All-In Like a Maniac

Commander / EDH

SadisticMystic

Creature (11)

• 1x Bloodghast
• 1x Cephalid Illusionist
• 1x Divining Witch
• 1x Drift of Phantasms
• 1x Hermit Druid
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Leveler
• 1x Narcomoeba
• 1x Riftsweeper
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Street Wraith

Land (36)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Bayou
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Pendelhaven
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Shelldock Isle
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Tree of Tales
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg
• 1x Vault of Whispers
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Vesuva
• 1x Vivid Creek
• 1x Vivid Grove
• 1x Vivid Marsh
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills
• 1x Yavimaya Hollow

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Animate Dead
• 1x Dance of the Dead
• 1x Defense of the Heart
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Thought Lash

Artifact (10)

• 1x Birthing Pod
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Golgari Signet
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Shuko
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Tormod's Crypt

Instant (19)

• 1x Avoid Fate
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Dismember
• 1x Dizzy Spell
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Memory's Journey
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Noxious Revival
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Perplex
• 1x Pongify
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Vendetta
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Sorcery (18)

• 1x Beseech the Queen
• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Cabal Therapy
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Dimir Machinations
• 1x Doomsday
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Edge of Autumn
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Land Grant
• 1x Life / Death
• 1x Paradigm Shift
• 1x Personal Tutor
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Sylvan Tutor
• 1x Unearth

Commander (1)

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There are definitely EDH decks with an all-in gameplan (often "Voltron" style) revolving around the general. This is an experiment with a deck whose entire game depends on one card in the 99.

That card, of course, is Laboratory Maniac, the first card in the game that (with the help of Nefarious Lich and a few other cards) makes it possible to win and lose at the same time. This deck doesn't run Nefarious Lich, let alone attempt to win and lose at the same time (especially since that just cancels the win anyway), but the difference between winning and losing with this gameplan is often razor-thin.

As a longtime proponent of The Big Deck, I have a good deal of experience with emptying out the library in one fell swoop. Since with Maniac, emptying the library to exile is often just as good as sending it to the graveyard, there are a great deal of options for doing so, ranked in rough order from best to worst:
Demonic Consultation: It names Laboratory Maniac if you don't have it yet. It names One with Nothing if you do. It costs 1 mana. What more do you want?
Tainted Pact: One extra mana over Consultation, but when you need to use it as an actual tutor instead of just flipping card after card with no intention of taking any of them, it does have the advantage of not fizzling out to a Maniac in the top 6. Of course it demands that the deck (particularly the manabase) be built in a certain way, but that happens to play right into Hermit Druid as well, so it's a positive in every aspect except having to acquire the necessary cards (in case you plan on playing the deck in cardboard form).
Leveler : Hard-casting this is an option if the need arises, but more likely is that you manage to set off Defense of the Heart (a surprisingly easy task) and get this and the Maniac and just plain win on the spot. Phyrexian Devourer can also be used in this position for added redundancy, but this isn't really a place where redundancy is needed.
Hermit Druid: Still a classic, and even if I haven't found Maniac yet it's often possible to use this anyway, following it up with Narcomoeba, land, Bloodghast, Dread Return.
Divining Witch : "Attention all K-Mart shoppers, attention all K-Mart shoppers. This is your one turn warning." A phrase I normally utter with regard to Nevinyrral's Disk, but it's quite fitting here too.
Paradigm Shift : Great if you can play it to an empty graveyard, but more than likely tutoring for things will leave cards to get shuffled back, and cards just mean turns of waiting...
Thought Lash : Take that, Zedruu. My plan of action for this card still works.
Doomsday: Without a cantrip in hand already, this is just slow and the go-to stack leaves 2 turns to react (unless Maniac is already down), which is usually way too many.
Cephalid Illusionist + Shuko : It's 3 mana, and like Hermit Druid it turns on the graveyard route. But it's also two specific cards. If you have one already, the other makes a fine transmute/tutor target.
Didn't make the cut: Spoils of the Vault (duh); Mana Severance , Selective Memory (too limited in scope without the other card in the pair); Jace, the Mind Sculptor (too many turns before you can ultimate yourself); Mirror of Fate, Tunnel Vision, Phyrexian Devourer, Morality Shift (too much mana); Mirror-Mad Phantasm (the mana issue again, and not even all that effective on average).

The rest of the deck amplifies the all-in sentiment, just looking for Maniac and one of the above engines with the best tools available in all three of these colors. The general is essentially an Animate Dead spell, which is nice, but ultimately 2GUB is just way too much mana to depend on that as part of the gameplan (but should the need and opportunity arise, it helps to be aware of the option). Add a smattering of mana-conscious removal for must-answer threats, and it should amount to Win Probability Added in a deck that can be so effective but also so fragile ("Shock your Maniac in upkeep?" "Oh well..."), and so cost-prohibitive to be nearly unplayable except online.

So there's the experiment; now you can take it to your laboratory and test it out. Like a maniac.

Date added	13 years
Last updated	12 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 54 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.03
Tokens	Ape 3/3 G, Beast 3/3 G
Folders	EDH, Decks