The Greatest Bluff in MTG History

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

AYOOOO THE MAD LAD DID IT

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

This was really well made! Can’t wait to see more!

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

I was shocked to find that this is your only video so far, it's so well put together and informatively interesting. You did a really good job and I'm subscribing in case you decide to do more