The Risky Riddles Six Feet Under competition is over and the contestants did some magnificent things with their KO’d piles. Over fifty entries from six different countries achieved double-digit “In and Out” totals. Every time a character was placed in the KO’d pile from play, one In point was given. When a character card left the KO’d pile, an Out point was received. The challenge was to get as many In and Out points as possible. However, to make the riddle more difficult, both totals needed to be equal. Since discard effects did not count toward the totals, our contestants needed to find the trickiest ways to get the most characters into play. They succeeded in spades.

Eduardo Castro from Chile achieved ten In and Out points after intentionally making things more difficult by playing Mikado and Mosha instead of Lilith. Very stylish, but not our winner.

Delmair from the Philippines had a plan. “This solution aims to use all possible Marvel Modern Age teams. During the course of the solution, each team should have contributed something to the solution via a team-stamped or pseudo team–stamped plot twist, character, location, or so forth. I’ll use all possible teams in the Modern Age. Given such a template, I hope to open up a jar of infinite possibilities, because any card in the format may be plugged in to the solution.” Delmair succeeded, totaling fourteen In and Out points in the process. He was still not our winner.

The first Risky Riddle winner, Mike Malaspina, also achieved fourteen In and Out points, and he forced his opponent to exclaim, “Who the heck plays Alley-Oop!?” His entry fell just short of the prize this time.

Dan Royer and Ben Johnson both finished with flair, KO’ing Doop, Forward Observer for the final Out point to make the totals equal. They both won the game by a margin of more than 150 endurance. They had seventeen and twenty In and Out points, respectively. They still did not win—the competition in Risky Riddles is fierce.

That brings us to our runner-up, winner of six packs each of Web of Spider-Man and Marvel Knights.

Mark Poulton was one of only two contestants that got over twenty In and Out points. He reached 25. His fantasy deck had a very catchy title and it looked like this:

Chameleon in a Blender

1 Prowler

2 Aunt May

2 Wild Pack

1 Shadowcat

2 Terrax

1 Hannibal King

1 Punisher, Judge

1 Sniper

1 Lilith

1 Deacon Frost

5 New Blood

1 Shelob

2 Professor X, Mutant Mentor

1 Valeria Richards

3 Hounds of Ahab

1 Going My Way?

1 Unexpected Mutation

1 Devil’s Due

3 Next Generation Technology

1 Breaking Story

1 Falling Stars

4 Glory Hound

3 Evil Awakens

1 Hypnotic Charms

1 Strength of the Grave

4 Moving Target

4 Hell’s Fury

4 Blown to Pieces

1 Daily Bugle

1 Decoy Program

4 Mystic Chain

By the end of turn 2, Mark had Prowler, Shelob, and Crash Dummy 1 (stolen by Lilith) all equipped with a Mystic Chain. Thanks to Moving Target and Blown to Pieces, none of them got stunned on defense. On turn 3, with multiple copies of Hell’s Fury eventually replaced by Daily Bugle to recycle Breaking Story, many cards were drawn and all opposing dummies were stunned. The fourth turn got funky, as five characters were recruited on Mark’s side thanks to Aunt May’s alternate recruit cost, and Decoy Program was equipped to a New Blood thanks to the tremendous team-up power of Hypnotic Charms. Hounds of Ahab and Punisher, Judge both helped add to the In points, and the climax was at hand. On turn 5, in a scene that should never occur outside the world of Risky Riddles, Mark Poulton recruited Deacon Frost with three points of boost, followed by a sweet pair of alternately recruited Aunt Mays. It was a special moment. After a slew of Next Generation Technology to build up the sacrificial board advantage, eight characters were KO’d to Devil’s Due and Aunt May stood alone with a bunch of counters. Then, in Mark’s own words, “Aunt May wound up and attacked.” Strength of the Grave pushed the Out points up to 25, and our favorite little old lady swung for 26 ATK. Then, in a stroke of genius, Aunt May KO’d herself to Devil’s Due for the final In point.

Our winner for this riddle, all the way from Finland, is Joel Haslam. He will be the recipient of one custom box of Marvel Modern Age goodness that includes twelve packs of Web of Spider-Man and twelve packs of Marvel Knights. He actually pushed the In and Out point totals up to 27 after three successful tries at lower levels. His initial solutions were strictly focused upon Rocket Racer, but in the end, he taught us to “respect Gin Genie, Mullet-Girl of the Marvel Modern Age.”

On his way to the highest KO manipulation total, Joel Haslam discovered that Beckah Parker is extremely useful in this kind of exercise. Since we are playing in a virtual world of topdeck possibilities, Gin Genie provides the chance to double the available resource effects with each turn. Doop Cam allows Gin Genie’s replacement effect to be maximized, as all characters become X-Statix. This allows the extra uses of Next Generation Technology that made Joel Haslam the KO’d pile champion. Joel also discovered that X-Statix had been given one of the few Marvel Modern Age effects that ready characters. Never Give Up! is a powerful card with a prohibitive drawback, perfect for these rare occasions when you are blessed with the perfect hand. Joel also included unusual appearances of characters such as Vanessa Fisk, and his final In point was actually made possible by Infernal Gateway.

Joel Haslam had a vision. He wanted this to be the “Ultimate Rocket Racer.” Thanks to Hypnotic Charms, this solution allowed Robert Farrell to be the proud bearer of eleven different team affiliations. The fictional game ended with extreme style as Rocket Racer attacked directly for 32 and then evaded. With one more In point needed to equal the groundbreaking Out point total of 27, Joel played a Penance Stare for finesse.

Thanks to all who toiled in the Risky Riddle soil. I appreciate the amount of effort and dedication the solutions demanded. I also appreciate all the ideas that our readers provided for future challenges. Please keep them coming. I’m glad that the community enjoys these contests as much as we do. A special thanks to Tay Howland and Chad Daniel for some additional rules checks and some great ideas for these contests.

You can put away the shovel now and wash the dirt off your hands. The KO’d pile has been conquered . . . until the next Risky Riddle, at least.