This is the primary win condition of the deck and is accomplished usually by getting
Protean Hulk onto the battlefield, and then it dying, winning the game by taking advantage of its death trigger. This is most easily accomplished using
Flash, putting Hulk onto the battlefield, then immediately sacrificing it since the additional cost for Flash was not paid. Additional methods to accomplish this include casting
Necromancy at a time you could not normally cast a sorcery, such as during your upkeep or combat, or another player's turn to return Hulk from your graveyard to the battlefield. This will cause Necromancy to be sacrificed during the end step, also causing Hulk to be sacrificed, causing his death trigger. You can also put Hulk from your library onto the battlefield via
Pattern of Rebirth or simply reanimate it through another means. Note that these methods require you to have another way to kill your own Hulk.
After Hulk dies and triggers, there are several different paths to win, depending on your situation. The most common ones I've used are as follows:
If you have a sacrifice outlet, such as Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer, already in play you can be safe by using the trigger to search for Grand Abolisher and Academy Rector. This will stop your opponents from being able to interact with you during the combo. From there, you can sacrifice Rector to get Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, or Necromancy to reanimate the Hulk and continue the chain. This step can be added at any point in the combo but is recommended as the first step if you have a sacrifice outlet already in play.
The line with the fewest steps and cards is to first get Karmic Guide and a sacrifice outlet, such as Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer. Then, use Guide's trigger to reanimate Hulk and sacrifice it again. This time getting Saffi Eriksdotter and Zulaport Cutthroat. You can then sacrifice Saffi, targeting Guide and causing Cutthroat to trigger. Then sacrifice Guide, getting another Cutthroat Trigger and causing Saffi's ability to return it to play. Then use Karmic Guide's trigger to return Saffi to play. You can then loop sacrificing Guide and Saffi to cause infinite Cutthroat triggers, winning the game.
Another line involves getting Academy Rector, one or more sacrifice outlets and up to 1 more CMC worth of other creatures. It is usually best here to get both sacrifice outlet creatures here, as it makes it more difficult for your opponents to disrupt you by removing one. You can then sacrifice Rector to a sacrifice outlet to get Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead, bringing back Hulk. Then, sacrifice Hulk to get Renegade Rallier and either Saffi or Cutthroat and up to one more CMC worth of other creatures. Renegade Rallier then returns Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead to play, which in turn returns Hulk to play. Then sacrifice Hulk to get either Saffi or Cutthroat (Whichever you didn't get in the previous step) and up to four CMC worth of other creatures if you'd like. From here, sacrifice Saffi, targeting Rallier and causing Cutthroat to trigger. Then, sacrifice Rallier, causing Saffi's ability to return it to play. From here, Rallier's trigger can bring back Saffi, allowing you to loop sacrifices to kill your opponents with Cutthroat's triggers.
With the addition of the Bomberman combo, I have added a way to assemble the combo through a single Hulk trigger. This is not recommended, as it requires several steps and is easy to disrup, but should be primarily used if one or more important combo pieces gets stuck in your hand or another difficult-to-access place, such as your graveyard or exile. To use this line, first get Karmic Guide and a sacrifice outlet off the first trigger and bring back Hulk with the Guide trigger. Then sacrifice Hulk to get Phantasmal Image and Auriok Salvagers and use Image to copy Guide, bringing back Hulk. Sacrifice Hulk again to get Trinket Mage, which can search for Lion's Eye Diamond in your library. From there you can perform the "Bomberman" combo outlined in the section below.
You can also start a Razaketh combo line from a Hulk trigger if necessary. To do this, search for Academy Rector, a sacrifice outlet, any 1 CMC creature, and Dryad Arbor. Sacrifice Academy Rector and put Pattern of Rebirth into play from your library attached to any creature you control with the trigger. Then sacrifice the creature that Pattern is enchanting to search your library for
razaketh, the foulblooded
and put it onto the battlefield. From here you can assemble any appropriate Razaketh combo line outlined in the section below.
