Riddle Challenge - Death Out of The Blue
Challenges and Articles forum
Posted on Nov. 25, 2014, 2:03 p.m. by Absinthman
Hi guys, I had a pretty interesting game on MTGO the other day, which made me think that it could make an interesting challenge here on TappedOut. You'll find it just below this article. Also, feel free to post your own stories like this one. It doesn't matter whether you were the unsuspecting victim of such misfortune, or the architect of someone else's tragic demise. The only thing that matters is that the losing party never saw it coming.
Now here's my story
It happened recently in Swiss Legacy Cube on MTGO. I was playing a Blue/Black control and my opponent was monowhite. I had a land heavy draw, so I wasn't doing much but neither was my opponent. That is until turn 5, when he played Cloudgoat Ranger. With my empty board, that smelled like trouble. I played my Man-o'-War and bounced his Cloudgoat Ranger. "Wait, what!? Are you nuts!? He's just going to recast it and get double the tokens, you stupid!!" - that's what anyone could think of me right now, but wait. This was actually all part of my cleverly designed plan. As expected, he redeployed his Ranger, getting another set of tokens, while I was still waiting, grinning and thinking to myself: "soon, very soon". But the moment was not ripe yet. Something was telling me that this was going to get even better. Some of you may already have cought the drift.
On his next turn, as expected, he attacked with the Ranger and tapped all Kithkins for a total of 7 flying damage to my face. Then he tapped out and played the best (or worst - depending on your perspective) card ever - Elspeth, Sun's Champion. He made 3 soldier tokens and passed the turn.
Now, let's get to the challenge: I'm at 13 life and I have 3x Island, 2x Swamp, Underground River and Underground Sea (all untapped), and a lowly untapped Man-o'-War. My opponent is sitting on a healthy 20 life, has no untapped lands, tapped Cloudgoat Ranger, Elspeth, Sun's Champion and a total of 9 1/1 tokens (3 of which are untapped). It's my pre-combat main phase and I play a single card. My opponent says "lol" and concedes because he knows he's dead. Obvious question is obvious: What was that Magic card that so suddenly and unexpectedly caused that poor soul's untimely departure? I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts.
lemmingllama says... #3
Battle of Wits. You played so many lands earlier on in the game since since you were playing with 200+ cards. He only has 12 power on the table and you have 13 life. You win on the next upkeep
November 25, 2014 2:14 p.m.
Plot twist: you actually lost the game and you want ideas about how you COULD have won.
November 25, 2014 2:16 p.m.
Absinthman says... #6
@lemmingllama: Though your explanation is also possible, it is not what actually happened. My deck was a regular 40-card draft deck.
I should note that my opponent is dead on the same turn that I play the card. Not on the next upkeep or something like that.
November 25, 2014 2:17 p.m.
Absinthman says... #7
@ChiefBell: Storm Crow would have absolutely destroyed the draft. It's too strong even for Power Cube. That wasn't the way I won, although it would have been epic. You get a special "Crowster of Storms" prize though.
November 25, 2014 2:21 p.m.
Absinthman says... #9
I must allow some reasonable time for others to notice this challenge and try to come up with something. Probably a day or two. I will of course reveal the true answer, if nobody guesses it right.
November 25, 2014 2:31 p.m.
But in all seriousness, I have NO FREAKING CLUE! I ran through gatherer, skimmed the forums, but couldn't find ANYTHING!
November 25, 2014 2:35 p.m.
Absinthman says... #11
@rorofat: That Bronze Sable seems to be as clueless as you are. :-)
November 25, 2014 2:39 p.m.
Absinthman says... #13
And we have a winner!! That took shorter than I expected. Yes, the right answer is Massacre Wurm. My opponent's tokens all die, and because there's 9 of them, he loses 18 life. With no blockers left, my Man-o'-War deals the final 2 damage. My opponent said "lol", because he realized that all that time he was unknowingly cooperating with me in a major way.
Congratulations Unforgivn_II!!
November 25, 2014 2:46 p.m.
Unforgivn_II says... #14
Weee! As a sidenote, I've loved Massacre Wurm for awhile. Its really dumb with Nature's Revolt or Living Plane. And I did the cube a couple times, and I remember seeing one pass through
November 25, 2014 2:50 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #15
How did I forget Massacre Wurm... Such a funny card to use. This same situation has happened to me in EDH games. Still, nice victory
November 25, 2014 2:52 p.m.
Absinthman says... #16
@Unforgivn_II: Jeez, those combinations are disgusting! That whole game though... we stare at each other for a while, playing lands, then he drops the Ranger and I look at my hand... "that could be interesting". So I bounce, he re-plays, Everything is going well, I thinking of all the value that I'm going to get, but nowhere close to winning yet. Then he plays Elspeth, makes more tokens, and I'm like "Whoooaaah!! Wait a minute, do I just win on the spot!?" A ridiculous game indeed. xD
November 25, 2014 2:56 p.m.
Actually, you got it wrong... He controlled 10 creatures, the 9 tokens and the Cloudgoat Ranger, so you didn't even have to attack. You just win. Period.
XD
November 25, 2014 2:58 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #18
@rorofat The Cloudgoat Ranger is a 3/3, and Massacre Wurm gives -2/-2. So it wouldn't die
November 25, 2014 3:04 p.m.
Oh wow... I suck at life... I thought it was a 2/2... XD
November 25, 2014 3:11 p.m.
A perfect example of how even the most rules intensive person can make mistakes revolving around
R.T.F.C
November 25, 2014 3:12 p.m.
Absinthman says... #22
Indeed. Cloudgoat Ranger survives the Wurm, so the attack is necessary.
Absinthman says... #2
I actually started writing this as a report and only thought of it as a challenge while ion the middle of it, so now it seems that I posted it in a wrong section of the forum. Could Epochalyptik or someone else move it to Challenges and Articles, please? Thanks.
November 25, 2014 2:10 p.m.