The real problem, you realize, is that you have less creatures than she does. That means that any creature exchange is not going to be in your favor: While your 7/7 Changeling Titan can certainly hold the ground against her Twisted Abomination and her lifelinked Slithermuse, you only have one flying creature that you can use to block the Butcher. What’s more, killing the big 5/4 vampire would force you to sacrifice another creature — leaving you worse off for the long term.

You draw a card off the top of your library, which turns out to be a Harmonize. That’s not too bad, but you only have six lands available — you’ll need to hope that you find a solution that costs two or less.

“I’ll tap 4 mana and cast Harmonize,” you say.

Mercy nods. She doesn’t have any cards in her hand, so it’s not as though she can respond with anything, anyway.

You peel off the top three cards of your library one after another. Groundswell looks workable and Excommunicate can help buy you some time, but it’s only when you draw the third card that a smile comes to your face.

“Forced Worship on your Butcher of Malakir?” you ask.

Mercy can only groan in response.

It’s just another day with the Unabridged Cube, your local game store’s fixture that contains one of each card ever printed. With Commander 2017 Edition previews in the works, the new cards have been showing up in more than a few games. You even managed to pull one — the surprisingly-beefy Alms Collector — but it’s been little more than a solid body for you so far.

Mercy draws her card for the turn, which turns out to be just another Island. You start to sigh in relief, but then suddenly remember that she’s likely going to get a second card from her Shadowmage Infiltrator.

Sure enough, Mercy makes her move. “I’ll attack with my Hovermyr and my Shadowmage Infiltrator,” she says.

You consider blocking the Hovermyr, but then decide against it. You can afford to lose an extra point of life at the moment, especially considering that the Butcher’s printed ability is still a consideration.

“I’ll take both and go down to six life,” you say.

“I’ll draw a card from the Infiltrator,” Mercy says, doing so. Suddenly her expression changes to one of pure glee, and she drops her card on the table.

“Sleep Paralysis on your Changeling Titan?” she asks.

“That’s not good,” you say. “I’ll activate my Qasali Pridemage . . .  ah, wait. I’m tapped out, aren’t I?”

Mercy’s only response is to give you a wide grin. You sigh — you just have to hope that you get lucky again with your next draw.

You untap your permanents and draw a card, adding a Cloudshift to your hand. It’s not a land, which at least means that your luck is still holding steady. At the same time, it’s a way to get your Changeling Titan out from under the thumb of the Sleep Paralysis.

You just can’t help but feel that you’re missing something, though . . . 

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

You are at 6 life, with the following cards in play:

• Qasali Pridemage
• Alms Collector
• Battleflight Eagle (with your Rancor attached)
• Changeling Titan (tapped, exiling your Ainok Guide, and with Mercy’s Sleep Paralysis attached)
• 2 Forests
• 4 Plains

You have the following cards in your hand:

• Groundswell
• Cloudshift (drawn during your draw step this turn)
• Excommunicate

You have not yet played a land this turn. You do not know the identities or order of any of the cards remaining in your library, although you still have plenty of Forests and Plains in there somewhere.

Mercy is at 8 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:

• Hovermyr
• Shadowmage Infiltrator (tapped)
• Filigree Familiar
• Nyxborn Triton
• Slithermuse (with Mercy’s Cartouche of Ambition attached)
• Twisted Abomination
• Butcher of Malakir (with your Forced Worship attached)
• 3 Islands (two tapped)
• 4 Swamps (two 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 — Every Little Bit Counts” by 11:59 P.M. EST on Sunday, August 20, 2017. 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, Russell Jones, Allen Smith, Matthew Harvey, Aaron Golas, Addison Fox, Greg Dreher, and Ryou Niji. David Arnold, Dirk Bass, Ian Hemming, Ben Garrett, Dan Harris and Chris Billard also submitted some very close solutions.

“Having the biggest creature is certainly the name of the game here,” Matthew Harvey remarks. “None come bigger than the eldritch horror that is Marit Lage, but our Majestic Myriarch has a chance if we can go wide enough. Luckily, our Sprouting Phytohydra allows us to do just that, as each token copy of it retains the token-making ability. And we have a couple of good ways to deal damage to the ever-multiplying plants while keeping them all alive.”

“By Chekov's principle,” Ryou Niji continues, “we must look to trigger Might Makes Right, which seems to be a tall order given the 21/21 Marit Lage token across the table. However, Majestic Myriarch means that we are always twice as tall as we are wide, and with Sprouting Phytohydra and a few ping effects, we can get very wide.”

The solution is a good one. Allen Smith writes:

Note that in Step 5 above, Chandra's Ignition won’t deal damage to the creature you target with it — which caps you at a total of seven Phytohydras (the original card and six Phytohydra tokens).

“You also mustn't attack with any of your other creatures,” Aaron Golas adds.“Biggs could block up to two of them with his first-strikers, killing them and shrinking Majestic Myriarch to a 23/22 or 21/20 before it gets to deal damage. In an all-out attack, for example, he could kill Fungusaur and Quicksmith Rebel, block Mer-Ek Nightblade, and still put five creatures in front of Majestic Myriarch . . .  taking only 16 trample damage at most.”

“One stumbling block that kept tripping me up,” Matthew writes, “was the choice of creature to steal. At first I kept wanting to take Marit Lage herself/itself, which would give us two giant flying creatures. But Biggs would still have three flying blockers, and we just can't get in for lethal. So after scanning the board some more, I realized what we actually wanted to steal wasn't Marit Lage, but the Mer-Ek Nightblade, so we could gain the powerful combo of deathtouch and trample.”

“It’s also vital to know that the Majestic Myriarch had a slight oracle text change when it came out,” Matthew adds.“With how the card is printed, if we don't control a creature with the ability we want when combat begins, then the Myriarch won't get the ability. But this was corrected and simplified with the oracle text, which now clarifies that the abilities the Myriarch gets are decided when its ability resolves.”

With this solution in mind, would it be possible to “go big” on the Chandra's Ignition instead? “If you could get up to nine creatures,” Greg Dreher points out, “then Chandra's Ignition on Majestic Myriarch would end the game at once. Even if that's not possible, though, the large amount of damage from the spell will help deal with Biggs's 18 life.”

Greg’s solution is interesting, and also allows for the fact that Restless Apparition is likely to persist and muck up your attacking plans:

“We've all heard the joke about how fifteen squirrels can take down Emrakul,” Norman Dean muses, “but as it turns out, to beat Marit Lage, we just need a bunch of potted plants.”