Every You "Lose the Game" Card Ranked from Hardest to Easiest

There are 18 cards in Magic that can directly make your opponent lose the game and today we're going to rank them all from hardest to easiest!
Today's video is brought to you by Card Kingdom. You can pick up some Magic: the Gathering cards (and help support the show) at www.cardkingdom.com/mtggoldfish
0:00 Start
0:12 Intro
1:13 #18
3:58 #15
8:55 #10
13:54 #5
#MTG #magicthegathering

[@josiahharvey4413]

Seth pronouncing Ezio is actually impressively bad lmao.

[@smarthipan]

i CACKLED every single word as wrong as it could possibly be hsvdgdhssh

[@catominhund]

He also wrecked Firenze 😂 But funny that they didn't translate Ezio's name to English. Think Seth can pronounce Florence 😅

[@nathanmisener3328]

Good ol' easy-o

[@ich3730]

@@catominhund What exactly do you mean by "translate his name"? Like what are we expecting here, calling him John creed?

[@sharlockshacolmes9381]

"Easyo"*

[@nathanmontgomery7865]

Easyo Adotray de Freneez. I die laughing every time.

[@KingOfDoma]

It's Adele Dazeem's long lost brother

[@elquemanda4329]

Let's not forget about Nicole Bolas, either.

[@SpiceWeazel]

Not to mention everyone's favorite sphinx, "Ate me sis"

[@Firebird4Life]

Triskaidekaphobia ranked #13...I see what you did there, Seth.

[@TheRealMichelozzo]

oh shit I actually didn't notice until I saw this comment. Nice catch.

[@MrVariant]

And 6:11 all the stuff on the art counts to 13.

[@dyciefisk2535]

Last time he put Triskaideckaphile at #14 for win cards, so it's fitting that the mistake is now made right

[@Crunchatize_Me_Senpai]

Damn it’s crazy that they so seamlessly managed to make Triska’s two abilities have exactly 13 words. It reads so naturally, I never noticed it. Like they wouldn’t have worded it any other way anyways.

[@sahjhan1]

Seth about to get murdered by a bunch of angry Italians for that pronunciation of Ezio's full name

[@lachlank.8270]

Mamma mia

[@MrJerichoPumpkin]

I could close an ear on Ezio Auditore, but Firenze? Really?

[@lolrotfl7261]

As an Italian, I've heard worse

[@S4DC4T]

Im not even Italian, I just like assassins creed, and I am currently sharpening my hidden blade

[@ildathet]

easiest way to loose the game

[@JacePT_]

Hearing SaffronOlive misproununce Ezio that badly has ruined my day Great video tho

[@jackl8025]

Grow up 🙂

[@jamesrule1338]

Made my day and it's only getting better.

[@DarthTUK]

They say words can't hurt you. Well what Seth did with Ezio was straight up aggravated assault.

[@S4DC4T]

I agree completely

[@ich3730]

So bad setzt straight up got an extra combat step and said it again

[@manuelito1233]

You can say he assassinated the hell out of the name

[@NuclearRaven13]

@ich3730 So bad that it made me no longer be able to block warriors

[@Wabiman70]

If Italians get upset when you break spaghetti to cook them in a small pot, I can't imagine what they'll feel when they hear your pronunciation of Ezio

[@INFamousJudge576]

Pain. Just pain.

[@realbloodydoves]

That pronunciation of Ezio Auditore da Firenze actually dealt me psychic damage. Seth, this one you can actually learn, it's Italian, a good ol' Earth language instead of being some fantasy language without a language guide.

[@AlienValkyrie]

Yeah, I mean. I already cringed at 8-mesis, but Eesio just got *so* much worse. Brothers-Hood End doesn't seem so bad anymore by comparison.

[@Shimatzu95]

Careful he is casting a spell in an elder tounge!

[@jaydenyamada2916]

Tell that to all of kamigawa

[@MTGGoldfish]

Sorry.

[@realbloodydoves]

@@MTGGoldfish 'sok, it's part of the Seth charm. Ezio is a beloved character from the franchise though, if you plan to play with him it might save you some headaches (and snarky comments like mine) later on to look up how to say his (and other Assassin's Creed characters) names. Them being in video games does make this pretty easy at least. :D

[@betabrett0223]

honorable mention, original play test version of time walk for number 0

[@S4DC4T]

Oh my god I remember hearing about this XD

[@ggpt9641]

IIRC it read, "Target player loses next turn."

[@spicymato]

I got a Deck of Many Things win, reanimating an exploit zombie when I was definitely going to lose next turn. One of the more memorable wins I've had.

[@DarthTUK]

But how? Exploit is a "may" ability

[@Shimatzu95]

You get the reanimated creature but its owner loses when it dies.

[@DarthTUK]

@@Shimatzu95 Oh I see. Maybe I should have re-read The Deck of Many Things before commenting 😅

[@MTGGoldfish]

The Deck of Many Things win is still on my bucked list. That sounds amazing!

[@chad3166]

I lost to my own Triskaidekaphobia at the Shadows Prerelease

[@AdamKeeton]

I've killed so many people with Atemsis in my "Leave me alone; I just wanna draw cards," EDH deck.

[@troublemaker9899]

We all know that there is only one proper way to win Magic, if you are playing properly. And that is obviously by using The Cheese Stands Alone.

[@IntegralKing]

I love how Seth has clips ready for like half the cards on the list while simultaneously telling us how hard or impossible it is for each of these cards to activate

[@TheCould228]

SaffronOlive love you man long time watcher but the way you said Ezio name hurt my soul

[@MTGGoldfish]

I apologize to your soul :)

[@rocktop-games]

7:51. That pronunciation was flawless xD

[@MTGGoldfish]

Nailed it!

[@beensupe]

Just lost the game. Thanks a lot.

[@MTGGoldfish]

My bad ;)

[@Ariamaki]

There is a VERY funny conditional line that makes Vraska, Scheming Gorgon extremely reliable: Playing her as an instant-win condition in Black/Green Counters! Any counter doubling effect puts her natural 5 starting Loyalty up to 10, so you can ult her immediately on play, and in BG you certainly have a trample threat or two available by turn 4-6 (ramp depending).

[@N4m3lesS_1]

yup, vorinclex does that iirc. ramp and play him on 4 or 5 and then a planeswalker the next turn ready to ult just satifies the bug stompy monogreen player :D

[@TacticalOmelette]

I'm surprised Seth didn't bring up Etrata's biggest partner in crime. Well, maybe not cause they're commander only, but I thought it would be relevant enough Mari, the Killing Quill {1}{B}{B} / 3/2 Legendary Creature - Vampire Assassin Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, exile it with a hit counter on it. Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues you control have deathtouch and “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may remove a hit counter from a card that player owns in exile. If you do, draw a card and create two Treasure tokens.” Mari is the only other card in the entire game to mention Hit Counters. And instead of requiring a combat damage step to make just 1 hit counter, with Mari, she puts hit counters on every creature that dies from any source. So instead of attacking multiple times, you just have Mari out and throw out kill spells/board wipes left and right, then finally sneak in one Etrata attack to finish them off. Of course this still requires them to play creatures, but it's not like they're not gonna play none.

[@Tazildayah]

Ravenloft Adventurer as well, which is the same deal as Mari except its a replacement effect so your opponent's creatures never hit the graveyard

[@horiaandreipopescu8873]

that Ezio pronunciation hurt me so much and I'm not even italian

[@Singe0255]

My Door to Nothingness deck in Mirrodin Standard was a beast. It used Urzatron and artifact lands to power out a speedy mana curve, then abused Clock of Omens, Doubling Cube, and Tower of Fortunes to grind out a ton of card advantage. The win came from sinking 20 colorless into Gemstone Array to filter the double WUBRG for the win on turn 5 or 6. Fair warning: Every morph creature is a Willbender!!

[@normative]

I’ve been convinced for ages that Seth deliberately mispronounces stuff to make pedants comment as an engagement juicing tactic for the algorithm. I feel like mangling Ezio that egregiously clinches the theory. Nobody gets it THAT wrong by accident.

[@CriticalFeline]

to be fair, im almost certain at this point that he has undiagnosed dyslexia

[@eXJonSnow]

100% has to be engagement bait

[@SilverAlex92]

My personal theory is that Seth is honestly a bit dyslexic and a bit liberal with pronuntiations, but it ended becoming a running joke plus a boost to engagment so he never tried to fix it, and throws a random misspronunciation on a funny or known name like Ezio just for giggles xD

[@MTGGoldfish]

This is probably the closest to the truth, really.@@SilverAlex92

[@snoodude]

Shoehorned joke: What did Yugi's alter ego do to the sandwiches he made? He Atem. (ngl, I got a little bit triggered by your pronunciation of "AH-TEM-SIS" but I quickly took a deep breath, laughed, and got over it)

[@user-gj4ml7su3n]

I've won a few games of historic brawl in one turn with the elderspell + nicol bolas combo. It's especially sweet when you kill your own or your opponent's Liliana for the flavour win.

[@gatherer818]

Commander's Quarters did a decklist once of every card that instantly wins, then got several requests for every card that makes you instantly lose... I now run "lose the game tribal" as one of my favorite decks. Besides the original Lich, for pricing reasons, it's got every card that makes ME lose the game in it... and then ways to get value out of them or use them as convoluted win-cons by getting my opponents to "benefit" from them instead. Fractured Identity (exile target permanent, everyone but it's controller makes a copy) on Phage is an amazing multi-kill, btw.

[@ddrguy3008]

Historic Fires of Invention Bolas was silly fun, back in the day. Fires into a Bolas plus followed up the next turn by a Mastermind's Acquisition into a Planewide Celebration from sideboard, proliferate 4 times, ultimate to win. And all the other possible variations.

[@Singe0255]

The real fun is casting Bolas and Celebration in the same turn for the surprise win. Happens once in a while with my War of the Spark 'Walkers EDH deck.

[@Kaxxaa]

I love playing Phage in commander. Really hard workaround to get her into play but really rewarding when you get to walk from door to door like the grim reaper, slaying your opponents

[@Garl_Vinland]

Man, that Ezio pronunciation in Seth’s already glaring voice…

[@ernestosalinas1091]

The Ezio pronuntiation slapped me right in the face

[@Terraphice]

For future reference, it's pronounced like, "Et-see-oh Ah-dih-tor-ay Dah Fear-en-zey".

[@nacster16]

I'm just now noticing the Ragavan on the dark board in the back. Well played, Seth.

[@Zander2212]

With Etrata, you did miss how you can speed it up with Mari, the killing quill and Ravenloft adventurer, both of which exile cards with hit counters. Probably doesn't change the ranking, but is worth a mention.

[@MTGGoldfish]

Yeah, that's a good call, key to Etrata Commander kills for sure.

[@crowcoregames1785]

Or maskwood Nexis/similar effects and Rames the assassin lord probably helps

[@haydenmcgregor3413]

Thanks for your videos - as always. It was only a few hours after watching this I lost to an opponent casting their second Approach of the Second Sun.

[@ASassyP]

I saw all the comments mentioning ezio and I really thought it'd be better than it was. That was truly one of the most absurd ways to say his name without purposely trying to butcher it. Bravo man bravo

[@patarfuifui]

I refuse to believe that pronunciation of Ezio was on accident, that was incredible 😂

[@godsgranddad]

My Phage commander deck is one of my favourite decks. Love it sm

[@edwardgreene2884]

Its also notable for Etrata that there are two more cards that "exile X your opponents control and place a hit counter on it" in Ravenloft Adventurer and Mari, the Killing Quill, meaning in commander/legacy at least there are much more straightforward paths to victory

[@MagnaKay]

As a fan of alternate wincons, I've attempted and succeded at most of these, and I can confirm the Deck of Many Things one is near impossible to pull off without infinites or board states that your opponents concede to anyway. My heart broke a bit when Seth opened by saying he wouldn't cover giving your opponents the things and then triggering the clause. It's very funny when you force them to exile their brand new Lich Mastery :) And these "alternate wincons" usually aren't that easy, or efficient to pull off anyway.

[@aequanimus63247]

I'm digging that blood moon tele you have in the background Seth. \m/

[@Omnicrom]

The b-roll footage of Seth's efforts to use many of these cards while talking about how hard it is to use many of these cards Honestly made this video so much better

[@jonothanthrace1530]

I clicked hoping this was a ranking of "YOU lose the game" cards. I look forward to that.

[@HakureiIllusion]

Worth noting that we've gotten a handful of cards that deal in hit counters since Etrata's release, so she's become feasible even if you only get in one attack with her.

[@doctorwhouse3881]

Ranking of "You Lose the Game" would be fun. Not even in a "oh, you can use this convoluted strategy to use that effect to your advantage" but just "what if I want to spectacularly lose?".

[@xMareZx]

Phage my beloved, I remember pulling her twice back in the day. Her name and art makes her my favorite!

[@Haaskeer]

"What did I get right" - A nice and interessting list. "What did I get wrong" - Definitely the name of my boy Ezio :D

[@mondaynugget6503]

I’ve had a pretty easy time getting Frodo’s kill off. In my experience people tend to wait until you’ve invested the six and have the four temps to kill him. Make him indestructible to avoid basic removal. Play a “destroy all” board wipe and go in for the kill. Plus if you have a few pie breaking counterspells it’s really easy to make him dodge being exiled. I play him with wraiths and enemies will often use all of their removal on the wraiths before Frodo is a problem and run out of removal by the time he is

[@JugonEx]

Isio Audotre di Franis killed me, but not in the way the card meant to.

[@todocotalks]

Harmless Coil was my favorite deck I ever built and played at a modern tournament.

[@flint9759]

Note: All of these comparisons are at a casual level. I am not saying these cards are necessarily good in a competitive environment. With Atemsis, I had a friend I would often play commander with who had a UW Isperia the Inscrutable deck. Isperia allows him to tutor for a flying creature if he can deal combat damage to a player and guess a card in their hand. The player would then reveal their hand, so he could simply attack the same player twice to guarantee a tutor (assuming the player couldn't block a flying 3/6). He had Atemsis in his deck as an alternate win con, and because he could tutor cards with mana values he needed, it was actually somewhat reliable. It at the very least was threatening, requiring the rest of the players to have an answer (which to be fair is pretty easy to have in commander, although he did have a few tricks to protect/reanimate creatures). Also, Faithbound Judge was an effective alternate win condition for me at my LGS when playing FNM. There were some opponents who I would often board stall against, and it allowed me to either force them to hold back removal or counter spells in fear of me playing the enchantment, or close out games where neither my opponent nor I had many things left on board or in hand. This was especially true against a mono red deck, who I would need to burn through a lot of resources to survive against (Faithbound Judge's frontside being one of the more useful resources available to me), and then I could finally flip it from my graveyard. I would say that at least 1/10 of my wins were from Sinner's Judgment.

[@dipmixer1238]

As someone whose favorite commander deck is his Uh-Tem-Sis deck, if you build the deck to ramp into strong late game bangers, you kill two birds with one stone by ensuring your hand has weird costs while also giving you a gameplay in the meantime that makes for a great puzzle every game

[@chrisduda2659]

I have an atemsis edh deck. When it goes off it goes off. But it's also kinda easy to shut down if I don't have counters.

[@nvvv_]

My buddy had a Triskaedekaphobia standard deck and I played Triskaedekaphile back in Vow standard when we had Sea Gate Restoration. Good times. Hard card to win with, usually it was off the back of the dimir control plan.

[@almogdov]

One of my favourite moments from drafting the deck of many things is I was dead on board and empty handed, drew the deck of many things, played it and rolled 20 and grabbed my opponents creature to block and not die. For some reason the opponent decided to attack, I blocked with his creature and stole the game.

[@Linkdude74]

I'd love for Seth to know I've gotten a deck of many things win, in commander, with Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar. I forced the table to attack each other through Kardur and chainer, using witches oven and underworld cookbook to generate tons of food. When i had one opponent left i cast deck, hit the 20, and force fed the reanimated creature some food to finish the Elf player off before they could kill me. I had a playmat commissioned to celebrate

[@bryanstrahm9961]

I had a game with my Superfriends deck where I had Vorinclex on the field, played Ugin Spirit Dragon, immediately ulted, drew into both Nicol Bolas God-Pharoah, and Nicol Bolas Dragon-God, proceeded to ult God-Pharoah and then Dragon-God. Very sudden borderline unstoppable win once Ugin resolved.

[@spoopyboi1882]

"Ate muh sis" yup, that's how that's pronounced

[@franslair2199]

In commander, door to nothingness is the go-to wincon of Ramos, Dragon Engine decks, as Ramos generates a lot of 5-color mana and that's the perfect sink for it.

[@DAsrada]

Opponent: let's their guard down around Ezio. Me: reanimate a Magister Sphinx

[@anderson0607]

I used to play a very effective Etrata deck. It has some creatures to block, 60 cards only, some control spells and 4 etratas on it. What means each 15 card, one was Etrata and the more the game stand, more likely was for me to draw her back.

[@Durgenheim]

I love nothing more than hearing Seth say, “Vuh-roska, Gol-Gary Queen”

[@RajaniIsa]

The Vraska assassins are also prime for the various unblockable artifacts that usually require a low power to work.

[@doublee343]

I’ve won more commander games with Nicol Bolas, dragon God than I can count :)

[@MTGGoldfish]

Yeah, it's definitely one of the strongest "lose the game" cards, especially if you build around it.

[@TelvanniGuard]

That cut during 15 was very funny.

[@gmofftarki]

How does Artemsis interact with cards on which there are two listed mana costs, like Brazen Borrower?

[@verververververver]

Gotten a few Door wins with an Urtet deck recently. Chromatic orrery, clock of omens and doubling cube assures if it enters you can hit it

[@GrimmsDeath]

In arena I've won with both Vorpal Sword and Strixhaven Stadium. Treating Strixhaven stadium like a mana rock worked fine for me because people don't think I'm using it as a win condition.

[@TheFifthsWord]

I pulled off Atemsis in a game with Unesh as the commander. Unesh's ability can add so many cards to your hand it's super easy to get 6 different mana values

[@NereidAlbel]

One important note about Vraska, Scheming Gorgon: your creature doesn't have to deal combat damage to kill, just *any* damage. A "tap to deal 1 damage" creature works just fine, making her a little better.

[@MtgAlchemist]

Please try Insidious roots with moss-pit Skeleton! When the roots puts counters on the plants it creates, the skeleton then sees those counters and goes to the top of your library thus leaving your graveyard for a second trigger. Not infinite but seems like a cool synergy.

[@JusticeJanitor]

That Telecaster with blood moon art on it goes soooo hard.

[@themobiustripper]

I could see the planeswalker deck vraska work with counter doublers to one-shot a table in a single combat step. Super friends shenanigans and proliferate can also help pump those rookie numbers up. Also, since Doubling Season costs 5, this costing 6 means it's perfect for curving out!

[@myrusEW]

with vraska, you can proliferate, multiple times per turn, letting you use their ultimate the same turn they are played, which along with playing them in control decks could make it viable (not necessarily efficient or worth it). ima try it

[@jamesrule1338]

I don't need a single card to lose the game, I can do it pretty well on my own.

[@curtisnielsen1399]

I have both a vorpal sword and Vraska The Unseen in my sister's of stone death deck that is based around a ton of ramp and board wipes early to control the board an use her abilities with trample to get through. I have considered adding a Phage as well

[@VCV95]

Ah, Vraska the Unseen. Only planeswalker I have ever pulled! It was a $30-40 dollar card then, too! Was great trade fodder!

[@HeyApples]

I used to have a Jeskai control deck that could absolutely kill people with Atemsis on a consistent basis. So much that the playgroup feared it and it was often kill on sight even without much of a hand. It's not a card you should actively shove in decks, but if you just happen to have a lot of card draw and a good MV spread across your deck, it can occasionally be a good inclusion.

[@zackbonno3675]

I've consistently had Vraska the unseen in decks since the card came out. I've won with her ultimate once with Xavier Sal. I had intruder alarm and another walker out so I made a bunch of non legendary tokens copies of him and the following turn sacced all of them to each other to proliferate her to ultimate

[@maxdark9462]

I've seen a deck of many things being played exactly once, and in that game my opponent managed to roll the 20. He pulled a goldspan dragon from my graveyard, and i, who had not read the card, did cast a removal on said goldspan....

[@Xhadp]

On top of Door being easy to trigger it also pairs well in a gate deck with Maze's end. So I find it strange that you say the only reason it is that high is due to improvements in recent years when it is able to be done with an infinite mana engine that can generate any colors during any time since its release.

[@KeganKirby]

Number 15, hidetsugu consumes all. the last thing you want to find in your burgerking burger is an ogre that consumes the whole building.

[@QuietlyHere666]

Atemsis is actually really fun to build around in edh. Built it for a friend and it was really enjoyable to playtest

[@angelofdeath3245]

Nicol Bolas Dragon God + Aminatou + Oath of Teferi is infinite activations. Once you have used bolas to remove all your opponents legendaries double up the counters with Vorinclex for the win. It is shockingly fast and consistent in a Sisay deck.

[@JustinVanTrump]

Put Strixhaven Stadium in a deck with a lot of 1 power creatures and cards that say "The ring tempts you" and always choose a 1power creature as your ring-bearer, it would only be able to be blocked by a creature with power 1 or 0

[@jadecameron1254]

I pulled a triskaidekaphobia at the shadows over innistrad prerelease two-headed giant event, and my friend and I decided to go for it. We won a game with it and the look on our opponents’ faces was priceless 🤣

[@CommanderMastersOficial]

I built a Phage EDH deck and is really fun to play. It's like the Dark Souls of decks, one mistake and you're dead.

[@customizablemilk353]

me: reads title also me: just lost the game

[@samuelsumuel9683]

Ezio and tree of perdition or the Sorin that takes life total to ten seems simple enough. Probably need a whispersilk cloak too. So a 3 card combo, but one card is in the command zone. Seems pretty doable.

[@jms4979]

I've lost to Vraska Golgari Queen's ult when playing a control deck in Explorer. In game 1 I am a little weak to opposing planeswalkers, and if they can stick this just as we both go into topdeck mode sometimes it just sits there plussing and then once they emblem I am in a precarious spot

[@Phoenix512100]

I have won with Vraska Golgari Queen's emblem twice. Once during when it was in Standard where I was in a board stall and managed to get the emblem but the opponent kept killing my creatures. I needed to use Tamiyo Collector of Tales to recur a Nissa Who Shakes the World from my graveyard to make a hasty 3/3 land to kill my opponent. The other time wasn't even my Vraska but my opponent's Vraska who was about to get the emblem on their next turn. I use Mass Manipulation to steal their Vraska, ultimate it for the emblem, and immediately killed the opponent with it. Also I managed to win with Vorpal Sword's opponent loses the game in limited.

[@anthonymentalewicz5143]

Art on mirrordin besieged would have been a sick battle type card - start with 5 hits - flips into karn.

[@Freddisred]

Blim, Comedic Genius is a very fun commander to giftewrap live grenades for your opponent. Forcing players to discard means they will have to rely on whatever garbage Blim hands to them, perhaps a charming Archfiend of the Dross with no counters on it.

[@ursulcx299]

16:54 "Those win trigger at your upkeep" Says Seth showing us an Angel of destiny triggering on our endstep

[@N4m3lesS_1]

i gotta say, i like some of these cards and while i didnt play mtga with triskedaikaphobia it sounds not that hard or at least kinda funny to try. But i had some really nice games and wins with the strixhaven Stadium (by PROLIFERATING rather than attacking!) in Standard in MTGA - and a lot less in historic but i could win against some friends. Instawins (or loses) are kinda fun to play and to build around i think =) and thx for the list

[@Come0nAndSlam]

In standard I have an exile focused mono white control deck that then uses faithbound judge to close out games I don't really maintain card advantage in, and as long as they are never able to ruin my graveyard it absolutely works deck isn't even close to meta, yet still manages to have a decent winrate for me

[@ditfing]

I have Atemsis in my Unesh deck (probably the worst sphinx in there tbh), and just earlier this year I got my first Atemsis kill, the deck is pretty much a perfect home for it though since I tend to have a massive hand and my curve goes from 0-8.

[@dyne313]

I use Strixhaven Stadium in my Ovika Brawl deck to get some wins.

[@makariosagios]

I got 2 of my friends with Triskaidekaphobia in the same game for the win. It was so satisfying.

[@luka2784]

I played a trickadekaphobia and tree of perdition deck in a dimir control shell back in kaledesh standard. Pretty fun, I went 2 and 1 a few times at fnm's.

[@yusheitslv100]

I played against someone on Door to Nothingess (commander: Child of Alara) the other day. I won because the 4th player lost prior and they chose to take out the player on the commander that gives everything vigilance if you have 3+ creeatures.

[@SomethingWiley]

Thank you for your service Saffron Olive!🕊️