Locations
It would be an understatement to say that your Modern Masters 2015 Edition match has been . . . strange. You and Rajiv are both playing base-green decks, you’re both using some questionable cards, and you’ve both made similar plays and errors. Inexplicably enough, you’re also the proud owners of no fewer than five Karplusan Striders that showed up at your table.
Rajiv draws his card for the turn and reads it for a second. Then, he taps five lands and casts All Suns' Dawn, returning three cards to his hand: Karplusan Strider, Lorescale Coatl, and . . . Banefire!
That’s bad news, and you know it—Rajiv has enough mana to burn you to death next turn. That, of course, assumes that he doesn’t kill you this turn, and you ponder your next move as he looks over his cards.
After a bit of thought, Rajiv finally glances at you. “I’m moving to my beginning-of-combat step,” he says. “Do you have any responses?”
It is the beginning of the combat step on Rajiv’s turn; you may cast spells or activate abilities in response, after which Rajiv will declare his attackers (if any). Defeat Rajiv before he defeats you.
You are at 6 life with the following cards in play:
- Tukatongue Thallid
- Algae Gharial (cast on your previous turn)
- Karplusan Strider
- Conclave Phalanx
- Oblivion Ring (exiling Rajiv’s Skyreach Manta)
- Tumble Magnet (with 2 charge counters on it)
- 1 Mountain (tapped)
- 4 Forests (three of which are tapped)
- 3 Plains (all tapped)
You have the following cards in your hand:
You have not yet played a land for this turn. You do not know the identity of the card that is currently on top of your library.
You have the following cards in your graveyard:
Rajiv is at 8 life and has the following cards in play:
- Mulldrifter (with Sickleslicer attached)
- Cloud Elemental
- Karplusan Strider
- Ulamog's Crusher (with your Arrest attached)
- 1 Mountain
- 6 Forests (four of which are tapped)
- 1 Plains (tapped)
- 1 Island
Rajiv has the following cards in his hand:
Rajiv may choose to attack with any or none of his creatures, and he may choose to cast any or none of the cards in his hand.
Bonus Question
Imagine the same situation as above, with one exception: Your Oblivion Ring exiled Rajiv’s Alloy Myr instead of his Skyreach Manta. Is it still possible to defeat Rajiv before he defeats you? If yes, how would you do it?
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 Third Strider”. We’ll include the best ones in next week’s article along with the next puzzle!
Last Week’s Puzzle
“I told you!”
“All right, I could have won the game on that turn. But it wasn’t an obvious play.”
“Well, some people were able to see it,” Mari says, giving you a smug look. “We got correct solutions from Russell Jones, Aaron Golas, David Jacobs, Anthony Roy, Scott Stoops, Matthew Wilson, Norman Dean, Eric Williams, Markus Leuthner, Jonathan Kustina, Andrew Muravskyi, Matthew Harvey, Chris Gonzalez, Tom Kellett, João Filipe Cid, Hyman Rosen, Michael Roesler, Kristopher Bokvist, Stefano Romito, Simon Lazarus, Daniele Civelli, Adam Eidelsafy, Jeffrey Clinard, Evelyn Kokemoor, John Stein, Johann Hullmann, Declan Lippitt, Jamie Ganner, Will Lewis, Hao Ye, Mark Eggert, Tony Zhao, Nathan Olson, Nicholas Croonquist, Lucas Labuda, Joseph Megill, Max Brett, Lane Engelberg, and Matthias ‘Slanfan’ Berggren.”
“Did you . . . just say all that in one breath?”
“We got some really good analysis, too,” Mari adds.
Anthony writes:
Aaron then notes a critical observation:
From here, Tom gives a comprehensive idea of how the play should go:
We need to give Sickle Ripper the Mortarpod to put a -1/-1 counter on the Glassdust Hulk so Necroskitter can bring it to our side when it dies. But the only way at our disposal to finish off the Glassdust Hulk is Bone Splinters, and since the Germ token would die when Mortarpod is moved to another creature and Sickle Ripper needs to be sacrificed to tag the Glassdust Hulk, we'd be left with only the Necroskitter to sacrifice. However, we need Necroskitter alive to reanimate the Glassdust Hulk.
“You had a Stormblood Berserker and a Chimeric Mass in your hand that you could use,” Mari explains, “but those options had problems, too.”
Tony writes:
“That’s what you missed,” Mari finally says. “You didn’t need to bring a creature into play to cast the Bone Splinters—you just had to make one survive.”
Mark Eggert writes:
- Play the Mountain from your hand.
- Cast Brute Force on the Germ token (tapping one Mountain).
- Equip Mortarpod to Sickle Ripper (tapping Rakdos Carnarium).
- Sacrifice Sickle Ripper with Mortarpod's ability to deal 1 wither (-1/-1 counter) damage to Glassdust Hulk.
- Cast Bone Splinters (tapping one Swamp and sacrificing the Germ token) to kill Glassdust Hulk.
- Necroskitter's reanimation ability triggers, returning Glassdust Hulk to play under our control.
- Play Chimeric Mass for 0, triggering Glassdust Hulk's ability, making it 4/5 and unblockable until end of turn.
- Cast Goblin War Paint (tapping our remaining Swamp and Mountain) on Glassdust Hulk, making it a 6/7 unblockable creature with haste.
- Proceed to combat, and swing for lethal damage.
“That just leaves one question,” you say. “How were you able to figure all this out so quickly? Some of the e-mails are saying that you’re a genius, or a robot, or an alien, or all of them put together.”
“Meh,” Mari says. “That’s another story. I’ll explain it over some ice cream.”
“Uh-huh. Suuure.”
“You’re buying,” she says, poking you in the chest.
“Ow!”
