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“ . . . Then, she used this card to steal my Gibbering Hyenas,” Lalitha tells you.
“Does that mean that they’re yours now?” Lalitha asks her.
“No, that just means that I gained control of them. You’ll get them back after we finish this game. Now let’s continue.”
It’s the classic underdog story, you think. On one side of the table, Kiara’s playing a W/U deck with cards from four different Commander sets. On the other side of the table, nine-year-old Lalitha is playing a B/G deck that’s been built out of her father’s old cards as well as a few recent store purchases.
Surprisingly, Lalitha’s handled herself well for most of the game. But her creatures simply haven’t been able to get around Kiara’s control elements, and as much as you don’t like seeing kids lose, it’s starting to appear that’ll be the result here.
“I’ll tap two Plains and two Islands to cast Angel of Finality,” Kiara says, “and I’ll exile all the cards from your graveyard.”
“Okay.”
“I’ll equip Lightning Greaves to my Angel and then attack with the Angel and True-Name Nemesis. You can’t block them, so you take 6 damage.”
“Okay.”
“After combat, I’ll equip Lightning Greaves to Gibbering Hyenas, and then I’ll end my turn.”
“I’m not sure if I can win,” Lalitha eventually says.
“It’s okay,” Kiara answers. “Just do your best.”
Something hits you about the cards in Lalitha’s hand, and you crack a smile. “Do you mind,” you ask Kiara, “if I offer some guidance?”
Kiara shrugs but doesn’t say no.
You whisper something in Lalitha’s ear, and suddenly, the little girl brightens up. She still has to figure out the rest of her turn, but at least you know you’ve put her on the right path.
After a long while of thinking, Lalitha smiles and reaches for her lands. All is right with the world once more.
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Kiara before the end of your turn.
You are at 4 life with the following cards in play:
- Llanowar Druid (with Armor of Thorns attached)
- Strangleroot Geist
- Eternal Witness
- 3 Swamps
- 5 Forests
You have the following cards in your hand:
- Ghoulflesh
- Golgari Charm (drawn during your draw step)
- Reviving Melody
You have not yet played a land this turn. You do not know the identity of any of the cards that are currently on top of your library. You currently have no cards in your graveyard due to Kiara’s Angel of Finality.
Kiara is at 5 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:
- Azure Mage
- Gibbering Hyenas (with Kiara’s Lightning Greaves attached)
- True-Name Nemesis (tapped)
- Angel of Finality (tapped)
- Banishing Light (exiling your Vampiric Spirit)
- Crawlspace
- 4 Plains (two tapped)
- 3 Islands (two tapped)
If you think you have a great solution in mind, don’t put it in the comments! Instead, send it to puzzles at gatheringmagic dot com with the subject line “Puzzle — Laughter in the Dark”. We’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!
Last Week’s Puzzle
Correct solutions to last week’s puzzle were received from Russell Jones, Andrew McLaren, Aaron Golas, Norman Dean, Andrew Muravskyi, Evelyn Kokemoor, Lane Engelberg, Sanjay Saith, Vincent Bud, Miko Losantas, Bill Murphy, Mitch Winkens, Jeff Wang, Nathan Thompson, and Sander Rogiers.
“The first thing you need to recognize,” Andrew McLaren writes, “is that you simply can't do enough damage through combat to kill your opponent. This means you must augment your damage. The only additional source is your opponent's own Guerrilla Tactics.”
He continues:
Now that the victory condition is laid out, you need to sequence things properly so that the only available target for Guerrilla Tactics is Azrul's own face. This means:
- Resetting Runed Halo with Brago, which means you need to first raise your life total above 3 to stay out of Lightning Bolt range (or bait out the Bolt);
- Leaving the Angelic Shield on the board so that your copy of Mindslicer will have 4 toughness, allowing you to kill it with your own Valorous Stance.
There are multiple ways to do the above. Miko Losantas gives one such method:
- Cast Parallax Wave. Remove a fade counter to exile Azrul’s Volcanic Dragon and your Aven Riftwatcher. You gain 2 life from the Riftwatcher’s trigger.
- Attack with the Cloned Volcanic Dragon and Brago, King Eternal. Azrul drops down to 4 life, and Brago’s ability triggers. Choose to flicker Clone, Heavy Infantry, and Runed Halo.
- As Clone enters the battlefield, have it copy Mindslicer. Target Skulking Fugitive (which skulks and dies) with Heavy Infantry's trigger, and name Guerrilla Tactics with Runed Halo.
- Remove three more fading counters from Parallax Wave to exile Typhoid Rats, Azrul’s Mindslicer, and Heavy Infantry.
- Cast Valorous Stance to kill your Cloned Mindslicer, as it has 4 toughness with Angelic Shield in play. When the Cloned Mindslicer dies, its trigger goes on the stack.
- In response to the Mindslicer trigger, sacrifice Angelic Shield to bounce Brago.
- Resolve the Mindslicer trigger, forcing Azrul to discard his hand. Azrul’s Guerrilla Tactics triggers. However, he can't target you because of Runed Halo, and he can't target his Refugee because of its protection from red. As a result, Guerrilla Tactics explodes in his hand, dealing the last 4 points of damage.
“In all my years playing,” Miko observes, “this is the first time I've heard of someone being hit with his own Guerrilla Tactics.”
Most submissions actually went deeper into stack manipulation. The result was more than a few solutions that involved blinking your own Parallax Wave with Brago’s ability. Bill Murphy’s solution demonstrates:
- Cast Parallax Wave.
- Activate Parallax Wave three times, targeting Aven Riftwatcher (gaining 2 life and going to 4), Azrul’s Volcanic Dragon, and Skulking Fugitive (which will be sacrificed to its trigger).
- Attack for 6 with Brago and our Cloned Volcanic Dragon, putting Azrul to 4 life.
- Put Brago's trigger on the stack, targeting Clone, Brago, Parallax Wave, Runed Halo, and Heavy Infantry.
- Have Clone enter the battlefield as a copy of Mindslicer. Parallax Wave returns Riftwatcher (gaining you 2 more life, going to 6) and Dragon to the battlefield. Runed Halo names Guerrilla Tactics.
- Activate Parallax Wave five times, targeting Typhoid Rats, Brago, Volcanic Dragon, Heavy Infantry, and Riftwatcher (gaining you 2 more life, going to 8).
- Cast Valorous Stance, targeting our Cloned Mindslicer. When this dies, its ability triggers.
- With the Cloned Mindslicer’s trigger on the stack, sacrifice Angelic Shield, returning the opponent's Mindslicer to his hand.
- Resolve the Cloned Mindslicer’s ability. The opponent discards his or her hand.
- The opponent’s Guerrilla Tactics triggers. With no other legal targets and the ability not being optional, Guerrilla Tactics deals the last 4 damage to our opponent.
Note that you will need to trigger Aven Riftwatcher’s ability before resetting the Runed Halo—otherwise, as Jeff Wang notes, “Azrul could cast Lightning Bolt on us with Aven Riftwatcher's trigger on the stack.”
Curiously, Andrew Muravskyi mentions a particularly relevant passage from Hamlet in his submission, which I reference below. It’s oddly appropriate for the situation, and it makes me wonder what colors Shakespeare would have played:
Hoist with his own petard. And 't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon.
