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The Most Totally Awesome Win Condition Ever

Jacob Orlove

By Jacob Orlove
11/23/2004

The deck you are about to see does, in fact, contain the most totally awesome win condition in the game of Magic. Not only that, but the deck is packed with more synergy and mini-combos than you can shake a stick at - even a really big stick. The combo relies on not one, but two Unhinged cards, so it's for casual folks only.

And yet it is not a friendly combo. If you ever actually build this deck, I recommend you have your fun once, and then take it apart for good. Your opponents won't be so indifferent to your Soothsayings after your first win, anyway.

What's that? You want to know what combo could possibly abuse Soothsaying? Well, read on. The key pieces to this combo are, of course, Soothsaying and two Unhinged cards. You may have guessed that one of the Unhinged cards is Mox Lotus, because stacking your whole deck with Soothsaying is pretty useful - but how many of you saw those two and said to yourselves, "Aha! The third card in this nefarious combo is the oh-so-obvious Yet Another Aether Vortex." If you didn't, that's okay, because the synergy here isn't immediately obvious. Here's what happens:

  • With Soothsaying and Yet Another Aether Vortex (YAAV for short), Enlightened Tutor for Mox Lotus (alternate setups for the combo will be explained later).
  • Mox Lotus is now in play. Tap the Mox Lotus for infinite colorless mana, then add a whole bunch of blue mana to your mana pool.
  • Now, use sixty or so of that infinite colorless to stack your deck. Put, say, Memnarch on top. Now, Memnarch is in play. Steal all your opponent's permanents, including the ones on top of his library. If he tries to cast anything, stack your deck in response to put Null Brooch on top, and tap it to counter anything he attempts. Stacking your deck again will untap the Brooch as necessary.
  • If your opponent has some sorcery or instant on top of his library, Soothsaying up Planar Portal, and go get a Predict to mill him for one. Then, you can use Memnarch to steal more of his stuff. Reito Lantern lets you use Predict as many times as necessary, and also lets you steal their graveyard with Memnarch.

You can also customize the deck with fun one-ofs like Phage the Untouchable (YAAV doesn't trigger CIP effects), or Necrogen Spellbomb (to steal all the cards in their hand, too). If your opponents play with permanents that could mess up your combo (like Humility), just cut a Predict for a Capsize. Feel free to suggest other neat options in the forums.

The rest of the deck is utility spells. Show and Tell lets you get out a quick, uncounterable YAAV, or lets you just play Mox Lotus or Memnarch, should you be holding one. Brainstorm and Mise provide cheap card drawing to get you what you need, while Memory Lapse helps protect your combo (and has some nice synergy with your Predicts). Now, on to the decklist!

The Most Totally Awesome Win Condition Ever (TMTAWCE)
4 Yet Another Aether Vortex
4 Soothsaying
2 Mox Lotus
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Show and Tell
1 Memnarch
1 Null Brooch
1 Planar Portal
1 Reito Lantern
4 Mise
4 Brainstorm
4 Memory Lapse
3 Predict

Since this is a casual deck, I built two mana bases. One is Extended-legal and budget; the other is Legacy-legal and spares no expense. Choose whichever best fits your playgroup and budget.

Extended Manabase
4 Talisman of Indulgence / Talisman of Impulse
4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
3 Plains
4 Shivan Reef
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Mountain

Legacy Manabase
4 Chrome Mox
4 Flooded Strand
3 Wooded Foothills/Bloodstained Mire
4 Volcanic Island
2 Plateau
2 Tundra
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Mountain

The ideal game for this deck would be something like turn 1 Soothsaying. Turn 2 Talisman, or Soothsaying for one and Mise, or Brainstorm, or some other setup spells. Turn 3, Show and Tell for YAAV. Then, since you used Mox or Talisman to play Show and Tell, tap your third land to Enlightened Tutor for Mox Lotus, and win.

Without Show and Tell, you can set up YAAV/Mox Lotus with Brainstorm or Enlightened Tutor by turn 4 to 6. Be very cautious of playing YAAV if you don't plan on winning that turn - haste can make things very messy, and you don't have much in the way of defensive spells. If this game plan seems too slow for your metagame, feel free to cut down on some of the card manipulation for defensive spells, such as -1 Predict, -3 Mise for 4 Swords to Plowshares.

The one key mistake you do not want to make with this deck is passing priority without Mox Lotus on top of your deck. Dying to mana burn when all of your opponents have no cards remaining in their libraries and you have all their permanents and are about to attack with all their creatures is just as horrible a loss for you as the one you were about to inflict on them. Remember, you're completely immune to anything they might try to do, but you can still kill yourself. So, always use Soothsaying to put Mox Lotus on top of your deck before you attack.

To improve the deck, you could add cards like Force of Will, Sol Ring, Replenish (this would require some rebuilding), or even Moxes. I wanted to present a fairly straightforward list, though, so I limited myself to Extended-legal cards. Feel free to customize the deck, though - there are plenty of builds that work.


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