Maybe you could have something like Hunted Phantasm under a Changeling Hero when the Worldfire goes off to give your opponent tokens. (I'm guessing I'm missing something because it can be this easy.)
If you can somehow make it work, Sleeper Agent does what you want the token to do, but isn't a token. I'm guessing giving the opponent a token is easier, but I thought that Sleeper Agent might be worth mentioning.
[Edit] If they printed the version of Emrakul, the Promised End with Inexorable (can't be put into zones other than the graveyard from the battlefield) that they considered then we could have used and donated her. Too bad they didn't want to make a new key word just for her...
I know there's spells that put tokens onto the battlefield blocking, but is there a way to make an opponent gain control of a spell and is Spirit Flare even worth the number of cards needed to make it work if we do that?
[Edit Again]: I was probably thinking of spells that create tokens with Defender that are sacrificed at end of turn, but Flash Foliage and Mirror Match both match what I meant.
I think the problem that there needs to be an attacking creature to make it so creatures can block and we're trying to make creatures block after removing all the attackers... That means we need a new attacker. Maybe Attack with Geist of Saint Traft and make the world burn before he summons the Angel.
[ReEdit Again]: Burn the world in response to ninjas? There's even choices for the Ninjutsu cost from Mistblade Shinobi and Skullsnatcher's 1 up to Silent-Blade Oni's 6 Mana, but how could we make our opponent cast Flash Foliage? Wait... Don't the ninjas get discarded by Worldfire before Ninjutsu goes off? X(
Those are good ideas; we can certainly give the opponent tokens or cards like Sleeper Agent or Akroan Horse. The problem is, those creatures won't be blocking creatures, and Worldfire will get rid of all the blocking creatures. As far as I can see, the only way to keep a blocking creature on the battlefield is to save one from Worldfire, and I don't know of a way to do it. (Indestructible, hexproof, and shroud won't protect a creature from an "exile all permanents" effect.
[EDIT] A spell that puts a token onto the battlefield blocking would be great, but I don't know of any spell that does that. The closest that I could find was Aetherplasm, but that just trades one blocking creature for another. If there is a spell that puts a blocking creature onto the battlefield, we could perhaps use Hive Mind to give the opponent a copy of the spell. (Hive Mind would also copy our own spells; the only spell for which there is an obvious problem is Worldfire, which could perhaps be solved by not allowing us to do anything in between Worldfire spells. But, I guess this would put us in the same boat as the deck that Iijil suggested.)
Using a bunch of cards could very well be worth it, especially if it turns out the only way to implement a hyperhyperstage. That would easily outstrip any deck that only reaches the hyperstage level, no matter how many hyperstages or stages it has.
[EDIT] Nice finds on Flash Foliage and Mirror Match. Unfortunately, Geist of Saint Traft will only get us two attackers, and they would be destroyed in one Worldfire anyway (since we need to run Spirit Flare during either the declare blockers step or the combat damage step). Also, getting blockers too cheaply means we can use Spirit Flare with Cowardice/Horobi, Death's Wail too cheaply, which ruins the plan.
[EDIT] I have an idea: what if we took out two Fountain of Youths, and used something like Cursebreaker to make up the difference? We couldn't put Cursebreaker below Worldfire, or the Spellweaver Volute trigger will have no effect. So we can gain at most 1 life below the Worldfire breakline, and we can't do anything with just 2 life. Does this work?
Pretty sure that doesn't work. We can gain an extra life in the lower hyperstage by resolving Retract while leaving Cursebreaker on the stack. Then put a Fountain of Youth activation on the stack before casting the Worldfire and using the life that gives to cast another Retract before resolving the Worldfire. Then resolve the life gain stuff on the stack.
[EDIT] One possibility is to not use Staff of the Flame Magus, replacing it with a sorcery like Divine Congregation. Of course, we can put this after the Worldfire, so we have to use a method like the one you described above, where Leyline of Anticipation goes away and we can't play anything in between the sorcery triggers. So we can have a choice between Worldpurge and Worldfire, depending on which one works out better. (I like Worldfire because of the possibility of mana stages, but that's secondary to getting the hyperhyperstage working.)
That's assuming that Worldfire doesn't mess up a Spellweaver Helix trigger that resolves later. If it did, that would be great, because it would mean that we couldn't have Divine Congregation be cast after Worldfire, and we could use Changeling Hero to exile Leyline of Anticipation and Omniscience. But I have a feeling it doesn't, since we I think we would resolve the Helix trigger using last known information, and went the Helix is exiled, it is still imprinted with Divine Congregation.
The only problem would be to get cards like Horobi, Death's Wail into our hand to hide them from the Worldfire. That seems solvable by just adding a Evacuation. Being able to bounce creatures any time seems dangerous, but I think as lonk as we stick to tap-the-token stages it should be fine, since it also destroys the tokens. To take advantage of the Bloodbond March layer it gives we would need the corresponding token, which we can only have after a bounce if the creature was imprinted on a Mimic Vat. But then it isn't on the battlefield and can't be bounced in the first place.
Looks good! I don't see any problems, so looking at possible improvements:
For the Worldpurge version, I think we can remove the three Fountain of Youths for a Mox, and Evacuation as well. In exchange we would need to replace Divine Congregation with Fungal Sprouting plus Utopia Mycon. That saves two cards, but replacing Show and Tell may well require more cards than that. Can we use Flash plus Academy Rector? Flash can put creature cards into our graveyard, but only if they are initially in our hand. So we would still need to target the creature to bounce it back to our hand before we can use Flash to put it in the graveyard, so a targeting is required either way. So I think Flash is safe?
I think Flash goes infinite with bounces from Retract or Worldpurge. I.e. bounce once to get a Bloodbond March layer and then keep bounce/flashing to convert those trigger into tokens.
I do not think Cursebreak will work. Using the sequence from my last post we go infinite using a flashback spell that doesn't cost life. Using a 3 life flashback spell I don't see a way to use Cursebreak to get that life back after the Worldfire.
One small possible improvement is to replace Military Intellingence with Kithkin Mourncaller, which activates each time you destroy an attacking Elf or Kithkin, rather than just when you attack. Unfortunately, it isn't worth the full two layers, since to get that we would need to run the full combo between each destruction of an Elf/Kithkin, and Worldfire would get rid of the attackers in between. However, for all but one of the Elves/Kithkins we can run as much of the combo as we can without Worldfire. Without Worldfire I don't think that particular section does much, but we still get a hyperstage + 11 stages + 3 layers for the other sections. Then we can do the full combo for the last Elf/Kithkin, getting a hyperhyperstage + 11 stages + 3 layers.
Now the big question: How do we get started? I think we can replace Dreadship Reef with Mox Sapphire and if we do so we could replace Black Lotus with a Mox or Mana Crypt, although I'm not sure of the latter replacement is helpful or not.
Preparing for Worldfire is a bit tricky, so let me just check:
Say Worldfire is at the top of the stack. Play Wormfang Behemoth, which results in a bunch of Dual Nature triggers and a Wormfang Behemoth trigger. Put the Wormfang Behemoth trigger at the bottom and the Dual Nature triggers above it. Play Drake Familiar, bouncing the original Spellweaver Volute, which we have cast on Reality Spasm, back to our hand. (We can let the token copies of Drake Familiar be sacrificed.) The other instants will still be enchanted by token copies of Spellweaver Volute. Pay 3 life and a couple green mana to flashback Acorn Harvest, triggering Battle Cry, Retract, and Evacuate[/c] in that order. Make whatever progress you can with Battle Cry, then Retract will bring all our artifacts to our hand, and then Evacuate will bring all our creatures (including all our enchantments) back to our hand, leaving just the two lands on the battlefield. The top Dual Nature trigger for Wormfang Behemoth resolves, creating a Wormfang Behemoth token; this triggers it's ETB ability, and all the cards in our hand get exiled. Then the remaining Dual Nature triggers and the original Wormfang Behemoth trigger resolve, but they do nothing special since we have no cards in hand. Then Worldfire resolves; this will exile the Wormfang Behemoths the two lands, and the Spellweaver Volutes on the battlefield, as well as all cards in our graveyard. This triggers the Wormfang Behemoth's leave the battlefield trigger, and the cards that were exiled by it return to our hand. Below the Worldfire spell, we made sure to put a Copper Gnomes ability; this now resolves, and we place Vedalken Orrery on the battlefield. We next hardcast Omniscience, and start rebuilding our battiefield as before.
So, not too bad. It looks like we need to put an activation of Copper Gnomes below every Retract as well as every Worldfire, but I don't think that poses a problem.
[EDIT] Okay, I made an attempt at the start, but I'm running into problems:
Play Perpetual Timepiece, Mirror of Fate, Cowardice, and Vedalken Orrery, getting token copies. Cast Allay without buyback, bouncing March of the Machines back to our hand. The token copies of March of the Machines get exiled. Tap the three Perpetual Timepieces, putting
into the graveyard. Play Spellweaver Helix, imprinting Flash of Defiance and Wheel of Fortune and putting them in the exile zone. Play Flash of Defiance, triggering Spellweaver Helix; resolve the Spellweaver Helix trigger and cast Wheel of Fortune. Respond by tapping and sacrificing the two Mirror of Fate tokens. Resolve the first Mirror of Fate ability, and choose no cards in exile; put all the cards in the library into exile. Resolve the second Mirror of Fate, and put
At this point, we need to use another ]Mirror of Fate to refill the library. Bouncing artifacts seems tough at this point, we need a hasted untapped Metallurgeon. So perhaps the best way is to get rid of March of the Machines and keep sacrificing and putting back Mirror of Fate.
[EDIT] Here's an idea: If there is an instant that allows us to put Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrery on the battlefield, then we could cast Acorn Harvest, and put the Spellweaver Volute trigger for that instant last on the stack. After we resolve the Spellweaver Volute trigger, we can cast the hyperhyperstage sorcery. After Worldfire resolves, the instant comes next and puts Leyline of Anticipation / Vedalken Orrery on the battlefield. We will only gain 3 life for a single round of Fountain of Youths, which is just enough to pay for this round of Acorn Harvest, so we can go back to using a non-life payment flashback spell like Bump in the Night, which allows us to use Staff of the Flame Magus again.
Looking around, the only instant that I could find that could work was Desertion. I think we can make it work though; bring Vedalken Orrery back to our hand with token copies of it on the battlefield, and cast it, then respond with Acorn Harvest. Hmm, but then Vedalken Orrery is stuck on the stack, and we can use it for different hyperstages. We probably need one for every hyperstage, not just the top one.
I think I have a working start. It is not really optimized, but should get access to then full deck and a big batch of Disciple of Tevesh Szat tokens before the first combat.
play spellweaver Volute, enchanting Allay.
Play Copy Enchantment as copy enchantment. One token copies Volute, enchanting Retract, the other token copies Dual Nature.
Play March of the Machines.
Play Mirror of Fate.
Play Psychic Battle.
Play Vedalken Orrery.
Play Flash of Defiance. Volutes and helix trigger. Resolve the Allay volute first, then Wheel, last Retract.
Allay targets March of the Machines to bounce it. 4 psychic battle trigger also happen. they all get redirected to copy enchantment, which gets bounced and replayed with token copies copying Dual Nature. That leaves us with 64 Dual Natures on the battlefield.
Volute gets reenchanted on Evactuation.
Resolve the Helix trigger. With the Wheel copy on the stack crack 2 Mirror tokens to first exile the library and then put the seven cards you want to draw next back in. resolve the wheel.
before retract play mox saphire and mana crypt again and tap them for mana. Resolve retract.
Play Drake Familiar, bouncing and replaying Copy enchantment with each token. We get 2^70 Dual Natures.
Play Precursor Golem.
Play Core Prowler.
Play Titania, Protector of Argoth. Tap the Saltcrusted Step for a storage counter.
Play Mox Saphire and Mana Crypt, tap for mana. (2 blue, 3 colorless)
Cast reality spasm, targeting the original precursor golem for x=1 (2 colorless mana remain).
Get 2^70 precursor golem trigger and 4 psychic battle triggers and some cowardize on the original golem.
first use the psychic battles to go up to 2^73 dual Natures and as many Psychic Battles. Replay the Precursor golem after bounce
first precursor trigger reswolves, causing 2^147 psychic battles to trigger.
use each to kill a core prowler token or bounce and replay the original prowler when you run out. Proliferate for storage counter.
convert those counter into mana and use allay to increase the number of dual natures and Psychic Battle, to roughly 2^2^147 each. replay the bounced precursor golem.
Repeat for the other 69 precursor trigger to get ~2^^75 Dual Natures, Psychic Battles and green/white mana.
After that we can put our choice of the exiled/in graveyard cards into the library using refreshed token copies of Perpetual Timepiece and Mirror of Fate. Then use the 1 red mana from Undiscovered Paradise to flashback a Flash of Defiance and cast a Wheel via a newly prepared Spellweaver Helix. While at it use another Helix to cast a Divine Congregation to gain some life.
I hope I didn't miss any card that we need to draw. Or missed any card that got into the graveyard after using it the first time and now needs to be redrawn. Or anything else. But by drawing Reality Spasm one or two times less we could compensate for small mistakes along those lines, so I figure a start should be possible unless I missed something major.
It looks like each [c}Reality Spasm[/c] can only generate one hasted token of a creature. But I guess that will be enough with all the Psychic Battles and Bloodbond Marches we can have at that point. After the fourth Wheel Draw, we can cast a Mad Auntie and get more than 2^^(3*2^53) Bloodbond March triggers, and for every two we get a hasted Krark-Clan Stoker.
For the golem combo. You can oost it even more with 4 coat of arms
Just give an example. If you have 1001 3/3 golems that will grant you 1001 4003/4003 golems
Lock that into the grand total we have.
There is limited space in the deck, so every card needs to have as much impact as possible. Coat of arms multiplies the final damage dealt by the golems by a number, but the rest of the cards do much better than multiplication. It's better to take a huge number like 1001 and square it than to multiply it by 2. And all the cards in the deck do much better than squaring.
Coat of arms would have a place in a deck with unlimited space, but that sounds like a nightmare to make and figure out; you'd just want to put in as many cards which don't go infinite as possible.
play retract.
play spellweaver Volute, enchanting retract.
replay the artifacts, get some mana (2 colorless, 1 blue).
Mill both lands.
Play Copy Enchantment as copy enchantment. Both tokens copy Dual Nature.
Play Drake Familiar. All 5 copies bounce Copy Enchantment, replaying it each time. tokens copy Dual Nature. We end with 128 Dual Natures.
Play the rest of the permanents in hand.
Play Flash of Defiance. Volutes and helix trigger. Resolve the Wheel first, then Retract.
Volute gets reenchanted on Evactuation.
Replay Vedalken Orrery.
Play March of the Machines.
Play Mox Saphire. With Dual Nature triggers on the stack play Mana Crypt. With Dual Nature triggers on the stack play Allay with Buyback, bouncing March of the Machines.
Get the tokens and tap them for Mana (128 blue, 256 colorless).
Cast a bunch of Allays to increase the number of Dual Natures and Psychic Battles to ~2^128.
Play Titania, Protector of Argoth. Tap the Saltcrusted Step for a storage counter.
Play Precursor Golem.
Play Core Prowler.
Cast reality spasm, targeting the original precursor golem for x=1 (2 colorless mana remain).
Get 2^128 precursor golem trigger
first precursor trigger reswolves, causing a bunch of psychic battles to trigger.
use each to kill a core prowler token or bounce and replay the original prowler when you run out. Proliferate for storage counter.
convert those counter into mana and use allay to increase the number of dual natures and Psychic Battle, to roughly 2^2^128 each. replay the bounced precursor golem.
Repeat for the other ~2^128 precursor trigger to get ~2^^(2^128) Dual Natures, Psychic Battles and green/white mana.
After that we can put our choice of the exiled/in graveyard cards into the library using refreshed token copies of Perpetual Timepiece and Mirror of Fate. Play Wormfang Behemoth to preserve the cards in our hand. Then use the 1 red mana from Undiscovered Paradise to flashback a Flash of Defiance and cast a Wheel via a newly prepared Spellweaver Helix. While at it use another Helix to cast a Divine Congregation to gain some life.
Summary: Don't use March of the Machines early. Just accept that you can't mill everything immediatly. Suddenly it turns out we don't need Allay there and draw that only once later. On the other hand we can't keep both March of the Machine and the Mox Sapphire/Mana Crypt through Wheel of Fortune and by accepting the death of the artifacts we can squeeze a bunch of extra start up mana out of them to cast a lot of buybacked Allay before starting with other mana generation. We can redraw the mox later since we don't need to redraw Allay earlier. The Mana Crypt is not needed again.
EDIT: moved the Wormfang Behemoth draw to earlier, so we can actually keep Allay around through Wheel 4-7.
Hmm, it looks like Allay will not be around for Wheel of Fortune draws 4-7, which will severly impair the power of Reality Spasm. But wait, I think you can save it by casting Allay with buyback when you are ready to wheel, then flashback Flash of Defiance in response. I assume this is what you intended. So great work, we can get started and access the whole deck with just Wheel of Fortunes.
Checking the math: On the third wheel, you have 128 Dual Natures and 129 Psychic Battles, and you generate 384 mana for Allay. With the first Allay, you get 130 potential Cowardice triggers, but you "waste" two by bouncing Cowardice and destroying an enchantment with the last Psychic Battle retargeting. So you bounce Copy Enchantment 128 times, copying [d]Dual Nature[/c] 127 times and bringing it to 2^134, and copying Psychic Battle once, bringing it to 2^134 + 129. The second Allay takes the number of Dual Natures and Psychic Battles to more than 2^2^134, the third to more than 2^2^2^134 > 2^^6, and so by the 128th Allay we have more than 2^^131 Dual Natures and Psychic Battles. So when we put Precursor Golem on the battlefield, we get more than 2^^131 Precursor Golems. When Reality Spasm is cast, it triggers more than 2^^131 Precursor Golems; the first one creates more than 2^^131 copies of Reality Spasm, and each one generates more than 2^^131 Psychic Battle triggers. We thus generate more than (2^^131)^2 mana by bouncing Core Prowler each time, and thus can cast more than 2^^131 copies of Allay, bringing the total number of [c}Dual Nature[/c]s and Psychic Battles to more than 2^^2^^131. This happens for each Precursor Golem trigger, so the final number is more than 2^^^(2^^131).
Okay, time for optimization: I think the best strategy is to prioritize from back to front, rather than being greedy and trying to generate big numbers early. We know that we can access the entire deck after the last wheel draw, so that should allow us to apply F_{w^3 + w11 + 1}(X) where X is the number generated prior to the last Reality Spasm. That number will presumably be the number generated by a Reality Spasm in the sixth Wheel of Fortune draw. In order to maximize that Reality Spasm, we want to have drawn as many cards of the combo as possible, meaning we want the fewest number of repeats. Accordingly, we don't want to draw Reality Spasm in wheel draws 3, 4 and 5. That frees up room for three more cards that we would otherwise need to draw in wheel draw 7, so we can draw all but three cards. I think one of those three nondrawn cards can be Kithkin Mourncaller with no harm; the other two will need to be taken from the stages, since we definitely want a fully functioning hyperhyperstage! Sadly, it doesn't look like we can remove any of the two-creature stages, so the best we can do is remove Dwarven Warriors and Possessed Barbarian leaving 9 stages.
Now, what if instead we also remove Eastern Paladin and Frightshroud Courier from the sixth Wheel of Fortune draw. That takes us down to 8 stages, but it also means that we can put in Reality Spasm into the fourth and fifth wheel draws. That means that we can have a bunch of Disciple of Tevesh Szats prior to the sixth wheel draw, so we can use that draw's Reality Spasm to just keep untapping those tokens and running the full stage with it. Each Precursor Golem trigger now allows us to run the full combo starting from the Disciple of Tevesh Szat stage, so we get F_{w^3 + w8} again, and the casting of Reality Spasm gets us F_{w^3 + w8 + 1} also. The tiebreaker goes to this version, given that we have previous Reality Spasms to generate large numbers.
Then we have the fourth wheel draw. We have to remove six more cards, which likely means the hyperhyperstage is doomed. Can we still salvage a hyperhyperstage? We need to target Disciple of Tevesh Szat in this wheel draw to get a hasted token, and we also need to generate at least one red mana somehow, so Krark-Clan Stoker is probably necessary. We can remove Mad Auntie, Godtoucher, and Everglove Courier; what else? I think Wormfang Behemoth is removable, but Copper Gnomes seems to be necesssary for the hyperstage after the switch to Vedalken Orrery and Titania, Protector of Argoth seems to be necessary to get the red mana in the third wheel draw. Precursor Golem perhaps? But that still leaves us with one more card to remove.
If the hyperstage is a lost cause as well, what can we salvage? Well, we can certainly use Reality Spasm on Disciple of Tevesh Szat, and use it to directly target Metallurgeon; from the above discussion, that should get us F_{w+1}(X). Also, if we disregard the Fountain of Youths and the Retract, we can keep spending life to cast Battle Cry, each time untapping all our Metallurgeons. This should also get us F_{w+1}(X) if I'm not mistaken.
After all that, we attack with a bunch of Elves and Kithkin, and remove them one at a time; for the attackers removed prior to the last one, we cannot resolve Worldfire or else it will exile all the attackers, so we get something like F_{w^2 + w11 + 2}, which it turns out is insignificant compared to the size of the numbers we have already generated. So the only major improvement is with the last attacker, which gets us F_{w^3 + w11 + 2}
Finally, we can cast World at War a gazillion times, generating F_{w^3 + w11 + 3}
Hmm, it looks like Allay will not be around for Wheel of Fortune draws 4-7, which will severly impair the power of Reality Spasm. But wait, I think you can save it by casting Allay with buyback when you are ready to wheel, then flashback Flash of Defiance in response. I assume this is what you intended. So great work, we can get started and access the whole deck with just Wheel of Fortune
Heh, it was actually something I missed and I edited in an earlier Wormfang Behemoth draw to fix it just before your post. Your idea of hiding Allay on the stack seems more efficient.
Checking the math: On the third wheel, you have 128 Dual Natures and 129 Psychic Battles, and you generate 384 mana for Allay. With the first Allay, you get 130 potential Cowardice triggers, but you "waste" two by bouncing Cowardice and destroying an enchantment with the last Psychic Battle retargeting. So you bounce Copy Enchantment 128 times, copying [d]Dual Nature[/c] 127 times and bringing it to 2^134, and copying Psychic Battle once, bringing it to 2^134 + 129. The second Allay takes the number of Dual Natures and Psychic Battles to more than 2^2^134, the third to more than 2^2^2^134 > 2^^6, and so by the 128th Allay we have more than 2^^131 Dual Natures and Psychic Battles. So when we put Precursor Golem on the battlefield, we get more than 2^^131 Precursor Golems. When Reality Spasm is cast, it triggers more than 2^^131 Precursor Golems; the first one creates more than 2^^131 copies of Reality Spasm, and each one generates more than 2^^131 Psychic Battle triggers. We thus generate more than (2^^131)^2 mana by bouncing Core Prowler each time, and thus can cast more than 2^^131 copies of Allay, bringing the total number of [c}Dual Nature[/c]s and Psychic Battles to more than 2^^2^^131. This happens for each Precursor Golem trigger, so the final number is more than 2^^^(2^^131).
Wow, my math is really off lately, missing entire up arrows ^^' Thanks for checking.
Please check my analysis, and see if there is something I could do better!
I'm seeing one possible improvement: If we can use the Reality Spasm cast from the third Wheel draw to create a Disciple of Tevesh Szat token, possibly by delaying it until we have drawn more cards, we can get the full F_{w^3+w9+1}(x) out of the sixth Wheel.
EDIT: Just saw you had already considered this by removing the Reality Spasm draw in Wheel 3. So what you have written seems pretty optimal for the moment.
Slight improvement: For the fourth wheel draw, we can use the Mad Auntie stage to generate lots of red mana. Then we can use the red mana to flashback Flash of Defiance to trigger Divine Congregation, then we can use the life to flashback Acorn Harvest to trigger Battle Cry, which will power the Metallurgeon stage. There's just enough room to add the Everglove Courier stage, so we can get F_{w3 + 1} (X) rather than F_{w+1}(F_{w+1} (X)) here.
[EDIT] Actually, I believe we can indeed fit in a hyperstage in the fourth wheel draw, so we can get F_{w^2 + 2}(X) there.
play retract.
play spellweaver Volute, enchanting retract.
replay the artifacts, get some mana (2 colorless, 1 blue).
Mill both lands.
Play Copy Enchantment as copy enchantment. Both tokens copy Dual Nature.
Play the rest of the permanents in hand.
Play Flash of Defiance. Volutes and helix trigger. Resolve the Wheel first, then Retract.
Volute gets reenchanted on Evactuation.
Replay Vedalken Orrery.
Play March of the Machines.
Play Mox Saphire. With Dual Nature triggers on the stack play Mana Crypt. With Dual Nature triggers on the stack play Allay with Buyback, bouncing March of the Machines.
Get the tokens and tap them for Mana (4 blue, 8 colorless).
Cast Allay with buyback. There are 5 Psychic Battles on the battlefield, which gives us 6 potential Cowardice triggers, but we waste two so that Allay can resolve successfully. Bounce Copy Enchantment four times, getting 8,16,32 Dual Natures, then 37 Psychic Battles.
Cast Allay with buyback. With 37 Psychic Battles we can bounce Copy Enchantment 36 times, copying Dual Nature 35 times and Psychic Battle once. We get 2^40 Dual Natures and 2^40 + 37 Psychic Battles.
Cast Allay with buyback. We bounce Copy Enchantment 2^40 + 35 times, getting more than 2^2^40 Dual Natures and more than 2^2^40 Psychic Battles. Stop with three Psychic Battle triggers and the original spell still to be resolved.
Play Bloodbond March, getting more than 2^2^40 copies.
Play Titania, Protector of Argoth. Tap the Saltcrusted Step for a storage counter.
Play our various permanents, except March of the Machines.
Tap two token copies of Perpetual Timepiece to mill
resolve the last three Psychic Battle triggers for Allay, bouncing March of the Machines and Cowardice back to our hand, and targeting a nonessential enchantment to be destroyed.
We can do a lot more damage by waiting to go through the combo until just before the next Reality Spasm cast every time.
So after wheel 6 we have X Precursor Golems and a hasty Disciple of Tevesh Szat token. We cast Reality Spasm to get X triggers. But then we cast Wheel 7 and get access to all stages before resolving the first trigger. That gives F_{w^3+w11+1}(X) with another Realtity Spasm still in hand. So we get to F_{w^3+w11+1}(F_{w^3+w11+1}(X)) before combat. X then depends on card access cutoffs that are slightly different to what we had before. But I'm pretty sure we want a Reality Spasm cast before the one from Wheel 6, otherwise we would lose a layer from that one just because we don't have a token to untap there.
Ah, nice. I guess we counter the Reality Spasm each time, so that we can put it back in the library?
But, I'm not sure why the card access cutoffs are different. It looks like we can keep the same card order, but with this trick we can access the cards from the next wheel draw.
Interestingly, having the doubled F_{w^3 + w11 + 1} means the total damage sneaks past F_{w^3 + w11 + 4}(2).
[EDIT] Actually, I don't think we can get F_{w^3 + w2 + 1} for the first Reality Spasm, because of Worldfire messing everything up again. The situation seems to be similar to that of Kithkin Mourncaller; when we are resolving Precursor Golem triggers of Reality Spasm, we can't afford to run the full combo, because of Worldfire. Avoiding Worldfire reduces the effect to F_{w^2 + w2 + 1}. Then, when we get past the Reality Spasm copies, we can run the full combo, because we can leave a Mimic Vat activation on the stack; this gets us F_{w^3 + w2}. So that section gives us F_{w^3 + w2} (F_{w^2 + w2 + 1}(X)) rather than F_{w^3 + w2 + 1}(X).
I don't see any problem specific to Worldfire after our first Reality Spasm. We probably have different ideas on what to do there.
The best line I can see is this:
- cast Disciple of Tevesh Szat. Continue with it opn the battlefield and Bloodbond March triggers on the stack.
- cast that first Reality Spasm , getting X Precursor Golem triggers and killing the original Disciple. Imprint the Disciple on a Mimic Vat. (And counter the reality Spasm)
- do whatever with the Psychic Battle triggers, but ensure that every Reality Spasm copy untaps the Mimic Vat, producing a token each. After resolving the first Precursor trigger we have X Disciple tokens.
- Get original Disciple back to the battlefield.
- Resolve Wheel Draw 5. Use X disciple tokens to set up the Disciple stage. We also have Everglove Courier, Mad Auntie and the full hyperhyperstage available. That gives us F_{w^3+w3}(X).
Also, getting the hyperstage into the fourth draw is not important anymore, so we can increase the initial X by drawing Drake Familiar earlier.
EDIT: Using the untap Mimic Vat trick we could improve the F_{w^3 + w8 + 1} part to F_{w^3 + w9} if we get access to Eastern Paladin and Frightshroud Courier by wheel 6. But we can only cut one of the earlier Reality Spasm draws if we want to retain the second F_{w^3 + w11 + 1}, so we'd need to save another draw. If we were able to get through the start without having the Mox Sapphire die that would do it.
To get both the Mox and March of the Machines through Wheel of Fortune we can use Wormfang Behemoth or use stack tricks like casting March and Wheeling in response, then Retract the Mox back to hand before resolving the March. We need to retract a bit more than we currently do to get the blue mana necessary for the first Reality Spasm. But it should be doable.
EDIT2: Duh, I somehow forgot that each Precursor Golem trigger gives us X copies of Reality Spasm instead of one and triggering X Psychic Battles. So we could get X Disciples per trigger, but there comes the Worldfire problem (and in this case Retract as well)! If we try to go through the whole combo between Precursor triggers, the Mimic Vat will be gone. So we can get some extra boost to X from the first X-1 precursor triggers, but we can't gain an extra layer from that.
EDIT3: Another draw that could potentially saved to get access to another stage after Wheel 6: The Flash of Defiance in Wheel 2. We'd need to start flashing it back earlier, but we could generate the mana for that via Reality Spasm untapping Undiscovered Paradise. I'm not sure if we can get this and the Mox survival into the same start. Things get complicated when extra Retract casts bounce the Spellweaver Helix...
Anyway, we have talked a lot about that start already. Are there any changes we can still make to improve the deck?
Yeah, improving the deck would make a bigger difference than improving the start, but I haven't found any improvements yet. Possible areas of weakness:
-perhaps something that could replace both Drake Familiar and Evacuate? I have found Coastal Breach and Crush of Tentacles but those are both sorceries. A sorcery doesn't quite work because of Spellweaver Helix timing, I think - when we cast Flash of Defiance, we need to resolve all the Helixes, which means we have to resolve the Coastal Breach prior to going up to higher hyperstages, but that doesn't work.
We now have one less card that we need for the full combo, so if we manage to cut a draw of Mox Sapphire or Flash of Defiance, we can add Eastern Paladin and Frightshroud Courier to wheel draw 6 while still keeping all four Reality Spasm draws. So we could get F_{w^3 + w9 + 1}(X) for the second Reality Spasm.
Abundant Maw almost manages to replace the three Fountains. (We would then use Evacuation for hyperstage transitions and cut Retract as well. We would just need to add some way to let the opponent survive.) But it allows us to sacrifice creatures, making death too cheap for all our later stages, so that doesn't quite work out.
Hmm, can we replace two Fountain of Youths with one Watcher of the Roost? We would need to cast both Evacuation and Retract for the hyperstage transition, but I think that will be okay. Basically we cast Evacuation early in each hyperstage, so that the hyperstage transition costs a net of one life, and Retract will get it back. But no, in the hyperhyperstage, we cannot cast the Evacuation before Worldfire, or the 2 life gain will be lost. But we cannot save both Evacuation and Retract until after Worldfire. Phooey.
[EDIT] Damn, Stormscape Battlemage also looks like it could work, except it also has an ability that can target a creature. So no go again.
Using Evacuate instead of [c]Retract does seem to open up a new realm of possibilities. In addition to "when cast" and getting kicked, I looked at morph, manifest, and transform, but no luck so far.
[EDIT] I thought about Bounteous Kirin along with a Spirit with a converted mana cost of 3, but unfortunately we already have Horobi, Death's Wail with a CMC of 4.
Another idea is to have a creature that we could discard to gain life somehow; then we could bring the creature back to the battlefield via Bloodbond March, and then back to our hand via Evacuation.
[EDIT], Okay, how about having two Shoreline Rangers, Tropical Island, and Dark Heart of the Wood. We cast the two Rangers and bring them back to the battlefield; then we pay 3 life to cast Acorn Harvest to trigger Evacuation, getting the Rangers back. We discard a Ranger to get Tropical Island, then sacrifice the Island to gain 3 life. Repeat the process for another 3 life. We then bring the Rangers back to the battlefield via Bloodbond March, then resolve the stack until we can get to some Psychic Battle triggers. Then we cast Acorn Harvest for 3 life, and Evacuation brings the Rangers back to our hand again.
[EDIT] Hmm, I think that the problem I described with Evacuate + Retract is not actually a problem. The two life gain for Watcher of the Roost is not wasted if we cast it early, because the life gain can be used to pay for Flash of Defiance. So we are at 5 life, we flashback Acorn Harvest going down to 2 life, then we resolve Evacuate to get 2 life back and go to 4. Then we flashback Flash of Defiance, going to 1 life, and we bring both Watcher of the Roost and Fountain of Youth back to our hand before Worldfire. We use both to get back to 4 life, then we resolve Retract to get back to 5 life.
But, there is another problem, this time in the hyperstage. We have two instants that destroy all Metallurgeon tokens, and if we resolve one before going up to the higher stage, we will have no Metallurgeon tokens to run the higher stage. But we can't save both instants until after the higher stages either.
How about if we replace Retract with Steel Sabotage? The only potential problem I see is possibly going infinite by targeting the original Metallurgeon on the battlefield, getting a token copy. But, we can only do that once, then Metallurgeon is in the graveyard/exile/library. After than we have to go down the stack to the next Bloodbond March trigger for Metallurgeon, so I don't see any infinite.
We would also need to switch to green mana for the hyperhyperstage. So we switch the flashback spells and use Goblin Gardener as connection from the stages. Without retract we can't use Mox Sapphire for blue mana generation anymore and the colors are difficult anyway, so go to 2 storage lands.
That complicates the start, without retract and mana artifacts for some easy initial mana, but saving a card should be worth it.
Nice idea! I think there is still a chance that we can save another card, but this is a good improvement.
Unfortunately, my 5-card ending sequence doesn't work; we can use Core Prowler to add counters to Angelheart Vial, and use Reality Spasm to untap it, going infinite. (Worldfire can be skipped.) So we need another way to draw cards; Night Dealings also doesn't work because of Core Prowler. I'm not seeeing a 5-layer 5-card sequence at the moment.
If we can't find a 5-layer sequence, we can still improve the 4-layer sequence by inserting Wheel of Fortune into the sequence. Something like:
with say Phelddagrif to give opponent life. Of course, a 5-layer sequence with Wheel of Fortune included would be the best, but I don't know if that is possible.
What cards can we use for the card draw? Two interesting cards are Dragon Appeasement and Secret Plans. Unfortunately, Dragon Appeasement is messed up by Copper Gnomes; I don't know if there is a replacement for that one. As for Secret Plans, I couldn't find an expensive way to turn a card face up, except for Arashin War Beast, and that will probably require multiple cards to create blocking creatures.
We can use Academy Rector+Misery Charm instead of Copper Gnomes+Drake Familiar. Doing so gets rid of the sacrifice and allows us to use creature auras without getting the creature targeting early. If we do, we could also use Auratog instead of Allay. Might not be relevant but seems fun.
Curiosity doesn't add a layer. Going through the combo will destroy all Underworld Dreams, so they cannot be enchanted anymore when they are about to deal the damage.
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If you can somehow make it work, Sleeper Agent does what you want the token to do, but isn't a token. I'm guessing giving the opponent a token is easier, but I thought that Sleeper Agent might be worth mentioning.
[Edit] If they printed the version of Emrakul, the Promised End with Inexorable (can't be put into zones other than the graveyard from the battlefield) that they considered then we could have used and donated her. Too bad they didn't want to make a new key word just for her...
I know there's spells that put tokens onto the battlefield blocking, but is there a way to make an opponent gain control of a spell and is Spirit Flare even worth the number of cards needed to make it work if we do that?
[Edit Again]: I was probably thinking of spells that create tokens with Defender that are sacrificed at end of turn, but Flash Foliage and Mirror Match both match what I meant.
I think the problem that there needs to be an attacking creature to make it so creatures can block and we're trying to make creatures block after removing all the attackers... That means we need a new attacker. Maybe Attack with Geist of Saint Traft and make the world burn before he summons the Angel.
[ReEdit Again]:
Burn the world in response to ninjas? There's even choices for the Ninjutsu cost from Mistblade Shinobi and Skullsnatcher's 1 up to Silent-Blade Oni's 6 Mana, but how could we make our opponent cast Flash Foliage?Wait... Don't the ninjas get discarded by Worldfire before Ninjutsu goes off? X(The
Necromancer (or Noob)
Cat.
Don't ask, I don't know why ether...
[EDIT] A spell that puts a token onto the battlefield blocking would be great, but I don't know of any spell that does that. The closest that I could find was Aetherplasm, but that just trades one blocking creature for another. If there is a spell that puts a blocking creature onto the battlefield, we could perhaps use Hive Mind to give the opponent a copy of the spell. (Hive Mind would also copy our own spells; the only spell for which there is an obvious problem is Worldfire, which could perhaps be solved by not allowing us to do anything in between Worldfire spells. But, I guess this would put us in the same boat as the deck that Iijil suggested.)
Using a bunch of cards could very well be worth it, especially if it turns out the only way to implement a hyperhyperstage. That would easily outstrip any deck that only reaches the hyperstage level, no matter how many hyperstages or stages it has.
[EDIT] Nice finds on Flash Foliage and Mirror Match. Unfortunately, Geist of Saint Traft will only get us two attackers, and they would be destroyed in one Worldfire anyway (since we need to run Spirit Flare during either the declare blockers step or the combat damage step). Also, getting blockers too cheaply means we can use Spirit Flare with Cowardice/Horobi, Death's Wail too cheaply, which ruins the plan.
Pretty sure that doesn't work. We can gain an extra life in the lower hyperstage by resolving Retract while leaving Cursebreaker on the stack. Then put a Fountain of Youth activation on the stack before casting the Worldfire and using the life that gives to cast another Retract before resolving the Worldfire. Then resolve the life gain stuff on the stack.
That seems like a great idea. Since Worldfire prevents using Spellweaver Volute with Retract after it we can actually still use Show and Tell for the start, which makes things a lot easier. We can also keep some mana through the Worldfire resolution, so a Copper Gnomes activation would be enough to put Vedalken Orrery into play, after which we can just cast the Omniscience.
The only problem would be to get cards like Horobi, Death's Wail into our hand to hide them from the Worldfire. That seems solvable by just adding a Evacuation. Being able to bounce creatures any time seems dangerous, but I think as lonk as we stick to tap-the-token stages it should be fine, since it also destroys the tokens. To take advantage of the Bloodbond March layer it gives we would need the corresponding token, which we can only have after a bounce if the creature was imprinted on a Mimic Vat. But then it isn't on the battlefield and can't be bounced in the first place.
Soooo, putting stuff together:
2 Psychic Battle
3 Cowardice
4 Horobi, Death's Wail
5 Bloodbond March
6 Cephalid Shrine
7 Mimic Vat
8 Omniscience
9 Vedalken Orrery
10 Mirror of Fate
11 March of the Machines
12 Perpetual Timepiece
13 Drake Familiar
14 Dual Nature
15 Copy Enchantment
16 Allay
17 Dreadship Reef
18 Saltcrusted Steppe
19 Core Prowler
20 Metallurgeon
21 Acorn Harvest
22 Battle Cry
23 Retract
24 Spellweaver Volute
25 Fountain of Youth
26 Fountain of Youth
27 Fountain of Youth
29 Wormfang Behemoth
30 Copper Gnomes
31 Divine Congregation
32 Worldfire
33 Flash of Defiance
34 Flash of Defiance
35 Flash of Defiance
36 Spellweaver Helix
37 Titania, Protector of Argoth
38 Mountain
39 Krark-Clan Stoker
40 Mad Auntie
41 Godtoucher
42 Everglove Courier
43 Nectar Faerie
44 Ghosthelm Courier
45 Possessed Aven
46 Centaur Archer
47 Maze Glider
49 Eastern Paladin
50 Frightshroud Courier
51 Dwarven Warriors
52 Possessed Barbarian
53 Disciple of Tevesh Szat
54 Reality Spasm
55 Precursor Golem
56 Military Intelligence
57 World at War
58 Show and Tell
59 Black Lotus
60 Wheel of Fortune
For the Worldpurge version, I think we can remove the three Fountain of Youths for a Mox, and Evacuation as well. In exchange we would need to replace Divine Congregation with Fungal Sprouting plus Utopia Mycon. That saves two cards, but replacing Show and Tell may well require more cards than that. Can we use Flash plus Academy Rector? Flash can put creature cards into our graveyard, but only if they are initially in our hand. So we would still need to target the creature to bounce it back to our hand before we can use Flash to put it in the graveyard, so a targeting is required either way. So I think Flash is safe?
Working it out then:
2 Psychic Battle
3 Cowardice
4 Horobi, Death's Wail
5 Bloodbond March
6 Cephalid Shrine
7 Mimic Vat
8 Omniscience
9 Leyline of Anticipation
10 Mirror of Fate
11 Dual Nature
12 Allay
13 Copy Enchantment
14 March of the Machines
15 Mox Emerald
16 Metallurgeon
17 Chatter of the Squirrel
18 Battle Cry
19 Retract
20 Spellweaver Volute
22 Copper Gnomes
23 Calciform Pools
24 Core Prowler
25 Shimmer
26 Sealock Monster
27 Time and Tide
28 Fungal Sprouting
29 Utopia Mycon
30 Worldpurge
31 Acorn Harvest
32 Acorn Harvest
33 Acorn Harvest
34 Spellweaver Helix
35 Shriekhorn
36 Titania, Protector of Argoth
37 Glimmerpost
38 Radiant Fountain
39 Judge of Currents
40 Merfolk Sovereign
42 Everglove Courier
43 Nectar Faerie
44 Ghosthelm Courier
45 Possessed Aven
46 Centaur Archer
47 Maze Glider
48 Possessed Centaur
49 Eastern Paladin
50 Frightshroud Courier
51 Dwarven Warriors
52 Possessed Barbarian
53 Disciple of Tevesh Szat
54 Flash
55 Academy Rector
56 Black Lotus
57 Reality Spasm
58 Consecrated Sphinx
59 Woodvine Elemental
60 Memory Jar
Hmm, one less card for the layer sequence. The need for a "save progress" sequence really hurts.
Can we use Cursebreak, using your above technique to gain 3 life each transition, in order to cut out two Fountain of Youths?
We'd also need some way to get the mana for Omniscience after Worldpurge. The problem there is that the Calciform Pool is still phased out and to get it back we need to cast some stuff, like Spellweaver Volute.
I do not think Cursebreak will work. Using the sequence from my last post we go infinite using a flashback spell that doesn't cost life. Using a 3 life flashback spell I don't see a way to use Cursebreak to get that life back after the Worldfire.
We could get rid of Evacuate by bouncing the needed creatures through other means: We could add Urgent Exorcism for Horobi, Death's Wail, Krosan Groundshaker for Wormfang Behemoth, and we could replace Titania, Protector of Argoth with Gem of Becoming and Walking Atlas. But with those extra cards, we don't even have room for the 11 stages we currently have, much less add more stages.
Now the big question: How do we get started? I think we can replace Dreadship Reef with Mox Sapphire and if we do so we could replace Black Lotus with a Mox or Mana Crypt, although I'm not sure of the latter replacement is helpful or not.
EDIT: NVM, saw the Wormfang Behemoth. Carry on.
Say Worldfire is at the top of the stack. Play Wormfang Behemoth, which results in a bunch of Dual Nature triggers and a Wormfang Behemoth trigger. Put the Wormfang Behemoth trigger at the bottom and the Dual Nature triggers above it. Play Drake Familiar, bouncing the original Spellweaver Volute, which we have cast on Reality Spasm, back to our hand. (We can let the token copies of Drake Familiar be sacrificed.) The other instants will still be enchanted by token copies of Spellweaver Volute. Pay 3 life and a couple green mana to flashback Acorn Harvest, triggering Battle Cry, Retract, and Evacuate[/c] in that order. Make whatever progress you can with Battle Cry, then Retract will bring all our artifacts to our hand, and then Evacuate will bring all our creatures (including all our enchantments) back to our hand, leaving just the two lands on the battlefield. The top Dual Nature trigger for Wormfang Behemoth resolves, creating a Wormfang Behemoth token; this triggers it's ETB ability, and all the cards in our hand get exiled. Then the remaining Dual Nature triggers and the original Wormfang Behemoth trigger resolve, but they do nothing special since we have no cards in hand. Then Worldfire resolves; this will exile the Wormfang Behemoths the two lands, and the Spellweaver Volutes on the battlefield, as well as all cards in our graveyard. This triggers the Wormfang Behemoth's leave the battlefield trigger, and the cards that were exiled by it return to our hand. Below the Worldfire spell, we made sure to put a Copper Gnomes ability; this now resolves, and we place Vedalken Orrery on the battlefield. We next hardcast Omniscience, and start rebuilding our battiefield as before.
So, not too bad. It looks like we need to put an activation of Copper Gnomes below every Retract as well as every Worldfire, but I don't think that poses a problem.
[EDIT] Okay, I made an attempt at the start, but I'm running into problems:
We start with
Black Lotus
Show and Tell
Omniscience
Opalescence
Dual Nature
March of the Machines
Wheel of Fortune
Play them in order, drawing seven cards with Wheel of Fortune:
Perpetual Timepiece
Spellweaver Helix
Flash of Defiance
Mirror of Fate
Cowardice
Vedalken Orrery
Allay
Play Perpetual Timepiece, Mirror of Fate, Cowardice, and Vedalken Orrery, getting token copies. Cast Allay without buyback, bouncing March of the Machines back to our hand. The token copies of March of the Machines get exiled. Tap the three Perpetual Timepieces, putting
Flash of Defiance
Retract
Saltcrusted Steppe
Undiscovered Paradise
Battle Cry
Evacuation
into the graveyard. Play Spellweaver Helix, imprinting Flash of Defiance and Wheel of Fortune and putting them in the exile zone. Play Flash of Defiance, triggering Spellweaver Helix; resolve the Spellweaver Helix trigger and cast Wheel of Fortune. Respond by tapping and sacrificing the two Mirror of Fate tokens. Resolve the first Mirror of Fate ability, and choose no cards in exile; put all the cards in the library into exile. Resolve the second Mirror of Fate, and put
Wheel of Fortune
6 other cards
At this point, we need to use another ]Mirror of Fate to refill the library. Bouncing artifacts seems tough at this point, we need a hasted untapped Metallurgeon. So perhaps the best way is to get rid of March of the Machines and keep sacrificing and putting back Mirror of Fate.
However, the work required for this method makes me think using Mirror of Fate early on is not worth it. Perhaps we should just keep Wheel of Fortune imprinted on Spellweaver Helix, and keep drawing Flash of Defiance.
[EDIT] Here's an idea: If there is an instant that allows us to put Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrery on the battlefield, then we could cast Acorn Harvest, and put the Spellweaver Volute trigger for that instant last on the stack. After we resolve the Spellweaver Volute trigger, we can cast the hyperhyperstage sorcery. After Worldfire resolves, the instant comes next and puts Leyline of Anticipation / Vedalken Orrery on the battlefield. We will only gain 3 life for a single round of Fountain of Youths, which is just enough to pay for this round of Acorn Harvest, so we can go back to using a non-life payment flashback spell like Bump in the Night, which allows us to use Staff of the Flame Magus again.
Looking around, the only instant that I could find that could work was Desertion. I think we can make it work though; bring Vedalken Orrery back to our hand with token copies of it on the battlefield, and cast it, then respond with Acorn Harvest. Hmm, but then Vedalken Orrery is stuck on the stack, and we can use it for different hyperstages. We probably need one for every hyperstage, not just the top one.
I used all of the suggested changes, most importantly Mana Crypt and Mox Sapphire.
Mox Sapphire, Mana Crypt, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Opalescence, Dual Nature, Wheel of Fortune.
1. Wheel draw:
Retract, March of the Machines, Perpetual Timepiece, Cowardize, Allay, Spellweaver Helix, Flash of Defiance.
play the first 5 cards in order, allay targeting the March of the Machines to bounce it. Activate the timepieces to mill 6 cards:
Flash of Defiance, Saltcrusted Steppe, Undiscovered Paradise, World at War, Evacuation, Worldfire
play Helix, imprinting Wheel of Fortune and Flash of Defiance, Cast Flash of Defiance.
2. Wheel draw:
Spellweaver Volute, Copy Enchantment, Vedalken Orrery, Mirror of Fate, Flash of Defiance, Psychic Battle, Titania, Protector of Argoth.
play spellweaver Volute, enchanting Allay.
Play Copy Enchantment as copy enchantment. One token copies Volute, enchanting Retract, the other token copies Dual Nature.
Play March of the Machines.
Play Mirror of Fate.
Play Psychic Battle.
Play Vedalken Orrery.
Play Flash of Defiance. Volutes and helix trigger. Resolve the Allay volute first, then Wheel, last Retract.
Allay targets March of the Machines to bounce it. 4 psychic battle trigger also happen. they all get redirected to copy enchantment, which gets bounced and replayed with token copies copying Dual Nature. That leaves us with 64 Dual Natures on the battlefield.
Volute gets reenchanted on Evactuation.
Resolve the Helix trigger. With the Wheel copy on the stack crack 2 Mirror tokens to first exile the library and then put the seven cards you want to draw next back in. resolve the wheel.
before retract play mox saphire and mana crypt again and tap them for mana. Resolve retract.
3. Wheel draw:
Allay, Reality Spasm, Horobi, Death's Wail, Core Prowler, Precursor Golem, Drake Familiar, Bloodbond March.
Replay Vedalken Orrery.
Play Drake Familiar, bouncing and replaying Copy enchantment with each token. We get 2^70 Dual Natures.
Play Precursor Golem.
Play Core Prowler.
Play Titania, Protector of Argoth. Tap the Saltcrusted Step for a storage counter.
Play Mox Saphire and Mana Crypt, tap for mana. (2 blue, 3 colorless)
Cast reality spasm, targeting the original precursor golem for x=1 (2 colorless mana remain).
Get 2^70 precursor golem trigger and 4 psychic battle triggers and some cowardize on the original golem.
first use the psychic battles to go up to 2^73 dual Natures and as many Psychic Battles. Replay the Precursor golem after bounce
first precursor trigger reswolves, causing 2^147 psychic battles to trigger.
use each to kill a core prowler token or bounce and replay the original prowler when you run out. Proliferate for storage counter.
convert those counter into mana and use allay to increase the number of dual natures and Psychic Battle, to roughly 2^2^147 each. replay the bounced precursor golem.
Repeat for the other 69 precursor trigger to get ~2^^75 Dual Natures, Psychic Battles and green/white mana.
After that we can put our choice of the exiled/in graveyard cards into the library using refreshed token copies of Perpetual Timepiece and Mirror of Fate. Then use the 1 red mana from Undiscovered Paradise to flashback a Flash of Defiance and cast a Wheel via a newly prepared Spellweaver Helix. While at it use another Helix to cast a Divine Congregation to gain some life.
4. Wheel draw:
Reality Spasm, Mimic Vat, Krark-Clan Stoker, Mad Auntie, Cephalid Shrine, Metallurgeon, Copper Gnomes.
Those cards should be enough to get tons of red mana and there is nothing stopping us from casting more wheels except for the opponents library.
5. Wheel draw:
Fountain of Youth, Fountain of Youth, Fountain of Youth, Wormfang Behemoth, Godtoucher, Everglove Courier, Reality Spasm.
6. Wheel draw:
Eastern Paladin, Frightshroud Courier, Dwarven Warriors, Possessed Barbarian, Disciple of Tevesh Szat, Kithkin Mourncaller, Reality Spasm.
7. Wheel draw:
Nectar Faerie, Ghosthelm Courier, Possessed Aven, Centaur Archer, Maze Glider, Possessed Centaur, Reality Spasm.
I hope I didn't miss any card that we need to draw. Or missed any card that got into the graveyard after using it the first time and now needs to be redrawn. Or anything else. But by drawing Reality Spasm one or two times less we could compensate for small mistakes along those lines, so I figure a start should be possible unless I missed something major.
Just give an example. If you have 1001 3/3 golems that will grant you 1001 4003/4003 golems
Lock that into the grand total we have.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
I don't see any problems, other than a couple math errors - I think we should have 48 Dual Natures after the second Allay, since we use one of our early Copy Enchantment tokens to copy Spellweaver Volute. After Drake Familiar that should get us to 3 * 2^53 Dual Natures, which will result in more than 2^^(3*2^53) Dual Natures, Psychic Battles, and white and green mana after the first Reality Spasm.
It looks like each [c}Reality Spasm[/c] can only generate one hasted token of a creature. But I guess that will be enough with all the Psychic Battles and Bloodbond Marches we can have at that point. After the fourth Wheel Draw, we can cast a Mad Auntie and get more than 2^^(3*2^53) Bloodbond March triggers, and for every two we get a hasted Krark-Clan Stoker.
[EDIT] Oh shoot, there is a problem: It looks like you are holding on to some cards when Wheel of Fortune gets resolved, like March of the Machines, Mox Sapphire, Mana Crypt, and Allay.
There is limited space in the deck, so every card needs to have as much impact as possible. Coat of arms multiplies the final damage dealt by the golems by a number, but the rest of the cards do much better than multiplication. It's better to take a huge number like 1001 and square it than to multiply it by 2. And all the cards in the deck do much better than squaring.
Coat of arms would have a place in a deck with unlimited space, but that sounds like a nightmare to make and figure out; you'd just want to put in as many cards which don't go infinite as possible.
Ah, you're right, that would not work. A fixed version:
Mox Sapphire, Mana Crypt, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Opalescence, Dual Nature, Wheel of Fortune.
1. Wheel draw:
Precursor Golem, Vedalken Orrery, Mirror of Fate, Perpetual Timepiece, Cowardize, Spellweaver Helix, Flash of Defiance.
play all the cards. Activate the timepieces to mill 2 cards:
Flash of Defiance, Evacuation.
imprint Wheel of Fortune and Flash of Defiance on the Helix before casting Flash of Defiance.
2. Wheel draw:
Drake Familiar, Retract, Spellweaver Volute, Flash of Defiance, Psychic Battle, Copy Enchantment, Core Prowler.
play retract.
play spellweaver Volute, enchanting retract.
replay the artifacts, get some mana (2 colorless, 1 blue).
Mill both lands.
Play Copy Enchantment as copy enchantment. Both tokens copy Dual Nature.
Play Drake Familiar. All 5 copies bounce Copy Enchantment, replaying it each time. tokens copy Dual Nature. We end with 128 Dual Natures.
Play the rest of the permanents in hand.
Play Flash of Defiance. Volutes and helix trigger. Resolve the Wheel first, then Retract.
Volute gets reenchanted on Evactuation.
3. Wheel draw:
Allay, Reality Spasm, Horobi, Death's Wail, Titania, Protector of Argoth, Bloodbond March, March of the Machines, Wormfang Behemoth.
Replay Vedalken Orrery.
Play March of the Machines.
Play Mox Saphire. With Dual Nature triggers on the stack play Mana Crypt. With Dual Nature triggers on the stack play Allay with Buyback, bouncing March of the Machines.
Get the tokens and tap them for Mana (128 blue, 256 colorless).
Cast a bunch of Allays to increase the number of Dual Natures and Psychic Battles to ~2^128.
Play Titania, Protector of Argoth. Tap the Saltcrusted Step for a storage counter.
Play Precursor Golem.
Play Core Prowler.
Cast reality spasm, targeting the original precursor golem for x=1 (2 colorless mana remain).
Get 2^128 precursor golem trigger
first precursor trigger reswolves, causing a bunch of psychic battles to trigger.
use each to kill a core prowler token or bounce and replay the original prowler when you run out. Proliferate for storage counter.
convert those counter into mana and use allay to increase the number of dual natures and Psychic Battle, to roughly 2^2^128 each. replay the bounced precursor golem.
Repeat for the other ~2^128 precursor trigger to get ~2^^(2^128) Dual Natures, Psychic Battles and green/white mana.
After that we can put our choice of the exiled/in graveyard cards into the library using refreshed token copies of Perpetual Timepiece and Mirror of Fate. Play Wormfang Behemoth to preserve the cards in our hand. Then use the 1 red mana from Undiscovered Paradise to flashback a Flash of Defiance and cast a Wheel via a newly prepared Spellweaver Helix. While at it use another Helix to cast a Divine Congregation to gain some life.
4. Wheel draw:
Reality Spasm, Mimic Vat, Krark-Clan Stoker, Mad Auntie, Cephalid Shrine, Metallurgeon, Mox Sapphire.
Those cards should be enough to get tons of red mana and there is nothing stopping us from casting more wheels except for the opponents library.
5. Wheel draw:
Fountain of Youth, Fountain of Youth, Fountain of Youth, Copper Gnomes, Godtoucher, Everglove Courier, Reality Spasm.
6. Wheel draw:
Eastern Paladin, Frightshroud Courier, Dwarven Warriors, Possessed Barbarian, Disciple of Tevesh Szat, Kithkin Mourncaller, Reality Spasm.
7. Wheel draw:
Nectar Faerie, Ghosthelm Courier, Possessed Aven, Centaur Archer, Maze Glider, Possessed Centaur, Reality Spasm.
Summary: Don't use March of the Machines early. Just accept that you can't mill everything immediatly. Suddenly it turns out we don't need Allay there and draw that only once later. On the other hand we can't keep both March of the Machine and the Mox Sapphire/Mana Crypt through Wheel of Fortune and by accepting the death of the artifacts we can squeeze a bunch of extra start up mana out of them to cast a lot of buybacked Allay before starting with other mana generation. We can redraw the mox later since we don't need to redraw Allay earlier. The Mana Crypt is not needed again.
EDIT: moved the Wormfang Behemoth draw to earlier, so we can actually keep Allay around through Wheel 4-7.
Checking the math: On the third wheel, you have 128 Dual Natures and 129 Psychic Battles, and you generate 384 mana for Allay. With the first Allay, you get 130 potential Cowardice triggers, but you "waste" two by bouncing Cowardice and destroying an enchantment with the last Psychic Battle retargeting. So you bounce Copy Enchantment 128 times, copying [d]Dual Nature[/c] 127 times and bringing it to 2^134, and copying Psychic Battle once, bringing it to 2^134 + 129. The second Allay takes the number of Dual Natures and Psychic Battles to more than 2^2^134, the third to more than 2^2^2^134 > 2^^6, and so by the 128th Allay we have more than 2^^131 Dual Natures and Psychic Battles. So when we put Precursor Golem on the battlefield, we get more than 2^^131 Precursor Golems. When Reality Spasm is cast, it triggers more than 2^^131 Precursor Golems; the first one creates more than 2^^131 copies of Reality Spasm, and each one generates more than 2^^131 Psychic Battle triggers. We thus generate more than (2^^131)^2 mana by bouncing Core Prowler each time, and thus can cast more than 2^^131 copies of Allay, bringing the total number of [c}Dual Nature[/c]s and Psychic Battles to more than 2^^2^^131. This happens for each Precursor Golem trigger, so the final number is more than 2^^^(2^^131).
Okay, time for optimization: I think the best strategy is to prioritize from back to front, rather than being greedy and trying to generate big numbers early. We know that we can access the entire deck after the last wheel draw, so that should allow us to apply F_{w^3 + w11 + 1}(X) where X is the number generated prior to the last Reality Spasm. That number will presumably be the number generated by a Reality Spasm in the sixth Wheel of Fortune draw. In order to maximize that Reality Spasm, we want to have drawn as many cards of the combo as possible, meaning we want the fewest number of repeats. Accordingly, we don't want to draw Reality Spasm in wheel draws 3, 4 and 5. That frees up room for three more cards that we would otherwise need to draw in wheel draw 7, so we can draw all but three cards. I think one of those three nondrawn cards can be Kithkin Mourncaller with no harm; the other two will need to be taken from the stages, since we definitely want a fully functioning hyperhyperstage! Sadly, it doesn't look like we can remove any of the two-creature stages, so the best we can do is remove Dwarven Warriors and Possessed Barbarian leaving 9 stages.
But wait a minute - if this is the first time we are casting Reality Spasm, we will need to create a hasted Disciple of Tevesh Szat. Because of the difficulty of timing with Bloodbond March, we will only be able to create one; the best we can do with the rest of the Reality Spasm copies is to untap that one Disciple of Tevesh Szat and keep tapping it. Each Precursor Golem trigger gets us a bunch of Reality Spasm copies, which allows us to create a bunch of Frightshroud Courier tokens, which is worth F_{w^3 + w8}. Casting Reality Spasm gets us a bunch of Precursor Golem triggers, so the whole thing is worth F_{w^3 + w8 + 1}.
Now, what if instead we also remove Eastern Paladin and Frightshroud Courier from the sixth Wheel of Fortune draw. That takes us down to 8 stages, but it also means that we can put in Reality Spasm into the fourth and fifth wheel draws. That means that we can have a bunch of Disciple of Tevesh Szats prior to the sixth wheel draw, so we can use that draw's Reality Spasm to just keep untapping those tokens and running the full stage with it. Each Precursor Golem trigger now allows us to run the full combo starting from the Disciple of Tevesh Szat stage, so we get F_{w^3 + w8} again, and the casting of Reality Spasm gets us F_{w^3 + w8 + 1} also. The tiebreaker goes to this version, given that we have previous Reality Spasms to generate large numbers.
For the fifth wheel draw, we have to remove six more cards; I don't see anything better than to remove everything from Nectar Faerie to Possessed Centaur, leaving the Mad Auntie, Everglove Courier and Disciple of Tevesh Szat stages. This should get us F_{w^3 + w3 + 1} for the [c]Reality Spasm in this wheel draw.
Then we have the fourth wheel draw. We have to remove six more cards, which likely means the hyperhyperstage is doomed. Can we still salvage a hyperhyperstage? We need to target Disciple of Tevesh Szat in this wheel draw to get a hasted token, and we also need to generate at least one red mana somehow, so Krark-Clan Stoker is probably necessary. We can remove Mad Auntie, Godtoucher, and Everglove Courier; what else? I think Wormfang Behemoth is removable, but Copper Gnomes seems to be necesssary for the hyperstage after the switch to Vedalken Orrery and Titania, Protector of Argoth seems to be necessary to get the red mana in the third wheel draw. Precursor Golem perhaps? But that still leaves us with one more card to remove.
If the hyperstage is a lost cause as well, what can we salvage? Well, we can certainly use Reality Spasm on Disciple of Tevesh Szat, and use it to directly target Metallurgeon; from the above discussion, that should get us F_{w+1}(X). Also, if we disregard the Fountain of Youths and the Retract, we can keep spending life to cast Battle Cry, each time untapping all our Metallurgeons. This should also get us F_{w+1}(X) if I'm not mistaken.
After all that, we attack with a bunch of Elves and Kithkin, and remove them one at a time; for the attackers removed prior to the last one, we cannot resolve Worldfire or else it will exile all the attackers, so we get something like F_{w^2 + w11 + 2}, which it turns out is insignificant compared to the size of the numbers we have already generated. So the only major improvement is with the last attacker, which gets us F_{w^3 + w11 + 2}
Finally, we can cast World at War a gazillion times, generating F_{w^3 + w11 + 3}
So all told, we should do at least
F_{w^3 + w11 + 3} (F_{w^3 + w11 + 2} (F_{w^3 + w11 + 1} (F_{w^3 + w8 + 1} (F_{w^3 + w3 + 1} (F_{w+1} (F_{w+1} (F_4 (F_3(128)))))))))
Please check my analysis, and see if there is something I could do better!
Wow, my math is really off lately, missing entire up arrows ^^' Thanks for checking.
I'm seeing one possible improvement: If we can use the Reality Spasm cast from the third Wheel draw to create a Disciple of Tevesh Szat token, possibly by delaying it until we have drawn more cards, we can get the full F_{w^3+w9+1}(x) out of the sixth Wheel.
EDIT: Just saw you had already considered this by removing the Reality Spasm draw in Wheel 3. So what you have written seems pretty optimal for the moment.
[EDIT] Actually, I believe we can indeed fit in a hyperstage in the fourth wheel draw, so we can get F_{w^2 + 2}(X) there.
So the current start looks like:
Mox Sapphire, Mana Crypt, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Opalescence, Dual Nature, Wheel of Fortune.
1. Wheel draw:
Precursor Golem, Vedalken Orrery, Mirror of Fate, Perpetual Timepiece, Cowardize, Spellweaver Helix, Flash of Defiance.
play all the cards. Activate the timepieces to mill 2 cards:
Flash of Defiance, Evacuation.
imprint Wheel of Fortune and Flash of Defiance on the Helix before casting Flash of Defiance.
2. Wheel draw:
Copper Gnomes, Retract, Spellweaver Volute, Flash of Defiance, Psychic Battle, Copy Enchantment, Core Prowler.
play retract.
play spellweaver Volute, enchanting retract.
replay the artifacts, get some mana (2 colorless, 1 blue).
Mill both lands.
Play Copy Enchantment as copy enchantment. Both tokens copy Dual Nature.
Play the rest of the permanents in hand.
Play Flash of Defiance. Volutes and helix trigger. Resolve the Wheel first, then Retract.
Volute gets reenchanted on Evactuation.
3. Wheel draw:
Allay, Mimic Vat, Horobi, Death's Wail, Titania, Protector of Argoth, Bloodbond March, March of the Machines, Cephalid Shrine.
Replay Vedalken Orrery.
Play March of the Machines.
Play Mox Saphire. With Dual Nature triggers on the stack play Mana Crypt. With Dual Nature triggers on the stack play Allay with Buyback, bouncing March of the Machines.
Get the tokens and tap them for Mana (4 blue, 8 colorless).
Cast Allay with buyback. There are 5 Psychic Battles on the battlefield, which gives us 6 potential Cowardice triggers, but we waste two so that Allay can resolve successfully. Bounce Copy Enchantment four times, getting 8,16,32 Dual Natures, then 37 Psychic Battles.
Cast Allay with buyback. With 37 Psychic Battles we can bounce Copy Enchantment 36 times, copying Dual Nature 35 times and Psychic Battle once. We get 2^40 Dual Natures and 2^40 + 37 Psychic Battles.
Cast Allay with buyback. We bounce Copy Enchantment 2^40 + 35 times, getting more than 2^2^40 Dual Natures and more than 2^2^40 Psychic Battles. Stop with three Psychic Battle triggers and the original spell still to be resolved.
Play Bloodbond March, getting more than 2^2^40 copies.
Play Titania, Protector of Argoth. Tap the Saltcrusted Step for a storage counter.
Play our various permanents, except March of the Machines.
Tap two token copies of Perpetual Timepiece to mill
Acorn Harvest, Battle Cry, Divine Congregation, Worldfire.
Tap the Undiscovered Paradise for a red mana (1 red, 1 blue, 2 colorless).
Play March of the Machines.
Pay a red and a colorless mana along with 3 life to flashback Flash of Defiance. We gain life from Divine Congregation, and we draw seven cards from Wheel of Fortune.
resolve the last three Psychic Battle triggers for Allay, bouncing March of the Machines and Cowardice back to our hand, and targeting a nonessential enchantment to be destroyed.
4. Wheel draw:
Fountain of Youth, Fountain of Youth, Fountain of Youth, Reality Spasm, Krark-Clan Stoker, Metallurgeon, Disciple of Tevesh Szat.
Those cards should be enough to get tons of red mana and there is nothing stopping us from casting more wheels except for the opponents library.
5. Wheel draw:
Mad Auntie, Godtoucher, Everglove Courier, Mox Sapphire, Wormfang Behemoth, Drake Familiar, Reality Spasm.
6. Wheel draw:
Nectar Faerie, Ghosthelm Courier, Possessed Aven, Centaur Archer, Maze Glider, Possessed Centaur, Reality Spasm.
7. Wheel draw:
Eastern Paladin, Frightshroud Courier, Dwarven Warriors, Possessed Barbarian, Kithkin Mourncaller, World at War, Reality Spasm.
So after wheel 6 we have X Precursor Golems and a hasty Disciple of Tevesh Szat token. We cast Reality Spasm to get X triggers. But then we cast Wheel 7 and get access to all stages before resolving the first trigger. That gives F_{w^3+w11+1}(X) with another Realtity Spasm still in hand. So we get to F_{w^3+w11+1}(F_{w^3+w11+1}(X)) before combat. X then depends on card access cutoffs that are slightly different to what we had before. But I'm pretty sure we want a Reality Spasm cast before the one from Wheel 6, otherwise we would lose a layer from that one just because we don't have a token to untap there.
But, I'm not sure why the card access cutoffs are different. It looks like we can keep the same card order, but with this trick we can access the cards from the next wheel draw.
So, we would get something like:
F_{w^3 + w11 + 3} (F_{w^3 + w11 + 2} (F_{w^3 + w11 + 1} (F_{w^3 + w11 + 1} (F_{w^3 + w8 + 1} (F_{w^3 + w2 + 1} (2^2^40))))))
Interestingly, having the doubled F_{w^3 + w11 + 1} means the total damage sneaks past F_{w^3 + w11 + 4}(2).
[EDIT] Actually, I don't think we can get F_{w^3 + w2 + 1} for the first Reality Spasm, because of Worldfire messing everything up again. The situation seems to be similar to that of Kithkin Mourncaller; when we are resolving Precursor Golem triggers of Reality Spasm, we can't afford to run the full combo, because of Worldfire. Avoiding Worldfire reduces the effect to F_{w^2 + w2 + 1}. Then, when we get past the Reality Spasm copies, we can run the full combo, because we can leave a Mimic Vat activation on the stack; this gets us F_{w^3 + w2}. So that section gives us F_{w^3 + w2} (F_{w^2 + w2 + 1}(X)) rather than F_{w^3 + w2 + 1}(X).
The best line I can see is this:
- cast Disciple of Tevesh Szat. Continue with it opn the battlefield and Bloodbond March triggers on the stack.
- cast that first Reality Spasm , getting X Precursor Golem triggers and killing the original Disciple. Imprint the Disciple on a Mimic Vat. (And counter the reality Spasm)
- do whatever with the Psychic Battle triggers, but ensure that every Reality Spasm copy untaps the Mimic Vat, producing a token each. After resolving the first Precursor trigger we have X Disciple tokens.
- Get original Disciple back to the battlefield.
- Resolve Wheel Draw 5. Use X disciple tokens to set up the Disciple stage. We also have Everglove Courier, Mad Auntie and the full hyperhyperstage available. That gives us F_{w^3+w3}(X).
Also, getting the hyperstage into the fourth draw is not important anymore, so we can increase the initial X by drawing Drake Familiar earlier.
EDIT: Using the untap Mimic Vat trick we could improve the F_{w^3 + w8 + 1} part to F_{w^3 + w9} if we get access to Eastern Paladin and Frightshroud Courier by wheel 6. But we can only cut one of the earlier Reality Spasm draws if we want to retain the second F_{w^3 + w11 + 1}, so we'd need to save another draw. If we were able to get through the start without having the Mox Sapphire die that would do it.
To get both the Mox and March of the Machines through Wheel of Fortune we can use Wormfang Behemoth or use stack tricks like casting March and Wheeling in response, then Retract the Mox back to hand before resolving the March. We need to retract a bit more than we currently do to get the blue mana necessary for the first Reality Spasm. But it should be doable.
EDIT2: Duh, I somehow forgot that each Precursor Golem trigger gives us X copies of Reality Spasm instead of one and triggering X Psychic Battles. So we could get X Disciples per trigger, but there comes the Worldfire problem (and in this case Retract as well)! If we try to go through the whole combo between Precursor triggers, the Mimic Vat will be gone. So we can get some extra boost to X from the first X-1 precursor triggers, but we can't gain an extra layer from that.
EDIT3: Another draw that could potentially saved to get access to another stage after Wheel 6: The Flash of Defiance in Wheel 2. We'd need to start flashing it back earlier, but we could generate the mana for that via Reality Spasm untapping Undiscovered Paradise. I'm not sure if we can get this and the Mox survival into the same start. Things get complicated when extra Retract casts bounce the Spellweaver Helix...
Anyway, we have talked a lot about that start already. Are there any changes we can still make to improve the deck?
-using two cards to put back Vedalken Orrery and Omniscience (Copper Gnomes{/c] and Mox Sapphire) may be suboptimal - ideally we want something that can put an enchantment or permanent onto the battlefield, something like Academy Rector. Academy Rector + Misery Charm could work, but it doesn't save any cards.
-perhaps something that could replace both Drake Familiar and Evacuate? I have found Coastal Breach and Crush of Tentacles but those are both sorceries. A sorcery doesn't quite work because of Spellweaver Helix timing, I think - when we cast Flash of Defiance, we need to resolve all the Helixes, which means we have to resolve the Coastal Breach prior to going up to higher hyperstages, but that doesn't work.
Oh wait, Kederekt Leviathan! That works, right?
If so, we can save a card. Hmmm, which probably means we need to redo the start. A possible ending sequence:
Reality Spasm
Precursor Golem
Angelheart Vial
Anthem of Rakdos
World at War
We now have one less card that we need for the full combo, so if we manage to cut a draw of Mox Sapphire or Flash of Defiance, we can add Eastern Paladin and Frightshroud Courier to wheel draw 6 while still keeping all four Reality Spasm draws. So we could get F_{w^3 + w9 + 1}(X) for the second Reality Spasm.
Abundant Maw almost manages to replace the three Fountains. (We would then use Evacuation for hyperstage transitions and cut Retract as well. We would just need to add some way to let the opponent survive.) But it allows us to sacrifice creatures, making death too cheap for all our later stages, so that doesn't quite work out.
[EDIT] Damn, Stormscape Battlemage also looks like it could work, except it also has an ability that can target a creature. So no go again.
Using Evacuate instead of [c]Retract does seem to open up a new realm of possibilities. In addition to "when cast" and getting kicked, I looked at morph, manifest, and transform, but no luck so far.
[EDIT] I thought about Bounteous Kirin along with a Spirit with a converted mana cost of 3, but unfortunately we already have Horobi, Death's Wail with a CMC of 4.
Another idea is to have a creature that we could discard to gain life somehow; then we could bring the creature back to the battlefield via Bloodbond March, and then back to our hand via Evacuation.
[EDIT], Okay, how about having two Shoreline Rangers, Tropical Island, and Dark Heart of the Wood. We cast the two Rangers and bring them back to the battlefield; then we pay 3 life to cast Acorn Harvest to trigger Evacuation, getting the Rangers back. We discard a Ranger to get Tropical Island, then sacrifice the Island to gain 3 life. Repeat the process for another 3 life. We then bring the Rangers back to the battlefield via Bloodbond March, then resolve the stack until we can get to some Psychic Battle triggers. Then we cast Acorn Harvest for 3 life, and Evacuation brings the Rangers back to our hand again.
So, how about:
2 Psychic Battle
3 Cowardice
4 Horobi, Death's Wail
5 Bloodbond March
6 Cephalid Shrine
7 Mimic Vat
8 Omniscience
9 Vedalken Orrery
10 Mirror of Fate
11 March of the Machines
12 Perpetual Timepiece
13 Drake Familiar
14 Dual Nature
15 Copy Enchantment
16 Allay
17 Saltcrusted Steppe
18 Core Prowler
19 Metallurgeon
20 Acorn Harvest
21 Battle Cry
22 Evacuation
23 Spellweaver Volute
24 Shoreline Ranger
25 Shoreline Ranger
26 Dark Heart of the Wood
27 Tropical Island
29 Copper Gnomes
30 Divine Congregation
31 Worldfire
32 Flash of Defiance
33 Flash of Defiance
34 Flash of Defiance
35 Spellweaver Helix
36 Titania, Protector of Argoth
37 Undiscovered Paradise
38 Krark-Clan Stoker
39 Mad Auntie
40 Godtoucher
41 Everglove Courier
42 Nectar Faerie
43 Ghosthelm Courier
44 Possessed Aven
45 Centaur Archer
46 Maze Glider
47 Possessed Centaur
49 Frightshroud Courier
50 Dwarven Warriors
51 Possessed Barbarian
52 Disciple of Tevesh Szat
53 Reality Spasm
54 Precursor Golem
55 Angelheart Vial
56 Caltrops
57 World at War
58 Show and Tell
59 Mana Crypt
60 Wheel of Fortune
Derp, Titania, Protector of Argoth can get the Tropical Island back for too cheap.
[EDIT] Hmm, I think that the problem I described with Evacuate + Retract is not actually a problem. The two life gain for Watcher of the Roost is not wasted if we cast it early, because the life gain can be used to pay for Flash of Defiance. So we are at 5 life, we flashback Acorn Harvest going down to 2 life, then we resolve Evacuate to get 2 life back and go to 4. Then we flashback Flash of Defiance, going to 1 life, and we bring both Watcher of the Roost and Fountain of Youth back to our hand before Worldfire. We use both to get back to 4 life, then we resolve Retract to get back to 5 life.
But, there is another problem, this time in the hyperstage. We have two instants that destroy all Metallurgeon tokens, and if we resolve one before going up to the higher stage, we will have no Metallurgeon tokens to run the higher stage. But we can't save both instants until after the higher stages either.
How about if we replace Retract with Steel Sabotage? The only potential problem I see is possibly going infinite by targeting the original Metallurgeon on the battlefield, getting a token copy. But, we can only do that once, then Metallurgeon is in the graveyard/exile/library. After than we have to go down the stack to the next Bloodbond March trigger for Metallurgeon, so I don't see any infinite.
[EDIT] Ugh, Steel Sabotage can also target Core Prowler, which doesn't need Bloodbond March to work, and can provide all the mana we need to repeat the stage.
cut Retract and 3x Fountain of Youth
add Dryad Arbor, Gerrard's Verdict and Izzet Guildmage.
We would also need to switch to green mana for the hyperhyperstage. So we switch the flashback spells and use Goblin Gardener as connection from the stages. Without retract we can't use Mox Sapphire for blue mana generation anymore and the colors are difficult anyway, so go to 2 storage lands.
That complicates the start, without retract and mana artifacts for some easy initial mana, but saving a card should be worth it.
Unfortunately, my 5-card ending sequence doesn't work; we can use Core Prowler to add counters to Angelheart Vial, and use Reality Spasm to untap it, going infinite. (Worldfire can be skipped.) So we need another way to draw cards; Night Dealings also doesn't work because of Core Prowler. I'm not seeeing a 5-layer 5-card sequence at the moment.
If we can't find a 5-layer sequence, we can still improve the 4-layer sequence by inserting Wheel of Fortune into the sequence. Something like:
Reality Spasm
Precursor Golem
Curiosity
Underworld Dreams
Wheel of Fortune
with say Phelddagrif to give opponent life. Of course, a 5-layer sequence with Wheel of Fortune included would be the best, but I don't know if that is possible.
What cards can we use for the card draw? Two interesting cards are Dragon Appeasement and Secret Plans. Unfortunately, Dragon Appeasement is messed up by Copper Gnomes; I don't know if there is a replacement for that one. As for Secret Plans, I couldn't find an expensive way to turn a card face up, except for Arashin War Beast, and that will probably require multiple cards to create blocking creatures.
Curiosity doesn't add a layer. Going through the combo will destroy all Underworld Dreams, so they cannot be enchanted anymore when they are about to deal the damage.