Crushing Thomas in Magic

The dark-haired boy stared at the cards in his hand. He held them with both hands, but they were not organized. Some cards were upside down. It was a ramble of Magic The Gathering cards. His deck was a hodge-podge of cards that were loosely connected, if at all. His deck a couple good cards, and one cool combo. It seemed impossible that he would ever get all four cards he needed out of his 60 cards deck, but he often got lucky.
He looked at his side of the table. There sat three of the 4 cards he needed to complete his combo. The dark-haired boy’s opponent was playing a combo deck of his own, so the dark haired boy had had more time than he should have. The dark-haired boy was too caught up in his own strategy to concern himself with what his opponent was doing. If he could draw the card he needed on this turn, he would be able to pull of the combo that had never failed him.
The dark-haired boy drew his card. Across the top of it read: Energy Chamber. He paused to listen to the taunting of his opponent, which he had drowned out.
“Hurry up, it’s not like your gonna draw another energy chamber.”
The dark-haired boy placed his right hand in two of the many cards before him. One was blue, the other red. The blue one read Seat of the Synod. The red one read Great Furnace. They both read, “Land” across the center. By “taping” them, he had invoked their abilities. Each gave him one mana. He needed this mana to play his Energy Chamber.
The dark-haired boy placed his third Energy Chamber on the table with a smirk. His fair-haired opponent gawked in astonishment. He could not believe that the dark-haired boy had drawn all three of his Energy Chambers and his sole Magistrate’s Scepter.
With the power of the three Energy Chambers behind it, the Magistrate Scepter allowed the dark-haired boy to take an infinite number of turns, one after another.
“Wow, that’s luck,” said the fair-haired opponent.
The dark-haired boy started taking turns and drawing cards. He failed to notice the giggling coming from the other side of the table. Eventually he played one of his strongest creatures. When he was ready to attack, he finally looked at what his opponent had of the table. His opponent had no creatures out. In fact, the fair-haired teen had no creatures in his deck whatsoever. He didn’t need them.
The dark-haired boy declared his attack. His opponent burst into laughter. The dark-haired boy was stunned and confused. He was sure he had won. The fair-haired teen pointed to a card on his side of the table. The dark-haired boy let out a groan. His combo had failed him for the first time. One card had thwarted him.
Across the top of the gray card read the words: Glacial Chasm. Under the picture read the word: “Land“. Usually lands only produced mana. This land was not ordinary. This land did not produce mana. The rules text was where the true power of the card lived. The first line read: “Cumulative upkeep—Pay 2 life“. At the beginning of the turns; succeeding the turn it comes into play; the controller of the card must pay 2, then 4, then 6 life, and so on, to keep the card in play. Considering that a player starts with 20 life, Glacial Chasm becomes very dangerous to the controller after only a few turns. The next line read: “If Glacial Chasm would come into play, sacrifice a land instead. If you do, put Glacial Chasm into play. If you don’t, put it into its owner’s graveyard.” Lands are a valuable resource to any player. Without them you can do nothing. A player can only play one land per turn, and only on their turn. Sacrificing a land to play another land can set you back two turns. The third line read: Skip your combat phase. The combat phase is when your creatures attack. This was why the fair-haired teen had no creatures in his deck. The final line of rules text was the only reason to play Glacial Chasm. It read: “Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you.” Creatures and damage spells can’t touch you, with Glacial Chasm on the board. There are cards that can get around this restriction, but the dark-haired boy had none of those cards in his deck.
Without a way to win, the dark-haired boy stopped taking extra turns, before he lost for running out of cards to draw from his deck. The fair-haired boy was giddy. He had put Glacial Chasm in his deck with this specific situation in mind. He loved the idea of someone loosing despite having infinite turns. On his first turn after thwarting the infinite turns combo, the fair-haired teen pulled off his combo. He blasted his pale-faced opponent into oblivion.
“I can’t believe you couldn’t win with infinite turns,” the taunting continued.
The dark-haired boy sat at the table sullen and beaten. He was used to loosing; he did so regularly. But this loss was different. He had had every card in his entire deck at his disposal. A wide array of powerful creatures, finishing spells and all the mana he could hope for. But still he had come up short. One card had stopped him.
He sat there stunned while, “he lost with infinite turns,” emanated from the mouth of his opponent. They did not understand Magic, but they could comprehend the concept of loosing despite having every possible resource available.
The dark-haired boy stuffed his cards into his bag and rose from the green table.