Mari drums her fingers on the table. "I can see some potential in it," she says, "even when you consider that there aren't really a lot of Scarecrows to work with. I'm pretty sure I want as many copies of Scarecrone as possible, for a start."

"I take it that there's a catch."

"I'm having trouble finding a way to win," Mari admits. "I have access to a good range of abilities, but nothing really consistent."

"Except the removal," her opponent remarks.

"Except maybe the removal," Mari says. "Scarecrows do nice things with -1/-1 counters."

You glance at her opponent. "Sorry," you say, "I didn't get your name."

"Brandon."

"Good to meet you. And thanks for doing this."

"Hey," Brandon says, "I'm working on a Werewolf deck myself for the Create Feature tournament this weekend. I'm just sorry I didn't bring it today for play-testing."

"That looks like something from the Unabridged Cube," you note.

"Yeah, we've got a small eight-man tournament going on at that table in the corner. I got knocked out in the first round, so it'll be a while before I return my cards anyway."

You turn back to Mari. "So whose turn is it?" you ask.

"Mine," she says. "Brandon drew a Cone of Flame from his Divination and took out three of my Scarecrows. Then he cast a Goblin Raider and followed up with Crow Storm for four Storm Crow tokens."

"I know you were tapped out at the time, but I'm surprised you didn't try to save any of them with Unspeakable Symbol."

Mari shrugs. "I can just have the Scarecrone bring them back," she says. "It's got an Abzan Runemark on it, so Brandon won't be able to kill it that easily."

"Speaking of which," you point out, "why are you playing with Abzan Runemark, of all things?"

"Blame CJ," Mari sighs, as though this is the kind of thing she's seen too often. "I don't have enough of the older cards, so I asked to borrow some of his. He ended up giving me half of what I wanted, plus half of an old White deck that got mixed up in the same box."

"Ouch."

"If he only had a brain," Mari muses.

"Double ouch."

"And you can see why I'm still in the market for a Reaper King," Mari says.

"I can also see why you're still looking for a way to win."

Mari peels the top card off her deck, then shows it to you: It's an Ordeal of Heliod.

"I keep drawing random White cards," she says, "but at least I'm sure that every creature in this deck follows the Scarecrow theme."

"Not gonna lie here," Brandon says, "but I think that's cool. I was expecting everybody to show up with a Goblin deck or something."

"So does that mean you only have a few hours to look for the rest of the cards you need?" you ask. "If that's the case, then we'd better get started."

"All right," Mari says, "but give me a minute. I just have to win this game first."

It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Brandon before the beginning of his next combat phase.

You are at 8 life, with the following cards in play:

• Painter's Servant (choosing Green)
• Scarecrone (with your Abzan Runemark attached)
• Farmstead Gleaner
• Scaretiller
• Antler Skulkin
• Grim Poppet (with three -1/-1 counters on it)
• Path of Bravery
• Unspeakable Symbol
• 5 Plains
• 5 Swamps
• Karoo
• Everglades
• Scoured Barrens

You have the following card in your hand:

• Ordeal of Heliod

You have not yet played a land this turn. You still have a substantial number of cards remaining in your library (including a couple of Plains and Swamps), but you know neither the identities nor the order of those cards.

You have the following cards in your graveyard:

• One-Eyed Scarecrow
• Hoof Skulkin
• Pili-Pala
• Altar's Reap
• Fang Skulkin
• Wicker Warcrawler
• Seal of Doom
• Wild-Field Scarecrow
• Soul Reap
• Remote Farm

Brandon is at 14 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:

• Invisible Stalker (tapped)
• Goblin Raider
• Lava Runner
• Bladetusk Boar
• Shivan Phoenix (tapped)
• 4 Storm Crow creature tokens (from Crow Storm)
• Soul Barrier (choosing you)
• 5 Islands (all tapped)
• 8 Mountains (all 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 - As the Crow Flies" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Monday, November 4, 2019. 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 Mike Dartt, Sean Patrick Keatley, David Arnold, Russell Jones, Jacob Butcher, Hyman Rosen, Max Bernstein, Addison Fox, Greg Dreher, and Chris Billard.

"The obvious solution here was to use Night Incarnate's ability to sweep the board and let the Doom Foretold come to pass," Max Bernstein writes. "But there are juuuust enough 4-toughness creatures to make this tricky."

"To fulfill Madame Kostana's prophecy," Chris Billard notes, "we will need to destroy all of Octavia's non-token creatures and her enchantment. That way Doom Foretold will trigger to win the game. We have the tools with Night Incarnate and War Priest of Thune, but we need to be careful when we use them."

This puzzle turned out to be tricky: About half of all the solutions submitted for it ran into one or more problems, mostly because of the way Hushbringer interacts with the table. "Hushbringer both helps and hinders us," Chris explains, "as it keeps Octavia from gaining life from her Highland Game and keeps her Hissing Iguanar from killing you, but it also prevents your War Priest of Thune from destroying her enchantment."

"Skyblinder Staff is key," Chris concludes, "since combining it with Octavia's Aether Membrane and her low life total forces a block that allows us to remove Hushbringer from the battlefield and then return it when necessary."

"The presence of Dragon Mask means that Jane must respect any creature you send to attack," Greg Dreher points out. "That forces her hand, and you can take advantage of that.

"The setup of the puzzle makes it clear that Doom Foretold is how you're going to win. However, your hands are tied by one issue, your Hushbringer. To win with Doom Foretold, you need to get rid of Elemental Bond with War Priest of Thune, which requires Hushbringer to not be on the battlefield. But you need Hushbringer to be on the battlefield when Jane loses her creatures.

"As a further complication, if Hushbringer leaves the battlefield before Bogardan Dragonheart, Jane can win via Bogardan Dragonheart and the triggers from Hissing Iguanar. So Bogardan Dragonheart must die first."

Putting all this together gives us a sequence of plays that hinges on Hushbringer's availability, as Mike Dartt writes:

...Well, maybe not that last bit. But conveniently enough, Night Incarnate's ability is able to get around Hushbringer because it's neither entering the battlefield nor dying - instead, you're returning it to your hand, which counts for it leaving the battlefield.

In a sense, if your opponent wasn't doomed when you drew Skyblinder Staff, they were doomed when you figured out how to use it properly. And even in a situation where you have all the tools you need at your disposal, that last bit is a lot more difficult to predict.