Scourge Fat Pack Puzzle

[NorrYtt]

Here's the puzzle.

I got this far before I realized it wouldn't work. I think you have to use Skirk Alarmist 3 times, which means two Wizards must die to Faces of the Past, so you probably need to use Extra Arms. What's more, you are going to have to Brain Freeze your opponent mid-combat as your Alarmist taps and untaps so that you can do back-flips with Mischievous Quanar to copy the Brain Freeze, since Pyrostatic Pillar keeps you from Storming effectively.

1. Tap all lands for UUUUUURRRRR.
2. Use Skirk Alarmist to flip over Raven Guild Master.
3. Use Imagecrafter to turn Embermage Goblin into a Zombie.
4. Play face-down Skirk Volcanist for RRR. Take 2 from Pyrostatic Pillar, going to 3 life (1 Spell Played This Turn).
5. Sacrifice 2 Mountains to turn Skirk Volcanist face-up, killing your own Imagecrafter and Embermage Goblin. This triggers Faces of the Past twice, which taps all Zombies and untaps all Wizards (your Skirk Alarmist).
6. Enchant Raven Guild Master with
   Swing with Raven Guild Master, removing 10 cards from your opponent's library (15 cards left).
7. Play Brain Freeze, Storming once, on your opponent.
8. Respond by flipping Mischieveous Quanar for UUR, forking Brain Freeze once. Use Skirk Alarmist to flip Master of the Veil, which turns

 

[Istanbul]

Here's how it really goes.

1) Tap five Islands and five Mountains for UUUUURRRRR.
2) Play Extra Arms enchanting Raven Guild Master. Pyrostatic Pillar does not trigger. You have played 1 spell this turn.
3) Tap your Skirk Alarmist to turn your Raven Guild Master face-up.
4) Tap your Embermage Goblin to shoot your Imagecrafter. It dies, allowing you to untap all Wizards.
5) Play Scattershot, with both copies (1 regular, 1 storm) targeting a Vengeful Dead. It dies, and Faces of the Past allows you to tap all Zombies. You take 2 damage from Pyrostatic Pillar, putting you at 3.
6) Play Brain Freeze. 2 copies are generated, milling your opponent for a total of 9 cards...but wait!
7) In response, tap your Skirk Alarmist to turn Mischievous Quanar face-up. Fork your Brain Freeze, making 2 more copies along with the original copies, milling your opponent for a total of 18 cards. Pyrostatic Pillar triggers only from the first Brain Freeze, putting you at 1.
8) Your opponent now controls no untapped creatures. Attack with your Raven Guild Master, removing the top 10 (okay, 7) cards of his library from the game.
9) Phoenix dies from drawing with an empty library.

 

[Lotus Mox]

Isty, 2 things:

copied spells don't put Storm on the stack (only when you play them)
and Vengeful Dead's leave play trigger would kill you.

 

[Lotus Mox]

I think I found out how to do it:

Note: Whenever something dies, something will untap or tap with Face of the Past. (not that you're puzzled why this happens )

1. Play Extra Arms on Guild Master (6 mana left)

2. Play Volcanist face up, use Imagecrafter to turn it into a Wizard (2 mana left)

3. unmorph Guild Master with Alarmist.

4. Embermage Goblin takes out Imagecrafter, untap Embermage Goblin and Alarmist.

5. play Brain Freeze with 2 copies (total 9 cards mill), you're at 3 life due to Pillar

6. while Freeze is on the stack:

7. tap Alarmist to unmorph Quanar, copy Brain Freeze (total 12 cards mill)

8. use Embermage Goblin on Volcanist (a wizard), untap Alarmist + Embermage Goblin.

9. use Alarmist to unmorph Master of the Veil, use it to morph Quanar.

10. use Embermage Goblin to kill itself, untap Alarmist.

11. use Alarmist to unmorph Quanar, copy Brain Freeze (total 15 cards mill)

12. resolve the Brain Freezes

13. attack with Guildmaster, use Extra Arms on a Vengeful Dead or Raptor, tap all zombies, go down to 1 life due to Vengeful dead.

14. All blockers are tapped -> Phoenix has to mill 10 cards. (total 25 cards mill)

15. win during Phoenix' draw step

edit: cleaned this up a bit

 

[Spiderman]

How often are these puzzles put up? Is it worthwhile to post/link to them when a new one comes up?

 

[Lotus Mox]

Originally posted by Spiderman
How often are these puzzles put up? Is it worthwhile to post/link to them when a new one comes up?

They are on mtg.com*,a site which should be read daily by casual players , so I don't think it's really neccessary to link these puzzles on the main page.
There is a puzzle every 1 or 2 months or so, I guess.

*www.magicthegathering.com should probably be put into the CPA Links section.

 

[Spiderman]

I didn't mean link to them on the main page, I meant post a new thread when one comes up. Sorry.

You can go ahead and add the link (is it redundant to have the WOTC one then?)

 

[Lotus Mox]

Making a thread for them would be fine I guess, so lazy ppl like me could look for the answer.

To answer your other question, a link to wizards.com would be IMO redundant if you have one to mtg.com.

 

[EricBess]

Lotus Mox, that's basically how I did it, but I used the Imagecrafter to turn the Putrid Raptor into a Wizard instead of the Volcanist.

In fact, because you untap the Imagecrafter, you can actually do this and still leave the Embermage alive if you like. Or, you can get one more activation out of the Alarmist than you need to.

I'm guessing that the Volcanist was thrown in as a red herring (since it is free damage, but you have to play it face-up to win) and the fact that you could kill it wasn't considered.

 

[Lotus Mox]

Originally posted by EricBess
I'm guessing that the Volcanist was thrown in as a red herring (since it is free damage, but you have to play it face-up to win) and the fact that you could kill it wasn't considered.

Yeah, the "official" answer doesn't use it either (except as a spell), but it was otherwise quite a good red herring.
I tried to use it's morph ability for a while, until I saw that with Vengeful Dead and Pyrostatic Pillar, you can only play Extra Arms, Volcanist face up and Brain Freeze.
Of course it's better to find the best solution and don't kill your side of the board if you could do that to the Zombies . But at least I found a way to win