Locations
For some reason the world suddenly seems to come into focus for you, as if you're emerging from a dream. Then you remember: You and a few players are running the Unabridged Cube today, mostly because your local game store is still waiting on its second shipment of Guilds of Ravnica. One or two of the new cards have cropped up in your games, but that's only because the Cube is reflecting its usual one of each card ever printed.
You and your opponent, Kaitou, have been playing a finely balanced game. While you're worried about your low life total, Kaitou only has four creatures to your eight and hasn't been able to find a good attack. Unfortunately, neither can you: Most of your creatures are on the small side, and Kaitou has a sideboarded Sphere of Grace that's made most of your Black creatures useless.
Unfortunately, Kaitou also has a Preferred Selection to filter his draws. That's why you're now staring down the barrel of a Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner that he cast on his previous turn. Any number of things would probably be useful for you right now: an Abyssal Persecutor, a Lava Burst, perhaps even a Damnation. Seeing as none of those cards are actually in your deck, though, you have to content yourself with the Rakdos Charm in your hand.
"You know," Kaitou says, "Most people start by drawing a card."
"Ah... yeah," you say. "Sorry about that."
"Don't pressure yourself too much," Kaitou adds.
"That's easier said than done," you say as you place the top card of your library into your hand. It's a Delirium, and you have to read the old card once or twice before you can remember why you put it in your deck.
It's obvious that Palladia-Mors is going to make dragon food out of you if you don't find a way out of this predicament soon. You turn your attention back to the board again, searching for that one weak spot that'll let you break through...
"Well?" Kaitou asks.
For some reason the world suddenly seems to come into focus for you, as if you're emerging from a dream. Then you remember: You and a few players are running the Unabridged Cube today, mostly because your local game store is still waiting on its second shipment of Guilds of Ravnica. One or two of the new cards have cropped up in your games, but that's only because the Cube is reflecting its usual one of each card ever printed.
You and your opponent, Kaitou, have been playing a finely balanced game. While you're worried about your low life total, Kaitou only has four creatures to your eight and hasn't been able to find a good attack. Unfortunately, neither can you: Most of your creatures are on the small side, and Kaitou has a sideboarded Sphere of Grace that's made most of your Black creatures useless.
Unfortunately, Kaitou also has a Preferred Selection to filter his draws. That's why you're now staring down the barrel of a Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner that he cast on his previous turn. Any number of things would probably be useful for you right now: a Doom Whisperer, a Disintegrate, perhaps even a Bontu's Last Reckoning. Seeing as none of those cards are actually in your deck, though, you have to content yourself with the Rakdos Charm in your hand.
"You know," Kaitou says, "Most people start by drawing a card."
"Ah... yeah," you say. "Sorry about that."
"Don't pressure yourself too much," Kaitou adds.
"That's easier said than done," you say as you place the top card of your library into your hand. It's a Blades of Velis Vel, and you wonder about its implications as a combat trick before you turn your attention back to the table.
It's obvious that Palladia-Mors is going to make lizard kibble out of you if you don't find a way out of this predicament soon. You turn your attention back to the board again, searching for that one weak spot that'll let you break through...
"Well?" Kaitou asks.
For some reason the world suddenly seems to come into focus for you, as if you're emerging from a dream. Then you remember: You and a few players are running the Unabridged Cube today, mostly because your local game store is still waiting on its second shipment of Guilds of Ravnica. One or two of the new cards have cropped up in your games, but that's only because the Cube is reflecting its usual one of each card ever printed.
You and your opponent, Kaitou, have been playing a finely balanced game. While you're worried about your low life total, Kaitou only has four creatures to your eight and hasn't been able to find a good attack. Unfortunately, neither can you: Most of your creatures are on the small side, and Kaitou has a sideboarded Sphere of Grace that's made most of your Black creatures useless.
Unfortunately, Kaitou also has a Preferred Selection to filter his draws. That's why you're now staring down the barrel of a Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner that he cast on his previous turn. Any number of things would probably be useful for you right now: a Malfegor, a Kaervek's Torch, perhaps even a Life's Finale. Seeing as none of those cards are actually in your deck, though, you have to content yourself with the Rakdos Charm in your hand.
"You know," Kaitou says, "Most people start by drawing a card."
"Ah... yeah," you say. "Sorry about that."
"Don't pressure yourself too much," Kaitou adds.
"That's easier said than done," you say as you place the top card of your library into your hand. It's an Act of Treason, and you consider how best to use it when you have a creature advantage without the associated combat advantage.
It's obvious that Palladia-Mors is going to make wyrm bait out of you if you don't find a way out of this predicament soon. You turn your attention back to the board again, searching for that one weak spot that'll let you break through...
"Well?" Kaitou asks.
You blink, and then rub your eyes. "Sorry," you say. "I must have been thinking about something else."
"We can take a short break if you want."
"No," you say, shaking your head. "We're close to ending this anyway. I'm just going to try something."
It is the middle of your draw step. The card that you draw this turn can be one of three different possibilities. For each of these three possible scenarios, defeat Kaitou before the beginning of his next combat phase.
Your board state and your existing card in hand both remain the same for each scenario. The only difference is the card that you draw for the turn.
You are at 4 life, with the following cards in play:
- Goblin Bushwhacker
- Torch Courier
- Shadow Guildmage (with your Lightning Diadem attached)
- Gleaming Barrier (with your Infernal Scarring attached)
- Blistergrub
- Urborg Mindsucker
- Onulet
- Prakhata Club Security
- Vial of Dragonfire
- 4 Swamp
- 4 Mountain
You have the following card in your hand:
The card that you draw this turn will be exactly one of the following:
You have not yet played a land this turn. You still have a significant number of cards remaining in your library, but you know neither the identities nor the order of those cards.
You currently have two cards in your graveyard, none of which are relevant to the current scenario.
Kaitou is at 8 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:
- Krosan Wayfarer (with Kaitou's Venomous Fangs attached)
- Giant Caterpillar (with Kaitou's Barbed Battlegear attached)
- Gorilla Titan
- Palladia-Mors, the Ruiner (which hasn't dealt damage yet)
- Sphere of Grace
- Preferred Selection
- Selesnya Keyrune
- 3 Forest (all tapped)
- 2 Plains (both tapped)
- Wind-Scarred Crag (tapped)
Kaitou currently has six cards in his graveyard, none of which are relevant to the current scenario.
If you think you've got a great solution in mind (partial or complete), don't put it in the comments! Instead, send it to puzzles@gatheringmagic.com with the subject line "Puzzle - Variations on a Theme 3" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Monday, October 22, 2018. 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 Stephen Gross, Russell Jones, Addison Fox, Ryou Niji, Marco Majoor, and Hyman Rosen.
"Dawn of Hope is a card that, fittingly, makes your opponents feel pretty hopeless," Addison Fox writes. "As a source of lifelink blockers at instant speed, it pretty much makes combat impossible as a solution here. We do have a source of noncombat damage, but even Lotleth Giant does a lotleth damage than we need with Cristina at 16."
"I started looking for any good attacks," Marco Majoor adds, "but that ended with me getting a headache and not finding any. So combo time it is: As Conclave Tribunal is not a 'may' ability, we can use that to trigger our Lotleth Giant twice, negating any need for a combat phase. We just need to make sure our Giant gets exiled by our opponent once she gets Conclave Tribunal back."
So despite the presence of a combat-enhancing Inspiring Unicorn and a sizeable body in Arboretum Elemental, you're not attacking today. Instead, you're going in the other direction and getting rid of as many of your permanents as possible, as Addison writes:
- We have twelve mana with lands and locket, so we can float all of
. Our color requirements are low enough that we can just count the mana instead of worrying about color, since we have at least one colored mana for each spell in our hand and the activation of Izoni. - Cast Prey Upon targeting Wary Okapi and Citywatch Sphinx. The Okapi dies, and the Sphinx has 3 damage marked on it. (Eleven mana remaining.)
- Convoke Conclave Tribunal, tapping Izoni, Inspiring Unicorn, and two Insect tokens. When it enters the battlefield, target Cristina's Conclave Tribunal.
- In response, eat Inspiring Unicorn with Izoni. (9 mana remaining.)
- Still in response, sacrifice Bounty Agent to destroy Izoni (the only legendary permanent in play).
- Resolve your Conclave Tribunal's ability, which exiles Cristina's Conclave Tribunal and lets Lotleth Giant come in.
- We had four creatures in our graveyard at the start, plus Wary Okapi, Inspiring Unicorn, Bounty Agent, and Izoni - resulting in the Giant dealing 8 damage to Cristina, taking her down to 8 life.
- Cast Mephitic Vapors. (6 mana remaining.) Our two Insect tokens die, as does Citywatch Sphinx, putting our Luminous Bonds in the graveyard.
- At this point, our remaining permanents are: Arboretum Elemental, Lotleth Giant, a tapped Selesnya Locket, and a bunch of land.
- Pay 4 mana (2 mana remaining) to cast Crush Contraband. Choose the 'both' mode, destroying our Locket and our Conclave Tribunal.
- Cristina's Conclave Tribunal returns to play, but since the Elemental has hexproof, the Tribunal now has only one legal target: the Lotleth Giant again.
- We still have 2 mana floating and an untapped Arboretum Elemental, which we use to cast Sprouting Renewal to destroy Cristina's Conclave Tribunal.
- Lotleth Giant returns to the battlefield once more. We still have eight creature cards in our graveyard, so Cristina is helpless before our undergrowth trigger.
It's worth noting that if you take this route, you have to remove Citywatch Sphinx, or otherwise your opponent can simply exile your Luminous Bonds with her Tribunal (and have a 5/4 flyer ready for her next turn).
"While the opponent is correct that we are planning to deal lethal damage this turn," Ryou Niji notes, "taking away Lotleth Giant with a temporary exile effect turns out to be completely counterproductive. To be fair, it might be the correct move if what we had is a bunch of reanimation effects, but here we are with a hand full with sideboard cards that deal with enchantments, and exiling Lotleth Giant basically does half the work for us."
"Of course," Ryou adds, "we cannot count on the opponent to make the same helpful choice twice, so we must simply make sure that she doesn't have a choice the second time."
