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In hindsight, playing your Shapeshifter deck today may not have been a good idea. But then again, you weren’t expecting your opponent Tally to bust out a full set of Urza lands in the midgame. Still, things could be worse—for example, she could have been playing Affinity instead of some strange Esper-artifact concoction.
Before damage, you figured you would take a gamble by activating your Riptide Shapeshifter to reveal the next creature in your deck. After doing just that, you found yourself looking at a mighty and omnipotent . . . Mothdust Changeling. (Now that you think about it, your deck needs a few more adjustments.) At least your Lazav, Dimir Mastermind was able to copy to the Gargoyle when the white flyer died from deathtouch damage.
Tally then surprised you by playing a second Sanctum Gargoyle to bring back its deceased counterpart. Then, when she cast the returned Gargoyle, she chose to bring back a Goblin Boom Keg to her hand, which she immediately played. She didn’t have enough mana left to reequip her Sword of Kaldra—choosing instead to attach her Shield of the Righteous to one of the Gargoyles—but, ultimately, that doesn’t matter since the Boom Keg will already kill you on her next upkeep.
Fortunately, your draw gives you some removal: a Nameless Inversion. You don’t have much of an army to speak of, but the Inversion does offer you a fighting chance.
That said, on further reflection . . . your trusty Inversion may just give you the win this turn.
It is the start of your first main phase. Defeat Tally before the start of her next turn.
You are at 3 life with the following cards in play:
- Mothdust Changeling
- Lazav, Dimir Mastermind (currently copying Sanctum Gargoyle)
- Cairn Wanderer
- Sol Ring
- Urza's Incubator (naming Shapeshifter)
- 6 Islands
- 3 Swamps
- Temple of Deceit
- Reflecting Pool
You have the following cards in your hand:
- Nameless Inversion (draw during your draw step)
- Gigantoplasm
You have the following artifact and creature cards in your graveyard:
You have not yet played a land this turn. You do not know the identity of any of the cards that are currently on top of your library.
Tally is at 8 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:
- Sydri, Galvanic Genius
- Sanctum Gargoyle
- Sanctum Gargoyle (with Shield of the Righteous attached)
- Solemn Simulacrum (tapped)
- Salvage Titan (tapped)
- Goblin Boom Keg
- Sword of Kaldra
- Spine of Ish Sah
- Plains (tapped)
- 2 Islands (both tapped)
- Swamp (tapped)
- 2 Arcane Sanctum (one tapped)
- Urza's Tower (tapped)
- 2 Urza's Power Plant (both tapped)
- Urza's Mine (tapped)
Tally has no creature cards in her graveyard, mostly because your Dimir Doppelganger has been busy for most of the game.
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 — Mirror Images”. 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, Jonathan Kustina, Aaron Golas, Andrew Muravskyi, Sanjay Saith, and Chadwick Bond.
Assuming that you coordinate matters with Mari (and you’ll need to; it doesn’t make sense to leave the Multiverse in the hands of someone named Ulazgor the Cruel), you can take down all three schemes. Andrew Muravskyi’s solution goes as follows:
Our Main Phase
- Mari detonates Lifespark Spellbomb and makes Ulazgor's Swiftwater Cliffs into a 3/3 creature. (We must choose exactly Swiftwater Cliffs for this solution to work.)
- We cast Banisher Priest and banish the animated Swiftwater Cliffs. Our Simic Manipulator evolves into a 2/3.
- Mari casts Grim Affliction, giving Inferno Titan a -1/-1 counter and then proliferating the counters on Inferno Titan, Vitaspore Thallid, and Simic Manipulator (but not Bloodflow Connoisseur).
- Mari sacrifices Rotting Rats and Battering Wurm to Bloodflow Connoisseur. In response, we activate Simic Manipulator and remove two +1/+1 counters from it to steal Bloodflow Connoisseur before her power grows.
- Once we control Connoisseur, we sacrifice Banisher Priest to her. The exiled land comes back (tapped) under Ulazgor's control. Zo-Zu the Punisher is angry and punishes Ulazgor, dealing 2 damage to him. (Nothing Can Stop Me Now can't prevent it, and it will be abandoned after 3 more damage.)
- We play an Island. Zo-Zu punishes us, too, for 2 damage. After the damage is dealt, we activate Spear of Heliod and destroy Zo-Zu. This forces Ulazgor to abandon The Very Soil Shall Shake. I Know All, I See All sees a card hitting Ulazgor's graveyard and knows it'll be abandoned after two more cards.
- Mari casts Reanimate to bring back Battering Wurm with bloodthirst active.
- Mari activates Vitaspore Thallid's ability to create a Saproling token and then sacrifices the token to give Battering Wurm haste.
Combat
- Mari attacks with Battering Wurm. Ulazgor's creatures all have power 4 or less (Inferno Titan has two -1/-1 counters) and can't block it. He can't activate Aetherling's or Inferno Titan's pump abilities, either, because we chose an enters-the-battlefield-tapped land to blink. Ulazgor is dealt 4 damage, and that's enough to abandon Nothing Can Stop Me Now.
Our Second Main
- We sacrifice Seht's Tiger to Bloodflow Connoisseur. Ulazgor takes the Tiger under his control and can give himself protection from any color. Fool's Demise hits the graveyard (making two cards for I Know All, I See All) and then returns to Ulazgor's hand.
- Mari unearths Rotting Rats. Ulazgor must discard a card (even though it's the same Fool's Demise, it is counted twice), and I Know All, I See All is doomed. Even if Seht's Tiger gives him protection from black, it won't save him because Rotting Rats’s ability does not target.
End Step
- Ulazgor the Cruel abandons Nothing Can Stop Me Now and I Know All, I See All. He also loses his cool moniker and goes back to being Willy—because, you know, the cruelest being in the Multiverse is our partner, the one and only Mari.
There is no shortage of solutions for this puzzle, mostly because there are more than a few ways to put Ulazgor’s cards into his graveyard. In fact, as Aaron Golas notes, “Ulazgor already cast Fireblast this turn, so you're already one third of the way toward making him abandon I Know All, I See All.”
Moreover, Aaron points out that you can achieve similar results with an all-out attack:
- Play your Island. Zo-Zu the Punisher deals 2 damage to you, putting you to 12. You can now activate Spear of Heliod to destroy Zo-Zu. (Ulazgor may respond by tapping Krenko, Mob Boss to make two Goblin tokens.) Ulazgor must now abandon The Very Soil Shall Shake. That's two thirds of the way toward abandoning I Know All, I See All.
- Cast Banisher Priest. When it enters the battlefield, evolve Simic Manipulator and exile Inferno Titan.
- Mari casts Reanimate targeting Zo-Zu.
- Mari casts Grim Affliction targeting Aetherling, proliferating everything.
- Mari uses Lifespark Spellbomb to animate your last untapped Island.
- You and Mari attack with Kor Skyfisher (3/4), Island (4/4), Seht's Tiger (4/4), Bloodflow Connoisseur (3/3), and Battering Wurm (4/3).
- If Ulazgor made Goblin tokens earlier, steal one with Simic Manipulator.
- Battering Wurm can't be blocked, and Ulazgor only has three blockers to your four other attackers, so at least one more creature is going to make it through for minimum 5 damage total. Ulazgor will have to abandon Nothing Can Stop Me Now at end of turn.
- If Ulazgor blocks anything with Dungeon Geists or Aetherling, that blocker will die and become the third card necessary to abandon I Know All, I See All. But he's at a high enough life total that he might just decide to take the hit. In that case, Mari can always sacrifice Zo-Zu to Bloodflow Connoisseur and get rid of the scheme that way.
As multiple people noted, however, the game isn’t over yet. But taking down three of Ulazgor’s schemes in one turn should count as a moral victory of sorts—that is, until he reveals the next scheme from the top of his deck . . .
