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The Bigger They Are

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One week after your Zendikar throwback Drafts, you find yourself back on the plane again. This time, your store has broken out an old box of Rise of the Eldrazi, and now you’re playing some battlecruiser Magic along with the rest of the regulars.

Domestication
The first two games of your match against Joyce were dictated by some very nasty developments. You won the first game when you somehow managed to put no fewer than four enchantments on a single Aura Gnarlid, but Joyce took the second game after revealing that she had drafted three copies of Induce Despair. You’re now deep into your decider, and both of you have been playing even more cautiously than normal.

As any casual observer can see, your board is a mess. Having played several levelers as well as the mana to ramp them up, Joyce has superior creature quality (as well as a comfortable lead in life totals). You, however, have the advantage in cards and resources—and neither of you has been able to break through the other’s defenses . . . yet.

Finally, Joyce decides to make a play, and it’s a big one: She casts Artisan of Kozilek, returning a creature from her graveyard to the battlefield. Unfortunately, the creature she brings back is the Pestilence Demon you worked so hard to kill earlier in the game. What’s worse is that you’re at a low enough life total that the mere sight of the Demon is enough to make you shift uncomfortably in your seat.

Moving into your turn, you draw the Domestication that’s been sitting on top of your library and plot your next move. This board may be one of the more complicated ones you’ve seen, but there’s one way you can un-complicate it: Win the game.

It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Joyce before the end of your turn.

You are at 4 life with the following cards in play:

Joraga Treespeaker

You have the following cards in your hand:

You have not yet played a land for this turn.

Mul Daya Channelers
You’re playing with the top card of your library revealed due to Mul Daya Channelers. As a result, both you and Joyce can see that the top card of your library is a Forest. You otherwise do not know the identities of any of the other cards in your library.

Joyce is at 13 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:

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 — The Bigger They Are”. We’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!

Last Week’s Puzzle

Correct solutions were received from Russell Jones, Aaron Golas, Carlo Picar, David Jacobs, Austin Callison, Maarten Wybaillie, Martin Bobovsky, Quadrangolo Tetra, Andrew Muravskyi, Markus Beschoner, Norman Dean, Tyler Thomas, Matt Cook, James Parmenter, Aaron Orians, Seth Keller, Erin Dixon-Gonzalez, Kris Pals, Chris Cordell, Matthew Adams, Ivo de Vero, Matthew Harvey, Lane Engelberg, Mike Wickenden, Dan Wilson, Franky Rodriguez, Iniui Yuan, Rodrigo Silva, Judiel Salandanan, Hyman and Martin Rosen, Scott Stoops, Matthew Cushman, Ahniwa Ferrari, Mattias "Slanfan" Berggren, Heiko Maurus, and Vik Patel.

Many people noted that this was a relatively easy one and that multiple solutions exist. There are some considerations to take into account, though, as well as some first impressions to overcome.

The major revelation, of course, lies in the Blazing Torch that you draw. “The trick is in realizing that we need to Blazing Torch to get past Sanger's Vampire Nighthawks and to deal 2 damage,” Lane Engelberg writes. “This means that if we just tap down Sanger's Scorpion, none of his creatures can block the equipped creature, and we have more than enough mana to finish him off!”

This was, of course, the most popular approach. Dan Wilson does a great job of boiling it all down as follows:

Additionally, Tyler Thomas writes:

This solution can cause some confusion with newer players. Isn't the Blazing Torch tapped when the Giant attacks? True, you'll often see people rotate Equipment along with creatures just because it's convenient, but, technically, the Equipment remains untapped when its creature becomes tapped. What this means for us is that we can reuse Equipment later in a turn provided we have enough mana. Note that tapping the creature doesn't tap the Equipment—it remains untapped, making it available to use once again.

Scott Stoops notes that attacking with Surrakar Banisher works just as well: “We can equip the Torch to Surrakar Banisher after tapping the Scorpion. We attack with the Banisher, dealing 3 and dropping Sanger to 3. Afterward, we can reequip the torch to our Giant and then tap and sacrifice the Torch to deal 2 damage, putting Sanger to 1. Cunning Sparkmage then finishes the opponent off.”

For style points, however, there are alternative solutions. If throwing a lit torch at the opponent isn’t your thing, Aaron Golas, Seth Keller, and Rodrigo Silva all point out that you can earn the kill with two activations of Cunning Sparkmage. Seth’s solution follows:

Precombat Main Phase

Combat Phase

Postcombat Main Phase

Finally, Russell Jones has an interesting solution that involves using Quicksand’s ability at a rather unorthodox time:

First Main Phase

Combat Phase

Second Main Phase

Of further note is that Russell’s solution works even if you activate Quicksand before the Giant deals its combat damage—Sanger still takes 3 damage from the weakened Giant, 2 damage from Blazing Torch, and 1 damage from Cunning Sparkmage.

Martin Bobovsky adds that, contrary to what the narrative says, “We are actually hoping for a land here—specifically, an Island. With the extra Island, we would just tap both Nighthawks, play Wind Zendikon on any other untapped land, and overrun the defenses!”

In the end, though, Austin Callison points out that there’s a certain virtue in simplicity: “Dead is dead; there's no need to get fancy!”


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