Locations
That said, the Cube apparently has a sense of humor. While it supposedly contains one of each card ever printed, it was obvious that several cards in your Sealed pool were centered around a familiar theme.
“So what you’re saying is,” Rex says,“your card pool had a lot of Crowns in it.”
“That’s right,” you say. “I think I’ve got a Mindstorm Crown and a Crown of Empires in my deck somewhere, too.”
“That’s really weird,” Rex says. “I think the other day, a friend of mine got a card pool that was full of Thrones. Like, Dragon Throne of Tarkir, Throne of Geth, Sigil of the Empty Throne . . . ”
“Right, right,” you say, tapping a couple of creatures. “I’ll attack with my Koth's Courier and Mistmeadow Skulk.”
“And the funniest bit was that she also got a Seat of the Synod. Get it? Seat of the Synod? Anyway, it was the strangest thing ever. I can’t block either of them, right?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, then I’ll take four,” he says. “No, wait . . . I didn’t give you back the Crown of Doom yet, so that means I take eight damage. I’m down to eight life, and you’re now at nine.”
You mark off the life totals as Rex draws his card. When you put down your pen and glance back at him, he’s smiling, and that can’t be good.
“Let’s do this,” he says. “First, I’ll tap two forests to give you back your Crown of Doom. Then I’ll cast Shallow Grave, bringing my Jedit Ojanen of Efrava back into play. He’ll take the Hero's Blade from my Grollub. Then I’ll cast Strangleroot Geist, and attack you with everything I’ve got.”
You wince. “Even the Grollub?”
Rex chuckles. “Well, maybe not the Grollub. Can’t have you gaining any life, can we?Let’s see . . . Jedit triggers and gives me a Cat Warrior token. And while I’m at it, I’ll tap my last swamp to cast a Foul-Tongue Shriek for five life. That brings me to thirteen and you to four.”
That last move startles you. Suddenly you’re looking at a game-ending attack here!
Once you calm down, however, you realize that all isn't lost: you still have a way out of this situation. And after a few minutes’ thought, you think you can see a way to win this game; you might not even need the card from your next draw step.
“So,” Rex eventually asks, “what’s your call?”
It is the middle of the combat phase on Rex’s turn; Rex has just declared attackers and cast his Foul-Tongue Shriek. Survive Rex’s turn, then find a way to defeat Rex before the end of your next turn.
You are at 4 life, with the following cards in play:
- Goblin Arsonist
- Mistmeadow Skulk (tapped, with your Crown of Fury attached)
- Hearth Kami
- Koth's Courier (tapped, with your Crown of Awe attached)
- Kinsbaile Borderguard (with two +1/+1 counters on it)
- Abzan Skycaptain (with your Crown of Flames attached)
- Crown of the Ages
- Crown of Doom
- 3 mountains
- 3 plains
You currently have no cards in your hand. You do not know the identities of the any of the next cards of your library.
Rex is at 13 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:
- Strangleroot Geist (attacking)
- Grollub
- Graveblade Marauder (attacking)
- Vampiric Spirit (attacking)
- Barishi (attacking)
- Jedit Ojanen of Efrava (attacking, with Rex’s Hero's Blade attached)
- Cat Warrior token
- Copper Tablet
- 3 swamps (all tapped)
- 4 forests (all tapped)
Rex has the following creature cards in his graveyard:
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 – Crowning Achievement” by 11:59 P.M. EST on Sunday, August 28, 2016.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, Dominic Chan, Russell Jones, David Jacobs, Aaron Golas, Matthew Harvey, Julian Kessler, Victor Munson, RyouNiji, Brian Neal, Matt Vorpahl, Kriz Lee, Michael Feldman, and SubrataSircar.
Michael Feldman writes: “It shouldn't take long to determine that this game must be won through combat damage, as there simply aren't any other means. You can play around with the configurations, but it isn't possible to get enough damage points through without taking advantage of Springback Knight's double-strike-granting ability. The major challenge is figuring out how to win the clash that that ability requires.”
“Not only is the Forest on top of our library never winning any clash ever,” Victor Munson adds,“it's extremely unlikely that any card in our deck will beat the Searing Wind. Certainly no card we have access to right now will beat 9 CMC.
“Therefore, we have to both get Searing Wind off the top of Zhang Li's library and put something other than the Forest on top of ours. The latter seems to be achievable only by having our Arashin Sovereign die, and the former only by having Zhang Li draw Searing Wind. Fortunately, our Jagged-Scar Archers can cause both to happen, in conjunction with our other cards, thanks to Zhang Li's Betrayal (which sounds like a Portal: Three Kingdoms card).”
“But solving that problem invites a seemingly bigger problem,” Michael writes.“Betrayal's card draw would give Zhang Li her Searing Wind, which would destroy you in a single shot! Then again, when CJ counted up Zhang Li's mana – which is on its face more than enough for {8}{R}, he didn't consider that two of her mana sources, as creatures, are destructible and removable with the cards you have, potentially leaving her 1 mana source short of Searing Wind's casting cost.”
The rest, as Julian Kessler notes, is mostly sequencing and timing:
- Tap Plains to equip Horned Helm to our Jagged-Scar Archers.
- Tap Forest to cast Prey Upon targeting Arashin Sovereign and Kozilek's Channeler. Kozilek's Channeler and Dragon Wings go to the graveyard, and 4 points of damage are dealt to Arashin Sovereign.
- Tap Plains to cast Oust targeting Sea Scryer. This puts it second from the top of Zhang Li’s library, and she goes to 11 life.
- Move to combat. This prevents Zhang Li from using floating mana from Kozilek's Channeler or Sea Scryer, as it will drain from their mana pool, leaving them with 8 available mana. This is relevant since they are about to draw a card, and could kill us by using that floating mana to cast Searing Wind.
- Tap Jagged-Scar Archers targeting our Arashin Sovereign. Zhang Li draws Searing Wind, revealing the Sea Scryer on the top of their library. When our Arashin Sovereign dies, we place it on top of our library.
- Declare attackers: Declare attack with Springjack Knight. The Knight’s trigger resolves, and we clash: We have Arashin Sovereign (CMC 7), while Zhang Li has Sea Scryer (CMC 2). Springjack Knight now has Double Strike until end of turn.
- Tap two Forests to equip Horned Helm to Springjack Knight. (3/2 Trample, Double Strike.)
- Tap a Forest and a Plains to cast Titanic Growth targeting Springjack Knight, which now represents 14 points of damage. (7/6, Trample, Double Strike.)
- Only Wizened Snitches with its 3 toughness can block the Knight. 14 points of trampling damage minus 3 represents 11 damage to our opponent. Victory!
“It is very important to make sure that we move to combat before tapping our Jagged-Scar Archers,” Matthew Harvey muses,“as Zhang Li can easily float mana during our main phase when we remove her two creatures. This would give her enough mana to cast Searing Wind if we let her draw it during our main phase. But by going to combat first, that mana empties out of her pool, leaving her one short.”
“So in an ironic turn of events,” Norman Dean points out,“the only route to victory is for our Archers to shoot down our own Dragon. But since their Betrayal of us costs Zhang Li the game, does that mean that they double agents this whole time?”
