Page 25 of 26

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 12 Nov 2015, 18:14
by friarsol
serrasmurf wrote:I do agree that playing on hard level makes it already very difficult to buy packs in the quest shop. The standard settings migt be a bit off here. Once you’re out of money it’s very hard to come back.
Yea I've had some alternative quest preferences setup on my local machine for a bit of time. I'll probably upload them as defaults (which will only help people who actually reset their preferences every once in a while). But basically it spreads out the difficulty raises, and makes easy actually easier (i.e. 20 wins before the next difficulty).

At some point I'll try to add some tweaks in for traveling. Things I'll look at are: traveling delays (3 wins or 5 total matches), cost to travel to worlds (traveling back to the main world probably always free).

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 17 Nov 2015, 10:22
by serrasmurf
friarsol wrote:
serrasmurf wrote:I do agree that playing on hard level makes it already very difficult to buy packs in the quest shop. The standard settings migt be a bit off here. Once you’re out of money it’s very hard to come back.
Yea I've had some alternative quest preferences setup on my local machine for a bit of time. I'll probably upload them as defaults (which will only help people who actually reset their preferences every once in a while). But basically it spreads out the difficulty raises, and makes easy actually easier (i.e. 20 wins before the next difficulty).

At some point I'll try to add some tweaks in for traveling. Things I'll look at are: traveling delays (3 wins or 5 total matches), cost to travel to worlds (traveling back to the main world probably always free).
That would be much appreciated. Thnx

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 17 Nov 2015, 21:56
by friarsol
Oh apparently I did commit those changes some time back..

This is the current defaults

Opp. (Med, Hard, Expert)
Easy - 20, 40, 80
Med - 15, 30, 60
Hard - 12, 25, 50
Expert 10, 20, 40

Which is many more wins than it used to be...

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 20 Nov 2015, 13:21
by RumbleBBU
How I unlocked the Mythic Mana Screw achievement

Ok, so I haven't been playing a version that has the achievements feature for long yet (I used an antiquated version of Forge until very recently), so this is a first Mythic for me but it was funny to see it anyway.

I'm currently playing a Red Quest in my custom Tolaria (Urza's block) world, and using all core sets until then (2nd - 6th) plus Urza's block plus Mercadian Masques set (plus maybe some Tempest block cards in my starting pool IIRC). My main playdeck is a very simple red deck consisting mostly of cheap creatures, some bolts, and a couple of 'x' spells (Disintegrate) for getting rid of particularly pesky creatures or finishing off the opponent. You know, the kind of stupid, annoying, frustrating Red deck that shouldn't win matches but it does. Drop a new cheap creature or two every turn, burn blockers, attack, repeat until your opponent is dead. Never mind if a one of your creatures dies or is countered, there are plenty more cheap creatures where those came from.

I'd lucked out on an early Mox Ruby and 2 Sol Rings that made the deck even faster than it already was. Playing hard & very hard opponents now, an opening hand a Sol Ring and the Mox (but no land) in it so I kept it. I knew I could cast most of my spells with those alone. The only > 3 CMC spells in my deck were a single Bedlam, a few Orcish Oriflames and a single Shivan Dragon to ensure that the deck didn't lose its momentum or run out of steam in midgame (there never is a 'late game' for this deck; it either wins quickly or loses - most often wins).

My opponent (hard) is playing a 3-color highlander/'good stuff' deck based on all sets until Urza's block. I have a decent one drop creature in my hand (Mogg Fanatic) so I don't bother with the Sol Ring; just cast my creature. My opponent plays a dual land. Next turn, I attack and play the Sol Ring; my opponent plays a creature. I drop a Ghitu Slinger to kill it. And attack again. After that, the exact details were a bit hazy, but the general course of the game was attack, opponent plays a creature, bolt it or burn it (with whatever-that-guy-is-called who is effectively a 1R 'pain Tim') -> bam, dead blocker, attack again, rinse, repeat...
Until my opponent was dead. The poor beggar couldn't really do much about it. Only then did I realize that I never drew a single land in the whole game, even though I hadn't been skimping on land in deckbuilding (essentially 24 spells and 16 mana sources, with the Sols and the Mox included). My manabase was 1 Mox and 1 Sol Ring for the whole game. Well, not exactly 'mana screwed' in the intuitive sense but yes, won without playing or even drawing a single land so... :lol:

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 25 Nov 2015, 14:57
by serrasmurf
Nice
Thnx for sharing

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 05 Dec 2015, 12:10
by Mosschop
Having a problem with challenge opponents not appearing in quest mode. Worked fine on my first run through quest mode but all subsequent quests show me a challenge screen with a start button but no opponents. Any ideas?

Cheers

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 05 Dec 2015, 14:42
by friarsol
Mosschop wrote:Having a problem with challenge opponents not appearing in quest mode. Worked fine on my first run through quest mode but all subsequent quests show me a challenge screen with a start button but no opponents. Any ideas?

Cheers
Have you earned enough wins to have challenge opponents? I believe you need like 20 or 25 to be good enough to be "challenged".

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 05 Dec 2015, 17:13
by Mosschop
friarsol wrote:
Mosschop wrote:Having a problem with challenge opponents not appearing in quest mode. Worked fine on my first run through quest mode but all subsequent quests show me a challenge screen with a start button but no opponents. Any ideas?

Cheers
Have you earned enough wins to have challenge opponents? I believe you need like 20 or 25 to be good enough to be "challenged".
Yep, definitely getting the 'challenged' message

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 05 Dec 2015, 19:04
by sorinmarkov
RumbleBBU wrote:How I unlocked the Mythic Mana Screw achievement

Ok, so I haven't been playing a version that has the achievements feature for long yet (I used an antiquated version of Forge until very recently), so this is a first Mythic for me but it was funny to see it anyway.

...

My manabase was 1 Mox and 1 Sol Ring for the whole game. Well, not exactly 'mana screwed' in the intuitive sense but yes, won without playing or even drawing a single land so... :lol:
Awesome story! Thanks for sharing. I'm a newbie to Forge and just started Quest mode and absolutely love it. Reading stories like this encourages me to explore!!!

SM.

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 06 Dec 2015, 16:24
by Mosschop
Mosschop wrote:
friarsol wrote:
Mosschop wrote:Having a problem with challenge opponents not appearing in quest mode. Worked fine on my first run through quest mode but all subsequent quests show me a challenge screen with a start button but no opponents. Any ideas?

Cheers
Have you earned enough wins to have challenge opponents? I believe you need like 20 or 25 to be good enough to be "challenged".
Yep, definitely getting the 'challenged' message
Problem sorted. I'd changed the preferences to bring challenges up earlier but they were appearing before I qualified for medium level opponents

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 27 Jul 2016, 09:05
by RumbleBBU
(Thought I'd rather bump this thread than start a new one...)


My Quest Journal, July 2016...

This summer, I started two new quests, using the Invasion block plus some basic (core) sets. The whole Invasion block as well as years that followed belong to my personal 'black hole' period of MtG, i.e. the time I was not actively following Magic. Or more specifically, was not following it at all. Forge is actually a great time machine for reliving eras that you originally missed.

For my quest opponents, I picked my personal Encyclopedia world. It is based on the regular Shandalar world but with some particularly nasty-ish extra opponents that take advantage of all pre-Mirage sets. Lots of rampant resource depletion (LD, HD, etc.) and lockout decks there...

My first quest was with Black as my main color. Since the Invasion block was apparently built to accomodate multicolor decks, I experimented with two different paths: BU and BR. Didn't actually even include Apocalypse in this first quest, so the neighboring 'friendly' colors were the obvious choices. The BU deck was impressive in many ways (ETB effect + reusable bounce = fun) but ultimately too slow. The much more straightforward BR deck turned out to be faster and generally more powerful. Terminate was very good against many opponents, and it didn't take a genius to figure out the synergy between a Flametongue Kavu and a Lava Zombie. Against mono-black opponents, I was able to build a nice and effective theme deck, The Night of the Living Deck (you can guess the theme). Visited Shandalar and bought enough Legends booster boxes to get two Mirror Universes, and I was set to take out Arzakon. Enhanced with the Mirrors, The Night of the Living Deck made short work of him, at which stage I considered my quest complete.

One of the most memorable duels in this quest was against the big bad Blue Wizardess, the Astral Visionary. I would have had, in theory, board control, with enough sturdy creatures to take her in down in a turn - if I could have attacked. The problem was, she had me on the ropes otherwise, with her multiple Howling Mines and Stasis - she played a new land every turn to sustain the Stasis, and my 40-card deck was rapidly running out of cards. And all my creatures were tapped.

Then...she finally lost the Stasis. She did play a new Island but of course could not recast Stasis. None too soon! After my normal draw and 3 Howling Mine draws, I have whopping two cards left in my library. But now my creatures untap. Finally, finally! I declare an alpha strike, with more than enough damage potential to take her down to -20 or so.

My soldiers clench their teeth, clutch their weapons, and march forward towards imminent, inevitable victory.

Closing in for the kill!

What does she do?

She taps her single untapped Island she played last turn.

She cast a Blue one-drop.

It is...Ancestral Recall.

She casts it...on me!

Fatally decking me just before my army of angry creatures could turn her into so much mincemeat! I could not believe my eyes. A monumental victory shattered in seconds into dregs of bitter defeat!

I did win the whole match 2-1, though.

For my second quest, which I have just started, I picked Red, Encyclopedia opponents (again), the whole Invasion block (including Apocalypse) plus the 5th-7th Editions for some core cards. I wanted to build a strong RG aggro deck this time but alas, that was not to be. The Green cards I got in my starting pool simply weren't worthy of admission, even in a monogreen deck, let alone in a deck that wants to splash Green to get some nifty cards! So my initial build was simply monored. But this time, I was looking to try Green, at least GR. Confession time: I have never been a Green player. My favorite colors are its enemy colors (U, B), especially in a control build, and I can also make Red and White work; Red traditionally in monored aggro builds and RB aggro-control builds, White most notably in UW control builds (I do WW sometimes but am strictly a below-the-average-but-better-than-goldfish player in that department). Green? Never even wanted to try, really. The main problem is that it encourages a style of play that does not meet my idea of fun. Boring no-evasion stompy creatures? No thank you, sir! But I was looking for an excuse to try it now. However, it soon turns out, fates seem to have dictated otherwise...

I won the first couple of matches, albeit undeservedly I would say (due to the AI playing badly, or some other random happenstance, when I was already heavily on the ropes). I noticed that many of my cards were just sitting in my hand - either their CC cost was too high for an aggro build (the game would be over before I had the mana to cast my Trained Orgg) or simply too situational (such as Insolence - while amusing on Green Instill Energy mana elves and birds, totally useless against walls and untapping attackers), which would make them dead cards in many duels. I tried to buy some simple cheap trash creatures when I could find them, like Raging Goblins. Then...after 2 or 3 wins, I opened a Flametongue Kavu and knew I was in business. My current record in this quest is 7-0, and I have now also opened 2 Terminates and 1 Lava Zombie, so it seems I'm heading down the BR path again (although with a more Red emphasis this time), so boring...but admittedly highly effective.

As a final note, I find that I like the Invasion block. The cards are fun to play, and it does give you some power but in a balanced sort of way (esp. when you have no access to the fast super mana of the early sets, such as the Moxes, Black Lotus, Sol Ring, and dual lands). Also, it seems to me like the first set where the gold cards are actually quite usable and attractive - unlike some early sets, where multicolor meant handicap more than anything else (like Legends - but that set was very unbalanced in both ways, in addition to unusable rubbish, it also gave you Mana Drain, Moat, The Abyss, and lots of other crazy cards).

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 29 Jul 2016, 12:12
by sorinmarkov
RumbleBBU wrote:(Thought I'd rather bump this thread than start a new one...)


My Quest Journal, July 2016...

Then...she finally lost the Stasis. She did play a new Island but of course could not recast Stasis. None too soon! After my normal draw and 3 Howling Mine draws, I have whopping two cards left in my library. But now my creatures untap. Finally, finally! I declare an alpha strike, with more than enough damage potential to take her down to -20 or so.

My soldiers clench their teeth, clutch their weapons, and march forward towards imminent, inevitable victory.

Closing in for the kill!

What does she do?

She taps her single untapped Island she played last turn.

She cast a Blue one-drop.

It is...Ancestral Recall.

She casts it...on me!

Fatally decking me just before my army of angry creatures could turn her into so much mincemeat! I could not believe my eyes. A monumental victory shattered in seconds into dregs of bitter defeat!

Wow, great quest report. The quoted bit above had me on the edge of my seat!

I'm currently running a Main world quest and I've just managed to cobble together a sort of Tron type UR deck with out any actual tron lands. By Tron I mean it plays like a Pauper Tron deck or feels close enough for me. I have Ulamog's Crusher and Artisan of Kozilek as my two expensive Annihilator finishers. I'm using Vessel of Volatility and two Basalt Monolith to get them out onto the battlefield.

Red is giving me enough burn to survive long enough to get my Eldrazi fatties out. Blue is giving me card draw to find the pieces of my half baked tron and some counterspells to survive for a while as well. I have a few walls to help shore up the defences.

It's very fragile and wonky but when I get a better mana base going and polish it a bit I think it's going to be amazing.

So far it's been great fun to play. It wins enough that I'm happy and games are fun and I have to plan and play well but it's not yet so polished that it is anywhere near steamrolling the AI. I always wanted to play Tron in a quest and I actually just stumbled across this while trying to put together a UR control deck. I just defeated a fast RW goblin deck 2-1 where I had lost the first game. Didn't expect to win but once my Eldrazi hit the board they are nigh impossible to stop. Great fun! This is all on Android so many thanks to the dev's who make this possible!

S.M.

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 14 Aug 2016, 10:57
by RumbleBBU
My Quest Journal, August 2016

Having recently 'finished' my second Invasion Quest - the R(B) one, I decided to bite the bullet and do something I've never done: play Green. Forge is an excellent environment for an experiment like that, since it is much more forgiving for my errors than human opponents would be.

Again, I picked Encyclopedia opponents (because I know them the best). Green bias, Invasion block and 5th - 7th Edition basic sets. But I also added the Urza's block to this Quest. Why? Simply because it contained some Green cards I absolutely hated playing against back in the day. I wanted to see those damn cards working for me, for a change. Call it closure, or catharsis, or whatever.

So...I glance through my starting pool. As expected, Green gives me good selection of solid creatures. But not terribly much else, aside from an Exploration and one or two other cards. Not good enough to stand on its own, I cannot even fill my deck with playable Green cards.

Colorless gives me a Masticore (nice! :twisted: ). So let's look at the other colors next...
Red: Nothing particularly exciting. Creatures aren't as good as the ones I'm using already. Skip.
Black: Blah. Total meh. Urza's block had some of the more boring Black creatures, and my starting pool has lots of them. And the Invasion block Black cards in my pool have synergy...with White and Red. Skip.
White: Again, boring creatures. Nothing particularly useful or interesting. Skip.
Blue: The first thing that catches my eye is 6th Ed Sibilant Spirit. A reasonably costed strong flier (which Green doesn't normally get), and at only one {u} definitely splashable. Then I notice a Tim. My starting pool already had Venomous Fangs in it, so a plan starts to develop in my mind...
And it gets better. Binding Grasp, easily splashable. Sort of creature control, which I don't have much in my deck. And finally, Levitation. That pretty much sealed the deal. It completely fixes my evasion problems. Even the {u}{u} in the casting cost is acceptable for this.

I go shopping. How nice, the shop is offering a second Prodigal Sorcerer and a second Venomous Fangs. Yessir. Just what the doctor ordered. So my initial build is a sort of limited "poisoned poke" deck, with enough stompers to keep the early pressure on my opponent, until I get a Venomous Fangs + Tim or Masticore out.

The deck performs surprisingly well. I finally begin to see why Green doesn't really even need that much evasion - its creatures simply overpower and overwhelm the opponent. And heaven help anyone if I get a Venomous Fanged Masticore out! Zap, zap, zap, wail on the opponent, rinse, repeat. There aren't really many opponents with Prot-Artifacts/Prot-Blue creatures in their decks in the Encyclopedia era. The only creatures that could give me trouble would be the regenerating kind but there are ways to beat them. For example, lure the opponent into tapping out first by casting marginal spells that they counter.

Other observations/experiences:

Against monogreen opponents, Titania's Chosen is just too good. Unlike a human opponent, the AI takes no notice of it and will instead just keep casting marginal spells that make it stronger.

I'm loving Simian Grunts. My opponent sees an empty/tapped-out board and charges - into a Simian Grunts. Ouch. Obviously, no human player would fall for that, not twice at least. But the AI will, again and again...

In fact, Green has lots of usable Echo creatures. Yes, the drawback is that you probably can't summon a new creature next turn - but the strength of the Echo creatures more than makes up for that. And often I don't have anything more to cast in my hand anyway.

I didn't get any worthwhile mana elves in my starting pool but Exploration is just as good or even better. In a suitable opening hand, it can actually even compare to a Mox Emerald - I'm regularly getting 4 lands by turn 2.

At this point, my record is 11-1. My only loss was to an Elvish Mage. First game, I mulliganed down to 4 before I got my first land. Didn't see much more land, so there was not much that I could do.

Second game I won easily.

Game 3 was the opposite of game 1. I get nothing BUT land and non-creature spells. I have lots of creatures in my deck, so no need to mulligan, right? Wrong. Ultimately, I'm down to 2 life when I draw my first creature - a Prodigal Sorcerer. Against 4 or 5 elves. At that stage, I conceded.

I expect that my record will get worse once I reach the Hard / Very Hard opponents. So far, my opponents have been the same as the regular Shandalar opponents, but later on, the Encyclopedia world will have those nasty disruptive opponents (HD, LD, counter/denial, etc.) that Green can traditionally have difficulties with. I will probably need to work on my minored Blue before then. And oh, I have already bought two Absolute Laws, one Absolute Grace and one Crusading Knight, so I will probably be minoring in White against the harder Black and Red opponents. I've also opened a Rancor, which is an obvious no-brainer for my deck.

Overall, I'm enjoying playing Green much more than I would have ever expected. It's a nice change of pace from my usual controllish decks to be in the driver's seat, dictating the pace of the game and dropping threats instead of having to respond to them.

Here's my current Green Quest deck. I'm wondering how to improve it for the later, harder opponents. I've already decided to replace the Binding Grasp with the Counterspell I've just opened - the Binding Grasp is too slow and costs mana to maintain, and between the pokers and Venomous Fangs, I've got the creature control aspect covered already. The counterspell, while requiring two Blue mana, is a no-brainer in almost any deck that plays Blue.

But otherwise I'm open to suggestions - how should I develop my decks? Which cards or kinds of cards should I try to get? Does my mana/spells ratio see to be off for this kind of deck? Like said, I never was a Green player in real life, so any input will be appreciated. (Just remember, I'm limiting my format to Invasion block + Urza's block + 5th, 6th & 7th Ed., so I can only get cards from those sets in this Quest.)

| Open
Creatures
2 x Elvish Lyrist
1 x Pouncing Jaguar
1 x Gaea's Skyfolk (I have more)
1 x Utopia Tree (more of a mana fixer than mana ramping for me)
2 x Simian Grunts
1 x Titania's Chosen (wish I had more!)
2 x Prodigal Sorcerer
1 x Pincer Spider
1 x Cradle Guard
1 x Masticore
1 x Jade Leech
1 x Giant Spider
1 x Plated Spider
1 x Winding Wurm
1 x Sibilant Spirit

Spells
1 x Exploration
1 x Rancor
2 x Venomous Fangs
1 x Binding Grasp (pulling for Counterspell)
1 x Levitation

Land
11 x Forest
5 x Island
1 x Yavimaya Hollow

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 19 Apr 2017, 17:55
by damicore
DOes anybody have an Urza's block world to share?

Re: The Ultimate Quest Mode Thread

PostPosted: 20 Apr 2017, 22:02
by Seravy
I...think I do, let me see my files.
Yep, I do.
Note that it was made for a friend and I haven't played it yet.
Do let me know if you find any problems (or add more AI decks to it).

Urza.zip
(19.11 KiB) Downloaded 184 times


It has the bare minimal required - 5 opponents for each difficulty level, one for each color. There are no challenges so I copied over some of the default ones - the game doesn't work if there aren't any defined.
This definitely could use improvements and more decks, if you add any, let me have them.

...and I have a question of my own. What's the most effective way of earning foil basic lands? I seem to get some from random starter decks (the ones with 3 rares etc) but it's very rare, and I never got any from any other type of pack as far as I know.

Edit : I don't think I have gotten any new foil basic lands since I upgraded to the current version. I just opened like 10 of these starter decks and didn't even get a single foil card (not even a common), so I wonder if this is a new bug? I opened a booster box afterwards and it had foils as expected.