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“So what you’re saying is, the ‘Ae’ symbol won’t exist anymore?”
“That’s what Mark Rosewater says,” Aelwynn replies, a little sadly. “I thought I’d do something to commemorate it.”
“Well, it does have its fans,” you admit. “I didn’t think anyone would make a deck out of it, though.”
You have yet to fully understand what you’re playing against. Aelwynn’s deck seems to play nothing but cards with ‘Ae’ in their names, although you’re not quite sure. However, it’s seriously trouncing your bargain-box deck, so you figure it’s got some measure of playability.
After fighting multiple bounce spells, unblockable creatures, and an Aether Storm or two, you now find yourself in a bad situation. Aelwynn’s Aether Figment and Aetherling brought you down to three life on her last attack, and a second kicked Aether Figment (played while your Disciple of Tevesh Szat was tapped) means she’s likely to close out the game next turn. And just to make matters weird, she’s even got an Unhinged card on the table.
“Mind if I see that again?” you ask.
“Which one? Yet Another Aether Vortex?”
“Yeah. That means the Aether Flash on top of your library is treated as though it’s on the battlefield, right?”
Aelwynn nods. “It doesn’t apply to your Index, though, because it’s a sorcery.”
You glance at the Index on top of your library, which you’re drawing to start off your turn anyway. Casting the Index doesn’t make you feel any better, though — you don’t see anything among your top five cards to help you, although you order them as best as you can.
It’s only after you give the board a good look you realize you might have a way out of this mess. You’re not sure if it’s going to work, but that’s the nice thing about casual games — there’s nothing wrong with giving it a try. You just have to be really careful about what you play . . .
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Aelwynn before the start of her next combat phase.
You are at 3 life, with the following cards in play:
- Cabal Trainee
- Grim Haruspex
- Disciple of Tevesh Szat
- 2 Islands (one tapped)
- 5 Swamps
You have the following cards in your hand:
You have not yet played a land this turn.
After casting Index earlier this turn, you know the top five cards of your library are as follows:
- Knight of Infamy (topmost card)
- Merrow Witsniper
- Sadistic Augurmage
- Swamp
- Island (bottommost card)
You do not know the identities of any of the next cards in your library, although you’re certain your sixth card from the top is a basic land.
You have the following creature cards in your graveyard:
Aelwynn is at 4 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:
- 2 Aetherflame Walls
- 2 Aether Figments (one tapped, each with two +1/+1 counters on it)
- Aether Adept
- Aetherling
- Frozen Aether
- Yet Another Aether Vortex
- 5 Islands (four tapped)
- 3 Mountains (all tapped)
The top card of Aelwynn’s library is an Aether Flash.
You do not know the identities of any of the other cards in Aelwynn’s library, although she’s likely to have multiple copies of at least some of her cards.
Yet Another Aether Vortex doesn’t have any official rulings associated with it, so you and Aelwynn decided on the following clarifications:
- Cards in your libraries are untapped by default. If a card on top of a library becomes tapped, it will remain tapped as long as it’s in that library.
- Putting a card on top of a library doesn’t count as having that card “enter the battlefield”. That card merely gets put on top of your library; whatever’s on top of your library is treated as though it’s on the battlefield.
- Effects that put the top X cards of a player’s library into that player’s graveyard don’t count as “destroying” those cards (or, if any of those cards were creatures, those creatures don’t count as having “died”). Creatures on top of a library that are dealt lethal damage, have their toughness reduced to zero, or are hit by “destroy” effects are still considered to have “died”, as normal.
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 – Aether Or” by 11:59 P.M. on Sunday, May 29, 2016. 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, Aaron Golas, Ryou Niji, Matthew Harvey, Hyman Rosen, Sean Dennehy, David Jacobs, Subrata Sircar, Chadwick Bond, Bohdan Yarema, Kriz Lee, Nate Burgess, Andrew Muravskyi, Luc Gravel, Bill Murphy, Jared Thompson, Renier Rousseau, Matt Vorpahl, Jordan Crittenden, and Dominic Chan.
It appears a last-minute change may have broken last week’s puzzle, resulting in a far simpler solution than what I originally intended. Still, a win is a win! Sean Dennehy’s submission is a good example of the straightforward solution:
- Tap the Alchemist's Apprentice enchanted with the Fire Whip, and deal 1 damage to Bob’s Dega Disciple. He may respond by giving one of your creatures -2/0 . . . but that hardly matters for what's coming next.
- Tap your Wizard Mentor, and target Nevermaker so that both go back to your hand. Nevermaker's leaves-play ability triggers, allowing you to bounce the Disease Carriers to the top of Bob’s library.
- Now, with all that spare mana on Mercadian Bazaar, you have more than enough mana to cast Slice and Dice, killing all remaining creatures on the board.
Phage and the Spirits die, as well as the Griffin. They all hit the graveyard, and the Spirits evaporate into ectoplasmic goo. The Griffin exiles itself for its ability, and the top creature in Bob’s graveyard is Phage, who comes back into play . . . instantly costing him the game.
“Phage is truly a powerful card,” Matthew Harvey notes, “but one that can cause a lot more harm to our opponent if not handled properly. If Phage enters the battlefield and wasn't cast from Bob's hand, then she causes Bob to lose the game. So the question becomes, ‘How do we get Phage to enter the battlefield without being cast?’
“The only way for this to happen is through the ability on Bob's Mistmoon Griffin to Reanimate a creature when it dies. Which means that we need to kill Mistmoon Griffin and Phage, and make sure that Phage ends up as the top most creature in Bob's graveyard.”
There is, of course, at least one more complex solution, and this involves bouncing and replaying Fire Whip. Aaron Golas takes us through one such sequence:
- Tap Alchemist's Apprentice to deal 1 damage to Phage the Untouchable.
- Tap Wizard Mentor to return it and Nevermaker to your hand. When Nevermaker leaves the battlefield, use its triggered ability to put Fire Whip on top of your library.
- Sacrifice Alchemist's Apprentice to draw Fire Whip.
- Cast Fire Whip targeting Skitter of Lizards.
- Tap Skitter of Lizards to deal 1 damage to Mistmoon Griffin.
- Cycle Slice and Dice, dealing 1 damage to each creature. Dega Disciple, the two Spirit tokens, and Mistmoon Griffin die. Mistmoon Griffin's ability triggers.
- In response, sacrifice Fire Whip to deal 1 damage targeting Disease Carriers. Hold priority, and discard a card to Ghostly Wings to return Skitter of Lizards to your hand.
- Fire Whip's ability resolves, killing Disease Carriers. When it dies, it gives target creature -2/-2 until end of turn. Since Phage is the only creature left on the battlefield, Disease Carriers is forced to target Phage. Phage becomes a 2/2 with 2 damage marked on it and dies.
- Mistmoon Griffin's ability resolves. Phage is now the top creature card in Bob's graveyard, and therefore is returned to the battlefield. Since Phage entered the battlefield without being cast from Bob's hand, Bob loses the game.
Alternatively, instead of discarding a card to Ghostly Wings to bounce your Lizards, you can also cast Mystic Veil on them, making them an illegal target for Disease Carriers.
Jared Thompson has one more approach, though, which has the distinction of waiting for your end step to make the kill:
- Tap our Alchemist's Apprentice to deal 1 damage to Phage.
- Tap our Wizard Mentor to return him and our Nevermaker to our hand, using Nevermaker's trigger to put Fire Whip on the top of our library.
- Sacrifice our Alchemist's Apprentice to draw a card. (Surprise! it's Fire Whip!)
- Attach Fire Whip to our Skitter of Lizards (tapping Mercadian Bazaar, floating
, and using). - Tap Skitter of Lizards to deal 1 damage to Disease Carriers.
- Evoke Nevermaker (tapping one Island, and using another), and return Fire Whip to the top of our library. (Is there an echo in here?)
- Discard Wizard Mentor and return Skitter of Lizards to our hand. (Ghostly Wings, we thank you.)
- Cycle Slice and Dice (using our remaining), and while it is on the stack, cast Mystic Veil (tapping two Islands) targeting Mistmoon Griffin. We draw a card (déjà vu, it’s Fire Whip!), and each creature takes 1 damage.
- Dega Disciple, both Spirit tokens and (most importantly) Disease Carriers die. Our side of the board is empty.
- Disease Carriers triggers and HAS TO target Phage, as she is the only legal target left on the board (because we were tricksy and made the Griffin untargetable). Phage is now the top card in our opponent's graveyard.
- Cast Skitter of Lizards (tapping one Mountain) and attach Fire Whip to it (tapping your last two lands, a Mountain and an Island).
- At the beginning of the end step, Mystic Veil is sacrificed due to it being flashed in earlier, allowing us to whip 1 damage towards the Griffin at instant speed thanks to Haste on our Skitter of Lizards.
- Mistmoon Griffin dies, exiles and returns Phage to the battlefield, causing our opponent to lose the game!
Alternate solutions aside, the easiest part of this puzzle was probably figuring out the win condition. “When you see a Phage,” Ryou Niji muses, “you try thinking of ways it might kill your opponent. It's that simple.”
