Welcome back to Magic Puzzles, where we find ourselves in the final week in the third puzzle competition. With three people still in contention, it seems likely that we will have a third champion in as many contests. Enjoy the puzzle, and make sure to come back next week, since there will be a small but significant twist in the competition.
Solution to last week’s puzzle.
Week 9:
In an Unhinged draft, play 7 Rocket-Powered Turbo Slugs. Attack for 21 points of damage.
Week 12:
The cards in your hand are Snapback and Thrumming Stone. Your creatures in play are Relentless Rats, and you have 297 more copies of the rats in your deck.
Week 11:
1. Kevin spends six mana to move one counter from Spike Tiller into Viscid Lemures (now 5/4), another into Gossamer Phantasm (which dies), and another into Vesuva (which becomes a 3/3 creature). Tiller dies.
2. Activate Urborg Syphon-Mage, tapping Urborg and two Swamps, and discarding Corpulent Corpse. Life totals are now 25-12.
3. Attack phase, Lemures attack with Swampwalk (4/4 now).
4. After blockers are declared (no blockers), play Momentary Blink, tapping Vesuva and a Swamp, targeting the now-creature Vesuva. When Vesuva comes back into play, choose the legendary Urborg as the land to be copied. Both Urborg and Vesuva die to the legend rule.
5. Kevin spends his remaining five mana to cast Word of Seizing on Bog Serpent. With Urborg gone, Kevin controls no Swamps, so the Serpent dies as soon as he comes under his control. We now have 4 creatures in our graveyard (Shapeshifter, Phantasm, Corpse, and Serpent).
6.Play Pit Keeper (which has Flash thanks to Teferi), returning Vesuvan Shapeshifter to hand.
7.Play Shapeshifter face-up, copying Bogardan Rager, and giving +4/+0 to Lemures (8/4 now)
8. Flashback Momentary Blink, target Shapeshifter, copy Rager again, give +4/+0 to Lemures again (12/4).
9. Assign and deal damage to win the game.
Bonus:
Several good guesses were submitted, but here’s what actually happened. I kept a three land, two five-drop hand on the play. Every turn for the next eight turns I drew land. My opponent stubbornly played a Shivan Wumpus every one of those turns, which kept getting sent back to the top of his deck. Eventually I drew a two-drop Rebel searcher and took the game from there.
Scores for this puzzle: (no perfect scores this week)
qqzm — 10
NeonBlack — 7
TheOneEye — 7
Ronfar — 3
Current Scores
TheOneEye — 49
qqzm — 44
gabrosin — 39
IceOnGrass — 37
Vyolynce — 27
NeonBlack — 22
NotTheOne — 22
PeteBDawg — 19
RobRoy — 19
foxauror — 15
Locke_Daemonfire — 15
magnum_opera — 15
Olyander — 15
Rattus — 15
Lynxcat — 14
microStyles — 12
CaptainNapalm — 10
Jinx_Talaris — 9
Ronfar — 6
aumdiene — 5
carrolln — 5
DougieFresh — 5
funkyninja — 5
GenericKen — 5
Gwendly — 5
Hearts_Regime — 5
kenth — 5
lord atog — 5
RidiculousHat — 5
VipExX — 5
Aiken013 — 4
hforduva — 4
mttgicecreamman — 2
thecappen — 2
This Week’s Puzzle (10 points total)
Contest 3, Week 5 of 5.
Difficulty: 3/5
Remember: do NOT post solutions to the forums. PM me (jefftill) the answers. Solutions are due Monday at midnight.
In the first game of your match, “Bad Beat” Phil blew you out with his Stuffy Doll, effectively neutering your Pyrohemia. This game you sided in your one answer: Grinning Totem. Unfortunately for you, Phil just cast his Stuffy Doll this turn, so you are unable to yank it from his deck. From game 1, the only other cards you know are still in his deck are Amrou Scout, Temporal Isolation, Pentarch Ward, Swamps, and Plains. Not all is lost, though, since you drew the mighty Leviathan this turn! Win the game this turn, without leaving anything to chance.
You (3 life):
3 Mountain
7 Island
Flamecore Elemental
Keldon Halberdier
Paradise Plume (set to Blue)
Pyrohemia
Think-Skinned Goblin
Viashino Bladescout
Hand:
Dust Corona
Leviathan
Mountain
Reckless Wurm
Snapback
Phil: (9 life)
4 Plains (tapped)
4 Swamp (tapped)
3/3 Ape token
Aether Membrane
Big Game Hunter
Children of Korlis
Evil Eye of Urborg
Stronghold Overseer
Stuffy Doll (just cast)
Trespasser il-Vec
Jedit’s Dragoons
Phil has a Swamp in hand. All cards not mentioned are irrelevant.
Good luck, and come back next week, when a new round of competition starts.