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How do you play Forge? Had any interesting quest rolls? Any memorable AI plays/misplays? Share it all here!

I'll start. My favourite way to play at the moment is hardcore standard quest. I enforce "Standard", and the quest ends (I delete it) if I lose a match. Spicy. I just got totally decimated by a card I didn't even know existed, playing a random durdley morph deck.

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Ixidron

Just, wow. I love this game.

Couple of other memorable forge moments: the time I got Progenitus and Green Sun's Zenith in an unrestricted starting pool , and the time Ned Flanders casted Rise from the Grave on my Angel of Glory's Rise

Share yours!

Great topic! Stories are always fun to read. Here's a very recent one of mine.

I was playtesting (Quest mode, enforced "godbook" format, i.e., Unlimited to Alliances) against the 'Wormtongue' deck, which is basically a B/U discard/control variation of my own monoblack deck using only Ice Age/Fallen Empires/Homelands/Alliances cards.

It's the third game in the match. Wormtongue won the first one by stealing some of my key creatures with Binding Grasp early in the game, and, failing to top deck any removal or an Icy Manipulator, I conceded. In the second game, I established board control in short order and wrecked Wormtongue very quickly.

So it's game 3.

I'm using the discard/The Rack/reanimator deck I've built in this quest. I get some fast mana (Sol Ring, Dark Ritual, Mox Jet) and have a hyppie, The Rack, and a Disrupting Scepter out very early. Plus a Thawing Glaciers. And a Millstone. Things are looking good...

I attack with the hyppie, thaw for more land, and use the extra mana for milling.

Which turns out to be a very, very bad move.

I had forgotten an aspect of Wormtongue's deck. It's almost like an Ice Age variation of my own deck.

Including reanimation.

Imagine my surprise when Wormtongue's next turn comes and he uses a Dance of the Dead to fetch...Ihsan's Shade, whom I just milled to his graveyard!

I don't have anything in my hand that can deal with that, and again I don't top deck when I really need to. Since I started at 15 life (Fantasy Quest mode), it doesn't take long before the 6/6 (with Dance of the Dead) Ihsan's Shade does me in. The best I can do is to chump block with my hyppie.

And then Wormtongue won.

One of my favorite moments/stages in the game is when you have a very limited cardpool to choose from and have to make the most of it. That is why I love the Sealed Deck mode. Quest mode is even better - but mostly in the initial phases. Once I get more and more cards, I find that I always start gravitating towards the same deck archetypes, every time. In the end, provided that I have got the required cards, my decks look the same.

So, every now and then, it's good to start a new quest. And that is what I did just today. I trashed my "godbook" quest, and started a new one. Essentially "godbook" again, except that I left Unlimited and Revised out. I don't want to have access to the Power 9 or even the Revised dual lands too early. They are just too much of a no-brainer and a big reason why my decks end up looking the same.

So instead the format for my new quest is 4th Edition and all expansions from Arabian Nights to Alliances. I'm playing against Shandalar decks (that have liberal access to the Power 9) and some designs of my own that are strictly godbook-compliant.

And here's the story of how that quest has started.

My starting pool was far from ideal. No killer cards, especially against Shandalar Power 9 decks, nothing from 4th Edition (although the store offered some) and a notable shortage of usable White and Green creatures. Yet creatures are what I'll need to rely on early on in the game - with the random assortment of starting cards, there's no point in trying to build a themed deck or a combo deck. Just like in Sealed Deck.

Blue was sort of ok (I even got a Force of Will) but lacked big bruisers. So I was effectively left with Red and Black. Neither was strong enough on its own, but I decided to build a 2-color RB deck, especially since I had got the RB pain land (Sulfurous Springs). Essentially I tried to build a deck with some strong finishers and otherwise non-useless cards to stall the game until I get them out.

Far from ideal, but this is what I started with:

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Aesthir Glider
Anaba Shaman
Axelrod Gunnarson
Baron Sengir
Eater of the Dead
Ebon Stronghold
Erg Raiders
Goblin Chirurgeon
Goblin Digging Team
Goblin Hero
Hyalopterous Lemure
Hymn to Tourach
Hyperion Blacksmith
Juzam Djinn
Lim-Dul's High Guard
Mijae Djinn
Moor Fiend
8 Mountain
Orcish Farmer
Phyrexian War Beast
Rukh Egg
Soldier of Fortune
Spirit Shackle
Sulfurous Springs
7 Swamp
Tor Wauki
Wall of Opposition
Withering Wisps

Did you notice the glaring mistake in this deck? Here it is (SPOILER):

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I had Withering Wisps and no snow lands. I realized this (painfully) in the first game when I tried to activate it...

Also, there's one card above the ideal 40, and way too many expensive creatures. But Baron Sengir, even though horribly overcosted, was the best creature I had.
And I even had a combo in my starting deck! (Orcish Farmer + Moor Fiend)

On to my first duel!

I can choose from 3 Shandalar opponents. I pick Sorcerer. You know, the monored guy, who tries to swarm you with red weenies and stall your progress with Manabarbs.

First game, he gets lots of weenies out very quickly and Lightning Bolts me a lot. The Sorcerer casts Immolation on a Brass Man but I Spirit Shackle it. Then I successfully transform the Rukh Egg into a Rukh but make the mistake of not attacking with the Erg Raiders that turn. I lose 2 life and am left with 2. Which is bad - it takes me to single Lightning Bolt range.
The Sorcerer notices this and finishes me off with one.

Second game, my mana curve works pretty well. The Sorcerer bolts my early creatures (including my weenie killer, the Anuba Shaman) but then I get the Lemure out. Activate for -1/0 flying, attack unblocked, rinse, repeat, until Sorcerer dead.

Third and decisive game. This is very different. For a lot of the game, I have only weenies.
The Sorcerer gets three Manabarbs out. He also hurts himself in the process of doing so.
I'm hurt pretty bad, but Sorcerer is even worse off. He is at 1 life but has 2 blockers. I have 2 weenies.
I draw a Juzam Djinn. I cast the Djinn and am left at 3 or 2 life.
The Sorcerer doesn't summon a creature or bolt any of mine the next turn. Of course, he can't, because his own Manabarbs would kill him if he did!
I attack with 3 creatures (Juzam + 2 weenies). The Sorcerer can block only two.
Lim-Dul's High Guard deals the killing blow.

I am given the choice between Antiquities and Alliances. I choose the latter...
...and get, among other goodies, a second Lim-Dul's High Guard. I add it to my deck, and take out the Withering Wisps. 2/1 first striking plus regeneration, not too bad. Besides, one of those guys just handed me my first victory. Hard to refuse them now!

I generally only play Quest mode for about 50 or so wins, before I get bored of the deck I built and create a new quest so I can build a deck with a new theme (and see cards that are new that were around when I didn't play Magic). I generally sell any card that doesn't seem to fit in my decks theme, or will fit in my decks theme 15 matches down the road. This particular quest I started not too long after antes started, so it was a bit easier to steal some important pieces once I had a strong functioning deck. I don't have the starting pool list anymore, but two of the cards I started with were Lorescale Coatl and Edric, Spymaster of Trest . I'm pretty sure I also started with some helpful cards like Spawnwrithe, Mulldrifter, and Brainstorm.

This probably isn't true for every deck you can run against in Quest, but the deck pretty much runs itself. Cast a Lorescale as quickly as possible and start attacking. Draw as many cards as you can (Brainstorm is permanent Giant Growth) and pound away. Not only does your 2/2 grow stronger each turn, with Edric in play it also grows stronger when it damages your opponent! In the games 40 through 50 I scored some really good loot, making the deck ridiculously fast, and very difficult to lose with.

Here's the current deck list if you wanna try it out:

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[metadata]
Name=gudeck
[main]
1 Birds of Paradise|LEB
1 Brainstorm|5ED
2 Brainstorm|MMQ
1 Chastise|JUD
1 Counterspell|TMP
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest|COM
1 Elvish Fury|TMP
3 Forest|M10
1 Garruk Wildspeaker|LRW
1 Gush|MMQ
1 Halimar Depths|WWK
1 Hallowed Fountain|DIS
2 Hinterland Harbor|ISD
2 Island|M10
1 Jhessian Infiltrator|ALA
3 Lorescale Coatl|ARB
1 Mimic Vat|SOM
1 Mishra's Factory|ATQ
1 Misty Rainforest|ZEN
3 Mox Sapphire|LEB
1 Mulldrifter|LRW
1 Naturalize|10E
1 Nimbus Maze|FUT
1 Path to Exile|COM
1 Powder Keg|UDS
1 Questing Phelddagrif|PLS
1 Slippery Karst|USG
1 Sol Ring|COM
1 Spawnwrithe|SHM
1 Spike Weaver|EXO
1 Trygon Predator|DIS
1 Tundra|LEB
1 Venser, the Sojourner|SOM
[sideboard]

I started playing it again recently to see how it was doing, and it was just as fast as I remember. Two Mox Sapphires and a Forest to first turn Coatl. Followed by two brainstorms to attack with a 9-9 on turn 2.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words...

The abovementioned newly-launched quest, I'm trying a new Anti-Black WW deck against a monoblack Shandalar opponent. Not even the almighty Land Tax will help against being manascrewed when your opponent is too! It's already turn 10 and no land in sight...

Here's one more. Same opponent, same deck...but this one's weird.

What has been going on here: Last turn, I had activated Chuck Norris (Northern Paladin) to destroy Vampire Lord's Sengir Vampire. Then it was Vampire Lord's turn...it casts Animate Dead to fetch...its Sengir Vampire? Or my Thunder Spirit it had Terrored away slightly earlier? The log message is really weird, it looks like the AI was casting Animate Dead on them both at the same time!

What happened: AI got my Thunder Spirit, animated. Then, before I could tap Chuck Norris to destroy the Animate Dead spell, they both (Animate Dead and the Thunder Spirit) spontaneously self-destructed and went to their respective graveyeards.
No idea what happened!

Note that the version is essentially 1.2.15 (with some Quest mode modifications), not the current version.

RumbleBBU wrote:What happened: AI got my Thunder Spirit, animated. Then, before I could tap Chuck Norris to destroy the Animate Dead spell, they both (Animate Dead and the Thunder Spirit) spontaneously self-destructed and went to their respective graveyeards.
No idea what happened!

Note that the version is essentially 1.2.15 (with some Quest mode modifications), not the current version.

Animate Dead still has some occasional remnant issues. It looks like he cast two Animate Deads, one on each creature, and they got confused and killed each other. That's more of a bug then anything else.

So I was ujst testing some Vanguard gameplay (yes, it will be available in the forseable future, although probably not the next beta) and AI was playing a black/red deck with the Serra avatar (all his creatures get +0/+2). He was in the driver's seat and had me down to 5 life with a few 2/2 guys while most of his creatures were in the range of 5-7 power and toughness. I had no cards left in hand and he attacked with his Unholy Strength and Serra boosted 7/5 Scuzzback Marauders and attacked so I chump blocked with one of my guys. This put a handy Tidehollow Strix in hand thanks to my Rofellos avatar which lets me draw a card whenever one of my creatures dies. Next turn I played the Strix and the Nightmare I drew during my draw step. As I suspected the Strix and 6/6 Nightmare were enough to deter the AI attack the next round so things started looking up... until the AI killed off my attacking Strix the turn with it's Snow Fortress (oops, didn't see that last ability). The Strix's death put a Consuming Vapors in my hand though which I promptly cast gaining me 7 life thanks to Serra. Main 2 I cast my Thoughtcutter Agent then passed priority through the AI turn as he brought me back down to 5 life. Next turn I was pleasantly surprised by the rebounded Consuming Vapors (again I seem to have skipped over the last ability). That sealed the game as the ai lost another creature giving me another 7 life. My nightmare attacked over the top for 7 flying damage, then the Thoughtcutter Agent dealt the final point of damage.

Quest journal, the abovementioned quest continues...

Since Forge now has Drain Life (thanks, Agetian!) and I'm playing the early years (without Alpha/Beta/Unlimited - I have now unlocked Revised Edition, though), it seemed logical that I should put together a Necro deck. All the crucial elements are now supported in Forge.

So I've been buying buying every single Ice Age booster and starter pack I see in the spell shop, and selling the excess cards. After 100-150 wins I still hadn't seen my first Necropotence. I got the first one as a rare reward for a very hard opponent somewhere around 150-200 wins. The next one, much later, as a single from the spell shop. The third one, soon after that, in an Ince Age starter pack from the spell shop. Still looking for the fourth one.
(yes, even after tens or hundreds of IA boosters and starter packs, I've found exactly one copy of the Skull in them...instead, I have opened a dozen copies of worthless rares like the Goblin Lyre, Chaos Lord, Gravebind...)

In the meantime, I've also been collecting the excess cash so I can unlock the Unlimited edition and have a chance at the Power 9. To unlock the Unlimited edition, you need roughly 250000 credits, so don't expect to do it anytime soon if you didn't pick it when you started your quest...

Fortunately, I have had some luck with my Antiquities prize boosters. I have got 6 Mishra's Workshops. Since I don't see a reason for having more than 4 of them in any context (I'm not playing for ante), I've sold the extra two - for nearly 60000 apiece, meaning that those two cards alone have been worth nearly half the unlocking price for Unlimited edition. The rest of the price, I've been collecting slowly, steadily, until...

For a little more than 240000 credits, I finally unlock the Unlimited edition and receive my free starter pack. I get a nice assortment of classic cards like Stasis, Berserk and the the two 'Channelball' elements, Channel and Fireball (although not that effective in Fantasy quest mode, where you start with less life than your opponent). Only two rares, the aforementioned Stasis and...Zombie Master (bah). No power 9 this time, but at least now I have a chance of finding them!

It took me 252 wins (and two lucky extra Mishra's Workshops) to make enough money to unlock Unlimited Edition!

RumbleBBU wrote:Quest journal, the abovementioned quest continues...

It took me 252 wins (and two lucky extra Mishra's Workshops) to make enough money to unlock Unlimited Edition!

That's some serious dedication there!

While designing the quest worlds stuff, I'm also 'testing' the stuff I make...

This is, again, the 'godbook' quest I've been journaling in this thread.

And here's a particularly nasty variation of the classic Shandalar Astral Visionary opponent. In this version, she attempts to deck you with multiple Howling Mines while making you hurt with Black Vises and keeping you Stasis locked. To make th eprocess faster, she has help from several Serra Angels. And, since this is a challenge, she is backed up with 40 starting life.

I built a quest deck that was specifically designed to win this challenge. The key idea is to defeat the Howling Mine decking with Necropotence and use Underworld Dreams to hurt the Astral Visionary for the cards she draws, then force her to discard them (Hyppies) and take hurt again for an empty hand (The Rack). I'm minoring in White for certain utility spells like Swords to Plowshares (vs Serras), Disenchant (multiple obvious uses), Land Tax (great complement to Necropotence), and some Serras of my own. Plus some utility artifacts, like The Rack and Ivory Tower. And finally, Jester's Caps, to eliminate some or all of the following, roughly in this order: Serra Angels (so she has practically no way to win against my deck), Stasis (although not vital once the Serras are gone), Swords to Plowshares (to protect my own Serras), Black Vises (although their effect can be controlled with Ivory Tower & Necropotence).

How does the deck perform?
This is actual the second iteration. The first version had some dead-weight cards, like Royal Assassin - not very practical when the opponent has no tapping creatures. They were useful only as StP bait. And once I took the Assassins out, Icy Manipulator could go as well. I won the test drive with the less-than-optimal first version, though.

And now, this is the second time I'm taking the "Secret Sanctum" challenge with my Necro-based anti-decking deck. The first time was with version 1, this time I'm playing the updated version 2. It probably still could be improved but let's see...

The first game goes pretty much according to the plan. She StPs some of my Hyppies and a Serra or two, but I get the advantage by taking all her Serras out with StPs / Jester's Cap and then eliminating the leftover StPs with the Jester's Cap. After that, all she can do is to try to Stasis lock and deck me while my Underworld Dreams and a Serra Angel keep mowing her down. And down she goes, ultimately.

The second game goes a bit differently. I don't draw a Jester's Cap early, and when I do, she uses Kismet and Stasis to prevent me from casting and using it. Meaning that my Hyppies and Serras are easy prey to her StPs while I have to top deck an StP to get rid of one of her Serras. I also make what I think is a mistake when I cast Necropotence very early in the game (I was worried by the multiple Howling Mines that were out - plus a Stasis and 2 Black Vises that would have only caused me to hurt and then discard the cards I couldn't cast anyway due to the Stasis lock).

Eventually, I get a Land Tax from the Necro. That makes it a bit easier for me to get some land and mana, and my I start picking up game tempo and board control. When her Stasis finally goes out, I get a Cap out and take out her remaining Serras.

Unfortunately, it seems that I will need a long time to win this one. Or maybe I should Tutor for a Serra or a Hyppie, if I have any left...I can't remember if I do. At least I'm not getting any from the Skull. On the other hand, things are looking good for me at the moment, and unless she Disenchants my Necro or Feldon's Cane, I shouldn't need to worry for a while.
And it looks like I need to keep going for quite a while. The Astral Visionary is at nearly 50 (!) life.

Then it's her turn again. Something surprising happens.

She still has 47 life. But all of a sudden, the booster selection dialog pops up!

Can you guess what happened?

Well, look at the enclosed picture. Or just read the spoiler.

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She decked herself with all those silly Howling Mines! While I was safe with the Skull. So it was actually a good thing I had it on for a long time, not a mistake.

Hey, hey, i'd like to share mine too!

I'm playing for first time and didnt make up how to chose decks so i stuck to playing draw-go mirror. Completly not my forte but i really enjoyed it because i felt like AI was able to land quite a pressure on me as i misplayed and let his pinger resolved - well i was short on mana so it excuse me somebit. And i was pinged to 8 till i managed to bounce the pinger back and set control on board. And still all my actions were countered by computer so it was only done when AI stupidly decked (though i almost pinged him with my own mage - man-o-war was unable to attack because of winterorb/propoganda lock). I was really tired but it was great game for a change(not to play it often though).
I think its not really good that today control is weakining because of it combo decks showed up alot and i hate losing to combo even greater than playing against control.
Also had realy good game with ravager later - had everithing i could only wish for, but not as remarkable as the first one.

Hilarious unintended interaction with Scythe of the Wretched:

I've got Scythe of the Wretched equipped to a Forked-Branch Garami owned by my opponent. I attack with it and he blocks with his Regal Force. The Force dies, and the Scythe's ability triggers. The Force returns to play under my control and the Scythe attaches itself to it. However, now the Garami has taken 5 points of damage and only has 4 toughness so it dies as well, only now the Scythe is attached to the Regal Force which dealt damage to the Garami in the first place, which means the Garami also returns to play under my control and the Scythe reattaches itself to the spirit again!

It took me a minute to figure out what had happened

gos wrote:Hilarious unintended interaction with Scythe of the Wretched:

I've got Scythe of the Wretched equipped to a Forked-Branch Garami owned by my opponent. I attack with it and he blocks with his Regal Force. The Force dies, and the Scythe's ability triggers. The Force returns to play under my control and the Scythe attaches itself to it. However, now the Garami has taken 5 points of damage and only has 4 toughness so it dies as well, only now the Scythe is attached to the Regal Force which dealt damage to the Garami in the first place, which means the Garami also returns to play under my control and the Scythe reattaches itself to the spirit again!

That seems wrong. The Regal Force that was returned by the Scythe isn't the same entity that dealt damage to the Garami.

friarsol wrote:That seems wrong. The Regal Force that was returned by the Scythe isn't the same entity that dealt damage to the Garami.

Now that I think upon it further, I think you're right. Consider this a bug report then