Welcome to the second article in the Magic Puzzles series. This week we’ll be exploring every Vintage player’s dream: the first turn kill. But first…
Solution to last week’s puzzle
To win this game, Dave needs to Demonfire you for nine. To do this, he would have to draw a land, a Chrome Mox, a colored card to imprint, and of course, Demonfire.
Part 1: Dave cannot win the game. Split the piles Demonfire, land versus Gaea’s Blessing, Mental Note, Fact or Fiction. If he takes the first pile, he will be missing Chrome Mox and a colored card, but will only draw one card next turn. If he takes the other pile, he cannot cast Fact or Fiction (he will deck himself). Mental Note can draw him into one card he needs, but he will still be one card short of winning.
Part 2: Dave cannot win the game. Gifts Ungiven will give him two cards and his draw step will give him another. As long as you do not give him Fact or Fiction, he will not have enough cards to win.
Part 3: Dave is still out of luck. Split the piles Demonfire, land versus Gaea’s Blessing, Mental Note, Gifts Ungiven. The Demonfire pile still does not help him. If he casts Gifts, you can deny him the Demonfire and leave him unable to win.
Part 4: Finally, Dave catches a break. There are a few piles that would work for him, one of which is Demonfire, Chrome Mox, Island, Mental Note, and Psychic Purge. No matter how you split the piles, Dave will take the three-card pile. If he gets Mental Note, he can cast it right away to draw another card. If he gets lucky, he will draw the remaining card he needs during his draw step, and he will win on his turn.
Congratulations to Middleman and amajlaton for being the first people to post correct answers. The current scoring breakdown is:
Middleman — 20
amajlaton — 5
This Week’s Puzzle (32+ points total)
Difficulty: 2/5
In all of the following scenarios, assume that you are playing first, and that you are exceptionally lucky, when necessary.
Part 1:
First turn wins may not be a cause for celebration in Vintage, but they are quite rare in Standard. Therefore, your goal is to describe a first turn win in Standard. Each unique solution is worth three points. Solutions must be sufficiently different from previous solutions to count. Generally, I’m interested in different win conditions, not the means used to cast them.
Part 2 [6 points]:
As you move from Standard to Extended, the combo decks get dirtier and the first turn wins a little more common. One current Extended deck that can occasionally win on the first turn is Ritual Desire. Describe a first turn victory with this deck using the fewest number of cards possible (including cards revealed by Mind’s Desire, etc).
Lands (15)
Spells (45)
Part 3 [23 points total]:
Finally we get to the land of broken plays: Vintage Magic. While the first turn kill may not be all that common in practice, they sure do come up a lot in goldfishing. With that in mind:
a) [2 points] What was the earliest first turn win (chronologically… and alphabetically)?
b) [3 points] Which first turn win uses the fewest number of cards?
c) [8 points] Which first turn wins use cards of only one color (and lands)? List as many as possible. The person with the greatest number of new solutions wins.
d) [10 points] Generate the most first turn win scenarios without repeating a card. For this part of the puzzle you can copy from previous solutions, as long as you add something new. The winner will be the person with the most win scenarios. The tiebreaker, if necessary, is the number of cards used. The earliest submission will only be used as the second tiebreaker.
Enjoy the puzzles, and good luck!