The most fantastic game of Magic I've ever played

[Howitzer 32]

Various things (Were-Nanase winning the poll, the new Shadows Over Innistrad block, etc) have gotten me in a Magic mood lately and, specifically, an Innistrad mood.

I'd like to relate the story of the best game of Magic I ever played, which occurred in the summer of 2012, while the first Innistrad set was still legal in standard.

The players:

Slumbering Dragon - A 3/3 flying creature for a single red mana. It also gets a +1/+1 counter every time an opponent's creature attacks you!  The catch is that it is not allowed to attack or block unless it has 5 such counters.

Reverberate - Red's answer to Counterspell, for 2 mana this one copies a spell and lets you change the target of the copy rather then stopping it entirely.

Llanowar Elves - The original mana dork, for one mana you have a creature that generates an extra mana for you every turn.

Predator Ooze - For three green mana, this indestructible creature gains a +1/+1 counter every time it attacks.

Increasing Savagery - Four mana allows you to put 5 +1/+1 counters on a single creature. Then you can pay an additional seven mana to put 10 more on.

Magic 2013 had just been released, and I was enamored with Slumbering Dragon.  I put together a red/green deck where the purpose was to play a dragon on turn one, and then use various spells (such as the above Increasing Savagery) and effects to put a bunch of +1/+1 counters on it so that I could attack with it without waiting for my opponent to pump it up naturally by attacking me.

I sat down at a casual table to try my new deck, and won the die roll. I elected to play first and drew a crap opening hand. Mulliganing to six cards gave me a worse hand. Five cards was the same as six, just with one fewer card.  Four was also awful.

I finally stopped at Three, which was a hand consisting of the Slumbering Dragon, a Reverberate, and another spell that doesn't figure into the story.  I think it was a Ring of Valkas. Regardless, the hand didn't contain any lands, but all I needed was one to play the dragon, so I kept it.

I did have the first turn, but without a land to play there was nothing I could do, so I passed.

My opponent drew a card and played their first turn, which consisted of a Forest and Llanowar Elves.

I drew for my second turn, and got the Mountain I needed. I played it and the dragon.

My opponent took their second turn, and played another Forest, then tapped both forests and the elves to play Predator Ooze.

I topdecked another Mountain, and played it before passing the turn.

My opponent played Forest number three, and then taped all three forests plus the elves to play Increasing Savagery on their Ooze. My eyes bugged out as I realized what was about to happen, and in response I tapped both of my mountains and reverberated that sucker, targeting my dragon with the copy, and bringing it online! I now had an 8/8 flying dragon to my opponent's 6/6 Ooze. For some reason, my opponent decided to attack anyway, which triggered both the "add a counter" effects of his ooze and my dragon. My 9/9 dragon easily parried the now 7/7 ooze.

Going back to my turn, I couldn't attack with my dragon fast enough, and slammed my opponent's face in for 9 points of damage, leaving him at 11 life. I then passed.

On the next turn, my opponent didn't play any spells, but instead just attacked with both the elves and the ooze. The ooze ability triggered again, putting it at 8/8, but my dragon triggered twice (once for each attacker), and it became an 11/11. It was my turn to take 9 points of damage.

On my next turn, I swung at my opponent for 11 damage, putting him at 0 and ending the game.

Over the course of the entire game, I never drew another land, and didn't play anything other then the dragon and the reverberate. I simply could not believe my luck when my opponent busted out the exact spell that I wanted to target my dragon with, and I was able to copy it.

What amazing plays has everyone else done or witnessed?

[Don Edwards 548]

This was more than 15 year ago, and I don't remember all the details (and may get a few wrong)...

My daughter had a habit of building theme decks that were a lot of fun to play but didn't win a lot. More literary than powerful. She was challenged, by one of the local Magic gurus who was a friend of ours, to build a high-power deck.

She built a hand-destruction deck.

She got to play first, played a swamp and a Dark Ritual for some BB creature with Flying and the attribute that when it damages a player the player has to discard two cards. The spare mana point went to a spell that forced the guru to discard two cards.

The guru played a land and a non-flying creature.

Her second turn, she played a second swamp, another one of that spell, and attacked with her creature, so the guru had to discard four cards - emptying his hand.

He was never again able to hold a card in his hand from one turn to the next.

[Howitzer 32]

Some of those discard spells from the early days of Magic were incredibly nasty. Between Hymn to Tourach and Mind Twist, you could rip someone's hand apart quite fast, especially if you powered it out with a Dark Ritual or two.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

It may come as a stunning surprise to people here that my absolutely favourite card in my collection was Magical Hack. It never failed to produce hilarious results.

One time in a multiplayer game one of my opponents played a very annoying red-black deck. One of the other players got tired of that and played Drought, which requires everybody playing who wants to generate black mana to sacrifice a swamp for each black mana they get. At this point I intervened and played my Hack on the Drought and said, "Ah, no. You have to sacrifice a plains for each black mana you get." The guy with the black-red deck looked aghast and said, "But I don't have any plains in my deck." I replied, "Then you may have a problem."

Needless to say, with one of his colours taken entirely out of play, he did not do well in the rest of the game.

[Drachefly 30]

That's nice. It's also solid on people who use too many dual lands, without such interference.

(nitpick - it doesn't alter getting the black mana, but using it in a non-generic context. The guy could still pump a fireball with it, say)

My favorite game was a long one I barely won. Eventually got an unending supply of Counterspell and Recoil, emptied my opponent's hand and removed all their permanents from the board, and won with just a few cards left in the deck (and I would have been the one decked - lots of extra card drawing before I stabilized).

[Stormtalon42 29]

Ahhh, the sleight cards -- I didn't win the game this happened in, but was still worth it all the same.  I was playing a Blue/Black/dash of White deck -- at the time, I liked making odd theme decks; this one's theme was a Warren Zevon song: "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner."  Larger than normal deck, full of Prodigals (Tim), Zuran Spellcasters (Ice Age Tim), Norrits, Cuombajj Witches, Skull Catapults and with the legendary Merieke Ri Berit.  I hope you can see where it got its name.  I also had a Sleight of Mind in there, because I liked messing with people.  It was a multiplayer game with myself, a primary red deck player and a fellow playing an all-white "Happy Healer Deck."

Around midgame,I got out my Merieke and the red player tossed out Anarchy (destroy all white permanents) -- which I promptly Sleighted to Red, despite the Happy Healer buildup going on, because I wanted to make use of her at least once, consequences be damned.  The red player didn't last long after that, leaving just myself and the Happy Healer, although my Merieke died not long afterwards.  Unfortunately, he was too well established by that point.  Of note, he had no attack cards, no damage of any sort.  He could heal and prevent damage, and that was it.  The amount of damage he could heal & prevent, however was astounding.  Even a full battery of Tims/Ice Age Tims/Norrits/Catapults couldn't take any of his healers out.

Fine, sez I, and I start trying to kill myself.  Not happening.  There came all that damage prevention and healing aimed right at me.  My health actually went UP as the game progressed, and it dawned on me that I was facing the slowest Millstone deck in existence.  I actually came close to ekeing out a win as I had a Feldon's Cane to fill my deck back up, but he had just a few more cards than me, even after that.  On the upside, I lost the game with over 40 health to my name, so that's a thing.

[Troacctid 14]

Shuffled up Mayael the Anima
Against Niv-Mizzet, Wydwen, Kaalia
My op'ner needed one green mana source
But I refused to mulligan, of course
Niv-Mizzet's Sol Ring promised a quick start
And lo, his next play nearly stopped my heart
For on turn 4, he grinned and played Hive Mind
Sharing spells could be construed as kind
But trouble came when, with mischievous glee,
Wydwen untapped and cast Prosperity
Again, a card that might seem generous
But her gifts showed themselves as treacherous
When Niv-Mizzet tapped three more of his lands
For Windfall! Everyone tossed out their hands
(Already filled with eighteen precious spells!)
To draw that many more, as it compels
But Hive Mind's trigger had to interject
And three more times, repeated the effect
Until our libraries were very small
With hardly any cards in them at all
Our decks were down to just three measly draws
And running out would leave us with a loss
Niv-Mizzet's Howling Mine sped up this clock
Our time was ticking down -- was it a lock?
Not so! For I had one trick up my sleeve
By which a vict'ry I might yet achieve
Discarding at the end of my next turn,
I tossed my Vigor and my Worldspine Wurm
Their triggers sent them back into my deck
And I was leading, though 'twas neck and neck
Three turns passed by, and three opponents down
With three cards left, I proudly took the crown.

True story

[Drachefly 30]

So wait, you had three opponents. With Hive mind in place, one cast prosperity and then on their turn another cast Windfall?

Why didn't the one who played prosperity have only 7 cards in hand at that point?

[Troacctid 14]

Only the greatest hand size among players matters for Windfall.