Can you solve the wizard standoff riddle? - Dan Finkel

You’ve been chosen as a champion to represent your wizarding house in a deadly duel against two rival magic schools. Your opponents are a powerful sorcerer who wields a wand that can turn people into fish, and a powerful enchantress who wields a wand that turns people into statues. Can you choose a wand and devise a strategy that ensures you will win the duel? Dan Finkel shows how.

Lesson by Dan Finkel, animation by Artrake Studio.

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[fieryskipper]

I would pick the Noether 5000 because I could just banish myself to the top of a mountain and survive the duel.

[artemisia]

“There’s still a 3% chance that you’ll all be turned into cats.”

I’m okay with that.

[calumrobertson]

“Rules stipulate casting with a wand, but say nothing about beating a man to death and then casting.”
~Sun Tzu, probably

[hznd]

I picked the 60% wand using rules of probability and assuming that the other wizards will attack whoever is the most dangerous existing wizard. My concern with this puzzle is that it is not stated in the rules that you can miss on purpose.

[plethoras]

Me: gets the Noether 9000 and banishes the referee

Freeplay mode has been activated

[ricksimon]

Well, it has been pointed out a million times, but once more: You did not say that missing on purpose was an option.

[jarrodvullo]

Narrator: "The rules of magic duels are strict"
Also Narrator: "So cheese the rules to win the magic duel"

[ToastyRaviolii]

Take the middle wand, pretend to fire a spell and pretend it doesn't hit, second wizard assumes it's his turn and tries to hit the third wizard because she's most dangerous, she gets turned into a fish and he gets disqualified because he fired out of turn. Bam, solved 😎

[joncierge]

Disappointed that the answer involves “missing on purpose” when that wasn’t offered as a solution. Stabbing the other wizards with a wand would also work, even though it wasn’t listed as an option.

[luketownsend]

The apples are a 70% survival either way. Unless you miss your mouth on purpose.

[kamelo]

Keep in mind how there wasnt a rule stating i couldnt just dodge

[cisselah]

Obviously, the most humane solution is to find out who my opponents are before the duel, then integrate myself with one of them. I become a friend, a companion, a listening ear and sympathetic shoulder to cry on. Slowly, I start to learn their secrets, their fears, their habits down to the shoesizes.

I start to fit into their lives, a steady presence that stays with them even when their other friends betray them and leave (possibly with some help). I touch them softly, speak to them patiently. Slowly, they fall in love. One day, when I'm sure I have them, I ask them out. They agree. I take them to a fancy restaurant, or a movie, or something else I know they like. We start dating. I bring them flowers, presents... I tell them they are the most beautiful thing in the universe to me, the most magical thing I have ever seen. I tell them how my heart skips a beat when I see them, how their embrace comforts me and I feel safe in their arms. How I want to build a life with them.
They agree.

I start making plans. I buy them a ring. I propose. We have a wedding, a perfect dream wedding, all according to their wishes. Afterwards, we get a mortage and a house. We settle down in a quiet neighbourhood. We wake up i the same bed in the morning, facing each other with smiles. WE eat breakfast and drink coffee sitting at the same table, our hands brusing as we reach for the toast at the same time. When we go to work we say goodbye to a kiss and a 'love you'.
Time passes. We start talking about children. We're not sure we want them, but we're thinking about it. After months and months of consideration, we finally agree we want babies, and not long thereafter, we welcome our first child. And our second. And third.

Things start to get rough. Changing diapers and working and doing household chores aren't easy, especially with three kids climbing the walls. We start to drift apart. Work keeps us seperate in the days, the kids in the evenings. We have fights. We scream at each other when we think the kids can't hear, and we go to bed facing the walls, a line of pillows between us. I start drinking, they start going out, reconnecting with their friends. They go to bars, to nightclubs. There, they meet someone. Let's call them Robin.
Robin is perfect. They're nice and kind and polite, and everything I was but now aren't. They start hanging out. They exchange numbers. It's innocent, just a friendship between two adults, both capable of friendships.
One day, Robin kisses them. They suddenly realize what's going on. They tear themselves from Robin, apologizing and explaining they are married, they can't do that. They don't wait for an answer. They take a cab home and sneak inside the house right after midnight. They go straight up to the kids' room, looking at them from the doorframe, letting the guilt of almost ruining our perfect life brew inside of them. A hand lands on their shoulder. It is me. I've been waiting for them to come home, and now I'm looking at them softly and lovingly, almost like the old me used to be.
They break down, admitting to their wrongdoing. It's okay though, I forgive them. I tell them I love them. It's fine. We'll get couple therapy.

We get couple therapy.

The years passes. The kids grow. Suddenly, we are seeing our oldest off to college. Then the second.
We start preparing for retirement. A vacation would be nice, we decide, to Greece maybe, or Italy. Maybe Egypt if we decide we wanna see the pyramids.
Our third kid starts approaching college age, and soon, they too leave.
We are left alone, in a house full of memories, rings on our fingers, grey in our hair. We smile at each other, and we go to sleep in the same bed, facing each other with tender eyes.
Then one day, a message arrives for my spouse. It's a reminder for the Duel that is coming up in a few days, and my spouse looks at me with conflicted eyes. They tell me they have something to do, and they'll have to go away for a few days, but they'll be back soon, and then maybe we can go to Mallorca, or Spain?
I smile and agree,

Three days later, we face each other in the ring. I'm holding the 100% wand, my hands are clammy. I have the first go, so I point my wand at the stranger third party and banish them to a mountiantop. They vanish. Now it's my spouse's turn. They are trembling. They can't believe this is happening. It's just them or me now, and one of us has to go, but they can't bear to hurt me, our children's parent. In a fit of desperation, they turn the wand on themselves, finding this the most merciful solution.

The spell misfires. They look up, relief at not dying/being turned into a fish/statue. They smile at me, and I smile back, just as I have every morning for all our years.

I point my 100% wand at them, and banish them to a lonely mountain top.


Problem solved.

[unclesam]

The rules state the winner is the last wizard “standing.” Therefore, standing on a cold mountain after casting the 100% spell on yourself is the most forcing move given the rules of the game.

[fabianglathe]

There’s just one problem: after those two genius strategists misfire on purpose, the enchantress realizes she’s been setup from the beginning. She looks at your weapon. Instead of the peaceful option that just teleports you, you chose a wand that strangles people to death with vines. Considering her options, enchantress decides that becoming a cat definitely better than death and about 100 times better than becoming a fish, so cat is the best outcome for her, and also misses on purpose. Y‘all are cats now.

[LaCafedora]

Reminder: this is a deadly duel. To be eliminated, there can be only one wizard left alive. Simply being transported or transmogrified is insufficient to eliminate a player. After the shapeshifting, we must presume that a player walks over to the helpless wizard and beats them to death. Gruesome but logically following given the rules.

Therefor I banish Wizard number 2 to a mountaintop. Now wizard number 3 must wait until wizard number 2 either dies or takes his turn. Determining either of these conditions is not going to be easy, seeing as the other wizard is far away, and unobserved by anyone. If they cast before he acts, then they are disqualified, at which point I just need to wait until the missing wizard dies of hypothermia. To take their turn, Wizard 3 must go find Wizard 2. They both die from hypothermia and I win.

[wezajamison-neto]

The problem about this is we're assuming the adversaries have the information on all your wands. The narrator never specifically said the other wizard had all the info on your end and they're probabilities. Realistically, this wouldn't work out because even if you know your opponents strengths and abilities, that's not to at they know yours. If they didn't know your wands probabilities they wouldn't bend done this most likely, but I understand the concept.

[solar_panei]

“You have been chosen as a champion”
*and that, my friends, is where it all went wrong*

[sarahtwitt]

This is just like the
"What's green and has wheels"
"Grass i lied about the wheels"
It has an aspect that isn't specified

[zachzytnick]

For the bonus riddle, the odds of surviving the duel are the same regardless of which bowl you pick. Consider the first bowl, where three apples are poisonous, and two are not, and you must eat two. The only way you lose is if you eat two poisonous apples in a row. The odds of that happening are 60%*50%, or 30%. Once you eat one poisonous apple, 2 are left, and 2 are nonpoisonous, hence the 50% chance on the second one.
In the second case, where only 2 apples are poisonous, but you have to eat 3 apples, there are 3 ways you can lose: you eat 2 poisonous apples in a row immediately; you eat one poisonous apple, one regular, and then another poisonous apple; or you eat one regular apple and then two nonpoisonous apples. Interestingly, the probability of any individual losing scenario occurring is 10%. Since there are 3 DIFFERENT ways you can lose that are mutually exclusive and happen 10% of the time, you have a 30% chance to lose this way as well.
:)

[Santaxe]

Consider these two direct quotes: 1.) "You are chosen to cast the first spell, the Newt-niz magician will go second, and the Leib-ton enchantress third" 2.) "Anyone who casts out of order immediately forfeits the duel" - if you go first, using your 100% accuracy wand to eliminate the Newt-niz magician. Then, the only remaining wizard, the Leib-ton enchantress, will go second (though she is expected to go third) and she will immediately forfeit the duel for casting out of order. You win.