You’re playing a Lorwyn/Shadowmoor game against Chris, and you’re pretty far behind. Chris is about to attack you with all his creatures, and all you want to do is survive.

You’re at 3 life with no cards in hand. You control Mana Reflection, Crag Puca, Cemetery Puca, Shapesharer, ten Islands, and four Forests. Chris is at 12 life with no cards in hand. He has Nova Chaser equipped with Cloak and Dagger and championing Manaforge Cinder, Hamletback Goliath with seven +1/+1 counters and enchanted with Epic Proportions, Fire-Belly Changeling, and Rustrazor Butcher. He has five Mountains and three Forests, all of which are tapped.

Click here to see the board state for the challenge.

Challenge

Survive Chris’s attack.

Send your solutions to nex342+puzzle@gmail.com with the subject line “Puzzle – Ship Shape Shape Shift Shuffle” and I’ll include the best ones in next week’s article, along with the next puzzle!

Good luck!

Special thanks to Liz Cady for creating the board-state image for this puzzle.

Solutions to Last Week’s Puzzle

This was almost another solutionless week. I guess the puzzle was harder than I thought! Only one person, Mechalink, submitted a correct solution:

Play	Mana	Cards in Graveyard	Life	Cards in Hand
Turn 1		0	20	7
Island		0	20	6
Retraced Image revealing Island		0 + 1 known	20	4
Mental Note		2 + 2	20	4
Turn 2		2 + 2	20	5
Swamp		2 + 2	20	4
Mental Note		4 + 3	20	4
Cabal Ritual		4 + 4	20	3
Charmed Pendant		4 + 4	20	2
Tap Charmed Pendant, milling Atogatog		4 + 5	20	2
Flash back Deep Analysis		3 + 5	17	4
Charmed Pendant		3 + 5	17	3
Tap Charmed Pendant, milling Atogatog		3 + 6	17	3
Flash back Deep Analysis		2 + 6	14	5
Cabal Ritual		2 + 7	14	4
Cabal Ritual		2 + 8	14	3
Charmed Pendant		2 + 8	14	2
Tap Charmed Pendant, milling Atogatog		2 + 9	14	2
Flash back Deep Analysis		1 + 9	11	4
Krosan Restorer		1 + 9	11	3
Accelerate targeting Krosan Restorer		1 + 10	11	3
Tap Krosan Restorer		1 + 10	11	3
Immobilizing Ink targeting Krosan Restorer		1 + 10	11	2
Flash back Deep Analysis		0 + 10	8	4
Cabal Ritual		0 + 11	8	3
Skeletal Scrying with set to 3		0 + 9	5	5
Untap and tap Krosan Restorer, discarding Riftstone Portal		0 + 10	5	4
Untap and tap Krosan Restorer, discarding Obsessive Search and paying the Madness		0 + 11	5	4
Untap and tap Krosan Restorer, discarding Obsessive Search and paying the Madness		0 + 12	5	4
Untap and tap Krosan Restorer, discarding Obsessive Search and paying the Madness		0 + 13	5	4
Untap and tap Krosan Restorer, discarding Obsessive Search and paying the Madness		0 + 14	5	4
Untap and tap Krosan Restorer		1 + 14	5	3
Skeletal Scrying with set to 4		1 + 10	1	6
Retraced Image revealing Charmed Pendant		1 + 11	1	4
Tap Charmed Pendant, milling Atogatog		1 + 12	1	4
Mirari’s Wake		1 + 12	1	3
Untap and tap Krosan Restorer		2 + 12	1	2
Untap and tap Krosan Restorer		3 + 12	1	1
Breakthrough with set to 4		3 + 13	1	4
Mirari’s Wake		3 + 13	1	3

From here, we can use Krosan Restorer to convert a card in our hand to 11 mana, Breakthrough to convert that mana into cards, and Dwell on the Past to reshuffle everything. This gives us infinite mana and access to whatever cards we need. We can get Red mana with Mossfire Egg. From there, it’s easy to cast all the win-condition enchantments. It’s easy to fill up your graveyard using Traumatize, which allows you to trigger Mortal Combat and Test of Endurance (via Ancestor’s Chosen). Chance Encounter can be triggered using Crazed Firecat, and Epic Struggle by looping Squirrel Nest into your land-untap loop. Finally, Battle of Wits works automatically if you start with a large enough library.

For comparison, here’s the solution I came up with:

Play	Mana	Cards in Graveyard	Life	Cards in Hand
Turn 1		0	20	7
Forest		0	20	6
Krosan Wayfarer		0	20	5
Sacrifice Krosan Wayfarer to put Tarnished Citadel onto the battlefield		0 + 1 known	17	4
Krosan Wayfarer		0 + 1	17	3
Sacrifice Krosan Wayfarer to put an Island onto the battlefield		0 + 2	17	2
Mental Note		2 + 3	17	2
Turn 2		2 + 3	14	3
Mental Note		4 + 4	14	3
Cabal Ritual		4 + 5	14	2
Darkwater Egg, sacrifice		4 + 6	14	2
Cabal Ritual		4 + 7	14	1
Charmed Pendant		4 + 7	14	0
Tap Charmed Pendant, milling Atogatog		4 + 8	14	0
Flash back Deep Analysis		3 + 8	11	2
Cabal Ritual		3 + 9	11	1
Charmed Pendant		3 + 9	11	0
Tap Charmed Pendant, milling Atogatog		3 + 10	11	0
Flash back Deep Analysis		2 + 10	8	2
Unifying Theory		2 + 10	8	1
Charmed Pendant, drawing		2 + 10	8	1
Tap Charmed Pendant, milling Atogatog		2 + 11	8	1
Cabal Ritual, drawing		2 + 12	8	1
Dwell on the Past, targeting three Atogatogs and Cabal Ritual, drawing		2 + 9	8	1
Stitch Together targeting Worldgorger Dragon		1 + 10	8	0
Flash back Cabal Therapy, sacrificing Worldgorger Dragon		0 + 11	8	0
Tap lands and Charmed Pendants, milling two Atogatogs and a Deep Analysis		0 + 14	8	0
Flash back Deep Analysis, drawing		0 + 13	5	3
Cabal Ritual		0 + 14	5	2
Begin loop
Dwell on the Past, targeting two Atogatogs, Dwell on the Past, and Stitch Together, drawing		0 + 10	5	2
Dwell on the Past, targeting Dwell on the Past, as well as Innocent Blood and Atogatog if they’re in the graveyard, drawing		0 + 10	5	2
Stitch Together targeting Worldgorger Dragon, drawing		0 + 10	5	2
Innocent Blood, sacrificing Worldgorger Dragon, drawing		0 + 12	5	2
Tap lands and Charmed Pendants, milling three Atogatogs		0 + 12	5	2
End loop

This loop can be repeated indefinitely, netting 5 mana each turn. Getting infinite cards as well can be done easily by having a Cephalid Sage in play as the loop proceeds. From there, we can cast and activate the enchantments as above.

In addition to last week’s solutions, I received a solution to the bonus puzzle from Commander Challenge 2 from Jason Doan:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand	Creatures	Storm
		7	0	0
Leyline of Anticipation		6	0	0
Gemstone Caverns, exiling Plains		4	0	0
Dark Ritual		3	0	1
Lotus Petal		2	0	2
Manamorphose		2	0	3
Mana Crypt		1	0	4
Time Spiral		7	0	5
Dark Ritual		6	0	6
Lotus Petal		5	0	7
Sol Ring		4	0	8
Exile Elvish Spirit Guide		3	0	8
Empty the Warrens		2	18	9
Manamorphose		2	18	10
Crop Rotation, sacrificing Gemstone Caverns and finding Gaea’s Cradle		1	18	11
Read the Runes with set to 5, sacrificing three Goblin tokens, Mana Crypt, and Sol Ring		5	15	12
Gemstone Array, activate		4	15	13
Cloud of Faeries, untapping Gaea’s Cradle		3	16	14
Cavern Harpy, returning Cloud of Faeries to your hand		3	16	15
Return Cavern Harpy to your hand		4	15	15
Repeat the previous three steps ten times	, ×102	4	15	35
Helix Pinnacle	, ×101	3	15	36
Activate Helix Pinnacle for 100		3	15	36