Hello! After a long interlude, I have made another MTG puzzle. I would like to share this puzzle with people and get some feedback on it. Also, since I only recently finished making this puzzle it is possible that there are solutions to the puzzle outside of my intended one. Thus, if you find any kind of solution then I would love to see it! If you wish to post or comment on a solution, please hide it in a "Spoiler" box so that people who are attempting the puzzle do not have to look at solutions when scrolling through the forum if they do not want to. Also, feel free to post attempted solutions (in spoiler boxes) even if you didn't quite manage to solve the puzzle.
I hope everyone enjoys the puzzle!
(Note: No Dack Faydens were harmed in the making of this puzzle. Insulted, perhaps, but not harmed.)
The story so far:
Your opponent challenged you to a game against his Token Discard deck. You prevented your opponent’s army of Spirit tokens from being effective through a combination of Haunter of Nightveil and Voidstone Gargoyle (to prevent your opponent from sacrificing them to Ashnod’s Altar for mana). You managed to resolve a Mind Unbound, and you gave it two copies of Indestructibility to make sure your opponent couldn’t end your card advantage. However, your opponent’s discard spells prevented you from gaining the advantage and the game stalled out.
Last turn, you finally managed to play Daring Thief, which combined with Samite Blessing and Intruder Alarm will allow you to trade permanents with your opponent whenever a creature enters the battlefield. You had been planning to use this to donate harmful cards such as Geist-Fueled Scarecrow and Bronze Bombshell to your opponent. However, your opponent then topdecked Rakdos’s Return and tapped out for it to force you to discard the rest of your hand, which combined with your opponent’s The Rack put you to 5 life at the start of your turn. Your Mind Unbound now has 7 lore counters on it, so you draw 7 cards plus your usual card from the draw step.
However, you have a problem: your library has only 8 cards left in it, so your opponent realizes that you will lose the game at the start of your next turn by being forced to draw 9 cards in total. Furthermore, your opponent doesn’t control any enchantments, so you have no way of trading away your Mind Unbound to prevent the loss next turn! Therefore you must find a way to win the game before your next turn.
Instructions:
The contents of Exile zones and your opponent’s graveyard and library at the start of this puzzle are irrelevant. Your opponent currently has no mana to use and no cards in hand, but he will make choices in response to the options you present to him, such as which blockers to declare.
You must find a way to guarantee that you win the game. Your solution must be valid regardless of the choices your opponent makes.
The puzzle starts at the beginning of your precombat main phase with nothing having happened this turn besides your regular untap step, upkeep (in which you took 3 damage from The Rack and drew 7 extra cards from Mind Unbound), and draw step.
Advice:
Read all of the cards carefully. In fact, read all of the cards' Gatherer pages carefully since some cards in the puzzle have received updated Oracle text.
(Unless otherwise specified, each permanent is untapped and owned by the player who controlled it at the start of the puzzle. A visual version of the puzzle appears below.)
I mistakenly gave your opponent 31 1/1 Spirits when I meant to give 33. This has been fixed now. If anyone is working on the old version, feel free to post solutions assuming there are only 31 1/1 Spirits.
Your proposed solution has the problem, that as soon as the Gargoyle is gone, your opponent can sac creatures for mana again, and he can use this to activate the Sextant himself, just so you won't get it. You can easily fix this by waiting with the sacrifice until you have the Sextant, though. But you also can't give it away again, because you need to sacrifice it to activate its ability.
Good catch on not giving it away after it has been sacrificed.
This a bit more difficult with the rules changes over the last decade. You could recover life before the end of the phase and mana burn was a thing. Let me give it another crack. Not sure this a good solution but I think it works.
Opponent is left with 24-14=10 lives.
IF Opponent has 1 or less creatures, we attack, even with one blocker this 10+ damage
IF Opponent has 2 creatures or more left, we use Bronze Bombshell 2 more time, again 10+ damage
I think this guarantees a win but I am not sure it is true to the rules of the game.
Hopefully I didn't make any obvious errors this time, still getting back into magic.
Don't take me wrong, I very much appreciate your takes on this as it has given me ideas I had missed. My own "solution" so far sadly "only" brings the opponent down to 1 and leaves him with no creatures, but obviously, that's still not good enough.
Don't take me wrong, I very much appreciate your takes on this as it has given me ideas I had missed. My own "solution" so far sadly "only" brings the opponent down to 1 and leaves him with no creatures, but obviously, that's still not good enough.
Oh no offense taken. Honestly I thought this would be a fun way to remind me of all the rules of the game so I am very grateful.
Seems the trick with getting to the 8th card in the library will rely on using Painful Truths twice, then using Scarecrone and a copy of Scarecrone to draw out the last two. I've come up with a trick that lets me draw 4 off of Painful Truths once, by giving the opponent Grand Arbiter and using the Sexton for color not in the deck but that doesn't seem to help. The puzzle seems very well thought through.
Since I take Ashnod's Altar early there is no way for him to destroy his own creatures or creatures I send over to him. Without that he is left with no mana so also cannot destroy the Sextant.
cast Call to Mind, return Ray of Command, Mana Cost: 2U-1
cast Ray of Command for Scarecrone, Mana Cost: 3U-1
((Daring, Skyhunter, WhiteShield, Grand, Scare))
((I do end up with an extra creature or 2 mana depending on how you see it. Maybe it has something to do with my ordering of Calm Mind & Ray of Command.))
I'm feeling pretty good about this one. I'm sure if I made any mistakes Rezzahan or another friendly member will correct me. If it isn't right I think its close.
@Rezzahan
Well if it is correct it is only thanks to you. And also thank you for helping me brush up on my MTG rules a decade away has made me a bit of dinosaur. Maybe I'll look for a rules forum to as my next step. Or I see people sanctioned as judges maybe I should see if I can't grab a practice test to help me brush up.
@Bulldozer968
Very well crafted puzzle, thanks for all the hard work in making it.
I think, I found an alternative soltution for the 31 spirit problem (and it should work for 32 spirits as well). If anyone can find a way to tweak this into a solution that solves the 33 spirit problem, I would very much like to know, because I've been musing about this for days now. I would also appreciate someone carefully examining this for any mistakes. I need to get this out of my head.
(Note: The Thief taps to target itself before an Intruder Alarm trigger resolves to get an exchange trigger.)
(This is where a Thief's exchange trigger is wasted due to me not having anything I can spare to grab another Spirit)
22) Sac first GFS, then Scarescrone for 2 to draw 2 cards
23) Cast Iron League Steed for 4, place its fabricate trigger on top of the Intruder Alarm trigger
24) Fabricate 2 Servo tokens (due to Annointed Procession) and trade them both for Spirits
25) Sac those 2 Spirit and the Steed on the Altar to get 6 mana, all in response to the Steed's Intruder Alarm trigger
26) Now resolve that untap and trade the Altar back for your Argentum Armor
27) Cast Death-Mask Duplicant for 7
28) Trade the Thief itself for another Spirit token (opponent either sacs it for mana or lets this happen, either way, another Spirit is gone)
29) Cast the second Argentum Armor and equip both on the DMD for a total cost of 18 mana
30) Exile Altar Golem, a Skyhunter Skirmisher, and the Iron League Steed with the DMD for your last 3 total
31) Attack with DMD
32) Destroy another two Spirits with the two Armor's triggers in the declare attackers step
You have removed 22 Spirits, so even if your opponent had up to 32 Spirit tokens in the beginning, you can trample over for a total of 24 damage, winning the game.
So for what it is worth. I followed it just fine, it all makes sense to me. I checked things that I ran into when I was formulating my solution. The mana usage and the color mana usage adds up. You might want to update the line where you sacrifice Voidstone Gargoyle to list it costs 2 mana, I caught it the first time I was adding but when I got the the end I didn't remember if had did since it wasn't specifically listed. It might making checking easier for others not as familiar with the puzzle. Checked to make sure cards weren't being used before they were drawn, I stumbled on that a few times when I was working on it. And added up Spirit Token and damage all seemed good.
Looks great. Nice catch on the Scarecrone letting you draw 2 cards, I totally glazed over the fact that it said Scarecrow not Scarecrone.
I hope everyone enjoys the puzzle!
(Note: No Dack Faydens were harmed in the making of this puzzle. Insulted, perhaps, but not harmed.)
The story so far:
Your opponent challenged you to a game against his Token Discard deck. You prevented your opponent’s army of Spirit tokens from being effective through a combination of Haunter of Nightveil and Voidstone Gargoyle (to prevent your opponent from sacrificing them to Ashnod’s Altar for mana). You managed to resolve a Mind Unbound, and you gave it two copies of Indestructibility to make sure your opponent couldn’t end your card advantage. However, your opponent’s discard spells prevented you from gaining the advantage and the game stalled out.
Last turn, you finally managed to play Daring Thief, which combined with Samite Blessing and Intruder Alarm will allow you to trade permanents with your opponent whenever a creature enters the battlefield. You had been planning to use this to donate harmful cards such as Geist-Fueled Scarecrow and Bronze Bombshell to your opponent. However, your opponent then topdecked Rakdos’s Return and tapped out for it to force you to discard the rest of your hand, which combined with your opponent’s The Rack put you to 5 life at the start of your turn. Your Mind Unbound now has 7 lore counters on it, so you draw 7 cards plus your usual card from the draw step.
However, you have a problem: your library has only 8 cards left in it, so your opponent realizes that you will lose the game at the start of your next turn by being forced to draw 9 cards in total. Furthermore, your opponent doesn’t control any enchantments, so you have no way of trading away your Mind Unbound to prevent the loss next turn! Therefore you must find a way to win the game before your next turn.
Instructions:
The contents of Exile zones and your opponent’s graveyard and library at the start of this puzzle are irrelevant. Your opponent currently has no mana to use and no cards in hand, but he will make choices in response to the options you present to him, such as which blockers to declare.
You must find a way to guarantee that you win the game. Your solution must be valid regardless of the choices your opponent makes.
The puzzle starts at the beginning of your precombat main phase with nothing having happened this turn besides your regular untap step, upkeep (in which you took 3 damage from The Rack and drew 7 extra cards from Mind Unbound), and draw step.
Advice:
Read all of the cards carefully. In fact, read all of the cards' Gatherer pages carefully since some cards in the puzzle have received updated Oracle text.
The puzzle:
Your Life - 5
Your Hand - 8 cards: Plains, Skyhunter Skirmisher (x2), Call to Mind, White Shield Crusader, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Painful Truths, Compulsory Rest
Your Graveyard - 8 cards: Altar Golem, Swamp, Congregate, Bronze Bombshell, Make Obsolete, Skyhunter Skirmisher, Ray of Command, Myr Battlesphere
Your Library - 8 cards. In order from top to bottom: Argentum Armor, Death-Mask Duplicant, Plains, Scarecrone, Phyrexian Metamorph, Refurbish, Argentum Armor, Iron League Steed
Your Field - Daring Thief, Samite Blessing (enchanting Daring Thief), Voidstone Gargoyle (naming Ashnod’s Altar), Geist-Fueled Scarecrow, Haunter of Nightveil, Quicksilver Gargantuan (a 7/7 copy of Haunter of Nightveil), Maze Abomination, Typhoid Rats, Anointed Procession, Intruder Alarm, Mind Unbound (with 7 lore counters), Indestructibility (x2, both enchanting Mind Unbound), 8 Plains, 4 Island, 1 Swamp, 4 Crumbling Vestige, 1 Strip Mine
Opponent's Life - 24
Opponent's Hand - 0 cards
Opponent's Library - 15 cards
Opponent's Field - Abyssal Nocturnus, Gifted Aetherborn, Myojin of Night’s Reach (with no divinity counters), Geist-Honored Monk (x2), 33 1/1 white Spirit creature tokens with flying, Ashnod’s Altar, The Rack (naming you as the chosen player), Barbed Sextant, 6 Plains (tapped), 8 Swamp (tapped), 2 Unknown Shores (tapped)
(Unless otherwise specified, each permanent is untapped and owned by the player who controlled it at the start of the puzzle. A visual version of the puzzle appears below.)
Visual Version:
play Plains
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
cast Compulsory Rest on Voidstone Gargoyle, Mana Cost: 1W
sac Voidstone Gargoyle, gain 2 life at 7, Mana Cost: 2
cast Painful Truths, draw 3, lose 3 life at 4, Mana Cost: UWB
cast Call to Mind, return painful truths, Mana Cost: 2U
cast White Shield Crusader, Mana Cost: WW+1
untap Daring Thief, trade Geist-Fueled Scarecrow for Barbed Sextant (Need to do this to convert W to B)
cast Painful Truths, draw 3, lose 3 life at 1, Mana Cost: UWB
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
cast Scarecrone, Mana Cost: 3
untap Daring Thief, trade Barbed Sextant for Ashnod’s Altar
sac Haunter of Nightveil & White Shield Crusader to Ashnod’s Altar
tap Scarecrone, return Bronze Bombshell to play, Mana Cost: 4
Up to this point the 19 lands in play have all been used plus 4 more mana from Ashnod's Alter, for a total of 23.
From here on everything is fueled by Ashnod's Alter using 1 of the opponents tokens that was previously traded for Bronze Bombshell and one of our creatures.
untap Scarecrone
untap Daring Thief, trade Bronze Bombshell for Token, 7 damage
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
sac Token & Typhoid Rats to Ashnod’s Altar
tap Scarecrone, return Bronze Bombshell to play, Mana Cost: 4
untap Scarecrone
untap Daring Thief, trade Bronze Bombshell for Token, 7 damage
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
sac Token & Maze Abomination to Ashnod’s Altar
tap Scarecrone, return Bronze Bombshell to play, Mana Cost: 4
untap Scarecrone
untap Daring Thief, trade Bronze Bombshell for Token, 7 damage
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
sac Token & Quicksilver Gargantuan to Ashnod’s Altar
tap Scarecrone, return Bronze Bombshell to play, Mana Cost: 4
untap Daring Thief, trade Bronze Bombshell for Token, 7 damage
I hope I'm not too rusty.
Forever
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Good catch on not giving it away after it has been sacrificed.
This a bit more difficult with the rules changes over the last decade. You could recover life before the end of the phase and mana burn was a thing. Let me give it another crack. Not sure this a good solution but I think it works.
play Plains
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
cast Grand Arbiter, Mana Cost: 2WU+1
untap Daring Thief, trade Geist-Fueled Scarecrow
for Barbed Sextant (Need to do this to convert W to B)
cast Compulsory Rest on Voidstone Gargoyle, Mana Cost: 1W-1
sac Voidstone Gargoyle, gain 2 life at 7, Mana Cost: 2
(At this point opponent could remove all or some creatures, no problem)
cast Painful Truths, draw 3, lose 3 life at 4, Mana Cost: UWB
cast Call to Mind, return painful truths, Mana Cost: 2U-1
sac Barbed Sextant
cast Painful Truths, draw 3, lose 3 life at 1, Mana Cost: UWB
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
cast Refurbish for Myr Battlesphere Mana Cost: 3W-1
untap Daring Thief, trade Myr Token for
Ashnod’s Altar
sac 7 Myrs and Myr Battlesphere for 16 mana
cast Scarecrone Mana Cost: 3
tap Scarecrone, return Myr Battlesphere to play, Mana Cost: 4
untap Scarecrone
sac 8 Tokens and Myr Battle sphere for 18 mana, 27 mana floating
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
tap Scarecrone, return Bronze Bombshell to play, Mana Cost: 4
untap Scarecrone
untap Daring Thief, trade Bronze Bombshell for Myr, 7 damage
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
tap Scarecrone, return Bronze Bombshell to play, Mana Cost: 4
untap Scarecrone
untap Daring Thief, trade Bronze Bombshell for The Rack, 7 damage
cast Argentum Armor, Mana Cost: 6
equip Argentum Armor on Typhoid Rats, Mana Cost: 6
Opponent is left with 24-14=10 lives.
IF Opponent has 1 or less creatures, we attack, even with one blocker this 10+ damage
IF Opponent has 2 creatures or more left, we use Bronze Bombshell 2 more time, again 10+ damage
I think this guarantees a win but I am not sure it is true to the rules of the game.
Hopefully I didn't make any obvious errors this time, still getting back into magic.
Forever
Unfortunately, you did.
For what it's worth, I think the key lies with
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Oh no offense taken. Honestly I thought this would be a fun way to remind me of all the rules of the game so I am very grateful.
(Spelling Edit)
Forever
Since I take Ashnod's Altar early there is no way for him to destroy his own creatures or creatures I send over to him. Without that he is left with no mana so also cannot destroy the Sextant.
play Plains
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
cast Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Mana Cost: 2WU+1
untap Daring Thief, trade Geist-Fueled Scarecrow
for Ashnod's Altar
cast Compulsory Rest on Voidstone Gargoyle, Mana Cost: 1W-1
sac Voidstone Gargoyle, gain 2 life at 7, Mana Cost: 2
sac 4 creatures to Ashnod's Altar, 8 mana
((Daring & Grand left under my control))
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
cast Skyhunter Skirmisher, Mana Cost: 1WW-1
untap Daring Thief, trade Grand Arbiter Augustin IV for
Geist-Fueled Scarecrow
((Daring, Geist, Skyhunter))
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
cast White Shield Crusader, Mana Cost: WW+2
untap Daring Thief, trade Geist-Fueled Scarecrow
for Barbed Sextant
((Daring, Skyhunter, WhiteShield))
sac Barbed Sextant (1 for R)
cast Painful Truths, draw 4, lose 4 life at 3, Mana Cost: UWB+R
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
cast Scarecrone, Mana Cost: 3+1
untap Daring Thief, trade Scarecrone
for Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
((Daring, Skyhunter, WhiteShield, Grand))
((4 colored & 1 colorless mana remain to be spent))
cast Call to Mind, return Ray of Command, Mana Cost: 2U-1
cast Ray of Command for Scarecrone, Mana Cost: 3U-1
((Daring, Skyhunter, WhiteShield, Grand, Scare))
sac Skyhunter Skirmisher & White Shield Crusader
to Ashnod's Altar, 4 mana
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
tap Scarecrone, return Myr Battlesphere to play, Mana Cost: 4
untap Scarecrone
untap Daring Thief
sac 8 Myr Tokens + Myr Battlesphere 18 mana
*
tap Daring Thief put up protection on itself
tap Scarecrone, return Bronze Bombshell to play, Mana Cost: 4
untap Scarecrone
untap Daring Thief, trade Bronze Bombshell for The Rack, 7 damage
repeat from * 3 more times
((I do end up with an extra creature or 2 mana depending on how you see it. Maybe it has something to do with my ordering of Calm Mind & Ray of Command.))
I'm feeling pretty good about this one. I'm sure if I made any mistakes Rezzahan or another friendly member will correct me. If it isn't right I think its close.
Forever
Congrats, this seems to be working. At least, I can't find any mistakes this time.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
Well if it is correct it is only thanks to you. And also thank you for helping me brush up on my MTG rules a decade away has made me a bit of dinosaur. Maybe I'll look for a rules forum to as my next step. Or I see people sanctioned as judges maybe I should see if I can't grab a practice test to help me brush up.
@Bulldozer968
Very well crafted puzzle, thanks for all the hard work in making it.
Forever
(Note: The Thief taps to target itself before an Intruder Alarm trigger resolves to get an exchange trigger.)
1) Play Plains
2) Cast White Shield Crusader for WW+1 due to Geist-Fueled Scarecrow
3) Trade GFS for Ashnod's Altar
4) Cast Compulsory Rest on Voidstone Gargoyle and sac it to gain 2 life (combined cost 1W+2, life total = 7)
5) Sac Maze Abomination, Typhoid Rats, and Quicksilver Gargantuan on the Altar to gain 6 mana
6) Cast Painful Truths for WUB to draw 3 cards (life total = 4)
7) Cast Argentum Armor for 6
8) Cast Skyhunter Skirmisher for 1WW
9) Trade Argentum Armor for Barbed Sextant
10) Sac Sextant to turn W into B
11) Sac Skyhunter on the Altar to gain 2 mana
12) Cast Call to Mind for 2U to get Painful Truths back
13) Cast Painful Truths for WUB to draw 3 cards (life total = 1)
14) Sac White Shield Crusader and Haunter of Nightveil on the Altar to get 4 mana
15) Cast Refurbish for 3W to reanimate Myr Battlesphere
16) Trade MBS and its 8 Myr tokens (due to Annointed Procession) for 9 Spirit tokens
17) Sac 9 Spirits on the Altar to gain 18 mana
18) Cast Phyrexian Metamorph for 3U and copy the Battlesphere
19) Trade the Metamorph for Geist-Fueled Scarecrow and its 8 Myr tokens for 8 Spirit tokens
20) Sac 8 Spirits to get 16 mana
21) Cast Scarecrone for 3+1 due to GFS
(This is where a Thief's exchange trigger is wasted due to me not having anything I can spare to grab another Spirit)
22) Sac first GFS, then Scarescrone for 2 to draw 2 cards
23) Cast Iron League Steed for 4, place its fabricate trigger on top of the Intruder Alarm trigger
24) Fabricate 2 Servo tokens (due to Annointed Procession) and trade them both for Spirits
25) Sac those 2 Spirit and the Steed on the Altar to get 6 mana, all in response to the Steed's Intruder Alarm trigger
26) Now resolve that untap and trade the Altar back for your Argentum Armor
27) Cast Death-Mask Duplicant for 7
28) Trade the Thief itself for another Spirit token (opponent either sacs it for mana or lets this happen, either way, another Spirit is gone)
29) Cast the second Argentum Armor and equip both on the DMD for a total cost of 18 mana
30) Exile Altar Golem, a Skyhunter Skirmisher, and the Iron League Steed with the DMD for your last 3 total
31) Attack with DMD
32) Destroy another two Spirits with the two Armor's triggers in the declare attackers step
You have removed 22 Spirits, so even if your opponent had up to 32 Spirit tokens in the beginning, you can trample over for a total of 24 damage, winning the game.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)
So for what it is worth. I followed it just fine, it all makes sense to me. I checked things that I ran into when I was formulating my solution. The mana usage and the color mana usage adds up. You might want to update the line where you sacrifice Voidstone Gargoyle to list it costs 2 mana, I caught it the first time I was adding but when I got the the end I didn't remember if had did since it wasn't specifically listed. It might making checking easier for others not as familiar with the puzzle. Checked to make sure cards weren't being used before they were drawn, I stumbled on that a few times when I was working on it. And added up Spirit Token and damage all seemed good.
Looks great. Nice catch on the Scarecrone letting you draw 2 cards, I totally glazed over the fact that it said Scarecrow not Scarecrone.
Forever
Thanks for the look over. I edited in the cost in step 4) as you suggested.
Former Rules Advisor
"Everything's better with pirates." - Lodge
(The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
(Girl Genius - Fairy Tale Theater Break - Cinderella, end of volume 8)