Locations
“Just one,” CJ admits, drinking his milkshake.
“Vampire Nocturnus? Bloodline Keeper? Olivia Voldaren?”
CJ grins nervously. “None, I think,” he says. “I just threw whatever I could find in there.”
“That sounds like a lot of your decks,” Mari sighs.
You leave the two of them to argue and turn your attention back to your opponent. Bram’s playing a fair deck from the Unabridged Cube tournament that just concluded — a 
deck with flyers and lifegain. You’ve been unable to crack his defense for most of the game, and Bram’s recently gotten himself back up to 20 life. The Captivating Vampire you played last turn is likely to change things, though.
“Aren’t you going to steal something with that Vampire?” CJ asks.
“You want to wait till the last minute to do that,” Mari observes. “Like when the Slinking Skirge attacks.”
“But won’t it still be attacking then?”
“No, if you change control of an attacking creature, it gets removed from combat,” Mari explains to him.“And besides, they can just sacrifice the Slinking Skirge.”
“You learn to tune it out after a while,” you say.
Bram sighs. “I’ll tap five and cast Swarm of Bloodflies.”
“In response, then, I’ll tap five Vampires to steal your Slinking Skirge.”
“I was going to lose it regardless,” Bram remarks. “I’ll pay two to sacrifice it and draw a card.”
You nod. Bram draws a card, frowns, and puts his Swarm of Bloodflies onto the battlefield. “Just a land,” he says, dropping a Plains. “I’ll end my turn now.”
You can still hear Mari and CJ’s conversation in the background as you draw your card for the turn. You’re glad to find an Arc Lightning on the top of your library; removal is always good, even if it doesn’t necessarily fit your deck’s theme.
Suddenly, Mari pipes up. “That’s a great draw,” she says.
Bram sighs, glancing at her. “I think we should just end this game now,” he says. “It feels like I’m playing against three people.”
“You could win the game right now with that Arc Lightning, I think,” Mari adds.
Slowly, all of you turn to look at her. “Say again?” you ask.
“Well, I’m not sure,” Mari admits, “but if CJ can move his milkshake aside, I can show you what you could do.”
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Bram before the beginning of his next combat phase.
You are at 5 life, with the following cards in play:
- Ravenous Bloodseeker
- Olivia's Bloodsworn
- Captivating Vampire
- Pawn of Ulamog
- Rakish Heir
- Twins of Maurer Estate (with your Neglected Heirloom attached)
- 6 Swamps
- 2 Mountains
You have the following card in your hand:
- Arc Lightning (drawn during your draw step this turn)
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.
Bram is at 20 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:
- Nyx-Fleece Ram
- Ajani's Sunstriker
- Mirror Entity
- Giant Scorpion
- Swarm of Bloodflies
- Agent of Masks
- Ashenmoor Cohort
- Glorious Anthem
- 5 Plains (four tapped)
- 4 Swamps (three 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 — There Will Be Blood” by 11:59 P.M. EST on Sunday, August 27, 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 Aaron Golas, Allen Smith, Matthew Harvey, Addison Fox, Greg Dreher, David Arnold, Ryou Niji, Michael Shoemaker, Marek Szymanski, William Key, Ian McCaulley, Robin Westphal, Dan Harris, Chris Billard, Hyman Rosen, and Subrata Sircar.
“This puzzle seemed unusually easy until I realized that Forced Worship isn't a full Pacifism, just a Guard Duty,” Allen Smith writes.“Turns out, that's very relevant here. Given the number of creatures on the board, and the looming threat of Butcher of Malakir, attacking with creatures on the ground seems implausible. We have no non-combat sources of damage, so the only way for us to win is with an evasive attack.”
“Once this line to victory was visible,” Matthew Harvey adds, “the pieces started falling into place. Winning on the ground isn't going to work, so how about the air? Then we need to have Battleflight Eagle re-enter the battlefield to get a creature into the air. So Ainok Guide will be returned . . . but the +1/+1 counter is useless, so let’s put a land on top of our deck. But how do we draw it? Alms Collector! But how do we make Mercy draw two or more cards? Slithermuse! The rest was just a matter of putting everything in order.”
Ian McCaulley’s solution puts all this into a certain sequence:
- Tap three Plains to cast Excommunicate, targeting Slithermuse. Slithermuse is put on top of Mercy's library.
- As Slithermuse has left the battlefield, its triggered ability is put on the stack. Mercy chooses you, her only opponent. You currently have two cards in hand, Cloudshift and Groundswell, while Mercy has zero. Mercy would draw two cards.
- With Slithermuse’s ability on the stack, tap your one remaining untapped Plains to cast Cloudshift, targeting Changeling Titan.
- When Changeling Titan leaves the battlefield, Ainok Guide returns to the battlefield, triggering its enters-the-battlefield ability.
- You choose to search your library for a basic land – it does not matter whether it is a Forest or a Plains. Let's say it is a Forest. You reveal a Forest, shuffle your library, and put the Forest on top of your library.
- When you return Changeling Titan to the battlefield, have it champion Battleflight Eagle.
- When Battleflight Eagle leaves the battlefield, Rancor is no longer enchanting a creature, so Rancor is put into your graveyard from the battlefield . . . triggering Rancor's ability. You return Rancor to your hand.
- Slithermuse's triggered ability resolves. You still have two cards in hand, now Groundswell and Rancor, while Mercy still has zero. Mercy would draw two cards, but . . .
- . . . Alms Collector's ability replaces Mercy's draw. Instead, you and Mercy each draw a card. You draw the Forest you found and put on top of your library with Ainok Guide. Mercy draws the Slithermuse you put on top of her library.
- Play the Forest you just drew.
- Tap a Forest to cast Rancor, enchanting Alms Collector. Alms Collector becomes a 5/4 with trample.
Combat Phase
- Declare that Alms Collector – and only Alms Collector – is attacking Mercy.
- Qasali Pridemage's Exalted ability triggers. Alms Collector becomes a 6/5 with trample.
- Before blockers are declared, tap the land you played this turn and sacrifice Qasali Pridemage to activate its own ability. Target and destroy Hovermyr.
- When Hovermyr dies, Butcher of Malakir's ability triggers. Mercy's opponent – you – must sacrifice a creature. Sacrifice Changeling Titan.
- When Changeling Titan leaves the battlefield, Battleflight Eagle returns to the battlefield, triggering its enters-the-battlefield ability.
- Target Alms Collector with Battleflight Eagle's ability. Alms Collector becomes an 8/7 with flying and trample.
- Proceed to the declare blockers step. Mercy must block Alms Collector with Butcher of Malakir, her only remaining creature capable of blocking flyers, or lose the game. She does so.
- Before proceeding to the combat damage step, tap your one remaining untapped Forest to cast Groundswell, targeting Alms Collector. You did have a land enter the battlefield under your control this turn, so Alms Collector becomes a 12/11 with flying and trample.
- During the combat damage step, Butcher of Malakir assigns 5 damage to Alms Collector, and Alms Collector assigns 4 damage to Butcher of Malakir and 8 damage to Mercy. Mercy loses the game.
“The fact that Qasali Pridemage’s ability only requires generic mana,” Ian adds, “is the reason it doesn't matter whether you search for a Forest or a Plains with Ainok Guide.”
“In a fit of irony,” Addison Fox muses, “Mercy's Butcher of Malakir makes this whole situation solvable. We need to retrigger multiple ETB effects and we only have one Cloudshift, but being able to change the creature Championed with the Changeling Titan lets us pretend we have two.”
A simpler solution also exists, which ignores Changeling Titan and Ainok Guide completely. Robin Westphal writes:
- Cast Cloudshift on our Battleflight Eagle. It flickers and Rancor tries to go to the graveyard, but returns to your hand instead. The Eagle returns and buffs our Alms Collector with +2/+2 and Flying. It is now a 5/6 flying creature.
- Cast Excommunicate on Mercy's Butcher of Malakir. Since it doesn't die, it doesn't even trigger while wandering straight to top of her library.
- Cast Rancor to give our Alms Collector an additional +2/+0 and Trample. It is now a 7/6 flying trample creature.
- Attack with the Alms Collector alone, so Qasali Pridemage’s Exalted ability triggers. It is now an 8/7 flying trample creature.
- Immediately after, activate and sacrifice the Pridemage to get rid of the Hovermyr, Mercy's last remaining flyer. This has to happen before blockers are declared.
- Nothing can block your Alms Collector now, and Mercy loses 8 life from our incoming attack.
This solution has two minor variants: You could cast Groundswell on the Alms Collector instead of Rancor; or you could cast Groundswell instead of activating Qasali Pridemage, trampling over the Hovermyr in the process.
It might be preferable to restrict yourself to Rancor, though. “Why Rancor and not the Groundswell? So that Mercy doesn't get additional information about the cards in our deck for future games,” Robin writes. “Rancor is already a known card, while Groundswell – as a potential combat trick – isn’t.”
