I’m very fond of this week’s puzzle; it’s the quintessential cast-a-huge-monster-very-quickly challenge, since it’s using the hugest monster there is.

Challenge

Hard-cast Emrakul, the Aeons Torn turn one on the play, using only cards from the current (Zendikar/Scars of Mirrodin/M11/M12) Standard environment. “Hard-cast” means casting it from your hand by paying its mana cost (for example, reducing the cost with Semblance Anvil is allowed, but completely circumventing it with Djinn of Wishes is not).

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 play any spells.

Difficulty Levels

For each level, you must also meet the previous level’s restrictions.

Send your solutions to nex342+puzzle@gmail.com with the subject line “Puzzle – Emrakul's On First” 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

I received two interesting and different solutions to last week’s puzzle, both of which are different from the solution I found. I want to post all three solutions, but posting them in full would take up too much space. Instead, I’ll only post the puzzles up until they get infinite colorless mana and infinite cards in hand. Once that happens, colored mana can be accessed via the various “X of Ramos” cards, and the various Avatars can be activated as follows:

• Avatar of Hope via Blaze.
• Avatar of Will via Scandalmonger.
• Avatar of Woe via a bunch of cycling creatures.
• Avatar of Fury via Recall, Donate, and Planar Birth.
• Avatar of Might via Sleeper Agent.

Here’s the first solution I received, by Bryan Hockey:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
		7
Swamp		6
Dark Ritual		5
Dark Ritual		4
Dark Ritual		3
Dark Ritual		2
Horn of Ramos		1
Infernal Contract		4
Grim Monolith		3
Fecundity		2
Ashnod’s Altar		1
Ornithopter, sacrifice		1
Ornithopter, sacrifice		1
Ornithopter, sacrifice		1
Ornithopter, sacrifice		1
Cathodion, sacrifice		1
Cathodion, sacrifice		1
Cathodion, sacrifice		1
Cathodion, sacrifice		1
Temporal Aperture and activate, revealing Infernal Contract		4
Horn of Ramos		3
Fecundity		2
Saproling Cluster		1

Now we can go infinite by discarding cards and sacrificing Saprolings to the altar.

Jarvis Yu and Tristal found the following solution:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
		7
Crystal Vein		6
Grim Monolith		5
Grim Monolith		4
Grim Monolith		3
Eye of Ramos		2
Turnabout		1
Temporal Aperture and activate, revealing Turnabout		0
Activate Temporal Aperture, revealing Turnabout		0
Activate Temporal Aperture, revealing Turnabout		0
Activate Temporal Aperture, revealing Opportunity		4
Fluctuator		3
Cycle 44 creatures		3
Horn of Ramos		2
Nature’s Resurgence		45
Grim Monolith		44
Skull of Ramos		43
Dark Ritual		42
Dark Ritual		41
Dark Ritual		40
Horn of Ramos		39
Dual Nature		38
Ashnod’s Altar		37
Junk Diver		36
Junk Diver		35

Now we have infinite mana by swapping Junk Divers, which gets us infinite cards with Eye of Ramos and Stroke of Genius.

Finally, here’s my solution:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
		7
Swamp		6
Dark Ritual		5
Dark Ritual		4
Infernal Contract		7
Dark Ritual		6
Dark Ritual		5
Infernal Contract		8
Grim Monolith		7
Grim Monolith		6
Eye of Ramos		5
Flash on Academy Rector, sacrificing it for Dual Nature		3
Flash on Academy Rector, sacrificing it for Food Chain		1
Exile the Academy Rector token to Food Chain	+ for creatures only	1
Multani’s Acolyte, exile it and the token	+ for creatures only	2
Multani’s Acolyte	+ for creatures only	4
Multani’s Acolyte, exile it and the token	+ for creatures only	4
Priest of Gix	+ for creatures only	3
Fluctuator	+ for creatures only	2
Cycle 44 creatures	+ for creatures only	2
Horn of Ramos	+ for creatures only	1
Nature’s Resurgence	+ for creatures only	43
Priest of Gix	+ for creatures only	42
Ashnod’s Altar	+ for creatures only	41
Junk Diver	for creatures only	40
Junk Diver	for creatures only	39

As before, we can use the Junk Divers to get infinite mana and Stroke of Genius to translate that into infinite cards.