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Last week, Wizards announced that a Cube Draft format would be added to Magic Online. And what do we do with new formats? Make puzzles, of course!
Challenge
Cause the opponent to lose as much life as possible turn one on the play (damage causes loss of life), using only cards in the MTGO Cube, and only one of each card.
Assumptions
You have perfect luck. For example, even after you shuffle your library, it’s ordered how you want. You may not assume anything about your opponent’s hand or library except that he won’t do anything relevant and his hand size will always be seven.
Send your solutions to nex342+puzzle at gmail dot com with the subject line “Puzzle – Troubling Cube”, and I’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!
Good luck!
Solution to Last Week’s Puzzle
The fastest anyone was able to bring the Dragons out was turn three on the play, and Rast was the first to submit such a solution. Here it is:
| Play | Life | Mana | Cards in Hand |
| Turn one | 20 |  |
7 |
| Forest | 20 |  |
6 |
| Llanowar Elite | 20 | |
5 |
| Turn two | 20 | |
6 |
| Mountain | 20 |  |
5 |
| Thunderscape Familiar | 20 | |
4 |
| Turn three | 20 | |
5 |
| Overabundance | 20 | |
4 |
| Forest | 19 | |
3 |
| Primal Growth with kicker, sacrificing Llanowar Elite, searching for a Forest and a Swamp | 17 |  |
2 |
| Desperate Research, naming Harrow, revealing four copies of Harrow and three basic lands | 17 | |
4 known + 1 |
| Harrow, sacrificing a Forest and searching for a Forest and an Island | 15 |  |
3 + 1 |
| Harrow, sacrificing a Forest and searching for a Forest and a Plains | 13 |  |
2 + 1 |
| Allied Strategies, drawing five cards | 13 | |
2 + 5 |
| Harrow, sacrificing a Forest and searching for a Forest and a Mountain | 11 | |
1 + 5 |
| Overabundance | 11 | |
1 + 4 |
| Harrow, sacrificing a Forest and searching for a Forest and a Mountain | 7 | |
0 + 4 |
| Overabundance | 7 | |
0 + 3 |
| Gaea's Balance, sacrificing one land of each type, tapping only Plains | 4 | |
0 + 2 |
| Wandering Stream, gaining 10 life | 14 | |
0 + 1 |
| Tap the remaining four lands | 4 | |
0 + 1 |
From here, it’s easy to cast the legendary Dragons using Allied Strategies and Desperate Research to draw cards, Gaea's Balance to generate more mana, Wandering Stream and Hero's Reunion to ensure you don’t die to Overabundance, and Restock to bring back anything you need more of.
