Post by goldensandslash on Mar 8, 2022 6:49:44 GMT
What's the largest non-infinite amount of damage that you can do on Turn 1 in a game of Magic the Gathering?
This question has been proposed many times, and has even been answered here: www.soniccenter.org/sm/mtg/megacombo.html
It's a rough read, because the numbers quickly get to be so large that even Knuth's up-arrow notation is insufficient for expressing them. (Edit: Turns out that there's a newer version that goes MUCH higher: sites.google.com/site/deedlitsplace/ultracombo )
However, that's with Vintage as the format.
Here on WyvernIRC (or IRC-NAH as it is now known), the most commonly played "format" that we play is Booster Blitz. In this format, you already have infinite mana, so there's no need to bother to set that up. But you only get three cards, and that's it.
What's the most amount of damage that you can do with just three cards?
I'm gonna ignore the fact that all three cards have to be able to be obtained in the same booster pack. This is because if I incorporated that, then this post would be outdated as soon as the next set comes along. Perhaps a combo of two cards from two different sets will be reprinted in the same set in the future.
In other words, we're going to pretend that you opened a super-mega pack that has every single Magic card ever printed in it, and you now have to Blitz it. We're also disallowing infinite combos.
Pestermite || 2U || Creature -- Faerie Rogue || 2/1 || Flash || Flying || When Pestermite enters the battlefield, you may tap or untap target permanent.
Splinter Twin || 2RR || Enchantment -- Aura || Enchant creature || Enchanted creature has "{T}: Put a token that's a copy of this creature onto the battlefield. That token has haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step."
This is a famous combo, but it's infinite, so it doesn't work.
The other thing to watch out for is X spells.
Fireball || XR || Sorcery || This spell costs {1} more to cast for each target beyond the first. || Fireball deals X damage divided evenly, rounded down, among any number of targets.
This is because you can just pump in an arbitrarily large amount of mana and go infinite.
Okay. So we have our ground rules set. Three cards. Infinite mana. No infinite damage. What's the largest finite amount of damage that you can deal?
Actually, before you keep reading, I want you to think about this, and just guess a number. Go ahead and keep that number in your head. Now let's see if you were too high, too low, or just right.
Impervious Greatwurm || 7GGG || Creature -- Wurm || 16/16 || Convoke || Indestructible
Reckless Charge || R || Sorcery || Target creature gets +3/+0 and gains haste until end of turn. || Flashback {2}{R}
Berserk || G || Instant || Cast this spell only before the combat damage step. || Target creature gains trample and gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power. At the beginning of the next end step, destroy that creature if it attacked this turn.
This three-card pile is a good starting point. Impervious Greatwurm is the largest creature in Magic that does not have a silver border. 16 power is pretty good. Reckless Charge can give it haste (necessary because we want to do our damage on turn one) and an additional 6 power, bringing it to 22. Berserk lets us double that, and we get 44 damage.
That sounds like a lot. But just wait... this record is about to be DEMOLISHED.
Pandemonium || 3R || Enchantment || Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, that creature's controller may have it deal damage equal to its power to any target of their choice.
Monkey Cage || 5 || Artifact || Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, sacrifice Monkey Cage and create X 2/2 green Monkey creature tokens, where X is that creature's mana value.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn || 15 || Legendary Creature -- Eldrazi || 15/15 || This spell can't be countered. || When you cast this spell, take an extra turn after this one. || Flying, protection from spells that are one or more colors, annihilator 6 || When Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles their graveyard into their library.
This does one additional point of damage. Emrakul would cause Pandemonium to hit your opponent for 15 damage, and then you create fifteen monkey tokens that hit the opponent for 30 more, for a total of 45. That's a bit better. But just wait...
We're gonna break the double-digits now, with this.
The Tarrasque || 6GGG || Legendary Creature -- Dinosaur || 10/10 || The Tarrasque has haste and ward {10} as long as it was cast. || Whenever The Tarrasque attacks, it fights target creature defending player controls.
Berserk || G || Instant || Cast this spell only before the combat damage step. || Target creature gains trample and gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power. At the beginning of the next end step, destroy that creature if it attacked this turn.
Increasing Vengeance || RR || Instant || Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. If this spell was cast from a graveyard, copy that spell twice instead. You may choose new targets for the copies. || Flashback {3}{R}{R}
Okay... so... here.... we get a 10/10 haste creature. Then Berserk doubles it to 20 power, Increasing Vengeance also gives us three more copies of Berserk, doubling to 40, then 80, then 160.
160 damage on turn 1 is pretty good in Blitz, if you were unaware.
But can we do better?
Absolutely.
Brash Taunter || 4R || Creature -- Goblin || 1/1 || Indestructible || Whenever Brash Taunter is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to target opponent. || {2}{R}, {T}: Brash Taunter fights another target creature.
Fiery Emancipation || 3RRR || Enchantment || If a source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals triple that damage to that permanent or player instead.
Star of Extinction || 5RR || Sorcery || Destroy target land. Star of Extinction deals 20 damage to each creature and each planeswalker.
So... Star of Extinction is the most powerful burn spell in the game, hitting Brash Taunter for 20 damage. Fiery Emancipation triples that to 60 damage. Then Brash Taunter's ability does that much damage to your opponent, but Fiery Emancipation also triples THAT damage, so it becomes 180 damage.
Of course, there is a problem with this. Star of Extinction requires a land in play to target.
Is assuming a land is in play a bit much? Well, in literally any other format, there will almost certainly always be a land on the battlefield. But in Blitz? It's unlikely.
So perhaps this one shouldn't count. No worries, we can still get a bit higher with another set of three cards.
Doubling Season || 4G || Enchantment || If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. || If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.
Saproling Burst || 4G || Enchantment || Fading 7 || Remove a fade counter from Saproling Burst: Create a green Saproling creature token. It has "This creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of fade counters on Saproling Burst." || When Saproling Burst leaves the battlefield, destroy all tokens created with Saproling Burst. They can't be regenerated.
Pandemonium || 3R || Enchantment || Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, that creature's controller may have it deal damage equal to its power to any target of their choice.
Okay, now we're talking. Saproling Burst, thanks to Doubling Season, will enter the battlefield with fourteen fade counters on it. You remove one in order to create two Saprolings (remember, doubled) that are 13/13 creatures. You then create two 12/12s. Then two 11/11s. And so on. Pandemonium will hit the opponent for damage along the way. How much damage is this in total?
182. So it outdoes the Fiery Emancipation pile. Barely.
Can we break the 200 mark? Easily.
Terror of the Peaks || 3RR || Creature -- Dragon || 5/4 || Flying || Spells your opponents cast that target Terror of the Peaks cost an additional 3 life to cast. || Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Terror of the Peaks deals damage equal to that creature's power to any target.
Scourge of Valkas || 2RRR || Creature -- Dragon || 4/4 || Flying || Whenever Scourge of Valkas or another Dragon enters the battlefield under your control, it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Dragons you control. || {R}: Scourge of Valkas gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Cast these three cards in this order, with the Rite of Replication targeting the Scourge of Valkas (and kicking it, obviously). How much damage is that? 241.
But can we do better? Absolutely. Check this card out:
Army of the Damned || 5BBB || Sorcery || Create thirteen tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens. || Flashback {7}{B}{B}{B}
Let's use this card instead of Scourge of Valkas. Now, you cast Terror of the Peaks, and cast Rite of Replication, kicking it. Now you have six copies of Terror of the Peaks. Now, when Army of the Damned creates twenty-six Zombies, you'll be doing 12 damage per Zombie, in addition to the damage that Terror of the Peaks did when its clones were created. This is 437 damage in total.
But that's child's play compared to what's forthcoming. Check this out.
Angrath's Marauders || 5RR || Creature -- Human Pirate || 4/4 || If a source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals double that damage to that permanent or player instead.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. Rite of Replication, kicked, targeting Angrath's Marauders. This now means that all of your cards deal SIXTY-FOUR TIMES AS MUCH DAMAGE AS NOMRAL.
We only get one card left to make this work though, so we need a powerful burn spell. How's this?
Searing Wind || 8R || Instant || Searing Wind deals 10 damage to any target.
That's 640 damage. But let's get a little more... innovative.
Rite of Replication is obviously the card that is the most powerful for something like this, but can we reach a ludicrously large amount of damage without it? Absolutely. Look at this.
Army of the Damned || 5BBB || Sorcery || Create thirteen tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens. || Flashback {7}{B}{B}{B}
Kindred Charge || 4RR || Sorcery || Choose a creature type. For each creature you control of the chosen type, create a token that's a copy of that creature. Those tokens gain haste. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.
Breath of Fury || 2RR || Enchantment -- Aura || Enchant creature you control || When enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player, sacrifice it and attach Breath of Fury to a creature you control. If you do, untap all creatures you control and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase.
Army of the Damned, and then flashback it. Now you have 26 Zombies, but they are all tapped. Kindred Charge duplicates them, so you have 26 more that are now untapped. You can attach Breath of Fury to one of them, and then attack with all of your Zombies. Then you untap all of them, one gets sacrificed, but you get another combat phase. Now you swing with 25 zombies, untap, swing with 24, untap, swing with 23, untap, swing with 22, and so on. That's 702 damage.
Side note: I had literally never heard of Breath of Fury before finding this. Does this card see any play literally anywhere? It feels like it has untapped potential in "normal" Magic. But meh. That's not what this thread is about.
So far, everything that we've looked at has involved multiplication. But if we really want to go to big numbers, we need exponentiation. Luckily, there is a card in Magic that handles square numbers: Thromok the Insatiable.
Thromok the Insatiable || 3RG || Legendary Creature -- Hellion || 0/0 || Devour X, where X is the number of creatures devoured this way
So, to explain how this works... if it devours one creature, it enters with one +1/+1 counter. If it devours two creatures, it enters with two counters for each of those creatures, for a total of four. If it devours three, then it enters with three counters for each of them, for a total of nine counters. And so on.
So let's play Army of the Damned and flashback it, for twenty-six creatures. Now, Thromok can devour them all, and enter with 676 +1/+1 counters. If you have a Terror of the Peaks in play, then you convert that into damage! And it also hits the opponent for 2 damage for each Zombie when the zombies come into play! That's 728 damage.
Hope you liked triple-digit numbers, because we're done with them for now. Let's go on to quadruple-digits.
Doubling Season || 4G || Enchantment || If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. || If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Hagra Diabolist || 4B || Creature -- Ogre Shaman Ally || 3/2 || Whenever Hagra Diabolist or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may have target player lose life equal to the number of Allies you control.
So... Doubling Season and Rite of Replication will give you a total of 10 Hagra Diabolist copies, in addition to the one that you started with. Then each of them will trigger once for each of the Hagra Diabolists... creating a really huge amount of damage. It's 1211 damage in total, if you were curious.
But we can do better. Doubling Season and Rite of Replication can be used in this way to make ten copies of ANYTHING. So what if instead of Hagra Diabolist, we went for... this?
Craterhoof Behemoth || 5GGG || Creature -- Beast || 5/5 || Haste || When Craterhoof Behemoth enters the battlefield, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control.
This exceeds our previous record, and now takes us to 1265 damage.
Can we beat that? Of course we can.
Ogre Battledriver || 2RR || Creature -- Ogre Warrior || 3/3 || Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, that creature gets +2/+0 and gains haste until end of turn.
Kalonian Hydra || 3GG || Creature -- Hydra || 0/0 || Trample || Kalonian Hydra enters the battlefield with four +1/+1 counters on it. || Whenever Kalonian Hydra attacks, double the number of +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
What do you think of this three-card pile? It deals 1548 damage on turn 1.
At least we can't break the 2000 mark, right?
Wrong. Check this out.
Terror of the Peaks || 3RR || Creature -- Dragon || 5/4 || Flying || Spells your opponents cast that target Terror of the Peaks cost an additional 3 life to cast. || Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Terror of the Peaks deals damage equal to that creature's power to any target.
Mystic Reflection || 1U || Instant || Choose target nonlegendary creature. The next time one or more creatures or planeswalkers enter the battlefield this turn, they enter as copies of the chosen creature. || Foretell {U}
Storm Herd || 8WW || Sorcery || Create X 1/1 white Pegasus creature tokens with flying, where X is your life total.
This pile deals 100 damage times your starting life total. In a typical Magic game, that's 2000 damage. And in Commander, the most commonly-played format, it's 4000 damage. Of course, in a Booster Blitz, this would only be 500 damage, which is a bit of a letdown.
No worries, though, we can still do better than this, and we can do so using only cards that we've seen earlier. Check out this.
Craterhoof Behemoth || 5GGG || Creature -- Beast || 5/5 || Haste || When Craterhoof Behemoth enters the battlefield, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Increasing Vengeance || RR || Instant || Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. If this spell was cast from a graveyard, copy that spell twice instead. You may choose new targets for the copies. || Flashback {3}{R}{R}
If you do the math here, you'll end up with 4376 damage. Come to think of it, you end up with that much even if you don't do the math, but you won't be able to tell if you didn't do the math.
What's fascinating about this one to me is that all three of these cards actually see a ton of play in Commander. So, theoretically, someone may have even pulled this off in a real game of Magic.
In fact, in real Magic, where you have 20 life, you could combine these two. Craterhoof Behemoth, Storm Herd, and Mystic Reflection. That three-card combo would give you 8926 damage (again, assuming 20 life).
How on Earth do we go above 8926? Well... there is a way. And it involves a card that sees no play literally anywhere. This little guy:
Chancellor of the Forge || 4RRR || Creature -- Phyrexian Giant || 5/5 || You may reveal this card from your opening hand. If you do, at the beginning of the first upkeep, create a 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature token with haste. || When Chancellor of the Forge enters the battlefield, create X 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature tokens with haste, where X is the number of creatures you control.
I think you see where we're going with this...
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Yep. This combo gives you 218 goblins with haste. Now we add in a Coat of Arms...
Coat of Arms || 5 || Artifact || Each creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature on the battlefield that shares at least one creature type with it.
Now when you swing with all your tokens, you're going in for 47524 damage.
That's a lot, but it's miniscule compared to what we're gonna see next. Behold... the theoretical best booster blitz pile!
Nylea's Colossus || 6G || Enchantment Creature -- Giant || 6/6 || Constellation -- Whenever Nylea's Colossus or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, double target creature's power and toughness until end of turn.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Kindred Charge || 4RR || Sorcery || Choose a creature type. For each creature you control of the chosen type, create a token that's a copy of that creature. Those tokens gain haste. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.
This gives you 72 Nylea's Colossus triggers. If you target the same copy of Nylea's Colossus with all of them, then this Nylea's Colossus will be able to do 28334198897217871282176 damage. That's right. We just passed the 28 sextillion mark. Oh, and the other Nylea's Colossuses will be able to do an additional 30 damage as well. But that's trivial at this scale.
I think we have this solved.
Or... do we? Can you come up with anything better?
Because... I can.
As it turns out... there *is* a better pile. You want to see it? Spoiler alert: It uses only cards that we've seen before. Can you spot it? If you opened a pack that had every card that I've mentioned in this thread... can you see the three-card-pile that gives you the highest damage output?
Well... here goes.
Chancellor of the Forge || 4RRR || Creature -- Phyrexian Giant || 5/5 || You may reveal this card from your opening hand. If you do, at the beginning of the first upkeep, create a 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature token with haste. || When Chancellor of the Forge enters the battlefield, create X 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature tokens with haste, where X is the number of creatures you control.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Mystic Reflection || 1U || Instant || Choose target nonlegendary creature. The next time one or more creatures or planeswalkers enter the battlefield this turn, they enter as copies of the chosen creature. || Foretell {U}
This is the same idea as our Coat of Arms pile, except this time, things work differently. Chancellor of the Forge will make 7 Goblin tokens. Then the next Chancellor of the Forge will make 14 Goblins. Then the next will make 28 Goblins. Then the next will make 56 Goblins. But the final one, which is set to make 112 Goblins... doesn't resolve. Instead, you respond to it first, with Mystic Reflection. And then have it create 112 Chancellor of the Forges instead.
Oh no...
So, this gives you a ton of goblins with haste. How many? Well... by the end of it all... you have... (deep breath)
1163074496311801388790831177745301268 goblins in total.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
I honestly didn't think that Booster Blitz... with its three-card limitation would ever be able to break the undecillion mark. And yet, here we are.
So yeah, if you ever end up in a Booster Blitz with a friend, and you want to cheat and put cards into a pack and then re-seal it... these are the cards that you'd want to use. And if your opponent uses this against you... then start saying your prayers to whatever deity you believe in.
But is there a way to go even higher than this?
Probably.
Magic is a game with more than 20,000 cards. I obviously cannot realistically check every combination of three cards that you can make out of this. So it's likely that I missed something.
If you can come up with a better three-card pile, feel free to leave a comment in this thread.
As for me, I'm bored of this now. So I'll stick with my undecillion damage as being "good enough".
Bye!
This question has been proposed many times, and has even been answered here: www.soniccenter.org/sm/mtg/megacombo.html
It's a rough read, because the numbers quickly get to be so large that even Knuth's up-arrow notation is insufficient for expressing them. (Edit: Turns out that there's a newer version that goes MUCH higher: sites.google.com/site/deedlitsplace/ultracombo )
However, that's with Vintage as the format.
Here on WyvernIRC (or IRC-NAH as it is now known), the most commonly played "format" that we play is Booster Blitz. In this format, you already have infinite mana, so there's no need to bother to set that up. But you only get three cards, and that's it.
What's the most amount of damage that you can do with just three cards?
I'm gonna ignore the fact that all three cards have to be able to be obtained in the same booster pack. This is because if I incorporated that, then this post would be outdated as soon as the next set comes along. Perhaps a combo of two cards from two different sets will be reprinted in the same set in the future.
In other words, we're going to pretend that you opened a super-mega pack that has every single Magic card ever printed in it, and you now have to Blitz it. We're also disallowing infinite combos.
Pestermite || 2U || Creature -- Faerie Rogue || 2/1 || Flash || Flying || When Pestermite enters the battlefield, you may tap or untap target permanent.
Splinter Twin || 2RR || Enchantment -- Aura || Enchant creature || Enchanted creature has "{T}: Put a token that's a copy of this creature onto the battlefield. That token has haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step."
This is a famous combo, but it's infinite, so it doesn't work.
The other thing to watch out for is X spells.
Fireball || XR || Sorcery || This spell costs {1} more to cast for each target beyond the first. || Fireball deals X damage divided evenly, rounded down, among any number of targets.
This is because you can just pump in an arbitrarily large amount of mana and go infinite.
Okay. So we have our ground rules set. Three cards. Infinite mana. No infinite damage. What's the largest finite amount of damage that you can deal?
Actually, before you keep reading, I want you to think about this, and just guess a number. Go ahead and keep that number in your head. Now let's see if you were too high, too low, or just right.
Impervious Greatwurm || 7GGG || Creature -- Wurm || 16/16 || Convoke || Indestructible
Reckless Charge || R || Sorcery || Target creature gets +3/+0 and gains haste until end of turn. || Flashback {2}{R}
Berserk || G || Instant || Cast this spell only before the combat damage step. || Target creature gains trample and gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power. At the beginning of the next end step, destroy that creature if it attacked this turn.
This three-card pile is a good starting point. Impervious Greatwurm is the largest creature in Magic that does not have a silver border. 16 power is pretty good. Reckless Charge can give it haste (necessary because we want to do our damage on turn one) and an additional 6 power, bringing it to 22. Berserk lets us double that, and we get 44 damage.
That sounds like a lot. But just wait... this record is about to be DEMOLISHED.
Pandemonium || 3R || Enchantment || Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, that creature's controller may have it deal damage equal to its power to any target of their choice.
Monkey Cage || 5 || Artifact || Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, sacrifice Monkey Cage and create X 2/2 green Monkey creature tokens, where X is that creature's mana value.
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn || 15 || Legendary Creature -- Eldrazi || 15/15 || This spell can't be countered. || When you cast this spell, take an extra turn after this one. || Flying, protection from spells that are one or more colors, annihilator 6 || When Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is put into a graveyard from anywhere, its owner shuffles their graveyard into their library.
This does one additional point of damage. Emrakul would cause Pandemonium to hit your opponent for 15 damage, and then you create fifteen monkey tokens that hit the opponent for 30 more, for a total of 45. That's a bit better. But just wait...
We're gonna break the double-digits now, with this.
The Tarrasque || 6GGG || Legendary Creature -- Dinosaur || 10/10 || The Tarrasque has haste and ward {10} as long as it was cast. || Whenever The Tarrasque attacks, it fights target creature defending player controls.
Berserk || G || Instant || Cast this spell only before the combat damage step. || Target creature gains trample and gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power. At the beginning of the next end step, destroy that creature if it attacked this turn.
Increasing Vengeance || RR || Instant || Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. If this spell was cast from a graveyard, copy that spell twice instead. You may choose new targets for the copies. || Flashback {3}{R}{R}
Okay... so... here.... we get a 10/10 haste creature. Then Berserk doubles it to 20 power, Increasing Vengeance also gives us three more copies of Berserk, doubling to 40, then 80, then 160.
160 damage on turn 1 is pretty good in Blitz, if you were unaware.
But can we do better?
Absolutely.
Brash Taunter || 4R || Creature -- Goblin || 1/1 || Indestructible || Whenever Brash Taunter is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to target opponent. || {2}{R}, {T}: Brash Taunter fights another target creature.
Fiery Emancipation || 3RRR || Enchantment || If a source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals triple that damage to that permanent or player instead.
Star of Extinction || 5RR || Sorcery || Destroy target land. Star of Extinction deals 20 damage to each creature and each planeswalker.
So... Star of Extinction is the most powerful burn spell in the game, hitting Brash Taunter for 20 damage. Fiery Emancipation triples that to 60 damage. Then Brash Taunter's ability does that much damage to your opponent, but Fiery Emancipation also triples THAT damage, so it becomes 180 damage.
Of course, there is a problem with this. Star of Extinction requires a land in play to target.
Is assuming a land is in play a bit much? Well, in literally any other format, there will almost certainly always be a land on the battlefield. But in Blitz? It's unlikely.
So perhaps this one shouldn't count. No worries, we can still get a bit higher with another set of three cards.
Doubling Season || 4G || Enchantment || If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. || If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.
Saproling Burst || 4G || Enchantment || Fading 7 || Remove a fade counter from Saproling Burst: Create a green Saproling creature token. It has "This creature's power and toughness are each equal to the number of fade counters on Saproling Burst." || When Saproling Burst leaves the battlefield, destroy all tokens created with Saproling Burst. They can't be regenerated.
Pandemonium || 3R || Enchantment || Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, that creature's controller may have it deal damage equal to its power to any target of their choice.
Okay, now we're talking. Saproling Burst, thanks to Doubling Season, will enter the battlefield with fourteen fade counters on it. You remove one in order to create two Saprolings (remember, doubled) that are 13/13 creatures. You then create two 12/12s. Then two 11/11s. And so on. Pandemonium will hit the opponent for damage along the way. How much damage is this in total?
182. So it outdoes the Fiery Emancipation pile. Barely.
Can we break the 200 mark? Easily.
Terror of the Peaks || 3RR || Creature -- Dragon || 5/4 || Flying || Spells your opponents cast that target Terror of the Peaks cost an additional 3 life to cast. || Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Terror of the Peaks deals damage equal to that creature's power to any target.
Scourge of Valkas || 2RRR || Creature -- Dragon || 4/4 || Flying || Whenever Scourge of Valkas or another Dragon enters the battlefield under your control, it deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Dragons you control. || {R}: Scourge of Valkas gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Cast these three cards in this order, with the Rite of Replication targeting the Scourge of Valkas (and kicking it, obviously). How much damage is that? 241.
But can we do better? Absolutely. Check this card out:
Army of the Damned || 5BBB || Sorcery || Create thirteen tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens. || Flashback {7}{B}{B}{B}
Let's use this card instead of Scourge of Valkas. Now, you cast Terror of the Peaks, and cast Rite of Replication, kicking it. Now you have six copies of Terror of the Peaks. Now, when Army of the Damned creates twenty-six Zombies, you'll be doing 12 damage per Zombie, in addition to the damage that Terror of the Peaks did when its clones were created. This is 437 damage in total.
But that's child's play compared to what's forthcoming. Check this out.
Angrath's Marauders || 5RR || Creature -- Human Pirate || 4/4 || If a source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals double that damage to that permanent or player instead.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. Rite of Replication, kicked, targeting Angrath's Marauders. This now means that all of your cards deal SIXTY-FOUR TIMES AS MUCH DAMAGE AS NOMRAL.
We only get one card left to make this work though, so we need a powerful burn spell. How's this?
Searing Wind || 8R || Instant || Searing Wind deals 10 damage to any target.
That's 640 damage. But let's get a little more... innovative.
Rite of Replication is obviously the card that is the most powerful for something like this, but can we reach a ludicrously large amount of damage without it? Absolutely. Look at this.
Army of the Damned || 5BBB || Sorcery || Create thirteen tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens. || Flashback {7}{B}{B}{B}
Kindred Charge || 4RR || Sorcery || Choose a creature type. For each creature you control of the chosen type, create a token that's a copy of that creature. Those tokens gain haste. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.
Breath of Fury || 2RR || Enchantment -- Aura || Enchant creature you control || When enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player, sacrifice it and attach Breath of Fury to a creature you control. If you do, untap all creatures you control and after this phase, there is an additional combat phase.
Army of the Damned, and then flashback it. Now you have 26 Zombies, but they are all tapped. Kindred Charge duplicates them, so you have 26 more that are now untapped. You can attach Breath of Fury to one of them, and then attack with all of your Zombies. Then you untap all of them, one gets sacrificed, but you get another combat phase. Now you swing with 25 zombies, untap, swing with 24, untap, swing with 23, untap, swing with 22, and so on. That's 702 damage.
Side note: I had literally never heard of Breath of Fury before finding this. Does this card see any play literally anywhere? It feels like it has untapped potential in "normal" Magic. But meh. That's not what this thread is about.
So far, everything that we've looked at has involved multiplication. But if we really want to go to big numbers, we need exponentiation. Luckily, there is a card in Magic that handles square numbers: Thromok the Insatiable.
Thromok the Insatiable || 3RG || Legendary Creature -- Hellion || 0/0 || Devour X, where X is the number of creatures devoured this way
So, to explain how this works... if it devours one creature, it enters with one +1/+1 counter. If it devours two creatures, it enters with two counters for each of those creatures, for a total of four. If it devours three, then it enters with three counters for each of them, for a total of nine counters. And so on.
So let's play Army of the Damned and flashback it, for twenty-six creatures. Now, Thromok can devour them all, and enter with 676 +1/+1 counters. If you have a Terror of the Peaks in play, then you convert that into damage! And it also hits the opponent for 2 damage for each Zombie when the zombies come into play! That's 728 damage.
Hope you liked triple-digit numbers, because we're done with them for now. Let's go on to quadruple-digits.
Doubling Season || 4G || Enchantment || If an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. || If an effect would put one or more counters on a permanent you control, it puts twice that many of those counters on that permanent instead.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Hagra Diabolist || 4B || Creature -- Ogre Shaman Ally || 3/2 || Whenever Hagra Diabolist or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may have target player lose life equal to the number of Allies you control.
So... Doubling Season and Rite of Replication will give you a total of 10 Hagra Diabolist copies, in addition to the one that you started with. Then each of them will trigger once for each of the Hagra Diabolists... creating a really huge amount of damage. It's 1211 damage in total, if you were curious.
But we can do better. Doubling Season and Rite of Replication can be used in this way to make ten copies of ANYTHING. So what if instead of Hagra Diabolist, we went for... this?
Craterhoof Behemoth || 5GGG || Creature -- Beast || 5/5 || Haste || When Craterhoof Behemoth enters the battlefield, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control.
This exceeds our previous record, and now takes us to 1265 damage.
Can we beat that? Of course we can.
Ogre Battledriver || 2RR || Creature -- Ogre Warrior || 3/3 || Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, that creature gets +2/+0 and gains haste until end of turn.
Kalonian Hydra || 3GG || Creature -- Hydra || 0/0 || Trample || Kalonian Hydra enters the battlefield with four +1/+1 counters on it. || Whenever Kalonian Hydra attacks, double the number of +1/+1 counters on each creature you control.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
What do you think of this three-card pile? It deals 1548 damage on turn 1.
At least we can't break the 2000 mark, right?
Wrong. Check this out.
Terror of the Peaks || 3RR || Creature -- Dragon || 5/4 || Flying || Spells your opponents cast that target Terror of the Peaks cost an additional 3 life to cast. || Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Terror of the Peaks deals damage equal to that creature's power to any target.
Mystic Reflection || 1U || Instant || Choose target nonlegendary creature. The next time one or more creatures or planeswalkers enter the battlefield this turn, they enter as copies of the chosen creature. || Foretell {U}
Storm Herd || 8WW || Sorcery || Create X 1/1 white Pegasus creature tokens with flying, where X is your life total.
This pile deals 100 damage times your starting life total. In a typical Magic game, that's 2000 damage. And in Commander, the most commonly-played format, it's 4000 damage. Of course, in a Booster Blitz, this would only be 500 damage, which is a bit of a letdown.
No worries, though, we can still do better than this, and we can do so using only cards that we've seen earlier. Check out this.
Craterhoof Behemoth || 5GGG || Creature -- Beast || 5/5 || Haste || When Craterhoof Behemoth enters the battlefield, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Increasing Vengeance || RR || Instant || Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control. If this spell was cast from a graveyard, copy that spell twice instead. You may choose new targets for the copies. || Flashback {3}{R}{R}
If you do the math here, you'll end up with 4376 damage. Come to think of it, you end up with that much even if you don't do the math, but you won't be able to tell if you didn't do the math.
What's fascinating about this one to me is that all three of these cards actually see a ton of play in Commander. So, theoretically, someone may have even pulled this off in a real game of Magic.
In fact, in real Magic, where you have 20 life, you could combine these two. Craterhoof Behemoth, Storm Herd, and Mystic Reflection. That three-card combo would give you 8926 damage (again, assuming 20 life).
How on Earth do we go above 8926? Well... there is a way. And it involves a card that sees no play literally anywhere. This little guy:
Chancellor of the Forge || 4RRR || Creature -- Phyrexian Giant || 5/5 || You may reveal this card from your opening hand. If you do, at the beginning of the first upkeep, create a 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature token with haste. || When Chancellor of the Forge enters the battlefield, create X 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature tokens with haste, where X is the number of creatures you control.
I think you see where we're going with this...
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Yep. This combo gives you 218 goblins with haste. Now we add in a Coat of Arms...
Coat of Arms || 5 || Artifact || Each creature gets +1/+1 for each other creature on the battlefield that shares at least one creature type with it.
Now when you swing with all your tokens, you're going in for 47524 damage.
That's a lot, but it's miniscule compared to what we're gonna see next. Behold... the theoretical best booster blitz pile!
Nylea's Colossus || 6G || Enchantment Creature -- Giant || 6/6 || Constellation -- Whenever Nylea's Colossus or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, double target creature's power and toughness until end of turn.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Kindred Charge || 4RR || Sorcery || Choose a creature type. For each creature you control of the chosen type, create a token that's a copy of that creature. Those tokens gain haste. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.
This gives you 72 Nylea's Colossus triggers. If you target the same copy of Nylea's Colossus with all of them, then this Nylea's Colossus will be able to do 28334198897217871282176 damage. That's right. We just passed the 28 sextillion mark. Oh, and the other Nylea's Colossuses will be able to do an additional 30 damage as well. But that's trivial at this scale.
I think we have this solved.
Or... do we? Can you come up with anything better?
Because... I can.
As it turns out... there *is* a better pile. You want to see it? Spoiler alert: It uses only cards that we've seen before. Can you spot it? If you opened a pack that had every card that I've mentioned in this thread... can you see the three-card-pile that gives you the highest damage output?
Well... here goes.
Chancellor of the Forge || 4RRR || Creature -- Phyrexian Giant || 5/5 || You may reveal this card from your opening hand. If you do, at the beginning of the first upkeep, create a 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature token with haste. || When Chancellor of the Forge enters the battlefield, create X 1/1 red Phyrexian Goblin creature tokens with haste, where X is the number of creatures you control.
Rite of Replication || 2UU || Sorcery || Kicker {5} || Create a token that's a copy of target creature. If this spell was kicked, create five of those tokens instead.
Mystic Reflection || 1U || Instant || Choose target nonlegendary creature. The next time one or more creatures or planeswalkers enter the battlefield this turn, they enter as copies of the chosen creature. || Foretell {U}
This is the same idea as our Coat of Arms pile, except this time, things work differently. Chancellor of the Forge will make 7 Goblin tokens. Then the next Chancellor of the Forge will make 14 Goblins. Then the next will make 28 Goblins. Then the next will make 56 Goblins. But the final one, which is set to make 112 Goblins... doesn't resolve. Instead, you respond to it first, with Mystic Reflection. And then have it create 112 Chancellor of the Forges instead.
Oh no...
So, this gives you a ton of goblins with haste. How many? Well... by the end of it all... you have... (deep breath)
1163074496311801388790831177745301268 goblins in total.
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.
I honestly didn't think that Booster Blitz... with its three-card limitation would ever be able to break the undecillion mark. And yet, here we are.
So yeah, if you ever end up in a Booster Blitz with a friend, and you want to cheat and put cards into a pack and then re-seal it... these are the cards that you'd want to use. And if your opponent uses this against you... then start saying your prayers to whatever deity you believe in.
But is there a way to go even higher than this?
Probably.
Magic is a game with more than 20,000 cards. I obviously cannot realistically check every combination of three cards that you can make out of this. So it's likely that I missed something.
If you can come up with a better three-card pile, feel free to leave a comment in this thread.
As for me, I'm bored of this now. So I'll stick with my undecillion damage as being "good enough".
Bye!