As we enter the fifth week of puzzles, you have already had the chance to test your Fact or Fiction splitting skills, win the first turn of the game, compare the Planeshifted cards to their original counterparts, and find ways to win in real game scenarios. This week you will have a more traditional puzzle to solve: a crossword. For those keeping track of points, this week is the final week of competition for round 1. RidiculousHat holds the lead, but it is still anyone’s game. This week’s puzzle will decide who will be the reigning puzzle master.
Solution to last week’s puzzle.
1) Block with Automaton and make it a 3/3. If Phil only assigns three damage to it, discard the other card, and win. Otherwise, add the second counter, draw 2, and hope to find a pump spell.
2) Attack with only one Angel, in case Phil finds a second Cloak or something similar to make the little Elf lethal. You will still win next turn with an attack next turn. The quicker win outweighs the long shot odds that Phil will force you to chump block with you second Angel.
3) Attack with both Goblin Skycutters, stack damage, sacrifice one targeting the Drakeling, let that resolve, then play Sulfurous Blast. Your opponent takes a total of six, leaving the scores 12-2. Next turn you play Flamecore, giving you an opponent dead in two swings to Flamecore plus Rift Bolt.
The difficulty here is that there are a few cards (like Crookclaw Transmuter) that you definitely die to. So you have to deal with what’s on the board and leave yourself the fastest clock possible at the end of it, which in this case is drop Flamecore Elemental, attack twice and Rift Bolt to the face. If your opponent starts your next turn above 13 life, he has an entire extra turn to draw an out. Therefore, you need the extra Skycutter hit on your turn. You don’t sacrifice both Goblins in response to each other, as that leaves you dead to Momentary Blink (Fortify will definitely kill you one way or the other, if your opponent isn’t terrible.) Blasting mid-combat leaves you dead to Crookclaw, but your opponent has an almost guaranteed win if he holds Crookclaw back anyway. Sacrificing one Goblin and Blasting later (his attack step, for example) still doesn’t protect from Crookclaw, as he won’t play it while the Goblin is on the table, and you just slowed your eventual clock down by a full turn.
4) Tap to ping the Sliver, and in response to the triggered ability, sac the Whip to deal one more. The Sliver dies, swing with Baloth for the win.
The winners this week were RidiculousHat, lord atog (2 puzzles), and DraconisUK.
Current Scores:
RidiculousHat – 28
Middleman – 23
moxlotus – 12
amajlaton – 10
Mystic Mage – 9
ravenight – 9
Estherandherdoll – 6
Pathian – 6
bleonhar – 5
lord atog – 5
DraconisUK – 4
DI419 – 4
navaja22 – 3
This Week’s Puzzle (53 points total!)
Difficulty: 5/5
Below is a 48-clue crossword puzzle. Each correct answer (i.e.: the answer that is in the solution, not just anything that matches the clue) is worth one point. All of the answers are the names of Magic cards, with no spaces.
There is also a five-point bonus question: what do all of the answers in this crossword puzzle have in common?
Click here to download and print out a copy of the crossword puzzle.
Good luck!
Across:
3) The kind of Spirit that that spends much more money than is necessary. (11, 6)
5) An uncommon Odyssey enchantment. (6, 6)
6) If you got into an accident and ran out of Rime, you’d need one of these. (4, 11)
11) Something that William Tell definitely does not need. (7, 8)
13) As opposed to a normal inversion? (7, 9)
14) Infiltrate. (10)
16) More than two depressing events. (5, 9)
17) A morph. (4, 6)
19) What Shiva has that a quadruple amputee needs. (5, 4)
22) A domain card. (10, 9)
23) What you need when you lose your first pair of planar lenses. (11, 4)
26) What you have left over after you liquefy down a smoker. (7, 7)
27) A Black creature in the anti-Black set. (5, 7)
30) You can get some great deals bartering with these guys. That’s how I picked up my cool Pearl Trident. (7, 6)
32) Flash Thirst. (6, 10)
34) Home of Benedict Arnold and Judas. (4, 2, 8)
36) An enchant creature for U. (8)
37) Force of Nature’s Time Spiral cousin’s little brother. (8, 5)
39) The old Sunlance. (6)
40) This Invasion creature has fellow tradesman that are Dauthi and Rathi. (8, 7)
41) Think hard. (11)
43) Apparently, with the help of God you can be +3/+3. (6, 14)
44) A creature with graft. (10, 6)
45) The Dissension creature that just couldn’t put away his credit cards. (7, 7)
46) Braaaaains…. Mouse braaaaaains… (8, 7)
47) Part Armageddon, part Wheel of Fortune, part Shatterstorm, and that’s just the half of it. (8, 9)
48) Half my life? Where do I sign? (8, 8)
Down:
1) A relative of 10 down. (11)
2) A guild artifact. (7, 13)
4) A wagon with a dragon head on front is an example of one of these things. Man that guy had a lot of crazy ideas. (4, 5, 12)
7) The difference between Cthulhu and Hulhu. (7)
8) My grandma’s bratwurst recipe, my great-great-great-grandfather’s secret method for making chairs, etc. (9, 9)
9) The slowest way to take an extra turn in Magic. (11, 7)
10) Kin of a hydrox and a vark. (5, 6)
11) What Scour might have been called if it had been printed in Champions instead of that Black rare. (4, 10)
12) This giant lives in the same land as some Boars and Baloths. (8, 7)
15) A common apparatus on the Astral Playground. (6, 5)
18) One of the last ships to see print. (9, 9)
20) The old Standard answer to Sulfuric Vortex. (13)
21) These migrate during the “days of darkness.” (14)
22) An ante card. (8, 4, 5)
24) What you get when the scarecrow joins the army. (5, 8)
25) Draw 5 for 5. (6, 10)
28) A casual favorite that also contains a naughty word. (5, 4)
29) Yer trans is broken. I can fix it, but it’ll cost you $400… or W. (6, 10)
31) I take it back! (7)
33) “You won’t be needing this.” (9)
35) A transmute card. (5, 11)
38) "Never underestimate our enemy’s strength, brutality, or stupidity." (4, 6)
42) To hold back from action; keep in check or under control; repress. (8)
Good luck!
Jeff