Locations
"Just the Kirin?" you ask, tapping two lands. "You're being overly careful."
"I'm at three life and you're at four. I'd say we're both being overly careful."
Dinah's right, of course: With your low life totals and a significant number of creatures on the table, neither of you have been willing to commit anything to combat. Dinah's Alabaster Kirin is the lone exception - it's been nibbling at your life total ever since she took out your Necrogen Scudder with a well-timed Celestial Flare.
"Before declaring blockers, I'll sacrifice my Yavimaya Elder for its ability," you say, putting it into your graveyard.
"Fishing for removal?" Dinah asks.
"That depends on what I draw," you answer. You fish a Forest and a Swamp out of your library, shuffle, and then draw your card. Unfortunately for you, it's another Forest.
"So," Dinah asks, "any plays?"
You shake your head, hoping that she didn't notice your disappointment. "I'll take two, and go down to two life."
"Good," Dinah says, tapping some of her lands. "I'll cast Stunted Growth on you."
"What does it do?" you ask. You may be playing an Unabridged Cube draft, but that doesn't mean that you're familiar with every single card in it.
Dinah wordlessly hands it over, and to your credit, it takes you less than a minute to realize how it's about to wipe the floor with you.
"Three cards?" you ask.
Dinah grins, and you can't help but wince as you place all three lands on top of your library. You might like the Cube because it has one of each card ever printed, but it can be a harsh mistress sometimes.
"I'll tap my last four lands to cast Hunted Wumpus," Dinah says, dropping the 6/6 creature onto the table. "I guess you won't be putting anything into play from your hand?"
"Well, that's nice and tidy," you grumble.
"Before I end my turn, though, I'll tap my Thraben Heretic to exile the Yavimaya Elder from your graveyard. Are you activating Whisper in response?"
You glance at the Whisper, Blood Liturgist on your side of the table, and shake your head. "Two creatures might be too high a cost for a single Yavimaya Elder," you say. "Besides, you could just overrun me if I have don't have enough blockers at the end of my turn."
"I'll leave that to you, then," Dinah says. "It's your turn now."
You untap your permanents and draw an unsurprising Forest, then sit up and try to figure out how to get this situation back under control. There's got to be a way out of this mess, especially after all the effort you've put into this game. But how can you possibly sweep away your opponent's advantage at this point?
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Dinah before the beginning of her next combat phase.
You are at 2 life, with the following cards in play:
- Festercreep (with a +1/+1 counter on it)
- Feral Prowler
- Undead Executioner (with your Moldervine Cloak attached)
- Whisper, Blood Liturgist
- Possessed Centaur
- Conch Horn
- Path of Discovery
- 4 Swamp
- 5 Forest
You have the following card in your hand:
- Forest
You have not yet played a land this turn. The two cards on top of your library are:
- Swamp (topmost card)
- Forest (second from top)
Aside from these, 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 no cards in your graveyard, thanks to a slow but steady application of Dinah's Thraben Heretic.
Dinah is at 3 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:
- Cathedral Membrane
- Deadly Recluse
- Thraben Heretic (tapped)
- Serpentine Basilisk (with your Weakness attached)
- Centaur Healer
- Alabaster Kirin
- Hunted Wumpus
- Loxodon Mystic
- 4 Forest (all tapped)
- 5 Plains (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 - Clear Out" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Monday, November 26, 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 Addison Fox, Greg Dreher, Sean Patrick Keatley, Ryou Niji, Russell Jones, Jon Kreyer, Frederick Remolana, Chris Billard, David Arnold, Marco Majoor, zzo38, Hyman Rosen, and Michael Feldman.
From the outset, it's obvious that one of the cards in your hand is an important component for winning this game. "The biggest problem with the 'find ten damage' plan is plain and simple," Ryou Niji points out."That's the fact that we don't have 10 damage unless we count the uncastable Might of Oaks in our hand. But if we get rid of Gaddock Teeg, then how are we going to resolve Might of Oaks against a Logic Knot?"
It turns out that you have a number of tasks ahead of you, and Frederick Remolana breaks this down further:
- We have twelve mana available - exactly enough to cast Prey Upon (uses 1), Clip Wings (uses 1), and Might of Oaks (uses 3); and activate Spike Worker twice (uses 4), Squall Drifter once (uses 1), and Steppe Glider once (uses 2).
- This should be pretty straightforward if Gaddock Teeg wasn't on the battlefield, which is preventing us from casting Might of Oaks. But he's also preventing Joshua from casting Logic Knot, which can stop the most critical spell that could win us the game.
- A seemingly logical solution would be to take out all of Joshua's fliers, pump Steppe Glider's power to 10 and then swing with it. So the most crucial question is: "How do we play through Logic Knot?"
- Looking even more closely, Logic Knot is only active because Joshua has a sizable graveyard. That's when we realize that this situation actually plays really well (for us) because Ulamog has that reshuffle ability. Thanks, Ulamog!
"Casting Ulamog breaks the stalemate," Chris Billard concludes, "but not in the way Joshua hopes. It provides the way you need to empty his graveyard with the last part of the card - the part usually missed after looking at '10/10, indestructible, annihilator 4':
- Activate Squall Drifter (
). Target Joshua's Phantom Beast, forcing him to sacrifice it. - Cast Prey Upon (
). Have Gaddock Teeg fight Joshua's Wandering Eye. Gaddock Teeg takes 1 damage, and Wandering Eye takes 2 damage. - Activate Scattershot Archer. Squall Drifter, Steppe Glider, Wandering Eye and Faerie Swarm all take 1 point of damage. Squall Drifter and Wandering Eye die. Put a +1/+1 counter on Unruly Mob.
- Activate Spike Worker ({W}{W}) to put one +1/+1 counter from it on Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre.
- Activate Spike Worker () to put one +1/+1 counter from it on Steppe Glider. Spike Worker dies. Put a +1/+1 counter on Unruly Mob.
- Unruly Mob is now 4/4. Joshua's Runner's Bane is put into the graveyard because it's now attached to an illegal permanent.
- As Faerie Swarm is now Joshua's only Blue permanent, it's a 1/1 with 1 damage on it, and dies.
- Activate Steppe Glider () to give Ulamog flying.
- Cast Clip Wings (). Joshua must sacrifice his only remaining creature with flying, Ulamog. Joshua shuffles his graveyard into his library.
- Attack with Gaddock Teeg and Steppe Glider. Gaddock Teeg takes 1 point of damage from Circle of Flame and dies.
- Cast Might of Oaks () on Steppe Glider. Joshua may cast Logic Knot, but he can only force you to pay {0} as his graveyard is empty.
- Steppe Glider deals 10 points of damage for the win.
Joshua's casting of Logic Knot still triggers his Electrostatic Field and pings you for 1 damage, but this is small consolation for his loss.
"The general path to victory flows without too many logical leaps," Michael Feldman observes, "but there are still quite a few twists and non-obvious rules to keep in mind, such as:
- Converted mana costs don't take practical cost reductions like Sunscape Familiar's into consideration;
- Specifications for proper enchantment targets (like "Enchant creature with power 3 or less") remain after casting.
"Also complicating things are subtle red herrings like Electrostatic Field's combo with Logic Knot, Pharagax Giant's tribute, Alpha Authority, and spelling out Joshua's graveyard cards. Then there's the funny little business of having Spike Worker give one of its +1/+1 counters to a creature that actually uses it for the stat increase!"
