Most of the time you won't be playing for ante especially because I'm pretty sure it is illegal in some countries and both players have to agree to play for ante. If you aren't you must go through your deck and remove every single card that says "remove this card from the game if you are not playing for ante" like
Amulet of Quoz
. This leaves you with 24 cards in your deck when you start the game. The dream hand is one
Prosperity, one
Fastbond, one
Channel
, two
Forests, an
Island and a
Providence. What you do is reveal
Providence to gain 6 life then play a
Fastbond. Second turn you draw (hopefully a forest) play a forest without losing life then play an
Island and a
Forest going down to 24 life. You then play a
Channel
paying 16 life to get 16 mana which, combined with the
Island and the
Prosperity, draws your entire library. Then play your
Laboratory Maniac. Pass, and hope they don't have removal because next turn you win. and all for only around 30 bucks.
