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Seize the Initiative

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Trial of Zeal
Having missed the Amonkhet prerelease due to real-life matters, you find yourself at a slight disadvantage in today’s release party: While everyone else seems to have had some vague experience with the new cards from last week, you’ve had to get by on internet reviews and second-hand accounts.

That’s not to say that you’ve been doing badly, of course. You’re currently stuck in the third game of your second match, and even though your opponent’s deck has the bigger bombs, Khaled hasn’t quite been able to finish you off.

“I’ll tap three to cast Gift of Paradise on my untapped forest,” you say, “so that brings me up to thirteen life. I’ll then tap that forest for two Red mana.”

Khaled nods, and that’s a good sign. He only seems to talk whenever he’s on the verge of making a significant play.

“I’ll tap four more mana to make that a total of six, and then I’ll use that to cast my Desert Cerodon,” you say, placing the card on the table.

Khaled nods. “All right,” he says.

“Your turn.”

Khaled nods once again, then untaps his lands and draws a card. He glances at your side of the table, and it’s enough to tell you that he’s about to pull something off.

Unwavering Initiate
“I’ll tap five mana and embalm my Unwavering Initiate,” he says, reaching for a token.

“Okay, it’s a 3/2 zombie. And the Anointer gives you one life, so you’re at 8 now.”

“I’ll tap a mountain and then cast Cartouche of Zeal on the token. I’ll make it so that your Initiate's Companion can’t block this turn.”

“Not the Cerodon?” you ask, confused.

“No. The Cartouche bounces my Trial of Zeal, and I’ll recast it to kill your Khenra Charioteer.”

“Ooooo . . . kay,” you say.

“Your Trueheart Twins are still tapped, right?”

You glance at the Twins, which are still recovering from their exertion a couple of turns ago. “Yeah,” you say.

“Then I’ll attack with my Angel of Sanction and my Unwavering Initiate token. The token’s a 4/3 with haste.”

You glance at the creatures you have left to block, wondering what your opponent is planning. You only have two mana open at this time, which prevents you from playing your Spidery Grasp . . .  but at least you have a Shed Weakness to cover your bases.

“I’ll block your Unwavering Initiate token with my Desert Cerodon,” you say, “and then I’ll cast Shed Weakness to make the Cerodon an 8/6.”

“Good,” Khaled says. “I’ll cast Time to Reflect on your Cerodon, then.”

You mentally slap yourself. You really should have seen that coming.

“And you’ll take three damage from the Angel?” Khaled asks.

“Yeah,” you sigh, pushing the Cerodon aside. “I’m down to ten life again.”

“I’m tapped out, so I’ll end my turn.”

You untap, belatedly realizing that Khaled’s play effectively puts you down to only three creatures against his seven. An alpha strike is looking more and more likely from his side at this point.

Surprisingly, however, your deck comes up with a great draw for you: the split card Cut // Ribbons! Scanning the table, you look for a way to bounce back from your current position. Khaled, after all, may have taken the initiative with his last play . . .  but it’s time for you to steal it back.

It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Khaled before the beginning of his next combat phase.

You are at 10 life, with the following cards in play:

You have the following cards in your hand:

You have not yet played a land this turn. You do not know the identities or order of any of the remaining cards in your library.

Khaled is at 8 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:

If you think you’ve got a great solution in mind, don’t put it in the comments! Instead, send it to puzzles@gatheringmagic.com with the subject line “Puzzle — Seize the Initiative” by 11:59 P.M. EST on Sunday, May 7, 2017. 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 Norman Dean, Russell Jones, Addison Fox, Allen Smith, Paul Seitz, Subrata Sircar, Hyman Rosen, Aaron Golas, Ryou Niji, Bill Murphy, Bill Cheng, and Eli and Will Clendenning.

There are two major routes to this puzzle’s solution, and the first one involves performing most steps before combat. “With no evasion in sight,” Ryou Niji writes, “the easiest way to go is to kill all blockers. Still, our shortage of Red mana as well as lack of creature cards with a power higher than two means that damage-based removal will not achieve this task alone. But that is where Nekrataal comes to the rescue.”

Hyman Rosen’s approach on this route is as follows:

  1. Tap all lands for fourteen b and four r.
  2. For r, cast Shower of Sparks targeting Nekrataal and Summer. Summer takes 1 damage and goes to 9 life.Nekrataal takes 1 damage and dies.
  3. For 1r, activate Siege-Gang Commander sacrificing Goblin Firebug targeting Yotian Soldier.
  4. For 2b, cast Corpse Lunge exiling Goblin Firebug from your graveyard and targeting Archangel. Archangel takes 2 damage.
  5. For 1r, activate Siege-Gang Commander sacrificing itself targeting Yotian Soldier. Yotian Soldier takes 2 damage and dies.
  6. Toshiro Umezawa triggers targeting the Shower of Sparks in your graveyard.
  7. For 1b, cast Grim Discovery targeting the Nekrataal and Swamp in your graveyard. Nekrataal and Swamp return to our hand.
  8. Play Swamp and tap it for bb.
  9. For b, cast Vampire's Bite targeting Toshiro Umezawa. Toshiro Umezawa becomes 5/2.
  10. For 2bb, cast Nekrataal. Nekrataal enters the battlefield and triggers targeting Abbey Gargoyles. Abbey Gargoyles dies.
  11. Toshiro Umezawa triggers targeting the Corpse Lunge in your graveyard.
  12. Attack with Toshiro Umezawa for 8 lethal damage.

The other approach involves jumping directly into combat and seeing how your opponent responds first. “If we turn everybody sideways and attack,” Subrata Sircar notes, “Summer has only three blockers for our four creatures. Someone will get through for 5 damage (bringing Summer to five) because we can use Vampire's Bite on the unblocked 2-power attacker. Summer has two blockers that can kill attackers (Archangel and Abbey Gargoyles), so what we do next depends on which attackers are expected to die.”

“After we go to combat and swing out,” Addison Fox writes, “our opponent can block three things. They have sensible blocks (pro-Red Gargoyles on a Red creature, etc.) but it doesn't really matter who goes where:

Case 1: Suppose Goblin Firebug goes unblocked.

  1. This means Siege-Gang Commander is blocked. Before damage, pay 1r and sacrifice the Commander to itself, to nug Summer for 2.
  2. Pay b to cast Vampire's Bite on the Firebug, making it a 5/2.
  3. Pay r to cast Shower of Sparks on the Archangel, dropping Summer to 7 and marking one damage.
  4. Pay 2b to cast Corpse Lunge exiling Commander to mark 2 more damage on whatever is blocking Nekrataal.
  5. Allow First Strike damage to happen.
  6. Allow normal combat damage to happen. Summer takes lethal damage.

Case 2: Suppose Toshiro Umezawa goes unblocked.

  1. We can make a very similar play as Case 1: Sacrifice Firebug and Commander (since they were both blocked) to drop Summer to 6, sacrificing a tapped mountain to Firebug. After First Strike, cast Vampire's Bite on Toshiro Umezawa, making him a 5/2. Resolve damage and drop Summer to 1 life, then cast a lethal Shower of Sparks.

Case 3: Suppose Siege-Gang Commander goes unblocked.

  1. This case is nearly identical to Case 1: We sacrifice Firebug instead of Commander to drop Summer to 8, but since the Firebug also has 2 power for Corpse Lunge the rest of the interaction with Toshiro Umezawa to make the Commander an 8/2 is unchanged.

Case 4: Suppose Nekrataal goes unblocked.

  1. This is more like Case 2: Give Nekrataal +3/+0 with Vampire's Bite and throw both goblins at our opponents’ face. Summer drops to 1 after first strike damage, and takes a lethal 1 damage from our follow-up Shower of Sparks targeting any creature.

A combination solution also exists that involves killing and recasting Nekrataal first, then immediately moving to attack. Russell Jones notes:

  1. Tap a Mountain and play Shower of Sparks. Deal 1 damage to your own Nekrataal, killing it, and 1 to Summer’s dome (to 9 life). You have r floating in your pool.
  2. Tap a Swamp to play Grim Discovery. Get back Nekrataal, since there are no land cards in the graveyard to use that mode.
  3. Tap two more Swamps to replay Nekrataal, which triggers and
  4. destroys Abbey Gargoyles.
  5. Now Toshiro Umezawa triggers, targeting Shower of Sparks. Use the floating r to play that from your graveyard, dealing 1 damage to Nekrataal again and killing it again (it’s summoning sick, and better off dead anyway). You also deal 1 more damage to Summer’s dome (to 8 life).

From here, your steps are similar to Addison’s solution above, with the major difference being that you have three attackers against your opponent’s two blockers. “Hopefully it's not secretly a multiplayer game where you have another opponent with a Willian Murai theme deck that's been hiding a Triskaidekaphobia all this time,” Russell remarks.

“Even though he's only retiring,” Bill Murphy adds, “it feels like Chris Moeller leaving Magic is losing a part of why I loved this game. The mental illness cycle from Torment is a particular favourite of mine. It's sad, but I'm sure that I feel like this means his legacy's pretty solidly intact.”


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