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Doomsday - The card text reads as follows:

Pay half your life, rounded up: Put your graveyard on top of your library, then remove all but five cards of your library from the game. Put the rest on top of your library in any order.

I have never managed to do anything useful with this card. Ever!

What could I do to use it successfully?

ire_and_curses
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  • There are some very powerful combos around the card; here's an example: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/legacy-type-1-5/legacy-archives/509058-deck-doomsday-fetchland-tendrils – aaron Jul 22 '16 at 20:54

4 Answers4

13

For half your life, you get to stack your deck and set yourself up for a number of combos. There's a combo going around that involves Shelldock Isle/ Doomsday/ Emrakul, the Aeons Torn to pop out the Emrakul for free.

In addition, cards such as Serra Avatar, Beacon of Destruction, and other cards that shuffle back into your library afterwards can be used to stall running out of cards. Platinum Angel can help keep you from losing the game.

That said, it's a pretty hard card to build around.

LittleBobbyTables - Au Revoir
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7

This is a quite heavy article on the subject : http://sites.google.com/site/emidln/doomsdaystacks

It describes the uses of the card in competitive legacy play, with several "win now" stacks.

The idea is to float some mana, for instance 1U with this stack and Sensei Top (SDT) in play :

  • [Top]
  • Brainstorm
  • Lion's Eye Diamond (LED)
  • Lion's Eye Diamond
  • Ill-Gotten Gains (IGG)
  • Tendrils of Agony
  • [Bottom]

How it Works:

  • Tap SDT to draw into Brainstorm (1U floating).
  • Play Brainstorm (1 floating) to draw into SDT, LED, LED. Put back 2 random cards.
  • Play LED, LED, SDT. Break LEDs for UUU and BBB.
  • Pay B to rearrange the top3 using SDT putting IGG on top.
  • Tap SDT to draw into IGG.
  • Play IGG (floating U) returning LED, LED, Brainstorm.
  • Play LED, LED, Brainstorm (breaking both LED for BBBBBB) to draw SDT.
  • Play SDT.
  • Pay B to rearrange the top3 using SDT putting Tendrils of Agony on top.
  • Tap SDT to draw Tendrils of Agony.
  • Play Tendrils of Agony and kill with the storm triggers
Michel Daviot
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    Can you at least summarize the strategy here? Giving a link to an answer is fine, but having the information here is necessary as well. Thanks! – Pat Ludwig Apr 11 '11 at 00:43
5

Doomsday + Mind's Desire + Beacon of Destruction is a quick win-the-game combo. You wouldn't want to be casting Doomsday unless its text basically says "win the game"... if you set it up right, though, it DOES.

ire_and_curses
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thesunneversets
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  • While this smells nice, you also need an impressive nine mana for it to work, five of them colored! Moreover, doomsday puts five cards in your library, and since you can have at most 3 beacons, it's quite risky. – o0'. Nov 21 '10 at 00:23
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    @Lo'oris - I believe the five cards you choose are something like Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Black Lotus, Mind's Desire, Beacon of Destruction. Pay U to Ancestral into Ritual and Lotus, then it basically costs you 1 more mana to cast Beacon of Destruction at least 4 times with Mind's Desire... I think that's roughly how it works. – thesunneversets Nov 21 '10 at 03:16
  • oh, I didn't notice you arrange those cards as you wish... I assumed you shuffled them. (I also meant 4 beacons of course, not 3). Well, then it's a nice combo, with just the (huge) problem that it's a "win or die" and very vulnerable. – o0'. Nov 21 '10 at 10:41
  • Note that Mind's Desire is not legacy legal, and for Vintage is far from optimal due to the mana cost. – Michel Daviot Apr 19 '11 at 21:23
2

Doomsday + Laboratory Maniac + draw

Get the Manic on the field, play doomsday, then draw yourself to a win.

DForck42
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  • The problem with any strategy that begins with "get Laboratory Maniac" on the field is that you have to keep him on the field as you're drawing your last card. I guess there's Chromatic Sphere (card draw as a mana ability) to help with that, but it's still rather fragile. – Alex P Feb 15 '12 at 20:32
  • @alex p i guess he did say successfully. I was thinking fun. – DForck42 Feb 15 '12 at 20:50