1st turn kill decks

[mzepol]

My buddy and I are trying to compile a list of decks that kill on the 1st turn to see which is the most consistent and most effective. We removed all restrictions except for the 4 card limit on all non-basic land cards.

So far, we've built Academy, Tendrils, Megrim/Jar and Flash Hulk.

The Tendrils deck is the most consistent and easiest to pull off so far.

If any of you have any 1st turn kill decks (unrestricted), please post them here and we'll try them out.

Thanks!

[aww1979]

Academy is probably the best for that, under the conditions you state. Back when Urza's Saga came out, that was probably the best deck ever. (the B.S. with 4 windfall, 4 time spiral, 4 tolarian academy etc etc) I'll never forget reading this guy's description of a 10 round goldfish test right after Saga came out: 6 1st turn kills, 2 2nd turn kills, 1 4th turn kill, and one loss for stroke of geniusing himself for too much!

Anyone can make a deck that wins 99% of the time on turn 1 if they ignore the restricted list (endgame shandalar decks are proof of that!) so here's some that work to varying degrees if you follow the type 1 rules:

Other ideas that can kill on the first turn:
-Goblin Charbelcher deck. The idea is to have lots of mana sources and very very few lands, as well as 4 Land Grant.
-Hatred deck. This one isn't so reliable, but you can make it happen
-Channelball deck. Channel's restricted, but with a dream hand you can win first turn
-Sneak Attack deck. Again, you'll need a dream hand, but something like land, 2x mox, mana vault, sneak attack, serra avatar is game.
-Elf deck. (yes, really) With the right draw, you can make enough mana to do anything you want, and then win with Fireball or something like Akroma's Memorial to give thirty elves haste or whatever
-Ad Nauseum deck. Basically, use ad nauseum to draw your whole deck, and design it so that all the cards have very low casting cost, and then kill with something like Tendrils of Agony
-Archive Trap. It's a one in a billion shot, but if opponent goes fetchland, go, and you have four archive traps in hand, it's game over :p
-Kobold clamp deck. It's not very reliable, but it can work. Skullclamp your 0/1 kobolds, use stuff like Glimpse of Nature or Carnival of Souls or Cloudstone Curio, and some kill like Tendrils of Agony
-Dredge deck. It's probably not very likely to win on turn one, but if things work out, it could. It is very consistent at winning by turn 4 or 5 though
-Dragonstorm. It's not very reliable either, but it could win on turn one as well.
-Eureka + Black Lotus and whatever dream hand you can come up with
-haste creatures and Berserk, again with a dream hand something like land lotus mox ball lightning 2x berserk is possible
-anything that can get Time Vault and Voltaic Key out and untap the vault on turn 1, such as those two plus Mishra's Workshop + Mox

This isn't a deck, but to build first turn kill hands, you'll want to pay special attention to the following:
-most cards on the restricted list (most are there for a reason!) Especially the Power Nine, Fastbond, Yawgmoth's Will, Tinker, Demonic Tutor, Wheel of Fortune
-zero mana artifacts, especially mana producing ones like Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, and the restricted ones
-anything that draws cards, especially for low mana cost (like Ancestral Recall, Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, Infernal Contract, Frantic Search)
-anything that makes extra mana, like Dark Ritual, moxes, Mana Crypt, Lotus Petal, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, etc
-storm cards
-anything with pay X life: do something, like Hatred, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Channel
-anything with an alternate casting cost, like Gush, Dread Return, etc, or that lets you cheat stuff into play, like Eureka, Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, Shallow Grave (and other reanimation, but that one's nice for turn 1 kills because it gives haste)
-lands that produce more than one mana and do not enter play tapped, such as Mishra's Workshop, Gaea's Cradle, Ancient Tomb, etc
-anything that tutors for cards, especially at low mana cost, and especially that puts it straight into your hand, like Demonic Tutor or Grim Tutor, or straight into play, like Tinker
-miscellaneous completely broken stuff like Mind Over Matter or Skullclamp, as well as anything I forgot to put on the list that should be here :p

Probably the most reliable ones are going to be academy, tendrils, ad nauseum (though I haven't tried that one yet), and belcher.

[stassy]

Not technically a 1st turn kill but like Time Vault and Voltaic Key combo you also have the Blue Death deck which grant unlimited turn and 4 Black vise for at least winning 90% rate against most deck but those specced against shuffeling.

Code: Select all

;Blue Death
;
;Underdogs
;no.spam@plea.se
;octobre 27, 2006
;1
;4th Edition
;

.126   16   Island
.1   4   Ancestral Recall
.25   4   Braingeyser
.249   4   Time Walk
.250   4   Timetwister
.18   4   Black Vise
.169   4   Mox Sapphire

[discoransom]

I may be the only person alive who has killed an opponent on turn one with a Revised-only deck, respecting the banned restricted list of today. Had to be a one in a million shot.

[jatill]

I may be the only person alive who has killed an opponent on turn one with a Revised-only deck, respecting the banned restricted list of today. Had to be a one in a million shot.

It took me a while to figure out how to do this. Nice puzzle. (probably would have been a lot easier if I had looked at the list of cards in the set!)

[aww1979]

forest fastbond, various combination of lands, dark rituals, etc, channel, fireball or disintegrate?

Fastest kill I ever had with a paper deck was turn 4, and funny enough it was with a land destruction deck :p Turn 1 land go, turn 2 land and topdecked Sol Ring, turn 3 land Erhnam Djinn go, turn 4 draw Storm Seeker, land swing for 4 go, waited for opponent to draw and played Storm Seeker and Fork for 8 each :p

[mzepol]

Academy is probably the best for that, under the conditions you state. Back when Urza's Saga came out, that was probably the best deck ever. (the B.S. with 4 windfall, 4 time spiral, 4 tolarian academy etc etc) I'll never forget reading this guy's description of a 10 round goldfish test right after Saga came out: 6 1st turn kills, 2 2nd turn kills, 1 4th turn kill, and one loss for stroke of geniusing himself for too much!

Anyone can make a deck that wins 99% of the time on turn 1 if they ignore the restricted list (endgame shandalar decks are proof of that!) so here's some that work to varying degrees if you follow the type 1 rules:

Other ideas that can kill on the first turn:
-Goblin Charbelcher deck. The idea is to have lots of mana sources and very very few lands, as well as 4 Land Grant.
-Hatred deck. This one isn't so reliable, but you can make it happen
-Channelball deck. Channel's restricted, but with a dream hand you can win first turn
-Sneak Attack deck. Again, you'll need a dream hand, but something like land, 2x mox, mana vault, sneak attack, serra avatar is game.
-Elf deck. (yes, really) With the right draw, you can make enough mana to do anything you want, and then win with Fireball or something like Akroma's Memorial to give thirty elves haste or whatever
-Ad Nauseum deck. Basically, use ad nauseum to draw your whole deck, and design it so that all the cards have very low casting cost, and then kill with something like Tendrils of Agony
-Archive Trap. It's a one in a billion shot, but if opponent goes fetchland, go, and you have four archive traps in hand, it's game over :p
-Kobold clamp deck. It's not very reliable, but it can work. Skullclamp your 0/1 kobolds, use stuff like Glimpse of Nature or Carnival of Souls or Cloudstone Curio, and some kill like Tendrils of Agony
-Dredge deck. It's probably not very likely to win on turn one, but if things work out, it could. It is very consistent at winning by turn 4 or 5 though
-Dragonstorm. It's not very reliable either, but it could win on turn one as well.
-Eureka + Black Lotus and whatever dream hand you can come up with
-haste creatures and Berserk, again with a dream hand something like land lotus mox ball lightning 2x berserk is possible
-anything that can get Time Vault and Voltaic Key out and untap the vault on turn 1, such as those two plus Mishra's Workshop + Mox

This isn't a deck, but to build first turn kill hands, you'll want to pay special attention to the following:
-most cards on the restricted list (most are there for a reason!) Especially the Power Nine, Fastbond, Yawgmoth's Will, Tinker, Demonic Tutor, Wheel of Fortune
-zero mana artifacts, especially mana producing ones like Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, and the restricted ones
-anything that draws cards, especially for low mana cost (like Ancestral Recall, Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, Infernal Contract, Frantic Search)
-anything that makes extra mana, like Dark Ritual, moxes, Mana Crypt, Lotus Petal, Elvish Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, etc
-storm cards
-anything with pay X life: do something, like Hatred, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Channel
-anything with an alternate casting cost, like Gush, Dread Return, etc, or that lets you cheat stuff into play, like Eureka, Show and Tell, Sneak Attack, Shallow Grave (and other reanimation, but that one's nice for turn 1 kills because it gives haste)
-lands that produce more than one mana and do not enter play tapped, such as Mishra's Workshop, Gaea's Cradle, Ancient Tomb, etc
-anything that tutors for cards, especially at low mana cost, and especially that puts it straight into your hand, like Demonic Tutor or Grim Tutor, or straight into play, like Tinker
-miscellaneous completely broken stuff like Mind Over Matter or Skullclamp, as well as anything I forgot to put on the list that should be here :p

Probably the most reliable ones are going to be academy, tendrils, ad nauseum (though I haven't tried that one yet), and belcher.

We thought unrestricted Academy would be the best of the lot, but were surprised by how much easier we can pull off the Tendrils combo.

[240sxforever]

In manalink?
If not then Horn of Greed / Fastbond decks can do it.

[discoransom]

forest fastbond, various combination of lands, dark rituals, etc, channel, fireball or disintegrate?

Fastest kill I ever had with a paper deck was turn 4, and funny enough it was with a land destruction deck :p Turn 1 land go, turn 2 land and topdecked Sol Ring, turn 3 land Erhnam Djinn go, turn 4 draw Storm Seeker, land swing for 4 go, waited for opponent to draw and played Storm Seeker and Fork for 8 each :p

Close, but you'll find you don't have enough cards/life to pull it off so easily

And Fork was dirrrty back in the day. So funny that it's barely playable now.

[stassy]

I also recall the Explosion deck was good enough for a 2 turn kill but it was very inconsistant (Bird of Paradise + Bloodlust + Giant Growth + Berserk + Fork) .
This deck was also featured by Mark Rosewater in some wizard old article but I couldn't find it again.

[Pandapanda]

Hi,

A very simple combo for first turn kill deck.

Vampire hexmage + Dark depths. and eventually lightning greaves.

If you use dark ritual, you got a good probability to get a 20/20 flying creature in turn 2 or 3 - and most likely 40 life points with the sword to plowshare your opponent will use. Lightning greave can prevent that.