Casey leafs through her graveyard. "After your Junktroller's activation, that leaves four creatures for Moodmark Painter's bonus," she says. "That makes my Rubblebelt Recluse a 10/5."

"With menace," you say, forlornly.

"With menace."

You're sitting at a 0-3 record at the moment, regretting your decision to go for a mixed Guilds of Ravnica / Ravnica Allegiance Sealed Deck. In addition to getting a bunch of chaff that leans on a precious few bombs in order to win games, you ended up with a headache trying to figure out the right mix of guilds to play.

Now you're in the climax of your third and final game against Casey, and it's a miracle you've even managed to win something. Despite her deck having some good removal, your opponent would have had to pull off a spectacular series of draws during your last game in order to deal with a Doom Whisperer followed by a Citywatch Sphinx, then followed shortly afterwards by an adapted Pteramander.

"I'll attack with my Recluse and my Ghor-Clan Wrecker," Casey says.

"And they both have menace."

"Yes," Casey says. "Any blocks?"

You glance at your scorepad. You're blocking, of course - your life total simply isn't able to take fourteen damage in one go. The question lies more in what you're blocking with.

With Casey holding two cards in her hand, you suspect that you may be walking into a combat trick. Or maybe not - both the Recluse and the Wrecker are certainly large enough to win fights without any help. Still, your creatures are at a premium right now, seeing that you've drawn nothing but lands for the last couple of turns. You just can't afford to lose most of your army at the moment.

"I'll block your Rubblebelt Recluse with my Noxious Groodion and my Barrier of Bones," you say.

"And the Wrecker?"

"I'll let that through and take four damage."

"Suit yourself," Casey says. "I'll cast Necrotic Wound on your Groodion."

You sigh. That was indeed the combat trick you were looking for, but knowing that doesn't make you feel any better. You can't even use the Stony Strength in your hand to save your deathtouch blocker.

"Take four damage and lose your Barrier of Bones?" Casey asks.

"Yeah, I'm at 4 life."

"On my postcombat main phase, I'll cast my Vizkopa Vampire. Any counterspells?"

You shake your head. More creatures for your opponent means more pain for you, but at least you don't have to worry about any more cards in her hand.

"My Hero of Precinct One triggers and gives me a Human token," Casey adds. "That's all for my turn. Any responses?"

You glance at your hand. Nothing seems to be worth playing at the moment, even with your Omnispell Adept ready to go. To be fair, you've already more or less resigned yourself to scrubbing out of this tournament and going home.

It's just that you can't shake the feeling that you're missing something. At the very least, there's always the possibility of a desperate move... and if there's a time for desperate moves, it's probably this one.

"Hold on a minute," you say, raising your hand. "I'll call for a judge first."

Casey gives you a strange look. "Why? What did I do?"

"Nothing," you say, watching the head judge approach your table. "I just want to check if what I'm about to do is a legal move."

Casey has just declared the end of her turn; you may still cast spells or activate abilities in response. Defeat Casey before the beginning of her next combat phase.

You are at 4 life, with the following cards in play:

• Glowspore Shaman
• Generous Stray
• Gateway Sneak
• Junktroller (tapped)
• Omnispell Adept
• 2 Islands
• 4 Swamps
• 3 Forests
• Gateway Plaza

You have the following cards in your hand:

• Stony Strength
• Severed Strands
• Vivid Revival
• Bedeck // Bedazzle

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:

• Barrier of Bones
• Noxious Groodion
• Radical Idea
• Territorial Boar
• Spire Mangler
• Pteramander
• Dead Weight
• Footlight Fiend

Casey is at 7 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:

• Hero of Precinct One
• a 1/1 Human token (created by Hero of Precinct One)
• Vizkopa Vampire
• Ghor-Clan Wrecker (tapped, with Casey's Maniacal Rage attached)
• Moodmark Painter
• Ledev Guardian
• Rubblebelt Recluse (tapped)
• 3 Plains (all tapped)
• 4 Swamps (all tapped)
• 2 Mountains (one tapped)
• Boros Guildgate
• Orzhov Guildgate

Casey has the following cards in her graveyard:

• Necrotic Wound
• Hammer Dropper
• Bring to Trial
• Righteous Blow
• Goblin Cratermaker
• Inspiring Unicorn
• Blade Instructor

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 - Split Second" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Monday, Febuary 4, 2018. 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 Stephen Gross, Addison Fox, Ryou Niji, Bret Weed, Hyman Rosen, Sean Patrick Keatley, Bill Cheng, Russell Jones, David Arnold, and Greg Dreher.

"The key to the puzzle is Smelt-Ward Ignus," Greg Dreher writes, "but not in the way you might think. You can't use Smelt-Ward Ignus to steal one of Anton's untapped creatures to clear a blocker; he can adapt whichever Skitter Eel you target. You could steal the Bloodmist Infiltrator and sacrifice Nikya of the Old Ways, allowing you to cast your spells, but that leaves you without enough power on the board to defeat him. Instead, you must use the hidden mode of every Act of Treason effect: an untap for one of your creatures."

"The funny thing about this puzzle," Bret Weed writes, "is that I know in a real setting I would just take a non-winning line because I'm too lazy to math this hard mid-game. The obvious trap here is trying to steal a Skitter Eel and seeing if the opponent realizes they can activate it in response. This is likely the test I would put my opponent to, because of my previously-stated laziness.

"To win, however, what you need to do is tap every land for Blue mana you can, and then the three Forests for Green. This gives you and . Then you tap Saruli Caretaker and Smelt-Ward Ignus for , and go off:

"Note that we didn't need any cards from our hand," Bill Cheng observes."It was mentioned that CJ could have activated Sharktocrab's ability the previous turn, which would have been important had CJ controlled one less land. In that case, the play sequence would have gone something like this:

At the end of the opponent's turn:

1. Adapt Sharktocrab. Target Sphinx of New Prahv with Sharktocrab's triggered ability.

During your turn:

1. Activate Combine Guildmage: Move the +1/+1 counter on Sharktocrab to Nikya.
2. Adapt Sharktocrab.Target a Skitter Eel with Sharktocrab's triggered ability.
3. Activate Smelt-Ward Ignus: Untap Combine Guildmage.
4. Activate Combine Guildmage: Move the +1/+1 counter on Nikya to Sharktocrab. Target the second Skitter Eel with Sharktocrab's triggered ability.
5. Attack with Sharktocrab and Nikya for 11 damage.

"Normally I call opponents out for leaving themselves dead on board," Ryou Niji writes, "but this time I must give Anton credit instead. With the huge combo of Sharktocrab and Combine Guildmage, his only realistic out is to dig for an answer before CJ realizes how his cards work. Since he cannot beat CJ playing intelligently, he may as well take the line that allows him to win before CJ sees anything."

"Anton's fate was sealed when he rummaged with Senate Guildmage," Bill adds."Only CJ's lack of vision saved him."