quick question about research victories

[lch]

sansanjuan said:
What is the fastest you experienced players have seen a research victory? Ever seen it as a strategy?
-SSJ

Something like this?

A dire portent. Merlin, King of Stellar Lights, Lord of the Celestial Bodies, Patron of left-handed elevator repair dudes, has completed casting the Spell of Mastery.
Having conquered both the realms of Arcanus and Myrror, I and only I remain the true Master of Magic.

Or was the research victory something else than casting the Mastery spell, which is more like casting all level 9 globals at once?

The Octopus Overlords Mermaid game left me with an overwhelming research advantage as Patala with a magic scale which effectively did my opponents in. I virtually handicapped my research for the first 30 turns by buying expensive mages and sending them to site search to not become a target for combined allied attacks. Then when I had all the nice stuff in place I didn't care and let my research skyrocket (multiple forts spamming Yogis). The gem charts don't tell the whole truth, I had tons of clams as well. When I had Abominations boosted with Army of Lead and Mist Warriors running around, the others deemed the game was effectively over. We played with normal winning conditions, though.