As a slight addendum to plopfill's marvelous work, it is important to note that Gathan Raiders needs to be turned face down with weaver of lies so that the card draw from Riptide Survivor doesn't cause you to lose from decking. With that, the puzzle is solved (at least one way).
You and your opponent each start the game with 5 non-creature enchantments in play. You get to choose yours after they've chosen then. We will follow the ABT rules, with the alternate land rule (you can chose to replace your first draw in your draw step with drawing a basic land), 1 card starts in the library. We'll also assume the opponent is playing a non-interactive 100000000 turn win combo.
Specifically this card: Win. Suspend 100000000 - 0 Each opponent gets an emblem with "At the beginning of each end step, sacrifice all permanents you control, discard your hand, exile your graveyard, and lose the game." While ~ is suspended, it can't be the target of spells or abilities. Split Second. ~ can't be countered.
Their hand is : Win
The 5 enchantments your opponent chose to bring are: Rule of Law / Land Equilibrium / Possibility Storm / Greater Auramancy / Greater Auramancy
What enchantments and library of 1 do you bring?
MD5 of a solution, with alphabetical names and in the form of: Enchant / Enchant / Enchant / Enchant / Enchant // Card
5c0be6a13c931d26da95a42e88c1a07e
Yeah, I wanted to build an enchantment lock, which is totally doable, but without throwing in a ton of enchantments. We could add Leyline of the Void, Leyline of Sanctity, Sphere of Safety, etc. Assemble the Legion is also pretty fast at winning.
My intended method of breaking out was Eldramri's Vineyard and Pernicious Deed to remove the Auramancies.
Even if you give the opponent all the Leylines in the enchantment puzzle, a goofy solution that doesn't care about any kind of tripwires (but breaks them up anyway for good measure) is Barren Glory + Indestructibility (enchanting Barren Glory) + Paradox Haze (enchanting yourself) + Serenity + dummy card. Turn 1, upkeep 2 win.
If you don't want to use Auras, you can slow it down to turn 2 with Barren Glory + Gaea's Touch + Words of Worship + Aura of Silence + Midsummer Revel (just for the sake of being able to sacrifice it; you don't actually want to get any verse counters or 3/3 Beast tokens), or Barren Glory + Aura of Silence + Pursuit of Knowledge and then you can use just about any two enchantments that can sacrifice themselves without creating permanents, or another Aura of Silence/Seal of Cleansing/Seal of Primordium and then pretty much anything else which you destroy. Lots of leeway here.
You have a deck made from your LGS’s bargain box. Bosko has a deck with some rather expensive cards. You'd think that you wouldn't stand a chance against him, but you've managed to hold up well so far.
Last turn, however, Bosko made his move: He cast Eureka, then used it to empty his hand of the three Eldrazi titans that are now glaring at you from across the table. That’s Ulamog, Kozilek, and Emrakul, in case you need the reminder. If you don't take them down now, they'll grind you into paste on Bosko's attack next turn.
It is the start of your first main phase. Remove all three legendary Eldrazi creatures from the battlefield this turn.
Bosko is at 15 life, and has no cards in his hand. He has these cards in play:
seems pretty straightforward actually.
tap BBR to cast funeral march, enchanting kozilek
tap vithian stinger to deal 1 damage to emrakul
cast orzhov euthanist for BBR, takes emrakul down
cast tremor for R. eldrazi spawn and festering goblin die. festering goblin trigger finishes off the euthanist. haunts death's head buzzard
unearth vithian stinger with the remaining BR
tap it to kill the buzzard. trigger finishes off the fauna shaman, than euthanists haunt trigger finishes kozilek, forcing the sacrifice of the ulamog
Yup, I was trying to figure out if the solution to that one was easy enough to find.
Just one more for now before I go back to my archives. I have a solution in mind for this, but I'd be interested to see if there are any alternatives:
A few turns ago, your opponent, Paolo, played a number of Sinkholes to reduce your land count, then used Relic of Progenitus to make sure you wouldn't be getting them back. Now you're at 4 life and he has the dominant presence on the table; when his next turn comes around, Paolo's not going to have any qualms about sending everything he has in your direction.
You don't have a lot of cards on the table, so you shouldn't be any way to win this game... or is there?
It is the start of your first main phase. Win this game before your opponent does.
Paolo is at 6 life, has no cards in his hand, and has no untapped lands. He has these cards in play:
Tap swamp for Dredge. Sacrifice Puppeteer Clique and draw Exhume. Persist triggers; Clique comes back as a 2/1 and lets you reanimate Paolo's Soul of Innistrad.
Tap island to activate Shadow Guildmage. Put Soul of Innistrad on top of its owner's library (in this case, Paolo's).
Tap the other Swamp and discard Exhume to Plague Witch. Target any of your creatures; they're all 1 toughness so whichever one you chose will die.
Play Set Adrift, tapping Izzet Guildgate for U and delving Ponder, Ultimate Price, Dredge, Exhume, and the creature card. Target either Shadow Guildmage or Plague Witch, whichever one is still alive, and put it on top of your library.
Pass turn. Duskmantle Seer triggers in Paolo's upkeep, revealing Soul of Innistrad for him (going to 0) and whichever creature you put back (going to 2 or 3). Win.
Dredge, sacrificing Puppeteer Clique and reanimating Soul of Innistrad.
Use Shadow Guildmage to put Soul on top of owner's library.
Plague Witch discards Exhume to kill herself.
Set Adrift is played with Delve 5 (so U) to put Guildmage on top of my library.
So, I came up with a variation of the previous Conjurer's Ban puzzle. Here's the set up:
Your opponent went infinite, capsized your board, time twistered, tormod's crypted your graveyard, played elish norn, pacifism on elish norn, cast Sphere of Safety, cast Uba Mask, cast Nevermore naming Dark Ritual, cast Liquimetal Coating, made Nevermore an artifact, cast Karn, Silver Golem, made nevermore a creature, cast Soulfire Grand Master, cast Mirror Gallery, cast Mangara of Corondor, cast rite of replication kicked targeting Mangara and bought back with Soulfire Grand Master. Then they copy Nevermore for every non-land card in the game, ending with rite of replication. Then they use Mangara to exile liquimetal coating, Karn and Soulfire Grand Master. They then pass turn, and dare you to kill them. For simplicity, assume they have 15,000 Nevermores. How quickly can you kill them? They're at 20 life, 0 poison counters, 49 cards in their deck, 7 cards in hand. You have 7 cards in hand, you can stack your deck, and have up to 4 copies of non-basic cards.
Simple version: There's an Uba Mask, a Sphere of Safety, a Pacified Elesh Norn, and a Nevermore naming every non-land card on your opponent's side, you have no cards in play, and you can stack your deck. How fast can you win?
Proof that you can win: If your deck is 30,000 Forests, your hand contains 6 forests and a Treetop Village, you can play the Treetop Village, play all the forests, then activate treetop each turn, pay for the sphere, and swing 20 turns in a row. 30,024 turns.
Turn 1 draw step: Attempt to draw what would be the 8th card in your hand, but Uba Mask exiles it instead. That card is Crypt of Agadeem.
Turn 1 main phase: Play Crypt of Agadeem, tapped.
Turn 2 draw step: Exile Bazaar of Baghdad to Uba Mask.
Turn 2 main phase: Play Bazaar of Baghdad. Tap it, exiling 2 irrelevant cards from the library instead of drawing, then discarding Golgari Grave-Troll, Chimney Imp, and Riftstone Portal. 4 cards remain in hand.
Turn 3 draw step: Uba Mask and Golgari Grave-Troll both want to replace the draw. Choose to dredge, returning Troll to hand and milling Kederekt Leviathan, Devoted Druid, Morselhoarder, Scholar of Athreos, Necrotic Ooze, and another Golgari Grave-Troll. 5 cards in hand, one of which is Troll.
Cycle Street Wraith for 2 life. Again two things want to replace the draw, and again you choose to dredge. Return the second Grave-Troll going back to 5 cards in hand, and mill 3 more Chimney Imp and 3x Phage the Untouchable.
Turn 3 main phase: Exile Elvish Spirit Guide from hand for G, tap Bazaar for another G (using the mana ability given by Riftstone Portal), and use that GG to activate Crypt of Agadeem. Thirteen creature cards are in the graveyard (9 black--the entire second dredge, from the first Chimney Imp from Bazaar, Ooze from the first dredge, and Street Wraith from cycling), so add 9 black mana to your mana pool. 4 cards left in hand (2 unaccounted for).
Play basic Island from hand (3 cards left), tap for U, and unearth Kederekt Leviathan with BBB left over. Bounce the opponent's entire board. Nevermore no longer presents any casting restrictions.
Play Footsteps of the Goryo on Necrotic Ooze, and the win is easy.
It seems like turn 2 should be feasible, but there's a bunch of stuff that needs doing in the mean time.
With a Mycosynth Golem on the battlefield, you were expecting a few big plays from your opponent. Last turn, Kelly made that move: She cast both a Darksteel Colossus and a Platinum Emperion in the same main phase. You saw those big artifacts coming, so they weren’t much of a surprise, but her third play made your jaw drop.
So now you’ve got some really huge creatures on your opponent’s side of the board, with only one tiny creature on your side to play defense, and you've got no lands to help fuel a comeback. Fortunately, Staff of Nin gave you two draws at the start of your turn, and one of them turned out to be a Swamp. It’s not optimal, but it’s better than nothing.
Still, you’re not about to give up yet. You think there might be a subtle chink in your opponent's armor, so to speak.
It is the beginning of your first main phase. Win the game this turn.
Kelly is at 8 life, has no cards in her hand, and has 36 cards remaining in her library. She has the following cards in play:
Here's a somewhat unsatisfactory solution: it can win, but can't possibly do so "this turn", and unspecified circumstances may leave it incapable of winning at all.
Tap Salvaging Station to reanimate Seat of the Synod.
Tap Serrated Biskelion to give itself a -1/-1 counter (now 1/1) and remove a +1/+1 counter from Workhorse (making it 1/1 as well).
Tap Staff of Nin to deal 1 damage to Workhorse, killing it. Kelly can respond by floating a colorless mana to make the activation fizzle, but either way, Workhorse is dead. Salvaging Station triggers, and untaps.
Play the Swamp, then play Reanimate targeting Kelly's newly dead Workhorse. Lose 6 life and go to 2.
Tap Salvaging Station to reanimate Altar of the Brood.
Tap Seat of the Synod for blue, and remove three counters from Workhorse to pay for March of the Machines. Altar of the Brood triggers, milling a card. Also, March of the Machines animates all artifacts, and in particular your Seat of the Synod and Kelly's Darksteel Citadel animate into 0/0 creatures, sending them to the graveyard and causing Salvaging Station to trigger twice. Again, Kelly can float another mana off Darksteel Citadel in response, but has nothing to spend it on so this is harmless.
After Salvaging Station untaps once, tap it again to reanimate Seat of the Synod. It's still a 0/0 creature, and will die immediately, triggering both Altar of the Brood (milling another card) and Salvaging Station (untapping again and forming a loop).
With the one spare activation that piled up, you can use Salvaging Station to reanimate Vial of Poison (which won't do anything) or Springleaf Drum (which could have produced 1 mana earlier in conjunction with Workhorse, leaving one more counter on it at the cost of tapping both artifacts...but only by moving it up to the slot now occupied by Altar of the Brood; if you reanimate it now, it has summoning sickness and is completely unusable).
You can repeat this process to mill any number of cards. If Kelly still has another Darksteel Colossus or other similar card in the library, then Altar of the Brood cannot possibly get rid of it, nor can any other card in the scenario. Furthermore, in the event that she has a card to draw, it is impossible to survive the upcoming attack: at best, your board will consist of an untapped 6/6, a tapped 6/6, a tapped 1/1, and two untapped 1/1s against 2/2, tapped 3/3, 4/5, 6/6, 8/8, and 11/11 trample. On that alpha strike, the best defense will still lose 11 life, which you can't afford to take even from the original 8 life, let alone from 2.
But otherwise, if the milling goes without incident and there are 0 cards left, it's a simple matter to pass turn and win during the next draw step.
That's more or less the solution I was thinking of; it looks like the puzzle needs a disclaimer to state that Kelly doesn't have any other surprises waiting in her library. I suppose I should have rephrased "Win this turn" as well.
EDIT - As of Magic Origins, this puzzle now has no legal solutions.
Here's a new puzzle.
Your casual sparring partner, Chris the Combo Circusmaster, has been hounding you for the last year that Disciple of Deceit is so good, if only you get to untap with it. Today he finally managed to do just that against you for the first time, and sure enough, he discarded an extra copy of Conspiracy, went to go get Leveler, and used Mercenary-tutoring to get Laboratory Maniac before emptying out his library. Worse yet, you tried to play the "gotcha" game with an end-of-turn Lightning Bolt, but he had the Alexi's Cloak up to make your spell fizzle!
Oh well, it looked like another bad beat. At the very least, you still had one more turn to live, so you untapped, and drew your card...Bogardan Hellkite. Ah yes, you have fond memories of this card going back several years, and just recently put it back in your deck (as a 61st card, natch) in celebration of the dragons returning to Tarkir. You mockingly show the card to Chris and wave it around with a "RARRRRRR" sound, but could it really be enough to save you?
Find a way to guarantee a win in this game, without losing first.
Chris has:
11 life
0 cards in library
36 cards in exile (none of which are relevant)
2 cards in hand:
Chaos warp Alexi's Cloak, Cast the hellkite, putting 2 damage towards lab maniac, 3 damage on itself. We take one damage from blood artist.
Pass, let them draw for draw step and lose.
Takes 11 mana, so we can use the birds and our basics to cast them.
After Chaos Warp puts Alexi's Cloak back into their zero-card library, they'll reveal the top card, which is certainly just going to be Alexi's Cloak again. Then they put it back onto the battlefield; since it's an Aura, this act implies choosing something to have it enchant (and, not that it matters in this case, this happens without targeting the chosen thing). Presumably he's just going to put it back on Maniac, keeping it immune to the Hellkite's damage.
Tap 1 G; Noxious Revival, put Conspiracy on top of opponent's deck
Tap 6 R, 2G, Play Hellkite, deal 4 damage to opponent, deal one damage to Blood Artist (Your health 3, his = 8)
End your turn
He draws Conspiracy
If he Swings with Maniac, block with Rage Weaver, Block Leveler/Fiend/Disciple with Birds/Gloomwidow/Dragon (make sure Dragon survives this)
He can't do anything else
Untap, doesn't matter what you draw, swing with Hellkite, his health to 3, finish with Chain of Plasma
During the second turn, you can get an extra 4 damage if you need it by unearthing Hell's Thunder, you'll have plenty of mana
Opponent untaps, Disciple of Deceit triggers, discards Mulldrifter to get Conspiracy out of the library while it's still the upkeep. Alternatively, he can simply play Mulldrifter, for either cost.
It doesn't seem like it's possible to survive until the next turn; Rathi Fiend stops any attempt at preventing Lab maniac win, and can't be burned with Hellkite without killing yourself in the process.
If we assume we must win this turn, going card by card, it doesn't seem like you have enough options.
Noxious Revival: if used on your own deck, requires 1 + 5 (cheapest creature in hand) + 2 (bring back Masked Admirers) + 4 (summon Masked Admirers) = 12 mana, just to pull a card out of your graveyard into your hand.
Chain of Plasma: 2 mana, 3 damage, but must be used last
Chaos Warp: Can't be used on yourself with any certainty (too many cards in deck), no productive use on any of his permanents
Shivan Wurm: Can be given Haste, but can't do damage w/o flying. You could attack with Hell's Thunder, then use this to put it back in your hand, but that's too slow
Hellkite: 8 mana, 5 damage. You can't nuke his creatures b/c Blood Artist
It's too expensive to bring anything back from the grave besides Hell's Thunder: 5 mana, 4 damage
Birds of Paradise: Not usable as an attacker
Gloomwidow: No way to get wither counters on Lab Maniac
Rage Weaver: Can haste Wurm/Rootwalla/Mongrel, but you can't actually get the Rootwala/Mongrel onto the field. Even if you did, they couldn't do damage anyway.
Funny enough, if last turn, you bolted face instead of the Lab Maniac, you could win easily this turn with Hell's Thunder/Hellkite
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You and your opponent each start the game with 5 non-creature enchantments in play. You get to choose yours after they've chosen then. We will follow the ABT rules, with the alternate land rule (you can chose to replace your first draw in your draw step with drawing a basic land), 1 card starts in the library. We'll also assume the opponent is playing a non-interactive 100000000 turn win combo.
Specifically this card: Win. Suspend 100000000 - 0 Each opponent gets an emblem with "At the beginning of each end step, sacrifice all permanents you control, discard your hand, exile your graveyard, and lose the game." While ~ is suspended, it can't be the target of spells or abilities. Split Second. ~ can't be countered.
Their hand is : Win
The 5 enchantments your opponent chose to bring are: Rule of Law / Land Equilibrium / Possibility Storm / Greater Auramancy / Greater Auramancy
What enchantments and library of 1 do you bring?
MD5 of a solution, with alphabetical names and in the form of: Enchant / Enchant / Enchant / Enchant / Enchant // Card
5c0be6a13c931d26da95a42e88c1a07e
My intended method of breaking out was Eldramri's Vineyard and Pernicious Deed to remove the Auramancies.
If you don't want to use Auras, you can slow it down to turn 2 with Barren Glory + Gaea's Touch + Words of Worship + Aura of Silence + Midsummer Revel (just for the sake of being able to sacrifice it; you don't actually want to get any verse counters or 3/3 Beast tokens), or Barren Glory + Aura of Silence + Pursuit of Knowledge and then you can use just about any two enchantments that can sacrifice themselves without creating permanents, or another Aura of Silence/Seal of Cleansing/Seal of Primordium and then pretty much anything else which you destroy. Lots of leeway here.
You have a deck made from your LGS’s bargain box. Bosko has a deck with some rather expensive cards. You'd think that you wouldn't stand a chance against him, but you've managed to hold up well so far.
Last turn, however, Bosko made his move: He cast Eureka, then used it to empty his hand of the three Eldrazi titans that are now glaring at you from across the table. That’s Ulamog, Kozilek, and Emrakul, in case you need the reminder. If you don't take them down now, they'll grind you into paste on Bosko's attack next turn.
It is the start of your first main phase. Remove all three legendary Eldrazi creatures from the battlefield this turn.
Bosko is at 15 life, and has no cards in his hand. He has these cards in play:
Fauna Shaman
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Eldrazi Spawn token
3 plains (two tapped)
3 forests (two tapped)
Savannah
Temple Garden
You are at 9 life. You have these cards in play:
Festering Goblin
Vithian Stinger
Death’s-Head Buzzard
5 swamps
4 mountains
You have the following cards in your hand:
Tremor
Orzhov Euthanist
Funeral March
tap BBR to cast funeral march, enchanting kozilek
tap vithian stinger to deal 1 damage to emrakul
cast orzhov euthanist for BBR, takes emrakul down
cast tremor for R. eldrazi spawn and festering goblin die.
festering goblin trigger finishes off the euthanist. haunts death's head buzzard
unearth vithian stinger with the remaining BR
tap it to kill the buzzard. trigger finishes off the fauna shaman, than euthanists haunt trigger finishes kozilek, forcing the sacrifice of the ulamog
Just one more for now before I go back to my archives. I have a solution in mind for this, but I'd be interested to see if there are any alternatives:
A few turns ago, your opponent, Paolo, played a number of Sinkholes to reduce your land count, then used Relic of Progenitus to make sure you wouldn't be getting them back. Now you're at 4 life and he has the dominant presence on the table; when his next turn comes around, Paolo's not going to have any qualms about sending everything he has in your direction.
You don't have a lot of cards on the table, so you shouldn't be any way to win this game... or is there?
It is the start of your first main phase. Win this game before your opponent does.
Paolo is at 6 life, has no cards in his hand, and has no untapped lands. He has these cards in play:
Child of Night (tapped)
Paolo has only one creature card in his graveyard: a Soul of Innistrad.Duskmantle Seer (tapped) with Assault Suit
Skaab Ruinator (tapped)
Abyssal Gatekeeper
Insectile Aberration
Faerie Macabre
Nightveil Specter
2 islands (both tapped)
2 swamps (both tapped)
2 Watery Grave (both tapped)
You are at 4 life. You have these cards in play:
Shadow Guildmage
Your cards in hand:Plague Witch
Puppeteer Clique
1 island
2 swamps
Izzet Guildgate
Dredge
The top two cards of your library (which you know due to a recent Ponder) are:Set Adrift
Exhume (topmost card)
You currently have only two cards in your graveyard:Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (second to top)
Ponder
Ultimate Price
Tap island to activate Shadow Guildmage. Put Soul of Innistrad on top of its owner's library (in this case, Paolo's).
Tap the other Swamp and discard Exhume to Plague Witch. Target any of your creatures; they're all 1 toughness so whichever one you chose will die.
Play Set Adrift, tapping Izzet Guildgate for U and delving Ponder, Ultimate Price, Dredge, Exhume, and the creature card. Target either Shadow Guildmage or Plague Witch, whichever one is still alive, and put it on top of your library.
Pass turn. Duskmantle Seer triggers in Paolo's upkeep, revealing Soul of Innistrad for him (going to 0) and whichever creature you put back (going to 2 or 3). Win.
Dredge, sacrificing Puppeteer Clique and reanimating Soul of Innistrad.
Use Shadow Guildmage to put Soul on top of owner's library.
Plague Witch discards Exhume to kill herself.
Set Adrift is played with Delve 5 (so U) to put Guildmage on top of my library.
Pass the turn.
Your opponent went infinite, capsized your board, time twistered, tormod's crypted your graveyard, played elish norn, pacifism on elish norn, cast Sphere of Safety, cast Uba Mask, cast Nevermore naming Dark Ritual, cast Liquimetal Coating, made Nevermore an artifact, cast Karn, Silver Golem, made nevermore a creature, cast Soulfire Grand Master, cast Mirror Gallery, cast Mangara of Corondor, cast rite of replication kicked targeting Mangara and bought back with Soulfire Grand Master. Then they copy Nevermore for every non-land card in the game, ending with rite of replication. Then they use Mangara to exile liquimetal coating, Karn and Soulfire Grand Master. They then pass turn, and dare you to kill them. For simplicity, assume they have 15,000 Nevermores. How quickly can you kill them? They're at 20 life, 0 poison counters, 49 cards in their deck, 7 cards in hand. You have 7 cards in hand, you can stack your deck, and have up to 4 copies of non-basic cards.
Simple version: There's an Uba Mask, a Sphere of Safety, a Pacified Elesh Norn, and a Nevermore naming every non-land card on your opponent's side, you have no cards in play, and you can stack your deck. How fast can you win?
Proof that you can win: If your deck is 30,000 Forests, your hand contains 6 forests and a Treetop Village, you can play the Treetop Village, play all the forests, then activate treetop each turn, pay for the sphere, and swing 20 turns in a row. 30,024 turns.
Turn 1 draw step: Attempt to draw what would be the 8th card in your hand, but Uba Mask exiles it instead. That card is Crypt of Agadeem.
Turn 1 main phase: Play Crypt of Agadeem, tapped.
Turn 2 draw step: Exile Bazaar of Baghdad to Uba Mask.
Turn 2 main phase: Play Bazaar of Baghdad. Tap it, exiling 2 irrelevant cards from the library instead of drawing, then discarding Golgari Grave-Troll, Chimney Imp, and Riftstone Portal. 4 cards remain in hand.
Turn 3 draw step: Uba Mask and Golgari Grave-Troll both want to replace the draw. Choose to dredge, returning Troll to hand and milling Kederekt Leviathan, Devoted Druid, Morselhoarder, Scholar of Athreos, Necrotic Ooze, and another Golgari Grave-Troll. 5 cards in hand, one of which is Troll.
Cycle Street Wraith for 2 life. Again two things want to replace the draw, and again you choose to dredge. Return the second Grave-Troll going back to 5 cards in hand, and mill 3 more Chimney Imp and 3x Phage the Untouchable.
Turn 3 main phase: Exile Elvish Spirit Guide from hand for G, tap Bazaar for another G (using the mana ability given by Riftstone Portal), and use that GG to activate Crypt of Agadeem. Thirteen creature cards are in the graveyard (9 black--the entire second dredge, from the first Chimney Imp from Bazaar, Ooze from the first dredge, and Street Wraith from cycling), so add 9 black mana to your mana pool. 4 cards left in hand (2 unaccounted for).
Play basic Island from hand (3 cards left), tap for U, and unearth Kederekt Leviathan with BBB left over. Bounce the opponent's entire board. Nevermore no longer presents any casting restrictions.
Play Footsteps of the Goryo on Necrotic Ooze, and the win is easy.
It seems like turn 2 should be feasible, but there's a bunch of stuff that needs doing in the mean time.
i miss my crypt of agadeem standard deck.
With a Mycosynth Golem on the battlefield, you were expecting a few big plays from your opponent. Last turn, Kelly made that move: She cast both a Darksteel Colossus and a Platinum Emperion in the same main phase. You saw those big artifacts coming, so they weren’t much of a surprise, but her third play made your jaw drop.
“Armageddon?”
And so it goes.
So now you’ve got some really huge creatures on your opponent’s side of the board, with only one tiny creature on your side to play defense, and you've got no lands to help fuel a comeback. Fortunately, Staff of Nin gave you two draws at the start of your turn, and one of them turned out to be a Swamp. It’s not optimal, but it’s better than nothing.
Still, you’re not about to give up yet. You think there might be a subtle chink in your opponent's armor, so to speak.
It is the beginning of your first main phase. Win the game this turn.
Kelly is at 8 life, has no cards in her hand, and has 36 cards remaining in her library. She has the following cards in play:
Boros Signet (tapped)
Basalt Monolith (tapped)
Dreamstone Hedron (tapped)
Mycosynth Golem (tapped)
Workhorse (with two +1/+1 counters)
Platinum Emperion
Darksteel Colossus
Darksteel Citadel
Kelly has the following relevant cards in her graveyard:
Myr Retriever
Goblin Welder
Cathodion
Myr Moonvessel
You are at 8 life. You have the following cards in play:
Salvaging Station
Staff of Nin
Serrated Biskelion
Your cards in hand:
Reanimate
Yoke of the Damned
March of the Machines
Swamp
You have not yet played a land this turn.
You have the following relevant cards in your graveyard:
Seat of the Synod
Springleaf Drum
Etherium Sculptor
Vial of Poison
Voltaic Construct
Master of Etherium
Altar of the Brood
Disciple of the Vault
Tap Serrated Biskelion to give itself a -1/-1 counter (now 1/1) and remove a +1/+1 counter from Workhorse (making it 1/1 as well).
Tap Staff of Nin to deal 1 damage to Workhorse, killing it. Kelly can respond by floating a colorless mana to make the activation fizzle, but either way, Workhorse is dead. Salvaging Station triggers, and untaps.
Play the Swamp, then play Reanimate targeting Kelly's newly dead Workhorse. Lose 6 life and go to 2.
Tap Salvaging Station to reanimate Altar of the Brood.
Tap Seat of the Synod for blue, and remove three counters from Workhorse to pay for March of the Machines. Altar of the Brood triggers, milling a card. Also, March of the Machines animates all artifacts, and in particular your Seat of the Synod and Kelly's Darksteel Citadel animate into 0/0 creatures, sending them to the graveyard and causing Salvaging Station to trigger twice. Again, Kelly can float another mana off Darksteel Citadel in response, but has nothing to spend it on so this is harmless.
After Salvaging Station untaps once, tap it again to reanimate Seat of the Synod. It's still a 0/0 creature, and will die immediately, triggering both Altar of the Brood (milling another card) and Salvaging Station (untapping again and forming a loop).
With the one spare activation that piled up, you can use Salvaging Station to reanimate Vial of Poison (which won't do anything) or Springleaf Drum (which could have produced 1 mana earlier in conjunction with Workhorse, leaving one more counter on it at the cost of tapping both artifacts...but only by moving it up to the slot now occupied by Altar of the Brood; if you reanimate it now, it has summoning sickness and is completely unusable).
You can repeat this process to mill any number of cards. If Kelly still has another Darksteel Colossus or other similar card in the library, then Altar of the Brood cannot possibly get rid of it, nor can any other card in the scenario. Furthermore, in the event that she has a card to draw, it is impossible to survive the upcoming attack: at best, your board will consist of an untapped 6/6, a tapped 6/6, a tapped 1/1, and two untapped 1/1s against 2/2, tapped 3/3, 4/5, 6/6, 8/8, and 11/11 trample. On that alpha strike, the best defense will still lose 11 life, which you can't afford to take even from the original 8 life, let alone from 2.
But otherwise, if the milling goes without incident and there are 0 cards left, it's a simple matter to pass turn and win during the next draw step.
That's more or less the solution I was thinking of; it looks like the puzzle needs a disclaimer to state that Kelly doesn't have any other surprises waiting in her library. I suppose I should have rephrased "Win this turn" as well.
Here's a new puzzle.
Your casual sparring partner, Chris the Combo Circusmaster, has been hounding you for the last year that Disciple of Deceit is so good, if only you get to untap with it. Today he finally managed to do just that against you for the first time, and sure enough, he discarded an extra copy of Conspiracy, went to go get Leveler, and used Mercenary-tutoring to get Laboratory Maniac before emptying out his library. Worse yet, you tried to play the "gotcha" game with an end-of-turn Lightning Bolt, but he had the Alexi's Cloak up to make your spell fizzle!
Oh well, it looked like another bad beat. At the very least, you still had one more turn to live, so you untapped, and drew your card...Bogardan Hellkite. Ah yes, you have fond memories of this card going back several years, and just recently put it back in your deck (as a 61st card, natch) in celebration of the dragons returning to Tarkir. You mockingly show the card to Chris and wave it around with a "RARRRRRR" sound, but could it really be enough to save you?
Find a way to guarantee a win in this game, without losing first.
Chris has:
11 life
0 cards in library
36 cards in exile (none of which are relevant)
2 cards in hand:
You have:
4 life
36 cards in library, including at least three Mountains and at least three Forests
5 cards in hand:
Chaos warp Alexi's Cloak, Cast the hellkite, putting 2 damage towards lab maniac, 3 damage on itself. We take one damage from blood artist.
Pass, let them draw for draw step and lose.
Takes 11 mana, so we can use the birds and our basics to cast them.
Tap 6 R, 2G, Play Hellkite, deal 4 damage to opponent, deal one damage to Blood Artist (Your health 3, his = 8)
End your turn
He draws Conspiracy
If he Swings with Maniac, block with Rage Weaver, Block Leveler/Fiend/Disciple with Birds/Gloomwidow/Dragon (make sure Dragon survives this)
He can't do anything else
Untap, doesn't matter what you draw, swing with Hellkite, his health to 3, finish with Chain of Plasma
During the second turn, you can get an extra 4 damage if you need it by unearthing Hell's Thunder, you'll have plenty of mana
If we assume we must win this turn, going card by card, it doesn't seem like you have enough options.
Noxious Revival: if used on your own deck, requires 1 + 5 (cheapest creature in hand) + 2 (bring back Masked Admirers) + 4 (summon Masked Admirers) = 12 mana, just to pull a card out of your graveyard into your hand.
Chain of Plasma: 2 mana, 3 damage, but must be used last
Chaos Warp: Can't be used on yourself with any certainty (too many cards in deck), no productive use on any of his permanents
Shivan Wurm: Can be given Haste, but can't do damage w/o flying. You could attack with Hell's Thunder, then use this to put it back in your hand, but that's too slow
Hellkite: 8 mana, 5 damage. You can't nuke his creatures b/c Blood Artist
It's too expensive to bring anything back from the grave besides Hell's Thunder: 5 mana, 4 damage
Birds of Paradise: Not usable as an attacker
Gloomwidow: No way to get wither counters on Lab Maniac
Rage Weaver: Can haste Wurm/Rootwalla/Mongrel, but you can't actually get the Rootwala/Mongrel onto the field. Even if you did, they couldn't do damage anyway.
Funny enough, if last turn, you bolted face instead of the Lab Maniac, you could win easily this turn with Hell's Thunder/Hellkite