“Under what pretense may a man commit a crime that does not set the wardens of the land upon him?” your opponent asks.

“What lies against your back in dire becomings, yet encourages futility when words lie upon it?”

“What do you have if it is yours alone, yet no longer have if it is shared?”

“Dude,” you say. “Stop that.”

You glance at the table. Your store’s bargain box got restocked only a few minutes ago, resulting in a lot of new finds for a lot of players. The first pile of random cards you picked up from the box had no less than five Sphinx cards in it, so you took that as a sign of serendipity and made a Sphinx deck.

The problem with Sphinxes, though, is that they’re slow and expensive creatures. On your first game against your opponent ― who we’ll call Oedipus ― you only managed to stabilize the board after taking some solid hits to your life total. And even when you got your defense mounted, Oedipus continued to take shots at your library via his Undercity Informer.

Oedipus figured out a way to break through your defense last turn, though: He activated Thundercloud Elemental‘s ability and forced all creatures to lose flying until end of turn, then activated Killer Whale‘s ability to have it fly over your blockers. With you at a paltry 3 life, his move will end the game next turn if you don’t do something about it. Just to rub salt in the wound (and get rid of a nasty Unburial Rites in your graveyard), Oedipus used his Relic of Progenitus to empty both of your graveyards before declaring the end of his turn.

You’re now looking at the table a little more closely, wondering if there’s anything you can cast before Oedipus’ turn ends. Perhaps there’s an opening somewhere… and yes, you smile when you see it. You can’t resist a little jab at your opponent at this point.

“What do you call a losing player who wins the game next turn?”

Oedipus has just declared the end of his turn. Can you win the game before your next turn runs out?

Oedipus is at 19 life, has no cards in his hand, and has no untapped lands. He has the following cards in play:

• Hover Barrier
• Undercity Informer
• Phyrexian Delver
• Killer Whale (tapped, with Diplomatic Immunity attached)
• Thundercloud Elemental
• 3 islands (all tapped)
• 3 swamps (all tapped)
• Waterveil Cavern (tapped)

You are at 3 life, and you only have 4 cards remaining in your library. You have the following cards in play:

• Belltower Sphinx
• Arbiter of the Ideal (with Oedipus’ Dead Weight attached)
• Cerulean Sphinx
• Revelsong Horn
• Eye of Ramos
• Skybind
• 2 plains
• 2 islands
• 1 swamp
• Ancient Spring

Your cards in hand:

• Reprisal
• Psionic Blast
• Magister Sphinx

You currently have only 4 cards remaining in your library. You do not know how the following cards are ordered on top:

• Plains
• Elixir of Immortality
• Defang
• Vengeance

You and Oedipus currently have no cards in your graveyards.