Updating old AI decks

[Sloth]

So mono blue it is. (which is good, because most of the combo-style decks are WU already.)

I'm a little bit reluctant to meddle with your decks, Chris. If I remember correctly, you added your mimic decks only recently, so I will skip them. But if you want me to update some of them and maybe have some suggestions, just tell me. I will go on with the others on the list.

Edit: So much for writing at the same time .

[Sloth]

The several Mimic decks are probably best left until later. When I designed these decks I failed to take into account that the computer would cast most of it's spells during main phase 2.

Rob's new SVar:PlayMain1:TRUE is great for many of the cards and the three of us have added this SVar to most of the cards that needed it. Unfortunately, the Mimics and similar cards require a whole new keyword.

In the ComputerAI_General.getMain1() code the AI would have to check every one of it's cards in play to see if it contained the abBuffedBy keyword. If a card in play returned true then parse the params. Then check cards in hand to see if there is a match. If true then the card in hand should be cast in main 1.

I have figured out the basic logic but I'm not sure if my java/coding skills is up to the task. I do have a few short lines of code:

Code: Select all

private SpellAbility[] getMain1() {
    //Card list of all cards to consider
    CardList hand = new CardList(AllZone.Computer_Hand.getCards());
   
    hand = hand.filter(new CardListFilter() {
        // Beached As Start
        public boolean addCard(Card c) {
            //Collection<Card> play = playMain1Cards;
            if (c.getSVar("PlayMain1").equals("TRUE")) return true;
            if (c.isLand()) return false;
            if (c.isCreature() && (c.getKeyword().contains("Haste")) || c.getKeyword().contains("Exalted")) return true;
           
            CardList buffedBy = new CardList();
            buffedBy.addAll(AllZone.getZone(Constant.Zone.Play, Constant.Player.Computer).getCards());
            buffedBy.filter(new CardListFilter() {
                public boolean addCard(Card card) {
                    return card.getKeyword().contains("abBuffedBy");
                }
            });
           
            if (buffedBy.size() > 0) {
               
            }

This should work, but instead of

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buffedBy.filter(new CardListFilter() {
                public boolean addCard(Card card) {
                    return card.getKeyword().contains("abBuffedBy");
                }
            });


I would use

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buffedBy.getKeyword("abBuffedBy");


Maybe we should discuss this further in the developers corner.

[Chris H.]

I'm a little bit reluctant to meddle with your decks, Chris.

`
I do not mind.

I am trying to search my memory and it has been a long time since the original decks were designed. Rares originally had a small number of tightly tuned small 40 card decks to play against and they were very hard to beat. We only start with a small pool of cards.

We decided to have three levels of AI decks. I remember tuning down the easy and medium decks so that people could win some cards and improve their decks. So we ditched Rares 40 card decks and used the strong AI decks that Gando and I had created earlier as the hard decks.

I then decide to create some opponent decks that would get better as the quest progressed and hence the decks that appear in all three groups. At this point I was starting to run out of steam.

There are some decks that I remember not being to happy with the way they turned out. I think the land walking decks and the fear deck will need to be improved. I can not remember their names at this time.

I do remember being worried that too many unblockable creatures in the early and medium decks could turn people off. I think that the hard version of these decks should be more of a bitch to face ... make people think that they should have played a deck with a different land type.

[Sloth]

I think the Mimic decks have their eligibility, even if the computer doesn't use the trigger often (let's work on this). The Hatchlings (Noxious Hatchling), Lieges (Balefire Liege), God Auras (Edge of the Divinity) and some other cards (Fable of Wolf and Owl) really shine in decks were all cards have the two colors.

To be honest, I don't like the Landwalk decks and the fear deck either, because they lack real synergy and as you said facing them is a gamble (until we add the powerfull Quagmire cycle, that is ).

Some of them might be saved by spells like Spreading Seas, Lingering Mirage, Stormtide Leviathan, Contaminated Ground or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth though (of which only Spreading Seas is implemented)

[Chris H.]

To be honest, I don't like the Landwalk decks and the fear deck either, because they lack real synergy and as you said facing them is a gamble (until we add the powerfull Quagmire cycle, that is ).

Some of them might be saved by spells like Spreading Seas, Lingering Mirage, Stormtide Leviathan, Contaminated Ground or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth though (of which only Spreading Seas is implemented)

`
Spreading Seas has a display problem which appears when thee are non-basic lands in play/enchanted. Dennis coded Political Trickery and Vedalken Plotter, but these cards currently return canPlayAI = false.

[Chris H.]

Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. I think I will add the Eggs to Comic Book Guy.

`
I just updated Comic Book Guy and merged it into the SVN. I can make a few changes if you have any ideas. I removed all of the dragons as we have two really good dragon decks. This is the new Comic Book Guy deck:

60 Total Cards

22 Creatures
-------------
3x Auriok Champion
3x Kor Firewalker
4x Roc Egg
4x Rukh Egg
4x Silver Knight
4x Skyknight Legionnaire

16 Spells
----------
2x Earthquake
2x Feudkiller's Verdict
4x Flamebreak
3x Lightning Bolt
3x Lightning Helix
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby

22 Land
--------
7x Mountain
7x Plains
4x Plateau
4x Sacred Foundry

[Chris H.]

To be honest, I don't like the Landwalk decks and the fear deck either, because they lack real synergy and as you said facing them is a gamble (until we add the powerfull Quagmire cycle, that is ).

Some of them might be saved by spells like Spreading Seas, Lingering Mirage, Stormtide Leviathan, Contaminated Ground or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth though (of which only Spreading Seas is implemented)

`
These are the six decks in question. If I remember, I will edit your first post and include these six decks:

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Crocodile Dundee 1-3    Mountainwalk
Da Vinci 1-3            Swampwalk
Kojak 1-3               Islandwalk
Seabiscuit 1-3          Fear
Sherlock Holmes 1-3     Forestwalk
Wyatt Earp 1-3          Plainswalk

`
I think we may want to consider replacing these decks with six others, it would be nice if the theme would scale down and give us easy and medium decks.

At some point, we could add in a few hard-only decks that were highly tuned for land walking. There are enough hard decks now that we could hide a few good walker type decks, they would not be faced very often.

While we need some good easy and medium decks to play against, it was probably a bad idea to have scaled down walker decks.

[Sloth]

These are the six decks in question. If I remember, I will edit your first post and include these six decks:

Code: Select all

Crocodile Dundee 1-3    Mountainwalk
Da Vinci 1-3            Swampwalk
Kojak 1-3               Islandwalk
Seabiscuit 1-3          Fear
Sherlock Holmes 1-3     Forestwalk
Wyatt Earp 1-3          Plainswalk

I think we may want to consider replacing these decks with six others, it would be nice if the theme would scale down and give us easy and medium decks.

At some point, we could add in a few hard-only decks that were highly tuned for land walking. There are enough hard decks now that we could hide a few good walker type decks, they would not be faced very often.

While we need some good easy and medium decks to play against, it was probably a bad idea to have scaled down walker decks.

If we need more decks, we can always complete the cycle of Mimic decks (only cards with exactly the two colors). Instead of Mimics and Hatchlings, we have the Duos (Safehold Duo), 2 Familiars (Sunscape Familiar, Thornscape Familiar) and 2 Blades (Bant Sureblade, Naya Hushblade) in allied colors.

[Sloth]

I just started to make mono colored decks of each color (with synergistic cards like Kaysa , Khalni Hydra or Crusade). Pretty simple.

If you don't mind, these can replace the walker decks for now, Chris.

[Chris H.]

I just started to make mono colored decks of each color (with synergistic cards like Kaysa , Khalni Hydra or Crusade). Pretty simple.

If you don't mind, these can replace the walker decks for now, Chris.

`
Thank you very much, I do not mind at all.

Will these new replacement decks also include an easy and medium version? It is nice to give the questers some different decks to face early on.

[Sloth]

Will these new replacement decks also include an easy and medium version? It is nice to give the questers some different decks to face early on.

I plan to make and replace all difficulty versions. There are quite a number of bad cards that fit these themes (like An-Havva Inn), so it should be interesting enough to make them.

[Chris H.]

I plan to make and replace all difficulty versions. There are quite a number of bad cards that fit these themes (like An-Havva Inn), so it should be interesting enough to make them.

`
I think these new theme decks will be more interesting to play against than the older walker decks.

[mtgrares]

Thanks for updating the AI decks Chris. Everyone loves the quest mode and one of the reasons is because the AI has good/fun decks to play against.

[Chris H.]

Thanks for updating the AI decks Chris. Everyone loves the quest mode and one of the reasons is because the AI has good/fun decks to play against.

`
Actually, Sloth has done most of the recent work on AI decks. He is doing a great job and is more familiar with the newer cards sets.

[Chris H.]

I just started to make mono colored decks of each color (with synergistic cards like Kaysa , Khalni Hydra or Crusade). Pretty simple.

`
I see that we now have new versions of the Wyatt Earp decks and the Sherlock Holmes decks. Good job. I went ahead and updated the in-game opponent deck listing for these two decks.

I also see that you have new versions of the Kojak decks. I was in the process of updating the opponent deck listing and discovered that Kojak 1 and 2 include a card that is not yet implemented in forge.

Kojak 1 includes:

Forget
UU
Sorcery
Target player discards two cards, then draws as many cards as he or she discarded this way.


Kojak 2 includes a non-implemented card:

Fathom Seer
1U
Creature — Illusion
(1/3)
Morph—Return two Islands you control to their owner's hand. (You may cast this face down as a 2/2 creature for . Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)
When Fathom Seer is turned face up, draw two cards.


It should not be too difficult to find a couple of similar replacement cards,