Trash to Treasure - Solution

Written by James Wu

Answer: GRIND TO DUST

We are first confronted with a series of scrolls, each with two rebus picture puzzles attached. Each of these rebuses solve to a single word, and are ordered alphabetically by the word on the left side:

Left WordExplanationRight WordExplanation
DAWNDARWIN - RIPREPARE"PRE" pair
EARTH"EAR"-thDESTINEDSTINE is removed = de-"stine"-d
FIGHT"EIGHT" with E to FCUTCOURT - OR
LEAD"LE" adCOMMITCOMET - ET + MIT
MEMORYMEMO + RYE - ENEVERMore NEV = NEVER
MINDMin(imum) of DHEAVENHe Avenue North = He Ave. N
OBLIVIONOB (gyn) + LIV (tyler) + IONREDUCEUCE, in the color RED
RETURNRE turnCONSIGNA sign of a CON(vention)
RIBBONSRIB + BONSSPRINGAn "SP" RING
RUBBLERULER with two Bs - RFINISHKinda like FIN
START"ST" ARTDUSKUS inside DK

From here, we can observe from the words obtained and from the title of the puzzle, “Trash to Treasure”, that many of the words can be combined with the word “to”. In fact, they can all be paired up with one word from the right leading to one word from the left (with the exception of START and FINISH):

DUSKtoDAWN
HEAVENtoEARTH
PREPAREtoFIGHT
DESTINEDtoLEAD
COMMITtoMEMORY
SPRINGtoMIND
CONSIGNtoOBLIVION
NEVERtoRETURN
CUTtoRIBBONS
REDUCEtoRUBBLE

The one backwards pair is START TO FINISH, but this gives a specific order that the pages in the first half of the puzzle can be arranged, i.e:

START -> DUSK (TO) DAWN -> PREPARE (TO) FIGHT -> .. REDUCE (TO) RUBBLE -> FINISH

Furthermore, astute fans of Magic: The Gathering may recognize that each of these words make up half of a Magic: The Gathering card, specifically all from a set of cards known as “Aftermath” cards. A quick search of most combinations of these words should lead to the above for those unfamiliar with MTG.

Once we piece together that the words come from specific MTG cards, solving any remaining rebuses should become much more straightforward. From there, solvers can look at the second half of the puzzle, which consists of 11 half pages, all ripped from the left side. Since there are also 11 pages in the first section of the puzzle, these half pages can naturally pair with the left side words on the first half to obtain the name of a new Magic the Gathering card. Indexing into the names of these cards with the provided number, and ordering by the order from above gives the final extraction:

Left CardRight CardHalf page clueMTG CardIndexExtracted Letter
STARTDUSKYOUR ENGINESStart Your Engines12G
DAWNPREPARECHARMDawn Charm8R
FIGHTCUTWITH FIREFight With Fire7I
RIBBONSSPRINGOF NIGHTRibbons Of Night10N
MINDHEAVENBENDMind Bend8D
EARTHDESTINEDSHAKER GIANTEarthshaker Giant16T
LEADCOMMITGOLEMLead Golem6O
MEMORYNEVERDRAINMemory Drain7D
RETURNCONSIGNTO NATUREReturn to Nature12U
OBLIVIONREDUCESTONEOblivion Stone9S
RUBBLEFINISHBELT RUNNERRubblebelt Runner10T

This gives the solution GRIND TO DUST, another aftermath card from the same set of cards.