Castle Advantage, Dungeon Advantage, and Duel Advantage

by **Rawky** » 04 Sep 2016, 01:19

I'm curious what others are doing for these things, so I figured making a place to discuss that specifically might be useful. I'll just post what I've been toying with, everyone is invited to do that as well, or brainstorm it up!

Castle Advantage

Code: Select all: ;Cards that the AI starts duels with in castles at Apprentice difficulty. ; ;Either a card's name or its id number from card_id.h can be used to identify ;it. (The latter is primarily useful for cards with accents.) ; ;Defaults WhiteApprentice=Ivory Cup, BlueApprentice=Crystal Rod, ;BlackApprentice=Throne of Bone, RedApprentice=Iron Star, ;GreenApprentice=Wooden Sphere. WhiteApprentice=Angel's Feather BlueApprentice=Kraken's Eye BlackApprentice=Demon's Horn RedApprentice=Dragon's Claw GreenApprentice=Wurm's Tooth ;The same, at Magician difficulty. ; ;Defaults WhiteMagician=Karma, BlueMagician=Energy Flux, BlackMagician=Gloom, ;RedMagician=Magnetic Mountain, GreenMagician=Birds of Paradise. WhiteMagician=Staff of the Sun Magus BlueMagician=Staff of the Mind Magus BlackMagician=Staff of the Death Magus RedMagician=Staff of the Flame Magus GreenMagician=Staff of the Wild Magus ;The same, at Sorcerer difficulty. ; ;Defaults WhiteSorcerer=Castle, BlueSorcerer=Flood, BlackSorcerer=Rod of Ruin, ;RedSorcerer=Power Surge, GreenSorcerer=Verduran Enchantress. WhiteSorcerer=Marble Diamond BlueSorcerer=Sky Diamond BlackSorcerer=Charcoal Diamond RedSorcerer=Fire Diamond GreenSorcerer=Moss Diamond ;The same, at Wizard difficulty. ; ;Defaults WhiteWizard=Elder Land Wurm, BlueWizard=Leviathan, BlackWizard=Greed, ;RedWizard=Mana Flare, GreenWizard=Sylvan Library. WhiteWizard=Heliod, God of the Sun BlueWizard=Thassa, God of the Sea BlackWizard=Erebos, God of the Dead RedWizard=Purphoros, God of the Forge GreenWizard=Nylea, God of the Hunt

Dungeon Advantage

Code: Select all: ;Cards that the AI starts duels with in dungeons. Unlike the castle advantages ;above, these don't seem to vary by difficulty level. ; ;Either a card's name or its id number from card_id.h can be used to identify ;it. (The latter is primarily useful for cards with accents.) ; ;Defaults White=Crusade, Blue=Power Struggle, Black=Bad Moon, ;Red=Orcish Oriflamme, Green=Marsh Viper. White=Marble Diamond Blue=Sky Diamond Black=Charcoal Diamond Red=Fire Diamond Green=Moss Diamond

Duel Advantage

Code: Select all: ;Cards that the AI sometimes starts with in duels. It's unclear how which of ;the three valid cards for a given color is chosen. ; ;Either a card's name or its id number from card_id.h can be used to identify ;it. (The latter is primarily useful for cards with accents.) ; ;Defaults White1=Benalish Hero, White2=Mesa Pegasus, White3=War Elephant; ;Blue1=Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, Blue2=Zephyr Falcon, ;Blue3=Serendib Efreet; ;Black1=Vampire Bats, Black2=Carrion Ants, Black3=Hypnotic Specter; ;Red1=Mons's Goblin Raiders, Red2=Brothers of Fire, Red3=Fire Drake; ;Green1=Shanodin Dryads, Green2=Llanowar Elves, Green3=Fungusaur. White1=Angel's Feather White2=Staff of the Sun Magus White3=Marble Diamond Blue1=Kraken's Eye Blue2=Staff of the Mind Magus Blue3=Sky Diamond Black1=Demon's Horn Black2=Staff of the Death Magus Black3=Charcoal Diamond Red1=Dragon's Claw Red2=Staff of the Flame Magus Red3=Fire Diamond Green1=Wurm's Tooth Green2=Staff of the Wild Magus Green3=Moss Diamond

Obviously these need some work - more variation is definitely in order. I just haven't put a lot of thought into it yet. Anyway, discuss!

by **stassy** » 05 Sep 2016, 11:02

For Duel Advantage, were you able to narrow how often the AI would choose a specific card or is it still random?

by **Rawky** » 05 Sep 2016, 17:02

My best guess is that it's some degree of random.

The main reason for this guess is that, for playtesting some enemy decks I am working on, I would run around in game making my own deck and when I come upon the particular enemy I wanted to test then I would save game about 2 steps away. Then I'd be able to play against it, reload, repeat, etc. Sometimes I'd do this for city battles, where they will tend to have an advantage card. The card varied between reloads, while seemingly nothing else did.

by **TheKillerNacho** » 06 Sep 2016, 15:22

The only thing I replaced was Power Struggle, since it is the most annoying and luck-based cards in the game and always makes Blue dungeons a crapshoot. I replaced it with Memory Erosion, which is definitely a card that you need to play around with good play, but not something so annoying and luck based. The rest of the cards have good flavor, imo.

Should probably get rid of Power Surge as a dungeon card too since its literally pointless without mana burn, but I usually play on Wizard so it doesn't matter.

by **lujo** » 31 Oct 2016, 20:51

Don't give the AI free mana, that's insane advantage. A free mana rock at the start of the game is more or less the same thing as a free mox.

Also the staffs and Kraken's Eye and such - those are a much bigger advantage than you may think. Kraken's Eye cycle moreso, they are functional tournament worthy sideboard cards against their resprctive colors. Very bad idea giving them to the AI, even as just cards in decks.

Blue dungeon guys must have Seal of Removal. There are other great options in theory, but in practice the reward system in dungeons is a too easily breakable joke and Seal of Removal solves that problem and no other potential problem is more immediate or beneficial to solve.

Arguably, thare is no good argument apart from "But that's stupid!" for also making Seal of Removal everyone else's dungeon advantage, and a fair answer to it would be something like "True, but sadly less stupid than how the dungeon dice work, in all fairness...".

Since dungeon dice are impossible not to exploit, because starting with free dudes is always ridiculous even if you don't go in with just Ulamog's Crusher in your deck or whatever, being able to actually solve that by giving everyone a Seal of Removal is pretty damned good.

For random bonus cards - there is a slew of enchanments from Zendikar and Urza's blocks which mostly seem to finally be in. Again, free mana and free creatures = mostly ridiculous in theory and in practice. One free "answer" or "dilemma" like Hidden Spider (game becomes a no-flyer challenge) or Lilting Refrain (your first thing is getting countered) or some expedition or another is pretty much the only way to go. Depending on whether the AI's any good with them, ofc.