stasis decks

It is such a sad turn of events, but a very happy ending for a guy like me who rarely uses creatures to pummel someone. That’s right, I’d rather clutter up the board and bog it down with useless objects that get in the way and slow the game down to a point where you either want to concede, or I can synch in a lock that forces the life right out of you.

This leads me right into my deck for the day. I needed to get you to lose the game without bringing you to zero life. I have to admit here that my search was relatively hard, as I first started off with a Mortal Combat ALT-WIN idea. I planned to mill myself with dredge to get the creatures into the graveyard using the Narcobridge engine, and letting Mortal Combat trigger a win. Then I decided to go with the easy route and load up on life gainers and just Test of Endurance for the win. I then decided that I could not take the easy way, and went with Celestial Convergence to make it tough on myself.

Finally, after all of that, I went back to basics.

… (Remembers the name of Shifting Lineaments: Lessons in Being Punched in the Face.)

Maybe not. However, what I did do was steal the engine behind Stasis. I took the idea of using Howling Mine and Anvil of Bogardan to ravage through both of our libraries in an effort to deck my opponent. The problem was that I needed to stop my opponent from being able to use those cards that are drawn.

I decided that since the only true format that I could play the Anvil in was Eternal, and I really didn’t want to deal with Moxen and Lotus, so I stepped down to Legacy, which gave me access to pretty much any non-broken card. During my research, I came across a NICE combo to lock down the board, however, I was getting killed too fast to get the combo synched in.

I was utilizing Sands of Time to skip the Untap step, and follow that up with Eon Hub, which skips the Upkeep step. Once both of these cards are in play, you do not untap permanents and there is not a U upkeep either. I then comboed that up with Orb of Dreams to completely lock the board. Further, I thought for sure that using Squandered Resourses would be an amazing way to utilize the tapped lands and I would be able to continue putting Mines into play to speed the milling process. Finally, I was using Colfenor's Plans to grab a last bit of my library, and ensure that I would not mill out against a player with a larger library.

...

It was all for not. I didn’t have enough speed or removal to get it all going. I began looking for ways to bring it together, when I came across Uba Mask. Uba Mask eliminates the opponent from recovering. “What do I need a hand for?” I thought. “I am playing Artifacts and Lands. Awesome!” (Note that when the turn ends, the cards that were removed from the game with Uba Mask can not be played during future turns.) During testing, I came to a startling revelation: I don’t even need my combo engine!

I ended up dropping the Sands of Time, Eon Hub, Orb of Dreams, and Squandered Resources. I decided that I could go heavy on creature hate, and thus Black came to the fore front. I also wanted speed, so Dark Ritual was my main man. While thinking about Dark Ritual, I started doing math in my head on how to get an Anvil and Uba Mask into play as fast as possible, and get it all rolling. Unfortunately, even two Dark Rituals was not enough mana to get the job done. Two Rituals only gets me five Black mana. I need six total. Further thinking brought something to my attention.

=

Holy Moly! On the second turn, I could have a source of Black and Red. Ritual off of the Black, use a Red plus two Black to cast Seething Song, and then use the five Red mana plus the left over Black to get six and my combo!

While you might think this is a ‘meh’ at best combo, it proves to be very tough and resilient. First, you are going to not draw a card, but put your top card out of play (you can still play it, but only this turn), and then discard a card from hand. Then, you have a decision, use the removed cards and discard from your hand next turn, or use the cards in your hand now and lose the removed cards.

In such a fast environment as Legacy, you have to be able to kill Tarmogoyf and other insistent creatures, especially if you are planning on continually handing these guys to your opponent with Howling Mine. So I decided to fill the rest of the deck with creature kill. Well, almost the rest of the deck. Besides the Damnations, and Chainer’s Edicts, and Diabolic Edits, I needed to put Chris’ stamp of approval on the deck.

The best way to do so was to find the right, “Up Yours” cards I could find that would fill the deck out. Oh, how experience helped here. Back in the old Odyessy days, one word was all you needed to hear to know it was time to shake your opponent’s hand and go take a bathroom break, “Echoes”. That’s right; Haunting Echoes was a monster then, and it is a monster in this deck as well. Remember that they discard every turn until their hand is gone, plus burning through the spells that they get by the Uba Mask; they will have a very full graveyard. Echoes then removes the rest of their library. To quote my first opponent Echoed, “Uff.”

I also included Wheel of Fate as a way to quickly get through to the bottom of the library, and also clear their hand if they could somehow keep it going strong with graveyard recursion such as Eternal Witness. Note that with a Mask in play, your opponent will only get a chance to play instants drawn during the Wheel’s resolution, as it is my turn. They will discard their hand, remove seven cards, and then when I end my turn, those cards go away.

Finally, I must remind you that Uba Mask shuts down drawing, and therefore kills my mill win condition (while killing Dredge cold, and that is a good thing in Legacy), so I need to be able to get rid of my Mask at some point; particularly when my opponent is near his library’s end.

During a match, my answer came to me. Except that I capitalized on my opponent’s card to seal my victory.

That’s right again! An opponent thought that he was going to break me up with his Smokestack. I sighed, as I knew I had one more turn before the ‘stack became active, and my draw revealed a pair of Anvils, a Dark Ritual, Seething Song, and a Damnation. I used them all to get more permanents into play (to keep pace with the ‘stack) and wipe the board. His next turn left him with zero cards in his library. When it came back to my turn, I let the ‘stack eat my Mask, and passed my turn. He died during his Draw step.

And so I added Smokestacks to my deck to kill my Mask, and anything else that might be nice.

Here is my decklist in the end:

I decided to stay away from non-basic lands, as everyone was playing Wasteland, and I didn’t want to play that game. I inserted a playset for myself to kill Mishra’s Factory and Treetop Villages.

If you read Amadeus’ article series called The Apprentice Magician, you will remember the term ‘Virtual Card Advantage’. That is what this deck does. It makes around 70% of your opponent’s cards as good as blank. They are useless. Remember that almost no one plays Artifact hate main, so how can you possibly break this combo up?

Kill me quick…

cpn

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
Find other articles by this author(Ryuzaki) here.
Find other articles by this author(Chris Newton) here.
Find other articles from this series here.

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Articles Spotlights from 2008:
How to Win with Milling: A Guide to a Slow Painful Death
Memories of an Old Magic Player 10: The Outsiders Journal #3.
The Apprentice Magician, Part Three.
Class-Wars Deckbuilding Contest Results!
Tribal Coffee: The Smaller Tribes.
[Mini-Article] Controlling the Game: Without Blue.
Raiding the Dollar Bins: Return of the Vault Ninja.
A Fresh Perspective: Stasis - Part One.
More Evil Than Evil.
Memories of a Jarhead.