How To Solve "Near Death" Magic 2014 Advanced Challenge

How To Solve the Advanced Challenge "Near Death"

This is another easy advanced challenge in the Magic 2014 Duels of the Planeswalkers.  Well, it should be easy for regular players, but if you new to Magic the Gathering it may be a bit confusing.  If you are stuck on the "Near Death" advanced challenge, then here is the solution.

"Use your opponent's onslaught to steal victory from the jaws of defeat."

Near Death Solution

This advanced challenge starts with your opponent attacking you with all of his creatures.  If you notice the Primal Rage enchantment he has in play gives all of his creatures Trample.  Our lone enchantment in play is Near-Death Experience, which is the key to winning this challenge.  Near-Death Experience reads: "At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have exactly 1 life, you win the game."  So our goal is to survive the onslaught and end up with exactly 1 life remaining so that we win on our next upkeep phase.

The opponent starts this turn attacking with all of his creatures, that get buffed bigger and all have Trample.  With Trample any remaining damage not absorbed by the defending blockers spills over onto us, so to figure out how to complete this advanced challenge, we start with a little bit of math.

• Our starting life is 2
• 4 attackers with a total attack power of 22
• Our 3 total blockers toughness equals 11
• Our 2 creatures with lifelink Power totals of 9

So 22 attack, minus 11 damage absorbed by our creatures leaves 11 to spill over as Trample damage.  Our 2 creatures with lifelink will heal us for 9 life, which would leave us at 0 life (2-11+9=0).  Both of the creatures with lifelink (provided by the Scourge of Nobilis enchant) also have the ability to extra damage for mana spent, which will in turn allow us to gain more life via lifelink.  So since if we block all creatures without spending extra mana on the attack power of the creatures with lifelink it would reduce us to Zero life, we need to spend just 1 mana to buff either creature with lifelink's power, to get us to a remaining 1 life.  So here we go:

Near Death Blockers Assigned

Near Death Solution:

1. Block 3 of the 4 attacking creatures with our 3 blockers
1. Basadra, Battle Seraph blocks Primordial Hydra
2. Glory Seeker with Scourage of Nobilis blocks Fangren Firstborn
3. Other Glory Seeker blocks either Elephant.
2. Spend 1 mana on either of the creatures with Scourge of Nobilis to do one extra damage so we get 1 more life from the Lifelink.
3. Survive with 1 life and win via Near-Death Experience on our upkeep phase.

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