Locked challenge cards only work for AI

[aww1979]

Are there certain styles of decks you do better with? Most of the posted champion decks I've seen for challenge #1 are control decks, for instance. Would you do better with a creature deck? I'd be happy to help you design something, though we might want to start a new thread for that or something.

[Signatus]

it's not the deck, it's the fact that you have to be lucky enough to have good hands all the time, specially against the elves (because of archdruid).

[thedrigo]

With my deck, I tried to either outrun the AI with a 1st turn Hellkite Overlord or to lock him down with Platinum Angel. An opening hand with, Dark Ritual / Black Lotus along with Entomb and Animate Dead / Exhume or Mox + Entomb + Reanimate will net you the game, in any matchup, except Slivers and Fish. That's the reason for the Daze since FoW needs to blue cards to pitch and there's not a lot in hand most of the time; I only ran Daze to disrupt FoWs, bottom line: it's easier to bounce an Island and you're required to lose enough life as it is. The deck comes online on turn 3 at the latest, that's why there's Propaganda and Darkness, in case I don't draw what I need right away.

Here's the list:

4 Underground Sea
3 Watery Grave
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus Petal
3 Chrome Mox

3 Animate Dead
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Entomb
2 Buried Alive

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
3 Careful Study
1 Ancestral Recall

2 Propaganda
1 Darkness
4 Daze
1 Time Walk

2 Platinum Angel
1 Hellkite Overlord
1 Akroma Angel of Wrath

This is the deck I beat the challenge with, but out of experience, I'd try to switch out the Daze s and put in some Echoing Truth s. That will fix the unplayable hands in the later stages, especially the ridiculous matchup against Captain of the Watch on level 9. With the elves, just make sure you drop a Platinum Angel, Propaganda or bounce the Elvish Archdruid with Echoing Truth ASAP. Force of Will will still be a problem, but try to lure the Merfolk and the last level Sliver AI into wasting their counters on other spells. This is not a guaranteed win by any means, but it took me less than 5 tries to get through this challenge using this deck. In all honesty, the only reason I didn't go with Winter Orb (which is probably more consistent that this build) is because I just don't have the patience to spend 10 rounds decking the opponent each time.
Try it and let me know. Tweak the list however you think is more consistent, this is only what worked for me and is by no means defect-free.