Locations
"Hold up," Mari says. "Let me see that."
Camilla leans over the table, and Mari plucks the card out of her hand so that both of you can read it. You raise an eyebrow.
"That's not good," you remark.
"I don't get it," CJ says. "What's so bad about an aura that makes something indestructible?"
"It's not the fact that it makes something indestructible," Mari points out. "It's the fact that she's attaching it to one of her creatures."
"Yeah," CJ says. "So... what?"
"I'll show you," Camilla says. "I'll put Shielded by Faith on my Siona, Captain of the Pyleas."
"Right," CJ says.
"That means that Siona's ability triggers," Camilla continues, "and I create a 1/1 Human Soldier token."
"Right."
"That triggers Shielded by Faith again, so I'll attach it to the token."
"Right."
"That triggers Siona's ability again, so I create another Human Soldier token."
"Right..."
"That triggers Shielded by Faith again, so..."
Mari clears her throat. "So you get to repeat this forever," she says. "I think I get the picture."
"It might look infinite," you say, "but it's not really infinite. Shielded by Faith is a 'may' effect, so you'll have to stop the sequence at some point."
"Yeah," Mari says with a skeptical tone. "That's totally fine with me."
"That's right, though," Camilla says. "I'll run through it, like, maybe five thousand times. How does that sound?"
"So you now have something like five thousand Human Soldier tokens on your side of the table?" Mari asks. "That makes me feel a whole lot better, thanks."
"I guess cycling that Gempalm Strider was a pretty good move," CJ says, scratching his head. "But you can get past this, Mari. I mean, what's her life total?"
"Fifteen."
"Ah... okay," CJ says. "But you have flyers, right?"
"I have one flyer, and she's got a blocker with reach."
"Um... any direct damage?"
Mari shows him the Paradise Mantle in her hand.
CJ sits back and shakes his head. "I guess you're toast, then."
"Thank you, Mister Assurance," Mari says, untapping her permanents.
"At least we got to see another preview card out of the Unabridged Cube," you say.
"Something was bound to show up, considering that it has one of each card ever printed," Mari says. "I'll take my draw for the turn."
"Yeah, sure," Camilla says.
Mari adds a Reckless Abandon to her hand and thinks for a little while.
"That's some direct damage, at least," CJ says.
"You don't say," Mari says.
"Too bad it won't be enough for you to win this game. A Volcanic Fallout might have been better, or something like that."
"You underestimate me, CJ."
"What, you mean you have a way to get rid of all of those tokens?"
Mari sighs. "It helps if you all give me some time to think," she says.
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Camilla before the beginning of her next combat phase.
You are at 10 life, with the following cards in play:
- Veteran Armorer
- Marauding Raptor
- Ferrovore (with a +1/+1 counter on it, and Camilla's Choking Restraints attached)
- D'Avenant Trapper
- Brazen Scourge (with Camilla's Compulsory Rest attached)
- Dwarven Patrol
- Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle (with your Blight Sickle attached)
- 4 Mountains
- 3 Plains
You have the following cards in your hand:
You have not yet played a land this turn. You still have a substantial number of cards remaining in your library, but you know neither the identities nor the order of those cards.
You have the following cards in your graveyard:
- Su-Chi
- Orcish Hellraiser
- Mountain
- Phyrexian War Beast
- Teyo's Lightshield
- Treasure Hunter
- Frostling
- Naya Panorama
Camilla is at 15 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:
- Fortified Rampart
- Heliod's Pilgrim
- Siona, Captain of the Pyleas
- Nylea's Emissary
- Sagu Archer
- Lonesome Unicorn
- Rubbleback Rhino
- about 5,000 1/1 Human Soldier tokens (one of which has Camilla's Shielded by Faith attached)
- 3 Forests (all tapped)
- 4 Plains (all tapped)
If you think you've got a great solution in mind, don't put it in the comments! Instead, send it to puzzles@gatheringmagic.com with the subject line "Puzzle - We are Legion" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Monday, January 20, 2020. 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, Addison Fox, Michael Feldman, Jacob Butcher, Greg Dreher, David Arnold, and Hyman Rosen.
"Brion Stoutarm was, indisputably, the finest quarterback that the Lorwyn Giants ever had on the field," David Arnold writes. "He will be remembered for his stunning, game-ending play where a short pass and a Hail Mary managed to win things big for the Giants. But his legacy is not without controversy, and many former teammates have come forward with injuries that they say resulted from his 'sacrifice' plays.
"That's not where the controversy ends, either. Players from the other team have alleged that Stoutarm's wide receiver, 'Starry' Mystic, was seen taking multiple doses of performance-enhancing Maaka milk right before the game-winning play. Will the Giant's legacy Escape unscathed? Perhaps with enough Velocity..."
"With the abundance of blockers and our lack of reasonably-priced removal," Michael Feldman explains, "it was obvious enough that Brion Stoutarm is the primary means of victory and almost as obvious that Tenth District Veteran would give Brion a second shot. Somewhat less obvious is that it is too expensive to get a third shot by killing Brion and bringing him back through Together Forever, or Haunted Fengraf with Escape Velocity to give him haste. So the goal is to blast Kenan, mostly, with two Brion shots.
"To that end, Escape Velocity's interaction with Starfield Mystic and Haunted Fengraf becomes key, along with maximizing Rubblebelt Maaka's bloodrush. Repeatedly finding ways to kill Escape Velocity is a fun theme:
- Using Brion on Rubblebelt Maaka is one way that is obvious because it is necessary.
- Exiling Inquisitive Puppet is another relatively easy way.
"But what really got me is that it is tempting but too expensive to re-equip Razor Boomerang and kill the 1/1 Human the Inquisitive Puppet can create/become. It was even more tempting because killing a token would not result in another graveyard creature to spoil Haunted Fengraf. It took me quite a while to give up on finding a way to enchant and ping the Human and find another way to kill Escape Velocity."
Haunted Fengraf becomes a central piece to this puzzle because you need to apply two doses of Rubblebelt Maaka. The challenge, then, involves draining all other creature cards from your graveyard with repeated uses of Escape Velocity, without sending any unnecessary creatures there. Greg Dreher writes:
- Tap four Mountains and three Plains for mana.
- Spend
and cast Together Forever. Put a +1/+1 counter on Rubblebelt Maaka and Starfield Mystic (3/3). - Spend and activate Together Forever, targeting Rubblebelt Maaka.
- Spend
, tap Brion Stoutarm, and sacrifice Rubblebelt Maaka to deal 5 damage to Kenan. You go to 10, he goes to 14. Put Escape Velocity into your graveyard as a state-based action. Put a +1/+1 counter on Starfield Mystic (4/4). Return Rubblebelt Maaka to your hand. - Spend and exile two creature cards from your graveyard to cast Escape Velocity, targeting Rusted Relic.
- Tap Inquisitive Puppet and unattach Razor Boomerang to deal 1 damage to Kenan. He goes to 13. Return Razor Boomerang to your hand.
- Because you no longer control at least three artifacts, Rusted Relic is no longer a creature. Put Escape Velocity into your graveyard as a state-based action. Put a +1/+1 counter on Starfield Mystic (5/5).
- Spend and exile two creature cards from your graveyard to cast Escape Velocity, targeting Inquisitive Puppet.
- Exile Inquisitive Puppet to create a Human token. Put Escape Velocity into your graveyard as a state-based action. Put a +1/+1 counter on Starfield Mystic (6/6).
- Spend and exile two creature cards from your graveyard to cast Escape Velocity, targeting Starfield Mystic (7/6).
- Attack with Starfield Mystic and Tenth District Veteran. Untap Brion Stoutarm with Tenth District Veteran's triggered ability.
- Tap three Mountains and three Plains for mana.
- Spend and discard Rubblebelt Maaka for its Bloodrush ability, targeting Starfield Mystic (10/9).
- Spend and sacrifice Haunted Fengraf to return a creature card at random from your graveyard to your hand. Since you've exiled all other creature cards, you return Rubblebelt Maaka to your hand.
- Spend and discard Rubblebelt Maaka for its Bloodrush ability, targeting Starfield Mystic (13/12).
- Spend , tap Brion Stoutarm, and sacrifice Starfield Mystic to deal 13 damage to Kenan.
"I guess Kenan shouldn't have activated Ob Nixilis after all," Greg muses.
"A neat aspect of this puzzle is how tight the sequencing is," Michael notes. "The facts that Rubblebelt Maaka'sbloodrush only works on attackers, that Tenth District Veteran's untap requires an attack, and that Escape Velocity's escape-casting cannot be done mid-combat all combine to require very particular timing. And even the order of the creatures that leave Escape Velocity to the grave is precise."
"Oh, and 36,700 feet per second is escape velocity (from the surface of the earth)," Jacob Butcher adds. "I should have figured that out when it might have helped solve the puzzle!"
