March 23, 2015Perplexing Chimera

46: Kibbles and Bits

It’s been a vicious game so far, highlighted by massive life swings. By sheer coincidence, your theme deck was paired up against the only other person in the store with his own theme deck, and now you and your opponent are fighting like, well… cats and dogs.

All things considered, it shouldn’t happen to a dog. After a tense back-and-forth game, your opponent finally drew his seventh land and cast a massive Phantom Nishoba. Considering that you still had a bit of life to spare, you figured that the best thing to do was sit tight and wait for a solution; maybe Doug would call off the dogs somehow.

After attacking with his Nishoba last turn, Doug ended up at exactly 20 life. However, he then played the last card in his hand: Spirit of the Hearth. Now you won’t be able to use most of your direct damage on him, and his Nishoba is very likely to erode your creature base over the next few turns. If you continue to let sleeping dogs lie, Doug will have a lot of lifegain coming, and you don’t want that.

You untap, take your draw, and find that every dog does have his day: the newest card in your hand is a Swords to Plowshares, which is a definite solution to the Phantom Nishoba. Maybe this dog-eat-dog situation actually threw you a bone, for once.

Then you take a second look at the board, and realize that it’s not too late to teach an old dog new tricks. There’s a way you can unleash the hounds on your opponent this turn; it just goes to show that there’s life in the old dog yet.

It is the middle of your first main phase. Can you win the game this turn?

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Doug is at 20 life and has no cards in his hand. He has the following cards in play:

You are at 7 life. You have the following cards in play:

You have the following cards in your hand: