MTG Salvation

If you have a playgroup which uses the 10 card sideboard rule, then here is an opportunity to put a deck together for Christmas shenanigans while sliver-boarded cards are part of Commander!

The idea is to try and win on the first turn.

This is a quote from mtgcommander.net (Rules Committee) about optional sideboards.

Rather than filling every deck with banal responses, it is preferable to allow some flexibility in the composition of a deck.
Players may bring a 10 card sideboard in addition to their 99 cards and 1 Commander.
After Commanders are announced, players have 3 minutes to make 1-for-1 substitutions to their deck.
Any cards not played as part of the deck may be retrieved by "wishes".

These cards have to obey the same rules as deck construction obviously as you slot them into your deck, so in the case of Spike, Tournament Grinder, you need black or colorless cards, that are still legal in the current Commander format. Also important to note that any of the "outside the game" cards can reference the sideboard, which of course is what we are using Spike for.

The other thing to note about Spike is that it can be a banned or restricted card at any time in history, it doesn't just have to be the current list.
You can check out when cards were added to the list via this link https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Banned_and_restricted_cards/Timeline

So I've come up with a sequence which if you have 2 colorless mana to cast Spike on your first turn, you can win the game.

If you pay 4 life and 2 colorless to get Spike into play, at 8 life to get a sideboard card, allows to get a maximum of 4 sideboard cards initially, taking your life total down to 4.

The way I initially tried to solve this puzzle was to do a some sort of graveyard recursion, with the likes of Necrotic Ooze or Mike and Trike. The problem was always never have quite enough mana to do everything and/or running out of life to get sideboard cards. I welcome anybody to come up with a different method, I spent a couple of days pondering over this, obsessed is the term.

So the Sideboard consists of cards that have been banned or restricted in some format, but are still legal in Commander. This is a legal deck under sideboard rules until Jan.
The Sideboard (all previous banned or restricted in a Constructed format)

• Lion's Eye Diamond
  
• Dark Ritual
  
• Entomb
  
• Yawgmoth's Will
  
• Demonic Tutor
  
• Mana Crypt
  
• Mana Vault
  
• Sol Ring
  
• Voltaic Key
  
• Sensei's Divining Top

Well admittedly some of the good artifacts that could produce 2 colorless mana first turn are tied up in the sideboard. These are the other cards that can do it.
Mox Diamond
Chrome Mox
Mox Opal
Lotus Petal
Ancient Tomb
City of Traitors
Crystal Vein
Gemstone Caverns
Phyrexian Tower + 0 cost creature
Culling the Weak + 0 cost creature

There is a 55% chance that you have one in your starting hand. It's also imperative that you have a 0 costing card in your opening hand that you don't want to play out! That is why there are 49x 0 costing cards in the deck.
You can mull very aggressively, as ultimately you only need 2 colorless mana, and a 0 costing card to win. Its possible that you can mull to 1 card, and still win first turn...just as Magic was intended.

First Turn Kill!!!
Pay 4 life and 2 colorless mana to get out Spike, Tournament Grinder
Pay 8 life to get Lion's Eye Diamond and cast and use to get BBB. (Its imperative that you have a 0 cost card in your opening hand that gets discarded at this stage)
Pay 8 life to get Dark Ritual, cast it and you will have BBBBB left over
Pay 8 life to get Entomb, cast it and put Aetherflux Reservoir into your graveyard.BBBB left over
Pay 8 life to get Yawgmoth's Will and cast it. B left over
You will be on 4 life total (or less), so can't use Spikes ability again at this stage
Recast Lion's Eye Diamond and use it. BBBB left over
Recast Dark Ritual. BBBBBB left over
Cast Aetherflux Reservoir (from graveyard). BB left over
Cast 0 costing card from graveyard, to get the first life gain from Aetherflux Reservoir. At a minimum this will be the 9th spell in the turn, so you will go back up to 13 life.
Pay 8 life to get Demonic Tutor and cast it to get Paradox Engine. All mana is spent at this point and gain a further 10 life to go back up to 15.
Pay 8 life to get Mana Crypt and cast it and tap it. 2 left over
Pay 8 life to get Sol Ring and cast it and tap it. 3 left over
Pay 8 life to get Mana Vault and cast it and tap it. 5 left over
Pay 8 life to get Voltaic Key and cast it, then untap the Mana Vault and tap it. 6 left over
Cast Paradox Engine. 1 left over
Pay 8 life to get Sensei's Divining Top, cast it, which will untap all your artifacts
You can tap the Sensei's Divining Top to draw a card, hold priority to use the Voltaic Key to untap the Sensei's Divining Top, and tap it again while the first ability on the stack.
What happens is that you draw a card, and then Sensei's Divining Top goes back on top, then the first activate to draw will mean you draw the Sensei's Divining Top as well
You can recast it and loop this process, for huge life gain, which you can kill each opponent with Aetherflux Reservoir

A housekeeping items

Pay 8 life to get Demonic Tutor to get Paradox Engine. All mana is spent at this point.
Pay 8 life to get Mana Crypt and cast it and tap it. 2 left over

You need to either Cast Demonic Tutor and gain 10+ Life
Or Do Mana Crypt and cast it to gain 10+ life.

The way it's written right now, you don't actually cast Demonic and gain the life so you die on the Pay 8 life for Mana Crypt.

Otherwise, great job explaining it very clearly and getting it to work.

Quote from hoffmkr »

A housekeeping items

Pay 8 life to get Demonic Tutor to get Paradox Engine. All mana is spent at this point.
Pay 8 life to get Mana Crypt and cast it and tap it. 2 left over

You need to either Cast Demonic Tutor and gain 10+ Life
Or Do Mana Crypt and cast it to gain 10+ life.

The way it's written right now, you don't actually cast Demonic and gain the life so you die on the Pay 8 life for Mana Crypt.

Otherwise, great job explaining it very clearly and getting it to work.

Corrected thanks.

Has anybody been playing the silver-boarded legendary creatures at all for Commander?

Quote from darrenhabib »

Has anybody been playing the silver-boarded legendary creatures at all for Commander?

Grimlock, Dinobot Leader and Grusilda, Monster Masher as straight-up commanders with General Tazri as the pseudo-commander of a pentacolored Dr. Julius Jumblemorph as the true commander of the deck (General Tazri will always tutor for it since it's every creature type and thus an ally as far as General Tazri is concerned). So yeah, I've been building around 3 of them.