We were playing a game of commander the other day. Player 1 already controlled Niv-Mizzet, Parun going into their turn. On their turn, they cast Curiosity, targeting Niv-Mizzet. I warn the table that this is potentially a game ending combo, but we thought there was still a window to prevent it. Curiosity resolved, and then the game played out like this:
- Player 1 casts Isochron Scepter
- In response, Player 2 casts Doom Blade, targeting Niv-Mizzet.
- An instance of Niv-Mizzet's "Draw a card" ability goes on the stack.
- In response, Player 1 casts Negate, targeting Doom Blade.
- Another instance of Niv-Mizzet's "Draw a card" ability goes on the stack.
- In response to the Negate, Player 3 casts Bant Charm, choosing the tuck mode.
- Another instance of Niv-Mizzet's "Draw a card" ability goes on the stack.
No one else has any responses, so we resolve the last Draw a Card, first. This then triggers Niv-Mizzet's ping ability, which triggers Curiosity, which triggers Niv-Mizzet, etc etc. Player 1 puts ~70 instances of this on the stack, drawing their whole deck and killing Player 3 and Player 4. (Player 3's Bant Charm was then removed from the stack as its controller was out of the game).
How else could we have sequenced this to prevent Niv-Mizzet's combo from going off? Should Player 2 and/or 3 waited until Player 1 had put all their draws/pings on the stack, and then destroyed/tucked Niv-Mizzet in response to that?