Have you ever been in a game where you felt in complete control, and then out of nowhere you lost everything? This week we look at a few situations where “Bad Beat” Phil was finally able to turn the tables on you and steal some victories.
Solution to last week’s puzzle.
In each case you want to get the Prodigal Pyromancer offline as soon as possible, since you are at one life.
1. Turn Coral Trickster face up to tap Prodigal Pyromancer.
2. In response, Phil uses Pyromancer, targeting you.
3. Respond by turning Willbender face up to redirect Pyromancer’s ability to target Serendib Sorcerer.
Puzzle 1:
4. In response, Phil uses Sorcerer, targeting the face-down Timebender.
5. Pass priority. Phil then responds to his Sorcerer by using Thaumaturgist, attempting to kill Timebender. If Phil allows the Sorcerer to resolve, then at any point later the creature could be turned face up, overwriting the p/t change from the Sorcerer. Thus the optimal play is to kill it now, while the Thaumaturgist still can.
6. Timebender dies to Thaumaturgist + Sorcerer. Sorcerer dies to Pyromancer thanks to Willbender.
8. Turn Shaper Parasite face up, killing Needlepeak Spider (+2/-2).
9. Attack with everything.
Serra Sphinx blocks Shaper Parasite (or any random morph that will have 2 power anyway).
Gossamer Phantasm blocks Voidmage Prodigy.
Keldon Marauders blocks face-down Riptide Pilferer.
Blood Knight blocks face-down Fathom Seer.
At some point before damage dealing, the Serrated Arrows must be used. The optimal play to me appears to be taking out the Trickster, as hitting a random morph will reduce the damage by the same amount, but not make a guaranteed kill. Assuming Arrows are used after blockers are declared, respond by turning creatures face up. Serpent, Shapeshifter, Entity, and Elemental should all be turned up. Fathom Seer too, to save it. Shapeshifter becomes a copy of Serpent; Entity becomes a 5/1.
Damage: 6 (Serpent) + 6 (Shapeshifter) + 5 (Elemental) + 5 (Entity) + 2 (Mawcor) + 1 (Willbender) = 25 damage.
Puzzle 2:
4. In response, Phil uses Sorcerer, targeting the face-down Slipstream Serpent (the biggest threat).
5. Pass priority. Phil then responds to his Sorcerer by using Thaumaturgist, attempting to kill Serpent. This time Phil does it knowing he’s trying to off the biggest threat.
6. Respond to the Thaumaturgist by turning Shapeshifter face up, copying Willbender and targeting the Sorcerer’s ability, retargeting it to Gossamer Phantasm. Phantasm dies immediately.
7. Stack resolves. Thaumaturgist has no effect. Sorcerer dies to Pyromancer thanks to Willbender.
8. Turn Shaper Parasite face up, killing Needlepeak Spider (+2/-2).
9. Attack with everything.
Serra Sphinx blocks face-down Slipstream Serpent.
Keldon Marauders blocks Shaper Parasite.
Blood Knight blocks face-down Brine Elemental.
Serrated Arrows are used on Aquamorph Entity. This effectively keeps the Entity face-down.
No further creatures should be turned face up.
Damage: 1 (Shapeshifter) + 1 (Entity) + 2 (Mawcor) + 2 (Prodigy) + 2 (Pilferer) + 1 (Trickster) + 2 (Timebender) + 2 (Seer) + 1 (Willbender) = 14 damage.
Puzzle 3 and 4:
These are the same as puzzles 1 and 2, except for a couple things.
1) Before you attack, play Ixidron.
2) Phil will use his Serrated Arrows to kill Coral Trickster in response to Ixidron, killing it.
3) You can kill 2 more creatures with Shaper Parasite. Unmorph the Parasite targeting Gossamer Phantasm, and Willbend the ability onto Blood Knight. Both will die.
4) Even in the worst case, Phil can make slightly better blocking decisions now that he has seen some face-up creatures. For example, he will always block the Shapeshifted when it is face-down, since it can morph into your largest creature.
Scores for this puzzle:
Gabrosin – 15 (not all puzzles were solved this week, so only 15 of the possible 25 points were earned). There are still enough points left between this week and next week for anyone to take the lead, still.
Current Scores:
Gabrosin – 35
NeonBlack – 4
VideogameD – 4
Gaeanewt – 2
guitarhero218 – 2
HermaphroGreg – 2
LoneGoat – 2
microStyles – 2
Mjlewis – 2
This Week’s Puzzle (20 points total)
For these puzzles, the contents of Phil’s library may be important, but cards in any other zones not mentioned (graveyard, hand, etc.) are not relevant.
Puzzle 1: (5 points)
You are playing an Extended match against Phil, and you have him totally Mindslaver locked. You are casting Slaver every turn thanks to Academy Ruins and plenty more mana. Presently, the Mindslaver combo has left Phil with no cards in hand and only basic lands in play. Your win conditions have already been stripped from your library, though, so you plan on winning by decking. Somehow, Phil broke out of the Mindslaver lock and managed to defeat you. Assuming you played perfectly, how did Phil break the lock?
Puzzle 2: (5 points)
In a casual game against Phil, you have him locked out once again. The very turn he cast Null Profusion, you Haunting Hymn’ed him right out of the game. All Phil has left in play are a Sakura-Tribe Elder, a Voltaic Key, and a large stack of basic land against your horde of 10 tapped 1/1 Goblin tokens. Even without the benefit of a draw step, though, Phil managed to win this game. Assuming it is currently the end of your turn, how did Phil kill you from 6 life on his turn?
Puzzle 3:
In the next casual game against Phil, he is not locked in any way, though you are at 400 life and Phil only has a couple 3/3’s in play that don’t have any activated or triggered abilities. Phil has in his hand an instant, an artifact, and Leviathan. He has 8 basic lands in play. Without drawing any other cards, Phil destroyed you this turn by attacking with one of his creatures. What happened?
Puzzle 4:
In your final game against Phil, you are playing a game of Standard Vanguard. You are playing Dragonstorm with the Prodigal Sorcerer avatar (no relevant abilities), and Phil was playing a deck based around the Momir avatar (pay X and discard a card to put a random creature with converted mana cost X into play. Use this ability once per turn). You had already combo-d out and the board looked like this:
You: (14 life)
Bogardan Hellkite
Hunted Dragon (tapped)
Island
3 Shivan Reef (2 tapped)
Dreadship Reef (tapped, with 1 counter)
Mountain (tapped)
Phil: (1 life)
2 Godless Shrine
3 Swamp
1 Flagstone of Trokair
Grassland Crusader
Three 2/2 white Knight creature tokens with first strike (from Hunted Dragon)
Phil created his random creature for the turn, and was able to steal the game. In fact, he won the very same turn. What happened?
Note: Puzzle 4 actually happened in a Magic Online premier event, as unlikely as it seems.
Good luck. I’ll see you next week when I break out some Magic trivia.