Hey Archwizard

I'm still running lab man in my deck, and really want to take it out. However, I don't feel like I can justify it... unless you can explain to me how you get infinite timetwister loops. I don't see what card your using to get it back. Also, I'm not sure how I can get infinite mana off of paradox engine without first drawing my deck out and loosing. Maybe I'm just confused. Any insite would help.

Thanks!

IronBlackZepp

This deck wins by either:

A) Getting Paradox Engine online and making a lot of mana (not necessarily "infinite") and then using either Codex Shredder or Stroke of Genius as an outlet for your untaps or mana (depends on the outlet you use).

B) Getting Isochron Scepter with Dramatic Reversal to make "infinite" mana and then using the same outlets (Shredder or Stroke) for your untaps / mana.

Infinite Timetwister loops are possible with this deck, but are more of a cute feature considering Codex Shredder is what makes the loops possible. Since Shredder is one of our outlets we will usually just use it as an outlet rather than use it for a loop, however if we are playing against some sort of graveyard strategy then it may be in our best interest to use the Timetwister loop to guarantee than we can Stroke of Genius everyone to death. Even in this scenario we have plenty of ways of recurring Stroke without using the loop. We have Twister, Time Spiral and Snapcaster Mage all as ways to loop our Stroke without using the infinite loop I'm about about to explain.

The loop requires that you have some way to draw your deck and a way to create a lot of mana. Once you have a way of doing so, the loop goes as follows.

1. Draw most of your deck.
2. Cast Codex Shredder.
3. Cast whichever spells you want to keep looping. (Usually Stroke of Genius)
4. Cast Timetwister.
5. Use Codex Shredder's second ability to return Timetwister from your graveyard to your hand.
6. From here you can draw your deck again and recast any spells you may want want to recur.
7. Cast Timetwister from your hand (This one will shuffle the Codex Shredder you sacrificed into your library).
8. Repeat steps 1 - 7 until your opponents are dead.

Omg. I've been reading Codex shredder wrong this entire time. I though it was return target artifact card to hand, not return target card. Even better.

Thank you so much for explaining this, it will help a lot in the future.

k can i just say i love this decks name. it'll be in my heart forever.

Serafina Then you may be interested in this deck's brother. Prepare Your Anus, Here Comes Arcanis

No Grapeshot no good

Hey Archwizard,

any thoughts on the new Mistcaller?

ToshiroU I like it quite a lot. The one problem I see with it is that since it is very telegraphed people will find a way to ultimately play around it by forcing us to sacrifice it. Our opponents will most likely hold their relevant creature bomb for a later turn when they see we have it on the battlefield. It's more of a deterrent than it is a solution for dealing with graveyard decks. I personally like Grafdigger's Cage quite a bit as a more proactive solution, but I still think that Mistcaller probably deserves a spot somewhere on this list. I'm not sure what I'll cut for it yet, but I'm fairly certain that I will be including it.

I wanted to ask why not use Blue Sun's Zenith. It gives you another way to draw and make someone deck out while shuffling back.

Comodou is too cost intensive. There are many times where I want to cast my Stroke of Genius outside of the combo to just draw some cards.

Manifold Insights seems like it would do work in this deck, what do you think of it?

SynergyBuild I think Insights is a pretty solid card. It deserves a spot in the maybe board for this list. It's one of those cards that can be somewhat meta dependent.

Yeah, I personally like it on turns where I run out of gas due to Azami, Lady of Scrolls being inaccessible.

Then again I would run Meditate in a storm list, so take it with a grain of salt.

Archwizard have you considered running Artificer's Epiphany instead of Thirst for Knowledge? If so, what made you decide on the latter?

TheRevisionary Thirst ultimately digs deeper and more often than not we will have an artifact to discard.

Archwizard could you please explain the codex shredder combo. I am not exactly sure how it works. I cant see how it goes infinite.

Tophertoph13 Codex Shredder is simply an outlet for our Paradox Engine or Isochron Scepter / Dramatic Reversal combos. If you're referring to the way to use it inside a Timetwister loop, which isn't usually necessary, see comment #35.

Archwizardno, i saw the timetwiester part. the thing i dont understand is how it “combos”. i dont see it. so you maybe mill a few cards from people by casting spells. you maybe sac it and get something back from the graveyard. i just dont see where it can go from there

The combo is with infinite draw&mana you can loop your deck, and with infinite untaos you can mill your opponents.

Tophertoph13 The loop simply allows you to cast any spell as many times as you want from your deck. I mentioned how the majority of the time the loop would be useless due to the fact that you would most likely be using Codex Shredder as an outlet rather than to perform the Timetwister loop. The most useful application for it is to guarantee that you can cast Stroke of Genius as many times as you need to. This way you can kill the table without having to mill them and possibly risk them doing something on their upkeep. It's more of a neat interaction that can be performed, but usually you won't need to unless you're in a very awkward scenario.

Archwizard I worded that poorly. i understand the timetwister loop. the part i dont get is codex shredder/paradox.

Hold the phone, you cut Lab Maniac, what's your wincon now?

Burgdawg make infinite mana/untaps then Codex Shredder to kill them.

SynergyBuild is there a way to do that without Isochron Scepter and Paradox Engine?

I don't think so.