The Greatest Bluff in MTG History

This is a story that I heard about a long time ago, and seems to be almost an urban legend in the magic community at this point. A while back I decided to make it into a video, as despite being pretty interesting and almost 2 decades old, it seems nobody has done it yet. Mostly just a cool story I felt like sharing, this took me quite a long time to make, so I hope you like it :)
I know I pronounced LSV's name wrong. I wasn't aware of the difference between louis and luis until after I had already finished most of the video unfortunately :/
There is one other small error in the editing but if you find it you get a gold star or smth I'm calling it an easter egg at this point.
Also sorry for the low mic quality, I only have a webcam microphone.
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The sources for information in this video were mostly my memory of recountings of it irl, and this article: ultimateguard....
Footage used:
Random images and video of LSV and mtg tournaments were used throughout.
All card images were sourced from scryfall.
One of the rules was on scryfall, but the one about not changing your deck is in some pdf I went digging for, I don’t have the link anymore sadly.
The decklist images were made using the MTGGoldfish visual view.
Table flip clip is from this: • Francis Plays Magic th...
The clip of a bunch of cards floating around is the intro to the tap tap concede podcast by loading ready run
The 2 movie clips are from The Matrix and Rounders respectively (idk i just wanted some vaguely poker related footage and that’s what I found on a google search, haven’t seen the movie.)
The MTGO gameplay is downloaded from an Andrea Mengucci video. (it’s just standing in as random gifts storm gameplay, refer to the note on screen during it.)
Funny chess guy falling over link: • Polish National Team M...
Fast explaining guy is just fast explaining guy meme idk his name or the original source.
Music:
Veritas - Impulsive
Lemmino - Cipher
Jake Chudnow - Moon Men (instrumental)
Home - We're Finally Landing
Blazo - Natural Green
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Credits:
Writing, editing - Ski Freak
Thumbnail - Xefas
& thanks to everyone who gave feedback on the video before release!
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Metadata:
#MTG #magicthegathering

[@Ski_Freak]

Join the Discord server - discord.gg/sRB54zg Follow me on Twitch - twitch.tv/that_ski_freak This is a story that I heard about a long time ago, and seems to be almost an urban legend in the magic community at this point. A while back I decided to make it into a video, as despite being pretty interesting and almost 2 decades old, it seems nobody has done it yet. Mostly just a cool story I felt like sharing, this took me quite a long time to make, so I hope you like it!

[@LSVargas]

I enjoyed this lookback - really well done, and I can verify the details are as accurate as I remember them =)

[@marcbodis3257]

I got used to watch you fishing for your wincons in cube. Interesting to see this trend in your constructed decks also 😂

[@afwaller]

Legendary comment

[@concertautist4474]

LSV playing without a wincon so he can squeeze in more card draw. Well I never.

[@googleplusisterrible4837]

Criminal 😂😂😂

[@nikolo14]

@@concertautist4474a card draw spell at that!

[@xternalpunk]

This is why I always make a combo player play it out. Being matched against lotus field so many times in pioneer has taught me that about 25% of the time they don't know how to pull it off and I'll be able to win.

[@LarsIsReal]

​@@Ski_FreakTo be fair, it's a lot more relaxed doing the combo on MTGO than it is on paper

[@KILOBify]

Most combo decks have deterministic wins so perhaps save yourself the time if you recognize it to be the case.

[@Ski_Freak]

@@KILOBify Yeah a lot of comments seem to be missing that there is a bit of a decision tree to this, it's not always just 'play it out 100% of the time bro!' To be fair though, often in fnm players can fuck up even if they already did it properly once and it's deterministic xd

[@ethandale5144]

As a lotus field player. Thank you for letting me combo off. 80% or more of my opponents concede after I choose the cards for ultimatum and I just wanna do the whole combo timer be damned🥹🥹

[@alwaysplaythegame]

Except he literally played out the entire combo. The last card is deterministic and how would you expect LSV of all people to "forget" the critical card in the deck. It's like Seth playing 100 rhinos and forgetting the actual rhino.

[@kithkindeck]

After seeing Luis pass tendrils in vintage cube and say ''we don't need a wincon'', then winning all of his matches with the siege gang commander he got at pick 45 IN A STORM DECK, I'd be willing to believe he trolled everyone there and purposefully did not pack tendrils.

[@Ski_Freak]

Yeah I mean he could be lying to us, it’s not impossible, I didn’t feel like delving into that possibility in the video because it doesn’t really have much impact or evidence. I’d also believe it turned into a meme after this occasion so he just does it time to time, also purely speculation though.

[@jacksonletts3724]

I’ve watched a lot of LSV vintage cube, but I don’t think I’ve seen that one. Any chance you have the link?

[@cedI395]

I recall it was from some years ago. He made infinite mana and killed with SGC plus Corpse Dance

[@joaosallaberry]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z5jMh36Mi86Ug5Y

[@smtmonke]

Never sleep on the Siege Gang Commander

[@cybe9717]

I remember playing in a modern tourney with a mono-black devotion deck against jeskai Nahiri control when she was all the rage. Beat a guy G1, and then did some sideboarding and then shuffled up for G2. He was far ahead and I had nothing really going on since he had such a good grip on the game. I couldn't stop Nahiri and my opponent popped her ult. He hesitates to give me time to concede, but I simply shrugged. I find that people conceding to the attack trigger is not nearly as gratifying as watching the trigger actually resolve and seeing things go to the graveyard. Not that it mattered, cause I was burned a few times by lightning helixes and was at 14. But he earned it, so I gave it to him. He looks through his deck... then looks even more.... then looks again. Then he checks his sideboard and facepalms. Emrakul, the wincon, was sideboarded out. Whether an accident or a lapse of judgement, he actually didn't have it and was forced to grab a snapcaster to Serum Visions and then return it to hand after swinging a mighty 2 damage. He only had three snapcasters, so after his recurring damage was killed off, I was able to grapple control over the game again with one good gray merchant resolving, put me out of range and gave me the win. Sometimes it pays to let your opponent have their moment. You just might get one in return.

[@marianorivera3272]

In chess you can trick your opponent into a stalemate from completely lost positions if you know what you are doing and they aren’t specifically looking to avoid stalemate.

[@Snarkeroid]

This kinda thing still happens all the time. I play a combo deck on magic arena and like 5% of the time the opponent concedes when i start comboing even though I know I dont have a guaranteed win in my hand. This sort of thing happens all the time playing storm decks.

[@gnarleytarley3870]

I build a standard version of this deck using gearhulks, was some of the most fun I have had playing standard, never could afford the modern! Nahri was so cool though! But yeah that guy made a mistake, and you earned that win! Nice job, always make them play it out when it's tournament time!

[@johnlancaster2841]

While not for the reason in this video, I always make players play out the entire combo, but just the first time. Once my opponent has represented that they know precisely how it works and that they do have the pieces to do so, I’m fine conceding to it. The only time I would consider not having the opponent play it out is if I am playing a very slow deck (example: I used to play lantern control in modern pre-Mox Opal ban) that regularly goes to time and needs every second available.

[@LucianDevine]

Yeah, no shame in making them play it out the first time, just in case. You get the information of the wincon and, as you said, they prove that they have the ability to execute their combo.

[@MLPAshkore]

LSV is absolutely galaxy brain. A year or two ago, i was watching some of his MODO VOD's, and he was playing a Bolas's Citadel deck, and at one point he says "im dead on board.". Two turns later, "oh, i think i got 'em". Never give up!

[@Barraind.Faylestar]

The fun thing about CCG's is that even at the top level, there are a lot of people who are bad about recognizing the right things. You can get a phenomenal number of people to bite on obvious nonsense just by representing a strong state.

[@thomaswalsh6947]

I remember hearing this story at a GP probably 12 years ago, and a Channel Fireball video shortly after that. “Top 8 Eternal Moments” if I remember correctly. So many great stories in that 20-minute video.

[@Artaimus]

Always view the combo in full the first time. Opponent doesn't get to win unless they can show their work.

[@SpartRyan]

The algorithm has chosen you. And rightly so! Great video.

[@goldlink567]

"The duel's not over till the last card's played."

[@ioannispaxinos5171]

It's not like he didn't legit win. He just used a bluff to work around a technicality. If his burning wish was countered he'd still lose the game. As far as gameplay goes, he won fair and square.

[@emiliorubione837]

cool video! I also enjoyed Ibai at the end

[@kookooburu]

Would love to see more vids in this style, there's something spicy cooking at this channel!

[@tylerrobinson6450]

Nice Summoning Salt tunes. Lol. Great video!

[@40Kfrog]

Always, always, always make your opponent play out their win. I can't count how many durdley control decks that try to annoy their opponents out of the game I've had to deal with that had NO other win condition. Even if they do have it, at the very least you get more information.

[@willo_x9]

Great vid. Can't believe this is your first upload. Props

[@Ski_Freak]

I made a bunch of videos for my trackmania maps so I already knew the basics of the software, and I made a couple scripted + edited videos already for trackmania. The first one I was happy with for my first video, and the second one I actually think is good, so I had a bit of practice before making this. Still a long way to go through! Lots of people make such cool videos on youtube.

[@dks6515]

What an awesome story, great video!

[@rustygray5058]

This is exactly why Reid Duke has his policy of never, ever conceding. I take a similar view - sometimes an opponent has everything they need, but do they even know how to win now that they have the combo out?

[@apocchime]

Way back when Extended was a format I was playing in round 3 or 4 with no losses. My opponent was on Aluren, definitely seemed to have everything he needed to win assembled (he had Aluren resolved a Raven Familiar, Cavern Harpy and a living wish with plenty of mana) and was trying to convince me that he had everything and would win. I told him to play it then. We had a few spectators watching and he seemed kinda off kilter. He proceeded to absolutely butcher the line (can't remember how exactly, just remember how flustered he was) and I got the W.

[@maximuscesar]

Here in my city someone tried that with dragonstorm back in the day, he didn't had a single dragon in the deck. he went somewhat far but eventually someone caught him.

[@Pembolog]

And here was me thinking it was the other greatest bluff of all time, also LSV's token shenanigans

[@Altorin]

**Summoning Salt Music Starts** Oh man you knows its gonna get real now.

[@uberepic8087]

I played a ton of simic nexus and they always made me play it all the way out, probably because you can mess that one up easily, but i loved taking 10 minute turns while my opponents descended into agony

[@-bdl2696]

I wonder how pivotal LSV was to convincing the top 4 to split the prize lol

[@Blairrows]

What a fun story. Thanks for sharing.

[@AnonymousMaykr]

That was a good watch, thanks!

[@grandarchon6969]

A reasonable addendum might be that players now know not to concede until they actually see the win condition in at least the first game.

[@anewfuture]

This is one of many reasons why you simply never concede.

[@dankmtg]

Same dude bluff his 1st marriage.

[@Lornext]

It's in the blood

[@dankmtg]

@@Lornext We know where his blood was flowing...

[@jeffe2267]

Savage

[@RamyASMR]

2:02 hilarious 😂

[@AnthonyAllen-w4n]

The best part about playing cards: BLUFF

[@marianorivera3272]

Is this where the LSV meme about building/drafting decks without wincons was born ?

[@zackpumpkinhead8882]

The Vsauce music was perfect.

[@CaptainUrielVentris7]

I always thought the content of your maindeck and sideboard was known at the start of the tournament, from this I assume you have to declare a list to the organisers but it remains secret from other players? Certainly changes a lot.

[@Ski_Freak]

In recent years larger tournaments have shifted mostly to an open decklist format, where you get to see your opponent’s list before your match. In the past however, your decklist was usually only given to the tournament organizers for the purpose of making sure you follow the game and tournament rules. Based on the amount of comments on this I probably should have mentioned that in the video

[@CaptainUrielVentris7]

@@Ski_Freak interesting. No grief, it's really hard sometimes to realise what simple facts might however not be common knowledge.

[@stevemury2348]

solid video

[@paulamore1630]

If the prize was a Mox Jet, how did the top 4 split it?

[@trashpanda8871]

Was Tendrils not on his decklist? I feel like she should have caught it when making it. If not was he playing the entire tournament with an illegal deck?

[@ScottofOakland]

Now all players have access to decklists, sadly.

[@voltcorp]

haha now the closed/open decklist debate makes more sense

[@Ski_Freak]

closed-open decklist has nothing to do with this afaik, if i recall the main argument was about fairness, because with closed decklist you could gather information from other people, snooping around, or from people having their matches streamed. It kind of sucked for coverage choosing to stream your match to lower your chances to win a tournament. There's probably more to it than that, but this is the main argument I remember.

[@sham1r6]

Instant subscribe.

[@PeterOlschnerMusic]

I believe his name is pronounced like Louise (like a more Spanish sounding pronunciation) ;)

[@brianderx]

That deck should be called the Kobayashi Maru 😅😂

[@strollinpeg181]

There's no way you added in the vsauce theme when you added the plotwist

[@Direwolf0702]

🐐

[@ACooper194]

There is a zero percent chance that LSV did this on purpose to get an edge but a very high chance that LSV did this on purpose because he thought it was hilarious.

[@somepl3b]

Didn't he do this with Elves when he won the pro tour? Like he had no win con but opp assumed he did

[@Ski_Freak]

I am not sure, this is the only major instance of this that I have heard of, although I’m sure its happened more times and with other people, probably just not as famous due to not winning a tournament with it.

[@hmkl6813]

How do i find my favorite youtubers playning other cool games

[@fernandofsalvia]

the lesson with this is: DONT CONCEDE YOUR MATCHES...

[@EionBlue]

Is that why Marshal and LSV play Genius or Grifter on the show? I know the game, in general, is something magic players (including me) love to talk about these thought experiments, but that's already another meta joke considering LSV himself is one of the biggest genius/grifters of all time.

[@Ski_Freak]

Yeah not sure, I never followed the coverage/pro scene closely or paid attention to the actual players, mostly just the decks that were doing well, so I'm not familiar with a lot of that stuff.

[@johnlancaster2841]

From my knowledge, this is a significant part. LSV is a very well practiced bluffer. I don’t remember what event this occurred at, but a couple years ago he stirred a slight controversy in terms of combat bluffs. His opponent moved to combat and LSV immediately grabbed his pen to take damage before his opponent actually declared his attackers, indicating he would not block. Naturally, with this in mind, his opponent attacked with all his creatures. LSV then set the pen down and blocked in a way that was very sub-optimal for his opponent, who was “lured into” making poor attacks. While that’s a topic all on its own, LSV is just known for very convincing bluffs that allow him to control games very well, giving him that joke nickname. Or at least, to the best of my knowledge. I’m not completely certain that’s exactly why, but I’m pretty sure.

[@Chowsz]

I assume something like grapeshot didn't exist?

[@Ski_Freak]

Grapeshot is a worse card for decks like these than tendrils, mind’s desire, or even brain freeze, because usually the bottleneck is cards played, not mana available. Legacy storm decks still use tendrils to this day.

[@Chowsz]

@@Ski_Freak well Grapeshot is deal one 1dmg with storm. Wouldn't it get the same effect because it's wincon is stacking storm stacks and dealing DMG with it?

[@NoxiousAffection]

@@Chowsz Tendrils does 2 damage per storm count, Grapeshot does 1; mana is not an issue in this situation, but guaranteeing 19 storm count is much more difficult than guaranteeing 9 storm count.

[@Chowsz]

@@NoxiousAffection well I'm aware, I'm just saying in a pinch not having that card, compared to being able to settle with Grapeshot if someone would catch on to him and call his bluff. I' agree it would be the best card, but it still serves it's purpose

[@NoxiousAffection]

@@Chowsz I think the point is; you can't change decklist mid-tourney, so he was shafted the moment he confirmed his decklist with the TOs -- As Ski Freak said, he didn't even realize until game 3 of swiss

[@SethG27]

What font is the thumbnail?

[@Ski_Freak]

I’ll ask xefas tomorrow, there’s some font ripping websites you can find as well if you look

[@michaellouis9120]

You pronounce his name incorrectly the whole time

[@Ski_Freak]

"I know I pronounced LSV's name wrong. I wasn't aware of the difference between louis and luis until after I had already finished most of the video unfortunately :/" - description

[@TheNidhogg]

@@Ski_Freak Maybe when you realized you should have considered re-recording the audio of the parts where you say his name. After all the video is all about him...

[@spookytanooky]

This video is well edited but I am begging you…PLEASE get a better mic.

[@Ski_Freak]

I probably will

[@Cryonicity]

I never knew this story n

[@jkid1134]

Huh, do y'all not have to scoop early because the time controls are tight, or is this a little scummy? It's one or the other. Also by your telling of it they split a card 4 ways 😂 Missing a boring detail there or something. Cool story all the same.

[@Ski_Freak]

Yeah missing that boring detail because I couldn't find a concrete answer, but I assume they just moved money and other cards around. Also this was a paper tournament, so it was not using the mtgo chess clock or arena time system, it goes by a time limit on rounds which when reached players have 5 turns (2-3 each), and then it ends in a draw.

[@jkid1134]

@@Ski_Freak you would not believe what time rules are like for yugioh. 5 more turns or it's a draw, that's so good.

[@chasebethersonton5169]

I hate everything about this. This is why I don't play tournaments.

[@nathanielschroeder3362]

Great video but please pronounce his name correctly. I know you weren't doing it intentionally but making sure it's right will honor him.

[@hp5310]

Too bad we have open deck list now.

[@karlgrylls2406]

according to my canadian neighbour i'm on C2 english. But even i had problems understanding you and the subtitles weren't that helpfull. So a little bit clearer pronounciation would be nice. Otherwise great video, loved it and didn't know about this massive bluff

[@Ski_Freak]

Yeah sorry, I’m not an amazing speaker (especially when I’m trying to read from a script) and I am just using a webcam mic so it might be a bit hard to hear, probably worse without headphones as well. In my experience KZbin auto generated subtitles aren’t that great, maybe when I make another video I’ll look into how hard it is to set up better ones.

[@karlgrylls2406]

@@Ski_Freak all good, thank you for not taking my response overly negative. Often people react negative to my postings when i didn't mean to be deprecative. So I have to be more careful about my wording. I'm looking forward to see more videos from you

[@raynenimbus]

My favorite one I saw was at an old legacy GP the pair playing next to me, one of the players was playing a dragonstorm combo deck and had gotten all the way up to 6-(1 or 2 cant remember at this point it was so long ago) without having a single dragon in his mainboard because his opponents would always scoop to a dragonstorm with a storm count of 4-5. It was giga brain because of the fact that he didnt need to run 8 copies of effectively dead draws in his deck and could run draw and ritual spells instead, making the deck vastly more streamlined. Apparently the only match he had lost was when his opponent made him play it out and he conceded on the spot lol

[@Ski_Freak]

Lol that’s pretty funny, definitely a better deck to do this strat with if your goal is to do it on purpose

[@chemicals8582]

I saw someone pull that at a FNM back in the day, too. Generally speaking a player would concede to dragonstorm with 4+ storm if the storm player didn't have any dragons in hand. Dude would sub out the dragons in sideboard games.

[@brandonboyd8252]

It’s so crazy how mind games are such a good strategy in these games

[@MineArcade]

I used to play YuGiOh, and I have a deck that makes a very infamous and long combo in order to get basically infinite resources for summoning (The deck is called Six Samurai). The thing is that I didn't have those "final" cards and I used to play out just the combo and most of the people would just resign mid combo. This video reminded me of those good days haha

[@phillyortho]

Mike Long was the originator of this. He was playing Prosperous Bloom vs Mark Justice in a final and actually sided out Drain Life, his only wincon game 2 as he saw how fast Justice conceded to the combo in Game 1 and he didn't have to show the drain. Next level mind games.

[@Barraind.Faylestar]

To be fair, it being Mike Long, he still had at least 6 drains in arms reach.

[@LucianDevine]

Heh, the classic "I've got you." game! I don't think he actually sided it out, but rather had to exile it to start/continue his combo. The end result was the same though, opponent conceding to a deck that couldn't kill him.

[@thonk7611]

@@Barraind.Faylestarunderrated comment

[@lostboycmd]

Fantastic video! Nice and concise, includes all of the information necessary to understand the win, and well edited :)

[@Restokiki]

AYOOOO THE MAD LAD DID IT

[@harleymanning5213]

1 video deep and this channel is already going to be a mythic rare channel.

[@philipkelly7369]

LSV has gone on record as saying that this bluff was not intentional, he forgot to but Tendrils in his sideboard.

[@Regularsarikas]

Luis actually explains the story in person in one of the old cfb top 10 vids with TSG.

[@swizzzle63]

So this is why he’s always talking about how you dont need a wincon in vintage cube

[@pejman3]

Reminds me of opponents conceding thinking I have explosion in my wilderness reclamation deck, when I sometimes didn't have it (mostly on arena, in eldraine T2, they see me tapping, they scooping)

[@TCZodiacK]

I definitely won a few games with that deck by tapping out all my mana and then emoting good game at my opponent with nothing in hand to spend the mana on.

[@agelessdisintegrated]

I remember back when "Eggs" was a thing in modern. I could be durdeling for up to 15 minutes and still brick. Often i would win due to my oppnent not wanting to watch me go through the motions, however I did fail comboing a lot of the times, they made me do it :) Spend your time wisely, and concede to tedious comboes.

[@AnonYmous-mc5zx]

Nah, play it out.

[@Invisifly2]

@@AnonYmous-mc5zx I won a game of commander because my opponent claimed they had theoretically infinite turns and I wouldn't concede until they turned that theoretical prospect into an actuality. They wiffed on the 6th loop. Then my Decree of Annihilation cleaned up the board *real* nice.

[@AnonYmous-mc5zx]

@@Invisifly2 my favorite moment was playing a Daxos the Returned enchantments prison deck. My opponent got the stasis lock down, but by then all of my enchantments were making me/themselves/my other permanents absolutely unkillable via conventional means (he needed a board wipe for enchantments that didnt target). "Shit, alright well I guess I can just mill you out with every turn card draw." I had more cards in deck than he did. We called it a draw.

[@LucianDevine]

@@AnonYmous-mc5zx Heh, I had a mono green ramp deck that could generate infinite turns, 2 Emrakuls and an Eye of Ugin, and in that same format there was a deck that could gain infinite life. They could potentially gain a billion life, meaning that after I annihilated their board, I still couldn't kill them in time. What I theoretically could do though, is use the Eye of Ugin and the 2 Ulamogs I had in the deck, the 2nd being in there for this very reason, to infinitely reshuffle a card into my library each turn. I couldn't kill my opponent, but I could deck them out while annihilating every turn so that they could never play spells. It never came up, but I wasn't willing to chance it!

[@evanbowenfilm]

Wow great video, super high quality with a dope story. I love learning about old competitive magic

[@omnivision616]

Always play it out. Make em have it.

[@samlawrence9271]

I loved the video format. That was a really cool story I hadn’t heard before. can’t wait for more of your videos!

[@patrickwolf795]

Years ago, I made the top 8 in a big local tournament. I was playing burn and my opponent was playing Klark-clan Ironworks. Ironworks was a very new deck at the time and it was the first time I was playing against it. I took game 1 and my opponent took game 2. During game three, it appeared he got his combo just as I had him down to 1 life. He looks at me and says, "I got it. Wanna wait 15 for me to ping you down to zero?" I thought to myself, 'Why drag it out? If he's got, he's got it. May as well just concede." So, I shook his hand and conceded. As I was packing up, another player walked up to our table and asked my opponent to show the combo. After a bit of back-and-forth between the two, my opponent agreed. Turned out, his combo fizzled and he didn't actually 'have it'. But, since I conceded and packed up already, it was too late to go back. This is a classic example of why you should always wait to see if your opponent has the combo--especially if you're not certain with how the deck works. Not everyone in this game is honest and it's up to us honest players to keep the dishonest ones in check

[@mantizshrimp]

Pat Chapin - Profane Command - all my legal targets gain fear - for the PT winning handshake 🤝

[@PaulGaither]

Rather than demonic tutor, you typically get Dark Ritual with Black lotus to pay for the costs of casting Recoup and Will from the graveyard, then casting Black lotus and ritual from the yard to then cast a tutor, such as the Gifts ungiven from the yard, to find what you need to find tendrils.

[@Ski_Freak]

It was lsv who said that demonic tutor was part of the pile, I decided to take his word on that one since I haven't played the deck, but this might make more sense.

[@PaulGaither]

@@Ski_Freak - I played with LSV in Sacramento, Carmichael, and Davis California in 2006-2008. Maybe it was DT in 2005 when the story happened. It was Dark Ritual when I began playing vintage. The deck split into 4 Mana Drain Gifts and 4 Dark Ritual gifts. 4 ritual was faster and could "go broken" a lot more often, but Mana Drain Gifts was resilient and could cast gifts on your own turn off the free mana from Mana Drain. I ended up defeating LSV for a Mox Ruby with my Mono Black Null Rod Aggro deck in Carmichael CA, and our good friend Ricky Sidhir won an Ancestral Recall in another event with his KAT deck. KAT = Kill-ATog, an anti GAT (Gush ATog) build. The Gifts package of Recoup+ Will + Dark Ritual + Black Lotus was essentially the best package. 1 Lotus 2 Dark Ritual 3 flash back recoup 4 Yawg Will 5 Black Lotus 6 Dark Ritual That is 6 spells and enough mana to go off based on your hand and graveyard. When I began, the deck even played one Empty the Warrens. Just casting mana rocks and Rebuild and/or Chain of vapor and recast the rocks was often enough to put 10+ Goblins in play and just made the game a 1-2 turn clock and was enough.

[@RafaelAAMerlo]

Wow! Amazing story. Would love to hear more similar to it =)

[@PaulGaither]

@@RafaelAAMerlo - Okay, here is a fun story and then a bragging style story: 1. Related to your video, and after having become friends of a sort with LSV, i went to the Lorowyn pre-release (I think that was it) shortly after he won the 2007 Nationals but before he won the Grand Prix. He won with Teachings control and Arcanis the Omnipotent. There was an article with his face photo-shopped over Arcanis and it was titled Luis the Omnipotent or something like that. Well, with our growing friendship, I convinced him to trade me his Arcanis and have him sign it. I still have it in my binder. I told Luis that I would wish for his Tendrils, but I know he doesn't have it. That got a good laugh. When I got back to the table of my other friends from Davis, I showed them and they first reacted "So what, it's just Luis" because to them, he was just our friend Luis who goes to the shop. I reminded them that LSV, even then, was becoming one of the best magic players of all time and was getting better - that his Arcanis is a part of magic history and his rise. That, when we are 30+ (I am 38 now), he won't just be Luis and we won't just be hanging out at the shop anymore. This is a chance to grab a memory of one of the games best and a true memory to hold forever. Imagine owing Craig Jones's Lightning Helix. needless to say, they then understood and started asking him as well. Before you knew it, I started a small craze at the event with then multiple people asking him to sign Arcanis or Mystical Teachings - the true key to the deck. 2. Because I got to know LSV, and went undefeated against him in Vintage tournaments in that era (I lost games, but not matches of best 2 out of 3), he actually approached me in between rounds of FNM and weekend events to jam a few games of vintage and talk shop. He is one of the best magic players of all time, but I was really good at vintage for about three years. When I saw that Tyrant-Oath won a big event in Europe and tested the deck on MTGWorkStation, I found it to be the best deck and had a heated talk with him, Web Ochoa, Jeff "FOB", Eirik and the rest of the crew. I must have convinced Webb because he took it to the Mox Emerald event and won it with Tyrant Oath by going undefeated. Those were good days of playing Magic at the highest level I could attain with some of the best players ever in one of the most prestigious formats of the time.

[@EmptyTempest]

I propose that henceforth, we should refer to any combo deck that intentionally doesn’t include a win-con as “Burning Grifts”

[@SweetZombiJesus]

The biggest bluff LSV ever made was saying "I do".

[@DyrianLightbringer]

Prime example of why you should never concede unless you've already seen your opponent's win-con. Play it out in your first game. Once you see how they win, then if you want to concede next time, go ahead. I don't think I've ever conceded a game in a tournament unless it was game 2 and I already had 1 win and just wanted to be sure I could play game 3 without time called.

[@jackpabich763]

I love the pump fake of Castle Ardenvale/Settle the Wreckage.

[@MostEnvious]

I never concede. Always make your opponent commit. If they're going to make a twenty-card combo and go infinite, by God, I will sit there and let them waste their own time doing it until I am dead. I, personally, would have been too stupid to know what his combo was. I would have sat there, saying, "Okay." After he'd say he's going to play a card from outside the game.

[@JohnFromAccounting]

This still doesn't explain how Gabriel Nassif can win with control decks that seemingly have no win conditions.

[@harktischris]

it might have even been LSV who wrote an article saying that you should always make the other player play out their combo for precisely this reason, a piece of advice i took to heart (also I copied this strategy and bluffed a win in a FNM game when I had all my win conditions cranially extracted from my deck). I think mike long did something similar back in the day with one of his combo decks. i forget the details, but i think he was forced to hard cast his wincon early to survive, and then later his combo went off and in the middle of playing it all out said something like "do i really need to go through all this?" and the other player said no and conceded, not knowing that the wincon was a one-off in the deck.

[@panko2848]

Just wanted to say I play both Trackmania and MTG a load and I always noticed a load of your maps have MTG card names haha. Love the content!

[@galenlemei975]

I was at this event, at Eudemonia in Berkeley, CA. Eudo’s mid-aughts vintage scene was incredible-25 person tournaments stocked with ringers. Miss those days!

[@Kanzu1]

They shut the store down permanently a few years ago unfortunately.

[@wizardsmix7961]

This happened at eudo?? Must've heard it a dozen times. Never knew it happened at my local store.

[@henkiscool321]

If this is you're first video I'm excited for what the future is going to bring. Banger video my man.

[@gpeixe]

I love this bluff from LSV: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIKukn2oisaMiqs 37:00 Super fly

[@TheMaestroso]

I like that LSV has had enough ridiculous bluffs in his career to make me wonder which one this was referring to before watching

[@mrknarf4438]

When that Summoning Salt music jicks in you know it's going to be good 😎 Always love me an LSV story, legendary player

[@rustygray5058]

WotC used to have "fantasy pro tour" picks similar to filling out a bracket for March Madness. Who do you think will win? Who will top 8? What card will be played the most? Etc. For the winning player choice, LSV was banned as a choice, because he's just too consistent. This is the best way I can find to explain just how legendary he is.

[@Loki-]

Also VSauce music.

[@blackhowling1524]

Nice bluff, I heard another legend play similar to this by using curse scrolled at end of opponent turn with opponent has 6 life and he speaks out "firebolt" opponent belive his only card he gonna show is that one so he concede to find out it is a land......

[@nicks4802]

ALWAYS ask “and what is your end result” And “can you actually accomplish it, or is that a threat?” Then tell them to do math and determine exact damage… if THEY cant resolve it, THEY concede. Either tell me how much damage it does, Or you’ve just kinda dropped everything and you’re just standing there… i call that concession… Be prepared to actually have to calculate your insane math problem, if it isn’t actually infinite, You just claim its “almost infinite” thats you trying to get around doing the math of your attack and declare your attacks. “And i swing out” doesn’t cut it…. I WILL make you do the math, and if you cant, you forfeit. Play within your capability to do math. I stick to double digits and win just fine…. Do your math or your lose.

[@emmeeemm]

At least make him play out the combo the first time he asserts it. Make sure he knows the combo and that he has the cards in his deck list and his actual deck to execute from start to finish. After the combo player has earned your respect, then you can consider conceding when he starts it up again in the next game. Around the same era, I got Yata-Locked in Yugioh. I saw a few cycles of the combo and decided that the situation was hopeless. Today, I know the one mistake there was that I should have made sure that my opponent didn't deck out before he finished chipping away at my life points with Yata-Garasu. 200 Atk points and a 40 card deck vs. 8000 starting life points is a race between Yata and the deck. Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End should kick-start the LP drain because its effect inflicts 300 damage for every card it destroys, but still, it's super important to make sure that the remaining deck size actually favors the combo.

[@Figgy20000]

The fact that the TOs let the top 4 conspire to not even play out the semi or finals is the most shocking thing in this entire video. Nowadays doing that at any big event in any Esport would get all 4 of them in major hot water.

[@Ski_Freak]

It's pretty common in events that aren't at the top level / esports in mtg. edit: By pretty common I mean not unusual.

[@LucianDevine]

@@Ski_Freak Yeah, especially for time reasons. It happens at FNM when you get more players than you bargained for and not enough time to finish. The top 4 just all draw and take the same prize. I had it happen to me when I went to a random town's FNM with my standard deck. The control players took too long, and we ran out of time, but I wouldn't be there ever again. So I agreed to the draw, even though I liked my odds in the matches.

[@atonesb5251]

Big "Kiki-Chord doesn't play Kiki-Jiki" energy. I've won MTGO games on devoted druid combo by starting to make infinite mana without a win con in hand. You gotta make them show it to you.

[@Kahadi]

This kind of thing is part of why I never scoop. A friend tried bluffing me similarly back when I first started playing, I called his bluff, and I won as a result. The other reason is that I personally love seeing things play out, even if it means I lose. It's part of why I don't even like opponents scooping when I'm about to win. I want to see my combo play out! I do understand why people do it in tournaments, of course, I'm not saying anything against those that scoop

[@Kyrbi0]

Great video, though a little difficult to understand (vocally, just kinda slurry/muddy IMO). Absolutely loved the VSauce music though. xD

[@NateTmi]

& that is why u never give up when there is that good a prize on the line. Players, my self included, are so use to giving up when they think all hope is lost, in a game, but the only intensive to give up, for me is the chance to play another round with a different person. You don't have that same setting with a prize on the line. So a bad hand or a miss play or a winning combo played vs me, is not going to let me play another round to improve on my errors. Rather it will be a Win or a Loss & the last game I play that day or close to the last match, with a prize if I win. There for I would have far less incentive to give up.

[@RW77777777]

If you're playing slow durdle-y Control you might struggle to get 2 wins in a reasonable time frame. Combo players that 'sort of' understand their deck feast on them simply because of the implication

[@GigaBoost]

Wait a second, the prize was a single card... How'd 4 people split it 😢

[@Ski_Freak]

I assume they had to shuffle a combination of money and cards around lol

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

With a pair of scissors.