Locations
You glare at your opponent. "Really?" you ask. "Is that how you want to play it?"
Mutt leans back in his chair, stretching his arms back and wrapping his hands behind his head. "Hey, it's been a while since I cruised to an easy win," he says. "You should let me enjoy the moment."
You shake your head and turn your attention back to the table. "I'm at 5 life, so I don't have much of a choice," you admit. "I'll block your Oversoul of Dusk with that Pale Recluse I stole from you earlier."
"Cool," Mutt says. "No tricks from me. The Recluse dies?"
You hand him back his Pale Recluse, which he dumps into his graveyard. You do the same with the Mind Control that was attached to the Recluse.
After Battlebond cards started appearing in your local game store's Unabridged Cube, a steady stream of players have been arriving to try it out (and, well, sneak some views of the new cards). With the Cube holding one of each card ever printed, some players ended up with some very nice decks . . . and on the other end of the scale, you ended up playing 
against an Oversoul of Dusk.
"I'm surprised you didn't disable my Stealer of Secrets and send in your flyers," you say.
"Hey, that Oversoul's going to get the job done anyway. This way, I've got some defense in case you try anything funny," Mutt says.
"Suit yourself. That'll give me one more turn to find something."
Mutt smiles and taps seven lands. "You'll also need to get past an Angel of Retribution, then," he says, laying the big flyer on his side of the table.
You sigh as you untap your lands. You don't want to just roll over and play dead, but you're not sure what you can do to keep from losing this one . . . short of winning the game before Mutt can do so, of course.
You pull a Crippling Fatigue off the top of your library. If there's ever a time where you need to think, it's now.
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Mutt before the beginning of his next combat phase.
You are at 5 life, with the following cards in play:
- Artisan of Forms
- Stealer of Secrets (with your Launch attached)
- Disciple of Tevesh Szat
- Grim Strider
- Chakram Retriever
- 3 Islands
- 6 Swamps
You have the following card 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.
Mutt is at 6 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:
- Wall of Omens
- Concordia Pegasus
- Valeron Outlander (with Mutt's Gryff's Boon attached)
- Ranging Raptors
- Symbiotic Elf
- Radjan Spirit (with Mutt's Vineweft attached)
- Oversoul of Dusk (tapped)
- Angel of Retribution
- 5 Forests (four tapped)
- 3 Plains (all tapped)
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 -- Fetch, Boy" by 11:59 P.M. EST on Sunday, June 3, 2018. 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, Zakk Appleyard, Paul Simpson, Ryou Niji, Greg Dreher, Hyman Rosen, Madeline Henry, Michael Feldman, Jake Hibberd, David Arnold, and Subrata Sircar.
"On first glance," Madeline Henry writes, "it looks like we are at an impasse. Both sides are stacked with creatures, and our opponent has a number of creatures with abilities that enhance their blocking capabilities, in addition to the hexproof Sigarda taunting any thoughts of removal. And as we said, we have no way of getting rid of the angel. If only there was a way to just avoid all of this mess . . . "
"You need to deal 7 damage to Claire," Greg Dreher notes, "and there's conveniently a 7-power creature on her side of the battlefield. There are a lot of fun things to do with Noyan Dar and blink effects, but you only have one copy of Momentary Blink, so you have to make it count."
Assuming that your kill condition is Ayumi, the Last Visitor, the only thing you need is a Legendary Land to make it unblockable. Norman Dean's solution handles this part:
- Tap Sejiri Steppe and cast Momentary Blink targeting Felidar Guardian (its cost has been reduced to just
by Stormscape Familiar). This triggers Noyan Dar's ability: Put three +1/+1 counters on the Steppe, which is now a 0/0 Elemental creature with haste. - Momentary Blink resolves. Felidar Guardian leaves play, then re-enters play. Target On Serra's Wings with the Guardian's ability. When On Serra's Wings enters the battlefield, attach it to the animated Steppe. It is now a 4/4 Legendary Land Creature -- Elemental with flying, vigilance, and lifelink.
- Flashback Momentary Blink, targeting Spawnbroker. Noyan Dar triggers again: Put three more +1/+1 counters on the Steppe, which is now a 7/7.
- Spawnbroker enters the battlefield. Choose to exchange your extremely fancy 7/7 Legendary Land Creature -- Elemental for Claire's Ayumi, the Last Visitor. Seems like a fair deal, right?
- Equip the Lightning Greaves to Ayumi, to give it haste.
- Since Claire now controls a legendary land, Ayumi is unblockable! Attack with Ayumi for exactly lethal.
This solution has one variant, which involves the Sensory Deprivation. Addison Fox covers this as follows:
- Tap a Plains to cast Momentary Blink targeting Felidar Guardian. Noyan Dar triggers and we can animate the tapped Plains as a 3/3.
- Momentary Blink resolves and we flicker the Guardian. Guardian flickers On Serra's Wings (since it can target any permanent). When On Serra's Wings enters the battlefield we can attach it to our tapped animated Plains, giving it +1/+1 and a bevy of irrelevant keywords. We control two Plains, but since only one of them is Legendary, it doesn't die immediately.
- Cast Sensory Deprivation on Ayumi, the Last Visitor, making it a 4/3.
- Flash back Momentary Blink (for
, since it's still a White spell) and flicker the Spawnbroker. Noyan Dar triggers again -- this time animate Sejiri Steppe as a 3/3. - When Spawnbroker enters the battlefield, we can trade a creature we control for a creature of equal power, so give Claire our tapped Legendary 4/4 Plains and take her 4/3 Ayumi.
- Tap Lady Sun to return herself and Sejiri Steppe to our hand. Replay the Steppe and give Ayumi protection from Blue, knocking off that pesky Sensory Deprivation.
- Finally, equip Lightning Greaves and give Ayumi haste. Claire controls a legendary land, so Ayumi can get through the wall of exciting blockers just fine and we crack for the win.
Then again, you don't necessary need to steal Ayumi when you can create a perfectly serviceable 7/7 creature on your side. It turns out that there's an alternative way to get past a flying hexproof blocker, as Zakk Appleyard writes:
- Cast Momentary Blink targeting Felidar Guardian.
- Noyan Dar triggers targeting Plains. Plains becomes a 0/0 with three +1/+1 counters on it.
- Felidar Guardian targets On Serra's Wings. On Serra's Wings returns and attaches to animated Plains.
- Flashback Momentary Blink targeting Felidar Guardian.
- Noyan Dar triggers again, targeting our already animated Plains for a further +3/+3.
- Felidar Guardian triggers, targeting Sejiri Steppe.
- Sejiri Steppe gives Plains Protection from Green.
- Tap Lady Sun to return her and Rashka the Slayer to their owners' hands.
- Attack with your 7/7 haste, flying, vigilance, lifelink, protection from Green Plains, which cannot be blocked by any creatures on Claire's board.
"Hilariously," David Arnold points out, "throwing On Serra's Wings onto our land would open us up to a world of hurt from Ayumi (apparently, some kind of Green proto-Yargle), if we weren't swinging for the win."
It's funny, really, that all solutions require you to change one of your lands into a legendary something. "Maybe the moral of the story," Michael Feldman muses, "is that the most important legends are made, not born."
