Locations
You tear open the Khans of Tarkir booster pack underneath your Stocking Tiger, leafing through the cards one by one. Across the table from you, your opponent Emilia watches the act with an amused expression on her face.
It’s just as well though—you’re at a low life total due to Emilia’s attack last turn. You haven’t been able to block her Air Elemental, and it’s been too risky for you to kill her Coalhauler Swine. Your draw this turn (into an empty hand, naturally) was a Mox Pearl; if there was any situation in which you needed options, this was it.
Fortunately, Emilia chose not to block your Stocking Tiger when you attacked with it, and you were able to tear into a new booster pack. You’re not sure if it was a lapse on her part or if she just wanted to see what your new cards were. Whatever the case, you’re not exactly complaining at the windfall.
Holding fifteen cards in your hand is more difficult than it looks, but at least you have options now. The only thing left to do is to use them . . .
It is the start of your post-combat main phase; you have already completed your combat phase this turn. Defeat Emilia before the start of her next turn.
You are at 3 life with the following cards in play:
- Ghost Warden
- Sacellum Godspeaker
- Devout Witness
- Spike Feeder (with two +1/+1 counters on it)
- Stocking Tiger (tapped)
- Mox Pearl
- Oblivion Ring (exiling Emilia’s Thunder Dragon)
- 5 Forests
- 4 Plains
You have just opened the Khans of Tarkir booster pack underneath your Stocking Tiger and now have the following cards in your hand as a result:
- Jeskai Windscout
- Rush of Battle
- Bring Low
- Highland Game
- Dismal Backwater
- Krumar Bond-Kin
- Barrage of Boulders
- Sultai Banner
- Savage Punch
- Snowhorn Rider
- Sultai Flayer
- Abzan Falconer
- Dragon Grip
- Thousand Winds
- Mountain
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.
Emilia is at 9 life and has no cards in her hand. She has the following cards in play:
- Goblin Arsonist
- Rockslide Elemental
- Telepathic Spies
- Air Elemental (tapped)
- Coalhauler Swine (tapped)
- 3 Islands
- 6 Mountains (one tapped)
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 — Stocking Stuffer”. 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 Aaron Golas, Russell Jones, Bohdan Yarema, Sanjay Saith, Norman Dean, Andrew Muravskyi, Adam Hinton, Chris Cordell, Marc Desnoyers, Evelyn Kokemoor, Bryan Hare, Kit Julian, Phil Peña, Richard Markwitz, Jonathan Kustina, Chadwick Bond, and Sebastian de Villa.
“We win next turn, between the burn spell in our hand and the Orcish Bloodpainter's ability,” Richard Markwitz writes. “Thus, our board can be thrown away if it means we live through this combat step.”
Chris Cordell writes:
The Zombie Musher's the hardest one to deal with since he has toughness 5 now and can't be blocked while we control snow lands. Fortunately, our Phyrexian War Beasts can trigger a land sacrifice when they leave the field, letting us sac our snow lands. To sac them before blocks, though, we'll need to activate our Orcish Bloodpainter twice.
That means we'll have to cast a red spell so we can use Hematite Talisman's ability to untap Bloodpainter. Vertigo fits the bill nicely since we can target the Phobian Phantasm with it and remove its flying ability. Plus, if we use Bloodpainter to ping Phantasm for 1, it dies.
The problem is that these moves effectively reduce the number of blockers you have available; Darien, King of Kjeldor and Blinking Spirit can’t block four creatures by themselves. “Fortunately,” Bohdan Yarema adds, “each Phyrexian War Beast death will deal 1 damage to us, resulting in two 1/1 Soldiers from Darien, King of Kjeldor.”
“Even after sacrificing our Phyrexian War Beasts, though,” Bohdan continues, “we still lack blockers on all our opponent’s creatures. So we need to find another blocker, which can be produced only by Darien, King of Kjeldor (after we are dealt another point of damage). And that is when the line of play becomes clear.”
Bryan Hare’s solution goes as follows:
- Float
. - Tap Orcish Bloodpainter, sacrificing Phyrexian War Beast, targeting yourself for 1 damage. Take 1 damage from the War Beast's triggered ability, and sacrifice the Snow-Covered Forest. Darien triggers twice, and you make two 1/1 Soldier tokens. (You are now at 2 life.)
- Use to cast Vertigo on Phobian Phantasm, and pay to use Hematite Talisman's triggered ability to untap Orcish Bloodpainter.
- Tap Orcish Bloodpainter, sacrificing the other Phyrexian War Beast, targeting the Phobian Phantasm. Take 1 damage from the War Beast's triggered ability and sacrifice the Snow-Covered Mountain. Darien triggers, and you make a third 1/1 Soldier token. Phobian Phantasm now has 3 damage marked on it and dies. (You are now at 1 life.)
- Use to activate Armor of Faith and give Blinking Spirit +0/+1.
- Move to blocks:
- Block Zombie Musher with a 1/1 Soldier (we have no snow-covered lands anymore, so it can't sled over us).
- Block the Deadly Insect with a 1/1 Soldier (cue the Wilhelm scream).
- Block the Gorilla Berserkers with Darien (3/3), Blinking Spirit (3/4), and the remaining 1/1 Soldier. The Gorilla becomes an 8/9 creature because of its rampage ability, but it can’t deal trample damage beyond your blockers.
- You survive combat at 1 life.
At this point, you only have six lands left, which means that—barring a land card on your next draw—you’ll only have enough mana to Lava Burst Gunnar for 5 damage. But you’ll still also have your Orcish Bloodpainter, which can sacrifice itself for 1 damage to seal the deal!
In his solution, Andrew Muravskyi also observes that the Phyrexian War Beasts are a bit of an anomaly in terms of card design. “The modern template,” Andrew writes, “would have said, “You lose 1 life,” instead. But this is genuine damage.” Lucky for us then.
Further, Norman Dean adds that Gunnar should kick himself for not attacking with one more creature. With us finishing the game at a mere 1 life, the missed opportunity probably really stings.
