Price$0.38 – $12.82
Buy on TCGplayerLaboratory Maniac
Creature — Human Wizard
Legal Salt 1.03Card DrawRank #573
If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, you win the game instead.
2/2
Why is this card good?
Laboratory Maniac is the original "win by decking yourself out" payoff, turning an empty library into a victory instead of a loss. The catch: he only works if you can actually draw a card with zero cards left, so you need an enabler to empty your library first and then a draw effect to trigger the win.
He fits dedicated combo decks built around self-mill or massive card draw — classic shells include Thassa's Oracle/Demonic Consultation lines, or Tasigur/Niv-Mizzet draw engines. Cards like Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact exile your library, then any draw seals it.
The problem: Maniac is strictly worse than Thassa's Oracle and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries in nearly every case. He's a creature, so easily killed in response or chump-blocked, and he requires that extra draw step where Oracle wins on its own ETB.
Only run him as redundancy in a heavily-tutored combo deck, or in budget builds. Otherwise, play Oracle instead.
Related cards
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
Same win-on-empty-library effect as a planeswalker.
Thassa's Oracle
More reliable empty-library win condition via ETB.
Demonic Consultation
Exiles your library to enable the alternate win.
Tainted Pact
Empties library to set up the draw win.
Hermit Druid
Mills your own library to zero for the combo.
Doomsday
Stacks a tiny library for a guaranteed empty-deck draw win.
Gaea's Blessing
Anti-mill failsafe and inverse role to library-out wins.
Leveler
Empties your own library instantly to enable a draw win.