“That’s eight damage,” you say. “They’ve got you dead, I’m sorry to say.”

Mari stares for a little while longer, then starts scooping up her cards. “Stupid Berserk,” she says. “Stupid Rogue's Passage. Stupid Nessian Asp.”

The twins giggle at her. Mari silences them with a single glare, and then turns to you. “I guess I was wrong,” she says. “They’re just as bad as you said they were.”

“I know, right? And they’re only ten.”

“We turned eleven last June,” Renata volunteers.

“Not helping,” Mari sulks.

The Orsini twins are just as sardonic as you remember them. It was bad enough that you found them in your draft pod for your local game store’s Conspiracy: Take the Crown release. Over the last couple of hours, however, they got even more obnoxious by teaming up to eliminate every other opponent in your game.

“It’s their tag-team tactics,” Mari says, watching Raffaela play a second Nessian Asp during her post-combat main phase. “Practically everything one of them does complements the other. You mostly got a free pass because of that Pariah of yours.”

You glance at the Pariah enchanting your Gang of Devils. Seeing that you’ve spent more than a few turns without anyone attacking you, that was apparently a smart move on your part. The fact that you’re currently the Monarch means that you’ve had ample time to stock up some cards in hand, too.

“I’m going to register for the next draft,” Mari says, standing up.

“Wait, you’re not gonna help me out?”

“Nope, you’re on your own now. You’re the Monarch, figure it out.”

You watch as Raffaela signals the end of her turn, then drops her first Nessian Asp into her graveyard. You draw two cards — one for your standard draw, one for Renata’s Kami of the Crescent Moon — and then start plotting the course.

The twins are chattering away at each other, outlining how they plan to overcome your defenses over the next couple of turns. You’re not sure if you agree with that idea — in fact, now that you’re the last person standing, it’s up to you to make this turn count.

It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat both Raffaela and Renata before the start of Renata’s next combat phase.

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

• Grenzo's Ruffians
• Gang of Devils (with your Pariah attached)
• 6 mountains
• 4 plains

You are currently the Monarch.

You have the following cards in your hand:

• Flame Slash
• Gods Willing (drawn during your draw step this turn)
• Sulfurous Blast (drawn during your draw step this turn)
• Faith's Reward

You do not know the identities of the any of the next cards of your library.

Raffaela is at 9life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:

• Child of Night (with a +1/+1 counter on it, and your Ghostly Possession attached)
• Netcaster Spider
• Garrulous Sycophant
• Nessian Asp
• 5 swamps (all tapped)
• 5 forests (all tapped)
• Rogue's Passage (tapped)

Raffaela has Natural Unity face-up in her command zone, naming Child of Night.

Renata is at 7 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:

• Illusionary Informant
• Kami of the Crescent Moon
• Palace Sentinels
• Ascended Lawmage (with Renata’s Spy Kit attached)
• Lieutenants of the Guard (with three +1/+1 counters on it)
• 1/1 Soldier token
• 4 plains (three tapped)
• 6 islands (four tapped)

BONUS QUESTION: Imagine the same situation as above, with one exception: Renata’s Illusionary Informant is a Doomed Traveler instead. Would it still be possible to defeat both of the twins before the start of Renata’s next combat phase? If yes, how?

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 — Gang Warfare” by 11:59 P.M. EST on Sunday, September04, 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, Matthew Harvey, Ryou Niji, Subrata Sircar, Kriz Lee, Aaron Golas, and Michael Feldman.

As people have pointed out, the puzzle scenario does have an error. “Rex may have made an illegal play,” Subrata Sircar writes.“He refers to ‘your Crown of Doom’, implying that we own it. But that means that we’re not a legal target for the ability.”

Apart from that, however, we do still have a situation that calls for a solution. “It took a while for me to go through the red herrings until I realized we needed multiple creatures to die first,” Dominic Chan writes.“For instance, Barishi can exile Rex's graveyard creatures before Graveblade Marauder deals damage. Since we only have four blockers versus five attackers, something has to get through, and the Marauder is the only thing that won't immediately kill us if it deals damage.

“Then,” Dominic continues,“if Abzan Skycaptain dies first, would it be possible to bolster Kinsbaile Borderguard? Since Mistmeadow Skulk can be blocked by Rex's 2/2 Cat token, it would be preferable for us to get four 1/1 Kithkin Soldiers, rather than just having a 3/3 and two 1/1s. To bolster our Borderguard, though, we need to remove all other creatures we control that have less than 3 toughness.”

The most common solution follows this logic, as Russell Jones notes:

However, Matthew Harvey points out that there is a rather ingenious second solution. “We can actually finish Rex on his next upkeep,” he writes, “seeing as Rex has no cards in hand and nothing on board to do anything to stop us from winning.”

Interestingly, Michael Feldman points out that it’s possible to combine the two solutions above: As long as you target Grollub with the Goblin Arsonist’s death trigger, this will bring you above 1 life before the end of your opponent’s turn, allowing you to survive Copper Tablet. You’d also need to get rid of Crown of Awe before your turn begins (so that you can plant Crown of Flames on your Courier), but at that point it would just be a matter of overrunning Rex’s defenses.

“The funny thing about a puzzle without any cards in hand,” Michael writes, “is that Rex could have figured out the possibility of his own demise and held back more creatures. But given the difficulty of this puzzle, it's not as though he made a CJ-like error.”

“What would have happened if the opponent attacked with Grollub?” Ryou Niji observes.“I don't see any way we could have survived that.”