Puzzle: Can you find the line to victory?

[CleanBelwas]

I played a game last night that ended in a game that felt like one of those fun "how do you win from here?" puzzles they often have for Chess (and I believe there was an old magazine that used to do MTG versions). I was going to post in "Games You've Enjoyed" but thought it presented a potentially fun new thread for us all to get involved in.

I thought I'd share the board state with you wonderful lot as a bit of fun to see if you find the line I found or if there was a better way I could have done it.

DISCLAIMER: This isn't a particularly difficult line to find. It will likely be the second thing you think of after the first and most obvious line proves insufficient, but I thought it would be fun and hopefully encourage others to post similar puzzles for us all to have a go at.

Here are the relevant details pertaining to the board state.

2 players left in the game.

Your (my) game state:

Commander: Auntie Blyte, Bad Influence

Life total: 7

Board:
8 x Basic Mountain
A Vulshok Sorcerer equipped with Illusionist's Bracers
A Rampaging Ferocidon equipped with Swiftfoot Boots
Commander is in command zone and has been cast from command zone once this game.

Cards in hand:
3 x Basic Mountain
1 x Shunt
1 x Key to the City
1 x Sulfuric Vortex

Bunch of stuff in the graveyard that's not relevant, but includes an Arcbond that blew out the Lathril player in such glorious fashion. It was beautiful.

Remaining Opponent is at 9, no blockers, no mana open

They were playing an upgraded Atarka Commander Starter deck and had just used their resources to administer a savage dragon beatdown and kill the Lathril player who put us down to our low life totals on turn 5 thanks to Ezuri. Not relevant to the puzzle, but some fun context given that this is from a real game.

So, it's your first main phase. How do you win from here?

Here's the line I took.


Play a land for turn. 9 mana available total.
Use 5 mana to play Auntie Blyte. Take 1 from Dino. 1 counter on Auntie. Life total is 6. 4 mana left.
Use 1 mana to equip with Swifty boots to Auntie. 3 mana left.
Tap Sorcerer, get two pings because of Bracers. Target myself with both pings. Life total becomes 4. Auntie Blyte gets two +1/+1 counters and is now a 5/5 flyer with haste.
Attack with Auntie and Dino for 8. Opponent at 1.
Second main phase, use the final 3 mana to play Vortex. Opponent dies on upkeep.



UPDATE:
To provide context for the below comments, originally when I posted this I missed the counter Auntie gets from Dino ping and started opponent at 8, which meant combat would have been lethal (which is what happened in real life).
For the sake of keeping the puzzle interesting, I edited it and started opponent at 9.

[Morganator 2.0]

When you take the damage from Ferocidon Blyte is on the battlefield, so she gets a counter. By following the rest of the sequence you posted, she's a 5/5 when attacking. You deal 8 damage in combat. Win.

[CleanBelwas]

When you take the damage from Ferocidon Blyte is on the battlefield, so she gets a counter. By following the rest of the sequence you posted, she's a 5/5 when attacking. You deal 8 damage in combat. Win.

Oh shit. Of course. That's why I put the damn dinosaur in the deck.

Now I'm trying to remember which part I misremembered. Did we catch that and my opponent was actually at 9 or did I miss it the first time too? Probably the latter.

UPDATE:

For the sake of the puzzle being moderately interesting, I updated it to start the opponent at 9. I think I just missed it in the real game, but this is more fun.

[ApothecaryGeist]

You know you don't need to ping yourself with the Vulshok Sorcerer?  Same result, except you don't lose life.


Cast Commander.  Dino trigger; you take 1 damage and Auntie gets 1 counter.
Ping opponent with the sorcerer.  Opponent at 7 life.
Equip Auntie with boots.
Swing with Auntie (3/3) and dino.  Opponent at 1 life.
Slap down Sulfuric Vortex post combat.
Win in opponent's upkeep.  You still have 6 life just in case opponent can gain life during upkeep.

[Aetherium Slinky]

Play a Mountane. Cast commander. There are now 4 untapped Mountains. Ferocidon deals 1 damage to you leaving you at 6 life. That triggers the commander putting a +1/+1 counter on it. Ping yourself with the Sorcerer twice putting another 2 +1/+1 counters on it leaving you at 4 life. Equip Boots to commander leaving you at 3 mana. Equip Bracers to commander leaving you with no untapped Mountains. Remove 3 +1/+1 counters from the commander with its own ability targeting your opponent leaving them at 3 life. Move to combat and swing with Ferocidon for lethal.
Wait I miscounted my mana somehow. Shoot. Nevermind.

Here's an alternative line I found:

Play a Mountane. Cast commander. There are now 4 untapped Mountains. Ferocidon deals 1 damage to you leaving you at 6 life. That triggers the commander putting a +1/+1 counter on it. Equip Boots to commander leaving you with 3 untapped Mountains. Move to combat and swing with commander and Ferocidon for 6 damage leaving the opponent at 3 life. Tap Sorcerer to deal another 2 damage to your opponent leaving them at 1. Play Vortex leaving you with no untapped Mountains. Pass turn, in their upkeep Vortex trigger for 2 (lethal) damage.

Correct me if I'm wrong but there does not exist a card one could play at instant speed in Gruul colours that could prevent the Vortex upkeep trigger. However... They could burn your face for 6 at instant speed while the trigger is on the stack which would save them. Desperate <prevent automatic linking> Gam<again>bit actually does change the target of the damage but who plays that? Also it's literally 50/50 whether they survive or not.

I think the first line is safer if it was possible but I guess the second line works as well if you know your opponent's deck well enough.