One of the toughest things to grasp about 75% decks, at least for some people, is that the goal isn't to win 100% of your games. Let’s be clear: No matter what your goal is, you won’t win 100% of your games. Also, no matter what your approach is, that kind of a win percentage is impossible. Statistically, in a one-on-one game, fifty percent of the players will lose. If you have a 50% win percentage, that’s pretty good because you’re not performing worse than the statistical average. If you have a 51% win percentage, you’re doing something above average to win more than you’re projected to, although 1% isn’t that statistically significant.

What they’re missing is that you are never projected to win 100% of your games. The 75% project is all about finding ways to bring us closer to the statistically-projected win rate by making sure all things are as close to equal as possible. You can’t account for someone else in the group having a much better deck than everyone else has, but you don’t want to be that guy. If you’re winning 2 ÷ X games, or 3 ÷ X or, as some people think you should, X ÷ X games, you’re a problem for the group. The same person should not win every time, and if you’re focused on winning X ÷ X games, that’s not going to get you invited back to many groups.

Worse still, I see the assertion that 75% decks are “underpowered” somehow not only from detractors but from supporters. It’s been a few months since we started this series, so it may be a good time to get some things crystal-clear before we continue.

• We’re not building decks with which we don’t try to win.
• We’re not building underpowered decks to patronize people.
• We’re not building budget decks. (Not necessarily at least—usually, the decks are cheaper, which is fine.)

You can do all of that stuff, but make sure you’re not telling people that you’re doing it because that’s how a 75% deck is made.

Now, if you’re playing with a group in which everyone has a kind of durdly deck, sometimes, the 75% thing to do is have a way to end the game so that you can play another one. When you’re playing with a group in which the games go long every time, it’s because everyone has a kind of durdly deck. Ground stalls happen quickly, people who fall behind are left alive to develop, and everyone is able to do their things. It’s fun to get to do your thing, after all. If your 75% deck participates in that sort of fun but you decide someone should end the game, you’re going to have to win. I have talked in the past about having to have some sort of powerful combo to make the deck have game against well-tuned decks and how that combo can help break a stall. However, if the game always stalls and it always falls on you to break it, you’re not going to be winning 1 ÷ X games anymore. You’re going to start winning more often. When that happens, you’re either going to stop being invited or you’re going to get dogpiled, and that is the worst—you have to sit there twiddling your thumbs while you wait for everyone to not kill each other.

How do you bust open durdly, two-hour games without winning so often that you become the bogeyman?

The solution was so simple that I was immediately floored by its elegance. /u/Molech has been using this combo in his decks for a while, long before 75% even had a name. You deal with the problem of breaking the ground stall without winning by not having a winner. The key is a little-known enchantment from Legends called Divine Intervention.

You don’t win the game. Neither does anyone else. It’s brilliant in its simplicity, and it’s an easier combo to pull off because it’s just one card. Since you don’t win the game, it’s more balanced to have a card that makes everyone lose than everyone but one person lose. Everyone shuffles up, takes a bathroom break, and can choose to play a different deck. I was worried that people would see you making everyone lose the same way they see you straight winning the game, but /u/Molech indicated that wasn’t the case. In addition to using it in his Zedruu deck, with which he can donate it to make it go off a turn cycle faster, he mentioned using it in a Hanna, Ship's Navigator deck with which you can bring the enchantment back if you need to really make sure that your no-one-is-going-to-win condition can be salvaged out of the ’yard.

I’d like to personally thank /u/Molech for the inspiration. I didn’t delve too in depth into a discussion since I was at the Grand Prix, and I wish we’d chatted more, if only because he didn’t send me his Hanna decklist. Still, I’m not one to shy away from a potential deck-building challenge. If we are trying to come up with a deck with which the goal were to make everyone lose, what would it look like?

Hanna, Ship?s Navigator ? Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (0)

• Lands (35)
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 14 Island
• 7 Plains
• 1 Celestial Colonnade
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Glacial Fortress
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Mystic Gate
• 1 Nimbus Maze
• 1 Seachrome Coast
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Phyrexia's Core
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Serra's Sanctum

• Artifacts (21)
• 1 Anvil of Bogardan
• 1 Azorius Signet
• 1 Claws of Gix
• 1 Darksteel Ingot
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Font of Mythos
• 1 Howling Mine
• 1 Iron Maiden
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Otherworld Atlas
• 1 Planar Portal
• 1 Ring of Three Wishes
• 1 Sculpting Steel
• 1 Smokestack
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Static Orb
• 1 Temple Bell
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Winter Orb

• Creatures (8)
• 1 Academy Rector
• 1 Aura Thief
• 1 Azor's Elocutors
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Perplexing Chimera
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Viseling

• Instants and Sorceries (13)
• 1 Argivian Find
• 1 Cleansing Meditation
• 1 Clockspinning
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Minds Aglow
• 1 Muddle the Mixture
• 1 Prosperityx
• 1 Sunder
• 1 Supreme Verdict
• 1 Whelming Wave
• 1 Wrath of God

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Jace Beleren
• 1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 1 Tezzeret the Seeker

• Enchantments (17)
• 1 Arcane Laboratory
• 1 Aura of Silence1 Divine Intervention
• 1 Enchanted Evening
• 1 Ghostly Prison
• 1 Luminarch Ascension
• 1 Meishin, the Mind Cage
• 1 Mind over Matter
• 1 Overburden
• 1 Parallax Tide
• 1 Parallax Wave
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Seal of Cleansing
• 1 Solitary Confinement
• 1 Sphere of Safety
• 1 Teferi's Moat
• 1 War Tax

Buy This Deck

There are a few combos built in. Some of them are nastier than others. You can play Divine Intervention and take counters off with Clockspinning to end the game. That was the impetus for making this deck.

Another way to kill everyone is with Temple Bell and Mind over Matter. I found a few decks built this way online using Iron Maiden and Viseling to hurt everyone, and I liked the idea, so I ran with it. Minds Aglow and Prosperity can fuel Viseling and Maiden clampings and help you draw more fun cards to win with.

I like Luminarch Ascension and Azor's Elocutors in the deck quite a bit. Pillow-fort is a pretty 75% concept but not something I have gone too in depth into, so I was glad to try it here. Meishin, the Mind Cage is fueled by your big-hand shenanigans, and Propaganda and Ghostly Prison make it tough to swing at you. War Tax is a card I like a lot in that vein, so I jammed it here as well. Solitary Confinement is a good way to generate those Ascension and Elocutor triggers.

One way to win is to use Enchanted Evening and Aura Thief to steal every permanent in play. You can probably figure out from there how to win. I didn’t include any enchantment tutors for this reason. Decks should have a “thing” they’re trying to do, and this deck has several.

The general gist of the deck is that it’s a group hug that can start to squeeze everyone to death. I like Overburden in the deck because it’s better to punish our opponents for doing things than it is to prevent them from doing those things. Winter Orb and Static Orb are on the bubble here with respect to that axiom; if you can suggest replacements, please do so below.

Is this deck perfect? I don’t think so. I don’t know whether it’s too powerful, as the everyone-draws-cards subtheme may make the deck too consistent and the experience too homogeneous; this was a concern in a recent article. Maybe some testing will make things come a bit clearer.

I feel that this deck breaks up ground stalls mostly by making them, which means all of its win conditions are designed to win through them. You have the option to try to go for your own combos or, if you are stymied too much, you can try to make sure no one wins. I really like the concept of making no one win, and this may or may not be the shell in which you want to try out a Divine Intervention combo. Do you have a better idea? Leave it here on Gathering Magic in the comments section or on reddit. Special thanks to /u/Molech and all of the readers and supporters all over. You guys are the best.

Until next week!