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Today, you’re playing against Zelda in a Cube Draft match. It’s not just any Cube though; you’re revisiting the Unabridged Cube, a Limited environment that uses one of every Magic: The Gathering card ever printed. And you’re actually in a winning position—for once.
So when Zelda drew a land on her most recent draw step, she became desperate. First, she activated and exiled her Relic of Progenitus to draw a card (and wipe out all graveyards). Then, she cast the Evincar's Justice she drew, killing several creatures and bringing you to 1 life—close, but no cigar. You decided not to activate your Soul Net in response, mostly because you didn’t think it would matter: You’re still alive, your best creatures are still up and running, and Zelda’s going to die to your next attack.
Shortly after Zelda declared the end of her turn, however, you realized that you now have no Human creatures in play. That means that when your next upkeep comes around, your new Archdemon of Greed isn’t going to be as happy as you originally thought . . .
Zelda has just declared the end of her turn; you may still cast spells or activate abilities in response. Defeat Zelda before she defeats you.
You are at 1 life with the following cards in play:
- Mosquito Guard (with Krovikan Fetish attached), with 2 damage on it
- Sengir Bats (with Necromancer's Magemark attached), with 2 damage on it
- Kithkin Spellduster, with 2 damage on it
- Archdemon of Greed (tapped), with 2 damage on it
- Soul Net
- Aeolipile
- 4 Plains (one tapped)
- 2 Swamps (one tapped)
You have the following cards in your hand:
Zelda is at 5 life with the following cards in play:
- Raking Canopy
- 4 Swamps (all tapped)
- 3 Forests (all tapped)
- Tainted Wood (tapped)
Zelda has only one card in hand. You know that this is Evincar's Justice because she paid its buyback cost when she cast it.
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 — Devil’s Due”. We’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!
Last Week’s Puzzle
Several people wrote in to advise that Scavenger Drake’s ability triggered when Domenico sacrificed his Eldrazi Spawn tokens last turn. For the purpose of the puzzle, though, we’ll assume that you missed these triggers—and that, as a result, your Scavenger Drake is still a 1/1 flyer, you’re kicking yourself for forgetting about the +1/+1 counters last turn, and you’re hoping to pull off the win despite that issue.
There are several possible moves that result in your dealing 10 damage to Domenico, all of which come up short of our target. In order to get 11 damage out of our cards, Tim Gerheim points out the critical observation: “The key to this puzzle is assembling a creature with 4 or more toughness so that you can pump it with Nameless Inversion.”
In their joint solution, Yuji and Jacob note:
Evelyn clarifies this further:
Sannindi’s solution follows the sequence below:
- Tap a Plains to cast Flayer Husk.
- Tap two Plains to equip Flayer Husk to Kor Duelist. A +1/+1 counter goes on the Scavenger Drake as the Germ token died. Scavenger Drake is now 2/2.
- Tap a Plains and a Swamp to cast Nameless Inversion on Kozilek's Predator, killing it. Another +1/+1 counter goes on Scavenger Drake. Scavenger Drake is now 3/3.
- Sacrifice Moonlit Strider to give Kor Duelist protection from red. A third +1/+1 counter goes on Scavenger Drake. Scavenger Drake is now 4/4. Soulshift brings back Nameless Inversion.
- Tap your remaining two Swamps to cast Nameless Inversion on Scavenger Drake, making it 7/1.
- Attack for exactly 11 damage (4 from a 2/2 unblockable, double-striking Kor Duelist and 7 from a 7/1 Scavenger Drake).
John Healy notes that Domenico himself wasn’t exempt from strategic errors this game: “The funny thing is that with Moonlit Strider on board, it would have been easy for Domenico to play around this by equipping the Kitesail to the Gorehorn Minotaurs. Oops.”
