Locations
"You look like you're ready to rob a bank," you point out.
Basil shrugs. That's apparently one other issue with his getup - it's difficult for him to communicate (let alone breathe, you think).
Shaking your head, you turn back to your game. The Unabridged Cube has been good to you today, giving you a nice Black-Red deck with a wide selection of removal spells. Unfortunately, you can't say the same for the creature selection... although you do have a couple of bombs in that department. Besides, trade-offs aren't much of a surprise when you're working with one of each card ever printed.
Basil lays an Azure Mage onto the table and taps two of his lands. He points to the Mage and taps four more, gesturing toward the top of his deck.
"Okay, draw a card."
Basil peels the top card off his deck, then taps the rest of his lands and aims an Iona's Judgment at your Shockmaw Dragon.
"...Right," you say, raising an eyebrow.
Fortunately, you're still in good shape at the moment. Despite having a couple of flyers, your opponent isn't likely to attack considering they still need a way to deal with your regenerating Fog of Gnats. And of course, you still have more removal in your deck somewhere - you just have to hope that Basil doesn't draw into more threats before you can regain control of the board.
Basil knocks on the table twice to signal the end of his turn, so you go to untap your permanents and draw a card.
As it stands, you're clearly on the back foot, but between the Fog of Gnats and a Nightscape Familiar, your defenses are stronger than they look. It's really more the idea of getting past Basil's defenses that's the problem: Basil has a few too many blockers for your liking, and it'll take you more than a few draws to clear the way.
"You're at eight life, right?" you ask.
Basil nods.
"And you're tapped out?"
Basil nods.
You pause for a moment. "Aren't you hot under there?" you ask.
Basil nods, sadly.
You wonder what possessed your opponent to come out to your local game store if he was going to be so paranoid about it. But you might as well end this game quickly if it means sending your opponent back home.
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Basil before the beginning of his next combat phase.
You are at 6 life, with the following cards in play:
- Fog of Gnats
- Nightscape Familiar
- Plague Witch
- Lava Zombie
- Phyrexian Debaser
- Singe-Mind Ogre
- 7 Swamps
- 3 Mountains
You have the following cards in your hand:
You have not yet played a land this turn. 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:
- Throttle
- Minotaur Skullcleaver
- Fires of Undeath
- Ghirapur Gearcrafter
- Gang Up
- Lightning Javelin
- Fourth Bridge Prowler
- Armillary Sphere
Basil is at 8 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:
- Inner-Chamber Guard
- Azure Mage
- Deft Duelist
- Champion of Arashin
- Gale Swooper
- Pondering Mage
- Mistform Skyreaver (with your Clinging Darkness attached)
- 6 Plains (all tapped)
- 5 Islands (all tapped)
If you've got a solution in mind, don't put it in the comments! Help keep this puzzle a mystery to other readers!
Instead, if you think you've got a great solution, you can send your solution to puzzles@gatheringmagic.com with the subject line "Puzzle - Out of Sight, Out of Mind" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Monday, July 27, 2020. 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 Max Bernstein, Sean Patrick Keatley, Hyman Rosen, Greg Dreher, Jacob Butcher, Russell Jones, Michael Feldman, and David Arnold.
"Wow, to deal twenty damage in one turn is one helluva challenge," Max Bernstein writes. "Luckily the Leafkin Avenger (which just cost me big in an Arena draft, coincidentally) is around to save the day!"
The problem with Leafkin Avenger, however, is that its damage-dealing ability requires a lot of mana. That said, you can fuel it by increasing the number of creatures with power 4 or greater on your side of the table. "So, I need to use Wildfire Elemental to pump all my creatures," Jacob Butcher notes, "tap Leafkin Avenger for mana and direct damage, and use Wings of Hubris for Initiate's Companion to deal combat damage and untap Leafkin Avenger."
In order to trigger Wildfire Elemental, you'll need a source of direct damage yourself. Fortunately, as Greg Dreher writes, you don't have a shortage of those:
- Tap Mountain and Forest for
. - Tap Orcish Bloodpainter and sacrifice Mitotic Slime to activate its ability, targeting Verity.
- Create two 2/2 Ooze tokens.
- Verity takes 1 damage, going to 19.
- Wildfire Elemental triggers, giving all your creatures +1/+0.
- Spend and equip Wings of Hubris to Spiteful Sliver.
- Tap Centaur Archer to deal 1 damage to Spiteful Sliver.
- Spiteful Sliver triggers. Deal 1 to Verity, and she goes to 18.
- Wildfire Elemental triggers, giving all your creatures +1/+0.
- Tap Leafkin Avenger for .
- Spend and activate Leafkin Avenger, dealing 6 to Verity, putting her to 12.
- Spend and equip Wings of Hubris to Initiate's Companion.
- Sacrifice Wings of Hubris to make Initiate's Companion unblockable.
- Attack with Initiate's Companion. Verity takes 5, putting her to 7.
- Untap Leafkin Avenger with Initiate's Companion's triggered ability.
- Tap remaining lands and Leafkin Avenger for .
- Spend and activate Leafkin Avenger, dealing 6 to Verity, putting her to 1.
- Spend and cast Dagger Caster. It deals 1 damage to Verity and each of her creatures, and she loses the next time state-based actions are checked, before her Spirit of Malevolence can give her 1 life back.
You now have 8 creatures with 4 or greater power, so...
Because you have multiple sources of noncombat damage available - the Orcish Bloodpainter, the Dagger Caster, the Leafkin Avenger, and the Spiteful Sliver / Centaur Archer combo - there are a few variations available. Michael Feldman raises the most notable one, though, which points out that you can still win this game even if your opponent has as much as 24 life:
- Tap for
( left) to cast Dagger Caster (you now control eight creatures).
- Dagger Caster's entrance has it deal 1 damage to Verity (1 life lost) and each of her creatures. This kills the 2/1 Spirit of Malevolence.
- Spirit of Malevolence's death has it take 1 life from you (2 left) and give 1 life to Verity (0 net life lost).
- Dagger Caster's noncombat damage to Verity has Wildfire Elemental give your creatures +1/+0 for the turn.
- Before Wildfire Elemental's ability resolves, tap Orcish Bloodpainter and sacrifice Mitotic Slime (you now control seven creatures) to deal 1 damage to Verity.
- Mitotic Slime's death (as part of the ability cost, this occurs before the damage) has it create two 2/2 Ooze creatures (you now control nine creatures).
- Orcish Bloodpainter's 1 noncombat damage to Verity (1 life lost) has Wildfire Elemental give your creatures +1/+0 for the turn.
- Wildfire Elemental's +1/+0 trigger from Dagger Caster's damage to Verity resolves. All nine creatures you control now have 4 power or greater.
- Tap Leafkin Avenger to add (to be used as
). ( floating, to be tapped.) - Pay
(
now floating, to be tapped) to equip Wings of Hubris onto Spiteful Sliver. - Tap Centaur Archer to have it deal 1 damage to Spiteful Sliver.
- Receiving 1 damage has Spiteful Sliver deal 1 damage to a player or planeswalker. Use the trigger to have Spiteful Sliver deal 1 damage to Verity (2 life lost).
- Dealing damage to Verity has Wildfire Elemental give your creatures +1/+0 for the turn.
- Pay (
left floating, to be tapped) to equip Wings of Hubris onto Initiate's Companion. - Sacrifice Wings of Hubris to have it make Initiate's Companion unblockable for the turn.
- Pay (0 now floating) and tap for ( left to be tapped) to have your 7/3 Leafkin Avenger deal 7 damage to Verity (9 life lost).
- Dealing noncombat damage to Verity has Wildfire Elemental give +1/+0 to your creatures for the turn.
- Attack with your 7/1 unblockable Initiate's Companion.
- Unblocked, the creature deals 7 damage to Verity (16 life lost).
- Dealing combat damage to Verity has Initiate's Companion untap a creature or land. Use the ability to untap Leafkin Avenger.
- Tap Leafkin Avenger to add (to be used as ; left to be tapped).
- Pay (
left floating, unused) and tap for to have your 8/3 Leafkin Avenger deal 8 damage to Verity (24 life lost).
Under normal circumstances, it would be unnecessary to aim for overkill damage. You probably wouldn't be blamed for it in this case, though!
