Goldfish 12

7 turns, changed to player goes first (no draw). The cube was modified from Goldfish 11 by removing one card that produced infinite combos and replacing it with [a creature that duplicates come-into-play abilities].

Worked scores

AS

Key combo is Doubling Season + Opalescence.
I can also create lots of Doubling Seasons with Flameshadow Conjuring (which go away at EoT) and Flamerush Rider (which go away at end of combat, something I regret being unable to exploit fully). I "lock in" the temporary Doubling Seasons created by the Conjuring by casting Rite of Replication on one turn and Clone Legion on another, and use Restoration Angel trickiness to flicker the Doubling Season in combat, so that when it comes back I can Conjuring it and have the copies be around after combat.
In the final turn I don't need to preserve the Doubling Seasons, so take full advantage of the Flamerush Riders each copying a Doubling Season.

ONE
Island
Mox Jet
Sol Ring
Dark Confident
TWO Draw
Island
Lighthouse Chronologist
Level up x 1
THREE Draw
Island
Level up x 3
Rings of Brighthearth
FOUR Draw
Level up x 3
Mountain
Extraplanar Lens
FOUR-A Draw
Forest
Kiora (2 loyalty)
Kiora -1 (1 loyalty, copy with Rings of Brighthearth)
Mountain
Mountain
Clockspinning with buyback (2 loyalty)
FIVE Draw
Kiora -1 (1 loyalty, copy with Rings of Brighthearth)
Mountain
Mountain
Mountain
Melek
Show & Tell with Melek, play Opalescence and Doubling Season
Clockspinning with buyback (5 loyalty)
FIVE-A Draw
Kiora -1 (1 loyalty, copy)
Mountain
Plains
Flameshadow Conjuring
Restoration Angel
Mountain
Clockspinning with buyback (enough loyalty)
SIX Draw
Kiora -1 (1 loyalty, copy)
Mountain
Mountain
Mountain
Sydri
SIX-A Draw
Kiora -1 (3 loyalty, copy)
Island
Mountain
Mountain
SEVEN Draw
Mountain
Sidri to activate rings of brighthearth and sol ring
Parallel Lives, copy with Flameshadow
Resolve Parallel lives + copy (copy resolves with DS in play creating 2)
Dash Flamerush Rider, copy with Flameshadow creating 2^4 riders
Attack with Riders and Resto, each rider targets Restoration Angel and creates copies. Each angel targets Doubling Season and we pay R to copy the Doubling Season with Flameshadow. We can do this 13 times for 13R in our mana pool. First time creates 2^3 extra copies = 8 for a total of 12. #2 -> 2^11; #3-> 2^2^11 etc.
Cast Howl of the Horde, copied by Melek
Cast Clone Legion, copied by Melek. We now have N = 2↑↑20.84 of all our creatures, as well as N non-creature sol rings and rings of brighthearth
Kiora -1 copied with N Rings of Brighthearth, paid for by N Sol Rings
Play N Islands
Pay for N Lighthouse Chronologists
EXTRA TURNS On each of these N turns we can use the Kiora/Brighthearth trick to get N mountains into play, for a total of N^2 mountains. We can't get any extra rings of brighthearth because our only copy mechanisms are Flamedash Rider (which doesn't work, tokens only exist in combat) and Flameshadow Conjuring (which doesn't work, the Rings of Brighthearth doesn't come into play as a creature) SECOND-LAST TURN Dash Flamedash Rider, copy with Flameshadow conjuring, attack with everything. Target Restoration angel with each Flamedash rider, and have the angel target the Doubling Season card. When it blinks, copy N times with conjuring, spending N red mana. Net result is that we end up with N^2 conjuring copy effects on Doubling Season.
Rite of Replication on Doubling Season locking it in for M=2↑↑(N^2) copies

FINAL TURN Dash Flamedash Rider, copy with Flameshadow conjuring for M copies. Attack with M flamedash riders, each of which copies Doubling Season for 2↑↑M Doubling seasons.
We end up with 2↑↑(2↑↑((2↑↑20.84)^2)) = 2↑↑2↑↑2↑↑20.84
20.84 = 2^4.3812833725 = 2^2^2.13135352826 = 2^2^2^1.09176991324 = 2↑↑3.12666884526
3.126 = 2^1.64462642726 = 2↑↑1.71775991663
2↑↑2↑↑2↑↑2↑↑2↑↑1.71 = 2↑↑↑5.78052841174

Final score is 2↑↑↑5.78 = 10↑↑↑4.0

DK

Use Necropotence (with Library of Leng from turn 3) to draw as many cards for the next turn as I have life each turn. Use Fastbond to play unlimited lands from what was drawn (with Omnath, Locus of Rage plus Healer of the Pride countering the life cost). Initial attack with Yew Spirit on turn 4 for 2^171.32 damage. Noble purpose gains that damage as life, drawn and played as lands next turn. Each subsequent turn's attack deals roughly 2^X damage, where X is the damage dealt on the previous turn. Turn 7's attack is then 2^222171.32 damage, ≈2↑↑7.53.

Such is the power of the B pack that I end up leaving 16 out of 30 cards unused, including my A1 and A2 picks.

I believe this is the highest goldfish score I've achieved without taking any extra turns.

Turn 1: Play Forest; Fastbond; Swamp × 3; Necropotence; Forest. Activate Necropotence for +7 cards.
Turn 2: Play Lotus Cobra; Harrow; Land × 3, Aid from the Cowl; Healer of the Pride. Aid triggers: put into play Omnath, Locus of Rage. Activate Necropotence for +7 cards.
Turn 3: Play Land × 2; Doubling Cube. Use Doubling Cube. Play Yew Spirit; Library of Leng; Noble Purpose; Anthem of Rakdos. Attack (lose 6 life then gain 30). Activate Necropotence for +30 cards.
Turn 4: Play Land × 28. Use Doubling Cube. Play Mizzium Transreliquat; become Doubling Cube; use. Play Illusionist's Bracers; Mizzium becomes Bracers; equip both on Yew Spirit. Attack; use 224 mana to activate Yew Spirit 56 times (tripled from Bracers × 2) for 2 × 5 × 2^56×3 = 2^171.32 damage. Activate Necropotence for +2^171.32 cards.
Turn 5: Play Land x 2^171.32. Tap for mana; use Doubling Cube × 2 (2^171.32 × 8 = 2^174.32 mana). Attack; use mana on Yew's ability 2^172.32 times (tripled from Bracers × 2) for 2 × 5 × 2^2171.32 damage. Activate Necropotence for +2^2171.32 cards.
Turn 6: Repeat but with more land. Deal 2^22171.32 damage and draw that many cards from Necropotence.
Turn 7: Repeat again but with more land. Deal 2^222171.32 damage = 2↑↑7.53 damage.

SI

LP

Eye of the Storm is one of those classic Goldfish cards:

• Together with two blue spells that grant extra turns, Temporal Trespass and Part the Waterveil, it allows adding two extra turns each time Eye of the Storm triggers.
• With nine other instants and sorceries acting as triggers, plus some extra copies from the initial castings of the blue spells using Mirari, it seems feasible to gain an extra 23 turns.
• Unfortunately, Haze of Rage's buyback ability and White Sun's Zenith's reshuffle ability can't be used once Eye of the Storm hits the table, but they could both be used prior to that if needed.

The other part of the engine is damage:

• Rapacious One attacking and spawning mana critters (twice as many, thanks to Primal Vigor) making multiple life gain triggers via Soul Warden, which makes everything (including Rapacious One itself) very large courtesy of Archangel of Thune (doubled by Primal Vigor).
• Storm Herd acts as a doubler on that effect which occurs repeatedly thanks to Eye of the Storm, but it is not a core component.
• Gleam of Authority attached to Rapacious One interacts with the Soul Warden / Archangel of Thune combo ensuring the Rapacious One is massive.
• Spoils of Blood can recycle sacrificed mana critters (an effect also doubled by Primal Vigor), but I think all that is dwarfed by Rapacious One's size itself which is the main damage effect.

There are a few card draw effects that can be used to fuel everything.

• Chandra Ablaze can be used to draw three cards repeatedly, so drawing an extra twelve cards over seven turns is easy, which suffices to get the engine into play.
• Lifeblood Hydra plus Fireball as a way to kill it, also provides a way to draw a very large number of cards but we really only need that to draw any engine components not yet in place by turn seven. Fireball could otherwise be used to convert spawn critters into damage at some point if needed.
• Sprouting Vines can draw a large number of lands, but I have no way of getting those into play, so discarding them in order to make the Delve spells cheap is the only possible use, and that may not even be necessary.

Mana:

• Well obviously Rapacious One's ability to spawn oodles of mana critters means colourless mana is no obstacle.
• There are a few turn one plays that get a lot of mana onto the table. Black Lotus, Mox, Mox, Mox, Mana Vault is one option which can get Chandra Ablaze onto the table on turn one, allows drawing three more cards that turn, and playing some of them too.
• Black Lotus is a one-off and Mana Vault quickly becomes irrelevant, so the long-term benefits are really from the Moxen, which supply an extra three coloured mana per turn from turn one. Together they provide an extra 27 mana, mostly coloured, within the first seven turns (on top of the 27 or so coloured mana from normal lands), which suffices to put all of the engine components into place.

I think the final score is at least 2^{100,000,000,000,000} which is about 2↑↑5. But I haven't really thought whether the repeated effects caused by Eye of the Storm make a difference, I've only been considering the extra turns it provides. In particular, all the copies of Storm Herd could have a significant effect.

DB

Starting hand
Manabonds
1 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp

T1 → Forest → Manabonds → Play 6 lands with Manabonds
T2 (6 lands) → Draw and Play Ancestral Recall → Plains → Nin → Wheel of Fortune → Draw 7 lands → Play 7 lands with Manabonds. (2 Island , 3 Plains, 1 Mountain, 1 Swamp, 1 Forest)

T3 (14 lands) → 5 lands to play Mirari's Wake → 9 lands untapped = 18 mana from Mirari's Wake.
T3 (9 lands == 18 mana, 0 cards) 3 mana to activate Nin targeting themselves for 1 damage (gets +1/+1 from Mirari's Wake)
T3 (15 mana, 1 card) Sphinx's Revelation X=3
T3 (12 mana, 3 cards) Prophet of Kruphix (5 mana), Cathars' Crusade (5 mana), Goblin Bombardment (2 mana)

Prophet of Kruphix lets me take advantage of the Goldfish's turn (TXG = Turn X Goldfish)
T3G (28 mana, 0 Cards) Activate Nin targeting the Prophet for 5 (7 mana).
T3G (21 mana, 5 cards) Glint-Eye Nephilim (18 mana left), Chasm Skulker (15 mana left), Dune-Brood Nephilim (11 mana left), Ob Nixilis the Fallen (6 mana left), Rampaging Baloths (0 mana left)

T4 (28 mana, 0 cards) Activate Nin targeting the Prophet for 4 (6 mana).
T4 (22 mana, 4 cards) Strata Scythe (3 mana, Planes, Equip to Glint-Eye for 3 mana)
T4 (16 mana, 3 cards) Edric (13 mana left), Vesuvan Doppelganger copying Edric (8 mana left), Finest Hour (3 mana left)
T4 First Combat → attack with Glint-Eye dealing 16 damage. Glint-Eye is a 2/2, gets +1 from Mirari's Wake, +6 from Cathars' Crusade creature ETB triggers, +1 from Finest Hour, +6 from Strata Scythe and 6 Plains. Drawing 36 cards (doubled by Archive) from Glint-Eye and two Edric triggers. Drawing 35 lands, playing 1 land to give me a Baloth.
T4 (5 mana, 16 lands in hand, 1 card) Custodi Soulbinders (4 mana)
T4 Second Combat → attack with 6 creatures that don't have summoning sickness, drawing 12 cards off both Edrics and 16 cards off Glint-Eye, doubled by Archive for a total of 88 lands in hand, 15 on battle field. Dune-Brood spawns 15 Sands putting 15 +1/+1 counters on everything.
T4 End → Manabond 88 lands for a total of 103 on the battle field and spawning 88 Baloths.

State of Game after T4
44 Lands on Battlefield, for simplicity I am rounding down so Glint-Eye and Chasm Skulker both have 108 +1/+1 counters, everything else just has 88 +1/+1 counters.

From T4 until I cast Temporal Manipulation lands drawn and played will be 3/5 Plains, 1/5 Mountains and 1/5 Forests. This will make sure I have enough coloured mana to replicate Run and activate Custodi Soulbinders as much as I want while maximizing the number of plains for Strata Scythe.

After I cast Temporal Manipulation all lands will be plains to maximize Strata Scythe while still allowing Custodi Soulbinders activations.

T4G (109 lands down, 218 mana available, 0 cards in hand) → Activate Nin for 4 cards, and play Djinn Illuminatus, Nantuko Husk, Plains, and Avenger of Zendikar. 3 creatures + 110 plants + 1 Baloth gives everything 114 +1/+1 counters. (5 mana for Nin and 17 for creatures = 109 - 22 = 87 mana left)

T4G Activate Custodi Soulbinders 29 times for another 29 +1/+1 counters.

State of Game after T5G
110 Lands on Battlefield, Glint-Eye and Chasm Skulker both have 251 +1/+1 counters, everything else just has 227 +1/+1 counters. No cards in hand.

T5 Activate Custodi Soulbinders 73 times. First combat attack with Glint-Eye (324 +1/+1, +1 from Mirari's Wake, +1 from Finest Hour, +41 from Strata Scythe) dealing 367 damage and drawing 738 lands (including 2 Edric triggers). Second combat attack with all, 13 real creatures, 15 sands, 88 baloths, and 29 spirits. Drawing a total of 738 (from Glint-Eye) + 576 (From Edric triggers) = 1314 lands. Dune-Brood spawns another 110 sands giving everything 110 +1/+1.

T5 End - Play 2052 lands with manabond spawning 2052 baloths and 2052 +1/+1 counters for a total of 2162 lands in play.

T5G - Activate Custodi Soulbinders 720 times for another 720 +1/+1 on everything.

T6 First combat attack with Dune-Brood spawning 2052 Sands and giving everything 2052 +1/+1
T6 Second combat attack with all, 13 real creatures, 15 sands, 2140 baloths, and 749 spirits.
T6 Sacrifice Chasm Skulker to Nantuko Husk, spawning 3,133 squids and giving everything 3,133 +1/+1.
T6 Before second combat damage cast Run, replicated 864 times. There are 8102 creatures in play giving all creatures +7 million/+0 until end of turn. Damage dealt by Glint Eye draws me 14 million lands.
T6 End step, play 14 million lands with manabond, 2/5 islands, 2/5 plains, 1/5 forests. This gives me 14 million baloths which gives me 14 million +1/+1

T6O Activate Custodi Soulbinders 4.66 million times for another 4.66 million counters.

T7 (14 million lands, 28 million available mana) Cast Rude Awakening replicated 5.6 million times. For each Rude Awakening trigger add 28 million mana to the mana pool for a total of 156.8 trillion mana. Then cast Temporal Manipulation for 31.36 trillion extra turns.

In each of the extra turns the engine gets another rotation.

Start each turn with X lands, Glient Eye with G counters, and Y creatures on the battlefield.
Spend all mana to Custodi Soulbinders 2X/3 times giving all creatures 2X/3 +1/+1 counters.
First combat attack with Dune Brood to spawn X sands adding giving X +1/+1 counters to all creatures. Attack with all creatures drawing Y×2×2 cards from Eldric Triggers and (G + 2X/3)×2 from Glint Eye triggers for a total of (Y×4) + (2G + 4X/3) cards (C).
Play C lands (one of each type) creating C baloths and giving everything C +1/+1 counters.

This can be expressed with the formula:

turn (X, G, Y) → {
X += (Y×4) + (2G + 2X)
G += (Y×4) + (2G + 4X/3) + 4X/3
Y += (Y×4) + (2G + 4X/3) + X
}

I'm going to make the initial state as X = G = Y = 14 million just to keep me sane.

For my first attempt to calculate this I'm just gonna track lands and assume that X, G, and Y are all equal.

So the total number of lands at the end of the game will be (2X + 2G + 2X)^Turns which gives me 84,000,000^{31,000,000,000,000} which is too big for my head to deal with.

Square that number because lands = creatures = +1/+1 counters on every creature.

AndrewS as informed me this works out to 2↑↑3.37 lands but I will be recalculating my score in the coming days to include more than just the number of lands.

DMM

Use Caller of the Untamed to exile Roiling Horror.

Set up a mana engine using Rofellos, Return to Tomorrow, Lotus Bloom.
Turn 3: Cast Garruk, generate a 3/3 Beast.
Turn 4: Lotus Bloom to cast Celestial Mantle, Garruk to draw 6 cards, Sasaya, reveal 7 lands, flip Sasaya.

Set up damage engine:
Riku of Two Reflections
Caller of the Untamed, copy with Riku (2 Callers)
Clever Impersonator, copy with Riku, each a copy of Caller (4 Callers)
Wall of Reverence, copy with Riku → gain life = biggest creature power twice per end step
Brago, King Eternal → each turn flicker Caller + Impersonator + Wall, create another copy of each with Riku
Create N Roiling Horrors per turn using Callers

Enhancers:
True Conviction → all creatures double strike, lifelink
Sanguine Bond → when gaining life, opponent loses life
Celestial Mantle → double life total (twice because of double striking!)
Equip Dragon Throne of Tarkir onto a Roiling Horror → 2: all other creatures get +X

[I would have like to use Artisan of Forms to make another copy of Caller, but the only spell I had that targeted creatures was Celestial Mantle, which I had to use earlier to draw enough cards with Garruk]

Turn 7: Time Warp
Copy Time Warp with Riku
Increasing Vengeance, copy Time Warp
Copy Increasing Vengeance with Riku, copy Time Warp
Gain 4 extra turns

Turn 11: Yawgmoth's Will
Time Warp (from graveyard)
Copy Time Warp with Riku
Increasing Vengeance (from graveyard), copy Time Warp twice
Copy Increasing Vengeance with Riku, copy Time Warp
Gain 5 extra turns

Turn 12: Ajani creates X 2/2 cats, where X=life (6×10⁴⁵)

Turn 16: Final score: 7.78×10¹⁴⁸ = 10^148.9

TG

Focus was on milling. Keening Stone, Phyrexian Metamorph, Kurkesh and Tezzeret's artifact untaps gave me 8 Keening Stone activations per turn.
Duskmantle Guildmage copied that into damage, but unfortunately I had limited blue/black mana for it. Vulturous Zombie grew with the fish's graveyard, and doubled each turn from the Hydra.

In the background was a creature engine: Xenagos generates mana from creatures, Animation Module turns that mana into more creatures. It only doubled each turn, which was quite slow. I kickstarted the process with two casts of Notorious Throng.

Caught out by the fact that some significant life reduction (Duskmantle Guildmage; Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas; Falkenrath Noble) was "player loses life" rather than "card does damage", so it didn't work with Notorious Throng or Quest for Pure Flame.

Turn 1: Mox Emerald, Exploration, two lands.
Turn 2: two lands.
Turn 3: Two lands, Medomai
Turn 4: Cast Damia, attack with Medomai.

Turn 4A:
No lands played this turn.
Omniscience
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas. Altar of the Brood. Vulturous Zombie. Monastery Mentor. Quest for Pure Flame. Ajani Steadfast. Kalonian Hydra.
Use Ajani+1 for the loyalty.

Turn 5:
Play two lands (all lands played from here will be swamp/island to feed Duskmantle Guildmage)
Cast Animation Module. Run altar/zombie/module cycle 9 times, limited by mana.
Cast Collective Unconscious; draw 18 cards.
Cast Keening Stone, Phyrexian Metamorph (copying Keening Stone),
Get everything else into play. Altar of Dementia, Thopter Spy Network, Falkenrath Noble, Duskmantle Guildmage, Tezzeret Agent of Bolas, Pentavus, Xenagos, Liege of the Tangle.
Use Xenagos to generate 28 mana.
Cast Tezzeret the Seeker to trigger another altar/zombie/module cycle, creating 28 more creatures.
Use Ajani's +1 again.
Attack. At this point the Vulturous Zombie is 125/125.
End turn. Discard 6 basic lands, down to 7 cards.

Turn 5A:
58 mana from Xenagos; trigger cycle by removing a counter from Pentavus. 65 more creatures.
Attack; zombie is 401/401.
Cast Notorious Throng to create 610 more creatures.

Turn 6:
745 mana from Xenagos
Activate Duskmantle Guildmage 5 times
Trigger cycle by casting Bioshift. 710 more creatures.
Cast Past in Flames
Use 8 Keening Stone activations to grow fish's graveyard from 1453 to ~372k
Ajani +2
Attack for 747k
Cast Notorious Throng (flashback/prowl) to create 747k creatures. Grants extra turn. Timing these was difficult because I had only two.

Turn 6A:
749k mana from Xenagos
Activate Duskmantle Guildmage 6 times
Trigger cycle by casting Debt to the Deathless with X=0. 749k more creatures.
Ajani +2
8 Keening Stones; attack.

Turn 6B:
1.5M mana from Xenagos
Activate Duskmantle Guildmage 7 times
Trigger cycle by removing counter from Pentavus. 1.5M more creatures.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas -4.
Ajani +2
8 Keening Stones; attack.

Turn 7:
3M mana from Xenagos
Activate Duskmantle Guildmage 8 times
Trigger cycle by removing counter from Pentavus. 3M more creatures.
Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas -4.
Ajani +2
8 Keening Stones; attack.

Turn 7A:
6M mana from Xenagos
Activate Duskmantle Guildmage 9 times
Activate Quest for Pure Flame. Will affect only the combat damage.
Trigger cycle by removing counter from Pentavus. 6M more creatures.
Ajani +2
Use Altar of Dementia to sacrifice all creatures except Hydra, Zombie and Kurkesh. Falkenrath Noble last of these.
8 Keening stones; attack.
Sacrifice last three creatures.

Final result: 2.53×10¹⁶ milled, 2.63×10¹⁷ life lost.
Score: 2.75×10¹⁷

GJ

I had hoped to use Hypergenesis to bootstrap the key cards and some land.
Howling Mine and perhaps Outpost Seige for extra card draw.
I wanted Chandra Pyromaster on the field at the start so I could keep +1-ing her up to 8.
Echo Mage enchanted with Followed Footsteps, then pump them to level 4.

The intention was to play Beacon of Creation every turn and with Coat of Arms to square the damage to get loads of insect plus Harvest Season rebounded by Cast Through Time at some opportune point to bulk up the lands and make more insects.

Once Chandra hit 8, I could -7 her and activate as many Echo Mage abilities as I could to double-copy the 3 copies of Time Stretch I'd make with Chandra's -7. This should give about another dozen turns to keep generating insects.

The last couple of turns would cast and rebound Craterhoof Behemoth to deliver 2 × X² damage each turn.

That was the idea anyway. That one little detail about having to cast Hypergenesis completely destroyed any chance of doing anything. I had nothing left to bootstrap the mana to get Chandra out and pumped before turn 7. At best I might get Echo Mage out and pumped and ready, and with some luck enough mana with Harvest Season to actually cast both Time Stretch and activate Echo Mage, but that gives two extra turns at best and all the mana spent just to get to that with no real board state to improve on and not enough turns left for Beacon of Creation to do anything.

mezzacotta | Comic Irregulars' Magic: The Gathering | Goldfish Draft

Last updated: Tuesday, 28 April, 2020; 14:42:26 PDT.
Original material copyright © 2015-2020, The Comic Irregulars. dmm@irregularwebcomic.net