[steveklabnik]

  > Too bad there aren't other ways to encode bits.

Well, I mean, if you look at the article, it encodes a turing machine, so... oh man what about playing Shahrazad inside of the turing game...

  > Also, if you lose half your life and you're at 1, what happens?

So there's an entire section of the rules that had to be added, just for Shahrazad. http://media.wizards.com/images/magic/tcg/resources/rules/Ma... is the link, Section 715, subgames. Now that I'm re-reading, I _think_ that you actually win by decking, not by life: you just play with a larger than usual deck, and

  715.3. Because each player draws seven cards when a game begins,
  any player with fewer than seven cards in his or her deck will
  lose the subgame when state-based actions are checked during the 
  upkeep step of the first turn, regardless of any mulligans that 
  player takes. (See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.”)

Here's the citation for it being Richard's favorite card, and a commentor leaves an explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/20f1dn/we_are_richard...

Mox Pearl is simpler and faster than Plains!