Description is currently under construction, but there are a few things I would like to mention:
Many people are running Memory's Journey and believe this to be better than simply running 2 shuffle effects for protection (which is what I am doing in this version using Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and Gaea's Blessing). I think this is a mistake and here’s why:
Memory's Journey offers protection for whereas running 2 shuffle effects offers protection for free. If you are planning to win at instant speed with the Hulk line, and you have access to only , then you can win without the third mana. You have to trust me when I say there will come a time when you don’t have that extra and will be punished for running Journey over a backup shuffler. Here’s how this works:
First off, there are a number of graveyard hate pieces that stop this combo. I will be using the following as examples of the specific types: Deathrite Shaman (Single-Grave Hate) / Faerie Macabre (Two-Target Grave Hate) / Scavenger Grounds or Tormod's Crypt (Global Grave Hate)
There are 3 different ways your deck can be ordered when you go through the 4-Horsemen loop:
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Narcomoeba, Shuffle 1, Shuffle 2
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Shuffle 1, Narcomoeba, Shuffle 2
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Shuffle 1, Shuffle 2, Narcomoeba
Though there is a 33% chance of any of these piles, there are only 2 decisions you need to make if you are playing around grave hate (and therefore playing correctly):
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If you hit Narco, pass priority and let the Narco trigger occur. If someone who doesn’t understand the combo tries to exile Narco in response, simply activate Nomads en-Kor in response targeting Cephalid Illusionist until you hit the first shuffle effect. The shuffle effect will resolve first, shuffling your Narco back into the library, protecting your combo. Sacrifice Narco to Viscera Seer triggering Blood Artist, then continue milling your library with the En-Kor. If they exile the first shuffle effect in response, respond by milling into the second shuffle effect. The second shuffle effect will resolve first, protecting your combo.
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If you hit your first shuffle effect before milling Narco, let the shuffle trigger resolve. This is important and is the key difference between my method and the Memory's Journey method. If you don’t let the shuffle trigger resolve and instead continue milling on the stack, one of 2 things will happen: you either mill Narco or you mill shuffle 2. If you mill Narco, you are protected by the same decision you made in Case #1. However, if you mill your second shuffle piece, a player could activate Scavenger Grounds, Tormod's Crypt, or discard Faerie Macabre to exile both your shuffle effects in response and you will have no way to defend against this. But if you let the initial shuffle trigger resolve first, then this situation will never happen.
They will need to exile your first shuffle trigger card and have a second exile effect to stop the combo (which is functionally the same layer of protection that Memory's Journey gives you, except you are protecting yourself for free without having to pay ). This is why I believe this is far more efficient. Yes, you can run both, or even a 3rd Shuffle effect if you really wanted, but in a competitive environment you are trying to optimize your deck with the most efficient slots, and since Memory’s Journey only serves one purpose in the deck, paying is more efficient than paying .
The second reason this is better is for the same reason I briefly touched on above, which is that Memory's Journey is mostly a dead card in any other situation. The card itself may function as some instant-speed grave hate, but if you’re already running Gaea's Blessing, I would rather not have a redundancy for such a narrow situation.
The choice of having Gaea's Blessing and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre specifically has to do with layering. One can consider replacing Gaea's Blessing with Kozilek, Butcher of Truth but this would make Dark Confidant triggers much worse, and the overall possibility of drawing a dead card much worse. Blessing can at least be played, is easily castable, and cantrips in the worst case scenario.
Now let me discuss the backup plan, our sorcery-speed Bomberman loops which play out very similarly to Gitrog win lines:
As I mentioned above, Ulamog has dual usage as both a shuffler and a means to destroy everyone’s permanents once you generate infinite mana of any color with Auriok Salvagers and Lion's Eye Diamond. Let me explain what you do.
Draw your deck
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Have Thrasios, Triton Hero out. This should not be difficult as he is your commander and you have infinite mana.
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With your infinite mana, draw most of your library. You can leave 3-4 cards in your library if you are afraid of someone instant-speed forcing you to draw cards and deck-out. If Ulamog or any other piece is still in the library, draw until you hit them. If someone does end up casting Inspiration on you or Blue Sun's Zenith, you can respond by casting any number of instants (remember you have infinite mana at this point), countering them so they go to the yard, and then casting Flash on your Ulamog without paying the difference so that Ulamog hits the yard, cards get shuffled back and the appropriate amount of cards are drawn when your opponent’s Opportunity resolves.
Remove all opponents’ permanents
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You now have your entire library and infinite mana. Start by casting Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre targeting either the biggest problem card on board or open mana.
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Cast Diabolic Intent, sacrificing your Ulamog as a cost. Ulamog will shuffle back into your library and you may either fail to find with intent or search for Ulamog when it resolves. Doesn’t matter since you can always draw it with Thrasios and infinite mana. Diabolic Intent will hit the graveyard.
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Cast Noxious Revival, returning Diabolic Intent to the top of your library. Draw it. You now have a single Noxious Revival in the yard and an empty deck after drawing Intent. If you chose not to draw your entire library in step 2, you can always Ponder/Demonic Tutor for these cards.
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Recast Ulamog and repeat steps 3-5, shuffling Noxious Revival every time and looping this until all permanents your opponents controlled are gone. If players floated mana in response, move to your main phase 2, let their mana empty, recast Lion's Eye Diamond, and restart the combo.
Remove all threats from opponents’ hands
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Now that your opponents have no more permanents, you can remove all non-land cards from their hand by casting Cabal Ritual.
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Cast Eternal Witness targeting Noxious Revival and cast it, putting Cabal Ritual on top of your library.
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Draw and recast Cabal Ritual, hopefully naming a card that actually gets discarded.
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Cast Diabolic Intent sacrificing Eternal Witness.
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Cast Gaea's Blessing, shuffling E-witness, Cabal, and Noxious into your library.
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Noxious Revival your Blessing and draw it. You are now back to the initial board state in Step 6.
Finally, create infinite 2/2 Birds with flying
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Cast any instant, sorcery, or enchantment. Hold priority.
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Counter your own spell with Swan Song, creating a 2/2 for yourself.
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Use any of the shuffle loops to do this again and again. If for some reason you don’t have Swan Song, you can also just cast any creature and kill it with Pongify, creating infinite 3/3 ape tokens.
Last thing I want to mention, Timetwister was not mentioned at all mainly because it’s not necessary. You can replace it with Memory's Journey but Twister itself is a powerful card that can be used to loop things after Bomberman. Twister loops can be better explained by reading the Breakfast Hulk primer under “Win Cons”
