"I should have expected that one," you say, glancing at the card. "It's on-theme."

"For a Legendary Cube, it's definitely on-theme."

"Where did you get this again?" you ask.

"My dad had it in the works for a while. I think he decided that we had too many cards lying around the house, so he built a cube or two. Or three."

"So this one's full of legends and stuff."

"This one's full of legends and stuff, all right," Claire says, smiling. "I'm going to draw a card, okay? My Sram, Senior Edificer triggers from the Hero's Blade."

"Sure," you nod. To be fair, whatever you're playing right now isn't exclusively stocked with Legendary cards, but it comes close.

At the moment, your deck is a little heavy on the defensive stuff. It does, however, use the classic battle plan where you eventually beat on opponents with large evasive creatures . . .  or at least, it would be if the deck decided to give you more lands. You've managed to cast almost everything you've drawn so far (with the help of a Stormscape Familiar), but it's been slow going.

Claire draws her card, gives a triumphant cry, and then drops a Sigarda, Host of Herons on the table. "I've got just enough to cast it, too!" she adds.

You do nothing but stare at the Legendary Angel for a moment. While you do have a couple of small flyers and a Lady Sun that'll become active on your next turn, all of those cards mean squat against a 5/5 hexproof creature.

"My Hero's Blade triggers, and I'll attach it to Sigarda," Claire points out.

You mentally correct yourself: Now you have to deal with an 8/7 flying hexproof creature. Your prospects are apparently getting worse by the second.

Now that it's your turn, though, perhaps you can find a way to fight back. In a stroke of luck, your draw isn't a useless land. However, it's a Momentary Blink, which joins the Sensory Deprivation in your hand and makes you wonder exactly what you're supposed to do at this point.

"Is it something that can take down my Sigarda?" Claire asks.

You shake your head. "I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about your Sigarda."

"So . . .  does that mean you're conceding?"

You smile and straighten your lands. "You wish," you say. "But I do need to figure this one out first."

It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Claire before the beginning of her next combat phase.

You are at 7 life, with the following cards in play:

• Stormscape Familiar
• Spawnbroker (with your On Serra's Wings attached)
• Lady Sun
• Felidar Guardian
• Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper (with your Lightning Greaves attached)
• 2 Plains
• 2 Islands
• Sejiri Steppe

You have the following cards in your hand:

• Sensory Deprivation
• Momentary Blink

You have not yet played a land this turn. You do not know the identities or order of any of the remaining cards in your library.

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

• Sram, Senior Edificer
• Initiate's Companion
• Palace Guard (with Claire's Chosen by Heliod attached)
• Filigree Familiar
• Rashka the Slayer
• Sigarda, Host of Herons (with Claire's Hero's Blade attached)
• Ayumi, the Last Visitor
• 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 --The Stuff of Legends" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Sunday, May 27, 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 Norman Dean, Addison Fox, Ryou Niji, Hyman Rosen, Greg Dreher, David Arnold, Chris Billard, and Michael Feldman.

"On the one hand," Ryou Niji writes, "it's unfortunate that we don't have any direct damage that goes to the face. On the other hand, if we activate Krark-Clan Shaman twice (with Spidersilk Net and a Treasure token from Captain Lannery Storm), we could sweep most of the board, leaving Silverclad Ferocidons as the only blocker (although we also necessarily suffer some loss).

"Now, since we don't have enough damage to take down Silverclad Ferocidons even if we turn it into a wall with Deep Freeze, the first idea is to get around it with multiple attackers. But no matter what we do, that won't give us enough damage. Instead, we can set up the board so that the opponent has to remove his own creature . . . "

"Oddly enough," Hyman Rosen notes, "Deep Freeze is irrelevant to this puzzle. (Also, seeing Order of Yawgmoth next to Duskrider Peregrine makes me think of an Erica Jong novel.):

This solution has multiple variants. You can choose not to activate Frostburn Weird at all, for example, and then sacrifice it to the second Silverclad Ferocidons trigger. And if your opponent is skeptical about how state-based checks work, you can always cast Deep Freeze on his Hornet Harasser, then sacrifice the aura to the final Ferocidons trigger!

"Getting through a gummed up board through heavy self-sacrifice is something of a staple of these puzzles," Addison Fox muses, "but it's not frequently so literal."