Locations
"Just the Ravenous Giant," you say. "I don't think I need to attack with anything else."
Cristina nods. "I'll cast Perilous Research and sacrifice my Serum Drake."
"You'll be discarding one of the cards you're drawing to the Drake's ability," you point out.
"I know, but at least I'm getting rid of that Burglar Rat in your hand."
You smirk, dropping it into your graveyard. "I guess I should have re-cast it before combat," you admit.
Cristina draws two cards, her mask of indifference cracking a little. "Two Islands," she curses, discarding one.
"I'm sorry to hear that. Any other effects?"
"Your Whispersilk Cloak stops me from blocking or targeting your Giant," Cristina notes. "I'm just going to sit here and take five."
"You're at five life, then," you say gleefully.
You can't remember the last time you had a decisive victory; a lot of your games end up in some tangled situation that you eventually need to puzzle out. Your local game store's Unabridged Cube has been forgiving today, though: In addition to giving you a nice Modern Horizons preview in the form of a Ravenous Giant, it's also given you some good removal and a number of decent creatures.
"That also means that I don't have anything to cast during my postcombat main phase," you say. "You can go ahead with your turn."
Cristina untaps her permanents, draws a card, and frowns. "I'll play an Island, "she says, "and then I'll cast a Lobe Lobber."
You reach over and read the card. "From Unstable," you say with a little surprise.
"Yeah, well, this Cube does have one of each card ever printed. A silver-bordered one isn't anything new."
"That's true. So you're equipping it?"
"I'm equipping it to my Thraben Militia, and I'll tap it for the ability," Cristina says. "I'll borrow one of your dice."
"Sure."
Cristina rolls while you adjust your life total. "Five," she says.
You read the Lobe Lobber again. "I guess you're untapping it," you say.
"I'll tap it again for one more damage," Cristina says, rolling the die.
"Sure."
"Six."
You raise an eyebrow. "Okay... go ahead," you say.
"I'll tap it again."
"That was a strange coincidence, was it?"
Cristina rolls the die once more. "Not as strange as this one," she says. "Six."
"Um... sure."
"I'll tap it again," she says, "and I'll roll... a five."
You sit up and glance at the die. "Now you're seriously trolling me," you say.
"I'll tap it again," Cristina says. "And... that's another five."
"Are you sure that die isn't fixed?" you ask suspiciously.
"It's your die," Cristina points out. "You can always call a judge to watch."
"No, go ahead," you say. "This can't go on for much longer."
"Okay," Cristina says. "I'll tap it again for the ability."
"There's no way it can possibly..."
"Six."
"Oh, come on!"
"That's weird," Cristina says, somehow keeping a blank expression throughout this entire exchange.
"'Weird' doesn't begin to cover it."
"I'll tap it again."
"So what'll it be this time? Five? Six?"
"Two," Cristina says.
"Finally," you grumble.
Cristina sits back, thinking. You wonder what's going through her mind, but right now you have a scorepad to update.
"So that's... seven damage total?" you ask.
Cristina nods. "Seven damage," she says.
"From a single Lobe Lobber ability," you marvel. "That puts me at one life. If you had gotten one more good roll, I probably would have just walked away and gone home."
"Yeah. So... game over?"
"You're conceding to me? Okay."
Cristina gives you a look. "No," she says in an even tone, "you're losing this one. Your Ravenous Giant is dealing one damage to you at the beginning of your upkeep, remember?"
The revelation hits you like a ton of bricks. You stare at your Ravenous Giant for a while, and then look back up at your opponent.
Cristina gives you an indifferent look once more. "I'll end my turn now," she says. "Is there anything you want to do before your turn starts?"
Cristina has just declared the end of her turn; you may still cast spells or activate abilities in response. Survive your next upkeep phase.
You are at 1 life, with the following cards in play:
- Armorer Guildmage
- Vampire Envoy
- Eyeblight Asssassin (with your Demonic Vigor attached)
- Flowstone Channeler
- Skull Collector
- Unliving Psychopath
- Ravenous Giant (tapped, with your Whispersilk Cloak attached)
- 5 Swamps
- 2 Mountains
You currently have no cards in your hand.
You still have a substantial number of cards remaining in your library, but you know neither the identities nor the order of those cards.
Cristina is at 5 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:
- Doomed Traveler
- Wall of Light
- Court Street Denizen
- Shield Mare
- Plumeveil
- Thraben Militia (tapped, with Cristina's Lobe Lobber attached)
- Humongulus
- Dirgur Nemesis (with a +1/+1 counter on it)
- 4 Plains (two tapped)
- 4 Islands (two tapped)
- Forbidding Watchtower
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 - Brain Games" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Monday, June 10, 2019. 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, Sean Patrick Keatley, Hyman Rosen, Russell Jones, David Arnold, Michael Feldman, and Greg Dreher.
"To win this game," Greg Dreher writes, "you will be attacking with a creature with trample, so the Magic number is 20. You need 20 power to deal the needed 12 damage. You might be able to get in some chip damage, but the way this puzzle works, you need all your other available damage sources to work towards your main goal, drawing a ton of cards to maximize Fists of Flame."
"I spent way too long puzzling over blocking possibilities," Stephen Gross adds, "thinking the solution would come down to strategically using Fists of Flame on whatever attacker was least blocked. Then I noticed that Barbed Shocker triggers off of any damage, not just combat damage:
- Tap two Swamps and sacrifice Moriok Replica to draw two cards and lose 2 life. (Two Swamps and six Mountains remaining, 5 life, four cards in hand, and three cards drawn this turn.)
- Tap a Swamp to cast Vendetta on Stigma Lasher. Livewire Lash triggers and we have the Lasher deal 2 damage to our Dusk Urchins. The Urchins get two -1/-1 counters. (One Swamp and six Mountains remaining, 5 life, three cards in hand, and three cards drawn this turn.)
- Before Vendetta resolves, use Blighted Shaman to sacrifice the Lasher and give Barbed Shocker +2/+2. Vendetta fizzles, so we don't lose life.
- Tap two Mountains to move the Lash onto our Barbed Shocker. (One Swamp and four Mountains remaining, 5 life, three cards in hand, and three cards drawn this turn.)
- Go to combat, attacking with the Urchins and the Shocker. The Urchins get another -1/-1 counter and die, drawing us three cards. (One Swamp and four Mountains remaining, 5 life, six cards in hand, and six cards drawn this turn). Presumably Julian will throw everything in front of the Shocker, but if he doesn't, that just means we'll have some overkill.
- After blockers are declared, tap two Mountains to cast Fists of Flame on the Shocker. Livewire Lash triggers, and we target ourselves with its ability. (One Swamp and two Mountains remaining, 5 life, five cards in hand, and six cards drawn this turn.)
- Before the trigger resolves, tap one Mountain to use Goblin Engineer, sacrificing Livewire Lash to bring back Moriok Replica. (One Swamp and one Mountain remaining, 5 life, five cards in hand, and six cards drawn this turn.)
- Use our remaining mana and sacrifice Moriok Replica again to draw two cards and lose 2 life. (3 life, seven cards in hand, and eight cards drawn this turn).
- Livewire Lash's ability finally resolves. We take 2 damage, and Barbed Shocker has us discard our hand and draw that many (seven) cards. (1 life, seven cards in hand, and fifteen cards drawn this turn.)
- Fists of Flame resolves. We've drawn a total of fifteen cards, plus one more draw from Fists itself, so the Shocker gets +16/+0 and trample, becoming a 20/2 trampler. Julian has 8 toughness of blockers and 12 life, so this brings him to zero life (or less, if he didn't throw everything in front of the Shocker). We take the win, at a brisk 1 life and 1 card left in our library, tapped out.
"For some reason," Michael Feldman writes, "it took me quite a while to realize that sacrificing Stigma Lasher to Blighted Shaman could avoid Vendetta's sting while still activating Livewire Lash. My perfectionism was quite challenged to accept that you give trample to the only trampler to make the solution work, but such is part of the insidious beauty of the puzzle. It still burns."
"Ultimately this teaches Julian a valuable lesson," Russell Jones remarks, "sometimes instead of arguing about movies, you just need to punch yourself in the face. I'm sure he'll get right on that."
