commander · Go-Shintai of Life's Origin
20 Ways to Win (SLD).
A five-color alternate win condition deck from Secret Lair, led by Go-Shintai of Life's Origin, collect Shrine tokens and leverage ten different alternate victory cards from Maze's End to Felidar Sovereign.
The Commander
20 Ways to Win is Secret Lair's alternate-win-condition Commander deck, and it delivers on the premise: ten ways to win that never touch combat damage. Go-Shintai of Life's Origin anchors the five-color mana base and carries the Shrine support. Tap all five colors and a mana to bring an enchantment back from your graveyard, and every time he or another nontoken Shrine enters you make a 1/1 Shrine token. Those tokens feed win conditions like Simic Ascendancy, and the recursion buys back any win-con enchantment an opponent kills.
Go-Shintai of Life's Origin gives you Shrine synergy and enchantment recursion in one card, and he ties the deck's many win-con paths together. The deck runs Monologue Tax for Treasure while opponents cast spells, Maze's End for the twenty-gate victory, and Helix Pinnacle to stack one hundred counters.
Key Cards
Felidar Sovereign
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have forty or more life, you win the game. It's a 4/6 with vigilance and lifelink that sets up its own kill. In a deck with this much lifegain, Felidar Sovereign puts a clock on the table: reach forty life by your next upkeep and the game ends. Opponents have to kill the 4/6 lifelinker and race your life total at the same time. With Oloro-style passive gain behind it, forty life is reachable by turn six or seven.
Maze's End
A land that enters tapped and taps for colorless. Pay three mana, tap, and return Maze's End to your hand: search for a Gate and put it onto the battlefield. If you control ten or more differently named Gates, you win the game. The deck runs a full Gate package enabling this path. In a five-color deck that needs fixing anyway, Gates provide the mana while counting toward the Maze's End victory. Opponents must find and destroy Maze's End or the Gates to prevent this win.
Simic Ascendancy
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are placed on a creature you control, put that many growth counters on Simic Ascendancy. At the beginning of your upkeep, if Simic Ascendancy has twenty or more growth counters, you win. In a Go-Shintai deck generating Shrine tokens that accumulate counters through Forgotten Ancient and other counter-distribution effects, Simic Ascendancy grows steadily. The deck's five-color flexibility means counter-placing effects across all colors feed this win condition.
Approach of the Second Sun
Cast this spell. If it's the second time you've cast it this turn, you win. Otherwise, put it seventh from the top of your library. In a five-color deck with heavy card draw and hand manipulation, casting Approach twice in one turn is doable, especially with draw effects to find it after it goes back into the library. The deck packs extra-turn spells and draw chains so you can cast Approach, dig down to it again, and land the win in one explosive turn.
Revel in Riches
Whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, create a Treasure token. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control ten or more Treasures, you win. In a four-player game where board wipes and combat kill creatures nonstop, Revel in Riches churns out Treasures fast. Go-Shintai's colors include board wipes that kill several opponents' creatures at once, and every one of those deaths pushes you toward ten Treasures. The Treasures double as ramp if the win stalls out.
How to Play
The plan is breadth. Present several win conditions at once and threaten so many paths that opponents can't answer them all. Deploy Go-Shintai early to start the Shrine tokens and enchantment recursion. Get Revel in Riches down early so creature deaths start banking Treasures. Simic Ascendancy piles up counters off the Shrine tokens. Mid-game, drop Felidar Sovereign once your life total is high enough and Maze's End once the mana base has enough Gates. You win through whichever path the table forgets to cover, and there are simply too many running at once to shut all of them down.