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Background

Normal MtG rules apply here, except that whenever your deck is shuffled, you may assume it is stacked in any order you like.

Puzzle Setup

No permanents are currently tapped or have summoning sickness, and you have not yet played a land this turn. It is your first main phase. Assume that your opponent will always discard or sacrifice to save Solitary Confinement if possible.

Goal: Win the game!

(If there are multiple solutions, the best is the one which wins on the earliest turn, secondary tiebreaker is dealing the most damage)

Your hand:
Evolving Wilds

Your board:
Skill Borrower
Lightning Greaves
Sensei's Divining Top

Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
City of Traitors
3 Forests
2 Plains
2 Islands
2 Swamps

Your graveyard:
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
Simian Spirit Guide
Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant
Baleful Strix
Ashen Ghoul
Experiment Kraj

Your library:
Storm Crow
Forest
Plains
Island
Swamp
Mountain
Aetherling
Batterskull
Budoka Gardener
Dimir Doppelganger
Door to Nothingness
Dromoka's Command
Ghave, Guru of Spores
Golgari Grave-Troll
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
Nirkana Revenant
Ratchet Bomb
Restoration Angel
Shallow Grave
Shattergang Brothers
Siege-Gang Commander
Skirk Prospector
Spawnsire of Ulamog
Steel Hellkite
Vampire Hexmage
Worldslayer

Your sideboard:
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Your life:
20

Opponent's hand:
7 Plains

Opponent's board:
Solitary Confinement
3 Plains

Opponent's graveyard:
Nothing

Opponent's library:
49 Plains

Opponent's life:
1

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  • $\begingroup$ So many red herrings for ways to get rid of the Solitary Confinement... $\endgroup$
    – StephenTG
    Jan 23 '16 at 14:45
  • $\begingroup$ I really enjoyed your use of red herrings in this puzzle, some were obviously useless (Worldslayer, Dromoka's Command), some were tempting-but-impossible Johnny puzzles (Grave-troll, Prospector + Siege-gang) and some were legitimately useful (more than one potential finisher like Ghave vs Spawnsire). Every T1 solution hinged on getting Sasaya's Essence, and once figured out, I'm not sure if that made things too simple, or did good work by preventing an unmanageably huge possibility space. $\endgroup$
    – Ninety-Three
    Jan 25 '16 at 19:22
  • $\begingroup$ Mostly I'm sad that shroud on greaves blocks the infinite combo. Otherwise, nissa draw top, dimir copy sasaya, tap for 16G, 2W, 3U, play top, spin to angel, top draw angel, play flickering SB, equip SB. Spin to kiki, then back to top. While kiki up, copy SB to make token. Tap token to draw top. Play top, spin to batterskull, bounce SB, replay SB. Spin to kiki, make infinite angels blinking and equipping SB, then make one token. Tap top to draw kiki, then spin SB token, tap token to draw top in response, spinning to shattergang. Shatter sasaya, attack for infinite. But shroud stops that line. $\endgroup$
    – Zerris
    Jan 25 '16 at 20:03
  • $\begingroup$ The puzzle as a whole came from me laughing way too hard at somebody who was asking about using Gideon, turning him into a creature, having him copy a flip card, and flipping him. The judge response of course being that now you just have an "upside down Gideon". $\endgroup$
    – Zerris
    Jan 25 '16 at 20:13
  • $\begingroup$ @Zerris Your infinite solution is fixable. At the very beginning of the puzzle, you Kiki SB, have the token Kiki itself, then move on with Budoka + Grave so that when you eventually make Sasaya, you have one tapped real SB, one tapped token SB, and one tapped token Sasaya. Proceed with your infinite solution and have greaved real SB Kiki the ungreaved token SB. $\endgroup$
    – Ninety-Three
    Jan 25 '16 at 23:58
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EDIT: Credit to Zerris who posted his partly-broken infinite solution, this is a version of that solution which I fixed up.

Tap Swamp, Swamp, Island, Oboro, City, Plains for 7
Play Evolving Wilds, sac for Island
The top three cards of your deck are Kiki-Jiki, Budoka Gardener, Shallow Grave
Skill Borrower uses Kiki to copy itself
Skill Borrower token uses Kiki to copy itself
Spin Top to put Budoka Gardener on top
Hold priority, token activates Budoka's ability, then:
Spin top, put Shallow Grave on top, tap top to draw Shallow Grave
Cast Shallow Grave, returning Nissa, searching up a Forest
Top cards of your deck are now Divining Top, Dimir Doppleganger, Restoration Angel, Kiki, Batterskull, Shattergang Brothers
Resolve Budoka, putting Forest into play, flipping the Borrower token and transforming Nissa
Plus Nissa to draw Top
Have the flipped token use Dimir Doppleganger to copy Sasaya, becoming Sasaya's Essence (zero mana floating)
Tap all lands for 16 G, 2W, 3U
Play Top, spin for Angel, tap Top to draw Angel
Cast Angel, blinking the nontoken Skill Borrower
Equip Skill Borrower with Lightning Greaves
Hold priority and have Skill Borrower spin top, then:
Spin top again, putting Kiki on top
Have nontoken Skill Borrower copy the token Skill Borrower
Resolve the top activation, putting Top back on top
Tap the Skill Borrower token to draw Top
Play Top
Spin Top to put Batterskull on top
Use Batterskull to return the nontoken Skill Borrower to your hand, then recast it
Spin Top to put Kiki on top
Equip Skill Borrower with Lightning Greaves
Use Kiki to have Skill Borrower copy a token Skill Borrower
Equip the token with Lightning Greaves (to make the nontoken Borrower lose shroud)
Have the token use Kiki to copy Restoration Angel, blinking the nontoken Skill Borrower
Repeat the above four steps to create infinite Restoration Angels
You now have infinite Angels, one untapped Skill Borrower, and your top cards are Kiki, Dimir Doopleganger, Batterskull, Shattergang Brothers
Make a Skill Borrower token
Tap top to draw Kiki
Hold priority, have Skill Borrower spin top, then:
Tap the Skill Borrower token to draw a card with Top (top cards are now Dimir, Batterskull, Shattergang)
Resolve the spinning top to put Shattergang on top
Sacrifice Sasaya's Essence to Shattergang to destroy Solitary Confinement
Attack with infinite angels for infinite damage

Old version, Turn 1, 15 damage:

Tap all lands except forests and plains (this gives exactly enough mana for now)
Play Evolving Wilds, sacrifice it to find Plains
The top three cards of your deck are Kiki-Jiki, Budoka Gardener, Shallow Grave
Borrow Kiki to copy Skill Borrower, repeat this step twenty times
Top to put Budoka on top
Hold priority and token Borrows Budoka, with that on the stack:
Top to put Shallow Grave on top, then draw it
Cast Shallow Grave to return Nissa
Use Nissa's trigger to put Forest into your hand
After shuffling, the top cards are Top, Dimir Doppleganger, Shattergang Brothers, Ghave
Resolve the Borrowed Budoka activation, putting Forest into play, flipping the token and transforming Nissa
Activate Nissa to draw Top
Have the flipped token Borrow Dimir Doppleganger to copy Sasaya, turning it into Sasaya's Essence
Tap four forests for sixteen and two plains for six (22 mana)
Play Top (21 mana)
Rearrange to put Shattergang on top (20 mana)
Activate Shattergang (17 mana)
Rearrange to put Ghave on top (16 mana)
Use Ghave to sacrifice a Skill Borrower token to put a counter on another Borrower (15 mana)
Remove the counter to make an untapped Saproling token (14 mana)
Sacrifice 14 more Skill Borrower tokens to put 14 counters on the Saproling
Equip the Saproling with Lightning Greaves and attack for 15.

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  • $\begingroup$ If you're using any non-forests post-Sasaya, there's no reason to fail to find off Evolving Wilds. $\endgroup$
    – Zerris
    Jan 23 '16 at 14:08
  • $\begingroup$ Can you get 20 mana with spawnsire on top? Then you don't need shattergang but can just get hasty emrakul to eat the confinement and deliver lethal $\endgroup$
    – DrunkWolf
    Jan 23 '16 at 14:16
  • $\begingroup$ Funny that at that point where you have 20 mana left you could have gone for the Emrakul solution given you also the same amount (15) of damage $\endgroup$
    – Ivo Beckers
    Jan 24 '16 at 1:39
  • $\begingroup$ Interestingly, just drawing Ghave with top and playing it, then throwing all the counters on it also gives you exactly 15 damage. (It's 1 mana more efficient, but needing to leave up both W and B post Sasaya costs a mana) $\endgroup$
    – Zerris
    Jan 24 '16 at 4:14
  • $\begingroup$ @zerris depending on how you count turns, you could go for emrakul, get infinite angels in the second turn, and have infinite damage before the opponents next turn. $\endgroup$
    – DrunkWolf
    Jan 24 '16 at 9:43
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Turn 2 kill

Turn 1
tap all land for mana
play Evolving Wilds
sacrifice for Mountain
stack the top three cards like this: Budoka Gardener, Dimir Doppelganger, Shattergang Brothers
Activate Gardener's ability, Skill Borrower flips
Activate Top to put Dimir Doppelganger on top
Activate Doppelganger's ability exiling Sasaya.
It becomes the flipped Sasaya, which is an enchantment.
Activate Top to put Shattergang Brothers on top

Turn 2
cast Ashen Ghoul in your upkeep
cast Shattergang Brothers
Sacrifice Skill Borrower to destroy Solitary Confinement
Equip Grieves to Brothers Attack with Shattergang Brothers and Ghoul for 6 damage

OLD ANSWER

Turn 4 kill

Turn 1
Tap all land for mana
play Evolving Wilds
Sacrifice for a Mountain
Stack library so Spawnsire of Ulamog is on top
tap Top to draw Spawnsire of Ulamog
cast Spawnsire of Ulamog
equip Greaves
Attack (I assume opponent sacrifices Plains)

Turn 2
Attack (I assume opponent sacrifices Plains)

Turn 3
Attack (I assume opponent sacrifices Plains)

Turn 4
Attack, opponent sacrifices Solitary Confinement, damage comes through.

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5
  • $\begingroup$ Note that you'll need to shuffle your deck first to stack it, though that's obviously trivial. $\endgroup$
    – Zerris
    Jan 23 '16 at 1:33
  • $\begingroup$ Aah, I thought you could also stack it to begin with. Let me see if I can fix this $\endgroup$
    – Ivo Beckers
    Jan 23 '16 at 1:35
  • $\begingroup$ "Tap all mana" makes me cry, you tap lands :p $\endgroup$
    – DrunkWolf
    Jan 23 '16 at 2:33
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    $\begingroup$ @DrunkWolf. Fixed it. I'm usually one of those guys that gets frustrated when beginning players call lands mana :p $\endgroup$
    – Ivo Beckers
    Jan 23 '16 at 2:35
  • $\begingroup$ Also, since some of those plays are colored mana sensitive, it might be worth tracking the mana in pool / used. I'm fairly sure it all works out, but it makes it easier to follow. $\endgroup$
    – Zerris
    Jan 23 '16 at 2:36

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