Welcome back to the fourth installment of this puzzling series. In addition to the standard question of”what do I need to do in order to win right now”, this article will pose a couple more open-ended challenges. You might find yourself thinking,”What is the mathematically best play at this point?”, and”What do I need to do now in order to win later?” After all, if you do not make good choices up front, you’ll never be in position to win at all.
Puzzle 10:
You are playing a hard-fought game against your opponent, Ike, who is smashing your Tooth and Nail deck to bits with the Ravager Affinity deck you loaned him. He has you down to one life, but you finally manage to pull enough land to cast Tooth and Nail entwined. The question is: what do you get?
Ike: 20 life, no cards in hand, Shrapnel Blast, Great Furnace, 2 Arcbound Workers, Cranial Plating in graveyard
Ike in play:
Vault of Whispers
Great Furnace
Seat of the Synod
2 Frogmite (tapped)
Disciple of the Vault (tapped)
Ike’s Deck:
4 Thoughtcast
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Disciple of the Vault
4 Chromatic Sphere
2 Aether Vial
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Cranial Plating
2 Welding Jar
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Glimmervoid
You: 1 life, no cards in hand, 2 Sylvan Scrying, Oblivion Stone in graveyard
You have in play:
Urza’s Tower (tapped)
Urza’s Tower (tapped)
Urza’s Tower (tapped)
2 Forest (tapped)
2 Vine Trellis
Potential Tooth Targets:
Triskelion
Mephidross Vampire
2 Darksteel Colossus
Platinum Angel
Duplicant
2 Vine Trellis
4 Solemn Simulacrum
Bonus Question: What choice would you make if you opponent instead had 0, 2, 3, or 4 Shrapnel Blasts in the grave instead of 1?
Puzzle 11:
You are watching a game played by two of your friends, George and John. They are playing decks made of random cards pulled from a random stack of Standard legal cards, and some weird interactions have ensued. Perhaps the weirdest just happened when John, for no apparent reason, announced Thieves’ Auction (for the second time this game!). As both players ponder their choices, you wonder, who is going to win this game (assuming perfect play, of course)?
John (1 life):
In play:
Lava Hounds
Platinum Angel
Phage, the Untouchable
Vampiric Spirit
Hunted Wumpus
Staff of Domination
2 Blinkmoth Nexus (tapped)
3 Mountain (tapped)
3 Island (2 tapped)
Bottle Gnomes (enchanted with Arrest)
In hand: Nothing
In deck: Basic Land
On Stack: Thieves’ Auction
George (3 life):
In Play:
Viridian Shaman
Aven Cloudchaser
Spawning Pit
Aether Spellbomb
Crystal Shard
1 Plains
6 Forest
3 Swamp
Bloodstained Mire
In hand: Nothing
In deck: Nothing
Puzzle 12:
It’s been very long game so far. You’re playing a mono-Blue deck with Crystal Shards and some”cogs” from Fifth Dawn. Solemn Simulacrums have been building your land, Triskelions have been keeping your opponent, Abe, in check and Trinket Mages have been providing tons of card advantage with Spellbombs and Wayfarer’s Baubles. You almost had Abe beat until he cast Akroma’s Vengeance to stabilize the board. He hasn’t been able to find a Starlit Sanctum yet to go infinite, but he’s added in a Lich’s Tomb and with the help of a Genesis Chamber and Rotlung Reanimator, he’s had plenty of permanents to sacrifice. All your card advantage has left you with only one card in your deck: a Boomerang, which you’ve just drawn. Kill Abe this turn before he has a chance to return the favor or you’re decked.
Abe: 12 life, no cards in hand, no relevant cards in grave
In play:
5 Plains (4 tapped)
4 Swamps (all tapped)
Leonin Elder
Disciple of the Vault
Edgewalker
True Believer
Rotlung Reanimator
Daru Spiritualist
2 Withered Wretch
Myr Token
Genesis Chamber
Lich’s Tomb
Lightning Greaves (attached to True Believer)
You: 2 life, no grave (been wiped by the Wretches)
In Hand:
Island
2 Confiscate
Mana Leak
Fold into Aether
Serum Visions
Boomerang
Welding Jar
In Play:
9 Island
1 Seat of Synod
Solemn Simulacrum
2 Trinket Mage
Triskelion (0 counters)
Myr Token
2 Crystal Shard
2 Extraplanar Lens (both imprinting islands)
Aether Spellbomb
Welding Jar
I would again like to thank jtsarnak, who both helped test the puzzles, and provided the basis for puzzle 12.
Until next time.
Jeff Till
[email protected]