Hello everybody! It’s Wednesday, and that means it’s time for another installment of Mind Twists. You’ll find the solutions for last week’s puzzles at the very bottom of the article, hidden in some spoiler code. Try them yourself and see if you can figure out the answers.

Our winners this week were Greg Dreher (“What Does That Mechanic Do?”) and Joseph Blackman (“Spelltwining”). Check your inboxes!

Puzzle #1: Angry Eldrazi

You are about to get annihilated, quite literally. Faced with a huge Eldrazi army, you have but one turn before all your permanents along with your life total get wiped into another dimension. While Kozilek, Butcher of Truth has pledged allegiance to you, he has yet to be summoned. Your army of Spellshapers (plus an awkward wall) awaits your command, seeking your order to thwart the impending doom.

You have in play: Overtaker, Heartbeat of Spring, Greenseeker, Bog Witch, Pitchstone Wall, 2x Mountain, 2x Forest, 1x Simic Growth Chamber.
You have in hand: Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Anger, Lightning Greaves.
Your library has one card left, and it is a Swamp.
Your graveyard has 1x Island, 1x Forest.
Your opponent has: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Artisan of Kozilek, Ulamog’s Crusher, Pathrazer of Ulamog, It That Betrays, Eye of Ugin, 4x Eldrazi Temple (tapped).
Both players are at 20 life.
Win this turn!

Winner will receive a signed Overtaker!

Puzzle #2: One Last Trade

Marco was nearing the end of his days. He had been a merchant his entire lifeâ€”as a young child, he sold trinkets in the marketplace as soon as he could speak. Now, almost a century later, he owned a Trading Post where he mostly bought and sold goats. He lived peacefully with his pet cat Felidar and his Goblin apprentice Welder.

One day, an odd-looking merchant stopped by Marco’s Trading Post. He offered Marco a clockâ€”a mystical clock, one that could give Marco all the time he wanted before embracing the impending eternal rest. In return, Marco would sell the merchant 100 goats, leaving Marco with just one remaining. Knowing that this opportunity would not present itself twice (and that Marco didn’t have much more time to live anyway), he accepted the offer and sent the merchant on his way with a new tribe of goats. As the stranger departed, Marco observed the clock, wondering what powers it contained.

You have in play: Trading Post, Goblin Welder, Felidar Sovereign, 0/1 Goat token, Doubling Season, Concordant Crossroads, Exploration, 3 Plains, 1 Forest, 1 Mountain.
You have in hand: Basking Rootwalla, Clock of Omens.
You have in graveyard: Mycosynth Lattice, Forge[/author]“]Darksteel [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], Elixir of Immortality, Ashnod’s Altar, Darksteel Relic.
You are at 1 life, and the only card remaining in your library is a Soul Warden.
You don’t really have an opponent in this one… Let’s just say the other side of the board is Mother Nature, with 4 Plains and 4 Forest.
Reach 40 life so that you “win the game” on your next upkeep!

Winner will receive a signed Trading Post!

Battle of Wits

As promised, here is my build of Battle of Wits. It’s a BUG Ramp shell, where Plan A is Battle of Wits, but Plan B is Primeval Titan (Plan C is to pray that random creatures or Birthing Pod can get there).

Battle of Wits

Dayv Doberne

Test deck on 07-22-2012

Standard

Creatures (57)

Planeswalkers (1)

1 Karn Liberated

Lands (105)

Spells (67)

My original plan was to play this at SCG Las Vegas this weekend, but unfortunately it looks like I won’t be able to make it. The deck is a lot of fun to play, but perhaps not so much fun to shuffle. It seems pretty competitive and redundant, and there are definitely some draws that produce a very quick Battle of Wits. Best of luck to all of you out there trying to play this deck!

That’s all I have for this week. As always, I’m happy to hear input at [email protected]. Good luck and have fun, and I will see you all next week!

–Dayv Doberne

@Sunyveil on Twitter

Solutions

Here are the solutions to last week’s puzzles:

Puzzle #1: What Does That Mechanic Do?

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Congratulations Greg, you will receive a signed Nature’s Blessing!

Puzzle #2: Spelltwining

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There were a few solutions to this one. Here’s one that makes pretty elegant use of the tools available:

Take Spelltwine off of the Forbidden Alchemy
Untap, draw and play the Island.
Tap 6 Islands, cast Spelltwine, targeting Disperse in his graveyard and Spelltwine in your graveyard. Stack it so that Disperse goes on the stack first targeting Avacyn, Angel of Hope, then Spelltwine.
Cast this Spelltwine, targeting Arc Trail in his graveyard and Spelltwine in your graveyard. Stack it so that Arc Trail goes on the stack first targeting Kamahl, Pit Fighter, and Dross Scorpion.
Cast the next Spelltwine, targeting Thunderbolt in his graveyard and Spelltwine in your graveyard. Thunderbolt targets the Lumengrid Gargoyle.
Cast the final Spelltwine, targeting Disenchant in his graveyard and Time Warp in your graveyard. Disenchant his Tempered Steel, and Time Warp targeting yourself.
Allow the stack to resolve. Lethal damage is marked on Kamahl, Dross Scorpion, and Lumengrid Gargoyle, but when Avacyn gets Dispersed they each die simultaneously, preventing any of them from untapping. At this point, you have 10 2/2 flying Drakes, one which can attack this turn.
Attack with the Drake that can attack for 2 damage.
Cast Phyrexian Metamorph with the remaining 4 lands, and decline making a copy of a creature so that it dies immediately.
On your extra turn’s upkeep, cast Memory’s Journey, targeting the Phyrexian Metamorph.
Attack with 10 2/2 flying Drakes. The Slumbering Dragon awakes, but can only block one Drake so your opponent takes the remaining 18 points of damage and you win.

Here’s another solution that doesn’t require combat:

Take Time Warp off of the Forbidden Alchemy.
Untap, draw and play the Island. Cast Time Warp targeting yourself.
Cast Phyrexian Metamorph, copying Kamahl, Pit Fighter. Tap to do 3 to your opponent (17)
Flashback Memory’s Journey targeting one of the Spelltwines.
On the extra turn, untap and draw the Spelltwine.
Cast Spelltwine, targeting Spelltwine and Incinerate. The second Spelltwine targets Spelltwine and Searing Spear. The third Spelltwine targets Spelltwine and Thunderbolt. The final Spelltwine targets Time Warp and Smash to Smithereens. Direct all of the burn at your opponent, and the Smash to Smithereens at any artifact he controls (it still does 3 damage as long as it resolves, even if the artifact isn’t destroyed). Your opponent should take 12, going to 5.
Time Warp targets yourself.
Tap Kamahl to do 3 to your opponent, dropping him to 2.
On the upkeep of the next extra turn, tap Kamahl to drop your opponent to -1, finishing him off.

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Congratulations to Joseph Blackman, who will receive a signed Spelltwine!