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It’s not every day that the Unabridged Cube shows up at your local game store, but when it does, it gets people’s attention. As a massive collection that contains one of each card ever printed, it brings about some very interesting games—not to mention some very interesting decks.
Your last opponent, unfortunately, is Javert—as tenacious a player as you will ever meet. Javert has a reputation for patience: He watches for opportunities, never yields, and generally seals the win after a hard fight. Being deep into your first game, you’re experiencing this firsthand.
You've now come face to face with what the rubberneckers call “an ugly stalemate.” With your Starfield of Nyx and a large number of enchantments in play, you aren’t wanting for blockers. But Javert has more evasive creatures, and the only thing holding him back is the single Blockbuster you drafted. The fact that using it will bring you to the verge of defeat, however, is not lost on either of you.
Javert then top-decks and plays a game-changer: Argentum Armor! With the Armor in play, your opponent’s options are now scarce to be counted—in addition to negating the damage from your Blockbuster, it has too many excellent targets on your side of the table. Fortunately, Javert doesn’t quite have enough mana to equip it on the same turn—but that will change once he reaches his next untap step.
You begin your turn fully expecting to use the Fell the Mighty in your hand. But as you’re contemplating which card to bring back from your graveyard, you see what looks to be a way out of the darkness—and if you’re reading things right, your next draw won’t matter. All you have to do is hold your course and your aim—and, perhaps, trust in the stars . . .
It is the beginning of your upkeep. Defeat Javert this turn.
You are currently choosing a target for Starfield of Nyx’s triggered ability from among the cards in your graveyard. You must resolve this first and then proceed to the rest of your turn.
You are at 4 life with the following cards in play:
- Perilous Myr
- Circle of Flame (currently a base 2/2 creature)
- Raiding Party (currently a base 3/3 creature)
- Burning Earth (currently a base 4/4 creature)
- Blockbuster (currently a base 5/5 creature), with Javert’s Greel's Caress attached
- Starfield of Nyx
- 4 Mountains
- 5 Plains
- Boros Garrison
- Temple of Triumph
You have the following card in your hand:
You currently have the following enchantment cards in your graveyard:
Javert is at 11 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:
- Vampire Nighthawk, with your Cage of Hands attached
- Fallowsage
- Whirlwind Adept
- Air Servant
- Argentum Armor
- 4 Islands (three of which are tapped)
- 3 Swamps (all tapped)
- Piranha Marsh
- Underground Sea
- Dismal Backwater
- Radiant Fountain
If you think you have a great solution in mind, don’t put it in the comments! Instead, send it to puzzles at gatheringmagic dot com with the subject line “Puzzle — And if You Should Fall”. We’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!
Last Week’s Puzzle
Correct solutions to last week’s puzzle were received from Russell Jones, Aaron Golas, David Jacobs, Norman Dean, Ryou Niji, Andrew Muravskyi, Eduardo Racciatti, Scot Martin, Regis Michelena, Lazy Zefiris, Matthew Harvey, Danny Johnson, Cody Pulvermacher, Jon Pugh, Andrew McLaren, Matt Vorpahl, Vincent Bud, Jamie Keller, Lucas Horwitz, Chadwick Bond, Dorian Sinclair, Levi Teitz, Adam Alongi, Quadrangolo Tetra, Matt Iverson, Bob Wilson, Matt Cook, Julian Kessler, Duncan Beckham, Kit Julian, Subrata Sircar, Thomas Pierre, Mateusz Tyniec, John Broky, Craig Simpson, Tim Reinholz, and Evelyn Kokemoor.
Most submitted solutions (correct or otherwise) had one thing in common, and I think Cody Pulvermacher probably put it best: “Curse you, Qasali Pridemage, it would've been so much easier without you!”
In all seriousness, though, this puzzle had a lot of red herrings. “Even though Steph is tapped out and hellbent, she isn't actually tapped out,” Adam Alongi writes. “The Hierarch can tap for 1 mana, and 1 mana is exactly how much she needs to activate the Pridemage's ability, which can ruin any plan involving Visions of Brutality. Also, all of our spells trigger Eidolon of the Great Revel, so just casting two spells means we lose unless we can gain life first.
“The Flaying Tendrils is incredibly tempting here, as it clears out many of the opposing creatures and stifles the Voice triggers—but it also sweeps all of our creatures except the Soothsayer into the exile pile, which means we gain no Zulaport Cutthroat triggers, and we can't possibly push enough damage through with just the 2/2 Soothsayer.”
Despite all of these considerations, multiple solutions do exist. The most straightforward one (although by no means simple) takes advantage of that very same Voice of Resurgence. Julian Kessler writes:
- Cast Bone Splinters (tapping Lifespring Druid for
), targeting a Voice of Resurgence, sacrificing Saddleback Lagac. (Zulaport Cutthroat triggers, Eidolon of the Great Revel triggers.) Life totals: Us = 2, Steph = 6. Steph gains an Elemental creature token. - Play Mortuary Mire, returning Saddleback Lagac to the top of our library.
- Activate Malakir Soothsayer, tapping it and Zulaport Cutthroat. Life totals: Us = 1, Steph = 6. Draw Saddleback Lagac.
- Cast Saddleback Lagac, sacrificing two Scion tokens, tapping Seer's Lantern and a Forest. (Cutthroat triggers.) Life totals: Us = 3, Steph = 4. Support Steph’s Elemental token and the other Voice of Resurgence.
- Cast Flaying Tendrils by tapping two Swamps and Sacred Foundry. This exiles all our creatures except for Soothsayer. Steph keeps Wild Nacatl, both Kird Apes, Voice of Resurgence (via +1/+1 counter), the Elemental token, and Loxodon Smiter. Eidolon triggers before it is exiled. Life totals: Us = 1, Steph = 4. Because Steph controls six creatures, the Elemental token is a 6/6 with -2/-2 from Flaying Tendrils, so it is a 4/4.
- Cast Visions of Brutality on the Elemental token by tapping a Swamp and a Wastes.
- Cast Unnatural Aggression with two Forests and a Swamp, targeting your Soothsayer and the Elemental token. The Elemental token deals 4 damage to the Soothsayer, and Visions forces Steph to lose 4 life. Life totals: Us = 1, Steph = 0.
“It's worth noting that even though Steph could kill our Lantern with Pridemage,” Matt Vorpahl adds, “it wouldn't make a difference because we can just float the mana in response. If anything, it'd be a mistake on her part because we wouldn't have to go through the whole song and dance with Flaying Tendrils.” (For the record, Steph has one other alternative, which is to target her own Eidolon. However, this would put her in an even worse situation.)
One interesting variant of this solution observes that you can target your own creatures with Bone Splinters, which will trigger Zulaport Cutthroat twice—in which case you just need 3 more damage from somewhere. This gives rise to a variant solution that Thomas Pierre demonstrates:
- Sacrifice both Eldrazi Scion tokens for mana. Steph takes 2 from the Zulaport Cutthroat (now at 5 life), and you gain 2 (now at 5 life).
- Cast Bone Splinters on the Saddleback Lagac, sacrificing Lifespring Druid. You take 2 from the Eidolon of the Great Revel (now at 3 life). Steph takes 2 from the Zulaport Cutthroat (now at 3 life) and you gain 2 (now back at 5 life).
- Play Mortuary Mire, putting the Lagac back on the top of your library.
- Activate the ability of your Malakir Soothsayer (tapping the Zulaport Cutthroat); you draw the Lagac and lose 1 life (now at 4 life).
- Cast the Lagac. Put its support counters on Zulaport Cutthroat and Loxodon Smiter.
- Cast Flaying Tendrils. You take 2 from the Eidolon of the Great Revel (now at 2 life). Your Saddleback Lagac, Steph's Noble Hierarch, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Qasali Pridemage, and copies of Voice of Resurgence are all exiled. Zulaport Cutthroat survives as a 1/1, and Loxodon Smiter survives as a 3/3. (All other creatures are irrelevant.)
- Cast Visions of Brutality on the Loxodon Smiter.
- Cast Unnatural Aggression to have Zulaport Cutthroat fight the Loxodon Smiter. The Smiter deals 3 damage, so the Visions makes Steph lose that much life (now at 0 life). If the game did not stop there already, the Cutthroat would die and drain her for 1 more life.
Several people extended this logic into a far less subtle solution: Why cast Bone Splinters when you can threaten Steph’s life total with an attack? David Jacobs illustrates this:
Attack with Lifespring Druid and Saddleback Lagac. This leaves Steph with only a few options—if she lets 5 damage through, you can sacrifice two Scion tokens to kill her:
- Steph blocks something with Hierarch and blocks the other attacker with something big enough to kill it. This means that she takes 1 from Cutthroat (you go to 4 life; opponent goes to 6 life). But now that she doesn't have mana to activate Pridemage, after combat, sacrifice two Scions for mana (you go to 6 life; opponent goes to 4 life) and put Visions of Brutality on Loxodon Smiter. Then, cast Unnatural Aggression, making it fight something. Steph loses 4 life and dies.
- Steph doesn't block with Hierarch.
- If Steph blocks and kills both attackers, and we have the 2 life needed to cast Bone Splinters on the Pridemage. We then cast Visions and Aggression on Smiter.
- If Steph blocks Lagac and lets the Druid through, Bone Splinters after combat still gets us enough life to cast Visions and Aggression.
“If the Hierarch blocks,” Tim Reinholz observes, “it can't make mana for the Pridemage. And as long as an attack generates at least one dead creature, which it necessarily must, we can use the Visions–Aggression combo for the final damage.”
Tim’s insight is key in noting that you can actually take the Pridemage out of the way first. Lazy Zefiris takes this direction and then explains the rest in his video:
- First of all, we sacrifice both our Scions for 2 mana and 2 life, bringing Steph down to 5 life.
- Then, we cast Bone Splinters to trade Malakir Soothsayer with Qasali Pridemage. We both are down to 4 life now.
- Now, we attack with Saddleback Lagac, Zulaport Cutthroat, and Lifespring Druid—and Steph has to block at least two of them:
Winning with a Booster Draft deck against a Modern deck is a bit of a rarity, but it apparently can be done in this case. “I hope,” Regis Michelena adds, “Steph shakes off the loss to our convoluted plans and redeems herself with a victorious run at the Pro Tour.”
