Combos Browse all Suggest
Legality
| Format | Legality |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Oldschool 93/94 | Legal |
| Planar Constructed | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
Shahrazad
Sorcery
Players play a MAGIC subgame, using their libraries as their decks. Each player who doesn't win the subgame loses half his or her life, rounded up.
legendofa on Using shrazarad
6 months ago
Shahrazad isn't a Stax/Prison/Turbo Fog sort of stall effect. It's a "abuse a quirk of the rules to damage the tournament structure" sort of stall effect.
Let's say I won game 1 and sideboard in Shahrazads, copy spells, and recursion. The match clock hits 00:00, and final turns are called. There are five turns to win or lose. If there's no winner after five turns, it's a draw.
I start the first turn by casting and copying Shahrazad. We now have to play two full subgames to resolve those. The first one finishes, but in the second subgame, I again cast and copy Shahrazad. There's now two more subgames we have to play to resolve the second subgame of the original Shahrazad. To resolve one spell and its copy, on the first of five time-limit turns, we have to go through three additional full games. And unless one of us is at 3 or less life in the main game, these three additional games probably don't affect the outcome of the main game.
Now repeat that on turn 3 of 5 and turn 5 of 5, and I can go through nine full Bo1 subgames to end the main game. If a single subgame takes ten minutes, I just added around an hour and a half to the match. The only way out of it is for one of us to concede the main game, and I don't want to lose my 1-0 match advantage. All the other tournament matches finished a long time ago, and people are bored and frustrated. And this isn't even the worst-case scenario.
FormOverFunction on Using shrazarad
6 months ago
I gotta say: I do like the idea of figuring out a way to instant-speed Shahrazading to break a combo deck loool
legendofa on Using shrazarad
6 months ago
ChaosJester I think I'm missing a step with your Wish combo. You keep pulling the Shahrazad from the main game into the new subgame until the opponent decks out in the newest subgame? How are you winning the main game? Each subgame only affects the game is was created in.
DreadKhan on Using shrazarad
6 months ago
I think back then you could try to build White Weenie and throw Shahrazad in as more Goodstuff since your deck is almost certainly lower to the ground (and WAY more consistent) than anything anyone else was bringing to the table. On the downside you have to grind through extra games, but the more layers you pile up the better your deck tends to get, and the worse your opponents end up, because your deck has lots of interchangeable small creatures. There was also Mishra's Factory for a man-land, because you'd certainly want to run a few extra lands. Oh, and vs the mirror I suspect you might catch them off guard using Land Tax to dig out lands before they know you're on Shahrazad, at which point they not only are they land thinned for each mini-game, they also have dead Land Tax cards to stare at when they're behind on lands, because they don't know if the opponent has another Shahrazad up to punish them.
legendofa on Using shrazarad
6 months ago
Stupid idea time: Shahrazad + Psychic Surgery.
Get Surgery out, then cast Shahrazad. Whether you win or lose the subgame, everyone shuffles afterward, so Surgery pulls a card from your opponent's deck. One card closer to a mill win, and one less card they can use in the next subgame. Start as many subgames as you can from the main game with Twincast or whatever. You want long but shallow games, not sub-sub-subgames. It's the jankiest Lantern Control.
legendofa on Using shrazarad
6 months ago
Pure stall. You cast Shahrazad and Twincast it. Start the first subgame and cast another Shahrazad. Probably finish that one, then start the subgame from the copied Shahrazad. Cast another Shahrazad and Fork it. At this point, you've started two subgames within a subgame after finishing another subgame, all while barely affecting the main game and possibly using no more than two actual physical copies of Shahrazad. With a full playset of Shahrazad and enough copy effects, it's possible to start a game that goes on for hours, or until the tournament organizers kick you out for deliberate slow play.
That's why it got banned, by the way. People would win game 1 of a tournament match, then force games 2+ to go way past time. The main game can't be called until all the sub games are finished, if I remember right.
moo1234 on Card creation challenge
1 year ago
Chilhuaca, Harbringer phoenix
Legendary Creature - Phoenix God
Flying Haste
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, create an ash token with ": Return Target Phoenix card from your graveyard to the battlefield"
If you control 6 or more phoenixs, phoenix's you control get +3/+3
2/3
"Chilhuaca roams freely and unopposed these days, If your village is her next target, leave, we tried killing her in the past, we did. But we still lost"
not my best flavour text.
Phoenix's are very cool cards in general. They are not very good in commander though, and they are only sometimes good in modern or pioneer. I have good memories of playing with Arclight Phoenix and nightmares of playing against Rekindling Phoenix. And I've always tried to make a phoenix deck work in either commander or modern but, it just doesn't quite work. Despite being powerful modern phoenix's are just not very quick compared to other red strategies, and there's almost no phoenix tribal for commander. So this card solves both issues.
It's very pushed but not as much as Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer so it's fineee....
Next Challenge: Make an uncard along the same lines as Shahrazad where you pause the game and play something outside the game.
Gidgetimer on Shahrazad - Wish effects Interaction
1 year ago
For clarity I'm going to use some notation to keep clear which game we are discussing at any point. G0 will be the main game G1 the game created from the first Shahrazad and so on.
If you cast a Shahrazad in G1 you will immediately start G2 and the player who loses G2 will lose half of their life in G1. Likewise if you cast a Shahrazad in G2 you will immediately start G3 and the loser will lose life in G2. Subgames start immediately and affect the game they were created in.
This is why Shahrazad is banned in all formats. With Glittering Wish you could conceivably have to play 9 games in a 4-of format to determine a single game.
