Rowan, Scion of War + Debt to the Deathless + Lord of the Forsaken

Rowan, Scion of War

Debt to the Deathless

Lord of the Forsaken

How it works

1. Activate Lord of the Forsaken's second ability by paying 1 life, adding C that can only be spent to cast spells from your graveyard.
2. Repeat step 1 until you have paid an amount of life equal to half the highest life total among your opponents, rounded up.
3. Activate Rowan by tapping it, reducing the cost of all black and/or red spells you cast this turn.
4. Cast Debt to the Deathless, choosing for X to equal the amount of life you've lost this turn, but paying a total of due to Rowan's ability.
5. Resolve Debt to the Deathless, causing each opponent to lose twice X life, and you to gain life equal to the life lost this way.
6. Each opponent loses the game due to having 0 or less life.

This elegant loop begins by leveraging Lord of the Forsaken's ability to repeatedly pay 1 life in exchange for colorlessness, rapidly driving down your own health total while stockpiling the mana needed to replay your graveyard. Once you have intentionally suffered enough damage, you tap Rowan, Scion of War at sorcery speed to dramatically slash the mana costs of your black and red spells based on that massive life loss. That enormous cost reduction turns Debt to the Deathless into a lethal payload, allowing you to drain your opponents of twice that life value while healing yourself to full.