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Nihilistic teachings

Modern Combo RGWU

reivaxo


Sideboard

Grapes ending (1)

Nihilist ending (3)

Revenge of the cretaceous (2)

To bear a behemotic burden (1)

Wombo Jombo Combo (1)

Your opponent's (1)


Maybeboard

Get the combo and stay alive (6)

Stay alive (2)


What and why?

The idea is to create the largest finite combo a friend and I could imagine with a playable modern tournament legal deck. The deck is built with the intention of not utilizing infinite combos. I dare you to try, it is impossible to create an infinite combo with the cards available in the deck. We find infinite combos too easy and cliché. It is much harder (and therefore much more interesting) to create the largest finite combo possible. We did the math, and the combo easily allows to copy any instant or sorcery more times than any modern computer can compute. Note that an even bigger finite combo could be achieved with some obvious changes, but it would make the deck unplayable, which we try to avoid.

The name of the deck refers to the first ending in the endings section, which is our favorite. The ending consists of passing the turn after exiling every single card in the game.

How?

The deck uses Thousand-Year Storm to copy instants and sorceries a lot of times. We designed a few possible ways to win the game.

To play the deck, choose an ending (or multiple endings) from the ending section. Then build your sideboard accordingly: add to the sideboard base the sideboard that corresponds to the ending(s) of your choice. We recommend filling empty spots with Harness Infinitys.

Steps to follow

1 Stay alive while searching for a Manamorphose, a Thousand-Year Storm and Rituals to keep in hand.

2 As soon as you have enough lands and Rituals to cast Thousand-Year Storm and a Manamorphose, do so. Cast the spells drawn, add mana, keep going until your library is empty. When resolving Manamorphoses, make sure you have at least 2 in your mana pool, then add only . Make sure you empty your library with a "look at the library top, put one in hand" spell and not a "draw" spell to avoid losing the game. For the next step, once the library is empty, you need to have access to at least and without any Manamorphose.

3 Cast as many Thousand-Year Storms as possible and cast Fae of Wishes as a sorcery, and later as a creature. Cast Brass's Bounty, Parallel Lives, Teferi, Time Raveler if none is in play and +1 it. Cast Lorehold Command choosing the mode that makes Fae of Wishes gain indestructible. From now on, every spell that requires a creature target has one, including damage spells in order to not kill anyone (yet). Also chose the drain 3 mode. If applicable, cast Mastermind's Acquisition to get creature cards.

4 From your hand, set aside a single Manamorphose, 4 Mythos of Illuna, and Psychic Spiral.

5 Increase the storm count by casting, when applicable, Lightning Bolts, Psychic Intrusion, Grapeshot and cast/retrace Raven's Crime keeping only one land in hand for step 7. Target yourself to discard nonland permanents and also Harness Infinity and Crack the Earth if applicable, then target an opponent.

6 From now on, whenever you would put a card from your library into your hand while your library is empty, respond with Red Sun's Zenith (with X=0). Cast all "draw" spells, and then all the "look at the library top, put one in hand", keeping a single treasure for step 7. When in need of mana, respond with a mana spell. When you cast Manamorphose this way (it counts as a mana spell), add as many as there are symbols in the remaining spells to cast plus 9 for the cards set aside, then only . After this step, if you haven't cast more than 10^5 spells (single casts, copies do not count), you did it wrong.

7 Retrace Raven's Crime to discard Red Sun's Zenith. Your hand should now be empty, except for possibly Time Stop. There is a very slim chance that some "draw" spells remain as well.

8 Grab the cards previously set aside. Cast all 4 Mythos of Illunas targeting Thousand-Year Storm, and target all copies (they will resolve first) on Parallel Lives.

9 Cast Psychic Spiral. The first Psychic Spiral resolves. Before the second one resolves, respond with Manamorphose. Let the copies resolve until your library is empty, then do the Red Sun's Zenith shenanigans. Still before the second Psychic Spiral resolves, go to step 4. This loop is not infinite as there is a finite amount of Psychic Spiral copies on the stack.

Neat tricks to optimize

Before the combo turn, if you intend to cast a Discover the Impossible and you are not looking for a land, know that Discover the Impossible might find a Lightning Bolt to cast for free.

When you start the combo, you might run into difficult decisions regarding Discover the Impossible. Say you cast Pyretic Ritual, then Thousand-Year Storm, then Manamorphose: you have 4 mana in your pool and only have Discover the Impossible in hand. When casting it (and you get 2 copies), you absolutely need to find a Manamorphose. When the first one resolves, your two best options are Impulse or Pyretic Ritual. The optimal play is to cast Pyretic Ritual because if you hit a Manamorphose with Impulse, you won't be able to cast it. But if you add mana first, and then when the 2 other Discover the Impossible copies resolve you cast free digging spells, you maximize your chances of hitting a Manamorphose.

The steps 3 to 6 give a generally good casting order, but the optimal sequence highly depends on what was used before the combo. Let's look at step 6 for example. Sometimes you will create more than you'll be able to spend, and sometimes the will be the bottleneck. Here are some general ideas. Most of the time, will be the bottleneck. In this case, mana spells should be cast as late as possible, a.k.a in response to the very moment you need them. Whenever there is only 3 left respond with Manamorphose. Whenever a Manamorphose resolves, add at least 1 for the next Red Sun's Zenith. When you have played all the Manamorphoses, whenever there is only 2 left, respond with a Ritual.

There is also the option of running 2 Red Sun's Zenith in the sideboard, such that Lorehold Command can be used to create an elephant then sacrifice it to draw 2. This will only work if there is at least 2 * (storm count) * (number of Thousand-Year Storm in play) mana in the pool.

After the combo has started, splicing the Desperate Ritual is not optimal. Spending to cast Red Sun's Zenith twice will allow you to copy Desperate Ritual two more times per Thousand-Year Storm, rather than only getting the equivalent of a single copy with a splice.

Step 8 is where impossible to understand numbers are reached. If x_n := the number of Parallel Lives in play, every Mythos of Illuna copy targeting Parallel Lives can be represented as an iteration on the series x_(n+1) = x_n + 2^(x_n). If y_n := the number of Thousand-Year Storm in play, every Mythos of Illuna copy targeting Thousand-Year Storm can be represented as an iteration on the series y_(n+1) = y_n + 2^(x_n). Hint: after only 4 iterations with x_0 = 1, x_4 = a 620 digits number, you'll do a lot more iterations than that. The numbers rapidly get absurdly high.

Adding cards like Detection Tower if an opponent has hexproof or Shadowspear for permanents could be needed for a perfect run. Overwhelming Splendor works for creatures with shroud. Ways to get around players and non-creature permanents with shroud by choosing rather than targeting should also be considered.

The lands might seem a bit odd, but they fulfill the following restrictions.

  • No library shuffling, the non-combo cards scried to the bottom need to stay there.

  • No lands that enter tapped on turn 5 or more. If you are just missing one land to start the combo, you don't want to hit one that enters tapped.

  • Minimizing the life loss, the combo often arrives quite late and it's hard enough to stay alive.

  • Maximizing the chances of having access to and on turn 1.

  • Maximizing the chances of having access to once for Teferi, Time Raveler.

No counterspells allowed. You could then simply cast Psychic Spiral and counter it, such that the copies get the original back and go on for infinity.

Remand would be an excellent card in this deck. It's tempo before the combo, and it allows you to Remand a Manamorphose targeting only the original spell, and getting all the effects of the copies. Sadly though, the card allows for an infinite combo the same way counterspells do.

Many cards are chosen as they serve multiple purposes. For example: Fae of Wishes can get non-creature cards from the sideboard while also acting as a target for spells that require a creature target; Lorehold Command provides haste, indestructible, a way to draw more cards and the Jumbo ending.

Some cards are preferable to a creature that does a similar effect because they don't require Mastermind's Acquisition.

The point of Brass's Bounty is to allow a more liberal use of Manamorphose before the combo to simply draw more cards.

Harness Infinity is a batter redo spell than cards like Finale of Revelation as it does not require card draw to put the deck in hand. This way, card draw effects are only used with Red Sun's Zenith, thus maximizing the storm count.

Nihilist ending

  1. After the last Psychic Spiral resolves, cast Sentinel Totem, and sacrifice it.

  2. Respond to the ability with Raven's Crime, and respond to it with Crack the Earth.

  3. After the stack resolves everything will be exiled. Pass the turn and win.

Grapes ending

  1. After the last Psychic Spiral resolves, cast the whole deck as usual and finish with Grapeshot on your opponent(s), you win.

Scoopy ending (the one with the largest finite combo)

During the whole game, always keep aside in your mana pool.

  1. After the last Psychic Spiral resolves, cast Harness Infinity. After every time such a redo spell resolves, respond with Psychic Spiral. For every redo spell on the stack, you can repeat all the set up steps.

  2. Refill the stack and keep on going on for ages and for no particular reason.

  3. Your opponent(s) scoop(s). If you are playing with tournament rules and your opponent(s) are incredibly patient, making you resolve the stack step by step in the hope to get a draw, cast Time Stop to empty the stack and pass the turn right before the clock ticks.

Your opponent's ending

  1. After the last Psychic Spiral resolves, cast Psychic Intrusion and cast your opponent(s)'s deck(s).

  2. Use their win condition to win. Note that Lorehold Command provides haste to the stolen creatures.

Revenge of the cretaceous ending

  1. Cast Polyraptor as soon as possible.

  2. Every time you cast a damage spell, target a Polyraptor with it. Note that Parallel Lives takes effect, and that Lorehold Command provides haste and indestructible.

  3. Attack and win.

The castaways ending (a.k.a. the Planeswalkers ending)

  1. Keep Jace, Cunning Castaway, Sarkhan the Masterless and Inexorable Tide in hand and cast them after the Parallel Lives shenanigans.

  2. Use Harness Infinitys as done in the scoppy ending, and for the rest of the game, whenever a Jace that hasn't activated an ability yet has more than 5 loyalty and the stack is empty, -5 that Jace.

  3. Attack with too many dragon Castaways for the win.

Wombo Jumbo Combo ending

Every time it is indicated to chose the third mode on Lorehold Command, chose the first instead. Also get Lightning Runner with Mastermind's Acquisition, and cast Inexorable Tide as early as possible to proliferate an Aether Hub's unused energy.

To Bear a Behemotic Burden

  1. Cast an Inexorable Tide as soon as possible as well as a The One Ring if none is already in play.

  2. Proliferate the burden counters with Inexorable Tide.

  3. Give The One Ring to an opponent with Harmless Offering. Pass the turn and win.

What if?

In this section, I try to imagine what the deck that achieves the largest finite combo (regardless of if it is playable or not) looks like. First, there is a rule saying that you must be able to shuffle your deck in your hands unassisted. This means that the deck would have to be played sleeveless, and would contain somewhere between 100 and 200 cards depending on your hands size and dexterity.

We could use the same sideboard as the one for the Scoopy ending. The deck would contain the combo pieces (see decklist categories), 7 lands, a Mystic Speculation, a Haze of Rage, a Darksteel Myr and a Wish. The rest of the deck would be filled with spells that create treasures, spells that add mana, draw spells, and "redo" spells like Finale of Revelation, Emergency Powers and Time Reversal. Notice that these 2 make you shuffle your hand, this means that you won't be able to respond to the next copy on the stack with a Manamorphose. You would need to imprint a Manamorphose on an Isochron Scepter beforehand and cast a Twiddle to untap it after every iteration. This way, you can shuffle your hand and still have access to a Manamorphose.

Other "redo" spells include Reap the Past, Long Rest, Once and Future, Treasured Find, Praetor's Counsel, Restock, Vengeful Rebirth, Wildest Dreams and Woodland Guidance. Other non-copyable spells that shuffle your graveyard into your library without causing an infinite loop include Cranial Archive, Perpetual Timepiece, Enhanced Surveillance and Feldon's Cane.

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Date added 5 years
Last updated 1 month
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

8 - 7 Mythic Rares

11 - 14 Rares

8 - 2 Uncommons

24 - 3 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.51
Tokens Copy Clone, Dragon 4/4 R, Illusion 2/2 U w/ Phantasmal, Spirit 3/2 RW, Treasure
Folders Combo, Xavier
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