by Elton Gahr

Created on: November 06, 2009

There are certain cards that I really want to play for no other reason than the joy of the embarrassed look on the opponents face when he loses to that card. Battle of wits is one of the best examples of this as no one likes to lose to someone who has 200 cards in his deck, but it isn't the only example by any means and while any deck that plays for the joy of embarrassing an opponent is necessarily casual that doesn't make it any less fun.

Barren Glory is a card that I will eventually build a deck around. It is a rare enchantment from the future sight expansion set of magic the gathering which costs two white and four colorless to put into play and reads "At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control no permanents other than Barren Glory and have no cards in hand, you win the game."

This is of course no easy feat to achieve. The problem is that in order to put this card into play you must have at least six mana, most likely in the form of six lands. In addition to this you have to have some way to survive your opponent long enough to get the six mana which likely means that you will have creatures, and you certainly can't count on your opponent to destroy everything for you.

This leads to the question of how to do it. And the answer no matter your strategy lies in red. The reason for this is that the three cards that will allow you to do this are all red. The most powerful and the most expensive is Decree of Annihilation, this is a sorcery from the scourge expansion set that costs two red and eight colorless and reads "Exile all artifacts, creatures, and lands from the battlefield, all cards from all graveyards, and all cards from all hands." so as long as you ensure that you have no other enchantments this along with barren glory is a good win condition if an expensive one.

The other two are weaker only because they don't get rid of the cards from your hand and so will have to be played last. These are Obliterate, which costs two red and six, destroys everything but enchantments and can't be countered and Jokulhaups which costs two red and four colorless and destroys everything and can be countered. Or since this is a casual deck why not play all of them, in fact, be obnoxious and play four of each in your next multiplayer game along with wrath of god, balance and Armageddon, just don't expect to be invited to the next game night.

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