Mari blinks, then glances at you. "But I'm thinking," she says.

"You've been thinking for a solid five minutes now," Boris points out. "I have to make a judge call here, and you're lucky I'm not calling this 'slow play'."

"But I am thinking."

"I'm sure you are," Boris says. "Just bear in mind that you're on a clock."

Hovering just behind her, it's easy for you to see how Mari can be stuck. Her Unabridged Cube draft has gone south, and her creatures are of far lower quality than her opponent's Red-Green monstrosities. Her Geralf's Mindcrusher is probably the only thing that's preventing Argus from running her over, although her Plague Dogs and Death's-Head Buzzard also make for good deterrents. She even has a preview card from Ultimate Masters on the table, although it's difficult to see how Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker can make a difference.

Argus scowls, the frustration evident on his face. "She hasn't done anything for a good long while, and you're not giving her a slow play warning?" he asks.

"I have to give your opponent the benefit of a doubt," Boris explains. "This Cube has one of each card ever printed. It's only natural to expect that you might need some time to figure out how everything works."

"But I've got the bigger creatures!" Argus complains. "Look, I just cast that Silverclad Ferocidons! How do you expect her to be able to block me properly next turn?"

"You weren't exactly attacking for the last few turns," Boris notes. "That doesn't sound like a clear advantage to me. I'd say that if this were your turn, you'd be taking the time to think as well."

Mari glances back at the lone card in her hand, which is the Bad Moon that she's just drawn. That gets you raising an eyebrow, mostly because you'd have cast it immediately if you were in her place. The fact that it's still sitting in her hand is a good indicator that she has something in mind.

"But she's still not making a move yet!" Argus whines.

"End of discussion," Boris says. Then, turning to Mari, he gives her one more look. "You don't have a lot more time to think, you know," he says.

"I just want to check how many cards he has left in his library," Mari says.

Boris turns back to her opponent, but Argus is already counting. "Fifteen," he eventually says.

"I think that should be enough," Mari muses.

"Enough to actually do something?" Boris asks, and Mari nods.

"Finally!" Argus says.

"I didn't say you were going to like it, though," Mari says.

Hidden somewhere among the watchful eyes of the crowd, you smile.

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

You are at 9 life, with the following cards in play:

• Death's-Head Buzzard
• Fatestitcher
• Grapeshot Catapult
• Breaching Hippocamp
• Mistfire Adept
• Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
• Plague Dogs
• Geralf's Mindcrusher
• 5 Island
• 3 Swamp

You have the following card in your hand:

• Bad Moon

You have not yet played a land this turn. You have exactly 20 cards remaining in your library, but you know neither the identities nor the order of those cards.

Argus is at 11 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:

• Lightning-Rig Crew
• Hornet Nest (with Argus' Leafcrown Dryad attached)
• Minotaur Sureshot
• One-Eyed Scarecrow
• Blightwidow
• Shatterskull Giant
• Ainok Tracker
• Ancient Silverback (with your Mourning attached)
• Silverclad Ferocidons
• 4 Mountain (all tapped)
• 3 Forest (all tapped)
• Timber Gorge

Argus has exactly 15 cards remaining in his library.

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 - Eyes on the Prize" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Monday, December 3, 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, Ryou Niji, Paul Simpson, Awkward Dreamer, Jason McKay, Marco Majoor, Russell Jones, Chris Billard, Hyman Rosen, Max Bernstein, David Arnold, Matt Bocek, Michael Feldman, and Greg Dreher.

"No direct damage, no evasion except trample on a medium-sized creature, and more blockers than attackers," Ryou Niji writes."This suggests that we need to clear most of the board before getting damage in the hard way.

"The abundance of 3-toughness creatures on the opponent's side of board suggests that our board wipe had better be for 3. Now, the possibility of Festercreep getting a second +1/+1 counter from Path of Discovery always exists, but with the perfect sequence of plays, we can actually guarantee it."

Path of Discovery is indeed an important component in getting an extra +1/+1 counter onto your Festercreep. But the way to get there will require you to work with stack abilities and replacement effects, and you may need to work with some known information along the way.

"'Clear out' indeed!" Paul Simpson writes."A dearth of evasion-granting keywords on our side of the board means we will have to find a means of clearing the way so that we can deal the final blow to our opponent:

One variant solution involves putting Moldervine Cloak into your graveyard during the resolution of Path of Discovery, then using Feral Prowler's ability to dredge it a second time by putting two unknown cards into your graveyard. However, this approach has a slight flaw in that you don't know exactly what other cards are in your deck: Dredging a Legendary Eldrazi creature into your graveyard, for example, will easily ruin your day.

"The Weakness on Serpentine Basilisk is a nice touch," Ryou adds."I almost freaked out when I only counted six cards in the graveyard at the critical point. Notice that in the actual solution, Feral Prowler doesn't help with threshold, because if threshold wasn't 'on' before the third -1/-1 effect resolves, then Possessed Centaur would die at the same time as Feral Prowler."

Possessed Centaur's condition after threshold also made for an interesting wrinkle that ultimately didn't add anything to the solution. "We do have the option of activating Possessed Centaur's new ability to kill the Wumpus on our next turn," Addison Fox notes, "but that seems like running up the score."