Not quite. The presence of Joraga Warcaller and Conspiracy means that once you get a +1/+1 counter on Warcaller by any means, you can play Clone and not have it copy anything, and the Warcaller's pump will give Clone a positive toughness so it doesn't die right away. Then you can tap Kiki-Jiki to make a copy of Clone, and since you specifically did not commit to anything on the copy effect originally, now you get a new chance to declare a commitment for what the token Clones will be copying. Notably, you can have a Clone token enter as a copy of Kiki-Jiki, ready to tap again and target the original, and so on forever.
Step Four:
Cast Insurrection allowing it to be copied by the Ascensions. Let 1 resolve to give our creatures haste and continue to Step Five.
Step Five:
Tap all the Kiki-Jikis targeting Doubling Season. For each set of Doubling Seasons coming into play, they trigger all the Pandemoniums. For each those triggers, target the Joraga Warcaller, letting the damage be multiplied by all the Furnace of Raths. As they individually resolve, the damage will be converted into +1 counters on the Warcaller thanks to Vigor, pumping all the creatures thanks to Conspiracy, and increasing the next ammount of damage. Let all the triggers resolve and move on to Step Six.
Step Six:
Now tap all the Living Infernos targeting the Joraga Warcaller again. As they resolve they will again pump each other, each dealing increasing damage.
Step Seven:
While Insurrections are on the stack, let 1 resolve to give all creatures haste, and then repeate steps Five and Six.
Step Eight:
Cast Mercy Killing and copy it for all the active Pyromancer Ascensions (which should be a fraction of the current number, although still a large number), each targeting a different Doubling Season. As they individually resolve, use the damage from the Pandemonium like before, and then since a creature died, all the Death's Presence tigger putting many +1 counters onto the Joraga Warcaller, increasing the number of tokens made by the next Mercy Killing resolution. Let all the triggers resolve and move to Step Nine.
Step Nine:
Cast Fossil Find copying it for each Ascension (The first time through this step, they wont all be active, but every other time they all will be).
Step Eleven:
Now cast Cytoshape, activating all the new Ascensions, and changing the large number of boring elf tokens into into Doubling Season. This should put the number of Doubling seasons to an order greater than the number of Ascensions and other cards which will be important when we revisit Step Eight.
Step Twelve:
Repeat Steps Four through Seven. Then allow an additional Fossil Find to resolve getting another Cytoshape and then cast that Cytoshape, using it to just activate the new Ascensions. Then repeat Step Eight copying Mercy Killing for all the Ascensions this time, since there are now always many more Doubling Seasons than Ascensions.
Step Thirteen:
While there are Fossil Finds on the stack, repeat Steps Eleven and Twelve. Each cycle should use up 5 Fossil Finds.
Step Fourteen:
Cast Bound // Determined, copying it for each Ascension. For each copy, sacrifice the Ink-treader Nephilim to bring back the Nephilim and the Fossil Find (ignore the other two cards we could recur). Then Repeat Steps Nine through Thirteen, and then move on to the next copy of Bound // Determined.
Step Fifteen:
Repeat Step Fourteen three times. Then sacrifice on token (doesn't matter which) to Altar of Dementia to mill ourselves, giving access to the last Praetor's Counsel in our library.
Step Sixteen:
Cast Praetor's Counsel, copying it for each Ascension. Each copy will return the whole graveyard, so we need to cast Cytoshape changhing nothing. This will allow the later Cytoshapes to still activate the Ascensions. Then Repeat Steps Nine through Thirteen, and then move on to the next copy of Praetor's Counsel.
Step Twenty:
Start sacrificing things to the Altar of Dementia to mill the opponent, and more importantly to activate the Death's Presence putting an increasing number of counters on the Joraga Warcaller. Start with all the Ascensions, then the Kiki-Jikis, then the Living Infernos, then the Furnace of Raths, then all but one of the Death's Presences, followed by all the Doubling Seasons.
Step Twentyone:
Enter combat, declare the Joraga Warcaller attacking, they dont block and we win.
Each Dual Nature / Doubling season alternation takes X to 2^^X. After eight repetitions produces between 2^^^9 and 2^^^10 copies of each card, including Doubling Season and Pyromancer Ascension.
For Clone Legion, each copy of Clone Legion takes X Doubling Seasons to X*2^X Doubling Seasons, and with X activated Pyromancer Ascensions there are 2^^X Doubling Seasons and 2^^X unactivated Pyromancer Ascensions created.
Each copy of Fossil Find takes X Pyromancer Ascensions to 2^^X, so each casting takes X to 2^^^X. In particular, after the first Fossil Find we have between 2^^^2^^^9 and 2^^^2^^^10 Pyromancer Ascensions.
Each copy of Bound // Determined takes X Pyromancer Ascensions to 2^^^X, so each casting takes X to 2^^^^X. After the first we have about 2^^^^2^^^2^^^9 Pyromancer Ascensions, which is between 2^^^^^4 and 2^^^^^5. After 11 more similar spells, that bumps the number of creatures up to between 2^^^^^15 and 2^^^^^16.
So the final damage is between 2^^^^^15 and 2^^^^^16.
Thanks for doing the math. I could enjoy doing that much damage in a game
I do have a (long) question though. Your count seems to be solely based off of the number of creatures in play. My understanding was that while the creatures in play are notable, the real damage was in the combo between the Joraga Warcaller, Furnace of Rath, and Pandemonium, of which both enchantments should be at the same number as the Pyromancer Ascensions. This combo would lead the incoming creatures to pump up the Warcaller at a much much faster rate than the number of incoming creatures, as each creature causes a trigger, and each trigger should take the Warcaller from p/t of X to (x*2^y)*x*y where y is the number of Furnaces, Pandemoniums, and Ascensions. Then each casting of mercy killing should create a far larger number of tokens then the Clone Legion does, all of which increase the number of tokens from the next Mercy Killing. Finally, in the end those elf tokens all become Doubling Seasons thanks to Cytoshape.
Was my understanding wrong?
Edit: The math is wrong. This should be more accurate: (X*2^W)*XY*(2^Z) where W is the furnaces, Y is the pandemoniums, and Z is the doubling seasons.
Your calculation of (X*2^W)*XY*(2^Z) looks correct. Note that this is equal to CX^2, where C = Y*2^(WZ) is a constant while the copies of Mercy Killing take place. So A copies of activated Pyromancer Ascensions will take the number of creatures to about (CX)^2^A, which is less than the effect of the Clone Legions, which takes X to more than 2^^X. Also, Cytoshape will only convert a number of Elves equal to the number of activated Pyromancer Ascensions, which is the number A that is constant from earlier; this will be less than the number of Elves. So we really only get A new Doubling Seasons per casting of Mercy Killing.
Insurrection does slightly better than Clone Legion, but not enough to make a difference in the estimate. Each time a Kiki-Jiki taps to copy a Doubling Season, it takes X to 2^X. So each copy of Insurrection takes X Kiki-Jikis to 2^^X Doubling Seasons. If we have Y Pyromancer Ascensions, we take X to 2^^(XY). X and Y will get increased to the same number each time Clone Legion is cast, so we basically iterate the function X to 2^^(X^2) Y times. But this is only slightly better than iterating X to 2^^X Y times; we get more than 2^^^Y, but less than 2^^^(Y+1), as the effect of Y squarings is less than the effect of one 2^^X. So Insurrection and Clone Legion wind up doing about the same.
After the last part, the power of Joraga Warcaller winds up being somewhat higher than the number of creatures we get after all the exile spells, but not by a large margin. If X is the power of Joraga, Y is the number of Doubling Seasons, and Z is the number of creatures, we increase X to X * 2^Y * Z, which is not noticeably higher when we are dealing with numbers of this size; it won't make a dent in 2^^^^^15.
Step 1: Black Lotus, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Possibility Storm. Storm count 4.
Step 2: Cast an enchantment, let's say Doubling Season, Possibility Storm into Leyline of Anticipation. Cast another enchantment, Dual Nature, flip into Wheel of Sun and Moon targetting ourselves. Storm count 8.
Step 3: Cast Mind's Desire. Storm triggers, the Possibility Storm triggers. We'll just decline to cast whatever sorcery Possibility Storm hits, but Mind's Desire is back in the deck, so the storm trigger resolves making 8 copies of Mind's Desire. The first one resolves and we shuffle up and hit Mind's Desire, which is now the 10th spell cast.
Step 4: Cast the 10 things that flip off of Mind's Desire before any more storm copies resolve. Let's say it's Opalescence, then Dual Nature (making a copy), then Doubling Season (actually 11 of them), then Quicksilver Gargantuan (making 2^11 Doubling Seasons then 2^(2^11) Dual Natures). Then we cast Copy Enchantment and the Dual Natures do their thing and we get all doubling seasons except the last two Dual Nature triggers which get us more Dual Natures and more Possibility Storms. Then we get a lot of copies of any other 6 things we play, let's say Precursor Golem, Scarland Thrinax, Vassal's Duty, Cowardice, and Psychic Battle. Storm count 20.
Step 5: Mind's Desire has now resolved, but thanks to Wheel of Sun and Moon, it's back in the library. We shuffle up for the next Mind's Desire copy and hit Mind's Desire! Making 21 more Mind's Desires to resolve. That hits everything left I have listed. We can drop in the remaining cards we want now: Skirge Familiar, Xenograft (naming every creature type and then some), Erebos, and Wirewood Channeler. That's everything except Mark of Mutiny, Boon Reflection, and Bargain that we don't want just yet, but it puts storm to 24, so the next's Mind's Desire cast out of the library is big enough to eat the whole library, which is what we want, and once the real card resolves, it gets tucked back in as the only card in the library.
Step 6: There are 5 remaining Mind's Desire copies waiting to resolve, but we have Leyline so we're gonna act immediately. We cast Mark of Mutiny targeting Cowardice. Triggers abound from all the Precursor Golems, Cowardice, and all the Psychic Battles. We use Psychic Battles and Cowardice together to bounce Quicksilver Gargantuan, which we cast into one Possibility Storm and retrieve with another, and when it enters we'll get a new pile of Dual Nature triggers to make all sorts of nonsense before we sacrifice the Gargantuan to be recast by the next Possibility Storm until we run out of those triggers. Then for every remaining Psychic Battle trigger, we bounce the Gargantuan to cast it out, to have it hit for every Possibility Storm and Dual Nature compounding each time. Then Cowardice can finally bounce itself to hand so that we don't accidentally evacuate ourselves.
Step 7: Now the Precursor triggers can resolve. Because a Xenograft makes everything a golem, one Mark of Mutiny turns into an Insurrection, except better because it happens for every precursor and it makes +1/+1 counters that may or may not actually be worth anything. (I really really really wanted to use Twinflame here, but unfortunately the haste it grants can be copied by a Gargantuan and that would cause an easy infinite, so I had to settle for giving the existing things haste and missing out on factoring in Doubling Seasons a couple more times.) Since this is boring old Mark of Mutiny instead of Twinflame, we may as well let all of the copies from one Precursor trigger resolve at once. That gives all our creatures haste, most relevantly the Wirewood Channelers. Tap 1: because of a Xenograft naming elf, we get mana equal to the total number of creatures in play.
Step 8: The Ackermann part. Play Cowardice back out (sacrifice Copy Enchantment repeatedly to take advantage of all those tasty Possibility Storm triggers). 1 mana into Vassal's Duty targets Erebos (and only ever Erebos) which bounces it to hand (with Psychic Battle Triggers still hanging around) where it can be recast to get Possibility Storm triggers or discarded to Skirge Familiar to get the mana back. The profitable part of this is every time Erebos is cast from hand, the Possibility Storm that eats it and cannot cast it back will be casting a sacrificed Quicksilver Gargantuan instead. I'm certain if I've got something wrong here, the kind experts will correct me.
Now we back up. One tapping of Wirewood Channeler has given us nearly indescribable amounts of tokens which means the next Channeler taps for that amount of mana and makes a nice little feedback loop until we finally run out of untapped Channelers, and we use our last Dual Nature Trigger on our last Gargantuan from our last Possibility Storm to make a lovely new batch of Channelers. Also, we want Erebos in hand at the end, and as a last point of business, we need to sacrifice Cowardice to get it off the battlefield before letting the next Precursor Golem trigger resolve. Then once everything is untapped, hasty, and gigantic again, we start the Ackermann function again by casting Erebos from hand and fishing both it and Cowardice out of the library. We continue doing this until every Precursor Golem trigger has resolved and we've used up all the mana making stupid amounts of stupid. At this point, the board is silly, but that stack is suddenly very simple: 5 remaining storm copies of Mind's Desire. We move to resolve one of them, shuffle up our two card library and flip over Mind's Desire! (Who knew!?)
So, Mind's Desire storms, and assuming everything scales so quickly that each step dwarfs everything before it, our storm count is roughly the amount of Possibility Storms we had in play the last time we cast Erebos from hand. Which is a big number. And then every individual Mind's Desire is going to hit Mark of Mutiny, each of which triggers all the Precursor Golems and all the Psychic Battles making all the creatures that feed all the Wirewood Channelers etc. After going through the whole process 5 times, we finally have the stack clear, but at the end of it, we make sure we have all the permanents in play and 2 black mana floating when the real Mark of Mutiny gets countered for not having a target and is put on the bottom of the library beneath the only other card, Mind's Desire. Then we can spend two mana and two life to Erebos, and draw that Mind's Desire. When we cast it from hand, we trigger storm and all the Possibility Storms. The first Possibility Storm casts Mark of Mutiny, but then every other Possibility Storm and every storm copy of Mind's Desire from hand can hit Mind's Desire, all of which storm themselves, each greater than the last. And we do that whole draw and cast process 9 times. At that point, we cast Boon Reflection which becomes a lot of Boon Reflections, and then we cast Bargain which gains us 7 * 2^ whatever number of Boon Reflections that is life to be used for redrawing Mind's Desire, and that whole process can be used 53 times before the opponent runs out of cards to draw. There are plenty of discussed ways to draw that out further, but whatever, good enough for now.
The source of damage at the end is just moving to combat and swinging out after the last pile of Mark of Mutiny untaps everything and gives them haste.
So, what have I done wrong, and if nothing, how firmly in second place am I?
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
I figure if there's an infinite loop in your deck, it probably involves Quicksilver Gargantuan somehow. Of course, Vassal's Duty can bounce Quicksilver Gargantuan if it is copying Erebos, God of the Dead, but it can't be copying it and still have Erebos on the battlefield. I thought about bouncing Erebos with Dual Nature triggers on the stack, but then the Psychic Battle triggers will be above the Dual Nature triggers, so the same Vassal's Duty can't bounce both Erebos and Quicksilver Gargantuan. So I don't see an infinite, at least not yet.
Okay, each Wirewood Channeler fuels an Ackermann combo, so from X creatures we generate about 10 -> 10 -> X creatures. A Dual Nature trigger of Quicksilver Gargantuan will generate more Wirewood Channelers, but they won't have haste, so unless I'm mistaken we need to have Mark of Mutiny give all the Wirewood Channelers haste to continue the combo. So:
Each copy of Mark of Mutiny will give another Wirewood Channeler haste, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X.
Each Precursor Golem trigger for Mark of Mutiny will create a bunch of copies of Mark of Mutiny, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 2.
Each time Mark of Mutiny is cast, it will create a bunch of Precursor Golem triggers, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 3.
Each time Mind's Desire is cast using Possibility Storm, it creates a bunch of storm copies, each of which can cast Mark of Mutiny, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 4.
Each time Mind's Desire is cast from your hand, it triggers a bunch of Possibility Storms, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 5.
Each time Bargain is cast, you gain a bunch of life, allowing Mind's Desire to be drawn many times, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 6.
Before the first Bargain is cast, we can recast Mind's Desire 9 times, which gets us to between 10 -> 10 -> 10 -> 6 and 10 -> 10 -> 11 -> 6, which is between 10 -> 10 -> 1 -> 7 and 10 -> 10 -> 2 -> 7. Each Bargain pumps up the second to last number by 1, so after 53 Bargains we have a grand total of between 10 -> 10 -> 54 -> 7 and 10 -> 10 -> 55 -> 7 damage.
This is of course way larger than any deck with 0 stages, but way smaller than the 25-stage deck.
The potential breaking point that popped out at me was a Possibility Storm triggering on Precursor Golem and fetching Black Lotus as a source of mana. But nothing can target Precursor Golem short of Mark of Mutiny, so that looks safe. For that matter, nothing gets Black Lotus out of the graveyard once it pays for the initial cost of Show and Tell, so it's really safe.
I think I figured out the Dual Nature problem. Here's take #3: (warning, long)
So say we are at the topmost layers of the Rust Tick stage. (i.e. there is one Rust Tick token left.) Say there is the original Dual Nature (and a token copy as well) on the battlefield.
Cast and counter Rust Tick, getting Bloodbond March triggers, and use one to bring Rust Tick onto the battlefield.
Do the same for Assembly-Worker and Changeling Berserker. We get Champion and Dual Nature triggers.
We resolve a Dual Nature trigger, getting a token of a Berserker, and Champion the original Dual Nature.
This results in destroying both the original Dual Nature and its copy.
At this point we tap the last remaining Rust Tick token, getting a bunch of Psychic Battle triggers.
Use two to target the original Rust Tick and the original Assembly-Worker, destroying them; we imprint both onto Mimic Vat.
Next, we resolve the Dual Nature destruction triggers, destroying both Berserker tokens.
This results in Dual Nature returning to the battlefield (and creating a copy).
Now we resolve the Champion trigger of the original Changeling Berserker, and we choose to sacrifice it.
This results in Mimic Vat and Dual Nature triggers; we resolve a Mimic Vat trigger first, imprinting Changeling Berserker on a Mimic Vat.
We now tap the Mimic Vats to create tokens of Changeling Berserker, Assembly-Worker, and Rust Tick, and then use Mirror of Fate to bring those cards back from exile into the library.
The creation of the Changeling Berserker token caused a Champion trigger, which we use to Champion Balustrade Spy.
Next, we resolve the Dual Nature destruction triggers on Changeling Berserker, destroying the Changeling Berserker token and bringing back Balustrade Spy, which causes the library to be emptied into the graveyard.
We can now bring back Changeling Berserker using a Bloodbond March trigger.
Champion the original Dual Nature, and let the various connected tokens die.
Let the rest of the Bloodbond March triggers for Changeling Berserker resolve without consequence.
Resolve a Bloodbond March trigger for Assembly-Worker, and return Assembly-Worker back to the battlefield.
Tap the newly created Assembly-Worker token, getting lots of Psychic Battle triggers.
Use the first PB trigger to destroy the original Assembly-Worker, triggering Mimic Vat.
Imprint Assembly-Worker on a Mimic Vat, tap the Mimic Vat to create a token, and use Mirror of Fate to put Assembly-Worker in the library.
Resolve another PB trigger to bounce Changeling Beserker back to your hand; this brings Dual Nature back onto the battlefield.
Cast Changeling Berserker, Championing Balustrade Spy.
Two new Changeling Berserker tokens enter the battlefield; use one to Champion the original Changeling Berserker, putting it into exile and returning Balustrade Spy onto the battlefield.
Dual Nature then destroys the Changeling Beserker tokens, bringing Changeling Beserker back onto the battlefield.
Champion Dual Nature and let the associated tokens die.
Resolve another PB trigger for Assembly-Worker, bouncing Changeling Berserker back to your hand and bringing Dual Nature back onto the battlefield.
Let the rest of the PB triggers resolve.
Use a Bloodbond March trigger for Assembly-Worker resolve, bringing Assembly-Worker back onto the battlefield.
Let the rest of the BM triggers for Assembly-Worker resolve.
Resolve a Bloodbond March trigger for Rust Tick to bring Rust Tick back onto the battlefield.
Cast Changeling Beserker again, getting Bloodbond March triggers, and put it back onto the battlefield.
Get a Changeling Berserker token, Championing Dual Nature.
Tap the Rust Tick token, getting lots of Psychic Battle triggers.
Resolve two to destroy the original Rust Tick and bounce the original Assembly-Worker.
Imprint Rust Tick on a Mimic Vat and create a token copy.
Resolve the destruction trigger for Dual Nature and destroy the Changeling Berserker tokens.
This brings Dual Nature back onto the battlefield, along with a token copy.
Resolve the Champion trigger on the original Changeling Berserker, sacrificing it.
Imprint Changeling Berserker on a Mimic Vat and create a token copy, creating a Champion trigger.
Use Mirror of Fate to bring Rust Tick and Changeling Berserker from exile back into the library.
Resolve the Champion trigger, Championing Balustrade Spy.
Resolve the destruction trigger for Dual Nature, destroying the Changeling Beserker token and bringing back Balustrade Spy onto the battlefield. This puts Rust Tick and Changeling Beserker back into the graveyard.
Resolve a Bloodbond March trigger to bring Changeling Berserker back onto the battlefield. We get Champion and Dual Nature triggers.
Champion the original Dual Nature, and let the associated tokens die.
Cast and counter Assembly-Worker, getting Bloodbond March triggers, and bring it back onto the battefield.
Tap the newly created Assembly-Worker token, getting lots of Psychic Battle triggers.
Use the first PB trigger to destroy the original Assembly-Worker, triggering Mimic Vat.
Imprint Assembly-Worker on a Mimic Vat, tap the Mimic Vat to create a token, and use Mirror of Fate to put Assembly-Worker in the library.
Resolve another PB trigger to bounce Changeling Beserker back to your hand; this brings Dual Nature back onto the battlefield.
Cast Changeling Berserker, Championing Balustrade Spy.
Two new Changeling Berserker tokens enter the battlefield; use one to Champion the original Changeling Berserker, putting it into exile and returning Balustrade Spy onto the battlefield.
Dual Nature then destroys the Changeling Beserker tokens, bringing Changeling Beserker back onto the battlefield.
Champion Dual Nature and let the associated tokens die.
Resolve another PB trigger for Assembly-Worker, bouncing Changeling Berserker back to your hand and bringing Dual Nature back onto the battlefield.
Let the rest of the PB triggers resolve.
Let a Bloodbond March trigger for Assembly-Worker resolve, bringing Assembly-Worker back onto the battlefield.
We are now at our original situation after casting Rust Tick and Assembly-Worker, except that we have one more Assembly-Worker token and two fewer Bloodbond March triggers for Rust Tick (the number of Bloodbond March triggers for Assembly-Worker doesn't matter since we're only going to use two more.). So after X Bloodbond March triggers we generate X/2 Assembly-Worker tokens.
Step 1:
Starting with the Leyline in play, cast Draw my Deck cards, and then Generic Stuff cards... nothing interesting here. Note that creature type for conspiracy is Shapeshifters...
Step 3:
Lets make that Joraga Warcaller useful by casting Artificial Evolution changing it to pump Shapeshifters instead of elves. Now we have need some mana, so lets make infinite mana by tapping Sol Ring to put 2^^^9 charge counters on Gemstone Array. If the array ever gets down to just 2 counters, remove both to put another on and get 2^(#Doubling Seasons) back. Then use 'some' of that infinite mana and the Shapesharer to change all Dual Natures to anything else in play so we can sacrifice stuff safely.
(Infinite mana is alright with the rules as long as it doesn't result in infinite damage, right?)
Step 4:
Cast Mercy Killing sacrificing 1 doubling season (and imagining it had P/T of 1) to put 2^^^9 Shapeshifters into play, and triggering 2^^^9^2 instances of the Pandemonium. Have all the instances target the Joraga Warcaller, each increasing the damage of the next. The first will put 2^2^^^9 (dont forget the 2^^^9 Furnaces) counters on the warcaller, the second 2^2^^^9*2^2^^^9 and so on 2^^^9^2 times ending in something like 2^2^^^9^2^^^9^2 (not sure on that, but it feels right. Also I have no idea how/if that translates to anything more than 2^^^9). (This step was just about the pumping to prep for Step 6, ignore the tokens)
Step 5:
Activate the ascensions by casting the second Artificial Evolution, doing nothing important with it.
Step 6:
6a:
Cast Fossil Find allowing it to be copied, and in groups of two retrieve the Mercy Killing and Artificial Evolution. For each group of 2, do steps 6b-6e. Once all copies of Fossil Find are exhausted proceed to Step 7.
6b:
Cast Mercy Killing, copying it for each Ascension, and targeting each one to a Doubling Season (there should be the same number of ascensions and doubling seasons, so all doubling seasons will be sacrificed). With them all on the stack, move to 6c.
6c:
Let one Mercy Killing resolve to create X tokens triggering all X Pandemoniums X times times. Once those Pandemonium triggers are on the stack, proceed to step 6d.
6d:
Now, this part feels a little shady, but since X is at least 2^^^9, and since 2^^^9 / 4 is still 2^^^9, we will use the Shapesharer to make X of these tokens into Pandemonium, X into Furnace of Rath, X into Doubling Season, and X into Pyromancer Ascension. This will allow each Mercy Killing resolution to create more tokens, produce more pandemonium triggers, have that damage muliplied by more furnaces, and ultimately put many more +1+1 counters on the Warcaller than the previous Mercy Killing. Once all the damage is done, go to step 6e.
Step 7:
Cast a Single Use Recursion spell, allowing it to be copied by the ascension. For each copy, do Step 6. Repeat for all 12 Single Use Recursion spells. Note: for Bound, sac the trasnguild courier and then return it and the fossil find, recasting the courier at each copy. For Praetor's Counsel, dont forget to cast the first Artificial evolution before the Fossil Find so the ascensions can all still get activated at each step. For the Ill-gotten Gains, dont forget to pull the next Gains on the last copy.
Step 8:
Fling the Warcaller.
I believe this is better than the last version (2^^^^^15 damage last time), as each mercy killing now involves a non-static increase in damage, tokens, and counters, between resolutions and should now be much better than Clone Legion thanks to the Shapesharer shenanigans.
...yup... I really hate the word infinite. Now just a clarification so i can be sure, if my deck has ANY path that could lead to infinite damage, I am required to take that path? Or in other words, I cant play the warcaller first to prevent this right?
Edit: Even so i suppose i could sacrifice to the mercy killing and then recur it when I do have the mana.
Yep, there must be a finite maximum to the amount of damage given in ANY play of the game (including randomness and cooperation of the opponent). Yeah, subtle infinite combos have been a pain in the ass for us too!
But infinite mana is allowed, so long as the damage is finite.
Step 1:
Starting with the Leyline in play, cast Draw my Deck cards, and then Generic Stuff cards... nothing interesting here. Note that creature type for conspiracy is Shapeshifters...
New Complicated Mana stuff that is not infinite (I really hope not...) Cast False Dawn, drawing the last card in the deck left by Enter the Infinite. Mana Echoes will massive amounts colorless mana on creatures ETB, which Skyshroud Elf will filter into white mana, which false dawn will let us spend as blue (see gatherer for new wording).
Step 4:
Cast Mercy Killing sacrificing 1 doubling season (and imagining it had P/T of 1) to put 2^^^9 Shapeshifters into play, and triggering 2^^^9^2 instances of the Pandemonium. Have all the instances target the Joraga Warcaller, each increasing the damage of the next. The first will put 2^2^^^9 (dont forget the 2^^^9 Furnaces) counters on the warcaller, the second 2^2^^^9*2^2^^^9 and so on 2^^^9^2 times ending in something like 2^2^^^9^2^^^9^2 (not sure on that, but it feels right. Also I have no idea how/if that translates to anything more than 2^^^9). (This step was just about the pumping to prep for Step 6, ignore the tokens)
Step 5:
Activate the ascensions by casting the second Artificial Evolution, doing nothing important with it.
Step 6:
a:
Cast Fossil Find allowing it to be copied, and in groups of two retrieve the Mercy Killing, and Artificial Evolution. For each group of 2, do steps 6b-6e. Once all copies of Fossil Find are exhausted proceed to Step 7.
b:
Cast Mercy Killing, copying it for each Ascension, and targeting each one to a Doubling Season (there should be the same number of ascensions and doubling seasons, so all doubling seasons will be sacrificed). With them all on the stack, move to 6c.
c:
Let one Mercy Killing resolve to create X tokens triggering all X Pandemoniums X times times. Once those Pandemonium triggers are on the stack, proceed to step 6d.
d:
Now, this part feels a little shady, but since X is at least 2^^^9, and since 2^^^9 / 4 is still 2^^^9, we will use the Shapesharer to make X of these tokens into Pandemonium, X into Furnace of Rath, X into Doubling Season, and X into Pyromancer Ascension. This will allow each Mercy Killing resolution to create more tokens, produce more pandemonium triggers, have that damage muliplied by more furnaces, and ultimately put many more +1+1 counters on the Warcaller than the previous Mercy Killing. Once all the damage is done, go to step 6e.
Step 7:
Cast a Single Use Recursion spell, allowing it to be copied by the ascension. For each copy, do Step 6. Repeat for all 12 Single Use Recursion spells. Note: for Bound, sac the tranguild courier and then return it and the fossil find, recasting the courier at each copy. For Preator's Counsel, dont forget to cast the first Artificial evolution before the Fossil Find so the ascensions can all still get activated at each step. For the Ill-gotten Gains, dont forget to pull the next Gains on the last copy.
Step 8:
Fling the Warcaller.
I think this is better than the last version, as each mercy killing now involves a non-static increase in damage, tokens, and counters, between resolutions and should now be much better than Clone Legion thanks to the Shapesharer shenanigans.
This is approximately equal to what you had before.
Let A be the number of Doubling Seasons, B be the number of Pandemoniums, C be the number of Furnace of Raths, and D be the power of Joraga Warcaller. Then casting Mercy Killing creates approximately D*2^A Shapeshifters, which triggers Pandemonium D*2^A*B times. Each Pandemonium trigger takes D to D*2^A*2^C. So after D*2^A*B triggers we take D to D*2^(ABCD*2^A). This is approximately 2^(cD) for a constant c, which is very slightly better than 2^D but worse than 2^2^D. So X copies of Mercy Killing take X to about 2^^X (certainly less than 2^^(2X)).
So, each copy of Mercy Killing takes X creatures to about 2^X creatures.
Each casting of Mercy Killing takes X Pyromancer Ascensions to 2^^X Pyromancer Ascensions.
Each casting of Fossil Find takes X to 2^^^X.
Each casting of an exile recursion spell takes X to 2^^^^X.
As before, after the first casting of Fossil Find you will have more than 2^^^2^^^9 > 2^^^^4 = 2^^^^^3 creatures. So after 12 exile recursion spells that increases to between 2^^^^^15 and 2^^^^^16 damage, or the same range as before.
Do the obvious, playing Consecrated Sphinx and Selvala's Enforcer to draw three cards. Draw Leyline of Anticipation, Dual Nature, and Changeling Berserker. Play them in order. Champion Consecrated Sphinx with Changeling Berserker. A token of Changeling Berserker comes onto the battlefield; champion the original Changeling with it. This brings Consecrated Sphinx back onto the battlefield, getting a token copy as well. The Changeling token gets exiled, bringing the original Changeling back onto the battlefield. Champion Selvala's Enforcer with the Changeling, use the token copy of Changeling to Champion the original, and Selvala's Enforcer comes back onto the battlefield getting a draw trigger and a Dual Nature trigger. Resolve the Dual Nature trigger first, getting a Selvala token and another draw trigger. Resolve the latter draw trigger, getting two Sphinx triggers, so that we end up drawing five cards. (and the token of Selvala's Enforcer gets a +1/+1 counter put on it)
Which five cards should we draw? I would like to draw Cowardice and Opalescence, then somehow start targeting the Dual Nature so that we can bounce and replay it, getting lots more Dual Natures, and thus get more Consecrated Sphinxes. Korozda Gorgon looks good as a targeter, except for the two mana cost. Perhaps Gleeful Sabotage, followed by Snapcaster Mage?
Okay, how about: draw Cowardice, Opalescence, Gleeful Sabotage, Horizon Chimera, and Rend Spirit. Play Opalescence, Cowardice, and Horizon Chimera. Play Gleeful Sabotage and Conspire it. The two copies of the spell will each activate Cowardice. Use the first Cowardice trigger to Bounce Dual Nature. This will destroy all the Dual Nature tokens. In particular, it will destroy the token of Changeling Berserker, activating a return trigger for the original Changeling Beserker. Play Dual Nature, getting a token copy. Return the original Changeling Beserker back into play, getting a Champion trigger and two Dual Nature triggers. Do the usual shenanigans to create 3 of every creature except Selvala's Enforcer, because we don't want draw cards yet. End with Changeling Berserker token on the battlefield, Championing the original Changeling Berserker. Resolve another Cowardice trigger to bounce Dual Nature again, and before the Dual Nature token gets exiled, replay Dual Nature, getting two more Dual Nature tokens for four total. Next, cast Rend Spirit, targeting the Changeling Berserker token, which brings the original Changeling Berserker back into play. Do the usual shenanigans to create 5 of every creature, including Consecrated Sphinx. Save Selvala's Enforcer for last; the first draw trigger will trigger 5 Consecrated Sphinx, drawing 11 cards.
Hopefully, drawing those 11 will be enough to draw out the remaining 33 or so cards we need to draw on the fourth Selvala's Enforcer. This will get us to 10 -> ... -> 10 -> 1 -> 5 after the fourth Enforcer, so after the 53rd Enforcer we should reach 10 -> ... -> 10 -> 50 -> 5.
I think I figured out the Dual Nature problem. Here's take #3: (warning, long)
[...]
So, does this work?
You missed a line about bringing rust tick back from the graveyard, presumably right before casting Assembly worker that last time. Fixing that oversight this seems to work.
The only other card in the deck that might mess this up as far as I can see is March of the Machines. That needs to be around for the last Assembly worker layers in order to make copies of artifacts via championing. It can't be bounced before we are allowed to target enchantments, so in order to tap the Mimic Vats and Mirror of Fates we need to champion it momentarily. We can't create tokens of those artifacts with haste via mimic vat because we would not be able to return them from the graveyard.
It may just work out that the March of the Machines is always championed whenever we want to tap something. Lets start with the March of the Machine championend by a Changeling token that was not created by any of the Dual Natures currently on the battlefield. The first time that token would die we immediatly follow up with this:
< We can now bring back Changeling Berserker using a Bloodbond March trigger.
Champion the original Dual Nature, and let the various connected tokens die. >
We can stack triggers for that in such a way that a changeling tokens comes into play after the dual nature is championened and the connected tokens die, so we can have such a token championing the March of the Machines, and it is again hidden as it was before.
The same trigger stacking strategy can be used immediatly after the other three times such a token will die.
So yeah I think this really gets us another layer, great find
I haven't found any use for the Eldrazi. Maybe they can replace a stage in the 60 card deck, saving a card? There seems to be too much conflict between the stages, in particular with human vs nonblack paragons and black paragon vs possessed stuff. Since the whole point is to get all the color targeting in the human/tapped stage seems most likely to be replaced, but I don't see any good way to do it.
Yeah, I haven't been able to figure it out. The best I could manage was
but Enslaved Dwarf isn't allowed, and anyways it's just a tie.
I guess colorless only mana is a thing now, so we could actually have a colorless mana stage... but there doesn't seem to be any limited creature targeting using colorless mana.
It looks like in the Poison Arrow + Boon Reflection plan we could use Viashino Fangtail as the last stage creature to damage the opponent when wanted as that layer is limited by their life. That still seems to leave that version unable to get started.
Ah, good idea. With the two extra spaces we could add Pain Magnification and Repercussion, getting 19 layers total. But yeah, we have to figure out a way to get started. Perhaps replace Words of Wisdom with Memory Jar? Is seven more cards enough to get started?
Play the Assembly-Worker and counter it, getting Bloodbond March triggers, and bring it back to the battlefield.
Tap the Assembly-Worker token, getting a bunch of Psychic Battle triggers.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion and two Dual Nature triggers.
Champion the original Psychic Battle.
Let the two Changeling Berserker tokens be sacrificed.
Now, for each two Psychic Battle triggers of Assembly-Worker, we can do the following:
Resolve the topmost Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker back to your hand.
This triggers Champion, and Psychic Battle returns to the battlefield, creating two Dual Nature triggers.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion and two Dual Nature triggers.
Exile the original Dual Nature, exiling the token Dual Nature and all tokens created by those two Dual Natures.
Let the two Changeling Berserker tokens be sacrificed.
Put two Psychic Battle tokens onto the battlefield.
Resolve the next Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion trigger for Dual Nature.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, exiling the original Psychic Battle.
Let the two Changeling Beserker tokens be sacrificed.
The original Dual Nature returns to the battlefield, and creates a Dual Nature token.
This returns the game state back to what it was at the top of the loop, except that there are two more Psychic Battle tokens, and two fewer Psychic Battle triggers. So with 2X Psychic Battle triggers we can create 2X more Psychic Battle tokens. Note that we can do this process with Psychic Battle replace by any other creature. In particular, we will need to copy Mimic Vat, Mirror of Fate, and Bloodbond March, but relatively infrequently, so we will still be able to nearly double the number of Psychic Battle tokens each loop.
(I was hoping to create a more efficient process than the above... We can exile both Dual Nature and Psychic Battle using the original Changeling Berserker and a token copy, but then when we bounce the original Changeling Berserker, Dual Nature won't be around to cause the Changelnig Berserker token to be exiled. We can exile the token with some shenanigans after playing the original Changeling Berserker, but we need to respond to the return of Psychic Battle with playing Changeling Berserker to make the Psychic Battle tokens immune to Dual Nature removal, and Psychic Battle won't come back until after we play Changeling Berserker.)
Repeat the above process until we are down to either two or three Psychic Battle triggers, except that on the last pass through the process, instead of ending with
Resolve the next Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion trigger for Dual Nature.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, exiling the original Psychic Battle.
Let the two Changeling Beserker tokens be sacrificed.
The original Dual Nature returns to the battlefield, and creates a Dual Nature token.
we end with
Resolve the next Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion trigger for Dual Nature.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, exiling the original March of the Machines.
Put a token copy of Changeling Berserker onto the battlefield, exiling the original Balustrade Spy.
Put a token copy of Changeling Berserker onto the battlefield and sacrifice it.
The original Dual Nature returns to the battlefield, and creates a Dual Nature token.
If we have three Psychic Battle triggers left, use one to bounce the original Changeling Berserker, then cast it again and exile the same three creatures.
Now that we have two Psychic Battle triggers left, we perform the following:
Resolve the second to last Psychic Battle trigger to target the original Assembly-Worker, destroying it.
This triggers Mimic Vats; imprint Assembly-Worker on a Mimic Vat, exiling it.
Tap the Mimic Vat to create an Assembly-Worker token copy.
Tap Mirror of Fate to put Assembly-Worker back into the library.
Resolve the last Psychic Battle trigger to target the original Changeling and bounce it back to your hand, getting Champion and Dual Nature triggers.
The token copy of Changeling Beserker gets exiled, and Balustrade Spy and March of the Machines return to the battlefield.
Balustrade Spy's ETB trigger goes off, and Assembly-Worker is put into the graveyard.
A Bloodbond March trigger for Assembly-Worker resolves and brings back Assembly-Worker back to the battlefield.
This brings the game state back to where we were after the previous Bloodbond March trigger brought back Assembly-Worker, except there is one fewer Bloodbond March trigger and nearly double the number of Psychic Battle tokens. Note that we will need to create two more Mimic Vats and two more Mirror of Fates every other loop, and very occasionally make copies of other creatures for higher stages, but this is no problem.
Wait a minute, I think we've been missing something completely obvious. Why aren't we using Chrome Mox on Changeling Berserker?
I think back when I introduced Changeling Berserker, for some reason I thought that was too early for Chrome Mox, but now I don't think it is. We can Champion Chrome Mox with the Berserker, then when we bounce the Berserker, Chrome Mox comes back into play, and Changeling Berserker is now conveniently in our hand to be imprinted. So we can just add some card that spends a red mana (or a green mana, if we switch to Changeling Titan) to bounce a particular creature type that we don't use higher up. Ali Baba or Balthor the Stout will do.
Going through the sequence, just to make sure:
Say we have Changeling Berserker in our hand, and at least one red mana.
Cast and counter the Berserker, putting Bloodbond March triggers on the stack, and bring the Beserker back onto the battlefield with one Bloodbond March trigger.
Spend the red mana to activate Ali Baba, putting a bunch of Psychic Battle triggers on the stack.
Use most of those triggers to create a bunch of new Psychic Battle tokens (and two Mirror of Fate tokens if we've run out of available untapped Mirror of Fates), until we reach the last one.
Before resolving the last Psychic Battle trigger, cast Changeling Berserker, putting two token copies on the battlefield.
Use the two Champion triggers of the token copies to exile Balustrade Spy and March of the Machines.
Use the Champion trigger for the original Changeling Berserker to exile Chrome Mox.
Resolve the last Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker back to your hand. This triggers a Champion trigger and Dual Nature triggers for the two token copies of Changeling Berserker.
Resolve the Champion trigger first, bringing Chrome Mox back to the battlefield, triggering Imprint.
Imprint the Changeling Berserker on the Chrome Mox, putting it in the exile zone.
Tap the Chrome Mox to generate one red mana.
Use Mirror of Fate to put Changeling Berserker into your library.
Resolve the Dual Nature triggers, destroying the two token copies of Changeling Berserker. This triggers Champion twice.
The Champion triggers resolve, putting Balustrade Spy and March of the Machines back into play.
Balustrade Spy's ETB trigger resolves, putting Changeling Beserker into your graveyard.
Resolve a Bloodbond March trigger for Changeling Berserker, putting it back onto the battlefield.
Okay, so it looks like there's no problem. 26 stages!
Getting 10 -> ... -> 10 -> X -> 4 with one more 10 than before and the X depending on how many cards we can get ahead of the opponent.
This also beats the sideboard deck until that one is adapted to use Dual Nature and the extra changeling stage. That means no more Sorcery/Instant recursion for that one, unless it is better to modify the stages to work without Snapcaster Mage.
Edit: From back when we had one less stage with the same final layer setup:
With Merrow Witsniper, we have four Merfolk, of which we can fetch three, and three sorceries, of which we can mill two. We also have to lose a card through imprinting Chrome Mox from the opening hand, but I think we can get by with just one. So we have a four card advantage on the opponent, and thus we are able to access the full combo from the fifth to last card of the opponent. Even from the seventh to last card though, we are able to access all but one stage (leaving the two ninjas for last, for example) with plenty of +1/+1 counters for Korozda Gorgon, so before the fifth to last card, we should be able to reach 10 -> ... -> 1 -> 4, and then the last five cards bump the second to last number up one at a time, so the final lower bound is 10 -> ... -> 6 -> 4..
Now we have replaced the Merrow Witsniper, but the rest of the details are the same, so 3 cards ahead with a final damage of ... -> 10 -> 5 -> 4.
Yup, 10 -> ... -> 5 -> 4 looks correct. (We actually have four Merfolk, but we can only retrieve two of them.) Is this the best we can do? Perhaps increasing the rightmost number is too hard, so perhaps we could try increasing the second to last number. One way to do that would be to add a card that speeds up the number of cards that we have access to, like Consecrated Sphinx, or Chaos Warp if that were allowable. If we add Consecrated Sphinx, we need to find two other cards to connect with Viashino Fangtail that adds two layers. Does the first card have to add zero? If so, finding another card that adds two layers might be tough.
Otherwise, we could look for other ways to retrieve cards from the deck. That looks tough too, not a lot of freedom in the deck other than the color transitions.
The deck with 15 card sideboard looks interesting. The first question is, can we get rid of Snapcaster Mage at all? With Changeling Berserker, we have to get rid of the Archetype of Aggression / Izzet Guildmage stage. But that means we need some other way to transition from artifacts to something else, which is where I think we ran into problem before. Creatures like Batterhorn won't work because the can be popped in and out of exile with Changeling Berserker. So we need something that taps to target artifacts. There are a few choices, like Goblin Welder, Glissa Sunseeker, and Rootwater Diver, but they all mess with stages further on down, so we would have to make some major changes. Or, we could switch from Changeling Berserker to Changeling Titan, and keep the Archetype of Aggression stage. But then we would need to transition from red to black, and I don't see a good way of doing that either.
If we can't get rid of Snapcaster Mage, we still can get quite a few layers. In the pre-Iijil deck, we managed to get 18 layers at the end, but this time we can't use the Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient trick or Doubling Season, so that drops it down considerably. Here's what I got:
Using Endbringer as the last creature of the stages might help to get access to our deck. The layers then obviously need to be disconnected from us drawing cards, but other than that I think it is save to allow a card draw via token tap there.
Korozda Gorgon, Archangel of Thune, Sangromancer + Noggle Ransacker. The Ransacker would effectively draw us cards like the enforcer did to get started. After that it provides opponent discards. It can be used 26 times, so the question is how soon we can produce enough Endbringer tokens to draw the deck and make lots of sangromancers.
Sangromancer can also be used as the black vampire, so there is some flexibility in the mill card again. Is Merrow Witsniper useable like Balustrade Spy or is the one card at time mill a problem in that complicated rust tick stage?
In that sideboard deck I only count to ... -> 3 -> 10. Do you have one activation of Night Dealings as producing one Flame Elemental token or many?
Edit: Noggle Ransacker doesn't work for the start. Most of our cards get stuck in the graveyard once we discard them without a Bloodbond March trigger ready. So for the third Ransacker trigger I already ran out of safe discard options >_<
Using Endbringer as the last creature of the stages might help to get access to our deck. The layers then obviously need to be disconnected from us drawing cards, but other than that I think it is save to allow a card draw via token tap there.
Korozda Gorgon, Archangel of Thune, Sangromancer + Noggle Ransacker. The Ransacker would effectively draw us cards like the enforcer did to get started. After that it provides opponent discards. It can be used 26 times, so the question is how soon we can produce enough Endbringer tokens to draw the deck and make lots of sangromancers.
Sangromancer can also be used as the black vampire, so there is some flexibility in the mill card again. Is Merrow Witsniper useable like Balustrade Spy or is the one card at time mill a problem in that complicated rust tick stage?
Nice idea!
The Rust Tick stage is complicated if we really want to optimize it, but if we don't care too much we can now just have a stash of red mana available to bounce Changeling Berserker at will, since red mana will be cheap enough by that point. The problematic stage is probably the Assembly-Worker stage. I'll investigate that shortly.
In that sideboard deck I only count to ... -> 3 -> 10. Do you have one activation of Night Dealings as producing one Flame Elemental token or many?
Night Dealings only produces one Flame Elemental token per activation. But Repercussion gets counted twice, once for Ion Storm and once for Five-Alarm Fire.
Edit: Noggle Ransacker doesn't work for the start. Most of our cards get stuck in the graveyard once we discard them without a Bloodbond March trigger ready. So for the third Ransacker trigger I already ran out of safe discard options >_<
Ugh, that's a shame. Still, the approach looks promising. Wheel of Fortune can allow us to get more cards without discarding, although we can only cast it seven times, so if it's an improvement it's not by much. The question is, with seven cards (plus the one that we can cast beforehand), is it enough to get 2R to cast it again from the graveyard?
Night Dealings only produces one Flame Elemental token per activation. But Repercussion gets counted twice, once for Ion Storm and once for Five-Alarm Fire.
Ah right, that is the layer I missed. You were correct.
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The offensive clones have been removed in this version, and I really hope that is the last infinite combo.
1 Black Lotus
1 Show and Tell
1 Omniscience
1 Enter the Infinite
1 Opalescence
1 Ink-treader Nephilim
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Conspiracy
1 Mirror Gallery
1 Altar of Dementia
1 Vigor
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Insurrection
1 Mercy Killing
1 Clone Legion
1 Fossil Find
1 Death's Presence
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Pyromancer Ascension
1 Living Inferno
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Pandemonium
2 Cytoshape
4 Dual Nature
4 Copy Enchantment
Doubling Seasons: 12
4 Doubling Season
4 Primal Vigor
4 Parallel Lives
Single Use Recursion: 12
4 Bound // Determined
4 Praetor's Counsel
4 Ill-gotten Gains
Filler: 4
4 Parallel Evolution
Inital Hand:
Black Lotus, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Enter the Infinite, and 3 other random cards.
Step One:
Cast Black Lotus, Show and Tell, Omniscience Enter the Infinite in that order to draw your deck, putting one Praetor's Counsel back. Then cast all the cards that we only care about having 1 of, namely: Opalescence, Vedalken Orrery, Mirror Gallery, Ink-treader Nephilim, Vigor, Joraga Warcaller, and Altar of Dementia. Finally cast Conspiracy naming elf as the creature type.
Step Two:
Cast a Dual Nature and then a Doubling Season. Repeat 7 more times, with the 4 Copy Enchantments as Dual Natures and the 4 Primal Vigors as Doubling Seasons. Then cast the 4 Parallel Lives.
Step Three:
Cast Living Inferno, Furnace of Rath, Pandemonium, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Death's Presence, and Pyromancer Ascension allowing them all to be copied many times. Now that we are done with non-token permanents, cast Cytoshape targeting the Ink-treader Nephilim, changing all the Dual Natures, Primal Vigor, and Parallel Lives into Doubling Seasons, and leaving everything else as they are. Then cast the 4 Parallel Evolutions followed by another Cytoshape leaving everything as it is. This will activate all the Ascensions.
Step Four:
Cast Insurrection allowing it to be copied by the Ascensions. Let 1 resolve to give our creatures haste and continue to Step Five.
Step Five:
Tap all the Kiki-Jikis targeting Doubling Season. For each set of Doubling Seasons coming into play, they trigger all the Pandemoniums. For each those triggers, target the Joraga Warcaller, letting the damage be multiplied by all the Furnace of Raths. As they individually resolve, the damage will be converted into +1 counters on the Warcaller thanks to Vigor, pumping all the creatures thanks to Conspiracy, and increasing the next ammount of damage. Let all the triggers resolve and move on to Step Six.
Step Six:
Now tap all the Living Infernos targeting the Joraga Warcaller again. As they resolve they will again pump each other, each dealing increasing damage.
Step Seven:
While Insurrections are on the stack, let 1 resolve to give all creatures haste, and then repeate steps Five and Six.
Step Seven:
Cast Clone Legion copying it for each Ascension. For each of the new Pandemonium triggers target the Joraga Warcaller (we will target it every time we do noncombat damage). This will inrease our count of Doubling Season, Living Inferno, Furnace of Rath, Pandemonium, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Death's Presence, and Pyromancer Ascension (ignore the rest they dont matter).
Step Eight:
Cast Mercy Killing and copy it for all the active Pyromancer Ascensions (which should be a fraction of the current number, although still a large number), each targeting a different Doubling Season. As they individually resolve, use the damage from the Pandemonium like before, and then since a creature died, all the Death's Presence tigger putting many +1 counters onto the Joraga Warcaller, increasing the number of tokens made by the next Mercy Killing resolution. Let all the triggers resolve and move to Step Nine.
Step Nine:
Cast Fossil Find copying it for each Ascension (The first time through this step, they wont all be active, but every other time they all will be).
Step Ten:
Let 4 resolve to randomly Fossil Find (and in a non-targeted manner) return Clone Legion, Mercy Killing, Insurrection, and 1 of the Cytoshapes. With the remaining Fossil Finds on the stack proceed to the next step.
Step Eleven:
Now cast Cytoshape, activating all the new Ascensions, and changing the large number of boring elf tokens into into Doubling Season. This should put the number of Doubling seasons to an order greater than the number of Ascensions and other cards which will be important when we revisit Step Eight.
Step Twelve:
Repeat Steps Four through Seven. Then allow an additional Fossil Find to resolve getting another Cytoshape and then cast that Cytoshape, using it to just activate the new Ascensions. Then repeat Step Eight copying Mercy Killing for all the Ascensions this time, since there are now always many more Doubling Seasons than Ascensions.
Step Thirteen:
While there are Fossil Finds on the stack, repeat Steps Eleven and Twelve. Each cycle should use up 5 Fossil Finds.
Step Fourteen:
Cast Bound // Determined, copying it for each Ascension. For each copy, sacrifice the Ink-treader Nephilim to bring back the Nephilim and the Fossil Find (ignore the other two cards we could recur). Then Repeat Steps Nine through Thirteen, and then move on to the next copy of Bound // Determined.
Step Fifteen:
Repeat Step Fourteen three times. Then sacrifice on token (doesn't matter which) to Altar of Dementia to mill ourselves, giving access to the last Praetor's Counsel in our library.
Step Sixteen:
Cast Praetor's Counsel, copying it for each Ascension. Each copy will return the whole graveyard, so we need to cast Cytoshape changhing nothing. This will allow the later Cytoshapes to still activate the Ascensions. Then Repeat Steps Nine through Thirteen, and then move on to the next copy of Praetor's Counsel.
Step Seventeen:
Repeat Step Sixteen three times.
Step Eighteen:
Cast Ill-gotten Gains, copying it for each Ascension. For every copy but the very last, only return the Fossil Find. Then Repeat Steps Nine through Thirteen, and then move on to the next copy of Ill-gotten Gains. On the last copy of Ill-gotten Gains, return both the Fossil Find and another Ill-gotten Gains if there is one.
Step Nineteen:
Repeat Step Eighteen three times.
Step Twenty:
Start sacrificing things to the Altar of Dementia to mill the opponent, and more importantly to activate the Death's Presence putting an increasing number of counters on the Joraga Warcaller. Start with all the Ascensions, then the Kiki-Jikis, then the Living Infernos, then the Furnace of Raths, then all but one of the Death's Presences, followed by all the Doubling Seasons.
Step Twentyone:
Enter combat, declare the Joraga Warcaller attacking, they dont block and we win.
How does this perform?
Each Dual Nature / Doubling season alternation takes X to 2^^X. After eight repetitions produces between 2^^^9 and 2^^^10 copies of each card, including Doubling Season and Pyromancer Ascension.
For Clone Legion, each copy of Clone Legion takes X Doubling Seasons to X*2^X Doubling Seasons, and with X activated Pyromancer Ascensions there are 2^^X Doubling Seasons and 2^^X unactivated Pyromancer Ascensions created.
Each copy of Fossil Find takes X Pyromancer Ascensions to 2^^X, so each casting takes X to 2^^^X. In particular, after the first Fossil Find we have between 2^^^2^^^9 and 2^^^2^^^10 Pyromancer Ascensions.
Each copy of Bound // Determined takes X Pyromancer Ascensions to 2^^^X, so each casting takes X to 2^^^^X. After the first we have about 2^^^^2^^^2^^^9 Pyromancer Ascensions, which is between 2^^^^^4 and 2^^^^^5. After 11 more similar spells, that bumps the number of creatures up to between 2^^^^^15 and 2^^^^^16.
So the final damage is between 2^^^^^15 and 2^^^^^16.
I do have a (long) question though. Your count seems to be solely based off of the number of creatures in play. My understanding was that while the creatures in play are notable, the real damage was in the combo between the Joraga Warcaller, Furnace of Rath, and Pandemonium, of which both enchantments should be at the same number as the Pyromancer Ascensions. This combo would lead the incoming creatures to pump up the Warcaller at a much much faster rate than the number of incoming creatures, as each creature causes a trigger, and each trigger should take the Warcaller from p/t of X to (x*2^y)*x*y where y is the number of Furnaces, Pandemoniums, and Ascensions. Then each casting of mercy killing should create a far larger number of tokens then the Clone Legion does, all of which increase the number of tokens from the next Mercy Killing. Finally, in the end those elf tokens all become Doubling Seasons thanks to Cytoshape.
Was my understanding wrong?
Edit: The math is wrong. This should be more accurate: (X*2^W)*XY*(2^Z) where W is the furnaces, Y is the pandemoniums, and Z is the doubling seasons.
Insurrection does slightly better than Clone Legion, but not enough to make a difference in the estimate. Each time a Kiki-Jiki taps to copy a Doubling Season, it takes X to 2^X. So each copy of Insurrection takes X Kiki-Jikis to 2^^X Doubling Seasons. If we have Y Pyromancer Ascensions, we take X to 2^^(XY). X and Y will get increased to the same number each time Clone Legion is cast, so we basically iterate the function X to 2^^(X^2) Y times. But this is only slightly better than iterating X to 2^^X Y times; we get more than 2^^^Y, but less than 2^^^(Y+1), as the effect of Y squarings is less than the effect of one 2^^X. So Insurrection and Clone Legion wind up doing about the same.
After the last part, the power of Joraga Warcaller winds up being somewhat higher than the number of creatures we get after all the exile spells, but not by a large margin. If X is the power of Joraga, Y is the number of Doubling Seasons, and Z is the number of creatures, we increase X to X * 2^Y * Z, which is not noticeably higher when we are dealing with numbers of this size; it won't make a dent in 2^^^^^15.
1x Black Lotus
1x Show and Tell
1x Omniscience
1x Leyline of Anticipation
1x Possibility storm
1x Opalescence
1x Mind's Desire
1x Wheel of Sun and Moon
1x Doubling Season
1x Dual Nature
1x Copy Enchantment
1x Scarland Thrinax
1x Wirewood Channeler
1x Mark of Mutiny
1x Xenograft
1x Precursor Golem
1x Quicksilver Gargantuan
1x Erebos, God of the Dead
1x Vassal's Duty
1x Cowardice
1x Psychic Battle
1x Skirge Familiar
Keep Going
1x Boon Reflection
1x Bargain
Step 1: Black Lotus, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Possibility Storm. Storm count 4.
Step 2: Cast an enchantment, let's say Doubling Season, Possibility Storm into Leyline of Anticipation. Cast another enchantment, Dual Nature, flip into Wheel of Sun and Moon targetting ourselves. Storm count 8.
Step 3: Cast Mind's Desire. Storm triggers, the Possibility Storm triggers. We'll just decline to cast whatever sorcery Possibility Storm hits, but Mind's Desire is back in the deck, so the storm trigger resolves making 8 copies of Mind's Desire. The first one resolves and we shuffle up and hit Mind's Desire, which is now the 10th spell cast.
Step 4: Cast the 10 things that flip off of Mind's Desire before any more storm copies resolve. Let's say it's Opalescence, then Dual Nature (making a copy), then Doubling Season (actually 11 of them), then Quicksilver Gargantuan (making 2^11 Doubling Seasons then 2^(2^11) Dual Natures). Then we cast Copy Enchantment and the Dual Natures do their thing and we get all doubling seasons except the last two Dual Nature triggers which get us more Dual Natures and more Possibility Storms. Then we get a lot of copies of any other 6 things we play, let's say Precursor Golem, Scarland Thrinax, Vassal's Duty, Cowardice, and Psychic Battle. Storm count 20.
Step 5: Mind's Desire has now resolved, but thanks to Wheel of Sun and Moon, it's back in the library. We shuffle up for the next Mind's Desire copy and hit Mind's Desire! Making 21 more Mind's Desires to resolve. That hits everything left I have listed. We can drop in the remaining cards we want now: Skirge Familiar, Xenograft (naming every creature type and then some), Erebos, and Wirewood Channeler. That's everything except Mark of Mutiny, Boon Reflection, and Bargain that we don't want just yet, but it puts storm to 24, so the next's Mind's Desire cast out of the library is big enough to eat the whole library, which is what we want, and once the real card resolves, it gets tucked back in as the only card in the library.
Step 6: There are 5 remaining Mind's Desire copies waiting to resolve, but we have Leyline so we're gonna act immediately. We cast Mark of Mutiny targeting Cowardice. Triggers abound from all the Precursor Golems, Cowardice, and all the Psychic Battles. We use Psychic Battles and Cowardice together to bounce Quicksilver Gargantuan, which we cast into one Possibility Storm and retrieve with another, and when it enters we'll get a new pile of Dual Nature triggers to make all sorts of nonsense before we sacrifice the Gargantuan to be recast by the next Possibility Storm until we run out of those triggers. Then for every remaining Psychic Battle trigger, we bounce the Gargantuan to cast it out, to have it hit for every Possibility Storm and Dual Nature compounding each time. Then Cowardice can finally bounce itself to hand so that we don't accidentally evacuate ourselves.
Step 7: Now the Precursor triggers can resolve. Because a Xenograft makes everything a golem, one Mark of Mutiny turns into an Insurrection, except better because it happens for every precursor and it makes +1/+1 counters that may or may not actually be worth anything. (I really really really wanted to use Twinflame here, but unfortunately the haste it grants can be copied by a Gargantuan and that would cause an easy infinite, so I had to settle for giving the existing things haste and missing out on factoring in Doubling Seasons a couple more times.) Since this is boring old Mark of Mutiny instead of Twinflame, we may as well let all of the copies from one Precursor trigger resolve at once. That gives all our creatures haste, most relevantly the Wirewood Channelers. Tap 1: because of a Xenograft naming elf, we get mana equal to the total number of creatures in play.
Step 8: The Ackermann part. Play Cowardice back out (sacrifice Copy Enchantment repeatedly to take advantage of all those tasty Possibility Storm triggers). 1 mana into Vassal's Duty targets Erebos (and only ever Erebos) which bounces it to hand (with Psychic Battle Triggers still hanging around) where it can be recast to get Possibility Storm triggers or discarded to Skirge Familiar to get the mana back. The profitable part of this is every time Erebos is cast from hand, the Possibility Storm that eats it and cannot cast it back will be casting a sacrificed Quicksilver Gargantuan instead. I'm certain if I've got something wrong here, the kind experts will correct me.
Now we back up. One tapping of Wirewood Channeler has given us nearly indescribable amounts of tokens which means the next Channeler taps for that amount of mana and makes a nice little feedback loop until we finally run out of untapped Channelers, and we use our last Dual Nature Trigger on our last Gargantuan from our last Possibility Storm to make a lovely new batch of Channelers. Also, we want Erebos in hand at the end, and as a last point of business, we need to sacrifice Cowardice to get it off the battlefield before letting the next Precursor Golem trigger resolve. Then once everything is untapped, hasty, and gigantic again, we start the Ackermann function again by casting Erebos from hand and fishing both it and Cowardice out of the library. We continue doing this until every Precursor Golem trigger has resolved and we've used up all the mana making stupid amounts of stupid. At this point, the board is silly, but that stack is suddenly very simple: 5 remaining storm copies of Mind's Desire. We move to resolve one of them, shuffle up our two card library and flip over Mind's Desire! (Who knew!?)
So, Mind's Desire storms, and assuming everything scales so quickly that each step dwarfs everything before it, our storm count is roughly the amount of Possibility Storms we had in play the last time we cast Erebos from hand. Which is a big number. And then every individual Mind's Desire is going to hit Mark of Mutiny, each of which triggers all the Precursor Golems and all the Psychic Battles making all the creatures that feed all the Wirewood Channelers etc. After going through the whole process 5 times, we finally have the stack clear, but at the end of it, we make sure we have all the permanents in play and 2 black mana floating when the real Mark of Mutiny gets countered for not having a target and is put on the bottom of the library beneath the only other card, Mind's Desire. Then we can spend two mana and two life to Erebos, and draw that Mind's Desire. When we cast it from hand, we trigger storm and all the Possibility Storms. The first Possibility Storm casts Mark of Mutiny, but then every other Possibility Storm and every storm copy of Mind's Desire from hand can hit Mind's Desire, all of which storm themselves, each greater than the last. And we do that whole draw and cast process 9 times. At that point, we cast Boon Reflection which becomes a lot of Boon Reflections, and then we cast Bargain which gains us 7 * 2^ whatever number of Boon Reflections that is life to be used for redrawing Mind's Desire, and that whole process can be used 53 times before the opponent runs out of cards to draw. There are plenty of discussed ways to draw that out further, but whatever, good enough for now.
The source of damage at the end is just moving to combat and swinging out after the last pile of Mark of Mutiny untaps everything and gives them haste.
So, what have I done wrong, and if nothing, how firmly in second place am I?
Okay, each Wirewood Channeler fuels an Ackermann combo, so from X creatures we generate about 10 -> 10 -> X creatures. A Dual Nature trigger of Quicksilver Gargantuan will generate more Wirewood Channelers, but they won't have haste, so unless I'm mistaken we need to have Mark of Mutiny give all the Wirewood Channelers haste to continue the combo. So:
Each copy of Mark of Mutiny will give another Wirewood Channeler haste, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X.
Each Precursor Golem trigger for Mark of Mutiny will create a bunch of copies of Mark of Mutiny, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 2.
Each time Mark of Mutiny is cast, it will create a bunch of Precursor Golem triggers, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 3.
Each time Mind's Desire is cast using Possibility Storm, it creates a bunch of storm copies, each of which can cast Mark of Mutiny, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 4.
Each time Mind's Desire is cast from your hand, it triggers a bunch of Possibility Storms, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 5.
Each time Bargain is cast, you gain a bunch of life, allowing Mind's Desire to be drawn many times, taking X to 10 -> 10 -> X -> 6.
Before the first Bargain is cast, we can recast Mind's Desire 9 times, which gets us to between 10 -> 10 -> 10 -> 6 and 10 -> 10 -> 11 -> 6, which is between 10 -> 10 -> 1 -> 7 and 10 -> 10 -> 2 -> 7. Each Bargain pumps up the second to last number by 1, so after 53 Bargains we have a grand total of between 10 -> 10 -> 54 -> 7 and 10 -> 10 -> 55 -> 7 damage.
This is of course way larger than any deck with 0 stages, but way smaller than the 25-stage deck.
So say we are at the topmost layers of the Rust Tick stage. (i.e. there is one Rust Tick token left.) Say there is the original Dual Nature (and a token copy as well) on the battlefield.
Cast and counter Rust Tick, getting Bloodbond March triggers, and use one to bring Rust Tick onto the battlefield.
Do the same for Assembly-Worker and Changeling Berserker. We get Champion and Dual Nature triggers.
We resolve a Dual Nature trigger, getting a token of a Berserker, and Champion the original Dual Nature.
This results in destroying both the original Dual Nature and its copy.
At this point we tap the last remaining Rust Tick token, getting a bunch of Psychic Battle triggers.
Use two to target the original Rust Tick and the original Assembly-Worker, destroying them; we imprint both onto Mimic Vat.
Next, we resolve the Dual Nature destruction triggers, destroying both Berserker tokens.
This results in Dual Nature returning to the battlefield (and creating a copy).
Now we resolve the Champion trigger of the original Changeling Berserker, and we choose to sacrifice it.
This results in Mimic Vat and Dual Nature triggers; we resolve a Mimic Vat trigger first, imprinting Changeling Berserker on a Mimic Vat.
We now tap the Mimic Vats to create tokens of Changeling Berserker, Assembly-Worker, and Rust Tick, and then use Mirror of Fate to bring those cards back from exile into the library.
The creation of the Changeling Berserker token caused a Champion trigger, which we use to Champion Balustrade Spy.
Next, we resolve the Dual Nature destruction triggers on Changeling Berserker, destroying the Changeling Berserker token and bringing back Balustrade Spy, which causes the library to be emptied into the graveyard.
We can now bring back Changeling Berserker using a Bloodbond March trigger.
Champion the original Dual Nature, and let the various connected tokens die.
Let the rest of the Bloodbond March triggers for Changeling Berserker resolve without consequence.
Resolve a Bloodbond March trigger for Assembly-Worker, and return Assembly-Worker back to the battlefield.
Tap the newly created Assembly-Worker token, getting lots of Psychic Battle triggers.
Use the first PB trigger to destroy the original Assembly-Worker, triggering Mimic Vat.
Imprint Assembly-Worker on a Mimic Vat, tap the Mimic Vat to create a token, and use Mirror of Fate to put Assembly-Worker in the library.
Resolve another PB trigger to bounce Changeling Beserker back to your hand; this brings Dual Nature back onto the battlefield.
Cast Changeling Berserker, Championing Balustrade Spy.
Two new Changeling Berserker tokens enter the battlefield; use one to Champion the original Changeling Berserker, putting it into exile and returning Balustrade Spy onto the battlefield.
Dual Nature then destroys the Changeling Beserker tokens, bringing Changeling Beserker back onto the battlefield.
Champion Dual Nature and let the associated tokens die.
Resolve another PB trigger for Assembly-Worker, bouncing Changeling Berserker back to your hand and bringing Dual Nature back onto the battlefield.
Let the rest of the PB triggers resolve.
Use a Bloodbond March trigger for Assembly-Worker resolve, bringing Assembly-Worker back onto the battlefield.
Let the rest of the BM triggers for Assembly-Worker resolve.
Resolve a Bloodbond March trigger for Rust Tick to bring Rust Tick back onto the battlefield.
Cast Changeling Beserker again, getting Bloodbond March triggers, and put it back onto the battlefield.
Get a Changeling Berserker token, Championing Dual Nature.
Tap the Rust Tick token, getting lots of Psychic Battle triggers.
Resolve two to destroy the original Rust Tick and bounce the original Assembly-Worker.
Imprint Rust Tick on a Mimic Vat and create a token copy.
Resolve the destruction trigger for Dual Nature and destroy the Changeling Berserker tokens.
This brings Dual Nature back onto the battlefield, along with a token copy.
Resolve the Champion trigger on the original Changeling Berserker, sacrificing it.
Imprint Changeling Berserker on a Mimic Vat and create a token copy, creating a Champion trigger.
Use Mirror of Fate to bring Rust Tick and Changeling Berserker from exile back into the library.
Resolve the Champion trigger, Championing Balustrade Spy.
Resolve the destruction trigger for Dual Nature, destroying the Changeling Beserker token and bringing back Balustrade Spy onto the battlefield. This puts Rust Tick and Changeling Beserker back into the graveyard.
Resolve a Bloodbond March trigger to bring Changeling Berserker back onto the battlefield. We get Champion and Dual Nature triggers.
Champion the original Dual Nature, and let the associated tokens die.
Cast and counter Assembly-Worker, getting Bloodbond March triggers, and bring it back onto the battefield.
Tap the newly created Assembly-Worker token, getting lots of Psychic Battle triggers.
Use the first PB trigger to destroy the original Assembly-Worker, triggering Mimic Vat.
Imprint Assembly-Worker on a Mimic Vat, tap the Mimic Vat to create a token, and use Mirror of Fate to put Assembly-Worker in the library.
Resolve another PB trigger to bounce Changeling Beserker back to your hand; this brings Dual Nature back onto the battlefield.
Cast Changeling Berserker, Championing Balustrade Spy.
Two new Changeling Berserker tokens enter the battlefield; use one to Champion the original Changeling Berserker, putting it into exile and returning Balustrade Spy onto the battlefield.
Dual Nature then destroys the Changeling Beserker tokens, bringing Changeling Beserker back onto the battlefield.
Champion Dual Nature and let the associated tokens die.
Resolve another PB trigger for Assembly-Worker, bouncing Changeling Berserker back to your hand and bringing Dual Nature back onto the battlefield.
Let the rest of the PB triggers resolve.
Let a Bloodbond March trigger for Assembly-Worker resolve, bringing Assembly-Worker back onto the battlefield.
We are now at our original situation after casting Rust Tick and Assembly-Worker, except that we have one more Assembly-Worker token and two fewer Bloodbond March triggers for Rust Tick (the number of Bloodbond March triggers for Assembly-Worker doesn't matter since we're only going to use two more.). So after X Bloodbond March triggers we generate X/2 Assembly-Worker tokens.
So, does this work?
1 Black Lotus
1 Show and Tell
1 Omniscience
1 Enter the Infinite
Boring Stuff: 8
1 Opalescence
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Conspiracy
1 Sol Ring
1 Gemstone Array
1 Shapesharer
1 Vigor
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Pandemonium
1 Pyromancer Ascension
1 Mercy Killing
1 Fossil Find
2 Artificial Evolution
1 Transguild Courier
Dual Natures: 8
4 Dual Nature
4 Copy Enchantment
4 Doubling Season
4 Primal Vigor
Single Use Recursion: 12
4 Bound // Determined
4 Praetor's Counsel
4 Ill-gotten Gains
Filler: 11
11 Wastes
Finisher: 1
1 Fling
Inital Hand:
Leyline of Anticipation, Black Lotus, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Enter the Infinite, and 3 other random cards.
Step 1:
Starting with the Leyline in play, cast Draw my Deck cards, and then Generic Stuff cards... nothing interesting here. Note that creature type for conspiracy is Shapeshifters...
Step 2:
Alternate casting Dual Nature and Doubling Season as mentioned before to get 2^^^9 Doubling seasons, then cast the Furnace of Rath, Pandemonium, and Pyromancer Ascension, bringing them all up to 2^^^9 copies.
Step 3:
Lets make that Joraga Warcaller useful by casting Artificial Evolution changing it to pump Shapeshifters instead of elves. Now we have need some mana, so lets make infinite mana by tapping Sol Ring to put 2^^^9 charge counters on Gemstone Array. If the array ever gets down to just 2 counters, remove both to put another on and get 2^(#Doubling Seasons) back. Then use 'some' of that infinite mana and the Shapesharer to change all Dual Natures to anything else in play so we can sacrifice stuff safely.
(Infinite mana is alright with the rules as long as it doesn't result in infinite damage, right?)
Step 4:
Cast Mercy Killing sacrificing 1 doubling season (and imagining it had P/T of 1) to put 2^^^9 Shapeshifters into play, and triggering 2^^^9^2 instances of the Pandemonium. Have all the instances target the Joraga Warcaller, each increasing the damage of the next. The first will put 2^2^^^9 (dont forget the 2^^^9 Furnaces) counters on the warcaller, the second 2^2^^^9*2^2^^^9 and so on 2^^^9^2 times ending in something like 2^2^^^9^2^^^9^2 (not sure on that, but it feels right. Also I have no idea how/if that translates to anything more than 2^^^9). (This step was just about the pumping to prep for Step 6, ignore the tokens)
Step 5:
Activate the ascensions by casting the second Artificial Evolution, doing nothing important with it.
Step 6:
6a:
Cast Fossil Find allowing it to be copied, and in groups of two retrieve the Mercy Killing and Artificial Evolution. For each group of 2, do steps 6b-6e. Once all copies of Fossil Find are exhausted proceed to Step 7.
6b:
Cast Mercy Killing, copying it for each Ascension, and targeting each one to a Doubling Season (there should be the same number of ascensions and doubling seasons, so all doubling seasons will be sacrificed). With them all on the stack, move to 6c.
6c:
Let one Mercy Killing resolve to create X tokens triggering all X Pandemoniums X times times. Once those Pandemonium triggers are on the stack, proceed to step 6d.
6d:
Now, this part feels a little shady, but since X is at least 2^^^9, and since 2^^^9 / 4 is still 2^^^9, we will use the Shapesharer to make X of these tokens into Pandemonium, X into Furnace of Rath, X into Doubling Season, and X into Pyromancer Ascension. This will allow each Mercy Killing resolution to create more tokens, produce more pandemonium triggers, have that damage muliplied by more furnaces, and ultimately put many more +1+1 counters on the Warcaller than the previous Mercy Killing. Once all the damage is done, go to step 6e.
6e:
Repeat 6b and 6c until all Mercy Killings are resolved. Then cast Artificial Evolution to activate all the new Ascenions.
Step 7:
Cast a Single Use Recursion spell, allowing it to be copied by the ascension. For each copy, do Step 6. Repeat for all 12 Single Use Recursion spells. Note: for Bound, sac the trasnguild courier and then return it and the fossil find, recasting the courier at each copy. For Praetor's Counsel, dont forget to cast the first Artificial evolution before the Fossil Find so the ascensions can all still get activated at each step. For the Ill-gotten Gains, dont forget to pull the next Gains on the last copy.
Step 8:
Fling the Warcaller.
I believe this is better than the last version (2^^^^^15 damage last time), as each mercy killing now involves a non-static increase in damage, tokens, and counters, between resolutions and should now be much better than Clone Legion thanks to the Shapesharer shenanigans.
Edit: Even so i suppose i could sacrifice to the mercy killing and then recur it when I do have the mana.
But infinite mana is allowed, so long as the damage is finite.
So I guess my new question is does anyone know of a good way to filter colorless mana into blue mana repeatably?
Edit: Think i have it... back in a bit.
1 Black Lotus
1 Show and Tell
1 Omniscience
1 Enter the Infinite
Boring Stuff: 11
1 Opalescence
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Conspiracy
1 Sol Ring
1 Shapesharer
1 Vigor
1 Joraga Warcaller
1 Parallel Thoughts
1 Skyshroud Elf
1 Mana Echoes
Interesting Stuff: 8
1 Furnace of Rath
1 Pandemonium
1 Pyromancer Ascension
1 Mercy Killing
1 Fossil Find
2 Artificial Evolution
1 Transguild Courier
4 Dual Nature
4 Copy Enchantment
Doubling Seasons: 8
4 Doubling Season
4 Primal Vigor
Single Use Recursion: 12
4 Bound // Determined
4 Praetor's Counsel
4 Ill-gotten Gains
Filler: 8
8 Wastes
Finisher: 1
1 Fling
Inital Hand:
Leyline of Anticipation, Black Lotus, Show and Tell, Omniscience, Enter the Infinite, and 3 other random cards.
Step 1:
Starting with the Leyline in play, cast Draw my Deck cards, and then Generic Stuff cards... nothing interesting here. Note that creature type for conspiracy is Shapeshifters...
Step 2:
Alternate casting Dual Nature and Doubling Season as mentioned before to get 2^^^9 Doubling seasons, then cast the Furnace of Rath, Pandemonium, and Pyromancer Ascension, bringing them all up to 2^^^9 copies.
Step 3:
Lets make that Joraga Warcaller useful by casting Artificial Evolution changing it to pump Shapeshifters instead of elves.
New Complicated Mana stuff that is not infinite (I really hope not...) Cast False Dawn, drawing the last card in the deck left by Enter the Infinite. Mana Echoes will massive amounts colorless mana on creatures ETB, which Skyshroud Elf will filter into white mana, which false dawn will let us spend as blue (see gatherer for new wording).
Step 4:
Cast Mercy Killing sacrificing 1 doubling season (and imagining it had P/T of 1) to put 2^^^9 Shapeshifters into play, and triggering 2^^^9^2 instances of the Pandemonium. Have all the instances target the Joraga Warcaller, each increasing the damage of the next. The first will put 2^2^^^9 (dont forget the 2^^^9 Furnaces) counters on the warcaller, the second 2^2^^^9*2^2^^^9 and so on 2^^^9^2 times ending in something like 2^2^^^9^2^^^9^2 (not sure on that, but it feels right. Also I have no idea how/if that translates to anything more than 2^^^9). (This step was just about the pumping to prep for Step 6, ignore the tokens)
Step 5:
Activate the ascensions by casting the second Artificial Evolution, doing nothing important with it.
Step 6:
a:
Cast Fossil Find allowing it to be copied, and in groups of two retrieve the Mercy Killing, and Artificial Evolution. For each group of 2, do steps 6b-6e. Once all copies of Fossil Find are exhausted proceed to Step 7.
b:
Cast Mercy Killing, copying it for each Ascension, and targeting each one to a Doubling Season (there should be the same number of ascensions and doubling seasons, so all doubling seasons will be sacrificed). With them all on the stack, move to 6c.
c:
Let one Mercy Killing resolve to create X tokens triggering all X Pandemoniums X times times. Once those Pandemonium triggers are on the stack, proceed to step 6d.
d:
Now, this part feels a little shady, but since X is at least 2^^^9, and since 2^^^9 / 4 is still 2^^^9, we will use the Shapesharer to make X of these tokens into Pandemonium, X into Furnace of Rath, X into Doubling Season, and X into Pyromancer Ascension. This will allow each Mercy Killing resolution to create more tokens, produce more pandemonium triggers, have that damage muliplied by more furnaces, and ultimately put many more +1+1 counters on the Warcaller than the previous Mercy Killing. Once all the damage is done, go to step 6e.
e:
Repeat 6b and 6c until all Mercy Killings are resolved. Then cast Artificial Evolution to activate all the new Ascenions.
Step 7:
Cast a Single Use Recursion spell, allowing it to be copied by the ascension. For each copy, do Step 6. Repeat for all 12 Single Use Recursion spells. Note: for Bound, sac the tranguild courier and then return it and the fossil find, recasting the courier at each copy. For Preator's Counsel, dont forget to cast the first Artificial evolution before the Fossil Find so the ascensions can all still get activated at each step. For the Ill-gotten Gains, dont forget to pull the next Gains on the last copy.
Step 8:
Fling the Warcaller.
I think this is better than the last version, as each mercy killing now involves a non-static increase in damage, tokens, and counters, between resolutions and should now be much better than Clone Legion thanks to the Shapesharer shenanigans.
Let A be the number of Doubling Seasons, B be the number of Pandemoniums, C be the number of Furnace of Raths, and D be the power of Joraga Warcaller. Then casting Mercy Killing creates approximately D*2^A Shapeshifters, which triggers Pandemonium D*2^A*B times. Each Pandemonium trigger takes D to D*2^A*2^C. So after D*2^A*B triggers we take D to D*2^(ABCD*2^A). This is approximately 2^(cD) for a constant c, which is very slightly better than 2^D but worse than 2^2^D. So X copies of Mercy Killing take X to about 2^^X (certainly less than 2^^(2X)).
So, each copy of Mercy Killing takes X creatures to about 2^X creatures.
Each casting of Mercy Killing takes X Pyromancer Ascensions to 2^^X Pyromancer Ascensions.
Each casting of Fossil Find takes X to 2^^^X.
Each casting of an exile recursion spell takes X to 2^^^^X.
As before, after the first casting of Fossil Find you will have more than 2^^^2^^^9 > 2^^^^4 = 2^^^^^3 creatures. So after 12 exile recursion spells that increases to between 2^^^^^15 and 2^^^^^16 damage, or the same range as before.
So, we start with
Mana Crypt
Chrome Mox
Possessed Aven
Show and Tell
Omniscience
Consecrated Sphinx
Selvala's Enforcer
Do the obvious, playing Consecrated Sphinx and Selvala's Enforcer to draw three cards. Draw Leyline of Anticipation, Dual Nature, and Changeling Berserker. Play them in order. Champion Consecrated Sphinx with Changeling Berserker. A token of Changeling Berserker comes onto the battlefield; champion the original Changeling with it. This brings Consecrated Sphinx back onto the battlefield, getting a token copy as well. The Changeling token gets exiled, bringing the original Changeling back onto the battlefield. Champion Selvala's Enforcer with the Changeling, use the token copy of Changeling to Champion the original, and Selvala's Enforcer comes back onto the battlefield getting a draw trigger and a Dual Nature trigger. Resolve the Dual Nature trigger first, getting a Selvala token and another draw trigger. Resolve the latter draw trigger, getting two Sphinx triggers, so that we end up drawing five cards. (and the token of Selvala's Enforcer gets a +1/+1 counter put on it)
Which five cards should we draw? I would like to draw Cowardice and Opalescence, then somehow start targeting the Dual Nature so that we can bounce and replay it, getting lots more Dual Natures, and thus get more Consecrated Sphinxes. Korozda Gorgon looks good as a targeter, except for the two mana cost. Perhaps Gleeful Sabotage, followed by Snapcaster Mage?
Okay, how about: draw Cowardice, Opalescence, Gleeful Sabotage, Horizon Chimera, and Rend Spirit. Play Opalescence, Cowardice, and Horizon Chimera. Play Gleeful Sabotage and Conspire it. The two copies of the spell will each activate Cowardice. Use the first Cowardice trigger to Bounce Dual Nature. This will destroy all the Dual Nature tokens. In particular, it will destroy the token of Changeling Berserker, activating a return trigger for the original Changeling Beserker. Play Dual Nature, getting a token copy. Return the original Changeling Beserker back into play, getting a Champion trigger and two Dual Nature triggers. Do the usual shenanigans to create 3 of every creature except Selvala's Enforcer, because we don't want draw cards yet. End with Changeling Berserker token on the battlefield, Championing the original Changeling Berserker. Resolve another Cowardice trigger to bounce Dual Nature again, and before the Dual Nature token gets exiled, replay Dual Nature, getting two more Dual Nature tokens for four total. Next, cast Rend Spirit, targeting the Changeling Berserker token, which brings the original Changeling Berserker back into play. Do the usual shenanigans to create 5 of every creature, including Consecrated Sphinx. Save Selvala's Enforcer for last; the first draw trigger will trigger 5 Consecrated Sphinx, drawing 11 cards.
Hopefully, drawing those 11 will be enough to draw out the remaining 33 or so cards we need to draw on the fourth Selvala's Enforcer. This will get us to 10 -> ... -> 10 -> 1 -> 5 after the fourth Enforcer, so after the 53rd Enforcer we should reach 10 -> ... -> 10 -> 50 -> 5.
Is this the best that we can do?
The only other card in the deck that might mess this up as far as I can see is March of the Machines. That needs to be around for the last Assembly worker layers in order to make copies of artifacts via championing. It can't be bounced before we are allowed to target enchantments, so in order to tap the Mimic Vats and Mirror of Fates we need to champion it momentarily. We can't create tokens of those artifacts with haste via mimic vat because we would not be able to return them from the graveyard.
It may just work out that the March of the Machines is always championed whenever we want to tap something. Lets start with the March of the Machine championend by a Changeling token that was not created by any of the Dual Natures currently on the battlefield. The first time that token would die we immediatly follow up with this:
< We can now bring back Changeling Berserker using a Bloodbond March trigger.
Champion the original Dual Nature, and let the various connected tokens die. >
We can stack triggers for that in such a way that a changeling tokens comes into play after the dual nature is championened and the connected tokens die, so we can have such a token championing the March of the Machines, and it is again hidden as it was before.
The same trigger stacking strategy can be used immediatly after the other three times such a token will die.
So yeah I think this really gets us another layer, great find
Yeah, I haven't been able to figure it out. The best I could manage was
35 Eastern Paladin
36 Frightshroud Courier
38 Enslaved Dwarf
39 Goblin Tunneler
41 Paragon of Fierce Defiance
42 Endbringer
but Enslaved Dwarf isn't allowed, and anyways it's just a tie.
I guess colorless only mana is a thing now, so we could actually have a colorless mana stage... but there doesn't seem to be any limited creature targeting using colorless mana.
Ah, good idea. With the two extra spaces we could add Pain Magnification and Repercussion, getting 19 layers total. But yeah, we have to figure out a way to get started. Perhaps replace Words of Wisdom with Memory Jar? Is seven more cards enough to get started?
2 Splinter Twin
3 Mana Crypt
4 Rust Tick
5 Archetype of Aggression
6 Gleeful Sabotage
7 Avarax
8 Krosan Groundshaker
9 Ghoultree
10 Black Poplar Shaman
11 Fellhide Brawler
12 Anaba Ancestor
13 Urgent Exorcism
14 Mindshrieker
15 Izzet Guildmage
16 Szadek, Lord of Secrets
17 Baron Sengir
18 Empress Galina
19 Merfolk Sovereign
20 Seahunter
21 Mercenary Informer
22 Boreal Griffin
23 Boeral Druid
24 Ohran Yeti
25 Everglove Courier
27 Ghosthelm Courier
28 Possessed Aven
29 Grassland Crusader
30 Possessed Nomad
31 Shauku's Minion
32 Centaur Archer
33 Maze Glider
34 Paragon of Eternal Wilds
35 Devout Chaplain
36 Royal Assassin
37 Goblin Tunnelers
38 Flamestick Courier
39 Dralnu's Crusade
40 Frightshroud Courier
41 Paragon of Open Graves
42 Viashino Fangtail
43 Chaos Warp
44 Firemind's Foresight
45 Supply // Demand
46 Stromgald Cabal
47 Poison Arrow
48 Sage's Knowledge
49 Psychic Trance
50 Night Dealings
51 Horizon Chimera
52 Memory Jar
53 Pain Magnification
54 Repercussion
56 Djinn Illuminatus
57 Donate
58 Boon Reflection
59 Mirrorworks
60 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
61 Crown of the Ages
62 Mimic Vat
63 Chrome Mox
64 Mirror Gallery
65 Invoke Prejudice
66 Cowardice
67 Horobi, Death's Wall
68 Psychic Battle
69 Omniscience
70 Leyline of Anticipation
71 Starfield of Nyx
72 Karn, Silver Golem
73 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
74 Mirror of Fate
75 Living Wish
[EDIT] Just to be sure, I decided to check the Assembly-Worker stage as well.
Start with Assembly-Worker and Changeling Berserker in hand, and an untapped Assembly-Worker token, Dual Nature, Psychic Battle, Mirror of Fate, ,Mimic Vat, and all the other needed support cards on the battlefield.
Play the Assembly-Worker and counter it, getting Bloodbond March triggers, and bring it back to the battlefield.
Tap the Assembly-Worker token, getting a bunch of Psychic Battle triggers.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion and two Dual Nature triggers.
Champion the original Psychic Battle.
Let the two Changeling Berserker tokens be sacrificed.
Now, for each two Psychic Battle triggers of Assembly-Worker, we can do the following:
Resolve the topmost Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker back to your hand.
This triggers Champion, and Psychic Battle returns to the battlefield, creating two Dual Nature triggers.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion and two Dual Nature triggers.
Exile the original Dual Nature, exiling the token Dual Nature and all tokens created by those two Dual Natures.
Let the two Changeling Berserker tokens be sacrificed.
Put two Psychic Battle tokens onto the battlefield.
Resolve the next Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion trigger for Dual Nature.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, exiling the original Psychic Battle.
Let the two Changeling Beserker tokens be sacrificed.
The original Dual Nature returns to the battlefield, and creates a Dual Nature token.
This returns the game state back to what it was at the top of the loop, except that there are two more Psychic Battle tokens, and two fewer Psychic Battle triggers. So with 2X Psychic Battle triggers we can create 2X more Psychic Battle tokens. Note that we can do this process with Psychic Battle replace by any other creature. In particular, we will need to copy Mimic Vat, Mirror of Fate, and Bloodbond March, but relatively infrequently, so we will still be able to nearly double the number of Psychic Battle tokens each loop.
(I was hoping to create a more efficient process than the above... We can exile both Dual Nature and Psychic Battle using the original Changeling Berserker and a token copy, but then when we bounce the original Changeling Berserker, Dual Nature won't be around to cause the Changelnig Berserker token to be exiled. We can exile the token with some shenanigans after playing the original Changeling Berserker, but we need to respond to the return of Psychic Battle with playing Changeling Berserker to make the Psychic Battle tokens immune to Dual Nature removal, and Psychic Battle won't come back until after we play Changeling Berserker.)
Repeat the above process until we are down to either two or three Psychic Battle triggers, except that on the last pass through the process, instead of ending with
Resolve the next Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion trigger for Dual Nature.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, exiling the original Psychic Battle.
Let the two Changeling Beserker tokens be sacrificed.
The original Dual Nature returns to the battlefield, and creates a Dual Nature token.
we end with
Resolve the next Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker, getting a Champion trigger for Dual Nature.
Cast the Changeling Berserker, exiling the original March of the Machines.
Put a token copy of Changeling Berserker onto the battlefield, exiling the original Balustrade Spy.
Put a token copy of Changeling Berserker onto the battlefield and sacrifice it.
The original Dual Nature returns to the battlefield, and creates a Dual Nature token.
If we have three Psychic Battle triggers left, use one to bounce the original Changeling Berserker, then cast it again and exile the same three creatures.
Now that we have two Psychic Battle triggers left, we perform the following:
Resolve the second to last Psychic Battle trigger to target the original Assembly-Worker, destroying it.
This triggers Mimic Vats; imprint Assembly-Worker on a Mimic Vat, exiling it.
Tap the Mimic Vat to create an Assembly-Worker token copy.
Tap Mirror of Fate to put Assembly-Worker back into the library.
Resolve the last Psychic Battle trigger to target the original Changeling and bounce it back to your hand, getting Champion and Dual Nature triggers.
The token copy of Changeling Beserker gets exiled, and Balustrade Spy and March of the Machines return to the battlefield.
Balustrade Spy's ETB trigger goes off, and Assembly-Worker is put into the graveyard.
A Bloodbond March trigger for Assembly-Worker resolves and brings back Assembly-Worker back to the battlefield.
This brings the game state back to where we were after the previous Bloodbond March trigger brought back Assembly-Worker, except there is one fewer Bloodbond March trigger and nearly double the number of Psychic Battle tokens. Note that we will need to create two more Mimic Vats and two more Mirror of Fates every other loop, and very occasionally make copies of other creatures for higher stages, but this is no problem.
I think back when I introduced Changeling Berserker, for some reason I thought that was too early for Chrome Mox, but now I don't think it is. We can Champion Chrome Mox with the Berserker, then when we bounce the Berserker, Chrome Mox comes back into play, and Changeling Berserker is now conveniently in our hand to be imprinted. So we can just add some card that spends a red mana (or a green mana, if we switch to Changeling Titan) to bounce a particular creature type that we don't use higher up. Ali Baba or Balthor the Stout will do.
Going through the sequence, just to make sure:
Say we have Changeling Berserker in our hand, and at least one red mana.
Cast and counter the Berserker, putting Bloodbond March triggers on the stack, and bring the Beserker back onto the battlefield with one Bloodbond March trigger.
Spend the red mana to activate Ali Baba, putting a bunch of Psychic Battle triggers on the stack.
Use most of those triggers to create a bunch of new Psychic Battle tokens (and two Mirror of Fate tokens if we've run out of available untapped Mirror of Fates), until we reach the last one.
Before resolving the last Psychic Battle trigger, cast Changeling Berserker, putting two token copies on the battlefield.
Use the two Champion triggers of the token copies to exile Balustrade Spy and March of the Machines.
Use the Champion trigger for the original Changeling Berserker to exile Chrome Mox.
Resolve the last Psychic Battle trigger, bouncing the original Changeling Berserker back to your hand. This triggers a Champion trigger and Dual Nature triggers for the two token copies of Changeling Berserker.
Resolve the Champion trigger first, bringing Chrome Mox back to the battlefield, triggering Imprint.
Imprint the Changeling Berserker on the Chrome Mox, putting it in the exile zone.
Tap the Chrome Mox to generate one red mana.
Use Mirror of Fate to put Changeling Berserker into your library.
Resolve the Dual Nature triggers, destroying the two token copies of Changeling Berserker. This triggers Champion twice.
The Champion triggers resolve, putting Balustrade Spy and March of the Machines back into play.
Balustrade Spy's ETB trigger resolves, putting Changeling Beserker into your graveyard.
Resolve a Bloodbond March trigger for Changeling Berserker, putting it back onto the battlefield.
Okay, so it looks like there's no problem. 26 stages!
So the deck looks something like this now:
2 Ali Baba
3 Assembly-Worker
4 Rust Tick
5 Archetype of Endurance
6 Gleeful Sabotage
7 Krosan Cloudscraper
8 Master of the Veil
9 Labyrinth Minotaur
10 Anaba Ancestor
11 Horobi, Death's Wail
12 Rend Spirit
13 Balustrade Spy
14 Baron Sengir
15 Empress Galina
16 Merfolk Sovereign
17 Seahunter
18 Mercenary Informer
19 Boreal Griffin
20 Boreal Druid
21 Ohran Yeti
23 Nectar Faerie
24 Ghosthelm Courier
25 Possessed Aven
26 Grassland Crusader
27 Possessed Nomad
28 Shauku's Minion
29 Centaur Archer
30 Maze Glider
31 Paragon of Eternal Wilds
32 Devout Chaplain
33 Royal Assassin
34 Goblin Tunneler
35 Flamestick Courier
36 Dralnu's Crusade
37 Frightshroud Courier
38 Paragon of Open Graves
39 Viashino Fangtail
40 Korozda Gorgon
41 Archangel of Thune
42 Horizon Chimera
43 Selvala's Enforcer
45 Show and Tell
46 Chrome Mox
47 Mirror Gallery
48 Bloodbond March
49 Cephalid Shrine
50 Cowardice
51 Mimic Vat
52 Psychic Battle
53 Omniscience
54 Leyline of Anticipation
55 Starfield of Nyx
56 March of the Machines
57 Mirror of Fate
58 Mana Crypt
59 Snapcaster Mage
60 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Getting 10 -> ... -> 10 -> X -> 4 with one more 10 than before and the X depending on how many cards we can get ahead of the opponent.
This also beats the sideboard deck until that one is adapted to use Dual Nature and the extra changeling stage. That means no more Sorcery/Instant recursion for that one, unless it is better to modify the stages to work without Snapcaster Mage.
Edit: From back when we had one less stage with the same final layer setup:
Now we have replaced the Merrow Witsniper, but the rest of the details are the same, so 3 cards ahead with a final damage of ... -> 10 -> 5 -> 4.
Otherwise, we could look for other ways to retrieve cards from the deck. That looks tough too, not a lot of freedom in the deck other than the color transitions.
The deck with 15 card sideboard looks interesting. The first question is, can we get rid of Snapcaster Mage at all? With Changeling Berserker, we have to get rid of the Archetype of Aggression / Izzet Guildmage stage. But that means we need some other way to transition from artifacts to something else, which is where I think we ran into problem before. Creatures like Batterhorn won't work because the can be popped in and out of exile with Changeling Berserker. So we need something that taps to target artifacts. There are a few choices, like Goblin Welder, Glissa Sunseeker, and Rootwater Diver, but they all mess with stages further on down, so we would have to make some major changes. Or, we could switch from Changeling Berserker to Changeling Titan, and keep the Archetype of Aggression stage. But then we would need to transition from red to black, and I don't see a good way of doing that either.
If we can't get rid of Snapcaster Mage, we still can get quite a few layers. In the pre-Iijil deck, we managed to get 18 layers at the end, but this time we can't use the Kurkesh, Onakke Ancient trick or Doubling Season, so that drops it down considerably. Here's what I got:
2 Changeling Berserker
3 Ali Baba
4 Assembly-Worker
5 Rust Tick
6 Archetype of Endurance
7 Gleeful Sabotage
8 Krosan Cloudscraper
9 Master of the Veil
10 Labyrinth Minotaur
11 Anaba Ancestor
12 Horobi, Death's Wail
13 Rend Spirit
14 Balustrade Spy
15 Baron Sengir
16 Empress Galina
17 Merfolk Sovereign
18 Seahunter
19 Mercenary Informer
20 Boreal Griffin
21 Boreal Druid
22 Ohran Yeti
23 Everglove Courier
25 Ghosthelm Courier
26 Possessed Aven
27 Grassland Crusader
28 Possessed Nomad
29 Shauku's Minion
30 Centaur Archer
31 Maze Glider
32 Paragon of Eternal Wilds
33 Devout Chaplain
34 Royal Assassin
35 Goblin Tunneler
36 Flamestick Courier
37 Dralnu's Crusade
38 Frightshroud Courier
39 Paragon of Open Graves
40 Flame Elemental
41 Hunting Triad
42 Night Dealings
43 Repercussion
44 Ion Storm
45 Archangel of Thune
46 Horizon Chimera
47 Consecrated Sphinx
48 Selvala's Enforcer
49 Pain Magnification
50 Five-Alarm Fire
51 Finest Hour
52 World at War
54 Phelddagrif
55 Reito Lantern
56 Show and Tell
57 Chrome Mox
58 Mirror Gallery
59 Bloodbond March
60 Cephalid Shrine
61 Cowardice
62 Mimic Vat
63 Psychic Battle
64 Omniscience
65 Leyline of Anticipation
66 Opalescence
67 March of the Machines
68 Mirror of Fate
69 Mana Crypt
70 Snapcaster Mage
71 Living Wish
If my counting is correct, that should get us to 10 -> ... -> 3 -> 11.
Using Endbringer as the last creature of the stages might help to get access to our deck. The layers then obviously need to be disconnected from us drawing cards, but other than that I think it is save to allow a card draw via token tap there.
Korozda Gorgon, Archangel of Thune, Sangromancer + Noggle Ransacker. The Ransacker would effectively draw us cards like the enforcer did to get started. After that it provides opponent discards. It can be used 26 times, so the question is how soon we can produce enough Endbringer tokens to draw the deck and make lots of sangromancers.
Sangromancer can also be used as the black vampire, so there is some flexibility in the mill card again. Is Merrow Witsniper useable like Balustrade Spy or is the one card at time mill a problem in that complicated rust tick stage?
In that sideboard deck I only count to ... -> 3 -> 10. Do you have one activation of Night Dealings as producing one Flame Elemental token or many?
Edit: Noggle Ransacker doesn't work for the start. Most of our cards get stuck in the graveyard once we discard them without a Bloodbond March trigger ready. So for the third Ransacker trigger I already ran out of safe discard options >_<
Whoops, I confused myself. Only three merfolk.
Nice idea!
The Rust Tick stage is complicated if we really want to optimize it, but if we don't care too much we can now just have a stash of red mana available to bounce Changeling Berserker at will, since red mana will be cheap enough by that point. The problematic stage is probably the Assembly-Worker stage. I'll investigate that shortly.
Night Dealings only produces one Flame Elemental token per activation. But Repercussion gets counted twice, once for Ion Storm and once for Five-Alarm Fire.
Ugh, that's a shame. Still, the approach looks promising. Wheel of Fortune can allow us to get more cards without discarding, although we can only cast it seven times, so if it's an improvement it's not by much. The question is, with seven cards (plus the one that we can cast beforehand), is it enough to get 2R to cast it again from the graveyard?