Your Angel-themed deck has been in fine form today, and when Michael sat across the table and challenged you to a game, you eagerly accepted. As you took your turns, it became obvious that Michael was piloting a deck based on the defender ability. Once you realized this, you saw no reason to hold back on your attacks.

Unfortunately, Michael timed his play well: Every single creature you’ve played from that point onward has been met with removal, been tapped down, or been unable to penetrate a constant stream of blockers. To make matters worse, Michael has been a master at countering your own anti-artifact measures, and you haven’t been able to get rid of the Meekstone at all.

On the first main phase of his turn, Michael notes that your deck is close to running out. He casts the last card in his hand—a Wall of Denial—and then activates his Doorkeeper to mill the top six cards of your library. You consider destroying one of his creatures in response, but you eventually decide against it—you’ve had enough of losing your mind and having a fit over this game, and you’re ready to pack up your deck and go home.

However, Michael miscalculates. The Doorkeeper leaves you with exactly one card in your library, and Michael has to finish the deal by tapping his Temple Bell. Ironically, your draw turns out to be a To Arms!, and you curse its awful timing.

Then you get to thinking: Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe—just maybe—there’s a way out of this situation. Michael has been frustrating you for most of this game; nothing would be sweeter than frustrating him in return.

It is the middle of the first main phase of Michael’s turn. Defeat Michael before he defeats you.

You are at 36 life with the following cards in play:

• Haunted Angel (tapped)
• Serra Advocate
• Avenging Angel (tapped)
• Basandra, Battle Seraph (tapped)
• Twilight Shepherd (with Pledge of Loyalty attached)
• Akroma, Angel of Fury (tapped)
• Mass Hysteria
• 4 Mountains
• 5 Plains

You have the following cards in your hand:

• Fling
• To Arms! (drawn this turn via Michael’s Temple Bell)
• Warleader's Helix

You have no cards remaining in your library.

• Doorkeeper (tapped)
• Guard Gomazoa
• Guard Gomazoa
• Hover Barrier
• Wall of Denial
• Sunweb
• Meekstone
• Temple Bell (tapped)
• Leyline of Sanctity
• 4 Plains (three tapped)
• 4 Islands (three tapped)
• Sejiri Refuge

If you think you have a great solution in mind, don’t put it in the comments! Instead, send it to puzzles at gatheringmagic dot com with the subject line “Puzzle — Righteous Indignation”. We’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!

Last Week’s Puzzle

“This was an interesting one,” Brendan McNamara writes. “It took me some time to figure out, until a friend commented that no matter how he looked at it, he was always one short of something: 1 mana, 1 damage, etc. That made me take a closer look.”

“The trick isn't necessarily in finding the correct answer,” Austin Callison writes, “but asking the right question to begin with. On the surface, it seems obvious: “How can I get enough damage through in the air?” I was stumped for quite a while until I reread Scrapskin Drake and saw the blocking restriction. The trick, then, is actually to go under Stella's blockers instead of over them!”

“It is important to note that you have to draw the Act of Treason,” Alexander Breuers points out. “Otherwise, you have no chance to evade all of Stella's blockers. So it is necessary to draw it due to your Stratus Walk and cast it. This won't let you cast Fiery Conclusion and cast Helm of the Gods and equip it.”

“We already have 2 power on the ground,” Maarten Wybaillie continues, “so we need to threaten 3 more. Unfortunately, the only nonflying opposing creature with 3 power is also the only one we can shoot with Ghirapur Aether Grid. Luckily, the Thornbow Archer can create an additional life-loss with 2 power for a virtual 3 power. But in order to get the life-loss to work, we need to get rid of Stella’s Elves.”

From there, the logic of removal becomes clear. “Deadbridge Shaman dies to Helm of the Gods with Jayemdae Tome and Ghirapur Aether Grid,” Erin Dixon-Gonzalez writes, “but Dwynen's Elite doesn’t, so we have to Fiery Conclusion the Elite. This leaves the Hitchclaw Recluse as the only blocker left to cast Stratus Walk on.”

Erin’s full solution follows:

Iniui Yuan notes that being forced to draw the Act of Treason has some interesting implications: “There's no point tapping the Tome; you can draw a card for 2 less mana with Stratus Walk while also giving someone flying. This means that the Tome is only good as fuel for your Aether Grid as long as you get Helm of the Gods out first. Assuming both Stratus Walk and Helm are cast, this leaves us with 5 mana to use. We can either equip the Helm and cast both Fiery Conclusion and Infectious Bloodlust or cast Act of Treason and one of the three other spells. The former strategy seems to leave too many available blockers, and so both Act of Treason and Fiery Conclusion are needed.”

“Had Stella attacked last turn,” Tyler Thomas adds, “we would have lost handily! To be fair, if we had a Hydrolash in hand that turn, we would have gone to 1 life had we chosen not to block. It was a fair decision to hold back, but we had the win in our hands after that last scry.”