At a gameday event yesterday in which a table rushed to start game 3 right before the clock struck zero (thus a deck would need to win by the end of turn 3 to have that match be a nondraw), a discussion was borne - is it even possible for a Standard-legal deck to outright win by the end of turn 3?

After a bit of discussion I came up with one possibility, but nobody else could (in the limited time we spent on this) come up with any others (that aren't just tweaks on this concept using different pump spells). Do other theoretical T3 kills exist?

T1: Mana Confluence, Elvish Mystic (19:20)
T2: Plains, Fabled Hero (18:20)
T3: Forest, Titanic Growth, Titanic Growth, swing with 12/12 doublestrike Fabled Hero. (17:-4)


(This was particularly top-of-mind for me because I was playing a GW heroic deck with Fabled Hero and green pump instants, though not these exact cards. I did have one game where on turn ~5 I hit my unblocked Fabled Hero with a Become Immense and it swung for 18 though. )

Turn 1 swiftspear attack (19)
Turn 2 swiftspear, swiftspear attack (17)
Turn 3 some combination of wild slashes and titan's strengths.

Turn 2 should be Life = 16 (two new swiftspears plus 1 old)

Turn 3 each wild Slash is worth 5 damage (2 to the face, 3 from swiftspears), Growth is worth 7 (4 pump, 3 prowess). The swiftspears deal 3 on their own. Triple slash will just do it, Slash+Titanic won't. Triple slash is just barely within magical christmasland reach on the play. (Turn 1 start at 7 cards land swiftspear to 5 cards. turn 2 draw to 6, land and 2 swiftspears to 3. Turn 3 draw to 4 land and triple slash FTW and 0 CiH)

T1-->scalding tarn for a steam vents, play delver
T2-->opponent has rage quit bc you're playing a modern deck

T1->opponent plays scaldring tarn for steam vents, play delver
You call a judge and disqualify him, winning the entire match on turn 1.

for the right price i can get you a win by DQ before the game even starts

Mana Confluence, Elvish Mystic
Mana Confluence, Midnight Guard
Retraction Helix, Impact Tremors, Ornithopter.

This one only requires two lands! And 4 different colors.

Also, it completely legal in Standard Pauper except the mana base. Standard Pauper has 2 infinite combos in it right now! Two!

Forest, Elvish Mystic
Island, Zephyr Scribe
Mountain, Retraction Helix, Spidersilk Net, Impact Tremors

There we go, Turn 3 win in Standard Pauper! It is doable!

Also, note that this infinite combo can actually fit in mono-blue, the kill condition just becomes Elusive Spellfist

T1: Island, Springleaf Drum, Ornithopter
T2: Plains, Midnight Guard
T3: Retraction Helix, Impact Tremors

Edit: Dr. D beat me!

Nice. I shoulda thought of that as I had been dabbling in that combo back when Altar of the Brood was the wincon.

I edited my post with a fully Standard Pauper Turn 3 kill. What a heady time to be playing a cheap as dirt format.

how does this work? tremors only triggers off creatures.

Darn it. Well it doesn't then. No Turn 3 kills in Standard Pauper. Sad day.

mountain, akroan crusader
mountain, titan's strength, titan's strength, swing for 9
forest, titan's strength, titan's strength, gather courage, swing for 14

you actually have 3 extra damage there so all but one of those strengths can be gathers or boon of ereboses as well as long as the mana supports it. you can also switch one of them for a variety of +1s (coat with venom, crowd's favor, defiant strike, kindled fury, mortal's ardor) but then you need at least three strengths.

Does Gather Courage count for standard-pauper? It's standard-legal (M15), and it's pauper-legal (was printed as common in Ravnica), but if its only standard printing is at uncommon wouldn't that make it standard-pauper illegal?


I really felt like I could get something out of Generator Servant or Voyaging Satyr but just couldn't pull it all together.

magiccards.info has betrayed me

anyway there's other options, most notably boon of erebos, so it still works

He was talking about Titan's Strength, not Titanic Growth.

Oh, yeah, that'd do it.

It ain't in the 'pauper' discussion but I'd been trying to make Generator Servant work for me somehow. I'd also been striving for a 'maximum damage', to beat my 24-swing Fabled Hero above. (Impact Tremors deck, while theoretically capable of dealing 1 damage an unbounded number of times, only actually deals 20 damage before the game ends.)

1. Wooded Foothills sac for Forest / Elvish Mystic
2. Wooded Foothills sac for Mountain / Generator Servant / Elvish Mystic
3. (Servant into) Savage Ventmaw / Titanic Growth / Temur Battle Rage / (Delve 5 for) Become Immense

Swing for 14+14=28. On the draw we could add a tenth card and add Titan's Strength for 17+17=34.

T1: Swamp
T2: Swamp, Waste Not
T3: Swamp, Dark Deal, opponent discards 2 creatures, 4 lands, 1 instant (8 in mana pool), Dark Deal, opponent discards 4 lands, 2 instants (13 in mana pool), Master of the Feast, Master of the Feast, Master of the Feast, Mogis's Marauder, win.

That looks super consistent there Rush.