The Challenge Masochist

[aww1979]

So, I was thinking, since I really hate trying the Land Ho challenge, that I would instead start from the beginning and do the challenges again. This time, however, I was thinking of imposing a self-ban on some of the more silly/broken cards, to make it more fun.

Part of this is for the challenge, and part of this will be hopefully that the decks I will have to make might be simpler to play, such that players who haven't unlocked some challenges may get some ideas and decks that don't require years of experience to use.

The 'banned' list:
-Oath of Druids (no oath decks allowed)
-Tendrils of Agony (no tendrils decks allowed)
-Bridge from Below (no dredge decks allowed)
-all challenge-locked cards, which include:
http://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Challenge_Mode
Mystic Enforcer, City of Traitors, Mystic Remora, Quirion Dryad, Goblin Welder, Cursed Scroll, Serum Powder, Rout, Brain Freeze, Goblin Charbelcher, Manabond, Street Wraith, Tangle Wire, Gemstone Mine, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Wall of Roots, Illusions of Grandeur, Donate, Tezzeret the Seeker, Might of Alara, Sower of Temptation, Bloodbraid Elf, Mind's Desire, Essence Sliver, Violent Ultimatum, Phyrexian Negator, Bituminous Blast, Leyline of the Void, Helm of Obedience
-I will also disable the reward for pit fighting and enchanted

I will also try to avoid complicated cards that are hard to play, and avoid control and combo decks, focusing mostly on aggro decks, since they are the easiest to play, and generally the most fun, too.

So here goes, on Tribal Trials again

Added to ban list (after seeing how Tribal Trials went)
Moat
Magus of the Moat

Added:
Contract from Below (after looking at my Super Mulligan list)

[aww1979]

Ok firstly, the spoiler for Tribal Trials doesn't seem to have the rounds, so:

Round 1: Kobolds (Kobold Taskmaster in play)
Round 2: Zombies (Undead Warchief in play)
Round 3: Faeries (Bitterblossom in play)
Round 4: Kithkin (Wizened Cenn in play)
Round 5: Merfolk (Merfolk Sovereign in play)
Round 6: Rats (Relentless Rats in play)
Round 7: Elves (Elvish Archdruid in play)
Round 8: Goblins (Goblin Warchief in play)
Round 9: Soldiers (Captain of the Watch in play)
Round 10: Slivers (Sliver Queen in play)

[jatill]

You are a sick puppy. At least you have the free Pit Scorpion, right?

[stassy]

You are a sick puppy. At least you have the free Pit Scorpion, right?

-I will also disable the reward for pit fighting and enchanted

I did the opposite, I played the tribe challenge decks and checked if one deck in my playdeck folder managed by the AI could defeat it...

[aww1979]

Tribal Trials:

.726 4 Moat
.876 4 Oblivion Ring
.240 4 Swords to Plowshares
.588 4 Path to Exile
.879 4 Sigil Of The Empty Throne
.877 4 Journey To Nowhere
.289 1 Luminarch Ascension
.968 4 Pacifism
.878 4 Mesa Enchantress
.694 1 Karakas
.1989 4 Secluded Steppe
.1979 1 Serra Sanctum
.528 1 Strip Mine
.438 1 Library of Alexandria
.17 1 Black Lotus
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.166 1 Mox Jet
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.230 1 Sol Ring
.188 8 Plains
.1262 4 Porphyry Nodes

This deck is really, really stupid. It also worked my first attempt :p (I tried mostly weenie decks before this) It's extremely easy to play, and not very exciting. Plow, pacify, exile, or porphyry everything the AI plays until you land a Moat. Sigil of the Empty Throne is the win condition, as well as a Luminarch Ascension. Use Oblivion Ring on Bitterblossom in the faerie round.

Also, I'm adding Moat and Magus of the Moat to my ban list :p Replacing Moat with some other removal (Wrath of God) or that sort of thing and I think the deck could still win, though it would have a bit more trouble.

Vanguard is next, and should be a piece of cake. I expect to have it done within the hour

[grinnin]

This is a good idea, imho you can beat the first few challenges with essentially the same deck, so itd be fun to change it up.

I think the Ajani Lifegain deck that someone made for the Chipping Away challenge is a brilliant use of non-broken cards to overcome the handicap.

Cards I nominate to put on the list:
Propaganda
Collective Restraint
Worship

[aww1979]

Hmm, those might be good choices, but I hardly ever use Worship myself, and those blue ones I used I think just in my 'i hate winter orb" deck (which beat tribal trials my first time) and in the enchantment-only challenges later on.

Did I make the ajani lifegain deck for chipping away? :p I like being brilliant, but I forget if I did that or not. I think I remember trying it, but I don't know if I won with it or not.

[aww1979]

Vanguard Vengeance:

.1297 4 Watchwolf
.1421 4 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
.1949 4 Wilt-Leaf Liege*
.1861 4 Qasali Pridemage
.1319 4 Armadillo Cloak
.1741 1 Gaddock Teeg
.1935 4 Kitchen Finks
.1936 4 Knight of Reliquary
.1482 1 Tolsimir Wolfblood
.17 1 Black Lotus
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.1804 4 Noble Hierarch
.240 4 Swords to Plowshares
.1985 4 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
.1950 4 Windbrisk Heights
.1473 4 Windswept Heath
.212 4 Savannah
.1499 3 Temple Garden

This deck is also easy to play Unfortunately, I kept crashing the game on the Momir round until I realized it was momir=5 that was freezing it every time. This is a deck I tried on the tribal challenge, but it couldn't beat that one.

[aww1979]

Chipping Away:

.1328 4 Lightning Helix
.1935 4 Kitchen Finks
.822 3 Ajani Vengeant
.807 3 Ajani Goldmane
.1414 4 Knight of Meadowgrain
.581 4 Soul Warden
.1585 4 Baneslayer Angel
.204 2 Reverse Damage
.1453 4 Spectral Procession
.240 4 Swords to Plowshares
.10 1 Balance
.189 4 Plateau
.1632 4 Sacred Foundry
.528 1 Strip Mine
.694 1 Karakas
.984 4 Arid Mesa
.17 1 Black Lotus
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.166 1 Mox Jet
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.230 1 Sol Ring
.188 2 Plains

It's all about lifegain :p I had to add red, just to put my own personal touch on it, though.

Note that the AI will make mistakes against this deck For example, it will do things like attack you with two 2/2s when you have 2 life and a Knight of Meadowgrain on your side, thinking it can kill you.

Interestingly, so far every deck I've made was white. (W, WG, WR) Swords to Plowshares is just so handy...

edit: Hmm, Onslaught is next, and *everyone* in the spoiler did Tendrils, Dredge, or Oath :p I can't do Belcher, either, because the Goblin Charbelcher is one of my banned cards (a locked card) and I'm doing every challenge as if it were the first one and I had unlocked nothing.

This will be tough...

[stassy]

Yes you did, it's just in some thread ago :

edit: Just beat the challenge again with this deck:

Ajani Lifegain
;
;#oldgames
;
;09/09/2009
;1
;4th Edition
;

.1935 4 Kitchen Finks
.581 4 Soul Warden
.1414 4 Knight of Meadowgrain
.240 4 Swords to Plowshares
.588 4 Path to Exile
.1585 4 Baneslayer Angel
.10 1 Balance
.694 1 Karakas
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.230 1 Sol Ring
.807 4 Ajani Goldmane
.1453 4 Spectral Procession
.188 18 Plains
.17 1 Black Lotus
.1239 1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
.1562 4 Honor of the Pure

The last match was the only really hard one. It took me 3-4 tries to get there, and then I mulled down to 5, and I was history. The next attempt I made it to the last round again and got Soul Warden, Knight of Meadowgrain, and Black Lotus in the opening hand. By end of game, I had 29 life. I think this deck did a lot better than my Master of Etherium deck did.

With Ajani, I found that I was using it every single turn for counters/vigilance, unless I had no creatures or Ajani had only 1 counter (even then, if I had a 2nd one in hand, I'd use it, play it, and use it again) so don't worry that the last ability is locked; I never used it a single time, nor did I ever even have more than the 4 original counters on Ajani at any time.

I'm pretty sure Baneslayer Angel isn't locked, but if it is, use Battlegrace Angel instead.

[aww1979]

Well, Onslaught is really hard with my ban list :p The furthest I've made so far was round 7 with a weird blue/artifact deck that aims to get out Darksteel Colossus and Platinum Angel with stuff like Tinker or Show and Tell. This one might be doable with some sort of academy deck (if meddling mage doesn't screw it) but I'm trying to do it with a deck that even a new player can follow, and academy doesn't exactly qualify.

[jatill]

A Show and Tell / Eureka deck with lots of lands that produce two mana will probably work. I'd use Progenitus and Darksteel Colossus both as targets, and include a variety of bounce spells.

[aww1979]

Ok, I don't think that Onslaught is possible given the cards I've banned :p It *might* be doable with Platinum Angel if you can get it out early enough every single time *and* have a way to protect it from the Lightning Blast round. Against the spawnwrithe, rats, and mage rounds (sacred nectar and bitterblossom rounds are easy), it can win if it gets an early angel, but the time walk round is just too fast; I can't get the angel out before I've been owned by a dozen spawnwrithes on turn 3.

I'm just going to move on to the Shandalar 2.0 challenge, and conclude that you have to have a degenerate deck for Onslaught :p

edit: Jatill just posted above while I was posting, and that's sort of what I did in my deck. I'll post what I was using, and maybe it can be improved upon:

.248 1 Time Vault
.249 1 Time Walk
.250 1 Timetwister
.1351 1 Tinker
.537 4 Transmute Artifact
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.166 1 Mox Jet
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.17 1 Black Lotus
.894 1 Mana Crypt
.157 1 Mana Vault
.230 1 Sol Ring
.1550 1 Voltaic Key
.653 4 Darksteel Colossus
.1891 4 Echoing Truth
.1758 4 Show and Tell
.1815 4 Master Transmuter
.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.1308 4 Platinum Angel
.312 1 Ponder
.499 1 Brainstorm
.1216 4 Seat of the Synod
.317 1 Tolarian Academy
.126 6 Island
.510 4 Mishra's Workshop
.1208 4 Cathodion

The idea was to Tinker, Show and Tell, Transmute Artifact or Master Transmuter into play the Darksteel Colossus and Platinum Angel, then proceed to smash with an invincible 11/11 trampler while you are invincible yourself. Cathodion was there for an early blocker (turn 1 with workshop) as well as a nice Transmute Artifact target. (3 cc + 3 mana when sacced)

I'll try a green/blue deck based on what Jatill said, and see if it does any better.

[aww1979]

I thought this was rather amusing, so I had to screenshot it... the meddling mage round in the mirror match :p (I got my angel out with a show and tell from my opening hand)

[aww1979]

Woo, beat the Time Walk round, finally with this deck. Praise be to Angel/workshop/workshop/mana crypt on turn 2, and not having to go against the spawnwrithe deck here like usual.