Locations
Despite its weird theme, Andrew’s Wurm deck seems to be working for you. You drew both an Urza's Incubator and a Heartbeat of Spring in your opening hand, so you haven’t had any trouble with your creatures’ high mana costs.
Last turn, Andrew went all in, taking advantage of the mana on the table to cast both Baneful Omen and Seizan, Perverter of Truth. Then, after exiling his Obzedat, Ghost Council at the beginning of his end step, he revealed that the top card of his library was a Debt to the Deathless; let’s just say that you’re looking at a lot of pain when his next turn begins.
Thinking that the game is probably over, you let Seizan hit you for 2 more during your upkeep in exchange for a couple of additional cards. The Hornet Sting and the Mercy Killing were a complete surprise; you assumed that the Wurm deck didn’t have any removal at all. On top of that, your draw step gave you an Emerald Charm, which looks good against any of Andrew’s non-Aura enchantments.
Now that you have some additional tools, it’s time for you to think about your next move. Andrew is sitting contentedly behind his blockers and bleeders, so it’ll be quite a surprise if you pull out a win from your bag of tricks. But how?
It is the beginning of your first main phase. Defeat Andrew before he defeats you.
You are at 5 life with the following cards in play:
- Pelakka Wurm (with Andrew’s Pillory of the Sleepless attached)
- Novablast Wurm
- Symbiotic Wurm
- Cream of the Crop
- Urza's Incubator (naming Wurm)
- Jar of Eyeballs (with no eyeball counters on it)
- Heartbeat of Spring
- 5 Forests
- Mistveil Plains
- Sunpetal Grove
You have the following cards in your hand:
- Emerald Charm (drawn during your draw step)
- Hornet Sting (drawn via Seizan’s ability)
- Mercy Killing (drawn via Seizan’s ability)
- Pouncing Wurm
- Argothian Wurm
You have the following card in your graveyard:
You have not yet played a land for this turn. You do not know the identity of any of the remaining forty cards in your library.
You didn’t bother looking through the Wurm deck before you borrowed it and shuffled it up, but Andrew has a one-track mind when it comes to themes like this: You’re certain that every creature card in your deck is a Wurm. You just don’t know which Wurms Andrew used or whether he used them all.
Andrew is at 8 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:
- Soldier token (from Mobilization)
- Soldier token (from Mobilization)
- Peacekeeper (with Andrew’s Pentarch Ward attached, naming white)
- Seizan, Perverter of Truth
- Mobilization
- Baneful Omen
- 4 Plains (all tapped)
- 4 Swamps (three of which are tapped)
You know what the top card of Andrew’s library is because it was revealed by Baneful Omen last turn:
Andrew has one relevant card in his exile zone because he activated its ability on his previous turn:
You do not know the identity of any of the other cards in Andrew’s library.
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 — Turning the Wurm”. 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, Jeffrey Clinard, Kyle Sullivan, Bernd Schwabe, Stefano Romito, William Hoffman, Norman Dean, Aaron Golas, Matthew Wilson, Hyman Rosen, Matthew Harvey, Andrew Muravskyi, Christopher Green, John Healy, Tony Zhao, Steven Miller-Hamnett, Evelyn Kokemoor, Brian Disch, Daniel Vida, David Jacobs, and Eric Williams.
William writes:
After some looking around, we see four sources of noncombat damage: Pitiless Horde's upkeep trigger, Qarsi Sadist's exploit trigger, Ruthless Ripper's unmorph trigger, and Kheru Bloodsucker's creature-with-4-or-more-toughness trigger. The question then becomes, How do we use these?
Daniel continues:
That solves one of our problems, but Qarsi Sadist can only account for 2 life, and that manifested creature could be anything. I mean, it's not as though we have control over the top card of the . . . wait, Set Adrift? I guess we do.
But by then, we would have already attacked, so we can't use Sultai Scavenger or Merciless Executioner. Sultai Emissary will be dead, and there's nothing we can feed to Kheru Bloodsucker, so that leaves . . . oh, hello, Ruthless Ripper, how would you like to come work for us?
With that in mind, the only challenge involves finding a way to play the necessary cards. Fortunately, we have more than a few methods of paying our delve costs. Tony writes:
- Play and sacrifice Evolving Wilds to fetch an Island, bringing us to three cards in our graveyard. (Russell notes: “It doesn't matter if you find a land or not. All that matters is that Evolving Wilds is now in the graveyard.”)
- Tap a Swamp to equip Heart-Piercer Bow to Pitiless Horde.
- Tap a Swamp and an Island to cast Grave Strength targeting Qarsi Sadist. Whatever we mill is irrelevant. We now have seven cards in our graveyard. (Steven notes: “The target for Grave Strength doesn't matter as long as it is not the Sultai Emissary.”)
- Tap an Island and delve away five cards to cast Set Adrift on Ruthless Ripper. (Three cards are left in the graveyard, including Set Adrift).
- Move to combat and attack with Pitiless Horde, targeting Sultai Emissary with the Heart-Piercer Bow trigger.
- Sultai Emissary dies and manifests the top card of Skye’s library (Ruthless Ripper).
- Illusory Gains triggers, giving us control of the manifested creature and returning Pitiless Horde to Skye. Since Pitiless Horde has changed controllers, it is removed from combat.
- Flip Ruthless Ripper, revealing Despise. Skye loses 2 life.
- During our second main phase, tap two Islands and delve away three cards to cast Rite of Undoing, targeting Qarsi Sadist and Kheru Bloodsucker.
- Tap two Swamps to cast Qarsi Sadist. Exploit Ruthless Ripper and drain Skye for 2.
- Pass the turn. At the beginning of Skye’s upkeep, Pitiless Horde brings her life to 0.
Tony also points out that the sequence of plays above is important: “We have to cast Rite of Undoing after we already control Ruthless Ripper or else Skye will have a black card in hand to unmorph the Ripper and kill us.”
Interestingly enough, Bernd finds that we can still play Rite of Undoing before taking control of the Ruthless Ripper—in which case playing Despise is necessary:
- Start off by playing Evolving Wilds and sacrificing it to find any basic land (it does not matter which).
- Play Grave Strength on one of your creatures. Your graveyard should now be Douse in Gloom, Treasure Cruise, Evolving Wilds, Grave Strength, and three other cards (total of seven).
- Play Rite of Undoing, delving four cards from your graveyard, targeting Qarsi Sadist and Kheru Bloodsucker. (There are now four cards in the graveyard, including Rite.)
- Play Despise, choosing Kheru Bloodsucker to be discarded (five cards in the graveyard).
- Play Set Adrift, delving five cards and targeting Ruthless Ripper.
- Equip Heart-Piercer Bow to Pitiless Horde.
- Attack with Pitiless Horde. Trigger Heart-Piercer Bow, targeting Sultai Emissary. This manifests the top card of Skye’s library, which is Ruthless Ripper.
- Illusory Gains triggers, gaining control of the manifested Ripper and giving Pitiless Horde back to Skye.
- Unmorph Ruthless Ripper by revealing Qarsi Sadist. Trigger causes Skye to lose 2 life and go down to 4 life.
- Play Qarsi Sadist. Exploit triggers, sacrificing Ruthless Ripper. Skye loses 2 life, and I gain 2 life.
- Pass the turn. On Skye’s upkeep, Pitiless Horde triggers, causing her to lose 2 life and lose the game.
Dashing the Reckless Imp was actually an effective, if unintentional, way to deprive us of a blocker,” Aaron says. “Reckless Imp can't block, so she could have just attacked with her ground team at that point. Even if we had somehow survived combat (Douse in Gloom wouldn't have saved us if Skye had responded correctly), she could have always forced the Pitiless Horde upon us in her second main phase.
“Skye tried to be cute by sticking us with Pitiless Horde instead of dashing it,” Jeffrey adds. “Her board state implies that she had the mana to do so. Instead, she gave us the resources we needed that allowed us to swindle her out of the game. Brace yourself for more language that isn't fit for a family website.”
