Hello friends!

I was on Reddit this weekend thinking and I stumbled across a great Reddit post by /u/strayfeathers, which inspired me! After spending time working on the Rules Guide I spent a lot of time thinking about some of the most bizarre rules interactions. That helped me come up with these mind-melting puzzles! You may find it useful for reaching some of the solutions.

Related to this, I wanted to announce that I am beginning of work on the second edition of the Rules Guide! We got 23 new cards from Tale of Horus Traver, as well as a ton of old entries that need to be improved. If you were involved in the Rules Guide the first time, I would love to have you come back for the second edition! If you didn’t have a chance to contribute the first time, that is fine too! Even new players can contribute by beefing up existing entries. The best way to get involved is join the Eternal Rules Guide Discord. Enjoy the puzzles!

Answers can be found below!

1) How can you deal 500 damage or more at “fast speed”? Maelstrom Bell cannot be used.

Edit: /u/doomynick pointed out you can just use Grinva + any massive unit + Devour. Not what I had originally imagined but it is a good answer!

2) How can you get over 500 cards in your deck? Call the Ancients cannot be used.

3) What is the most damage that you can deal by the end of your turn 3 assuming your opponent does nothing? Infernus, Light the Fuse, Crown of Possibilities and Unstable form cannot be used.

Edit: /u/phantomstranger had a great answer that sorta breaks the question involving Divining Rod. I had imagined a “deterministic” answer to this question originally. See if you can figure out how Rod breaks this question.

4) What must happen for all of your units to simultaneously be transformed into 12/12 Carnasaurs?

5) Casting as few cards as possible (and full cooperation of the opponent) how can you create a 100 cost Golem? Credit to /u/strayfeathers.

Answers

1) There is no way to deal truly massive amounts of damage at “fast speed” with conventional fast spells. The most damaging fast spell is Mortar, and even with a board filled with copies of Boltcrafter Shaman each copy of Mortar is dealing only 28 damage, meaning a full hand of Mortars deals 336 damage. More damage can be dealt by functionally casting regular spells at “fast speed”. If you have a Calderan Gunsmith with revenge (through effects like Swear Vengeance) die, then play a West-Wind Herald you can then Celestial Omen for the Gunsmith to cast a spell from your void at “fast speed”. If you have 500+ power (which is possible) and have a Flame Blast in the void you can deal 500+ damage by casting Celestial Omen.

2) Although it is possible to never run out of cards by giving a copy of Second Sight the echo ability, I don’t believe it is possible to actually increase the total deck size. One method that does work for increasing deck size is using “infinite” Maktos. First you must give Makto Echo through the use of Elysian Pathfinder or Crown of Possibilities. You can now fill your board with copies of Makto. Imagine you had a board full of Makto each with echo and no cards in your deck. You cast Harsh Rule, so you now have 12 cards in deck. On your next turn you draw a card, which is obviously a Makto with destiny. These are played, and you draw 2 more Maktos, etc. After 6 cards from the deck are drawn you will begin needing to sacrifice Maktos to play more Maktos. This will continue until your hand is over-full, at which point the revenge on the sacrificed Maktos will trigger, refilling your deck. Now destiny on some of the extra Maktos in hand will trigger, causing a loop where you basically are continuing to sacrifice and play Maktos, discarding a large number of them to maximum hand size as well. This will continue until the “free card limit” is reached, at which point you will be left with a hand full of Maktos, a board full of Maktos, and a few Maktos in your deck will have a few copies of Makto as well. You can now play all the Maktos in hand sacrificing those on board, to add 12 cards to your deck (assuming you have 60 power). This cycle will repeat next turn, adding 12 cards to your deck each time.

3) Several people have proposed lines involving not only controlling the cards that are drawn but also some RNG that happens afterwards. I will work through some examples. If you think you have a better answer to any situation, be sure to let me know!

If Crown were allowed (as it was originally)

T1 – Seat of Wisdom, Initiate of Sands

T2 – Sigil, Crown of Possibility

T3 – Draw Vodakhan with destiny, followed by Voice of the Speaker with destiny, followed by Mystic Ascendant with destiny, followed by a bunch of power. You are now able to draw your deck, and can give units charge through a combination of Crown, Warhelm and Accelerate. It is pretty from this point to deal 1000’s of damage.

Using Curiox (credit to /u/Sliver_Legion for inspiration)

T0 – Opening hand is Time Sigil, Skycrag Banner, Initiate of Sands x4, Curiox

T1 – Draw Dragon’s Eye, Play Time Sigil, Initiate of Sands

T2 – Draw Curiox, play Skycrag Banner and 3x Initiate of Sands. Play Dragon’s Eye and draw Curiox x2 and Dragon’s Eye. Hand is now 3x Curiox, Dragon’s Eye.

T3 – Draw Dragon’s Eye. Play Dragon’s Eye. Draw Feln Banner, Curiox, Dragon’s Eye. Play Feln Banner. Hand is now 4x Curiox, Dragon’s Eye. 7 power is available.

Play Dragon’s Eye, draw Dragon’s Eye, Kindle, and Nictotraxian giving Curiox. Hand is now 5x Curiox, 1x Nictrotraxian, Kindle, Dragon’s Eye.

Play Dragon’s Eye, Draw Dragon’s Eye, Kindle, Torch. Play Torch, 2x Kindle. Hand is now 5x Curiox, Nictotraxian, Dragon’s Eye. 10 power is available.

Play Dragon’s Eye, Draw Dragon’s Eye, Kindle, West-Wind Herald. Play West-Wind Herald, Kindle. Hand is now 5x Curiox, Nictotraxian, Dragon’s Eye. 7 power is available.

Play Dragon’s Eye, Draw Cabal Spymaster, Warhelm, Herald’s Song. Play Herald’s Song, draw and discard Bad News. Play Cabal Spymaster and Warhelm on West-Wind Herald.

From this point you get infinite attack steps using West-Wind Herald + Cabal Spymaster + Bad News Combo.

If Divining Rod is allowed (as it was originally)

T1 – Seat of Impulse, Initiate of Sands

T2 – Seat of Impulse, Initiate of Sands, Initiate of Sands, Initiate of Sands.

T3 – Sigil, Alluring Ember, play Divining Rod, hit Kaleb and 3x Censari Brigand off Rod.

Kaleb plays Fist of Rolant on all other charge units, but plays another Divining Rod on himself. This Rod hits Kaleb x3 and 1x Censari Brigand. 2 of the Kalebs play Fist of Rolant on everything, but the last one plays a Twinbarrel on everything.

This is over 500 damage. It might be possible to increase damage by playing a combination of Hunter Harpoons and Hellfire Rifiles on units to draw cards and gain access to a bunch of Kindles and Trail Stories. Hard to solve all the possibilities there.

Using Nictotraxian

T1 – Draw 3 Nictotraxians, each giving a Sand Warrior. Play them all. Play Fire Sigil, Horus Traver for Fire influence.

T2 – Attack with everything (10 damage). Play 4 x Sindok.

T3 – Attack with everything (38 damage). Play Torch.

10 + 38 + 3 = 51 damage

Using North-Wind Herald

T1 – Fire Sigil, 1x Trail Stories on Rally, Seek Power for Fire Sigil, play NWH x3

T2 – Attack with everything (9 damage), play Fire Sigil, 2x Sindok

T3 – Play Spiked Helm, Rally, attack for 9 + 14 +10 +1.

9 + 9 + 10 + 14 + 1 = 43 damage

Using Kindle

T1 – Seat of Impulse, Initiate of Sands

T2 – Sigil, Forge Wolf, Trail Stories, Kindle, Jito, North-Wind Herald, attack with everything, Rally (1 + 3 + 3 +8 = 15 damage).

T3 – Rally and attack with everything (14 damage).

15 + 14 = 29 damage

4) Your opponent has a Xenan Obelisk in play, activates Siraf, gets a Shimmerpack and targets all of your units with Shimmerpack’s summon ability. In response to the ability you target the Shimmerpack with a copy of Tyrannize. The Shimmerpack ability works such that if it is transformed into a different unit before the summon ability resolves the targets of the ability will transform into the transformed unit rather than a Shimmerpack. The resulting Carnasaur would be a 5/5 base, boosted to a 7/7 with the Xenan Obelisk, which is then doubled as a result of Siraf’s ability, causing the unit to be a 14/14. Since your units do not have a Xenan Obelisk affecting them they become 12/12s.

5) You have a North-Wind Herald in hand. Your opponent plays either Slow or Time Weaver 5 times targeting the North-Wind Herald. The cost of North-Wind Herald will max out at 99. You can then play two spells to play the North-Wind Herald for free. On your next turn you can cast one copy of Unstable Form on the 99 cost North-Wind Herald to turn it into a 99 cost Golem.

An alternative solution used Lurking Sanguar over North-Wind Herald.

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