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How well do you know the morphs of Khans of Tarkir? Try out the following quiz and see if you can figure out what your opponents are up to. The answer key can be found at the bottom of this article.
1. You have a face-down Sagu Mauler, and just enough mana to flip it. Your opponent has a face-down morph, as well, with zero cards in hand. He is playing a Temur deck and has UURRGG up. There's no way you can lose this combat if you attack, right?
2. It's your turn, and you have a Throttle in hand that you can cast. Your opponent is playing Sultai and is tapped out, with a single morph on board. What's the worst thing that can happen if you pull the trigger on your Throttle right now?
3. You tapped out last turn to play Riverwheel Aerialists, and now your Mardu opponent is attacking you with a morph. She has WRBB up and no cards in hand. Is there any reason you shouldn't block?
4. Your opponent is at four life and you're at two. In play, you have a face-down Efreet Weaponmaster and a 1/1 Warrior token. You have WWUUR up and no cards in hand. Your opponent has only one face-down morph out, with WUBRGG available, and also no cards in hand. You just win here, right?
5. You and your opponent are both at four life. You just attacked and have no untapped creatures. Her creatures, a face-down morph and a Wingmate Roc token, are also tapped. You're dead to her crack back, but you have Arrow Storm in hand and the mana to cast it. What's the correct target?
The Answer Key
I've thought through a number of scenarios here and have tried to cover for contingencies, but I am well aware that I'm not perfect and that alternate answers to these questions may exist. If you have another answer that works, I'd love to hear it in the comments section.
1. You thought you couldn't lose that combat, but that was silly, because your opponent was clearly representing what is probably the best common morph in the set:
2. If you cast Throttle here, not much can go wrong. The worst thing that can happen is that your opponent reveals a blue card and turns this face up:
3. I mean, if you want to trade for Canyon Lurkers to preserve your life total, blocking could be okay. In general, though, I don't expect that's a trade you'd like to make.
4. You would just win, except for the fact that your opponent flipped her Ponyback Brigade, blocked both your attackers, and cracked back for the victory.
5. You could target your opponent's face here, but would be disappointed to find her revealing a white card to turn Watcher of the Roost face up, putting her at one life after your Arrow Storm resolved. Ouch.
This last one is tough, though. If you target the Wingmate Roc token and depend on your next attack to kill your opponent, she could turn a four-or-more-power morph face up and just win. Unless you had seen Watcher of the Roost and had reason to believe this morph might be it, targeting the opponent's face here is still probably the right play—even if it does just lose. What do you think?
I hope this was enjoyable and that I didn't blatantly miss some obvious alternate answers. If I did, I trust you'll let me know.
This was fun. Thanks.
Scenario 5 is a complicated one. I like targeting the opponent’s face here. One way of looking at this is you are forcing your opponent to have Watcher of the Roost. That is exactly one and only one specific card that can save him. However if you target one of the creatures you give your opponent multiple ways to win on the crack back. I prefer my opponent to have only one rather than multiple outs.
I agree with this, reducing your opponent to exactly one answer sky rockets your chances at winning. In that scenario I think you just need to let there not be any more draw steps.
Agreed. Target face.
#2: I mean, the WORST is that they turn up Ruthless Ripper and you were at 2 or fewer life…
Ruth was an ever-looming threat to these questions. I guess I should have specified a life total for this one, but presumably your opponent would have already killed you if given the chance, right?
3. Ruthless Ripper would be pretty upsetting too.
4. Abzan Guide blocking the 1/1 leaves your opponent in a very bad spot but surviving for one more turn.
3. The opponent has no cards in hand.
4. I thought about this and originally removed green mana from the equation, but in fact, the Efreet Weaponmaster wins with first strike damage before the lifegain happens.
Of course it does, nicely played sir.
In fact Ruthless Ripper is a pretty nasty surprise for most of these and wins the game for them in 5 as well.
Most of these specify that the opponent is empty-handed, and I don’t see how they win in scenario 5 with Ruthless Ripper. Please advise.
Sorry, I thought we were at 2 for 5. My mistake.
#4 you can’t beat Ponyback Brigade in that spot, so you have to attack. If they have it – you lose, if not – you win.
The way you said it is correct, but not attacking won’t change anything for you if they really do have Ponyback Brigade.
4 has the alternate solution of watcher of the roost blocking the token. They’re still in a bad spot but they could still win. Also, nice quiz.
Opponent has no cards in hand.
Icefeather Aven however would also work as stated by koen_knx.
#5 I think it’s pretty unreal when I’m at 4 life and my oponent is a lot higher i would attack with all my creatures. I would just kill the token and wait. Also, the morph could be a spellsnatcher !
#4 technically he can unmorph an icefeather aven and live another turn 🙂
Got (#3 and 5). Can’t believe I missed Woolly Loxodon @_@
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