One of the most fun cards in magic. Combo with Underworld Dreams to cause a great deal of trouble.
sweetestsadist
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(10 votes)
YES! YES! Teferi's puzzle box! Now this is a card! It puts the fun in Mafungic: the Gathering. I love this card. Twists the rules, comborific, and simple.
Having issues understanding the interation between this card and Chains.
Can someone break it down for me please?
Artscrafter
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@Guest: This is just my own theoretical interpretation, but here's how I'd expect this and Chains to work together:
Step 1: Player gets their normal draw. Step 2: Player puts their hand on the bottom of the deck. Step 3: Player attempts to draw X cards, where X was the number of cards they had. Because at this point they cannot discard cards, it instead mills them for X and they draw nothing. (For any turn after the first, X will be 1.)
In effect, once both are in play, all players end up with no cards in hand when their draw step concludes and are unable to draw any others via effects - so it's basically total lockdown of anyone playing any cards for the rest of the game unless someone has an effect on the table that can kill one of the pieces of the combo. Players could still play instants while the puzzle box effect is on the stack.
Looks like it works really well with Scroll Rack. Protect your goodstuff cards from being put to the bottom by putting them on top of your library. I like it.
Ukkmaster
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Combine this with Niv-Mizzet and the innumerable combos that you can with around this with him and things get really interesting. It is a creative card that is just fun to have in play and usually causes people to give you a look when you use it. Though I do prefer the original Vision's art myself.
thisisnotmyname
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
This ain't no puzzle box! It's a box o' answers!
My favorite card ever printed. Ever.
/edit After playing with this in EDH quite a bit, this always is the first thing to go.
puzzle box out. One of my opponents cast his general. Everyone looks at me surprised it wasn't countered (yes, I can counter everything.) I cast power sink followed by capsize. He can get his general back in nine turns, but that is the soonest.
Cqis
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Dr. Birkin: If I recall correctly, you choose the order of activation and resolves where holing mine and the puzzle box are concerend, so you may resolve it to draw 2 cards then put your hand on the bottom of the deck and draw a new hand, or you may do the one card draw, place your hand on the bottom, renew your hand, then draw the mine's card.
@Ipsilont: What, you don't know how to peel the stickers off?
JaxsonBateman
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
If they ever reprint this card, they definitely need reminder text on it about the special action of drawing still taking place first. Played a fella today who kept ditching his cards to the bottom before drawing, despite me telling him a few times that logically it wouldn't work like that (based on the CR), and then giving him the ruling.
DacenOctavio
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
!!MAGIC PICKUP LINES!!
"Are you Teferi's Puzzle Box, because I wanna put my hand on your bottom."
applecorn
★★★☆☆ (3.0/5.0)(1 vote)
@Megrimage, Guest1868954347, Chains of Mephistopheles would leave to a rather dull game. Nothing further would happen, from your hands. You would start your turn, Untap Upkeep Draw. During Draw you'd take the top card of your library and say "oh yes, needed this!" Then proceed to using the Puzzle Box. Count the cards now in your hand (X from last turn +1 just drew). Place all these, on the bottom of your library and then ... because it's no longer your first card per turn ... Chains would be used. You cannot discard a card to allow drawing, your hand is empty, so your top card goes into your graveyard. This is preformed for the remainder X cards. Main phase, nothing to cast proceed to abilities. Combat and 2nd Main phase. Good news; don't have to worry about discarding during your endstep. This would be spun around until you or opponent milled out. Though for placing grave-user now in proper zone, could still pull them out ... unless oops, Grafdigger's Cage.
EDIT: @ Aquillion, No it doesn't cause "opponent ...". It causes "player ...". Read both cards.
Manite
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Zedruu likes cards that do the same thing no matter who controls them.
In the case where you AREN'T abusing this, note that it is frequently wrong to play your lands. Playing lands turns your deck into a land-heavy deck, which is only good in the turns BEFORE casting this. If you need them to cast things go ahead, but if you would prefer to have access to another spell, keep them in hand. Playing lands is a great way to deplete your hand and limit your options.
Aquillion
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
In a combo with Chains of Mephistopheles, this causes both players to send their entire hand to the bottom of their library each draw phase, then discard that many cards from the top of their library to their graveyard.
A more useful application is Notion Thief; since your normal draw comes first, this combo means your opponent will never have a hand again.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is the combo maker card. Because an opponent is drawing 7 or so cards could really explode on some triggers, like notion thief or whatever.
Comments (33)
Edit: My bad. Qazior is right.
"10/4/2004 You do your normal draw before this ability is put on the stack."
Can someone break it down for me please?
Step 1: Player gets their normal draw.
Step 2: Player puts their hand on the bottom of the deck.
Step 3: Player attempts to draw X cards, where X was the number of cards they had. Because at this point they cannot discard cards, it instead mills them for X and they draw nothing. (For any turn after the first, X will be 1.)
In effect, once both are in play, all players end up with no cards in hand when their draw step concludes and are unable to draw any others via effects - so it's basically total lockdown of anyone playing any cards for the rest of the game unless someone has an effect on the table that can kill one of the pieces of the combo. Players could still play instants while the puzzle box effect is on the stack.
It is a creative card that is just fun to have in play and usually causes people to give you a look when you use it. Though I do prefer the original Vision's art myself.
My favorite card ever printed. Ever.
/edit
After playing with this in EDH quite a bit, this always is the first thing to go.
puzzle box out. One of my opponents cast his general. Everyone looks at me surprised it wasn't countered (yes, I can counter everything.) I cast power sink followed by capsize. He can get his general back in nine turns, but that is the soonest.
Please correct me if I am wrong anyone.
(mind explodes)
"Are you Teferi's Puzzle Box, because I wanna put my hand on your bottom."
Chains of Mephistopheles would leave to a rather dull game. Nothing further would happen, from your hands. You would start your turn, Untap Upkeep Draw. During Draw you'd take the top card of your library and say "oh yes, needed this!" Then proceed to using the Puzzle Box. Count the cards now in your hand (X from last turn +1 just drew). Place all these, on the bottom of your library and then ... because it's no longer your first card per turn ... Chains would be used. You cannot discard a card to allow drawing, your hand is empty, so your top card goes into your graveyard. This is preformed for the remainder X cards. Main phase, nothing to cast proceed to abilities. Combat and 2nd Main phase. Good news; don't have to worry about discarding during your endstep. This would be spun around until you or opponent milled out. Though for placing grave-user now in proper zone, could still pull them out ... unless oops, Grafdigger's Cage.
EDIT:
@ Aquillion,
No it doesn't cause "opponent ...". It causes "player ...". Read both cards.
A more useful application is Notion Thief; since your normal draw comes first, this combo means your opponent will never have a hand again.