The title seems wrong. This isn't in any meaningful sense a viable strategy, nor is the "puzzle" (conjecture, formally) being "harnessed" - rather, the brute-force calculation that would be used to verify it, is being simulated.
I'm surprised that the article didn't mention that Richard Garfield (creator of Magic) himself has a Ph.D. in combinatorial mathematics. I imagine that, if he's aware of this, that he'd get a kick out of it.