Noctis, Prince of Lucis

$0.37

Noctis has lifelink and lets you cast artifact spells from your graveyard by paying 3 life on top of their normal cost. An artifact cast this way enters with a finality counter, so it gets exiled instead of dying again. The trick is that a spell that gets countered never enters the battlefield, so it goes back to the graveyard and can be cast again. With free artifacts and Vexing Bauble countering every spell cast without mana, each loop adds a spell for 3 life.

In the recorded games, the main kill was that loop with Aetherflux Reservoir, which gains more life with each spell until you can pay 50 to deal 50 damage. Gifts Ungiven and Intuition assembled the pieces at instant speed. Some lists also ran Painter's Servant with Grindstone to mill an opponent out. Opponents often targeted Noctis's life total because the recursion costs life. The deck also stumbled on mana and sometimes got outraced by faster Breach combos, playing a slower, more reactive game until its pieces lined up.