Due to its extensive card pool, Legacy is well-known for containing decks that break the conventional way Magic is played and push the boundaries of power. Traditionally, a game of Magic is played by two players with a deck of lands and spells and usually ends when one of their life totals reaches zero.
However, Magic players love to discover new potential. Throughout Magics' years, more and more ways of winning a game of Magic have become possible. First came the strategy of milling your opponent’s deck, so they lost the game by being unable to draw a card. Then came cards like Coalition Victory and Battle of Wits in the early 2000s, which gave Magic Players optional ways to win the game.
Then, in 2011, the card Laboratory Maniac was printed in Innistrad, which turned self-mill into a way that you could win the game. Throughout the years, many strategies have been attempted to accomplish this. Eventually, a glass-cannon approach was adopted in Legacy, which allowed you to win on turn one, and Oops! All Spells was born.
Typically, a Magic deck consists of a combination of lands and spells used together to win the game. As you might have guessed by now, Oops! All Spells consists of only spells (kind of). This may seem unbelievable for newer Magic players, as spells usually require mana from lands to be played. How can you win the game without a single land in your deck?
Why doesn’t Oops! All Spells run lands?
For the combo to work, none of the cards in the deck can have a land type as the front face of their card (this is an important point that will be discussed later). Oops! All Spells is a self-mill combo deck, meaning that the plan is to put the entire library into the graveyard on turn one. We rely on two cards with a very specific ability to do this.
While the deck may seem complicated initially, the combo is quite simple. All you have to do is cast either Balustrade Spy or Undercity Informer. Since your deck contains no lands, you target yourself with their ability, which mills your entire library.
While milling yourself, you will also mill your four copies of Narcomoeba, which will all be put onto the battlefield from your graveyard. Once these are on the battlefield, you can flashback your Dread Return from your graveyard, sacrificing three of your Narcomoebas.
Dread Return will target Thassa’s Oracle, which will enter the battlefield and trigger its ability, winning the game on the spot. Many will notice that this way of winning sounds very similar, and it’s because it’s the exact same way that Cephalid Breakfast wins (which you can find in my article here). While the endgame may be the same, both decks go about getting there in very different ways, making Oops! All Spells a much more glass-cannon deck than Cephalid Breakfast.
If there are no lands, how do you cast your spells?
While the original version of this deck contained no lands, this is only half-true for modern-day versions. Magic now contains double-faced cards (DFCs), which can have a different card type on each face. Some of them are enchantments on the front and creatures on the back. Some of them are creatures on the front and artifacts on the back. And some of them are spells on the front and lands on the back.
Because of how Magic’s rules work, a DFC’s official card type is determined by the card type on the front side of the card. This means that even though a card is a land on its backside, it’s considered a spell because that’s what’s on the front. This is why Oops! All Spells “technically” contains no lands.
When Zendikar Rising came out in 2020, we were introduced to a cycle of mythic cards that were sorceries on the front and lands on the back. These cards could be put into decks like Oops! All Spells and could be played as a land while still being considered a sorcery in the library when Balustrade Spy triggered. These lands made it much easier for this deck to create enough mana on turn one to win while staying true to the deck’s name.
Outside of the DFC lands, Oops! All Spells relies on several different fast-mana generators. The first of these are the Spirit Guides, of which there are two (so far). While neither of these create black mana, getting free mana in exchange for a card is exactly what this deck relies on to win early and fast.
Similar to the Spirit Guides, the mana rocks in Oops! All Spells serve a similar purpose. Lotus Petal allows you to create the black mana necessary for Balustrade Spy or Undercity Informer, and Chrome Mox allows you to get rid of an extra combo piece in exchange for mana.
The last part of the puzzle is filled with the Rituals. Cards like Dark Ritual are used extensively throughout Legacy, in decks such as Reanimator and Storm. It has one single purpose; to combo off as early as possible. These cards can be used as early as turn one to get you to four mana and win the game.
The Glass-Cannon
A ‘glass-cannon’ deck refers to a very powerful deck that can be disrupted fairly easily, such as Oops! All Spells. This combo deck relies on several things to win the game. First, it depends on all of its spells resolving. If even one of its spells is countered, it can prove disastrous for the deck. This isn't always an easy feat in a format like Legacy, which is full of Force of Wills.
Not only do you need your spells to resolve, but you also can’t allow your opponent to mess with your graveyard. A turn-zero Leyline of the Void or a well-placed Endurance can also spell defeat for this deck. Oops! All Spells relies on you being able to reanimate your Thassa’s Oracles, and if you can’t do that, then you’re out of luck.
This is why Oops! All Spells is considered a glass-cannon deck. It is a very powerful deck, winning as early as turn one, but a single piece of disruption from your opponent is enough to turn your easy win into a terrible defeat.
Strengthen the Glass-Cannon
The Oops! All Spells professionals understand the deck's weaknesses and have put in place several fail safes to ensure that the deck can combo off without a hitch. While your opponent may have disruption, Oops! All Spells is filled with just as much, allowing you to hinder your opponent’s ability to hinder you.
Your first disruption piece comes into effect on turn zero, which is Chancellor of the Annex. Chancellor gives you a free Daze on your opponent’s first spell, which sometimes is all you need. Even if your opponent has a Force of Will, their counterspell will be useless if they don’t have a free mana available to pay to Chancellor’s tax.
While Force of Will is a powerful counterspell that could be used to protect your combo, decks like Oops! All Spells don’t have the resources necessary to pitch an additional card to cast Force of Will for free. Luckily, there is another free counterspell that does not require the extra resources to cast. Pact of Negation allows us to counter a spell for free, and as long as you win the game, you will never have to pay the cost.
The last piece of interaction is usually used after you have dumped your library into your graveyard, although it can be played beforehand as well. Once you combo off, you usually have an extra Narcomoeba or Balustrade Spy lying around. These can be used to cast Cabal Therapy from your graveyard, which can help remove a piece of interaction from your opponent before you cast your Dread Return.
Of course, the sideboard is also filled with cards that all help your combo against your opponent’s sideboard cards. You can bring in cards like Leyline of Sanctity to protect against Thoughtseize and Endurance effects from your opponent. You can bring in Force of Vigor to eliminate opposing Leyline of the Voids or Grafdigger’s Cages. You can also bring in Xantid Swarms that can help to clear the way for your spells to resolve in your second main phase.
Final Thoughts
Oops! All Spells is an all-in, glass-cannon deck, which will only appeal to a select amount of Magic players. Most Magic players enjoy the interactive, back-and-forth way that Magic is played, and many people are scared about the concept of relying on a single path to win the game.
However, this is Legacy we’re talking about, which is full of combo decks. Not all of them may be as fragile as Oops! All Spells, but Legacy is where decks like this thrive. Many Legacy players love doing powerful things, and this deck embodies that trait. Almost every Magic player can remember the first time they were told that a deck could win on turn one and found it unbelievable. It’s fun to finally live that dream of winning on turn one, and Oops! All Spells allows you to do that.
While this combo is sweet, decks like this are not why I play Magic. The main thing that pushes me away from this deck is that the game ends the same way almost every single time. You either combo off and just win the game, or your opponent stops your combo, and then you sit there until you lose the game. I know some players love the easy win and the thrill of comboing off, but it doesn’t bring me any joy.
However, the beautiful thing about Magic is that you can play the game however you want to play it. If you enjoy comboing off the same way every single game, this deck is perfect for you, and I hope you have fun with it! This deck allows you to play a lot of really cool Legacy cards, and there is a certain thrill behind winning the game before your opponent does anything.
Whatever your opinion of combo decks is, it is indisputable that Oops! All Spells showcases the diversity of Magic, showing how you don’t even need lands in your deck to win the game! A diverse metagame is what keeps formats interesting, and it’s one of the reasons why I love Legacy with such a burning passion.
Want to play fair Magic and win with creatures? Here’s Death & Taxes. Want to control the game and win with powerful planeswalkers? Here’s Four-Color Control. Want to win the game with only lands? Here’s Depths. Want to win the game with NO lands? Here’s Oops! All Spells.
You can find the full decklist here.
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