Revisiting Challenge Mode

[Gargaroz]

So, I'm putting my hand on Challenge Mode, trying to iron-out some of its unfairness (I myself sweaverd a lot when trying to beat some challenges).

As today, here's the current changes :
* in the "Gimme!" challenge, you won't have deck building restrictions anymore, but the AI will copy \ steal one of your permanents at random at each upkeep.
* in the "Banned" challenge, now only 1 or 2 of your nonland cards will be "banned" for each round, and you could see what is via a legacy card.

I'll probably give a makeover to "Urza's Wannabee" and "Planeswalker Decimation" too.

So, suggestions ? Requests ?

Moderators, please "stick" this thread.

[stassy]

Can you add a challenge again for Tournament if the last one is successful, with the winner choosing a card to code (with a challenge from one of the challenge thread suggestion or one of your own)?

[Gargaroz]

Yeah, there's a lot of space for new challenges, post your suggestions here.

[stassy]

- Maybe give some hint for Magic the Puzzling (something like RuleEngine triggerable at each round that show the hints)
- Don't know if that has been done yet, but maybe restrict/randomize less the Challenge 1-9: That's Not My Deck, or nerf the AI decks
- Add a challenge in Planechase or Spat mode

[Gargaroz]

I tweaked the deck generation of "That's not my deck", now it uses the one of "Random Sigleton / Testing".

[Aquillion]

There is an issue that affects Magic: The Puzzling's second puzzle.

I found an alternative solution that may itself be a bug, though it's unreliable.

Magic: The Puzzling puzzle #2 solution | Open

If you go first -- and only if you go first -- the enemy does not discard their hand. This means you can take a Dark Ritual and a Blood Oath, then use the ritual to cast the Oath, and name lands. This will kill your opponent if they have three or more lands in their hand (and they usually will.)

This doesn't work if you go second, because the enemy's hand is set to 0 in that case. I assume that the fact that it isn't, if you go first, is a bug.

[gul123]

I tweaked the deck generation of "That's not my deck", now it uses the one of "Random Sigleton / Testing".

[Eviscerator]

Hello everyone. I noticed that the Kobold Taskmaster in the Kobold deck, the first AI opponent in Challenge 1-1 (Tribal Trials, I think?), counts itself when giving +1/+0 bonus. Now it functions like "+1/+0 to all Kobolds you control" instead of "+1/+0 to all other Kobolds you control." Was this intentionally done to make the Kobold deck more challenging? Or is this a bug?

[Aswan jaguar]

It is a bug.If I remember correctly it was changed to work like this because Wizzards of the coast changed it's text at a point to include itself and then return it back to affect only others but the change in challenge was left like this,in duel it was changed and works fine if I remember correctly.

[jatill]

The card pool is so much bigger now, the challenges should be made harder >:O

[jatill]

I'm working on playing through all the challenges, since when I downloaded the game, they are all locked again. I started with the 'Back to 95' challenge and unlocked the 'Black' card. What the heck is that thing supposed to do?

Edit: It appears to give me a Wil-O-the-Wisp or a card. What inspired that odd set ob abilities?

[stassy]

Depending on your color deck, each special effect give you either a protection or a creature card.

[jatill]

Depending on your color deck, each special effect give you either a protection or a creature card.

That's certainly interesting. What's the complete list, so I don't have to use trial and error?

[jatill]

Another note: one of the hardest things in challenge mode (for me anyway) is not knowing what you're up against until you get there. That was never meant to be part of the challenge, so as I go through them again, I'll be updating the wiki with the specifics of what special cards / abilities your opponents get each round.

I think someone already did this in a post here, and if anyone wants to point me to that, I can make the updates quicker.

[stassy]

awww1979 created a walkthrough thread long time ago, but you probably know about it (it's not updated to latest challenge).

The cards bonuses are as follow, though you should be able to plow through the challenge with no difficulty without them, they were supposed to ease a bit the most difficult challenges (that you already beaten):

Black : Terror or Will-o'-the-Wisp
Blue : Wall of Air or Unsummon
Green : Wall of Ice or Hurricane
Red : Wall of Stone or Lightning Bolt
White : Wall of Swords or Swords to Plowshares