Yes but, here was the original problem: We pump up life gain using Alhammarret's Archive, which doubles life gain, but also card draw. We can use Possessed Portal to keep the opponent from drawing during because of Spiritual Focus, but for the opponent to draw one card, we need some optional method to prevent draws that we can control.
Edit: Alms Collector would be awesome, but it's a creature.
Looks like at least B_12(77), since we can profit from at least the last 10 of our draws. (Unmoored Ego doesn't need to be drawn before doing the full combo.)
Using Faith of the Devoted combined with Artificer's Intuition will bump us into the 80's, if we can find a safe way to bounce artifacts to our hand without bouncing them all.
Edit: Oh, I know; we can just donate token copies of our artifacts to the opponent, then get them back with Retract.
Edit: Correct me if I am mistaken, but I think it's okay to have a second creature, so long as that is the only creature that can attack? jfb described how to go infinite with a bishop and another creature, by mirrorweaving the second creature into another bishop. But if the second creature is our only attacking possibility, we can't mirrorweave it. If that is correct, we can look at creatures that naturally have haste, or can be given haste but not Xathrid Necromancer.
However, we can't use a haste creature to "immunize" another creature, since if we have a third creature, we can turn that creature into a Xathrid Necromancer, and then play the hasted creature to attack with.
I was thinking we could turn a nonblack creature multicolored with Dralnu's Crusade, but not Xathrid Necromancer since it's already black. But, the thing to do there is to add Maze Rusher - but that unfortunately is a creature.
But, I have another idea. Get rid of Haunting Cloak, and add Purge and Balduvian Dead. Then, the only way to get a hasted creature is to cast Purge on Xathrid Necromancer, then exile it to create a hasted Zombie creature. I think that makes creatures safe again? (except for other black creatures) So, in particular, we could add Alms Collector, and go back to the opponent draw and discard plan. There may be other creatures that are useful. And, could we be allowed to turn enchantments into creatures now?
So our creatures are Xathrid Necromancer, Balduvian Dead, Alms Collector, Celestial Gatekeeper, and Voldaren Pariah. We sacrifice three creatures to transform the Voldaren Pariah; but we don't want to sacrifice the Balduvian Dead, because we need it to create the hasted token. So we sacrifice the three other cards. The Celestial Gatekeeper exiles itself, and returns the Alms Collector. The Xathrid Necromancer stays in the graveyard/exile zones.
Ah, argh. Is there some other way to return Alms Collector, other than Celestial Gatekeeper? Misery Charm doesn't work, since we can just kill off the Alms Collector. Something with white creatures, or the higher power/toughness/CMC? I dunno.
The other issue with Alms Collector, even if we can find a way to bring it back safely, is that it has flash, so could interfere with a computation.
(though I guess that could be fine if we cut ways to bounce creatures and have a way to return from gy to battlefield)
Yeah, so we have to sacrifice it and bring it back to the battlefield, not our hand. But, I'm not seeing a way to do that, if we can't use Celestial Gatekeeper.
Just in case, does anyone have any idea how to get a lot of colorless mana from a combat, if we're not allowed to use Mana Echoes? That could enable a lucky 13th layer, with the Fling version.
Edit: Okay, an idea: To start the computation, we exile Xathrid Necromancer with Path to Exile say, then deal damage with Corpse Lunge. We can have Mana Echoes, but we won't be getting any colorless mana, since we have no creatures on the battlefield. Then we bring Xathrid Necromancer, give it haste with Haunted Cloak or whatever, and attack with it, starting another computation, but this time getting colorless mana from Mana Echoes.
Maybe intruder alarm and Stalking Stones? oh wait its typed, is there a way to get an untyped creature that can tap for colorless? Or let our Necromancer tap for colorless?
Oh, I should say that the idea is to spend colorless mana to do the computation (by having Mystic Speculation trigger some instant that deals damage), so we can't get colorless mana during the computation. So we can't be able to get colorless mana during that computation, but we need to get it during the combat. So, the idea I had was to use Corpse Lunge for the damage, to require that Xathrid Necromancer be off the field during that computation, but be able to bring it back for the combat. (or get some creature for the combat)
Yeah, I was hoping that there would be something that gave haste and indestructible at the same time, but I didn't find anything.
Akroma's Memorial gives both haste and protection from black, which will protect the Necromancer from all the opponent's creatures. But, it will also prevent them from blocking him, which is a problem.
What if we made some untyped creatures, say with Starfield of Nyx, and then enchant it with Invocation of Saint Traft? Then we get an Angel creature token that can collect mana from Mana Echoes, but it will be exiled at the end of combat.
There are various cards that create a token that dies at the end of combat, but they are all either creatures, or an enchant creature aura. A way to create such a token without needing a creature would be good - or, a way to create an untyped creature with haste, that we can't overwrite as a Necromancer, or it would lose the haste.
Edit: Hunting Wilds is perhaps a solution. So we turn a Forest into an untyped creature with haste, enchant it with Invocation of Saint Traft, and attack with it, getting mana from the Angel token.
What would stop Invocation of Saint Traft from being used while a necromancer is on the battlefield? A necromancer + any typed creature during a computation is bad.
Unfortunately that doesn't quite work, we can give them some Xathrid necromancers, then donate the Voldaren pariah, then they go infinite by holding priority and responding to the transform trigger. Saccing 3 creatures to get many.
Then they let the transform trigger resolve and get Abolisher of Bloodlines' trigger, now we have to sac creatures, and that gives us an arbitrarily large haster to attack with.
They activate the ability by saccing 3 creatures. Necromancers trigger, givin them 4 creatures. With the original ability still on the stack, they sacrifice 3 more creatures, and repeat.
Edit: Alms Collector would be awesome, but it's a creature.
Using Faith of the Devoted combined with Artificer's Intuition will bump us into the 80's, if we can find a safe way to bounce artifacts to our hand without bouncing them all.
Edit: Oh, I know; we can just donate token copies of our artifacts to the opponent, then get them back with Retract.
So I believe this gets us to 1 + 53(opponent draws) + 10(our draws) + 2(Approach of the Second Sun) + 1(Irrigated Farmland) + 8(our artifacts) + 6(remaining cards) = 81.
Also, doesn't Irrigated Farmland go infinite? It can be infinitely returned to the battlefield, bounced, and discarded.
Edit: Baral's Expertise works
Sea God's Scorn bounces enchantments so together they replace Reduce to Dreams at the cost of a spare card.
So now the 9 spare cards are:
- Unmoored Ego
- Approach of the Second Sun
- Artificer's Intuition
- Faith of the Devoted
- 5 other artifacts
for 1+53+9+2+8+6 = 79
Root Maze -> Orb Of dreams gets to 80.
A couple of other switches:
Pursuit of Knowledge -> Aladdin's Lamp (less efficient, but it's fine)
Repeated Reverberation -> Rings of Brighthearth
bumping us to 82.
Edit: Oh, Aladdin's Lamp doesn't work. Ring of Ma'ruf then?
Edit: Now that we don't have to bounce all artifacts, we can just use Mangara's Tome.
Edit: A couple more improvements:
Unmoored Ego -> Temple Bell
Gate to the Afterlife can gain a life from Xathrid Necromancer, and then be bounced and discarded.
So up to BB_12(84).
Edit: Correct me if I am mistaken, but I think it's okay to have a second creature, so long as that is the only creature that can attack? jfb described how to go infinite with a bishop and another creature, by mirrorweaving the second creature into another bishop. But if the second creature is our only attacking possibility, we can't mirrorweave it. If that is correct, we can look at creatures that naturally have haste, or can be given haste but not Xathrid Necromancer.
However, we can't use a haste creature to "immunize" another creature, since if we have a third creature, we can turn that creature into a Xathrid Necromancer, and then play the hasted creature to attack with.
I was thinking we could turn a nonblack creature multicolored with Dralnu's Crusade, but not Xathrid Necromancer since it's already black. But, the thing to do there is to add Maze Rusher - but that unfortunately is a creature.
(unless the second creature didn't have a creature type...)
But, I have another idea. Get rid of Haunting Cloak, and add Purge and Balduvian Dead. Then, the only way to get a hasted creature is to cast Purge on Xathrid Necromancer, then exile it to create a hasted Zombie creature. I think that makes creatures safe again? (except for other black creatures) So, in particular, we could add Alms Collector, and go back to the opponent draw and discard plan. There may be other creatures that are useful. And, could we be allowed to turn enchantments into creatures now?
How about this:
So our creatures are Xathrid Necromancer, Balduvian Dead, Alms Collector, Celestial Gatekeeper, and Voldaren Pariah. We sacrifice three creatures to transform the Voldaren Pariah; but we don't want to sacrifice the Balduvian Dead, because we need it to create the hasted token. So we sacrifice the three other cards. The Celestial Gatekeeper exiles itself, and returns the Alms Collector. The Xathrid Necromancer stays in the graveyard/exile zones.
(though I guess that could be fine if we cut ways to bounce creatures and have a way to return from gy to battlefield)
Just in case, does anyone have any idea how to get a lot of colorless mana from a combat, if we're not allowed to use Mana Echoes? That could enable a lucky 13th layer, with the Fling version.
Edit: Okay, an idea: To start the computation, we exile Xathrid Necromancer with Path to Exile say, then deal damage with Corpse Lunge. We can have Mana Echoes, but we won't be getting any colorless mana, since we have no creatures on the battlefield. Then we bring Xathrid Necromancer, give it haste with Haunted Cloak or whatever, and attack with it, starting another computation, but this time getting colorless mana from Mana Echoes.
Is this workable?
edit:
On Serra's Wings+Honor-Worn Shaku+intruder alarm? kind of ugly. -- oof and lifelink Shame In Bolas's Clutches is no good.
Edit2: Leyline of singularity+Mirror gallery?
Akroma's Memorial gives both haste and protection from black, which will protect the Necromancer from all the opponent's creatures. But, it will also prevent them from blocking him, which is a problem.
But, any creature we make can be Mirrorweaved into a Xathrid Necromancer.
There are various cards that create a token that dies at the end of combat, but they are all either creatures, or an enchant creature aura. A way to create such a token without needing a creature would be good - or, a way to create an untyped creature with haste, that we can't overwrite as a Necromancer, or it would lose the haste.
Edit: Jawbone Skulkin can give an animated Thousand-Year Storm haste, but unfortunately is a creature itself.
Edit: Hunting Wilds is perhaps a solution. So we turn a Forest into an untyped creature with haste, enchant it with Invocation of Saint Traft, and attack with it, getting mana from the Angel token.
Edit: So, going back to the 12 layer version:
It seems like trying to make Confessor safe will have better luck than Alms Collector, since we can take advantage of the low CMC. So, we have Xathrid Necromancer, Confessor, Sek'Kuar Deathkeeper, and Voldaren Pariah. We sacrifice the three other creatures to the Pariah, and Sek'Kuar creates some hasted tokens. Then, we bring back Confessor with say Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants.
Then, we can get life from both opponents draws and discards.
Then they let the transform trigger resolve and get Abolisher of Bloodlines' trigger, now we have to sac creatures, and that gives us an arbitrarily large haster to attack with.
Possible fix: Primeval Force + Life and Limb
or more simply Hand of Emrakul + another creature (using a Dralnu's Crusade to give the Confessor another type)