Breaking Enter the Infinite

Hello everyone!

When we first saw Enter the Infinite two months ago no one thought that it was just a flashy mythic that would never get anywhere. You get to draw your whole deck! No intricate combos, just BAM! Cast it and we're there. Once we're at that point winning is easy - we have our whole deck to work with so hopefully we can do something. The question is simply what allows us to cast Enter the Infinite and what is our kill condition?

One deck Enter the Infinite may fit in is High Tide. This mono-blue deck is capable of producing insane amounts of mana and usually wins by casting Blue Sun's Zenith x = 60 targeting the opponent. However I have some reservations. First off, High Tide is already an incredibly consistent and powerful deck whose problems don't come from not being able to close the game when you have tons of mana, but instead getting yourself in a position to properly combo off. Enter doesn't solve that problem, and it also costs so much mana that you actually need about 16 mana to cast it so you can follow up with a Turnabout, or else you just fizzle.

Another deck that Enter works in is Omniscience. This is another upper tier deck that, by putting a cheap Omniscience in play, can circumvent the steep cost and then win the game with some combination of spells from there. However, once we have Omniscience in play, we already have a card in the deck that we can cast and have it do all the work for us - Burning Wish. Enter the Infinite is no better than Burning Wish in terms of winning, but Burning Wish is far more flexible allowing you to grab another Show and Tell or other cards to help set up the combo before winning.

The third deck to consider for Enter the Infinite is Dream Halls. Dream Halls is better than the previous two options because the Enchantment only costs 5 mana, in case the Show and Tell gets Thoughtseized or something. Enter is significantly better than Conflux that it currently plays because it gives you more options, and it takes away the requirement of playing 4 Progenitus, which is dreadful to drop into play off a S+T. However it is worse than Omniscience because you need an extra card of the same color to cast anything for free, and your opponents get to use the enchantment too. However, all of these downsides are completely negated once we resolve an Enter the Infinite and draw our entire deck. We will have have access to everything possible to answer whatever our opponents are attempting to do, and we can win any way we want!

In Dream Halls decks of old where you would cast Conflux for packages of action cards, Progenitus, and more Conflux there were two major ways to win that I was aware of - False Cure + Beacon of Immortality or Prismatic Omen + Progenitus + Coalition Victory. The first one was much more popular however it targetted the opponent, so cards like Leyline of Sanctity would brick wall the deck. The second one was less popular since it was more complicated to Conflux chain into, but it did not target the opponent, instead simply winning the game. That combo is completely unplayable now though, since Abrupt Decay is so popular, and they can just destroy your Prismatic Omen in response to the Coalition Victory. I considered both of these options for EtI Dream Halls, because we could cut down to just one Progenitus, but there's something better out there!

Laboratory Maniac.

Such a simple, elegant way to win! Seeing as we're drawing our whole deck, the most natural way to win is to deck out! This kill condition is simply better than every other way to win that I have been able to find. First, it takes only 1 card instead of two, so we have an extra slot in the deck. Next, it's blue so we no longer need to play Progenitus. Thirdly, if our opponent plays counterspells or Swords to Plowshares, we have more counterspells than they do, but if they play Abrupt Decay, we can just win in response with Brainstorm! Even if we lose the Maniac to a discard spell early in the game, we can still win through it - Show and Tell in two Emrakuls, then cast another Enter the Infinite and go off again!

With Laboratory Maniac I am actually really excited for Dream Halls now whereas before I was a little skeptical. Here's my current decklist:

4x Show and Tell
4x Dream Halls
4x Enter the Infinite
2x Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2x Griselbrand
1x Laboratory Maniac

4x Ponder
4x Preordain
4x Brainstorm
2x Intuition

4x Force of Will
4x Daze
2x Flusterstorm

1x City of Traitors
3x Ancient Tomb
4x Scalding Tarn
3x Misty Rainforest
8x Island

Sideboard:
4x Relic of Progenitus
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3x Divert
2x Spell Pierce
1x Wipe Away
3x Open Slots

I like to leave the sideboard open for the time being. Legacy is a format that ebbs and flows fairly quickly so if you choose to play this deck tomorrow, your sideboard could be 5 or more cards different than if you were to play again in 1 or 2 months. Regardless, this deck feels very robust and I am very pleased with it!

It feels really good to have figured out the whole combo, and I hope this deck takes off! I will be posting updates if I have any, although I feel like the maindeck is pretty perfect. That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack