Last Sunday we played 5-player star format with "ghost" rules, where players continue on playing after they die. You win if the two players opposite you are dead.

The sitting order was: A → B → C → D → Me. So, for me to win, both B and C need to die.

After an ungodly number of turns and C having resolved Jokulhaups twice and repeatedly attacked with Giggling Skitterspike, the game state was:
• B and D at negative life.
• A at 2 life.
• C and I both at 1 life.
It was now C’s turn.
C realized he couldn’t just attack with Giggling Skitterspike to kill A (2 damage) and me (1 damage) for the win. The attack trigger would actually take me out first, which would give B the win instead.

With no other creatures left in play, I had enough time to draw a couple of lands and set up an Agatha’s Cauldron. Over the next few turns, I exiled Coffin Queen and Palladium Myr, which rapidly rebuilt my board while the other players had little to nothing to do. I was just about to reanimate a creature that gains life on etb (to survive Skitterspike’s block trigger) and had enough attackers to finish off C on my next turn.

But then, C topdecked a Mountain and revealed Unholy Heat from his hand. He told me that if I tried to reanimate the lifegain creature, he’d have to Unholy Heat his own Skitterspike in response—giving B the win.

This forced me to pivot. I needed to build my board in a way that didn’t obviously force C to king-make B while also preparing a backup instant-speed lifegain option to nullify Unholy Heat.

Just as I was setting up for this, B cast Skullport Merchant, which could create a Treasure that unlocked the Lightning Bolt he had revealed earlier. This meant B could now just Bolt me for the win.
I convinced C that our only chance of survival was to let me reanimate for lifegain now, which he agreed to. In response to Skullport Merchant, I reanimated and gained back up to 6 life, conveniently setting me up for a lethal attack on C while surviving:

• 1 damage from Skitterspike blocking
• 1 damage from Unholy Heat on Skitterspike
• 3 damage from Lightning Bolt
But B also realized this, and declared that if I attacked C like this, he (B) would be forced to Bolt A, which would give E the win!

In the end, I still narrowly won by going for it, and in response to B’s Lightning Bolt, channeled Shigeki, bringing back a removal spell to kill my own Blood Artist in response to ping C for lethal.

But all in all, I want to highlight how incredibly beautiful that final standstill was, with all five players involved in it.