Locations
“…Hello?” Judy asks.
“Can you hear me?”
Fortunately, the store has put most of its existing stock at discount price. So today, you’re doing something you don’t get to do very often: Sealed Deck with seven different expansions! Specifically, you’re playing with one booster pack each of Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, Dragons of Tarkir, Magic Origins, Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch, and Shadows Over Innistrad.
“Hello? Time’s running,” Judy says, waving one hand in front of your face.
Your mind suddenly settles back to the game at hand. “Umm . . . ”
“Where have you been?” she asks. “I’ve been waiting on your next move for a while now.”
Judy’s brought a decent W/U deck to the table against your four-color build, and you’ve split your games so far. You smashed her in Game 1 with a well-timed Radiant Flames, but she fought back in Game 2 by playing four evasive creatures on four consecutive turns. You’ve since sideboarded a couple of flyers from your meager pool, but it’s still been rough going.
“Sorry about that,” you say, trying to get your bearings. The first thing you see is the Consecrated by Blood attached to your face-down 2/2 creature—that, you think, is probably why Judy hasn’t been able to make effective attacks for most of this game.
In hindsight, maybe you shouldn’t have waited too long to cast the Radiant Flames in your hand. Now that Judy’s rocking more than a few 4-toughness creatures, its usefulness has gone down a notch. All the same, however, it appears you might have to cast it to survive.
Your draw this turn turns out to be a Fortified Village. This is a bit of a blow, considering you’re already mana-flooded. You’re wishing you had drawn something else when the realization dawns on you: You may have just found a way out of this fix.
Judy quickly notices your change of expression and has one question left: “Why are you grinning all of a sudden?”
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Judy before the start of her next combat phase.
You are at 5 life with the following cards in play:
- Servant of the Scale (with a +1/+1 counter on it)
- Dutiful Attendant
- A face-down 2/2 creature (Jeering Instigator), with your Consecrated by Blood attached
- Temur Sabertooth (with your Strider Harness attached)
- 4 Swamps
- 1 Mountain
- 5 Forests
- Rugged Highlands
- Scoured Barrens
You have the following cards in your hand:
- Fortified Village (drawn during your draw step this turn)
- Radiant Flames
You do not know the identities of any of the cards that are currently on top of your library.
Judy is at 10 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:
- Unruly Mob (with three +1/+1 counters on it)
- Ainok Bond-Kin (tapped, with two +1/+1 counters on it)
- Coralhelm Guide
- Makindi Patrol
- Lotus Path Djinn
- Cyclone Sire
- Patron of the Valiant
- 5 Plains (all tapped)
- 5 Islands (four of which are tapped)
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 — Colors of the Wind” by 11:59 P.M. on Sunday, May 15, 2016. 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, Norman Dean, David Jacobs, Merlin Schmitz, Ryou Niji, Sean Dennehy, Matthew Harvey, Subrata Sircar, Andrew McLaren, Troy Kremer, Cody Pulvermacher, Victor Munson, Bohdan Yarema, Chris Anna, Aaron Golas, Hyman Rosen, Andrew Muravskyi, Bill Murphy, Chadwick Bond, and Nick Fera.
I did have a solution in mind for this one (more on this below), but everyone continues to astound me with far more efficient moves! But the analysis should come first . . .
“With only 5 green mana available,” Subrata Sircar writes, “you can only sacrifice four creatures (as 1 green mana will go to cast the Starved Rusalka). Thus, you can only gain 4 life. This means you can’t let the Magma Phoenix’s trigger resolve—if the Soulcage Fiend isn’t already dead, the combination will kill you.”
“The board is quite a minefield,” Andrew Muravskyi adds. “There are five creatures with death triggers—from small squibs like Goblin Arsonist to giant land mines like Magma Phoenix. The Starved Rusalka’s gain-1-life effect can help us mitigate the life-loss from explosions, but it resolves after the death trigger of the creature we've eaten, so we have to be mindful of that, too.”
“You could probably wipe out most of his board with your Phoenix,” Cody Pulvermacher notes, “but if you do that, it will deal 3 damage to you and kill the Soulcage Fiend, making you lose 6 life in total. But the Soulcage Fiend can cause Fedor to lose 3 life, and if you can have threshold enabled and kill the Treacherous Werewolf, that's close enough for Goblin Arsonist to finish the job. So how to make that happen?”
Altogether, this reasoning leads to the most popular submission, which David Jacobs demonstrates:
- Cast Starved Rusalka.
- Sacrifice Goblin Arsonist to Starved Rusalka, dealing 1 damage to the opponent. Move Reins of the Vinesteed to Bloodshot Trainee. Our opponent has 4 cards in the graveyard since Cessation goes back to hand. The player goes to 7 life, and we go to 2 life.
- Sacrifice Magma Phoenix to the Rusalka. This puts Faith's Fetters into our opponent’s graveyard, giving the player 5 cards. Before the Phoenix’s death trigger resolves:
- Sacrifice Bogardan Firefiend to Seething Pathblazer, dealing 2 damage to Soulcage Fiend. Our opponent now has 6 cards in the graveyard. Before Fiend's death trigger resolves:
- Sacrifice Seething Pathblazer to the Rusalka, going to 3 life.
- Tap Bloodshot Trainee to activate its ability targeting Treacherous Werewolf. Before that resolves:
- Sacrifice Bloodshot Trainee to Rusalka, going to 4 life. This puts Pillory of the Sleepless into our opponent’s graveyard, and our opponent now has threshold.
- Trainee deals 4 to the Werewolf (which is now a 4/4 with its threshold ability). Our opponent loses 4 life and goes to 3.
- Soulcage Fiend's death trigger resolves. We go to 1 life, and our opponent goes to 0 life.
- Sacrifice Bogardan Firefiend to Seething Pathblazer, dealing 2 damage to Soulcage Fiend. Our opponent now has 6 cards in the graveyard. Before Fiend's death trigger resolves:
- Magma Phoenix’s death trigger (and its Rusalka activation) never resolves.
Notably, you can reverse the roles of the Soulcage Fiend and the Magma Phoenix in this solution—first, sacrifice Bogardan Firefiend to destroy the Soulcage Fiend; then, sacrifice Magma Phoenix to Starved Rusalka.
One interesting bit is that by destroying the Goblin Arsonist, we return Cessation to Fedor’s hand and effectively make him lose hellbent. This leads to Matthew Harvey’s alternate solution:
- Pay
to cast Starved Rusalka. - Pay and sacrifice Goblin Arsonist to activate Starved Rusalka's ability. Goblin Arsonist, Reins of the Vinesteed, and Cessation all trigger when they go to the graveyard.
- Cessation is returned to Fedor's hand.
- Return Reins of the Vinesteed to the battlefield attached to Bloodshot Trainee, making it a 4/5.
- Goblin Arsonist deals 1 damage to Agent of Masks.
- Finally, Starved Rusalka's ability resolves, and we gain 1 life, going to 2.
- Pay and sacrifice Bogardan Firefiend to activate Starved Rusalka's ability. Bogardan Firefiend's ability triggers when it goes to the graveyard and deals 2 damage to Agent of Masks, killing it and giving Fedor 5 cards in his graveyard. Starved Rusalka's ability resolves, and we gain 1 life, going to 3.
- End our turn.
- Fedor begins his turn. He is not hellbent, as he has Cessation in hand, so he has an upkeep. Gibbering Descent, Barrow Ghoul, and Gutwrencher Oni all trigger. Fedor can stack the triggers however he wants; we allow them all to resolve.
- When Gibbering Descent's ability resolves, Fedor loses 1 life, going to 7 and discarding a card.
- When Barrow Ghoul's ability resolves, Fedor either exiles the top creature card from his graveyard or sacrifices the Ghoul; either option is fine.
- When Gutwrencher Oni's ability resolves, and Fedor discards a card. Fedor now has at least five cards in his graveyard.
- During Fedor's upkeep, we pay and sacrifice Magma Phoenix to activate Starved Rusalka's ability. This triggers Magma Phoenix's ability to deal 3 damage to each creature and each player. This also puts Faith's Fetters in Fedor's graveyard, giving him at least six cards there.
- With the Phoenix's ability still on the stack, tap Bloodshot Trainee to activate its ability targeting Treacherous Werewolf.
- With Trainee's ability still on the stack, pay , and sacrifice Bloodshot Trainee to activate Starved Rusalka's ability. This puts Pillory of the Sleepless in Fedor's graveyard, and he now has threshold. Rusalka's ability resolves, and we gain 1 life, going to 4.
- Let Trainee's ability resolve, which deals 4 damage to Treacherous Werewolf. This kills it, and as Fedor has threshold, when the Werewolf dies, he loses 4 life. Fedor is now at 3 life.
- Let Phoenix's ability resolve, dealing 3 damage to each creature and each player. We go to 1, and Fedor goes to 0. (This kills Soulcage Fiend, but its ability never resolves.)
The puzzle is named after its most complex solution, however, which involves a lot more stack manipulation. Aaron Golas covers this below:
- Pay to cast Starved Rusalka.
- Pay and sacrifice Goblin Arsonist to Starved Rusalka. When Goblin Arsonist dies, have it deal 1 damage to Treacherous Werewolf and return Reins of the Vinesteed to the battlefield attached to Bloodshot Trainee (a fellow Goblin). Cessation goes to the graveyard and then to Fedor's hand. You gain 1 life, going to 2.
- Tap your now-4/5 Bloodshot Trainee to activate its ability targeting Gutwrencher Oni, but hold priority.
- Pay , and sacrifice Bloodshot Trainee to Starved Rusalka. Pillory of the Sleepless goes to Fedor's graveyard. Return Reins of the Vinesteed to the battlefield attached to Seething Pathblazer (a fellow Warrior). You gain 1 life, going to 3.
- Sacrifice Seething Pathblazer to its own ability. Return Reins of the Vinesteed to the battlefield attached to Bogardan Firefiend (a fellow Elemental).
- Pay and sacrifice Bogardan Firefiend to Starved Rusalka. When Bogardan Firefiend dies, have it deal 2 damage to Gutwrencher Oni and return Reins of the Vinesteed to the battlefield attached to Gutwrencher Oni (a fellow Spirit). You gain 1 life, going to 4.
- Finally, allow Bloodshot Trainee's ability to resolve. Gutwrencher Oni now has 6 total damage marked on it, and it dies. Return Reins of the Vinesteed to the battlefield attached to Soulcage Fiend (a fellow Demon).
- Pay and sacrifice Magma Phoenix to Starved Rusalka. Faith's Fetters goes to Fedor's graveyard; he now has threshold, so his Treacherous Werewolf is a 4/4 with 1 damage marked on it. Magma Phoenix deals 3 damage to each creature and each player. Fedor goes to 5; you go to 1. Starved Rusalka, Agent of Masks, and Treacherous Werewolf all die. When Treacherous Werewolf dies, Fedor loses 4 life, going to 1. Starved Rusalka's ability resolves, putting you to 2 life. Soulcage Fiend survives because it now has 4 toughness.
- Pass the turn. On Fedor's upkeep, Gibbering Descent forces him to discard Cessation and, more importantly, lose his last point of life.
“I'm very confused why Fedor has let the game last this long,” Matthew observes, “since we would have been dead turns ago to an attack from Soulcage Fiend.”
“As a fellow Orzhov mage,” Chadwick Bond muses, “I must commend Fedor for staying in character despite it being the suboptimal play. But knowing the real reason Fedor didn't attack is that he didn't want to do the combat math? A true Orzhov mage never shies away from math! How else are we supposed to keep track of tithes, extortion money, and other ill-gotten gains? It makes even less sense considering that, due to Fedor's own enchantments, Mari only had two creatures that could have participated in any combat, making figuring out the math quite simple! I, along with all good Orzhov mages, disown Fedor!”
