Top 10 Best Alternate Win Condition Cards in MTG 

Battle of wits definitely deserved an honorable mention. The bane of tournament organizers everywhere with people bringing 250 card decks to try and win with it.

Hellkite tyrant is awesome because it's a dragon that's takes treasure then greedily guards it and if it gets enough treasure it just wins. That's some good lore

Pairing Hellkite Tyrant (steals all the opponents artifacts) with Mycosynth Lattice (turns everything on the field into artifacts) can be a devastating combo, as a single successful hit with Hellkite steals your opponent's entire board--plus, with Lattice up, the wincon basically just becomes "control at least 20 things" which is far less taxing, especially with that control ability.

If you just create 20 treasure tokens, Hellkite Tyrant can win the game easily. Especially with newer cards like Old Gnawbone and Ancient Copper Dragon which can easily give you at least 10 Treasures

The correct way to cast Demonic Consultation: 1. Cast Demonic Consultation 2. Name You Are Already Dead 3. Smile

ah yes, Triskaidekaphobia. such a unique flavored card. for the people who dont know: Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. and now look at the art of the card.... --- 13 tools on the wall 13 screws in the barrel 13 glas shards on the ground 13 logs in the fire place 13......... you get the point...

Thassa's Oracle's effect is also an enter the battlefield trigger, meaning that unlike Jace or Laboratory Maniac the opponent can't just hold up a removal spell to instantly blow you out.

Fun fact: The incredibly powerful spell Time Walk was an alternative win condition for a brief period of the game's history. For those who don't know, Time Walk is a spell that for two mana says "Take an extra turn after this one." When the first set of magic was being designed Time Walk had a different line of text: "Target player loses next turn." When the card was shown to the original playtesters of Magic, they didn't understand what the card did; they thought it meant that after casting the spell, their opponent only had one turn left before they'd lose! Seeing this confusion, Richard Garfield the creator of Magic changed the wording of the card to a more accurate description of its actual effect.

Love the addition of legality. I didn’t even know I needed it but having just a list down there while you focus on the topic was a brilliant move!

Honorable mentions should definitely go to a few cards. Battle of Wits for all the goofs that'd bring giant 250+ card decks to get meme wins Epic Struggle for Selesnya Tokens, Elves or other spawn decks to have another win condition that isn't "attack with 900 creatures" Helix Pinnacle for giving ramp decks another win condition that isn't "attack with giants" Mortal Combat... because when you play it, it's law that you have to scream "Mortal Kombat!" and then play the theme music Really though... Revel in Riches should have been on this list. Even if nobody cared to win with it, getting Treasure Tokens for killing your opponent's creatures was really good since that's what black decks tend to do anyway.

Most alternate win conditions are too bad to see play in 60-card constructed, but they thrive in Commander. The format is slow enough to let you piece together your combo, even if it's on the large and expensive side, and winning the game doesn't care for how many opponents there are. Cards like Revel In Riches turn any board wipe into a win condition, because in 4p games the board tends to get full.

Gates got a pretty nice buff recently. with the Baldur's Gate Commander set adding a bunch of new ones, including one that makes your gates come in untapped.

I'm a little surprised the list doesn't include "Simic Ascendancy" . (Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on a creature you control, put that many growth counters on Simic Ascendancy. At the beginning of your upkeep, if Simic Ascendancy has twenty or more growth counters on it, you win the game.) I have it in my Simic deck. However, I actually don't play it much because the win condition is too easy for that deck to achieve. (When the deck is going good, I'm slinging around +1/+1 counters pretty fast.)

I'm glad to see you covering Magic. I stopped playing WoW so now I can watch you break down other things I enjoy. 👍

Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

First, and for a reason. Great small mtg channel. I'm sad Door to Nothingness wasn't mentioned.

I think Etrata, the Silencer deserves a mention, I actually won more games with her effect than Vraska's -9 and I played Vraska much more often.

Helix Pinnacle is an alternate win con card that I'm pretty sure did see some play way back when it was first printed. It's a single green mana for an enchantment with shroud and lets you pay x to put x counters on it. During your upkeep, if there are 100 or more counters on it, you win. That may seem slow, but there's a ton of infinite mana combos in the game, especially in enchantress decks, which also have an easy time finding Helix Pinnacle when they need it. Shroud also makes it really hard to remove the Helix Pinnacle, making the need to wait until your next upkeep to win a lot less risky. It's been largely replaced by Walking Ballista as a finisher in big mana decks, as just killing your opponent is better than giving your opponent one turn to get out of it after you combo off, but it used to be a solid option, and it still has niche uses. Also Mechanized Production. 4 mana enchant artifact, that makes a copy of the enchanted card on your upkeep, and then if you have 8 or more artifacts with the same name as each other, you win the game. With token artifacts, like treasure or clues, it's pretty trivial to get 8 copies. Again, held back by being an upkeep trigger, but dedicated decks can win real quick, and an unprepared won't be able to interact with it at all, as artifact and enchantment removal are somewhat uncommon. I think this one is just a commander card, but I wasn't really playing when it was in standard.

I feel like Nicol Bolas shouldn't be on this list, as his win the game ability often isn't the reason you win the game, or even a consideration when playing him. Some alternatives include: Battle of Wits has been mentioned by others as an alternate win condition that does show up in tournaments every once in a while, especially online ones. Revel in Riches would be another excellent choice for the list, as it is fairly easy to accomplish in commander, with the high amount of board wipes that get played. Mechanized Production is fantastic with artifact tokens (treasures mainly). It just needs to be enchanting any artifact you control, and you can win off of making 8 treasures. Hellkite Tyrant is much better than you described, since treasures have become prominent, and even has a commander that makes getting it easy (even easier than Scion of the Ur-Dragon). With Magda, Brazen Outlaw, Liquimetal Torque or Liquimetal Plating, and Clock of Omens, you get infinite tapped treasures, and can sacrifice five of them to search for Hellkite Tyrant to put it onto the battlefield.

Hellkite Tyrant is very useful with artifact generation commander decks. Treasures, Clues and Food can often be made quickly. Academy Manufactor is a 3xmultiplier, Blood Money is a board wipe that gives you a ton of treasure, Doubling Season is a 2x modifier... Ancient Copper Dragon can make you up to 20 at once. Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, and other instants can be done at the end of your opponent's turn. Enchantments like Revel in Riches, Smothering Tithe, Fae Offering and Monologue Tax can net you a lot of treasures off your turn. I'm not saying Hellkite Tyrant is broken or impossible to counter, but it is a little easier to win with than it sounds.

Battle of wits should’ve definitely been on this list! But nice video! Loving this series

this is my fav mtg list so far great job 😍

I would like to add Door to Nothingness and AEther Flux Reservoir.

Extremely underrated. Great video!

Can I just say, I really appreciate that you both A.) Clearly and carefully explain the text of the card shown on screen and B.) Have captions for your additional commentary. Your videos are just hugely accessible and I really appreciate it

It’s really odd not to put Battle of Wits on here, which has honestly seen more competitive play than most of the cards on this list, even as just a meme deck.

Not a "instant win" card but a card that is hilarious if you can pull it off is divine intervention. It's an 8 mana enchantment that causes a draw, and I believe is the only card that can reliably cause a draw. I used to have a commander deck who's sole purpose was to get that card to go off and it did very consistently.

Felidar Sovereign is my favourite by far. I've used it since pretty much I've been playing MtG, and back in those days mythics were kind of difficult to come by in these parts (so long ago that Felidar Sovereign was mythic), so casual decks were a lot slower and the 40 life win was quite possible. Nowadays, thanks to online tabletops, we have access to all the cards we want, and I have a white cat/lifelink deck built around this one. My number two favourite is Jace, Wielder of Mysteries (and his little brother, Laboratory Maniac), combined with Flow of Ideas and all manner of self-milling. Third place goes to Revel in Riches, combined with Grave Pact and Pitiless Plunderer. I don't do tournaments, so I don't really care if my decks are not "optimized," as long as they're fun and have a high enough trolling factor.

i’d love to see a video about some of the best first turn kill strategies in legacy/vintage! or some of the 2nd turn kills in modern. great vids!

Hellkite Tyrant is excellent when paired with Academy Manufacturer, Mechanized Production, and Bloodforged Battleaxe. You can keep creating tokens that are copies of Bloodforged Battleaxe, attach those copies to creatures you control to get more copies when they deal Combat damage to a player, and throw in a few cards that create treasure tokens, clue tokens, and food tokens to push you over the finish line. Add in Sculpting Steel and Replicating Ring and it’ll get even more wild.

Alternate win conditions are the ultimate challenge set by the designers, to the players. It's a dare to find the cleverest way of meeting the card's arcane requirements. Moreover, it asks players to think about deck construction in a wholly different way than the usual "deal enough damage to reduce the opponent's life to 0". (Mill is also included in this alt win con discussion, even though it's a "normal" way to win). Plus, there's something irresistible about an "I Win" button. Even if you need to jump through hoops to pull it off.

It seems like someone could create an engine for revel in riches these days with how easy treasure creation has gotten

I love Triskaidekaphhobia artwork, the number 13 is everywhere.

Amazing!

Simic Ascendency is a great one. It’s cheap to cast, has a good mana dump ability, and doesn’t require any direct manipulation to win with. If you’re playing this, it’s in a deck dripping with +1 counters. This card forces you’re opponent to either spend resources to stop your auto win, which means less used on your beefy hitters.

I got really curious with Triskaidekaphobia, so I Googled what it means "Fear of the number thirteen" and then I got even more curious and paid more attention to the card art. The hanging utensils, glass shards, and oven logs are 13 each (that was an awkward sentence to think up). What a fun weird card!

I thought I recognized your voice... good videos lol. I'll watch them no matter what channel or topic xD

Gotta point out that Battle of Wits has top8’d a GP, and many of these “best” alt win conditions have never done as much! Love the videos :) The GP was 21 years ago though

There are a couple of reasons why oracle is a better win condition over lab maniac or jace. It's a triggered ability and not a static ability, allowing it to function without remaining on the field. It's also the only one that doesn't require drawing a card on top of having an empty deck, making it so you don't have to use an extra card to draw or wait for your next draw step.

Always enjoyed my fun Coalition Victory deck.

I'm very surprised your writer didn't mention this combo With approach of the second sun you can use narset's reversal to copy the effect and return the card to your hand and then just play it again to win the game on one turn

Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God starts to see play in Pioneer Mono Green because you can cast it with mana of any color using Oath of Nissa or cheat it into play using Storm the Festival. It was less of a win condition and more of a disruption piece.

Man i am huge fan off yugioh, but recently I tried edh and love it, so I'm both fan. Lucky enough,you start magic channel and I am your subscribe since 2 years in yugioh videos, keep going the good work Obs, I wanna se yugioh battle royal format soon

I remember one card my workplace lunch MTG group will always remember is Hedron Alignment. For those who don't want to look it up, Hedron Alignment wins you the game if you reveal one in your hand, one on the battlefield, one in the graveyard, and one in exile. We had one player who constantly played a Hedron Alignment deck to keep seeing he could pull it off. He eventually did on his birthday.

I think you forgot one of the greatest win conditions on flavor alone. Sure, winning via Thasa's Oracle or Nicol Bolas is fine, but true MTG chads know that the only win condition you'll ever need to be a true master of magic is "The Cheese Stands Alone"

Oh my god I had no idea you had an MTG channel! MTG has some wild cards in general

Triskaidekophile is one of my favorite ways to win and it’s pretty easy to do it. Protect it with counter spells and run a few copies of sea gate restoration and you can win pretty easily!

Hellkite Tyrant is one of the more likely win conditions for my Dwarves & Dragons build. With Magda, Brazen Outlaw as the commander, you’re producing a ton of tokens on your own and you’re drawing artifacts and dragons rapidly. Pair Hellkite Tyrant with something like Ancient Copper Dragon (where you’re rolling a D20 and gaining that many tokens when you hit a player) and Academy Manufacturer (where one token becomes three), and you end up with tons of tokens quickly. Don’t forget that Treasure Tokens, etc are artifacts too!

Approach of the Second Sun is my favorite alternate wincon. I have it in Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign because Yennett's ability often allows me to cast the first Approach for free, as well as Sevinne, the Chronoclasm, which has enough instant/sorcery cost reducers to often make Approach cost significantly less than seven mana.

I have a Thassa’s Oracle and an Approach win cons in my commander decks and it's so fun to win out of nowhere when your table is expecting one or the other. Also have the Moth/counters combo.

I love my Triskaidekophile. Wins if you have 13 cards in your hand, and comes with a draw ability. I use it for the draw ability in my draw deck, but I've won some games with the win condition, too.

Finally talkin bout cedh, nice

Thassa's Oracle is quite infuriating in Commander. It doesn't matter it you got 99 cards. See it played, it's pretty much an instant win right there. The deck would be made in a similar approach as other formats. It's salt inducing enough that there's those who want it banned in Commander.

For future reference, we say something like Scion of the Ur-Dragon costs WUBRG to cast, which just means one of each of the 5 colors

Triskaidekaphobia has a soft spot for me because a coworker I found out that played had a bunch of decks one with this exact combo. He let me try it out and won without the combo but just by saying we both lose a life. He didn't realize by the time it got back to my upkeep I knocked him to 13.

Made a WUBRG deck in Commander that uses all versions of Bolas and Dragon God has always been the win-condition with how often I set up his arrival. Everything pretty much falls into place once I get all 5 man colors. Fun Planeswalker :3

Lordie I love Nicol Bolas Dragon God. That card got me into MTG

My main deck on MTGA is an explorer-legal Omniscience reanimation deck (with Repair and Recharge), using Approach as the wincon (via Mastermind's Acquisition getting my copy out of the sideboard so it doesn't clunk up the mainboard). It's just really solid on MTGA. If it were offline and I could actually demonstrate and use repeatable loops, I'd use something that's useful in more situations, but due to the contraints of their program having a straight up "I win" card is a great finisher for an infinite mana style combo deck.

Liliana's Contract being black so of course you suggest...the blue card instead of the black one that makes everything Demons. Brilliant.

Hellkite Tyrant could potentially combo well with ancient copper dragon, which can potentially make 20 artifacts by itself in one turn.

Granted your a modern channel I'll keep this short. For us edh players wizards has been printing cards that make/create treasure tokens like they are going out of style. This makes hellkite tyrant all the more viable. Super sweet when you hit the dockside player.

There was a pact combo in modern at the birth of summer bloom which had an enchartment that forced your opponent to cast a copy of each of you spells so u just played a pact which wasn't in their colours and auto won. Surprised pacts weren't on here in general but especially considering this combo

I ran a turbo fog mazes end deck when it was in standard it actually worked really well and won me game day with it

There should be blightsteel colussus at least in number 10, still good video, what a pleasure it is to see you talking about MTG

Phage the Untouchable is a great one. I remember the good ol' Summoner's Egg combo.

Maze's End in Commander benefited greately from Baldur's Gate set, since we got Gond Gate there. It's a Gate that can give you mana of any color that a Gate you control could give, ETBs untapped and, most importantly, makes all other Gates also ETB untapped. Since it's fetchable with all the cards that could fetch you any Gate, it basically becomes the first one you'd usually get, and then Gates would stop entering tapped. It's also funny that Laboratory Maniac, the proto-Oracle, wasn't even mentioned in either of the videos. So it's neither good OR bad alternate win condition by today's standards.

Hellkite Tyrant combo with Mycosynth Lattice. turn all your opponents cards into artifacts, then give them a one attack board wipe.

I played Dragon-God in a Grixis Chandra deck during core 20 standard. He was somewhat deceptive, since he'd draw attention, then the Chandra, Bold Pyromancer that nobody watched would clap you for 20 out of nowhere with Chandra's regulator. I also ran Chandra, Acolyte of Flame to give all red (he has red) walkers free loyalty counters

Maze end mixes well with Turbo fog oriented play. Add some draw speed to turbo fog, and cards that allow extra lands to be played on same turn, get multiple of each dual color gates in deck. Fog-Effect style cards are cheap, tapped land isn't going to bother you much unless you are in a hurry. Key... Don't hurry, Use fog cards. "Maze-End-Turbo-fog" can be pulled off with ZERO Creatures if you throw in a splash of control. You'll have five colors, Use them to your advantage. Use green for Fogs and land search, Use white for fogs and life, Use blue for denial and draw speed, use black to remove threats, and seek specific cards, Use red to burn away smaller threats (with perhaps some "X"-Burn to Face cards for opponent if you cant seem to find Maze, before long). Use cheap to cast card options only, nothing above say 3-Cost (keeping most cards at 1-2), the only cards that should be more expensive would be some good land search/play from green, and the X-Burn coming from red.

I play a chaos 5 color commander deck online, and my favourite is casting omniscience, approach, wheel of fortune, and approach. I have enough tutor cards to make approach a decent win-con, and is thus far the only consistant win con

As a person who played a control spirits deck in standard until the very recent rotation (still might depending on how it shapes up), Faithbound Judge does very well against other control decks if you're playing with it in mind. It forces your opponent to keep mana open and to save a counterspell if they aren't winning soon and they haven't yet drawn enchantment removal. That being said, the power level of where I play standard is somewhat low, with no one playing the top top tier decks, and against those who are playing higher tier decks, its main threat is actually as an attacker after stalling for time, especially after disturbing Twinblade Geist onto it, giving it double strike. I am also a person who doesn't buy cards, which is why the more convenient and powerful options aren't available to me.

I had a deck in Arena with Nine lives and the key was to switch it to the enemy, either had an combo to destroy it then or had a lot of damage sources to make the counters on it

Tip on #8: If you run Maze's End, also run Reshape the Earth. That way, if you play one of the 11 lands needed for the wincon before you cast Reshape the Earth, then casting Reshape the Earth effectively means you win! Also, Gond Gate is very deece, as it makes guildgates etb untapped like stripe duals lol

I love winning with approach of the second sun in my green white draw and sac deck

My buddy used to have a combo Deck that was solely focused on Mycosynth Lattice -> Hellkite Tyrant and it was brutal

Special mention for the Amulet of Quoz from back in Ice Age. A largely forgotten card that was from back when Magic still incorporated the ante mechanic, but it does hold the distinction of begin the first alternative win condition card in the history of Magic.

Cards with the Changeling keyword count as every creature type (including Demon), and there are plenty you can get into play before you have the 5 mana for Liliana's Contract.

I have used and wow with revel in riches a bunch and every time it was so fun

No mention of Battle of Wits? XD It was fun to watch players piloting that deck... the thought of how they'd win with an inconsistent and bulky 250 card deck is hilarious... and I HAVE seen some players win with it... which gives that player mad respect from everyone else xD Watching them shuffle the deck, tho, is about as interesting as watching paint dry... O.O Test of Endurance is actually relatively easy to fulfill: it wins you the game if you have 50 or more life during your upkeep. Most lifegain decks can reach that with little effort. Of course, since it checks you during your upkeep, your opponent still has 1 whole turn to do something about it. Amulet of Quoz is a funny card and deserves a mention too. It isnt legal anywhere due to being an Ante type card, but its ability is simple: Sacrifice this card: your opponent may then negate this effect by ante-ing the top card of their deck. If they do not: flip a coin and call heads or tails. If you win the coin toss, you win the game. If you lose the coin toss, you lose the game. I love how balls-to-wall the effect is: and reminds me of that line: You feeling lucky, punk? >:) I do have one question tho: when Proliferate became a mechanic, I thought Darksteel Reactor would have a chance on becoming relevant. Darksteel Reactor is an Indestructible artifact that gains a charge counter per upkeep. Then, if there are 20 or more charge counters on it at any time, you win the game. With Proliferate, this basically halves the time (assuming you're not using other cards that puts charge counters in it). Is the fact that it does nothing on its own other than charge to win a huge detriment to it?

faithbound judge might make my Azors elocuters deck work!!

I have a modern mazes end deck that runs amulet titan to just ramp out hard. The ram is my alternate win con as im usually going for the maze. I also have a historic version that is very similar just using cards on arena

Maze's End was a great deck in Block Constructed (RIP) and Standard (also RIP), because you could run a blue-white control deck with worse mana that would automatically win against other blue white control decks (there was no relevant land destruction in RTR).

They weren't the easiest win condition cards but I always thought The Cheese Stands Alone and it's legal counterpart, Barren Glory, were amusing.

In War of the Spark standard I played a 4 color Bolas superfriends deck that could easily win off his Ult. I didn't see a lot of other people playing it, but it was the only deck I ever made it to Mythic in Arena with.

I wanna quickly give you a correction on #10 on what you said. You said "dragon card" and not "dragon permanent" which are two different things. A permanent is a card that, when played, remains on the battlefield after the action or resolution of the card. A card is literally all things that can be in your deck. Cards can be instants or sorceries, not just permanents. This is important for the "tribal" mechanic where a card can have the "tribal" supertype and a creature type after the card type. An example of this is "All is Dust" which is a Tribal Sorcery - Eldrazi. So that card counts for whatever effect involves "Eldrazi" cards, such as "search your library for an eldrazi card and put it into your hand." Its an Eldrazi card that isn't a creature or even a permanent. Dragon's don't actually have any tribal cards but its still important to remember that little detail so you don't get confused.

Hellkite tyrant + nuisance engine + deck full of cheap but useful artifacts. Also combos with mycosynth lattice.

Nicol Bolas was in a Standart format with fires of invention making it insanely easy to be cast and the elderspell, that was in some situations able to give it enough loyalty by targeting your own planeswakers. The deck was not incredibly good, bit really fun to play

wow you didnt mention a single card I knew of. I was thinking of an old card that says you win if you have exactly 1 life. And a green enchanment that after pumping 100 mana into you win. both names elude me. always thought that green one was cool since green can really pump out the mana Edit some other people already mentioned helix pinnacle as the green enchantment

I play a deck in historic ranked on Arena that has no creatures and is built specifically to stall and board wipe until I can use Approach of the Second Sun to win the game. It's actually fairly consistent, unless my opponent is running a lot of artifact and enchantment removal or counterspells.

I showed Maze's End to my step-dad, who has a modified Gates deck. I deeply regret showing him Maze's End.

I feel as if Angel of Destiny belongs on this list, being above Felidar Sovereign because of how in formats other than comander, it is way easier to reach its win condition of 15 more life than your starting total, only being 35 rather than 40. It also eventually gives all your creatures life link. It also has flying and double strike, which already on its one is really powerful, but pared with the +4 life you get out of it, it becomes even stronger. The only major downside I can see is it also causes your opponent to gain life, making it impossible to win normally, but this can be canceled by cards such as knight of dusks shadow making it so opponents can't gain life.

mechanized production and simic ascendancy can be surprisingly easy to set off in commander.

I love how you pad the length of every video by 5 minutes just reading cards

Test of Endurance is better than Sovereign actually, yeah it requires 10 more life but it's 4 mana instead of 6 and it's on an enchantment which is the second hardest permanent type to deal with so it's more likely to stick around until your upkeep to win you the game when you get 50+ life. In the grand scheme of things, both requires to be in dedicated life gain decks and the difference of 10 life in a dedicated life gain deck is actually nothing. The only thing that Sovereign has is that you technically meet the conditions automatically in commander but at 6 mana you'd probably had already lost some life before you brought it out (unless you're a dedicated life gain deck) and it's a creature which is the easiest kind of permanent to deal with.

I'm surprised that Angel of Destiny isn't in here. In a lifelink deck, she's fairly easy to win with, and because she's not legendary, you can put more than one of her out (in case you opponent takes one out). Flying and double-strike make her more threatening.

hellkite tyrant has an alternate, alternate win condition. play Mycosynth Lattice, hit opponent with tyrant, steal their entire field (including land), opponent scoops as if done right you now have a +6 mana advantage, a 6/5 flying beat stick and anything they play will just push you towards triggering win condition if you don't kill them first

I think it was called Hedron alignment, which was hilarious, nearly impossible to set up, but if you did it'd be like from an anime.

I used to take people out with Door to Nothingness in my Golem Affinity Tribal. Even used voltaic key to untap it so it could win right away.

I have won several games with Angel of Destiny.

There are a couple of things you didn't consider for the role of Hellkite Tyrant in commnader. The first is the prevalence of mana rocks in the format, which means not only you will have a decent number of artifacts to start off, but that you are basically guaranteed to have something to steal from every opponent. The second and most important, however, is the fact that it counts token artifacts as well, which is more and more relevant as treasures become more common, particularly considering that red has a staple card that usually nets you at least five treasures for just two mana. Adding in other tokens like food and clues, and the recently-printed Academy Manufactor (an artifact itself), the alternate win condition is not reliable (mostly because it requires for Hellkite Tyrant to stick around until your upkeep, and it can just be removed earlier) but making it to twenty artifacts isn't a tall order as it seems, and its more likely to happen than sticking over 40 life.