Obfuscated Deck Challenge

[thorme]

Simple format, just create a deck which tries to challenge others to figure out how it wins the goldfish.

Deckbuilding rules:

- No minimum/maximum deck size
- Vintage card set and B/R list, sideboard allowed with a maximum of 15 cards
- Players begin with their entire deck in hand and there is no maximum hand size
- Players do not lose the game as a result of not being able to draw a card
- Goldfish opponent is trying not to die and not to let you win, so if they have to make any choices, they do so accordingly
- Goldfish opponent begins with 0 cards in hand, 20 life, no graveyard or library



Here is a pretty easy one to start off.  Just figure out how it wins the goldfish game...


Donate
Island
Souldrinker
Upwelling
Tinder Wall
Revive
Lush Growth
Panoptic Mirror
Rolling Stones
Grand Melee
Orim's Prayer
Elvish Spirit Guide
Sneak Attack
Sol Ring


I will warn you, once you start getting up to a sizeable deck, it is tough to design a deck in such a way as to keep to your single desired path to victory.


Edited for Thorme's faulty memory regarding Upwelling's cc...

[Matt]

Island, remove ESG to Lush Growth it (taps for anything but black).
Next turn tap it for Tinder Wall.
Next turn...no idea. is a dead end, and nothing but Revive is playable (which would leave you with )? I don't see how you get a fourth mana for Upwelling (after which all nonblack mana costs are trivial).

Since the opponent could just sac the wall to keep from attacking, you need to get Mirror in play with Revive and Donate on it. Keep playing and Donating the Wall. They can only mana burn themselves down to 2 - after that, they'll have to attack into your enchantments.

Donate the Tinder Wall, after playing Grand Melee and Orim's Prayer and Rolling Stones, which, if it goes on long enough, will get you infinite life, which will eventually be channeled into Souldrinker (played via Sneak Attack). The Wall will be tapped from attacking, and you smack them for arbitrary amounts.

But that Upwelling! Still can't get to four mana. If you change Island to Tropical Island, everything works out (Trop, tap for Lush Growth, untap, tap for Tinder Wall, untap, sac wall and tap Trop and RFG ESG for {G/U}, cast Upwelling, proceed as above).

[thorme]

Doh - I knew I should have checked gatherer for some of these cards - memory isn't what it used to be.  Upwelling costs 2G in my head for some reason, and with your fix (Trop) everything works as intended.

I'll try to come up with another one, but they're tough to design (at least for me).

[Godder]

With Trop, though, don't you just cast Tinder Wall, then next turn sac that and tap Trop to hardcast ESG and just beat for 2 until they're dead?

[thorme]

With Trop, though, don't you just cast Tinder Wall, then next turn sac that and tap Trop to hardcast ESG and just beat for 2 until they're dead?

Right you are...re-adjusted.

[andrewpate]

Dang it, I spent half an hour on this last night trying to get that fourth mana.  I couldn't wait to get on today and see what insane cleverness allowed it to work.  Ah, well.

Still, cool game.  I may post a deck in the next few days.  It's hard, though, because many of the ideas I've been having include creatures with non-zero power, instantly giving the alternate win of "just attack."  Seems to me like that's the hardest aspect of making one of these.

[Matt]

With Trop, though, don't you just cast Tinder Wall, then next turn sac that and tap Trop to hardcast ESG and just beat for 2 until they're dead?

Right you are...re-adjusted.

Sol Ring could also have just been Island #2. Or Plains, to throw people off.

[thorme]

Ok, here's this evening's deck...should be a bit more challenging with a different theme than the first.  Enjoy, and I hope I didn't make any major errors in this one that will cause anyone to go crazy.     


Sunglasses of Urza
Reiterate
Blasting Station
Crucible of Worlds
Gaea's Cradle
Phyrexian Grimoire
Irrigation Ditch
4x Burning Wish
4x Golden Wish
Decimate
Candelabra of Tawnos
Reconnaissance
Hidden Path
Spiny Starfish
Serra's Sanctum


Deckbuilders note:  It is likely that there are extraneous wishes in here, but I've thought about the deck enough without trying to figure out the minimum number of each.

[Anusien]

I don't have a step by step solution like in the other one because Grimoire makes things a bit non-deterministic, but I think I have the solution.

1. Play Irrigation Ditch
2. Play Renaissance, play Serra Sanctum, play Candelabra of Tawnos.
3. Sac Irrigation Ditch for GU, tap Serra Sanctum for W, play Crucible of Worlds.  Replay Irrigation Ditch.
4. Go and play out Gaea's Cradle, Sunglasses of Urza, Phyrexian Grimoire, Spiny Starfish, Blasting Station
Cads left: Reiterate, Hidden Path, Decimate, 4x Burning Wish, 4x Golden Wish.  You can tap for W, U, and W or GU.

I think part of the answer involves saccing Irrigation Ditch for GU, replaying it, regenerating, and casting Decimate targetting it to get another creature.  Then next turn you replay the land and Grimoire back Decimate and an artifact; you Wish back whichever you don't get.
You can do this a few more times and get a bunch of Starfish; eventually you can Reiterate the Burning Wish with buyback from Gaea's Cradle mana and literally go infinite.  Then you start grinding it out with Blasting Station.

You cast Burning Wish + Reiterate you can either untap the Sanctum with Candelabra or you cast Hidden Path with Cradle mana just as an enchantment to power Sanctum.

[Nefarias]

I'm not really sure how the Wishes work. Can you name any legal card to search for? If so, isn't it as easy as following Anusien's Steps 1-3, then with three mana cast Sunglasses, then next turn Burning Wish for like Dragon Fodder or Raise the Alarm, cast it, and attack a bunch of times?

[thorme]

I'm not really sure how the Wishes work. Can you name any legal card to search for? If so, isn't it as easy as following Anusien's Steps 1-3, then with three mana cast Sunglasses, then next turn Burning Wish for like Dragon Fodder or Raise the Alarm, cast it, and attack a bunch of times?

According to the rules, you can include a sideboard of up to 15 cards, although this deck doesn't use one.  The wishes are constrained to get cards from the SB or cards rfg'd from the deck.

I don't have a step by step solution like in the other one because Grimoire makes things a bit non-deterministic, but I think I have the solution.

1. Play Irrigation Ditch
2. Play Renaissance, play Serra Sanctum, play Candelabra of Tawnos.
3. Sac Irrigation Ditch for GU, tap Serra Sanctum for W, play Crucible of Worlds.  Replay Irrigation Ditch.
4. Go and play out Gaea's Cradle, Sunglasses of Urza, Phyrexian Grimoire, Spiny Starfish, Blasting Station
Cads left: Reiterate, Hidden Path, Decimate, 4x Burning Wish, 4x Golden Wish.  You can tap for W, U, and W or GU.

I think part of the answer involves saccing Irrigation Ditch for GU, replaying it, regenerating, and casting Decimate targetting it to get another creature.  Then next turn you replay the land and Grimoire back Decimate and an artifact; you Wish back whichever you don't get.
You can do this a few more times and get a bunch of Starfish; eventually you can Reiterate the Burning Wish with buyback from Gaea's Cradle mana and literally go infinite.  Then you start grinding it out with Blasting Station.

You cast Burning Wish + Reiterate you can either untap the Sanctum with Candelabra or you cast Hidden Path with Cradle mana just as an enchantment to power Sanctum.

You have the main gist.  Making the mana work is the tricky part - for instance, after the first Decimate, if your first Grimoire activation has your opponent remove Reconnaisance from the game and give you back Decimate (lets say with Blasting Station still in the graveyard) - casting Golden Wish is a bit awkward.

[Anusien]

Right.  With Decimate you can order the graveyard so you put Blasting Station and Decimate on top.  I did miss originally in there that you lose the enchantment when you cast Decimate and that weakens your mana production.

It's worth noting that I didn't work out the scenario 100%, I just know it has to work that way and I assume you did it right!

[thorme]

Right.  With Decimate you can order the graveyard so you put Blasting Station and Decimate on top.  I did miss originally in there that you lose the enchantment when you cast Decimate and that weakens your mana production.

It's worth noting that I didn't work out the scenario 100%, I just know it has to work that way and I assume you did it right!

Exactly, the difficulty with Grimoire is that you can never ensure you get the card you want back in hand - and it seems that the opponent removing Reconnaisance from the game will make the win toughest.  They'll pretty much always give you back Decimate and make you cast the Golden Wish (twice - once for station and again for recon) which is a pain.

Such trust in my abilities.     To be honest, I worked most of it out, but with these things it is tough to be 100% sure.  Its also far harder to create a deck that really masks the win condition - for this one, the devil is in the details, since it is pretty clear after a brief inspection that Blasting Station has to be the win condition with a bunch of starfish, but how exactly to work it out is where the challenge is.

[Godder]

Here's a nice simple one (not as simple as Dryad Arbor, mind you):

Tropical Island
Sol Ring
Simian Spirit Guide
Donate
Power Surge
Living Wish

[thorme]

Here's a nice simple one (not as simple as Dryad Arbor, mind you):

Tropical Island
Sol Ring
Simian Spirit Guide
Donate
Power Surge
Living Wish

Nice little package.

Turn 1:  Trop, Sol Ring
Turn 2:  Toss Spirit Guide, tap trop for G sol ring for 2 and Living Wish for Spirit Guide, toss again and cast power surge..take 1 burn
Turn 3:  Tap trop for U sol ring for 2, Donate Trop
Turn 4+:  Taunt opponent as they chose between taking a mana burn a turn or getting pinged by Power Surge