Magic: the Gathering - Barren Glory

Your goal. Win the game with Barren Glory using a Modern legal deck on turn 2's upkeep using the least number of cards possible. (I don't think turn 1 is possibble but please prove me wrong).

Assume your opponent has a deck containing only basic lands and you decide whether you begin or are on the draw.

Using a card means using its effect. If a card is discarded, exiled, milled or anything else to pay for an additional cost or because of an effect of another card it is not counted towards your card count.

My personal solution uses 8 cards and has a total converted mana cost of 21. Good luck!

If there is a tie then the answer with the least total converted mana cost of all cards used wins.

• Doesent modern legal require 60 cards in the deck? – Kristoffer Sall-Storgaard Nov 24 '15 at 7:55
• The linked page describing what it means to be Modern legal is updated every few months. In order for this question to be stable over the lifetime of the site you should at the very least specify the earliest and latest sets which are allowed, and ideally provide a stable source for the banned list. – Peter Taylor Nov 24 '15 at 21:18

By combining the solutions of Zerris and histocrat and adding Wild Cantor, I can get down to seven cards, total CMC fifteen.

Mulligan to a six card hand.
Exile Simian Spirit Guide for .
Cast Ornithopter.
Cast Infernal Plunge for , add .
Play Glimmervoid, tap for .
Cast Wild Cantor for , sacrifice it to add .
Play Unexpected Results, revealing Barren Glory.
Pass the turn, sacrifice Glimmervoid.

Old solution: Seven cards, total CMC seventeen.

Mulligan to a six card hand.
Exile Simian Spirit Guide for .
Cast Amulet of Vigor.
Play Selesnya Sanctuary, tap it and return it to your hand.
Cast Summer Bloom.
Play Selesnya Sanctuary, tap it and return it to your hand.
Play Selesnya Sanctuary, tap it and return it to your hand.
Play Selesnya Sanctuary, tap it and sacrifice it to cycle Edge of Autumn. Cast Deconstruct paying on Amulet of Vigor.
Cast Barren Glory.
Pass the turn and win on your next upkeep.

• +1, Nice job. Even though you have the best T2 win I think I'll accept Zerris's answer because of the impressive T1 win. – Ivo Beckers Nov 24 '15 at 5:27
• @IvoBeckers respectively that doesn't make sense, if you ask a question you should accept the answer that best answers your question, not the one that best did something else. – DrunkWolf Nov 24 '15 at 7:19
• @IvoBecker quoting a very wise puzzler: 'Technically the contest wasn't about earliest turn but least cards used on turn 2' -Ivobecker – DrunkWolf Nov 24 '15 at 9:06
• @DrunkWolf yeah you're right. I have changed it now :) – Ivo Beckers Nov 24 '15 at 9:42

Let's see...

Got it on turn 1 unkeep with 10 cards, 27 CMC. Thanks to @Ninety-Three for greatly improving my sloppy-but-hilarious first turn 1 solution!

Wow You Got Lucky:

Go second, mulligan once. During opponent's turn one end step:

Exile Simian Spirit Guide x2 for RR

Desperate Ritual x3 for RR > RRRRR

Manamorphose for RR, getting UR and drawing a card

Manamorphose for RR, getting UG and drawing a card

Quicken for U drawing a card

Unexpected Results for UGRR, revealing Barren Glory, put it into play

Continue into your turn one upkeep, win the game.

My older, un-optimized turn-one solution

Wow You Got Really Lucky:

Go second. During opponent's turn one end step:

Exile Simian Spirit Guide x2 for RR

Desperate Ritual x2 for RR, RR > RRRR

Manamorphose for RR, getting GG, drawing 1 (3 cards, RRGG floating)

Violent Outburst for RRG, cascading into Wheel of Fate and playing it, discarding Composite Golem x2, drawing 7 (7 cards, G floating)

Exile Simian Spirit Guide x2 for RR

Violent Outburst for RRG, cascading into Living End, returning both Composite Golems (4 cards, nothing floating)

Sacrifice both Composite Golems for WWUUBBRRGG

Quicken for U, drawing 1 (4 cards, WWUBBRRGG floating)

Unexpected Results for UGWW, revealing Barren Glory, put it into play

Continue into your turn one upkeep, win the game.

-- Previous turn 2 wins ---

Down to 7 cards, total CMC 19!

Very Expected Results

---Mulligan to 5---

Exile Simian Spirit Guide for R

Glimmervoid, tap for R

Desperate Ritual x2 for RR, RR > RRRR

Manamorphose for RR > GU, drawing Unexpected Results

Unexpected Results for RRGU, revealing Barren Glory, play it for 0

Pass Turn, sacrificing Glimmervoid

Win on next Upkeep

8 cards, total CMC 15

Amulet Bloom is a good Modern deck, let's just play that!

Exile Simian Spirit Guide for R

Amulet of Vigor for R

Summer Bloom for GW

Amulet of Vigor for G

Selesnya Sanctuary, untap, tap for GW, untap, tap for GW, return to hand

Selesnya Sanctuary, untap, tap for GW, untap, tap for GW, cycle Edge of Autumn, sacrificing the Sanctuary and drawing Claws of Gix

Claws of Gix for 0

Barren Glory for WWWWGG

Sacrifice both Amulets of Vigor and Claws of Gix to Claws of Gix for GGW

Pass Turn

Win on next Upkeep (Simian Spirit Guide exiled, both Amulets of Vigor sacrificed to Claws of Gix, Claws of Gix sacrificed to itself, land sacrificed to Edge of Autumn)

• Very impressive! – Ivo Beckers Nov 23 '15 at 14:29
• Oh wait, you don't have an empty hand I guess, so it wouldn't trigger – Ivo Beckers Nov 23 '15 at 14:30
• Of, you're right, you need no cards in hand. Easy enough... one sec... – Zerris Nov 23 '15 at 14:31
• I think this counts as 8 cards And your previous answer actually as 7. But still the best so far! – Ivo Beckers Nov 23 '15 at 14:53
• That works. Why not go the much simpler route of mull to six, SSG, SSG, Ritual, Ritual, Ritual, Manamorphose (UG), Manamorphose (UG), Quicken, Unexpected Results? You can even use Gemstone Caverns (and no mulligan) instead of an SSG to reduce your total CMC. – Ninety-Three Nov 24 '15 at 1:11

Here's a turn 1 version using 4 cards and 13 mana.

Play Calciform pools, pass turn, play plains, charge pools, pass turn charge pools, pass turn, etc until we start the turn with 6 counters on the pools: Tap pools, plains, remove 6 counters => play Karn, liberated, exile with +4 Barren Glory (pass turn) exile Living End with +4 ability(pass turn) Ult, restart game, muligan to 0, put Barren Glory into play, win on first upkeep. 4 cards used (exiled living end doesn't count), 12 mana total, turn 1.

If that somehow doesn't rock your boat, here's a simple and awesome 8

mountain, Simian spirit guide x 4 (or x1 and desperate ritual x3 if that counts as less mana cost) to cast Through the breach into Hellcarver Demon into Barren Glory

Since Ivo made fun of my mana costs here's one that's far more boring but that beats his :P

On the play: Glimmervoid, Simian spirit guidex1 desperate ritual x4, Manamorphose for 2 white mana-> draw and play Barren Glory, sacrifice Glimmervoid eot, total cost: 19

• Nice one! Mine would beat yours in mana cost though :) it's 21 by the way, I'll add that in my question – Ivo Beckers Nov 23 '15 at 14:07
• @IvoBeckers Edited with a 19 – DrunkWolf Nov 23 '15 at 14:20
• Damn, congratulations! Why didn't I think of that? Mine is actually different in only one card. And pretty stupid considering your answer. Instead of a fourth Desperate Ritual I had a Channel the Suns – Ivo Beckers Nov 23 '15 at 14:26
• Technically the contest wasn't about earliest turn but least cards used on turn 2 and I think it's a loophole that shouldn't be allowed, but nice find anyway :) – Ivo Beckers Nov 23 '15 at 14:48
• @IvoBeckers I could do it with just 4 cards that way though ;) land + chargeland, chargex6 karn, barren glory ;), I could even delay the kill to turn 2 by mulliganning to 1 and casting 2 pyrexian mana spells, but ok, i admit it's a bit loopholish. Or at least op het randje ;) – DrunkWolf Nov 23 '15 at 15:21

I think I can do it with total CMC 12:

Glimmervoid - R. Memnite - R. Infernal Plunge - RRR. Memnite - RRR. Infernal Plunge - RRRRR. Desperate Ritual - RRRRRR. Manamorphose - RRRRWW. Barren Glory. Total Cards: 8 Total CMC: 0 + 0 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 6 = 12

• Looks like this could be converted to 7 cards CMC 15 by swapping out one Memnite/Infernal Plunge combo for Unexpected Results. – Brilliand Nov 23 '15 at 23:01
• @Brilliand Which is what Ninety-Three's answer is – DrunkWolf Nov 24 '15 at 7:49