Inspired by Brian McKay's recent articles, and in homage to Mark Rosewater's fine book, I present you some modern"Magic: The Puzzling" situations. Although these situations usually seem obscure and unrelated to actual constructed play, I have learned that the more practice you have with situations like these, the easier it is to identify the tough-to-find outs in real games of Magic. This is especially true for Limited formats, where you have to use cards for their not-so-obvious uses!

Do you have what it takes to come out the winner?

Puzzle 1 (difficulty: 2/10):
The first puzzle is more of a warm-up. Any dedicated Goblin player should have no trouble coming up with a solution in the bat of an eye. Can you?

Situation:

You are running your typical Goblin Bidding deck while your opponent, Fred, has the nerve to show up playing an outdated Broodstar Affinity deck. You have managed to keep his threats at bay thus far with your Sparksmith, but his freshly cast Broodstar threatens to kill you on his next turn. Luckily, on your turn you topdecked a City of Brass!

Goal: You are at eight life, Fred is at thirteen. Kill Fred this turn.

In Play:
Goblin Piledriver
Goblin Warchief
Sparksmith
Skirk Prospector
2 Mountain
1 City of Brass

In Hand:
Siege-Gang Commander
Detonate
City of Brass

Fred has in play:
2 Myr Enforcer
Ornithopter
Scale of Chiss-Goria (tapped, affecting a Myr Enforcer)
Broodstar
2 Tapped Seat of the Synod
2 Tapped Great Furnace

Fred has no cards in hand.

Puzzle 2 (difficulty: 5/10):
You are playing your"customized" version of a Ravager Affinity deck, hoping to get some final mileage out of your Skullclamps before the fix is in. Unfortunately for you, your opponent, Gina, has been able to stay alive for a very long time, and you will lose to decking if you don't do something fast.

Goal: You are at one life, Gina is at eighteen. It is your post combat main phase. Kill Gina before she draws her next card.

No cards in library

In Graveyard: Frogmite

In Play:
3 Mountain
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
Talisman of Indulgence
Skullclamp, equipping Bottle Gnomes
Myr Moonvessel
Pyrite Spellbomb
Disciple of the Vault
Myr Retriever

In Hand:
Disciple of the Vault
Scale of Chiss-Goria
Shrapnel Blast
Shatter

Gina has in Play:
Furnace Dragon (tapped)
6 Mountains (tapped)

Puzzle 3 (difficulty: 9/10):
You are playing your Elf and Nail deck, and you thought you were going to win last turn when you cast Tooth and Nail for Darksteel Colossus and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. However, on your opponent Ted's turn, he played a Forest, cast Duplicant on your Colossus, and put down a Damping Matrix. Things turned back your way, though, when you drew Viridian Shaman this turn.

Goal: Ted is at thirty-seven life. Win this turn (note: there are several forests, but no elves left in your deck)

In play:
7 Forest
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
Vernal Bloom
2 Birds of Paradise
2 Wirewood Symbiote
Vine Trellis

Hand:
Triskelion
Vernal Bloom
Viridian Shaman
Wood Elves

Opponent Has:
Duplicant (11/11)
9 tapped Mountains, 2 untapped Mountains, 1 untapped Forest
Oblivion Stone
Damping Matrix
Wellwisher

Thanks to Andrew Potozniak for testing out the puzzles. If you manage to find a solution that deals more damage than the number required, then congratulations! You've bested us both.
Until next time.

Jeff Till

jefftill@hotmail.com