Laboratory Maniac
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Laboratory Maniac

Creature — Human Wizard

If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, you win the game instead.

Andramalech on Ghalta's Fury

1 week ago

capwner I'm literally clutching my pearls because I feel so called out- Thassa's Oracle would've been included if Laboratory Maniac made the list. Ibid your comment about not being all-in combo, but rather keeping some of what Neobrand originally was known for- sweating your choices, counting your life down and hoping you hit the Autochthon Wurm. Thanks so much for your commentary!

StopShot on In your opinion: what was …

1 week ago

What came before the first Commander product.

The first Commander product, Commander 2011, came out after New Phyrexia, with the Scars of Mirrodin block being infamous for creating the keyword Infect which is an incredibly powerful keyword in the Commander format, but can be argued was not designed with Commander in mind because of how it was obviously meant for 20 life formats and has never shown up as a keyword in any base commander product since its debut.

What came after the first Commander product.

Just like how powerful infect could be, after Scars of Mirrodin came the Innistrad block which would create Commander staples still used today like Blasphemous Act, Craterhoof Behemoth and Laboratory Maniac, but could you argue WoTC pushed these cards for Commander players? I don't think what Commander staples printed in a set is an apt indicator of what influence Commander has on any given Standard set, after all Avacyn Restored released Griselbrand, a card WoTC would never have created in today's Standard sets given how much the Commander format plays a role in their current set design.

How the Griselbrand standard may answer this question.

I think a more appropriate metric is to apply what I would dub the Griselbrand standard when assessing Standard sets. The Griselbrand standard is cards or mechanics that would be fine in a 20 life 1v1 block constructed format but would obviously have no business ever being in a marketed product for a 40 life multiplayer format, with other examples of the Griselbrand standard being infect, Serra Ascendant, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, etc. Not every Standard set needs a Griselbrand-like card or mechanic to determine if the Commander format played a role in its set design. Instead, it should be asked, at what point did the Griselbrand standard die in MTG Standard set design to make way for the Commander format? I feel this is a more appropriate question to ask to determine when Commander started to take effect on Standard set design, and I'm curious to hear what set you think would best mark this transition into the Standard sets we see today.

x0100011010x on All players win?

3 months ago

I think that trying to get to a draw through Divine Intervention (clearly how the card is intended to work) is not nearly as interesting as actually trying to make every player win (which would require obviously doing something unintended)

Za above figured out a way to make every player lose the game, which is very related but different imo.

I am sure that "legally" there is some resolution order to this combo I describe below. However, I think it is much more interesting and would be much more surprised than someone just playing Divine Intervention

Most "you win" card (in this article https://draftsim.com/you-win-the-game-mtg/ ) triggers on upkeep or end step, so you couldn't share that victory.

Halo Fountain, Helix Pinnacle, and Maze's Endfoil all let a player win through an ability. But abilities go on the stack and I am not aware (I also didn't even look it up though) of anything that lets you copy abilities for other players.

Curse of Echoes on yourself, then Coalition Victory or Thassa's Oracle would work. Approach of the Second Sun has an annoying clause which prevents copies of it from working for other players. Unfortunately, Coalition Victory would require you giving the other player control of 3-4 creatures and 3-4 lands, so is infeasible. Thassa's Oracle might work if you get their deck down to zero cards (a way is described below), or a few if they have blue.

Twenty-Toed Toad notably lets you win in your attack step. I'm unsure how you would have multiple players attacking in one step. However, I was reviewing all the cards in the link above, and if you cast Ramses, Assassin Lord; enchant Twenty-Toed Toad to be an Assassin; have your opponent gain control of Twenty-Toed Toad (like with Custody Battle and then destroying it, give them 20 +1/+1 counters, and your opponent attacks you: They would win, so you would lose, and you had previously controlled the Assassin Toad, who attacked you this turn, so Ramses makes you win.

Giving everyone Jace, Wielder of Mysteries; or Laboratory Maniac, or copies of them; then casting Leveler and giving copies of them; and then casting something like Burning Inquiry should also work I think. You could have two of Jace/Maniac and cast two Fractured Identity to get that to happen. This route allows even more than 2 players to win.

I mean, if you declare that your objective is to make the game end in a draw... and you do that... then you won, right? Sorta?

If I pulled off either above combo, I would not feel sorta? good, I would feel like I just shattered a fundamental assumption all planeswalkers have made since before the Eldrazi were found, and rejoice

Poly_raptor on The Scarab's Fist (Bracket 4)

3 months ago

capwner thank you for the feedback. I will tweak the deck today. I think you are right, just because I don’t know the meta doesn’t mean this deck isn’t competitive.

The issue with the brackets at the moment is that each pod will have slight differences, I’ve played games where I’ve had many a spell forced trying to disrupt a win con. So I don’t class that type of interaction as CEDH. On the other hand, I have been playtesting this deck to tutor up creatures for Hashaton, but on reflection you could just tutor the combo and win.

I think I will cut Thassa's Oracle for Laboratory Maniac, that way the deck HAS to deck itself first. Demonic Consultation can be swapped for another draw/ discard outlet. Tortured Existence looks quite good for the same CMC.

I’ll update the primer and add a section to upgrade to CEDH if people want to build the list differently.

Djh3max on cEDH upgrade ideas for First …

5 months ago

Hi all,

I have been working for a while on my first cEDH deck and I am getting to a point where I know there is room for improvement but I am not sure where. I am working on a semi budget so I have made certain choices so far to reflect that. Here is the deck list:

https://moxfield.com/decks/K8ynmFMH8UiyiHjr5GCfUw

The deck aims to win with the food chain cast from exile combo for infinite mana to infinitely cascade through the deck with The First Sliver and casting Lavabelly Sliver to ping the opponents to death with the infinite etb triggers from the commander. The secondary win con is through cards like Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact to exile the deck and win with either Laboratory Maniac, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, or Thassa's Oracle. The rest of the deck consists of tutors to find my combo pieces, recursion spells in case I lose a piece, and counter spells. I also found that Transmute mechanic worked for extra tutors as well.

I know the land base needs a ton of work but i found that the filter/pain/fast lands were excellent budget friendly options. As far as the main deck goes, I am thinking that the first card to go should be Rhystic Study since it feels too slow for the pay off. I can consistently win on turn 5 with this list but I want to get that down to a consistent turn 4 win.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated thank you!!

Balaam__ on Draw Wincon deck V1.1

5 months ago

I’ve seen a few Laboratory Maniac builds floating around (I think I may have one myself, I can’t recall) and one thing they tend to have in common is that they’re almost always entirely geared toward triggering the wincon as quickly as possible.

You have many different things going on in your deck that either inch slowly toward the Wincon (Bamboozle) or don’t contribute toward it at all (Cartographer's Survey).

Offering specific suggestions is slightly difficult as you did clearly state you built this using cards you have access to (perfectly understandable), so instead I can offer more general advice. You’ll want to either find a shell that can win on its own that you can seamlessly integrate Laboratory Maniac into (preferably something like Dredge or Mill, which could feasibly work toward that wincon), or else cut anything and everything not related to your goal and build strictly around him.

Cards like Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact and Leveler are all ones you should be looking into, cards that more or less vaporize your own library immediately and can trigger Laboratory Maniac on the spot. I think Demonic Consultation is Restricted in Vintage so that can only be a 1-of, but I’d run the others in playsets if you go this route. It’ll be glass cannon territory so speed is of the essence.

legendofa on Reinvented wheel

1 year ago

xipee808 The flash does help a lot. And I might be underestimating it. But I will suggest, like you mention, running the full playset is probably too much. Hullbreacher cuts into the mill plan (but I see the Laboratory Maniac in the sideboard) and the draw-damage pressure. I think I see where you're coming from, but just to be sure, could you explain the intended use step by step?

What I see is:

You're in a good spot now, you have resources and your opponent should be on the defense. A lot of those resources rely on your opponent having a reasonably discardable hand, though, so I assume you want to swing with Tourach and/or feed an Exsanguinate and end the game quickly.

I have to admit, I have more experience with pure discard than with wheels, so I might just need to see it in action, but I see Hullbreacher being a 1- or 2-of at most as a finisher, and not as part of the control plan.

How do you get your opponents to discard without them drawing for more than one turn, if you can "wheel and gain from Liliana's Caress and other enchantments"? Once they discard, their hand is empty, and Breacher stops them from significantly refilling their hand.

Still, this is a solid looking deck, so nice work! Have you been able to use it in live matches a lot?

legendofa on How to combo?

1 year ago

https://scryfall.com/search?as=gridℴ=name&q=type%3Ainsect+commander%3ABG+%28game%3Apaper%29+legal%3Acommander

This is a list of Commander-legal insects in color identity.

https://scryfall.com/search?as=gridℴ=name&q=oracle%3AChangeling+commander%3ABG+%28game%3Apaper%29+legal%3Acommander

This one is Changeling cards, for some extra fill.

Assuming you somehow get all lands out of your deck, since you don't have access to for Laboratory Maniac, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, or Thassa's Oracle, you need to win before you draw another card, or reshuffle your graveyard and make it your library. Gaea's Blessing and similar cards can help. Concordant Crossroads gives creatures haste, and some cards in these colors reward you for milling/putting cards into your graveyard.

Are you looking for any specific eff cts, or just anything that might be helpful?

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