Exotic Tactics
by Mike Sylvia
ANSWER: IRREVERENTIAL
Except for the middle words, all of the words in a given position throughout the puzzle are alphabetized. Rearranging all of the upper-left words, all of the upper-center words, and so on, leaving the center words where they are, reveals thirteen nine-word clues:
theory crediting edward de vere with authorship over shakespeare | OXFORDIAN |
notes on a scandal producer along with scott rudin | ROBERT FOX |
those who gather in enclosed spaces to smoke marijuana | HOTBOXERS |
ceramic device used to detect gas in combustion engines | NOX SENSOR |
nasa mission during which alan shepard played low-gravity golf | APOLLO XIV |
crab-eating macaque disease that infected america's midwest in 2003 | MONKEY POX |
belgian author and first curator of antwerp's plantin-moretus museum | MAX ROOSES |
coupling, alliance, or association synonym's chiefly british variant spelling | CONNEXION |
charles sibley, jon edward ahlquist, or carolus linnaeus, e.g. | TAXONOMER |
relatively recently evolved six-layered structure unique to mammalian brains | NEOCORTEX |
type of chemical compound, possibly hematite, lodestone, or rust | IRON OXIDE |
curved body of water australians might call a billabong | OXBOW LAKE |
latin phrase referring to interviews for everyday people's opinions | VOX POPULI |
All of the answers are nine letters long, with one X and two Os. These answers can be treated as tic-tac-toe games in progress, where it's X's turn and he must play in a specific place to block O from winning on the next turn. Using OXFORDIAN as an example:
OXF OX-
ORD O--
IAN ---
Reading off all of the places where X must play spells the answer, IRREVERENTIAL.
Upon completing this puzzle, the following set of cards is revealed on the round page: