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This week I pay homage to the original puzzler, Mark Rosewater. His “Trade Away” puzzle from the Magic: The Puzzling book has always been one of my favorites. Hopefully you'll enjoy this week's brain-bender as much as I enjoyed the original.
Solution to last week's puzzle.
A special congratulations is in order to NotTheOne and TheOneEye for solving all of last week's puzzles.
1)
Zero mana kill:
1. Going first, play Bazaar of Baghdad and activate it. After drawing two cards, end up with the following cards in your hand:
Dragon Breath
Krosan Cloudscraper
Dread Return
Ornithopter
Ornithopter
Ornithopter
Blazing Shoal
Myojin of Infinite Rage
2. Discard Dragon Breath, Krosan Cloudscraper, and Dread Return to the Bazaar.
3. Play all three Ornithopters.
4. Play Dread Return by sacrificing the three Ornithopters, targeting Krosan Cloudscraper.
5. Return Krosan Cloudscraper to play, then attach Dragon Breath to the Cloudscraper.
6. Remove Myojin of Infinite Rage from the game to play Blazing Shoal with X=10, targeting Krosan Cloudscraper.
7. Attack with your 23/23 creature with haste, getting the first turn kill for no mana at all.
2)
Ghost Ship - Malach of the New Dawn
Uthden Troll - Hedge Troll
Whirling Dervish - Dunerider Outlaw
Sindbad - Fa'adiyah Seer
Prodigal Sorcerer - Prodigal Pyromancer
Funeral Charm - Piracy Charm
3)
1. Play Mountain.
2. Tap Prodigal Pyromancer to deal 1 damage to Phil.
3. Tap two Mountains and two Swamps to cast Pyrohemia.
4. Tap a Mountain to activate Pyrohemia. Both Pyromancers die, Phil goes to 4.
5. Tap a Swamp to activate Prismatic Lens, adding R to your mana pool.
6. Activate Pyrohemia again. Nantuko Shaman dies, Phil goes to 3, you go to 1.
7. Attack with Skulking Knight. Phil cannot block and takes 3 damage, losing the game.
4)
Flash, Index, and Greed horizontally, from top to bottom, and Fling, Addle, and Hex vertically, from left to right.
Scores for this puzzle:
NotTheOne – 17
TheOneEye – 17
Gabrosin – 14
Lynxcat – 14
PeteBDawg – 14
qqzm – 14
RobRoy – 14
IceOnGrass – 12
NeonBlack – 10
Vyolynce – 7
microStyles – 7
mttgicecreamman – 2
GenericKen – 5
Jinx_Talaris – 4
Aiken013 – 4
hforduva – 4
Ronfar – 3
thecappen – 2
Current Scores
TheOneEye – 27
gabrosin – 24
IceOnGrass – 22
NotTheOne – 22
PeteBDawg – 19
qqzm - 19
RobRoy – 19
NeonBlack – 15
Lynxcat – 14
microStyles – 12
Vyolynce – 12
CaptainNapalm – 10
Jinx_Talaris – 9
aumdiene – 5
carrolln – 5
DougieFresh – 5
funkyninja – 5
GenericKen – 5
Gwendly – 5
Hearts_Regime – 5
kenth – 5
lord atog – 5
RidiculousHat – 5
VipExX – 5
Aiken013 – 4
hforduva – 4
Ronfar – 3
mttgicecreamman – 2
thecappen – 2
This Week's Puzzle
Difficulty: 4/5 (15 points)
Remember: do not post solutions to the forums. PM me (jefftill) the answers.
Tricia, Greg, Christine, and Jeff each have four cards that they are willing trade, and two cards in particular that they want. However, each person will only make a trade if their own particular conditions are met. Figure out a way to get everyone the cards they want by performing at most 9 trades.
Jeff: (trade for cards with a lower “confusing level” – the numbers in parenthesis)
Has:
Rakdos Pit Dragon (7)
Nut Collector (8)
Mistform Mutant (8)
Bomb Squad (8)
Wants:
Streetbreaker Wurm
Ancestor's Chosen
Tricia (trades for creatures that share a creature type only)
Has:
Crosis, the Purger (10),
Sliver Overlord (10),
Arashi, the Sky Asunder (7),
Dread Reaper (5)
Wants:
Dark Hatchling
Rakdos Pit Dragon
Greg (trades for cards with lower converted mana cost)
Has:
Flame Spirit (6)
Triskelavus (9)
Dark Hatchling (6)
Stone-Tongue Basilisk (6)
Wants:
Flamecore Elemental
Bomb Squad
Christine (trades for creatures with a higher combined power/toughness)
Has:
Streetbreaker Wurm (3)
Brass Herald (4)
Flamecore Elemental (6)
Ancestor's Chosen (4)
Wants:
Sliver Overlord
Dread Reaper
Good luck.
Ferrett opens a very strong card pool in this week's Sealed Deck exercise... But he has second doubts not about the cards themselves, but the way he sorts them. ... 
