Challenge

Using only cards from Magic 2013, gain as much life as possible by the upkeep of turn seven on the play using Touch of the Eternal. You begin the game with a copy of Touch of the Eternal on the battlefield.

Assumptions

You have perfect luck. For example, even after you shuffle your library, it’s ordered how you want. You may not assume anything about your opponent’s hand or library except that he won’t do anything relevant.

Winning “quickly” refers to both the turn of the game and whether you’re playing or drawing first. Turn three on the draw is quicker than turn four on the play but not as quick as turn three on the play.

You may only use four copies of any individual card.

Send your solutions to nex342+puzzle at gmail dot com with the subject line “Puzzle – Eternal Life”, and I’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!

Good luck!

Solution to Last Week’s Puzzle

Most of last week’s solutions for turn one on the play involved storm. The first one is from David Nunez:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
Mountain		6
Lotus Petal		5
Desperate Ritual ×2		3
Seething Song		2
Empty the Warrens for ten Goblins		1
Goblin Bushwhacker kicked		0
Attack for 22 damage		0

A few other solutions used infect instead. Here’s the first from MartijnTiny:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
Forest		6
Simian Spirit Guide ×3		3
Manamorphose		3
Blackcleave Goblin		2
Invigorate ×2 targeting Blackcleave Goblin		0
Attack for 10 poison		0

There was only one solution that used neither storm nor infect. Here it is—from Ryan Nightingale:

Play	Mana	Cards in Hand
Forest		6
Lotus Petal		5
Utopia Sprawl naming blue targeting Forest		4
Lotus Petal		3
Utopia Sprawl naming blue targeting Forest		2
Tap Forest		2
Cloud of Faeries		1
Ideas Unbound		3
Explore, playing Plains		2
Cloudshift targeting Cloud of Faeries		1
Tap Forest		1
Abundant Growth targeting Plains		1
Ideas Unbound		3
Tap Plains		3
Cloudshift targeting Cloud of Faeries		2
Tap lands		2
Utopia Sprawl naming blue targeting Forest		1
Ideas Unbound		3
Cloudshift targeting Cloud of Faeries		2
Tap Forest		2
Overgrowth targeting Plains		1
Tap Plains		1
Manamorphose		1
Ideas Unbound		3
Cloudshift targeting Cloud of Faeries		2
Tap lands		2
Ghostly Flicker targeting Abundant Growth and Cloud of Faeries		2
Archaeomancer, returning Ghostly Flicker		2
Tap lands		2

From here, you can cast Ghostly Flicker on Archaeomancer and Cloud of Faeries repeatedly to generate arbitrarily large amounts of mana with which to Kaervek's Torch the opponent to death.